CH 35

T/N: This chapter will have some of TL, aka, my rants. I suggest everyone to just skip them if you feel offended. Thank you.

“I want to get off.”

Erzen, who had been playing with flowers on his mother’s back for a long time, whined that he wanted to get off suddenly. Herace, who was moving her steps slowly to avoid the protruding tree roots, stopped at her young son’s words.

“What?”

“I want to get off. Erzen will walk alone.”

The whims of children. Even though she knew that he was the kind of child who would like to be hugged again after walking a few steps, Herace smiled and put her son down. As soon as Erzen came down from her back, he patted his clothes with his small hands and jumped a couple of times in place. Herace kneeled down and asked, looking at her son gently, as he would get hurt even if she looked at him.

“Why did our Erzen want to walk?”

“Becosh, Mom ish having a hald twime with me. (Because Mom is having a hard time carrying me)”

Herace’s eyes grew wide for a moment at the unexpected answer. She lowered her head and held her son tightly. Surprised by her trembling body, Erzen tried to see his mother’s face, but he was still held tightly in her familiar arms.

“……Our Erzen is very kind.”

The child’s peculiar smell touched Herace deeply. She swept her son’s hair and stood up. Erzen held his mother’s hand, which was bigger than his, smiled, and waved back and forth as if wanting to go fast.

“Slowly. It’s okay to walk slowly, Erzen.”

The steps of the child and the mother walking together were cheerful. Herace walked leisurely along the road at Erzen’s speed, even if she would be late to return home. Her face, in the midst of weeds, wild flowers, and small mountain animals, shined more than ever.

“We are almost there now. Let’s eat first when we get home.”

“Yes!”

How much did he want to go home? Herace thought as they came almost down the hill.

But before they turned the last corner of the hill, she heard some men chattering and the sound of many steps getting closer. At the voices of the men, Herace stopped walking in a hurry, but the group raised their eyebrows and shouted sharply as if they did not know there was anyone else except them. One man even took his hand to the sword in his waist, as if he was surprised to see her.

“What?”

The group consisted of five people in total. At the same time that Herace realised that their attire was unusual, she realised that the man at the front of the group was the one she didn’t want to encounter. She pursed her lips and stood at the side of the road before bowing her head. Her gesture meant she wanted them to pass by first.

Even though Herace stepped aside, the crowd did not move. The men’s faces were all engraved with surprise. They glanced furtively at Herace’s face and her shabby appearance. Their eyes were open slightly in shock. With several pairs of eyes groping her face and body as if undressing her, Herace turned her face and head even lower.

“……Then I’ll leave first.”

Herace tried to move, declaring with a thin voice, but the men seemed to have no sign of getting out of the way. Herace raised her head and asked them again to move with her eyes. Then, the man in the front looked at Herace with his eyes narrowed as if he had been scrutinising something.

He scanned Herace’s outfit a few more times, raised his chin and asked proudly.

“Who the hell are you?”

****

William was the second son and youngest child of Count Ford. Unlike his eldest son, Count Ford dearly adored his younger second son. He took off his strictness against his daughters, including his eldest son, only to William was he lenient.

But that was the problem. William, who grew up excessively free, lived his life unruly, in pursuit of pleasure. Unlike his older brother Avina, who was hung up on faith and value to be humble and moral.

With his father’s power, who was like a king in his lands, and his brother who manages all his expenses, he grew up extravagantly. Growing up with nothing to fear, William indulged himself in fulfilling any desires, causing accidents here and there. Let alone studying or socialising properly, he spent a lot of money, even in the capital where his father was working.

And in the years he spent doing so, he committed the heinous crime of forcing a woman, who already had a fiancée, with his bad friends.

“Count Ford is capable of giving a reasonable reward to her fiance. We will also compensate the woman.”

Originally, all perpetrators who committed such an atrocious crime would be punished. However, William avoided punishment because the woman’s origin was an illegitimate child of a Korean-American writer, and some of the perpetrators who had caused the accident together were children of quite great families.

[T/N: Sorry in advance *taking a deep breath* Those motherf*ckers!!!! I want to kill them all! Especially their parents! No, their mothers! How do they even teach their son to be such a bastards! I want to feel them the suffering they caused to other people! *Bowing my head* sorry for the rant.]

The victim, the woman who was compensated, left the capital and was forcibly taken to a temple in a remote place. Her body and mind were irreversibly injured, and she could not come up to the capital or marry her loved one. It was a disastrous ending.

The incident ended like that, but the Count, who faithfully believed that his son was good, was quite shocked by the incident his son committed. The Count immediately summoned his son to the fief and ordered him to pray for two months in the oldest temple in the fiefdom, shouting loudly to wash away his sins.

“Get out of here now! Go out and wash your sins in prayer! Now!”

In a way, it was embarrassing to say it was even a punishment, but William shut his mouth at his father’s order and looked as if it was unfair. Is it a crime to touch such an illegitimate child? Besides, didn’t the girl laugh softly first and seduce him and his friends?

William silently headed to the temple of the mountain valley at his father’s angry face and his brother’s cold eyes, but his heart was full of dissatisfaction. [T/N: This motherfu- even had the gut to be dissatisfied! *Gritting my teeth*]

‘I should thank my father.’

But that was not long ago either. As soon as William saw the woman in front of him, he thought she looked like the Goddess to whom he came to pray.

‘Who the hell is she?’

William moistened his lips with his tongue. It was hard to bear the feeling of being dry all over.

The woman in front of him was dressed like a giant slob like any commoner, but she was more beautiful than any woman he had ever seen. Her white face, soft-looking body, and the inexplicable unique atmosphere.

He admired the woman’s eyes, they were as deep as a well under her long, rich black eyelashes. Then, he frowned when he saw an object that was closely attached to the woman.

“Ah?”

The child didn’t catch his eyes because he was busy looking at the woman. William looked at the child and clicked his tongue disapprovingly. The small child must be related to her by blood. His body had also hardened like his mother, his eyes looking up at him in fear showed off the same colour as the woman’s blue eyes.

‘Does she have a husband?’

Even if she was married, with that beauty, he was willing to get married to her 10 times and do it over again.

William came to a conclusion by himself and shook his head. Although it was tiring to capture a woman with a husband, isn’t she a commoner worse than a worm? It was not difficult for him to beat down a hill in the countryside with money. Not even a wealthy noble in the capital could compete with him in terms of wealth, let alone a commoner.

‘It doesn’t matter.’

William strode up to the woman, who was looking at him in panic. As he got closer, Herace sent Erzen to her back and bit her lips. A fierce aura like a mother animal protecting its young from a beast leaked out from her. William asked with his lips raised.

“Are you someone who lives around here?”

Herace did not answer William’s question. Instead, she lowered her head to avoid the man’s eyes and said in a determined voice.

“……If you’re not going to pass, please move away.”

“Do you have a husband?”

William went closer to Herace, ignoring her words. He grabbed Herace’s chin with his gloved hand and twisted it around as if he were commenting on things.

The unique skin and dampness of hunting gloves gave her goosebumps. Herace, displeased, turned her head roughly and slipped out of William’s hand.

“You’re quite a scrawny little girl.”

William chuckled. Then the men standing behind him began to laugh along. Erzen hiccuped nervously at the scoff of the huge adult men and their overwhelming atmosphere, drawing closer to Herace.

“It’s all right, Erzen. Mom is with you.”

It was when Herace tried to appease her frightened son. William, who was smiling loudly with his arms folded, stopped laughing and raised his hand high.

“But she’s too cocky to command me as if I was a commoner.”

Slap!

There was no hesitation in the familiar touch. Herace swallowed a scream, biting her lips hard in case Erzen would be surprised. But she could not stop her body from being thrown sideways. Erzen also fell sideways with his mother.

“Mom, Mom… Mom.”

As soon as Herace confirmed that Erzen had fallen, she pulled her son into her arms. The child, who was very surprised, could not even cry loudly and sniffed in Herace’s arms. She coaxed Erzen without even caring about her swollen cheeks.

“Erzen, don’t cry. Don’t cry, my baby.”

“Ugh…Ugh…… Mom, Mom.”

Anyone with a heart would have pitied her.

However, William was a person who saw people who were lower in status than him as livestock. He was relentless even to the common people who had rights as a nation, not a slave. A man with a beast’s heart felt his greed grow bigger when he saw a woman hugging and covering the child.

‘The more I see her, the better she looks.’

The famous girl who spent only one night in return of hundreds of gold coins in the capital, and the flower of the social world who needed expensive gifts to dance once were not as good as the woman in front of her. It’s not only fun to have a girl like this next to him, but he’ll also be quite famous among other men. Is that all? That appearance could help him in many ways.

William smacked his lips, remembering how his best friends used the government as an excuse to do business with women. If he could get her drunk enough and then take her to the capital to do business, he is sure to have a big profit, whether it’s money or status.

“Take her.”

William looked down at Herace and signalled at the minions behind him. It was easier to deal with a woman with a child than to steal candy from a child. Wouldn’t he be a fool if he doesn’t use the child to threaten her that she must sell her body to protect her child? If he takes the child as a hostage, the woman will surely become obedient. His command moved the men behind him.

***

T/N: I apologize again for my rant in the middle. It’s just I was so so so ANGRY that I just couldn’t stop myself. I don’t hate rich people but I do hate people who use their money and status to cover up their crimes. Especially crimes like disrespecting and harassing any women in any way. Rape is considered such a heinous crime in our country that the person who causes it will directly given death penalty. But alas, it’s still happening and recently another girl, who was also mute and lived just beside our community died after being raped. I just hope that people will have simple morality as a human being and won’t do or inspire this kind of crime.

Sorry again.