[AFYC] Chapter 35

“What a mess. I told her to take responsibility, and all she’s doing is apologising,” Simon muttered, lighting a cigarette as he turned away from the scene. He thought that there would already be bloodshed if Oscar hadn’t been outside. The sight before him was almost too absurd to tolerate.

“Go find a place to bury that woman,” Simon ordered, though his lieutenant, who had been carefully gauging his superior’s mood, hesitated. 

“But sir... it seems... it seems like she’s starting to regain consciousness.” 

“What?” Simon turned around sharply as he was about to light his cigarette. His eyes locked with the woman, bathed in soft, pale light. 

The brown eyes on her pale face were striking, drawing Simon’s gaze. In that moment of eye contact, he realised the woman was regaining her senses. 

“I’m sorry, miss,” the old prostitute from Felphe murmured as she comforted the woman she had intended to sell off. And the foreigner, unaware of the cruel intentions behind the woman’s earlier actions, was slowly finding solace in her embrace. 

Of course, Simon’s reaction to the scene was utter disdainful. 

“I can’t even begin to comprehend this. What the hell is this scene?” he muttered. But even as he watched, the woman’s eyes became clearer, the haze lifting from them. 

The woman, now a living key, could not be allowed to die, nor could she lose her mind. 

Simon observed her coldly as he finally lit his cigarette. It didn’t matter how she had regained consciousness. What mattered was that she had. 

“Well, as long as she’s awake, that’s all that matters.” 

Through the curling smoke, Simon could see those brown eyes once more. Holding the cigarette in one hand, he offered her a sardonic greeting. 

“Are you conscious now?” 

The remnants of the nightmare that had gripped her began to fade as Seo Ah felt the warmth of the person who had comforted her, though the voice that reached her ears now seemed far louder and more insistent. 

She turned and found herself staring into crimson eyes, the man from earlier exhaling smoke as he spoke. 

The sharpness of his voice made Seo Ah realise that this man had been part of the terrifying conversation she had overheard. She also recognised him as the one who had been by the side of “that man.” 

As he approached her, other men with equally formidable builds appeared behind him, dragging away the woman holding Seo Ah. The warmth that had briefly saved her vanished as the woman, whom Seo Ah now recognised as the elegant innkeeper, was pulled away. 

The door opened slightly, revealing heavy, ominous presences lingering beyond. 

Seo Ah tried to stand up, but her knees buckled. She leaned on her hands to steady herself, only to stare at a pair of long, slender legs. The polished black shoes stopped just a step away from her. 

“Can you walk?” The man’s tone was polite, but she felt he would make her crawl if she said no. 

“Y-yes,” she croaked out, her throat dry and cracked. The man turned his back to her and began walking away, his long strides carrying him to the door. He extinguished his cigarette in an ashtray before turning back to her. 

His unspoken command to follow him was clear, and Seo Ah’s heart pounded as she forced herself to move. Behind the door, the heavy, coiled presences awaited like serpents ready to strike. 

Where am I? And who are these people waiting for me to wake up? 

The man who came to mind was “that man,” who seemed to have been forged from darkness. 

Her master’s warning echoed in her mind: revealing that the key was in her possession would endanger her life, as fragile as a candle in the wind. 

But her own life held little value to her. If the beginning of her life had been a mistake, then death was the only true atonement. 

Her heart pounded like thunder, her breath fogged up, and as she followed the man through the door, she could feel the oppressive atmosphere intensify.