Chapter 214
‧₊˚ ☁️⋅♡𓂃 ࣪ ִֶָ☾.
Killian suddenly burst out laughing in the middle of serious thought. Realizing he’d laughed too loudly, he quickly closed his mouth and bit his lower lip hard, causing the back of his neck to flush red.
I didn’t ignore him.
“Is that the right answer?”
“I didn’t say anything.”
“You didn’t say it wasn’t either.”
The man who had been staring straight ahead finally turned his eyes to me. With a puzzled look, he silently gazed at me before reaching out his hand.
I wondered what he was trying to do, but all he did was lift my slipping suspender back onto my shoulder. I had thought he was trying to change the subject to get out of an awkward moment, but it turned out to be playful payback.
Killian used the excuse of fixing my suspender to rub my bare shoulder lightly beneath his shirt, making me blush. Not content with that, he deliberately traced his fingers down my body along the suspender strap.
“Ugh, Killian…”
I stopped and clung to him, and only then did Killian withdraw his hand, feigning innocence as he took mine and hurried me along.
“Why do you tease me like that here?”
“Here? What’s wrong with here?”
I glanced around the forest where no one was watching us and asked.
“You speak like someone who’s never been with me here before.”
Killian pressed his lips tightly, suppressing a smile, glanced at me shyly, then sighed as he looked toward the brightening ridge ahead.
“It’s not the place, it’s the timing. Just wait. Once we cross this mountain, I’ll keep you in my arms looking your most beautiful for a whole week.”
“You know a good husband always keeps his promises, right?”
We smiled at each other and quickened our pace. Thinking that safety and comfort awaited us just beyond that mountain, there was no need to force smiles anymore.
But soon, I faced situations where no matter what I tried, I couldn’t smile.
A military truck kicked up a cloud of dust as it passed before us. The truck left behind more than just dust.
‘That mouthwatering smell…’
It was delivering breakfast from the supply base west of this road to a high ground on the eastern mountain ridge.
Having stayed several days in a nearby isolated farmhouse, Killian had spent all day gathering intel on the base’s location and soldiers’ movement times.
Once the truck disappeared from view, we emerged from behind the rocks where we had been hiding and crossed the road.
To avoid disturbing the tire tracks, we tiptoed and hopped over them. Leaving footprints that weren’t military boots—especially small footprints—might raise suspicion.
Our effort to avoid leaving tracks continued as we crossed untouched forest and climbed the mountain. Killian had checked that there were no outposts in this direction, but patrols were regularly sent even to areas without fortifications, so we had to be cautious.
Since we might be spotted from the high ground, we chose the thickest cover possible. The path was naturally rough.
“Hold my hand. Watch your step.”
“Ah!”
“Step only where I stepped.”
Following only the ground Killian had stepped on, we climbed the mountain. When the sun was fairly high, we came upon a well-maintained mountain path.
“Dana, stop here for a moment.”
Killian sat me behind a tree a few steps before the path, approached the roadside, inspected, and returned. Watching him pull out a map, I asked,
“Where does this path lead?”
“If we follow it, it goes over the mountain.”
“Then we just need to take this path. That’s good.”
“But there are no tire or foot tracks at all. The grass is quite grown.”
“Looks like no one uses it? So no patrols either? From the outpost on the ridge, I doubt they can see here well…”
I looked up at the mountain ridge, glimpsed through thick leaves overhead, watching the wind scatter and still repeatedly, murmuring,
“Then we won’t be detected…”
Exhausted after half a day, I desperately wanted to walk on flat ground. But the man who usually yielded to me was firm today.
“The army surely knows this path on the map.”
“Then why doesn’t anyone guard it?”
“There are probably mines.”
“Ah…”
“We’ll walk along this path, keeping our distance.”
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