“Are you curious about the market?”
“Um….”
“What is it you’re actually curious about that makes you wander around like that? Even the people who live here don’t go to the market that way. The central market is one thing. But Pal Pien?”
“Excuse me….”
“The goods are all the same. Everything sold there is pretty much identical.”
“Today….”
“You’re not even buying anything. Lately, you don’t buy food, let alone random trinkets. So why on earth are you heading to the market this early in the morning just to—”
“…go.”
Abel, who had been building momentum, stopped mid-sentence.
“What?”
The woman blinked her swollen eyes. She cautiously raised her gaze, then lowered it again before speaking.
“Your favorite clothes were ruined because of me. I wanted to buy you a new set….”
At that, Abel’s eyes drifted to the bag Seo-ah was holding.
The clothes she wore were Oscar’s gift—good quality, expensive. But the bag she had bought herself was crude, almost cheap. Following her around these past days, he had learned that she spent money only on the bare minimum she truly needed.
For even a second, he had hesitated.
He suddenly felt like an idiot for that.
“You’re planning to buy them from wherever you got that bag?”
“That’s not it….”
Abel squeezed his eyes shut and muttered under his breath.
“Forget it. You don’t even know how much those clothes cost.”
“Will this be enough?”
At that, the snake-like woman instinctively flinched. Seo-ah opened the lock of her stiff, weathered bag with pale fingers.
She forced it open and took out a sheet of paper stamped by Barbara.
“The clothes he was wearing should be around this price.”
The number written on it was enormous.
They had looked as luxurious as Oscar’s clothes, but she hadn’t expected them to be this expensive. The amount felt overwhelming—especially for someone trying not to spend Oscar’s money unless absolutely necessary. Even when Barbara had stamped it without hesitation, the figure still weighed heavily on her mind.
Before she could think further, Abel thrust his face closer.
Startled by the sudden proximity, she held the paper out to him. He took it immediately.
Tick. Tock.
For some reason, the passing seconds felt unusually loud.
Abel studied the paper for a moment, then turned sharply toward her.
“Barbara senior wrote you a check?”
“Yes.”
He looked back down, eyes shifting slightly as if counting the digits. His gaze drifted to the left, as if he were counting the denominations.
Watching him, Seo-ah spoke carefully.
“Is it… not enough?”
“If it’s not enough?”
Not enough? You’ll never be rich.
“I’ll ask Madam Barbara for a little more.”
Abel stared ahead, then at the check again, then back at Seo-ah, as if the situation simply refused to make sense. His eyes narrowed as he looked at her. Without another word, he suddenly started walking briskly toward the main building.
Seo-ah hurried after him, protesting softly.
“I didn’t steal it.”
“Of course not.”
It wasn’t that he trusted her. It was simply that robbing Barbara Valt’s vault was impossible.
The mansion staff watched Abel Sting stride toward the main building, the foreigner struggling to keep up behind him.
Among those watching were the master of the house and Barbara.
Oscar leaned his shoulder against the window frame, looking outside. Barbara stood nearby, offering him cup after cup of hot coffee.
“…so, I couldn’t stop them. Rather than letting them wander everywhere, it would be better to keep them in one place. I’ll send triple the backup team and make sure they avoid the crowds.”
Oscar didn’t remove his hand from his robe pocket.
Barbara quietly set the untouched coffee back on the table and bowed her head.
“It seems they’re coming to find me. I will go down for a moment.”
When she stepped out through the door connecting the bedroom and the study, Simon was already waiting. As the two attendants who served Oscar most closely, Barbara gave him a low warning the moment she saw him.
“He is in a very bad mood.”
Simon shrugged.
“He took several showers after bathing in cold water last night.”
Oscar often washed himself in water cold enough to stop a weak person’s heart. But he rarely did it for cleanliness. More often, it was to suppress the emotions boiling inside him. So, when he showered multiple times, it meant the turmoil within him was that much worse.
Simon’s face twisted slightly.
“I have a schedule tonight.”
“Is it a reception?”
“It is.”
Barbara clicked her tongue softly.
“If there is anything to report regarding Count Jerome or the Marquise, report it tomorrow after you gauge the mood.”
“Understood, Senior.”
Simon gave a small bow as Barbara passed him.
Beyond the study lay the reception room, and beyond that, the grand hall. The noblewoman in black crossed the hall with brisk steps and descended the wide staircase. By the time she reached the main floor, her eyes met Abel’s as he headed toward the entrance, the doors opened for ventilation.
—
Seo-ah stopped among the wolf statues at the mansion entrance while Abel continued up the main building stairs alone. Madam Barbara stood straight behind him.
It seemed he was uneasy about carrying such a large sum of money. If that was the case, it would be better to speak directly with Barbara rather than with him.
Seo-ah let out a small breath and turned her gaze away from the two of them. In her casually shifted view, a life-sized wolf statue filled her vision.
The wind brushing past it felt cold.
She turned toward the annex instead. The open garden came into view. The moment she saw it, the thoughts that had been weighing on her loosened slightly.
Servants moved around the fountain, which had stopped running. The wind shook the surrounding trees, and dry leaves rustled loudly.
Whoosh. Whoosh.
For a moment, it sounded like waves. The sound made her think of the sea. The sea reminded her of her grandfather, and of the padded winter clothes he used to make for her.
“You’ve grown taller this year. You’ll need new clothes.”
Even when there was nowhere to go, he always made her a proper outfit, as if she might step outside at any time.
“Wear them warmly and stay healthy through the winter, understand?”
It was around this time that a thread of warm memory, brought on by the cold wind, briefly melted the chest frozen by self-loathing and guilt.
“Gah—!”
Suddenly, a choking cry rang out from the direction of the main building. It sounded unmistakably human. It even sounded like Abel.
She quickly turned toward the entrance of the main building. But when she looked, Abel appeared perfectly fine. Only his back was visible, and nothing seemed wrong.
But a moment later, when Abel turned his body towards the outside of the mansion. Seo-ah’s eyes, which had been tilted in confusion, naturally narrowed.
The man who had just been making strangled noises—and cursing at her moments ago, even to the point of shuddering—
He was smiling with an unnerving brightness. Brightly. Too brightly.
A chill ran down her spine. A thousand thoughts flashed through her mind at the speed of light.
Why is he like that?Did I embarrass him that badly?
Abel strode toward her. She retreated step by step until she reached the bottom of the garden stairs. Even then, her thoughts remained tangled in complicated.
Is he laughing because he’s dumbfounded?Of course he would be. It must look like I’m trying to solve everything with money. No, that’s right. And it’s not even mine…
“Where did you say you wanted to go earlier?”
She looked up blankly at Abel, now standing right in front of her. He squinted at her with an almost affectionate expression There’s a limit to beating around the bush. One moment he cursed, the next he grew angry, and now he was smiling. She couldn’t keep up at all.
“You wanted to go to the department store?”
Whoosh. in the middle of the magnificent mansion, like a surging wave, the snake woman’s professionalism surged to the top of her head, her tail wagging, and the foreigner’s eyes, watching him, trembled slightly.
Department store.
Madam Barbara had repeatedly insisted Abel’s clothes didn’t need compensation. But after several earnest requests, she had finally said,
“You can find his clothes easily at the department store.”
And fortunately, Abel now seemed oddly pleased by the idea to buy him clothes at the department store.
—