Beast in the Woods, Deep in the Night - Chapter 4.2

Chapter 4.2

There were only two ways for the mother and daughter to escape Duff.

Either the two of them were released from the curse, or they obtained the jewel Duff had somewhere else.

But today, with a more serious face than ever, Christine asked him for help and added, “If things go well, I’ll be able to break the curse. If I can’t do that, I’ll at least be able to get a Chimera’s Tear. I don’t know if I can get one as big as the one Duff has, but I’m sure things will be better than they are.”

‘If what the kid said is true, it’s a chance that won’t come ever again.’

The problem was that Christine kept her destination a secret to the end. It bothered him so much that she repeatedly said not to worry too much because it was a place she had been to once.

‘It’s not a place like the Black Forest, is it?’

No way, it couldn’t be. No matter how fearless and skilled Christine was, she would not do such a reckless thing. The hideout of the Black Fang Guild was located there.

Allen was very disturbed, but he had no choice but to listen since Christine kept asking him.

“The reason I came to you, Duff, is because I made a request to Christine. If you make a request to a guild member, you also have to pay a fee to the master, right?”

Thud.

Duff looked at the gold coins Allen had slammed down on his desk and changed his gaze. Ten gold coins. It was enough to make up for all the money he lost gambling yesterday.

‘I was in need of emergency money…’

Duff dispatched an informant as soon as he heard from Christine that the businessmen were worried about the money they had deposited in the safe. What she said was true.

It was clear that they would be coming to his residence by tomorrow, and he needed money to make up for what he had lost gambling. And just then, Allen showed up, as if the heavens had helped him.

In fact, it wasn’t a help from the heavens. Things were going according to Christine’s pre-calculations, but Duff, who was nervous about being interrogated by the businessmen, had no way of knowing that.

“What kind of request are you making?”

“I asked Christine to go to my home village. I have a piece of land I bought because I want to retire and open a restaurant there, but I heard someone illegally occupied it.”

“Trains don’t even go there, it would take a month for a round-trip… You’re not thinking of taking Christine away from our guild, are you?”

“What do you mean, taking her away? Christine wouldn’t leave her mother behind and go off on her own. She seemed depressed, she’s been working so hard lately that she hasn’t even been able to rest, so I told her to go see the sea.”

“Ahem.”

“And this is the fee for Ariel’s usage of your jewel. This is an advance payment. I’ll come back every day and pay her share for that day, so don’t do anything to her.”

When Allen put down another ten gold coins, Duff’s suspicions were momentarily put aside. In fact, he felt a little lucky that he had gotten the emergency money he needed in exchange for Christine’s break.

“Well… You even gave me the fee as per the procedure, so there’s no problem. But if you helped her escape, you’ll have to take responsibility, too.”

Duff glared at Allen and threatened him in a soft voice.

But for Allen, who was disturbed about what Christine was up to, his threat had no effect.

***

Thanks to Allen’s help, Christine was able to set off before dawn the next day.

She wondered how much money he gave Duff, given that he didn’t complain much when he woke up early in the morning to lend her the Chimera’s Tear.

This allowed Christine to escape Duff’s clutches for a month and implement her plan to change her future.

‘I’ll repay you for this, Uncle Allen.’

Christine boarded a train right away. Her destination was the Black Forest, where the hideout of the Black Fang Guild was located.

She had researched many things about the Black Fang Guild in her past life and knew a lot about their place of residence.

The forest was on the hillside of a steep mountain where the wolf deities, who would become Grand Duke Richard’s progenitors, were said to have fought each other to determine who would be the leader, before the continent was named the Empire of Hailen.

Christine was going to go there for a few days, walk around, figure out what was going on, and then pick the right person to seduce and form a connection with the guild.

Then, the plan was to find out who was the man who had greatly reduced her pain by just touching her, and what she had to do to get closer to him.

If possible, it would be a good idea to get in a deep relationship with the man to see if contact with a chimera would completely ease the curse, but she had no intention of ruining everything just because she was being hasty, unless she could think of a proper way to do so.

Christine got off the train and switched to a carriage. She also walked for a while.

It was around dawn that she arrived at the foot of the Black Mountain; the full moon high in the sky.

The deeper she went in the forest, the more the trees and vines became bizarrely dense. There were also thorny plants she had never seen before.

‘If the plants are carnivorous, wouldn’t they have teeth like this?’

She was walking, thinking about that, when, ‘What is that?’

Christine lowered herself immediately upon noticing something.

Soon, she realized that what she was seeing was a person. The naked upper body of a man.