CH 96

“Can't you hear me letting go of this……?!”

There was a scuffle in the distance. Becky was being grabbed by a man and dragged off the beaten path.

She struggled to break free, but he wouldn't budge. 

It wasn't until they reached the edge of the woods and a deserted area that the man stopped.

Quickly shaking off his grip, Becky rubbed her tingling wrist. The man smirked.

“What's the matter between us? You want to get rough today, don't you?”

“Rough, naked, and I'm not in the mood for that with you?”

“You're not in the mood, how sad, I thought we had a hot time last time, or was that just me?”

Becky pursed her bottom lip at the smirk on his face. 

Since the day she and Lucas had gotten engaged, she'd ended things with most men. 

But one. One little rat.

‘My mistake.'

She should have seen it coming when he pounced like an animal the day she told him she was getting engaged. How many times has he clung to her for dear life?

No matter how many times she pushed him away, no matter how many times she rejected him, he kept asking for a relationship. So does he like her?

‘Of course not.'

He's already engaged to another woman. The relationship wasn't built on love, to begin with, so neither she nor he wanted anything from each other.

He's just wasting his relationship.

“Why aren't you talking? You're a good person, aren't you?”

The man smirked, and before she knew it, his hand was on her waist.

Becky clicked her tongue as she realized that no matter what she said, he would interpret it in his favor.

“Is this getting old, or are you deaf? I'm not doing that with you anymore, I told you many times that I'm getting engaged!”

“What's wrong with being engaged? I'm engaged, too, and I'm having fun with you like this, and if we keep it a secret, no one will know.”

“You're the one who said that, and now you're dragging me out in front of people, and I'm sure your fiancée was there too?”

“I can't help it, you keep avoiding me, and I didn't want to do this.”

She was getting tired of the way he was blaming her for everything. Part of her wanted to scream at the top of her lungs, but she didn't want to attract a crowd.

Trying to calm her seething stomach, Becky grabbed the man roughly by the scruff of the neck.

“I swear to God, this is the last time you'll ever pull this shit again. If you do something like this again next time, I know I won't let you get away with it.”

Finally getting the answer he was looking for, the man snapped his mouth open like a snake.

The next thing she knows, he's clinging to Becky. At first, Becky was annoyed, but before she knew it, she started to engage with him.

And just as she was beginning to kiss him more deeply than usual-

“Becky.”

She heard a voice she shouldn't have heard. 

In an instant, she felt the blood in her body run cold. Becky reflexively pushed him away and turned her head toward the source of the voice.

“Lu, Lucas……!”

It was indeed Lucas, and he stared at the man who had tangled with Becky with the most expressionless face she'd ever seen.

No, there was a silent fury in those impassive eyes. 

“What the hell?”

The man, who hadn't quite gotten his bearings yet, glared at Lucas in annoyance, as if he were an unwelcome visitor.

The man's disheveled appearance and the streak of red lipstick on his lips made Lucas sigh in disbelief.

“……Arista, you were right.”

Becky, shaking and unable to think of an excuse, snapped out of it at the sound of Arista's name.  

Now she saw the abominable Arista standing behind Lucas.

For a moment, Becky's eyes sparked.

“……you! You've done it!”

Arista was momentarily dumbfounded that Becky, who hadn't said a word to Lucas, was lashing out at her. Arista opened her mouth to protest, but Lucas beat her to it.

“Don't you think you owe me an explanation first?”

“Lucas… it's just that…….”

“By your reaction, I guess everything Arista said was true. I really hoped she was lying…….”

For the briefest of moments, a hint of hurt showed, but it was quickly eclipsed by anger.

“I don't know who the hell I've been dealing with all this time. Who the hell are you, and is your name even Becky in the first place?”

A wormlike stare that denied everything poured into Becky's eyes. 

The stare was suffocating. She didn't know how the walls she'd always loved could be so different.

She rushed to him and grabbed him by the hem of his shirt, feeling that if she stayed like this, Lucas would never leave her side again.

“Oh, no, it's not what you think, I only love you, and I mean it!”

“……….”

The sight of her bare shoulders only made Lucas frown even more.

“Lucas……!”

As Becky tried to cling to Lucas once more, Arista, who was beside him, grabbed her and pulled her away.

A groan escaped Becky's lips at the force.

“Get your filthy hands off me now.”

Locking eyes with the violet eyes, Becky let out a shaky breath before raising her eyebrows and tugging at Arista's long hair.

“It's all your fault, you brought Lucas here on purpose, didn't you?!”

“Let go of me.”

Arista's expression didn't change, even though her hair should have hurt. If anything, Lucas was more annoyed than Arista and pushed Becky away.

“Becky, what do you think you're doing?”

Stumbling backward, Becky looked up, shocked to realize that Lucas had pushed her.

“Arista, are you okay?”

“Yeah, I'm fine.”

Lucas stroked Arista's hair, worrying only about her.

Becky laughed hysterically at the sight of them looking like lovers for a moment.

“Ha, ha, ha! You're going to pretend to be lovers just because I'm like this? You sneaky bitch, you told Lucas on purpose so you could have him all to yourself!”

Arista froze in her tracks, shaken by Becky's venomous words. There was nothing in Becky's eyes about losing Lucas.

“What are you talking about?”

Only Lucas, who didn't know why, thought Becky was making her last move.

Laughing like a madman, Becky pointed at Arista.

“Don't you know, she likes you, and that's why she's been trying to keep me away from you.”

Lucas' eyes slowly widened, while Arista's face paled.

“She's never seen you as her brother's friend, do you know what she must have thought of you behind that innocent face?”

Lucas was too stunned to look back at Arista. 

‘Arista likes me?'

It never occurred to him. Arista was just the sister of his best friend, Ares, and a friend of his beloved sister….…

“… … Another such nonsense. Do you think I am a frivolous woman like you?”

Lucas snapped out of his reverie at the words next to him. Arista was shooting Becky a disdainful glare.

“You don't belong with him in the first place, and I'm sure he would have noticed your nakedness at some point, even if I hadn't told him, so stop making excuses for me and look at yourself. Because the way you look right now is dirtier than the dirt next to you.”

Becky looked at the puddle right in front of her and shook her head. 

“Oh my God, this is so gross, I'm scared to death.”

Just then, the man with her opened his mouth and pulled her to her feet. He'd been so quiet, she'd assumed he'd run away, but he was still there.

Arista frowned at the familiar face.

‘That guy is….…'

She recognized him the other day when she was shopping with her mother. Surely he was with Becky then, too?

“Well, there's no excuse for it now that it's come to this, but don't you think you're being a little too cold to his fiancée?”

Lucas' eyebrows wiggled.

“And it seems to me that it's not just us who are inappropriate, but you as well.”

“Are you talking nonsense……!”

Arista blurted out, but the man didn't stop talking.

“Honestly, you weren't just making out like us. You were fooling around with someone else, too. Weren't you just hanging out in the woods in your hunting clothes, away from prying eyes?”

Even though Arista knew it was a cop-out, she was angry. It was one thing to call their relationship inappropriate for just being together, but to put them on the same level was unbearably infuriating.

Unconsciously lighting an auror in her left hand, Arista took a step forward. But Lucas was quicker to punch the man.

“Don't insult Arista. She doesn't deserve to be messed with by a scumbag like you.”

Lucas hissed, his voice rough and animalistic. The auror rising from Arista's left hand subsided instantly.

Lucas dusted off his fist and turned to walk away. For a moment, his eyes locked with Becky's, but it was only for a moment, and he looked away as if he had no further regrets.

Becky lost everything in an instant, unable to hold on to Lucas as he walked heartlessly away.

* * *

Kooraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

“Argh!”

“Help!”

The terrible cries of the monsters echoed through the dense forest, where the trees were so dense that it was difficult for light to penetrate, mingled with the screams of people.

There was a fetid odor and bloodshed all around.

They all curiously tried to catch the monster, but it was stronger than they could imagine.

Eventually, there were casualties, and those who managed to survive ran for their lives. 

However, the man with the injured leg was unable to get up from his seat and watched helplessly as the orc got closer and closer.

“Help, help…….”

The orc, the size of a house, drooled and bared its sharp teeth. Its hands were covered in the blood of the man who had just lost his life.

A chill ran down his spine. He knew in his gut that he was the monster's next target.

Koooorrr!

The orc's eyes widened and it lunged at the man. The man squeezed his eyes shut, unable to scream.

For a long time, he didn't feel any of the terrible pain that should have hit him immediately.

It was only strange when the orc's vicious cries died down.

He opened his eyes, wondering if he was dead. But what he saw before him was the same as before he closed his eyes.

Only one. Except for the crushed orc.

“Oh-!”

The man stumbled back, dragging his ass in horror. 

“What the……!”

“Are you alright?”

Came a pleasant mid-bass voice. He barely turned his shaky head, and there were flashing red eyes.

“You're lucky I'm not late, or you'd be dead.”

Only then did the man realize that Herwin had saved him.

“No way, I didn't think a monster could have gotten this far…….”

Herwin clicked his tongue and looked around. There was a corpse a short distance away, already cold and dead.

‘If only I had come a little sooner…….'

There would have been no deaths if he hadn't misidentified the monster's location. The monster hadn't entered the Imperial Forest until midnight last night, so he figured it must be on the outskirts. 

However, the monster defied his expectations and invaded deep into the forest.

“But… is there only one monster?”

Apparently, according to the report, there were two monsters left, but there was only one monster here now.

“Huh, are you saying there are more monsters?”

“Yes.”

“Well, there was only one when I got here!”

The man recounted what he had seen.

When he and the others spotted the monster, they thought they could catch it if they worked together.

The result was that one was killed, the others fled, and the man with the wounded leg was left there.

In other words, there was only one of them here, to begin with.

‘This is tricky.'

Herwin stood up and handed the man the signal flare he had been carrying, giddy at the thought of the one remaining animal roaming this vast forest.

“Set this off and the knights will come.”

“Oh, thank you, I will never forget this favor!”

Herwin waved roughly and hurriedly mounted his horse. For now, he could only try to find the remaining monsters as best he could.

“Giddy up!”

Herwin hurried to avoid claiming another victim.