Chapter 9: The Gray Fox
Amid the continued commotion, a calm voice was heard moments later.
“Load your weapons.”
Kaylon entrusted his rear to the second-in-command and team members, swiftly dismounted, and bounded up the steep slope. After quickly scanning the surroundings, he immediately shouldered his rifle.
A man was lying face down on the ground, trembling violently—perhaps having fallen while fleeing—with the jaguar baring its teeth at him in a volatile standoff.
Click.
The bolt was pulled back,
Bang!
A warning shot was fired.
Kaylon had aimed precisely in front of its paws, managing to divert the jaguar’s gleaming gaze toward himself.
The way it twitched its mouth, drooling beneath its fangs, suggested it was quite angry. Golden eyes that had briefly glanced behind now returned to the creature that seemed ready to pounce at any moment.
‘Is she pregnant?’
Males in this season would naturally be on edge. He had no idea how it had wandered into this area, but continued provocation would do no good.
Watching the jaguar that had completely turned its body toward him, he applied pressure to the finger resting on the trigger guard. And the moment it leaped,
Bang!
He pulled his index finger without hesitation.
* * *
Thwack!
Flap flap flap, birds flew up from the forest. As the batter’s ball soared into the air, the women on defense began running toward it. But no one was genuinely trying to catch it.
Lyra could only stamp her feet in frustration as she watched the women, who seemed as relaxed as if they were on a picnic.
“Is Norris going to lose at this rate?”
“Yeah. At this pace, she’ll be overtaken soon.”
“Haha! Elodie! You’re not sleepwalking, are you?”
With each remark from the spectators that suggested the outcome was already decided, Lyra’s insides burned more intensely.
“Hmph! Serves you right.”
Just then, Lindia, who had left her defensive position, approached Lyra with a sneer. Somehow she had caught Davira’s eye and joined the game, and by coincidence, ended up on Lyra’s team.
“You carry yourself so proudly as if you’re someone special, but look where it’s gotten you. Maybe you should have shown some courtesy earlier, hmm?”
“Go back to your position, Lindia.”
“What? Are you ordering me around?”
“I said go back.”
Lyra didn’t even glance at those brown eyes wavering with jealousy. She only hoped the ball from the current batter would come her way. Even if her body wouldn’t cooperate fully, she was confident she could give it her all.
But it wasn’t to be this time either. Time after time, the batters either sent the ball flying in other directions or missed entirely. Thus, opportunities rarely came to her standing in the outfield.
“Do you really think you’ll win that way? Why don’t you just go plead with Lady Claudia? At least that would be less humiliating than being cast aside by the Duke.”
The giggling laughter was extremely irritating.
“…Shut up.”
“Yes, sure, shut… What? My goodness, your language has become quite crude while I wasn’t looking. Does your mother know about this? No, of course not. Does the Duke know about your vulgar tendencies?”
“…”
“Right. He couldn’t possibly know. Otherwise, how could he even think of taking someone like you in…”
Just then, a ball appeared in the air, reflected in Lyra’s pupils.
‘It’s coming.’
She backed up slowly, eyes fixed on the rare ball that was sailing into the outfield.
‘Can I catch it?’
It was a pop fly that most men could easily catch. But for uncoordinated Lyra, it was an imperfect parabola with less than a 10 percent chance of success.
Nevertheless, if the approaching ball seemed to move slower, perhaps she could slightly increase her chances?
Just as she reached her hand toward the sky, when a vague certainty of catching it began to form, Lindia, who had unexpectedly joined the defense, rammed into her shoulder hard. The collision caused Lyra to fall sideways and ultimately miss the ball.
From a distance, she could hear the mingled laughter of men and women. Between her clenched fingers, blades of grass poked through.
Lyra bit her lip hard and hurriedly got to her feet. But as she moved toward the ball, another saboteur appeared and kicked it far away, shrugging as if it had been an accidental kick made while trying to retrieve it.
Lyra trudged toward the forest where the ball had disappeared. After all, whether the ball returned quickly or slowly, if the score was already determined, there was no need to rush.
As feelings of helplessness and emptiness washed over her simultaneously, her steps naturally grew heavier.
‘Where is it?’
It seemed to have gone this way.
She looked around searching for the missing ball, but couldn’t find any shape resembling it.
“Was it not this way?”
Spare balls were surely available. So it would be better to quickly give up and return, but her desire to linger here a little longer only grew. Away from others’ gazes, she felt she could at least breathe.
“Haa…”
Just as her soft sigh elongated, a rustling sound of stepping on leaves came from behind. Lyra quickly turned her head toward the noise.
“Looking for this?”
A man slowly approaching, tossing and catching the ball with one hand.
‘Cody Ferret?’
His eyes, full of base intentions, traveled from Lyra’s face down to her chest.
Lyra hesitated, stepping backward.
“Why are you so scared? I haven’t done anything yet.”
Hadn’t he understood the warning clearly enough?
“I’ll call for help.”
“How? I’ll be faster than that mouth of yours.”
Before she knew it, Cody Ferret had rushed up to Lyra. In one swift motion, he covered her mouth and pushed her against a tree trunk.
“Mmph.”
As her back was pressed hard against the rough bark, Lyra involuntarily let out a moan.
“Ha, this is driving me crazy.”
As her hot breath filled his palm, Cody Ferret couldn’t restrain himself and quickly lowered his head to her slender neck, inhaling deeply.
Feeling a chill run down her spine, Lyra resisted more fiercely.
“Why are you playing so hard to get? Just be quick and do it with me once, come on.”
“Mmph!”
“You’re going to split up with the Duke anyway, aren’t you? From what I can see, you don’t stand a chance. And nobody’s going to come looking for you if you don’t come out of here. Just so you know.”
His snickering laughter was irritating, and the words pouring into her ears were utterly filthy. Her insides boiled, and her solar plexus ached achingly.
“Mmph!”
At that moment, as she shook her head and twisted her body, Lyra’s movements suddenly froze, her body stiffening. The man’s words as he groped her were shocking enough, but an even greater terror had captured her gaze.
“Have you finally decided to do it with me? If you’d been like this from the start…”
Grrrrrrowl.
“Huh?”
At the low growling sound, Cody Ferret turned his head. His eyes grew enormously wide as he screamed “Aaah!” and immediately ran out toward the open field.
The coyote, which had been crouching low, immediately chased after the fleeing man, but couldn’t leave the forest due to the people gathered outside. After a short while, the coyote’s head turned back toward Lyra.
Frozen stiff and unable to move, Lyra could only swallow hard as she watched the coyote slowly approach.
It looked weary, yet its fangs were bared sharply.
The beast’s eyes, which seemed to have fled all the way here to escape the hunters deeper in the forest, glowed bright yellow.
“G-go away.”
‘Please…’
The aura emanating from the wild beast was more than she could handle. Though her body trembled in anticipation of the pain to come, she couldn’t even blink. Her back was against the tree, and she couldn’t even think of fleeing.
Grrrrrrowl.
Finally, Lyra squeezed her eyes shut. The coyote had already approached her feet and was wrinkling its nose bridge, sniffing.
Her mind went completely blank, and the phantom pain of flesh being torn was vivid. But no matter how much time passed, the anticipated agony never came.
Lyra carefully opened her eyes. And at that moment, she heard someone calling for her from a distance.
“Miss!”
