Beast in the Woods, Deep in the Night - Chapter 20.2

Chapter 20.2

The moment he heard those words, Edgar scoffed.

His father hoped that he would be moved to tears by his kindness that everything was for him.

Edgar saw his father’s true appearance for the first time. The man in front of him was a murderer who was only kind to him.

He was afraid of the later generation’s criticism that he was a grand duke who was born weak and didn’t have any accomplishments, so he wanted to give the throne to his son who was born with great power, and take advantage of that huge honor.

And so, he seemed to think that as long as he could be admired, sacrificing a few dozen chimeras would be insignificant.

As soon as he learned that fact, Edgar could not live like before, when he didn’t know the truth.

So he made up his mind. He decided to leave the family so that his father wouldn’t be able to use the excuse that it was because of him that he had planned something like this.

***

As he finished his recollection, Edgar got up from his seat, frowning. It was obvious that he wouldn’t be able to focus on anything else today after recalling the moment Karl died. Holding onto the documents was a waste of time.

Even though it was already thirteen years ago, the memories of that day did not fade at all. It all came to him as clearly as if it had happened the day before.

A lot had happened over the long period of time.

First, he was known to the world as the unlucky son of the grand duke who had died in a carriage accident. He had deliberately faked his death to become someone unrelated to the Richard family.

His father, who was only kind to him, passed away, and Iris, who inherited his blood, became the next grand duchess. He had taken action to fulfill Karl’s last request to protect his sister.

Then, he bought up the Black Fang Guild and became the new owner. After placing Isaac, a chimera rescued from his father’s research facility, in the position of guild master, he went around rescuing the chimeras the duchy had been studying for generations and their descendants. Most of them were sold here and there, living subhuman lives.

Even after thirteen years of doing the same thing, Edgar wasn’t sure. Did Karl really not resent him the moment he was dying?

Seeing that distracting thoughts continued to creep in, he felt like he needed to cool his head.

Edgar immediately left the office. He could feel the bright moonlight, almost a full moon, making the beastly instincts flowing in his blood boil even more.

After having s*x with Christine, the heat rose as if he were standing under the full moon every day. As if his instincts were screaming at him to imprint on her after having tasted a woman once.

So he walked along the trail that connected to the building he was using. After walking for a while, a picturesque, quiet valley appeared. It was as if the moonlight was flowing, not water.

He was quite fond of this place where only the sound of water flowing and birds chirping could be heard. It was quite far from the guild’s hinterland, and no one went there, so it was the perfect place for Edgar to clear his thoughts or calm his needlessly heated body.

Edgar took off his shirt roughly, hung it on a tree branch, and walked into the water. The fact that the weather was still quite chilly was not a big problem for him.

However, after a few minutes of soaking in the cold water, he could feel someone approaching.

“Oh my, Edgar… What a coincidence.”

“…”

Edgar turned his head towards the voice in disbelief. Not surprisingly, Christine, wearing only a cloak over her nightdress, was approaching him quickly.

Come to think of it, this was also the place where he first encountered Christine. He had thought that she would not follow him to such a place this late in the day, but he seemed to have underestimated her obsession.

“What is a young lady doing here at this time?”

“You wouldn’t believe me if I said I stopped by because I woke up feeling thirsty, would you?”

“A pretty girl has arrived.”

Christine laughed bashfully for some reason despite the obvious sarcastic tone.

“Oh my, seriously… You could just say ‘here is the pretty girl’. I’m embarrassed if you use such vocabulary.”

“…”

Christine didn’t seem surprised at all that he was calling her a pretty girl. The woman didn’t seem to be particularly offended by his sarcastic remark in the first place.

While Edgar was speechless for a moment, Christine unfastened her cloak. She had stopped by the place where she met him for the first time just in case, but she couldn’t believe how lucky she was.

She grinned inwardly at the last chance to touch him and ease the pain caused by the curse. She didn’t forget to let out a voice apparently drenched in melancholy.

“I was sad that I had to stay away from you for a long time, so I came out to get some fresh air and ended up running into you. It must be our fate.”

She took off her cloak at once before Edgar could even reply. As she did, her white, see-through nightdress appeared under the moonlight.