The Ring of Bondage - Chapter 1.14

‘Should I go for a short walk?’

Yuria looked out the window and pondered. No matter how much she tried to refrain from going out, she couldn’t stay shut up in this narrow room for months, so Yuria would go out for fresh air once every fifteen days or so.

Fortunately, in this splendid tourist destination, a small woman dressed plainly was a presence as unnoticeable as a pebble by the roadside.

After a brief hesitation, Yuria covered her hair with a simple bonnet and left the room. The walking path she usually visited was near the birch forest on the outskirts of the city. A place where the scent of the forest, fresh and yet strangely acrid like Luke’s pheromones, lingered.

By the time Yuria arrived at the forest, the sky was dyed red with sunset.

Her lessons with Luke had always ended around this time. It was a peaceful and warm time. When Yuria, who had been looking out the window, suddenly turned her head, Luke, who had been looking at her at some point, would hurriedly lower his head.

A time when his pheromones, resembling the scent of trees, mingled with the red sunset and tickled the area around her heart. Like a pen nib scratching over paper, every sound, smell, and touch would gently scrape over her. That was the evening Yuria had loved so dearly.

The sunset she met in the birch forest naturally reminded her of that time. Of course, it reminded her of what happened afterward as well. On the day Yuria left, a banquet had been held at the ducal residence. A banquet where high-ranking alphas and omegas gathered to look for marriage partners.

Suddenly, Yuria grew curious. Had Luke’s marriage partner been decided too?

As the third son of Duke Cunningham, Luke could surely take anyone he wanted as his marriage partner. Yuria tried imagining Luke’s wedding. The sight of Luke and his bride smiling brightly beneath an arch woven from fresh flowers, receiving everyone’s blessings. Their tightly clasped hands and the kiss of vows. Two people who looked happier than anyone in the world.

Her throat felt rough. Was it because she couldn’t see his wedding? No. A feeling different from regret twisted and tangled Yuria’s nerves.

While imagining a scene she ought to bless, her own self, who had no right to offer blessings and yet instead harbored ugly feelings, was the very image of a sinner. That awareness called forth guilt again, and the guilt made her think of Luke once more.

Standing at the edge of the birch forest, Yuria breathed in and laughed at her own contradictory feelings.

She kept calling herself a sinner who had no right to think of Luke, yet at the same time, she kept turning him over in her mind under the excuse that she had to layer guilt over his memory.

The most ridiculous thing was the sight of herself coming to this forest whenever she had the chance. Hadn’t she run away from him? Yet she missed Luke and swallowed a scent similar to his pheromones.

Even as Yuria herself despised that side of her, she even had the shamelessness to wish that Luke, at least, would remember her as a good person.

Yuria couldn’t even tell whether this was affection for a student she had looked after for so long, or an obsession with the alpha she had joined bodies with during her heat cycle.

Perhaps it was both. Because even if Yuria hadn’t slept with Luke, she would have missed him, and even if Luke hadn’t been her student, she wouldn’t have been able to cast aside the memory of that day.

“Luke Cunningham.”

Yuria murmured his name softly. Her voice, fainter than the sound of wind brushing through the branches, soon scattered into the air. This presumptuous lingering attachment had to end today too. Yuria turned over the thought she had resolved every day for the past two months once again and left the forest.

* * *

Perhaps because the sun had set, there were few people on the way back. Looking at the shops preparing to close, Yuria moved at a leisurely pace.

Late night was one of the few times she could look around the shopping district. Pulling her bonnet lower to cover her face a little more, Yuria examined the small glass crafts. The souvenirs for tourists were all beautifully colored.

Among them, what drew her eye was an ornament made of clusters of yellow-tinted beads. The shop’s light passed through the glass, breaking into golden sparkles.

“If you like it, I’ll just give it to you.”

Startled by the voice she suddenly heard, Yuria lifted her head. A neat-looking man was smiling at her. He looked familiar. Who was he?