Thread (2)

The thick iron door of the jail cell slammed open and hit the wall.

The guards, who had jumped up with their hands on the waist of their swords, stiffened awkwardly.

It was their lord who stormed in, violently kicking the iron gate.

In his arms, he held a woman who had withdrawn from the noise. They knew without even thinking about who the woman was.

Vlad slowly scanned the guard room from side to side with cold eyes.

“Get out.”

“I’ll take your orders!”

The guards were scattered, running towards the hallway in search of a way to live. The door closed quietly, unlike when they came in.

Vlad took a step slowly and sat Lily down at the office table littered with papers.

There was no sense of weight in his gestures, as if moving her like a cotton doll.

As soon as Lily sat down at the table, she grabbed the collar of his shirt. He gave no answer or hesitation while coming here.

The one thing she wanted to ask the most during the long night of waiting for him. It ran out of her mouth naturally.

“A-are you hurt anywhere?”

Vlad raised one eyebrow. It was an unexpected question.

“That’s not a question for you to ask.”

Saying, he grabbed the cloak’s laces tied to Lily. His hand, as he was about to untie it, stopped as he grabbed a thread.

Wine-colored cloak. It’s familiar.

“……”

The terrifyingly cold eyes changed as if lukewarm water was seeping into them.

He pulled the strap very slowly with his leather gloved hand.

The sound of strings slipping out of a tangled knot permeated the gloomy room.

The string holding the weight of the fabric was loosened. The dark red fabric was dropped from side to side, revealing her pure white skin

The damp air hit the nape of her neck and around her collarbone, which her dress couldn’t cover. Soon, Vlad’s black fingertips touched her neck.

His hand, which ran down her neck without a moment of hesitation. Even the hollowed collar bone was exposed in the air.

It was a strange gesture, but his erotic intentions were not felt at all. Lily realized what he was doing.

“I was not hurt. I mean it.”

There were no blemishes other than her silver hair and the hem of her cream dress getting wet.

Yet he glanced over her unbelievable gaze, and her touch without hesitation.

After checking her straight fingertips, he took a deep breath and stood with her back straight.

Lily looked up at him cautiously, with her hands resting softly on her lap.

“Vlad. Oh, that…”

He seemed to have noticed what she was trying to say first.

Vlad narrowed his brow. It was clearly a topic he didn’t want to hear.

Lily asked steadfastly.

“Are you sick?”

His black uniform, which was always neat, was rags. A white shirt and his bare skin could be seen through the torn pieces of cloth.

He chose silence instead of an answer.

He closed his mouth and took off his leather gloves one by one. Her dissatisfied gaze had been placed haphazardly on the wall somewhere behind him.

“Is this the situation you were talking about that you were getting along with?”

Lily, unable to follow his words, blinked for a moment.

Her face burned hot when she realized that she had written in the letter.  She wanted to make an excuse, but she had nothing to say.

His low-pitched voice came out one after another.

“We shot the air from a close distance. You may have lost your gun. If so…”

He stopped as his thoughts trailed back. Crocus Isles.

Thinking about it again, his blood spurted upside down. It was a rage that simmered and melted his intestines and flesh.

He knew well why he was dripping blood from his neck.

He himself was a threat to his sister. He is a man who is like the essence of violence that no one other than Lily could easily handle.

If it weren’t for the Valks, he’d be stuck with Lily…

Vlad wiped his face once with his large bare hand.

“It took three days to run ten days. Day and night, so much that the elite knights gasp from exhaustion….”

Vlad spit out his teeth and wiped out his anger.  He closed his eyes tightly to press it.

The person who greeted him as he rushed into the fortress was Chief Servant Lowell.

[Madam headed to Cadiz Prison. She said she would directly interrogate those who assaulted Sir Dandelion Isles…]

Without a command, he sprinted from the horse. He couldn’t even feel the raindrops hitting his body.

He drove down the boulevard and ran towards the prison. As soon as he arrived at the front door and jumped off his horse, gunfire broke out inside the building.

[M-my lord….]

It wasn’t an ordinary gunshot. He could tell right away when he saw Hanz’s face getting tired like a corpse, standing with the two serfs.

Fear loomed over. There was a shot. All the horrific sights imaginable in a moment poured out before his eyes.

I was afraid.

“If anything happens to you….”

It seems like something like that has already happened. His hazy gray eyes that had lost rationality trembled madly.