Chapter 4.1-4.2

Chapter 4.1

Perhaps the man was young, contrary to Emma’s thoughts. He may even be around her age. But then, how could such a young man be a cabin keeper? That thought was even stranger.

She wondered if he was an orphan since he was living in this deep valley. Perhaps the rest of his family was inside. Maybe he was married.

Emma lost herself to her whirling thoughts at the man’s continued silence. 

The man hummed deep in this throat before he said, “I can’t believe this.” Then he fixed his gaze on her as if to gauge her reaction. After that, he lapsed into silence. Quite suddenly he said, “Aren’t you scared of your misfortunes?”

“Excuse me?” Emma said with a blink, even though she had heard him clearly. She just didn’t know how to answer the question, but felt it rude to stay silent.

“Didn’t it occur to you that knocking on this door just might bring you more misfortune?” he said.

“In this predicament I’m already in?”

“Alright. They say trouble doesn’t roam alone. You’ve had a bad day, so something worse might be waiting for you,” he said, quoting an old idiom. His words reminded her of a tutor who used to say the exact same thing.

“What if you run into more trouble trying to get away from the one you’re already in?”

“Not possible,” Emma said, raising her chin bravely and shaking her head.

“Bad luck and unhappiness are usually followed by injustice and rebellion,” said the man, laughing faintly.

Emma closed her eyes for a second, then opened them again. This was ridiculous.

If this man was planning on doing something worse than what she was experiencing now, that would only confirm she was cursed. Unless the gods personally hated her and wanted to banish her from the world, there was no greater misfortune than the one that had already befallen her.

“It won’t.” That was easy enough to say when you were living in a nice, safe warm house on a stormy night. But being out in the storm, being chased by monsters was an absolute hellscape on its own.

How much worse could her day get?

“I won’t be running into any more trouble. This is already the worst-case scenario,” Emma said

“How bad is it?”

“Very bad. It’s an ugly situation beyond my control,” Emma said in a pleading voice, shaking her head as if to rid herself of the painful thoughts of reality. “If it’s not too much to ask, would you mind hiding me for a little while? It won’t be for long. I just want to hide… I lost my way in the forest, and now I’m also being chased.”

“Chased?” the man said with great interest. His ice-cold eyes speared into Emma intensely. “By what?”

The fact that he asked, ‘by what’ and not ‘by who’ made Emma realize he knew about the monsters roaming the Perrigans.

“By, uh…” She had a momentary struggle with herself over telling the truth, then quickly changed what she was about to say.

That would only bring on more suspicion. Now wasn’t the time to back down like a weirdo or act shady. This man was her last hope of salvation. If he turned her away, she would be left clinging pathetically to the door as she waited for a miserable, horrible death.

After swallowing a stubborn wad of saliva, she said in a quivering voice, “I ran into some r-robbers.”

“Robbers?”

The interest in the man’s eyes vanished the moment she told him who was chasing her, even the enthusiasm in his voice was gone. Was he disappointed that she was not being chased by monsters?

Emma dejectedly lowered her eyes to the ground and darted a glance around. There was only darkness in all directions, and she couldn’t tell if the man had set traps around the cabin. But hunting monsters was expensive. Their by-products were said to be used in some alchemy practices.

If so, there were grounds for the man’s excessive suspicion. He must have been suspicious of the lucky young lady who had arrived safely at his mansion and knocked on the door, having avoided all the traps he had so cleverly laid out.

“So, what now?” the man said looking down at her in disappointment. 

Emma took a breath and shot her last shot, “I am originally from Summerville. I was in the middle of a trip in my carriage…”

A wolf howled somewhere in the distance.

Emma stopped talking and flinched.

It was an ominous type of howl that shook the stormy black forest. The howl probably came from the pack leader, judging from the several answering barks and howls that rose from various other places in the forest.

‘A werewolf.’

Dora and Otto had said they would call the wolves; maybe this was a sign of their attack.

Emma stiffened in fear and stared wide-eyed into the darkness. She shifted uncomfortably as if she were getting ready to run. 

In a quiet, cool voice the man said, “Alright then. Come in.”

Finally!

Emma couldn’t wait to get inside, but her body was frozen with fear. She wanted to cheer with joy, but all she could do was clench her fists and to project her gratitude. “Thank you…”

“Hmmm, I injured my hand, so I can’t open the door; go over there,” the man said, gesturing over Emma’s shoulder with his eyes.

Emma turned around to see a stable. ‘Oh, is he going to let me stay in the stable?’

The momentary joy within her faded away, and dark despair hung over her once again. She wouldn’t be safe from her pursuers if she hid in there.

When her expression changed, the look in the man’s eyes changed as if he had read her mind.

Or perhaps he hadn’t been motioning towards the stable?

She looked closer, following his line of sight to a place further away. He had motioned to a remote shed next to the stables.

“Look closely. There’s a key in there. Look carefully and you’ll find it. You can use that to get inside,” the man said.

“Oh,” Emma said in surprise, staring blankly at the shed swamped in darkness. “Thank you so much, I’ll go get the key! You don’t know how much this means. You just saved my life. I will never forget your grace.”

“Be done with your formalities and come inside.”

Chapter 4.2

Emma finally managed to find the key. It was an antique. It had been hidden so well in the shed it had taken her forever to find it.

But luckily, in the end, she did.

Emma nodded to herself as she gazed down at the long, heavy key in her hand. The key was no doubt an item that belonged to a noble family. As did the mansion.

She felt quite embarrassed to open the front door with such a lavish key.

“Oh,” she said in disappointment when she saw the stark interior. The inside definitely didn’t match the splendid exterior.

The burning torches along the walls illuminated a simple interior. Aside from the standard furniture, there were no high-quality or expensive decorations. But what furniture there was did look outrageously expensive.

From the outside, the mansion looked like a high-ranking aristocrat’s magnificent mountain cabin. But on the inside, it looked more like a temporary residence because of the barely furnished rooms and sorely lacking amenities.

Even the embers in the fireplace were dead, not giving the smallest spark of warmth to the room. The only thing brightening the creepy interior was a lamp with no oil.

There was a lingering, chilly air reminiscent to the cold wind outside the made Emma shiver. If she was going to survive in this place, she needed to start a fire.

She hugged her arms over her body and rubbed at her forearms. She hunched her soaking body forward as though trying to ward off the chill. Because the air in here was as cold as it was outside, Emma was beginning to think she would die of hypothermia in her sleep.

“Come,” said the man indifferently when she saw Emma standing at the door.

Emma finally turned her attention to the man, fascinated by the low sound of his voice. She had been so distracted by the unfamiliar space that she had forgotten he was there for a moment.

Just like she’d guessed through the hatch, he was quite tall. Emma had to tip her head back to look at him. And, just as she had started to think, he was young and handsome. He had clean features and a slim, sharp face that was quite rare nowadays. He had clear, doll-like skin that made him look like he had come straight out of a fairy tale. His jawline was well-defined and angular, and his deep, blue-gray eyes glittered with a rather attractive light.

A first glance, he could have been a marble statue. If she had to guess roughly at his age, she would say he was in his mid-twenties.

‘Like a winter lake.’ The man’s appearance suited that sentiment. He did indeed look like an undiscovered frozen lake, surrounded by a wall of ice.

Too cold to be near, but aesthetically perfect.

Although the pants and shirt he was wearing were stained and stretched, there was just something about his uniquely cool energy that made him look mystical. Not to mention his messy gray hair made him look all the more handsome

Emma was so captivated by his sensual appearance that she just stood there in silence, openly staring at him.

“Are you just going to stand there?” he asked coldly

“Oh, no. Excuse me,” Emma said coyly and stepped inside.

The massive front door slammed shut behind her with a thunderous boom. The wind from the motion startled her, making her flinch as if she had been lashed on the back with a whip.

She knew the door was huge, but she had never imagined that it would make that much noise.

Now that she was inside, she realized one of the door’s purposes; it was a sound barrier. When it was closed and locked, the noise from outside was swept to desolation inside, totally isolating those indoors from the outside world.

It was so silent now that she could hear her heart beating in her ears. So silent, yet she couldn’t hear the wind or rain outside.

“Thank you. You saved me,” Emma said.

The man hummed in response as he looked down at her with a near emotionless gaze. He reached out to her with one of his large hands. As he had said, his hands were injured, bandaged closed with thick bandages.

Was he trying to shake her hand?

Emma’s fingers flinched without her realizing it. She thought her hands were a mess because she had scratched and bruised them while wandering through the forest, but it was a teardrop in a bucket compared to the man’s hands.

Judging by the blood stains on the bandages, they were severely damaged.

A sharp pain streaked through Emma as she stared blankly at the bloodstains. And as she studied them, a deep, contemplative frown settled over her features.

“Give it to me,” came the man’s dry, cold voice.

“Huh?” Emma said in confusion, raising her head.

“The key.”

Emma hurriedly passed the key over to him.

A peculiar look passed over the man’s face as he looked down at the antique copper-colored key in his bandaged hand. The corners of his handsome mouth quirked up in a smile, and his sharp, blue-gray eyes softened. Looking down at the beautiful key, his entire expression became a little gentler.

Emma was comforted by the fact that she wasn’t the only one so taken by the key’s appearance.

The man then raised his head and pointed inside. “Sit,” he said with a much more pleasant expression on his face, as if seeing the key had lightened his mood.