[AFYC] Chapter 52

Having stopped him, Seo Ah suddenly found herself at a loss for words. Her mind went blank. She stammered, unable to find the right words, and eventually repeated a question similar to the one she had asked before.

“...Are you coming back?”

She saw his bright blue eyes narrow slightly.

At that moment, the train, which had been slowing down, stopped completely. Oscar, who had been looking at her as if puzzled by her question, said nothing and stepped through the door. The men following him also exited.

The sound of the train, which she hadn’t even noticed before, suddenly vanished, and a heavy, almost tangible silence fell over the carriage. The quietness, with its physical presence, brought an unsettling tension.

Even Abel had gotten up and was heading toward his colleagues when Seo Ah noticed movement outside the curtain. She quickly sat back down and carefully lifted the edge of the drawn curtain.

It wasn’t a station, nor was it Luxen, their destination.

The train had stopped in the middle of a plain.

The men in black suits looked oddly out of place on the green expanse, devoid of a single tree. And there, standing a few paces away from them, was Oscar, alone, smoking a cigarette. The dust from the grass sparkled in the sunlight like fireflies, and he was enveloped in a haze of smoke.

Seo Ah was so absorbed in the scene that she didn’t even realise she was spying on him.

The sharp features beneath his dark hair came into view as the cloudy smoke thinned and became transparent. The low laughter that had once echoed in her ears had long since dissipated, and the man standing there now had the same shadowy, brooding eyes she had seen when she first met him.

He seemed lost in thought as he stared at the ground, smoking his cigarette, but then he suddenly looked up and ran a hand through his hair.

And in the next moment...

“...!”

Her heart, which had already felt like it couldn’t sink any lower, dropped again as their eyes unexpectedly met. Instinctively, she quickly turned away, holding her breath as she did so.

Thump, thump.

The rough beating of her heart obliterated the earlier sense of quiet she had thought was almost tangible.

As she struggled to regain her breath, Abel, who had momentarily left, returned. At the same time, the train began moving again with a loud clatter.

Still trying to steady her breathing, Seo Ah glanced at the window in surprise and asked, “Are we leaving without him?”

“He had some business to attend to.”

A glass of pink liquid was pushed toward her, but Seo Ah didn’t even glance at it.

“Then where... where am I going?”

“We’re heading to the Reinhardt estate.”

“....”

“We should arrive in about an hour.”

Abel, as usual, spoke gently, smiling as he did.

“....”

Her gaze dropped to the glass.

She tried to calm her racing heart by focusing on the rim of the glass but eventually turned to look out the opposite window. The train was gradually picking up speed, and the questions she wanted to ask lingered on the tip of her tongue.

Is he coming back to the estate after he finishes his business?

You’re not planning to lock me up somewhere, are you?

But the questions seemed strange even to her, so instead, she chose a more roundabout way to ask.

“Is the estate we’re going to Reinhardt’s main residence?”

“The main residence?”

“Yes.”

Meeting Oscar and delivering the key wasn’t the end of it. One of the worst possibilities she had considered was that Oscar might imprison her somewhere. If he planned to keep her locked up while he opened the vault, it would be a significant problem.

After a moment’s pause, Abel nodded.

“If you’re asking whether it’s the estate where he primarily resides, then yes, that’s correct.”

The estate where he primarily resides.

So perhaps he wasn’t planning to isolate her in some remote location.

Despite the anxiety gnawing at her, there was little she could do other than push the feeling aside.

The number of triangular-roofed houses gradually increased as the train sped through the bright blue plains.

Seo Ah rubbed her sweaty palms against her thighs as she stared out the window at the rapidly passing scenery.

Oscar, who had been watching the train’s rear as it moved away, finally turned his gaze to the vast, open field.

Everyone else unanimously described the weather as pleasant.

A cool breeze carried the scent of late summer flowers, a clear sky, and neither strong nor weak sunlight.

But to Oscar, all of that was just a fleeting detail, barely registering in his mind.

Enveloped in a cloud of smoke, Oscar took a deep drag, feeling the acrid smoke fill his lungs as he spoke.

“Did they catch them all?”