When she glanced up, she saw him leaning back, drinking.
As his tilted head returned forward, Seo-ah carefully opened her mouth.
“May I ask your name…?”
As if her caution were amusing, the answer came easily.
“Oscar.”
“…….”
“Oscar von Reinhardt.”
It was a handsome name. It suited the man before her.
Yet what held Seo-ah’s attention was the name that followed.
Reinhardt.
The moment she heard it—elegant, powerful—a deep sigh escaped her. A tingling sensation spread from her heart through her entire body, as if food eaten after long hunger had melted directly into her blood.
Thank goodness.
Her teacher’s words—that the wolf would find her—had been true. Though she had not expected it to happen so soon.
Meanwhile, Oscar remained still, studying the woman named Seo-ah.
A woman from a small, unheard-of country called Dangguk.
Her clothing was strange. She trembled with fear. Yet her bearing was upright. Straight shoulders. Straight back. Neat hands—just as a mother might once have often emphasized, seemed to perfectly describe this woman's posture. With a body so slender one might doubt it held all its organs, how could she be so composed? So proper? So complete that he felt an urge to present her to his mother.
Her exposed skin looked so delicate it seemed it might bleed if rubbed. Her tiny fingertips were the same—certainly not hands that had ever labored.
A woman made of contradictions.
Oscar rested his elbows on his knees and leaned forward. As if stealing her gaze that could not meet his, he brought it toward himself. Before her watery brown eyes could dart away, he released a question like a sudden strike.
“You said thank you for saving you.”
“Yes.”
“Then I would like to receive payment for saving you.”
“…….”
Her pale face seemed to grow even whiter. The more she recoiled, the kinder Oscar’s tone became.
“It’s nothing difficult. I only have a few questions. Answer them honestly.”
She bit her trembling lip and nodded.
“You came from a distant land called Dangguk. Carrying the key to the Felpe Bank vault.”
“…….”
Silence hung between them, each hiding their own intent. Oscar, like a wolf nearing prey, waited for the precise moment.
“How did you get it? And how did you come here?”
The question mattered to both of them.
But it mattered more to Seo-ah.
Go directly to the Royal Felpe Bank.Obtain the certificate of authority for the key holder.Confirm that the one who found you is Reinhardt.
She had followed the plan this far. This question was inevitable.
“How did you acquire the key, and why did you come to this distant land?”
She could not say she had become bait, searching for a biological father whose name and face she did not know.
She could not say she had come seeking revenge and to reclaim her grandfather.
So how could she make him accept her fully?How could she make herself useful?A pawn safe to use—and safe to discard without repercussions.
“Money….”
“Money?” Oscar echoed with a faint laugh.
She nodded.
“I… needed a lot of money.”
For now, she had to be simple. Easy. Unsuspicious.
“Ah. You need money?”
His voice was gentle. Seo-ah clasped her hands tightly on her lap.
“Yes.”
From the edge of her vision, she saw his long blue eyes curve slightly.
Perhaps due to entering the business world from a young age, Oscar had long cultivated a habit of examining people in detail—voice, gaze, hands, posture, even the way one opened a door.
Now he sat leisurely across from Seo-ah, already on his second drink. She had only taken a few sips. Perhaps she felt uneasy beneath his scrutiny.
Regardless, Oscar watched her.
It was comfortable.She avoided his eyes.So he had no need to restrain his own.
It was partly his habit of observing others. But it was also, simply, entertaining to watch.
First, her demeanour. It was interesting.
She sat so neatly and steadily that he could have wagered his entire fortune that even her toes beneath the table were aligned in a straight row. Her fingertips moved as though examining a contract—slow, weighted, like the graceful dance the sort of careful mothers raved about. Only her hands moved this way, resisting the air differently. And despite her flushed face, which clearly showed she was hot, she did not fan herself even once.
Never mind the clothes that looked at least twenty years out of date.
She carried the air of someone raised with meticulous care. So what explained her inability to meet anyone’s eyes? It felt less like fear, more like habit. Too ingrained to be mere cultural difference. She spoke the Norfolk common tongue fluently. She could read and write it as well.
Then perhaps—
An illegitimate child of a noble, raised cautiously, always watching her back?
“How is the contract?”
“Ah….”
“Tell me if there’s any clause you dislike.”
He was willing to change most clauses if needed.
Except the clause requiring her to provide the document from the vault.And the condition that she entrust her safety to him until the vault opened.
Those were not negotiable.
No matter how much the woman resisted, he had no intention of letting her go. So he preferred she remain compliant while he was still polite. For his sake. And for hers.
As his gaze—cold, unlike his gentle face—rested on the contract in Seo-ah’s hands, she spoke.
“You said you would pay five hundred million Kerte weekly in exchange for entrusting my safety to you….”
“Hm?”
“What is the value of five hundred million Kerte?”
Oscar chuckled and nodded slowly. He glanced once at the window, once at his clothes.
“By upper-class standards on the Norfolk continent, a residence worthy of being called a mansion in any capital city is valued at around ten billion Kerte. Excluding castles, of course. Those are rarely priced.”
“Yes.”
“Maintaining such a residence costs roughly four to five hundred million Kerte annually. A suit like the one I’m wearing costs between five and ten million. That is upper-class scale. The middle class earns about fifty million annually.”
“…….”
“As you will see when we go to the Felpe Bank, opening the vault will take at least half a year. If you entrust your safety to me during that period and receive the price of a mansion in return… that is not a poor arrangement. And once the vault is opened, the sum will grow much larger.”
“…….”
“Is it not enough?”
His tone was so soft it was almost absurd, as though he were coaxing her.
If she said it was insufficient, he would simply add more. He had spent hundreds of millions in a single night on Felpe’s fool. This was nothing. He thought of this, when—
Seo-ah, who had been staring only at the contract, shook her head slightly.
“No. It’s not.”
Then she raised and lowered her eyes once. And, said—
“It’s enough.”
She placed the contract on the table. The part she had held was wrinkled. Seeing the tension left in the paper, the corners of Oscar’s lips lifted.
“Yes. If you ever feel it is insufficient, tell me anytime.”
He removed a fountain pen from his pocket and offered it.
“Then shall we sign?”
Seo-ah looked at the pen, then carefully stood. She clasped her hands neatly and offered them forward.
Oscar’s gaze fell briefly on her hands.
Slender. Soft. Without a single callus.Not the hands of someone who had crossed distant seas in desperation for money.
He placed the fountain pen onto her palms. Her hands closed around it.
Holding the pen, she sat down again. Wondering what she was doing, as she merely examined it timidly, turning it this way and that. Not rolling the pen around. But instead of opening it, she simply stared at it. Turning it slightly. Tilting her head as if observing a museum artifact rather than rolling it in her fingers.
Oscar watched.
“Have you never seen a fountain pen before?”
“…….”
“You haven’t.”
—