Chapter 56
“I should have waited until you finished treating him. Sorry.”
He lowered himself and pressed soft, light kisses onto Prina’s round forehead. Chu. Chu.
As if she were so lovely he couldn’t endure it.
As if he regretted not cherishing her more, when even looking at her felt too precious.
That love of his, the fact that it belonged to her, had always filled her with overwhelming happiness.
But now… it clutched at her windpipe, tightening.
It felt like she couldn’t breathe.
“Shall I save you again? Just tell me what you want. I’ll grant any wish of yours, won’t I?”
“……”
“Do you dislike humans? Do you prefer animals, like last time?”
Lucky. And Happy. The animals he had given her.
No way…
Prina didn’t even want to think about what might have happened to those small, pitiful creatures.
“Right, humans have been cruel to you. They called you dreadful for your hair color, locked you away in a convent. And you’re so beautiful. Aren’t you?”
He pulled off her scarf and murmured as he caressed her thick black hair.
“Beautiful. Like the pitch-black night itself. Prina.”
Prina remembered the words he had once told her.
“Beautiful. Like the pitch-black night.”
“Prina, how could a night like you ever be frightening?”
Magical words that had melted her heart, once as cold as snow.
That night, she had given herself to him completely.
Never imagining this day would come.
Thinking of it now made her feel like she would go mad.
Those words were no longer a comfort.
The sweet, tender words that once wrapped her in warmth now pierced her ears like needles.
“Or maybe… should I just bring you the people who wronged you most?”
“……”
“Say the word. Who was it that tormented you the worst?”
In Hunter’s once-vacant eyes, a murderous gleam flickered. Even as he spoke of harming, of killing, he seemed almost exhilarated.
“The Mother Superior? Or the other nuns? Or those damned invalid bastards? After you went to all the trouble of saving them, the fuckers spat at you, cursed you. Ingrates like that deserve to die. Don’t they? Smash them to pieces until they’re on the verge of death, then barely keep them alive, crush them until their breath rattles in their throats, then leave them with only a scrap of life. That would do it, wouldn’t it? Fun, right? Or maybe I should just burn the whole convent down.”
“…Stop.”
Unable to endure any longer, Prina cut his words clean off. She couldn’t listen anymore.
Though his mouth fell silent at that command, his eyes did not.
He continued staring at her, unrelentingly, piercingly, tenaciously.
Prina couldn’t find anything in that gaze.
No, that wasn’t it. At least now, she didn’t want to.
Averting her eyes, she added in a low voice.
“There’s no need. Just… my head is too full. I’d like to rest in my room for a while.”
She needed a space to herself.
She needed time to herself.
Too many truths had crashed down on her all at once.
And the thought that all of this was something she had brought upon herself—that she hadn’t refused, that she had even mistaken it for love—made her own skin crawl.
* * *
After that, days went on as if nothing had happened.
Prina was still together with Hunter.
Breakfast at eight in the morning.
Breakfast with Hunter.
Lunch at one in the afternoon.
Lunch with Hunter.
Dinner at six in the evening.
Dinner with Hunter again.
Three times a day, she sat across from him in the dining room.
And at night, they shared the same bed.
No, more precisely, when Prina was asleep, Hunter would come to her bed.
“Prina?”
It was the same routine again today.
Curled up toward the window, Prina feigned sleep. Hunter came up behind her and pulled her into his arms.
Prina wasn’t asleep. In truth, she hadn’t been able to sleep since that day.
Every night, after enduring the charade of a normal day, scattered thoughts surged in and tangled her mind.
But she suppressed even the sound of her breathing, refusing to respond.
“Mmm, Prina’s scent.”
He pulled her body tightly into his arms and breathed in deeply.
The damp touch of his lips brushing against her nape made Prina squeeze her eyes shut.
“Forgive me, Prina. I truly regret it. Just overlook it, just this once.”
Hunter hugged her tighter, pleading.
Like a child who insisted it had only been a mistake. That he hadn’t known better. That it was such a small mistake, so surely she should forgive him.
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