A Cruel Beast’s Leash

Even if Emma looked back on her memories, she felt as if she could remember as if she were digging through a hazy mist at dawn.

When her nostrils flared while eating a piece of bread, the man’s insensitive gaze glided toward her, looking far off with a boring expression as he leaned comfortably on the sofa. 

“What?”

His still blue-gray eyes narrowed sharply.
The foretelling gaze was quite eerie.
Emma’s spine shivered as if a sharp blade had touched her cheek.

“N-n-nothing.” She hurriedly glossed over and avoided his gaze.

Gosh, no matter how foreign it smelled, it was rude of her to blatantly sniff the fresh food. 

“I’m sorry.” Emma apologized with her lips barely moving.
When she did that, the man’s eyes still glued on her narrowed even more.

“I brought these in this morning, so they shouldn’t be spoiled.”

“Oh, okay.
The food is all right.
Anyhow, I think my hands stink.”

As soon as she set the bread down that she was eating and hesitated, the man, without saying a word, lifted a finger toward behind the sofa.

His heavily bandaged hand was pointing at the hallway. “Go.”

“Huh?”

“There is water.”

Emma, shifting her body toward the faintly lit hallway, could soon find a bathroom with large buckets of water and large antique bronze tubs. She squatted down with a bucket of water in her hand and washed her body, but suddenly she was thirsty. Emma was thinking about drinking the water in the bucket, but then it bothered her that this water was only used for washing.

Looking around, wondering if there was any drinking water, the kitchen on the other side of the hallway fell into her vision.

“Excuse me, I am thirsty, so if it isn’t too much to ask, can I g…” 

Just as Emma, who had escaped the hallway, came out into the living room and murmured timidly, something dull cut through the air.

Bang, bang.

She quickly closed her mouth and listened in case she’d heard something wrong, and there was a dull noise at regular intervals.

Bang, bang, bang.

The source of the banging sound was the front door.

The single tightly closed door vibrated weakly, spreading a dull echo throughout the room.

‘If someone comes looking for that man at this hour…’  At the moment when her thoughts flowed quickly, she stiffened. ‘Don’t tell me…’ 

While Emma was on high alert, the knocks became increasingly louder. Thump, thump. The loud knock at the door confidently signaled that a visitor had arrived.

Emma trembled when she recalled how desperate she was to escape.

‘Have I been caught?’

A hunch penetrated her mind; by the looks of it, Dora and Otto had arrived.
They had been chasing Emma after all. There were no other houses nearby, and her trail had been cut off around here, so no doubt she would have been caught taking refuge here.

Emma had kind of expected things to turn out this way, but there was hope in her mind she was safe enough. She had hoped that they would give up on finding her and just back down. But those terrible bastards seemed to be locked in a fierce chase despite the bad weather.
Only to achieve their purpose, they would not care about retreating. 

It was simple as it was inevitable that the chasers would find this cabin. Deep in the mountains filled with the roars and howls of monsters and predators, the only place around was this dwelling.

Thump, thump thump!

The stronger the knocking got, the more Emma’s chest tightened.

“Water is on the kitchen shelf,” the man said softly; then he got up from his seat, glancing at the front door, perhaps knowing how Emma felt.

As the handsome man stood tall in the living room silently, his balanced physique wrapped by shirt and pants showed off his presence. He was attractively tall, like a thick pillar and broad shoulders. His presence alone seemed to fill  the vast, desolate interior.
There was a terrible sense of intimidation in full bloom.

Emma stared blankly at him, forgetting her thirst.

His physique was flawless, and the closer she looked at him, the more she noticed the tight muscles that reminded her of a trained warrior. He was not of the rugged, thick muscular type, but his lean body, one head taller than average, showed off his masculinity. 

‘Is he a soldier? No, a knight?’

She once remembered that a knight who had once won a horseracing competition hosted by the county councilor in Summerville had the same physique.

On top of that, his cool, sharp impression was intimidating enough. For some reason, even though he only stared at Emma, she got cold feet and her heart became heavy as if a knife was held at her throat.

The man had a dangerous and fierce air around him, but on the surface, he was insensitively expressionless. Like the feeling of seeing a vicious beast sitting leisurely in the grass, hiding its claws.