The Ring of Bondage - Chapter 1.8

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What woke Yuria wasn’t bright sunlight or birdsong, nor the painful desire that remained unsatisfied, but muscle pain. As Yuria curled up around her tingling, aching body, she flinched and opened her eyes. The memories of the previous night slowly began to fill Yuria’s mind.

The heat cycle she had experienced for the first time in a long while, the alpha pheromones that had filled the room so thickly she could barely breathe, and the s*x she had lost herself in after reason abandoned her.

Yuria hurriedly sat up. The blanket slipped down, and the cool air touched her bare chest, without a single thread covering it. There was no one in the room. An alpha. An alpha who would come all the way to her room. A conclusion she desperately didn’t want to acknowledge began to encroach upon her mind.

There was only one alpha in the Cunningham ducal residence.

Luke.

Only then did she begin to recall the events before the s*x little by little. His eyes dyed reddish-purple, the sight of him pushing away the cloth that had blocked the crack beneath the door with the tip of his foot, Luke Cunningham throwing open the locked door. Her kind student, who had come to check on her for three whole days after hearing that Yuria was ill.

Disgusted by what she had done, Yuria covered her mouth and retched. It was horrifying. There were no other words she could think of. Horrifying. Because of a sudden heat, she had even dragged her student into it and had relations with him. The very situation the ducal family had been most wary of had occurred. At the same time, it was also the situation Yuria had wanted least.

Yuria wrapped her completely naked body in the blanket and groped around with her hands. Her glasses had been placed neatly on the bedside table. She was certain they had been taken off carelessly, but it seemed Luke had paid attention in his own way.

The same was true when she looked at her body, which had been cleaned, and the clothes folded neatly beside the bed. He was such a good child, and yet someone called his teacher had crumpled up and ruined his life.

“What should I do…”

Her throat tightened, but no tears flowed. Yuria thought as she put on her clothes. What choice would be most beneficial for both Luke and herself? Even then, the s***n she had taken the night before, enough to make her belly swell, leaked out little by little below and flowed down between her legs.

Everything felt miserable and bleak. It was then that a letter caught Yuria’s eye.

[ Dear Teacher Yuria Rigbye.

Because today just happens to be the first day of the banquet, I’m leaving without even saying goodbye. You were sleeping so soundly that I couldn’t wake you. I’m sorry. I’ll slip away as early as I can, so please wait until then. I want to discuss what happened last night and what comes after.

Yours,
Luke Cunningham ]

Yuria let out a hollow laugh. Discuss. Would anything positive even come out of that? All the expected outcomes were grim.

Yuria, who had hidden that she was an omega and secured employment, wouldn’t escape unharmed in any case. The ducal family would surely try to get rid of Yuria somehow for damaging the dignity of their house.

In that process, whatever Luke insisted would be meaningless. Whether he protected Yuria or took the lead in condemning her. And if she ended up dying, her kind and upright student would suffer for the rest of his life. Even if Luke Cunningham were to judge that ‘executing Yuria Rigbye is rational,’ there was no way guilt wouldn’t seep into that decision.

If so, there was only one thing Yuria could do. If she was destined to be eliminated anyway, then it was right to run away first. For her own sake, and for Luke’s.

Once she decided what to do, everything afterward was quick. She took out the travel bag she had packed in advance, put in a few daily necessities and the money she had saved, and there was nothing else left to take. She had lived in the ducal residence for years, and yet all traces of Yuria fit into a single bag. She had been such a small presence in this mansion.

After placing Luke’s letter back on the bedside table, Yuria picked up her bag and suddenly stopped as she saw herself in the mirror. She didn’t want to run away like a criminal this way. She wanted to say proper farewells to the people she had grown fond of before leaving, but even that thought was a luxury now. Because she was indeed a criminal.

Forcing down the emotion that surged up inside her, Yuria left the room. Fortunately, no one stopped her. All the servants of the mansion knew that she would be leaving soon. The servants, busy with the banquet, merely exchanged brief nods with her even when they ran into her, then disappeared, and the master of the mansion was busy enjoying the banquet.

And so Yuria left the Cunningham ducal family she had grown attached to and stepped out into the street. The only thing that greeted her was the cool air.