Chapter 14
The common sense of a battlefield where lives were at stake was a little different from the outside world. Those who lived with death knew how to willingly fall into depravity, and they indulged in debauchery and excess. Plunder was not a sin to them. The woman seemed to be busy interpreting his words, and after a few beats, she gave a small nod. Johannes continued.
“There’s one thing they all have in common.”
“…In common?”
The woman repeated his words haltingly. At that, Johannes deliberately began to scan her with a lingering gaze. It was a calculated move.
“If the captive has silver hair and purple eyes…”
It was unintentional that his voice trailed off.
‘It wasn’t like this last time, damn it. This crazy woman really…’
Now that he looked, the woman was only wearing a thin nightgown under a hood that looked like a rag. The fact that the hood was flipped back, revealing her hollow collarbone, the shape of her full, round breasts, and her slender waist beneath, was all his doing.
“…Their eyes roll back.”
“Ah…”
A gasp, whether of realization or fear, escaped helplessly from between the woman’s plump lips. Fortunately, it seemed the threat was working…
Johannes lightly grasped both of the woman’s wrists. They were so thin that they felt like they would break if he applied any force, and the tips of his fingers, as he pulled her bound wrists above her head, trembled slightly, ridiculously.
The woman, her hands tied above her head, flinched and looked up at him with wide eyes. Johannes stared down at her, slowly lowering the hand that had been pressing down on her wrists. His hand passed over her delicately trembling cheek and settled near her pulsing neck.
“……”
And Johannes paused for a moment, unconsciously furrowing his brow. For a second, he couldn’t remember what he was about to do. Instinct, not reason, kept trying to take over, causing his fingertips to twitch.
Johannes instinctively stroked the throbbing pulse, then lightly grasped her slender neck. He could feel the fine hairs standing on end against her soft skin. At the same moment, his Adam’s apple bobbed up and down.
It was then that her lips parted slightly, as if about to speak. The movement broke Johannes’s gaze. Only then did he notice her eyes shaking violently.
Johannes, regaining the reason he had momentarily lost, slowly lowered his head. The woman’s eyes widened.
“…If you insist on experiencing something unpleasant, I won’t stop you, but…”
A damn good scent emanated from the nape of the woman right in front of him. He wanted to bury his nose there and inhale deeply. Unintentionally, his breath grew hot.
“…The question is, can the esteemed Tessaria handle the beasts from across the sea…?”
Every time his hot breath touched her, the woman flinched. Then, as if bracing herself for something, she squeezed her eyes shut. Witnessing this with narrowed eyes, Johannes felt his throat parch. This wasn’t pretending to threaten her… It seemed he needed to end this soon. Johannes pulled himself together once more and threatened her.
“I don’t think it will work. What do you think?”
Then Johannes slightly lifted his head from her neck to gauge her reaction.
Tightly closed eyes, tensed muscles and breath holding from the sense of crisis.
“……”
As expected. To be this frightened after acting so foolish. Johannes said in a cold voice,
“Don’t come to the forest again.”
‘Now, please shed tears and say that you can’t deal with the savage beasts from across the sea after all.’
Naturally, Johannes had no intention of comforting her in the slightest.
Then the woman slowly opened her eyes. She blinked her half-closed, frowning eyes a few times, then glanced up. Their gazes met at a distance where their noses were bound to touch.
And Johannes was inwardly flustered. Her violet eyes, staring directly at him, looked confused. The problem was, there was a glimpse of a new kind of interest in them.
“Is that all?”
Just as Johannes sensed something was wrong, Daphne spoke as if to herself.
Johannes opened his lips, his brow furrowed as if he was choking. Daphne, noticing his misunderstanding, quickly added,
“I didn’t mean I wanted to be caught, I just…”
“……”
“I mean, General…”
Why?
Daphne had thought that Johannes sending her back the first time was simply a whim. He was the enemy, and he had certainly been rough and unkind until now. But somehow, the more she got to know him…
‘…He’s too soft on me.’
Of course, she wasn’t entirely sure. Because the terrifying words that described him, and the way he killed Equilla beneath the watchtower, made him seem truly merciless.
‘But still…’
Daphne blinked her sparkling eyes at him. Her chest fluttered with an unknown feeling. It was a complex mix of danger, escape, and hope. From the moment he cut Equilla’s throat, she had kept feeling as if he were on her side. Perhaps that was why, instead of thinking about running away, she was filled with various questions.
Why did you come to the forest? Did you come to see me? To warn me not to come to the forest again?
Why?
The words she wanted to ask him swirled in her mouth incoherently.
Then, sensing her observant gaze, he pulled away as if displeased. The large hands that had bound her wrists, the weight that had pinned her abdomen and lower body, disappeared in an instant.
Daphne followed him with bewildered eyes. He stood up abruptly and ran a hand through his hair irritably, as if following the cool breeze. The moonlight cast a shining line on the side of his face, his brow furrowed. He was strikingly handsome. As she stared blankly at him for a moment, he suddenly spoke.
“This is my last warning. Don’t come to the forest again, Princess. You seem unable to distinguish between friend and foe.”
Friend. Was he talking about Equilla? And at that moment, Daphne became a little more certain of the thought she had dismissed as mere delusion. She spoke somewhat impulsively,
“But that person…”
Johannes’s turning motion stopped. Daphne, her legs trembling from the release of tension, pulled herself up. Her eyes met his as he stood there, half-turned. Daphne continued,
“Equilla murdered three of my sisters and was nothing more than a murderer who was going to kill me. How could she not be my enemy?”
“……”
“I know what I have to protect. I know exactly who my enemies are.”
There was no reaction from him. His frowning face hadn’t relaxed since earlier, and Daphne, anxious yet burning with anticipation, waited for his answer. It felt like a long time before Johannes, pressing his furrowed brow, opened his mouth.
“I am not on your side either.”
“……”
She already knew that. But ridiculously, her heart sank, and for a moment, she couldn’t speak.
“Don’t come to the forest.”
Meanwhile, Johannes turned away completely. Daphne, who had been standing blankly until he was about five steps away, came to her senses belatedly. She didn’t want this encounter to end like this. Somehow…
Daphne suddenly shouted,
“What if I have no choice but to come?”
Loudly, so that it echoed through the forest. So that he would turn around. That was all she could think about at that moment.
And Johannes stopped. He turned around. This time, his face was contorted with shock. He muttered in a voice that sounded genuinely angry this time,
“…What does that… Where did my words go?”
It was an expected reaction. Daphne replied in a deliberately loud voice, as if trying to wake the forest,
“I will keep coming to the forest. I have no choice.”
Johannes’s mouth opened slightly in astonishment. And Daphne made up her mind. To continue being stubborn, to not listen to him. She felt the pressure to shut up from his sharp glare, but she didn’t stop.
In Daphne’s mind, this was an opportunity. And she had decided never to miss an opportunity again.
“There’s something I absolutely must find in this forest.”
“……”
“So I will keep coming to the forest, General. And you can’t stop me.”
