The Ring of Bondage - Chapter 1.15

As Yuria stood rigid with tension and searched her memory, she soon recalled his identity. He was the older brother of one of her students, Lina. Was his name Derek?

“It’s alright. I don’t have anywhere to put it.”

“Even though it’s such a small decoration? It’s something you hang by the window, so you don’t even need a shelf or anything.”

After saying that, Derek turned off the shop lights at once and spoke playfully.

“Now then, the shop is closing. Please leave, customer.”

Before Yuria even had time to set the ornament down, Derek pushed her out of the shop. Was it really alright to accept something like this as he pleased? As Yuria stroked the surface of the glass with a confused expression, she eventually handed it to Derek.

“I’ll give it back. I was only looking.”

“Hmm, if you insist, then I suppose there’s no helping it. Instead, will you allow me to walk you back to the bookstore? It’s nighttime.”

Yuria sensed a subtle favor in his proposal. A kindness she had no reason to refuse, but didn’t particularly need either. After hesitating for a moment, Yuria eventually nodded.

Derek was sociable and talkative. In other words, he was exactly the right person to walk with through the shopping district as it grew darker and darker.

Thanks to Derek, who continued the conversation by choosing only topics Yuria could comfortably respond to, Yuria was able to smile with an easy heart for the first time in a while.

“You’d be surprised if you knew how much Lina praised you that day, Teacher.”

“It wasn’t something worth that much praise, but I suppose it’s because Lina likes the lessons.”

“Mm, well, she can’t help that. Lina is an omega, so it was difficult to send her to school. But if I or our parents tried to teach Lina, we’re all so busy we can’t find the time.”

Yuria quietly agreed with his words. Lina’s family wasn’t so poor that, if they wanted to, they couldn’t send their child to a commoner school. But Lina was an omega, wasn’t she? Because of possible dangers, Lina’s parents had entrusted her education to Yuria instead of sending their daughter to school. There were too many students at commoner schools.

“Only nobles talk about things like god’s blessing. From a commoner’s perspective, it’s just inconvenient. I’m an alpha too, but when the shop is open, I struggle quite a lot to hide my pheromones. Customers might complain, you see. So every day when I close the shop, I think, ‘Ah, finally, freedom!’“

While listening to Derek go on at length, Yuria’s expression stiffened.

“You’re an alpha?”

She couldn’t sense anything like the scent of pheromones at all. Yuria looked at Derek. It seemed he was suppressing his pheromones even now. Since she was his younger sister’s teacher, perhaps he was trying to be courteous.

“Yes. Thanks to that, I couldn’t go to school either, and I only barely learned things like letters and arithmetic. Fortunately, it’s enough to run the shop, so I’m somehow making a living.”

“It truly isn’t easy for alphas and omegas to access education.”

Unless they were someone of high status like Luke. Yuria naturally thought of Luke Cunningham again. Beautiful and elegant Luke. Bright and kind Luke. And…

“The street seems noisy today.”

Yuria, who had been blankly continuing her thoughts about Luke, looked around at Derek’s words. He was right. She had seen a few soldiers in the shopping district too, but she had thought that was understandable enough since it was a busy area. Not now.

It was by no means common to encounter guards in an alley this deep.

“Did a thief break in somewhere?”

Was it really such a trivial problem? The closer they drew to the bookstore, the more soldiers there were. Sweat gathered in Yuria’s palms. Gripping the hem of her skirt tightly, Yuria anxiously looked back. Soldiers stood one by one at every corner of the dark alleyway.

When Yuria had passed them, they had been standing straight toward the middle of the road, but now they had turned their bodies toward Yuria. As if to stop anyone from leaving this street.

With no other choice, Yuria walked forward. She felt like a rabbit being driven in a hunt. Perhaps he had sensed the unusual atmosphere, because even Derek became quiet, but Yuria had no room to pay attention to him. All she could do was walk.

So Yuria wasn’t surprised even when she saw the sight of soldiers gathered in front of the bookstore that was her dwelling.

Yuria simply closed and opened her eyes once, then walked forward again. How could it be surprising for someone who had fled under cover of night to be bound in an alleyway in the middle of the night? Something utterly natural had only now arrived.

Leaving Derek, who had stopped before she knew it, behind, Yuria faced forward with composure. But this time, even she had no choice but to be flustered. The person standing at the head of the soldiers was someone far too familiar to her.

His tall height and his dignified posture. Only the bluish-purple eyes beneath his shining blond hair were different from the way she remembered them. Yuria looked at his eyes, which had lost their light, then barely opened her mouth.

“Luke.”

Only after Yuria’s voice reached him did emotion slowly seep into his expressionless face.