Helena reflexively exclaimed.
“We’re not a couple!”
Unfortunately, the old man had already firmly established his belief.
“Being newlyweds, you must still feel awkward, but you’ll get used to it. The world isn’t as old-fashioned as it used to be. There’s no sin in showing your love for each other.”
Ian’s cough erupted once more. He covered his mouth with his hand, but his exposed ear tips were tinged bright red.
Seeing the old man’s stubborn attitude, it seemed that continuing to deny would only lend more weight to his misguided belief.
Helena steered the conversation back to the forest.
“Anyway, since the forest is dominated by monsters, it’s impossible to cross through it to reach the village.”
“Don’t even dream of it. That would be completely insane.”
Fortunately, the old man followed her lead. Perhaps due to the recent calamities, he spoke with somewhat agitated gestures.
“I heard just the other day that some madman got lost wandering the forest and barely survived, but that was heaven’s help. It’s fortunate that Gelda’s subjugation team happened to be in the forest, really.”
“There’s a subjugation team?”
Ian, who had recovered from his coughing fit, joined the conversation. As always, his face was composed and neat.
Though a faint pink still lingered on his nape and earlobes not fully covered by his robe.
The old man looked up at him and answered.
“No matter how many petitions we submit to the lord, he doesn’t provide any measures, so a subjugation team commissioned separately by the village guild is mainly active. Though the forest is private property, even the lord turns a blind eye to them. After all, it’s no good for the territory to have monsters increasing.”
“It must cost quite a bit to privately hire a subjugation team.”
This time Helena asked. The old man’s gaze shifted diagonally back down to her.
“That’s why we hesitated at first. But the guild said they’d only take minimal costs, so there’s nothing to worry about. They said the monsters’ hides and teeth obtained from subjugation would be more than enough to cover it.”
“Still, it’s a life-risking job… They’re good people.”
“Indeed. Though they speak roughly, they’re good folks.”
Helena knew that even in Evergale, it wasn’t uncommon for knights to be dispatched for monster subjugation.
Monster subjugation was one of the requests that paid well due to its danger. Of course, if one had the skills, there was nothing to fear, so some knights even volunteered.
But people like this guild who jumped in without expecting much in return…
‘…There was one.’
⌜I found the prettiest one on the beach. Will you accept it?⌟
The seashell that emitted a mysterious light when placed under the sun.
The face of Valter, who always returned with a gift for her clutched to his chest after participating in local subjugation missions, was vivid in her mind.
Helena had long known that he was projecting the daughter he had lost long ago onto her. But even that was affection, so she couldn’t refuse.
In the end, she accepted it, knowing the consequences that clumsy affection would bring. So she too was deceptive.
‘…Eugene was like that too.’
Until he met Natasha.
“…You and your husband were lucky too.”
It was the old man’s voice, repeatedly emphasizing how fortunate they were, that pulled her back to the present from her momentary digression.
“If you had gone just a bit deeper, you might have disappeared from the world without a trace. It’s good you stopped where you did.”
The old man stroked his chest as if it were his own affair.
Was the place we stopped exactly the boundary? Helena was newly amazed by Ian’s intuition.
She grabbed Ian and turned her back to the old man for a moment.
“Are you really a merchant guild leader?”
When Helena asked in a whisper, he leaned his upper body towards her. His ears had now returned to their normal color.
“Are you still doubting me?”
“How else could a mere merchant sense the presence of monsters as soon as we entered the forest?”
“It wasn’t exactly sensing monsters… more like sensing danger. The foundation of business is investment, and the basis of investment is risk analysis.”
“Don’t give me that. I miss the shy man who was blushing just moments ago.”
“When did I…!”
Ian tried to refute immediately, but the meddlesome old man was faster.
“Now, now, don’t quarrel, you two. Get along nicely as a couple. Sometimes the creatures with accelerated breeding rates burst out of the forest, so you need to stay alert.”
Ian and Helena turned back simultaneously to correct the unresolved misunderstanding.
“Listen, old man−”
“We’re really not that kind of−”
But the old man wasn’t looking at them. He pointed to an area separated by a small hill and said,
“Ah, there’s the subjugation team passing by right on time.”
In the distance, a group on horseback stopped in front of a clearing connected to the forest. They tied up their horses and each gathered their weapons. Then they entered the forest without hesitation.
Only after the last person disappeared into the shadows of the forest did the old man look away.
With a grunt, he adjusted his bundle of goods and bid farewell to the two.
“I’m on my way out of the village, so I’m afraid I can’t go with you. But don’t worry, if you just follow this road, signs will guide you to the village. Well then, I wish you a safe journey, you lovely newlyweds!”
The old man left without correcting his mistaken address until the end.
Soon, only a chilly wind swirled between Ian and Helena.
Helena glanced at the horses and luggage tied in the clearing, then at the dense forest, and finally looked at Ian.
It wasn’t particularly to cut through the awkward atmosphere. She just spoke first because she had finished organizing her thoughts.
“Let’s go in.”
“…You still haven’t given up?”
Ian furrowed his brows and met Helena’s eyes.
There was a sense that he was asking if she had chosen being torn apart by monsters as a new method of suicide. Helena let out a light sigh.
“It’s not what you’re thinking.”
“Then why say such a thing?”
“I never said we should enter the forest.”
“…?”
To him, who still couldn’t grasp the situation, Helena raised her clear gaze.
“Let’s join the guild.”
[This is the timeline separator]Natasha paced back and forth in the room anxiously. The neatly manicured crescent-shaped fingernails crumbled between her gnawing teeth.
The reasons people become anxious are mostly similar.
When something is almost but not quite within reach. When it escapes the moment you think you’ve caught it. And when something you’ve already caught disappears.
Natasha came to Evergale to become such an existence for Eugene. But she didn’t know that Eugene would come to have the same meaning for her.
Just as that woman had become that to Eugene.
‘Losing captured prey is not my style.’
Natasha looked down at the skull-patterned dagger she was holding out of habit.
‘I mustn’t betray expectations.’
She tried to calm herself by rubbing the protruding relief with her thumb, but it wasn’t easy.
The last contact she had made with Eugene to cut out the thorn-like butler and aides.
Even though she had only seen it through the communication crystal screen barely two spans wide, his reaction was clearly etched in her mind.
The cold, drawling voice, the depressed gaze, the warning disguised as a sweet endearment.
‘That was indifference. …Why? How is it possible to detach from me so quickly?’
Natasha bit her already gnarled nails again.
‘No matter how much the plan has changed… this won’t do. It’s not time yet. It’s too early. I need to hold on a little longer.’
Her feet, which had been striding across the carpet without realizing her slippers had come off, came to an abrupt halt in front of the mirror.
When she raised her head, a woman with an innocent face was looking back at her.
A beautiful and fragile woman who knew nothing and seemed so weak that she needed protection.
In the end, the answer was obvious.
‘Trees can be replanted, and people can be brought back.’
Wasn’t that what Eugene had taught her?
Natasha slowly raised her right hand. The diamond ring on her middle finger gleamed particularly brightly. Enough to become a dangerous weapon on delicate skin.
But Natasha swung her hand without hesitation.
Slap!
With a sharp sound, her head snapped to the side.
Slap!
The cheek that was struck in succession began to swell. It reddened to the point of forming droplets of blood. But Natasha didn’t stop and continued to raise her hand.
Slap! Slap!
Her smooth blonde hair became disheveled and obscured her vision. A drop of blood hanging from the tip of the diamond fell, staining the ivory carpet. Only then did Natasha stop.
“Huff, huff…”
Her shoulders heaved up and down as she breathed. It was as rough a breath as her sudden frenzy. When she raised her head again, there was a completely different woman in the mirror from moments ago.
“I determine my own usefulness, Eugene.”
Natasha shouted while meeting the two eyes fiercely filled with venom.
“Not you, but you are my usefulness!”
After a single scream passed, an insane laughter filled Natasha’s face. Laughter that didn’t match her appearance erupted intermittently.
She turned her ruined cheeks this way and that, caressing them with satisfaction. Then she gripped her right arm so tightly as if to break it.
Her vivid green eyes darted around as if searching for something. Her previously ragged breathing had calmed to an even pace.
Natasha murmured in a gentle tone as if coaxing a child.
“To bring him back… I have to go. Such a high-maintenance man.”
Her wandering gaze stopped on the piano placed against the wall. Natasha approached it without hesitation. She opened the maple-finished key cover, sat down, and placed her arm underneath.
Soon after, there was a dull sound of something solid breaking.
[This is the timeline separator]“…”
Contrary to Helena’s expectation, Ian didn’t give an opposing answer but only blinked his eyes.
In that short time, not-so-short thoughts seemed to flash by. Perhaps, being a merchant, he was weighing the pros and cons.
Only after blinking about five times did he move silently.
Helena followed behind him as he started walking towards the village without protest and asked,
“Are you giving me permission?”
He answered while adjusting her position to the side of the road, as far away from the forest as possible.
“What’s there to permit? It’s what you want to do.”
__________
Bro, don’t be like this, I’m really about to throw up! (Female-dominant)
Short intro:
What she can’t stand the most is the streets full of effeminate men, especially that so-called top beauty whom she avoids at all costs.
Shen Yaoxing looks at Jiang Mingyue, who keeps approaching her with coy shyness.
Shen Yaoxing: Bro, don’t be like this, I’m really about to throw up!
She fears nothing in heaven or earth, except for him getting close to her.
*
At first he thought she was just using the trick of feigning indifference to attract his attention. Later, he learned that she truly despised him.
This dealt a heavy blow to Jiang Mingyue, and he vowed to make her, like everyone else, fall at his feet in worship!
***
Synopsis:
Before transmigrating, Shen Yaoxing only wanted to find a reliable man to spend her life with. Who knew that after transmigrating, she would become a reliable woman herself…
A forced misandrist, highly skilled, and reliable female lead
vs.
An initially aloof and arrogant, later morbid, obsessed male lead