IKMHITM 12

࣪ ִֶָ☾. Chapter 12 ࣪ ִֶָ☾.

Did she just call me Kain?

Eve stared at the man with a stunned expression. His face, brimming with urgency, was quite handsome, but in the eyes of Eve—who had recently laid eyes on Kamien—…………

Never mind. That wasn’t important right now.

“I don’t know when the monastery will notice we’ve disappeared. If we get caught, we’re finished!!”

Are we running away from a monastery right now?

Right on cue, a fierce gust of wind clawed at Eve’s hair. The deeply pulled-back veil slipped off, and her locks fluttered in the wind.

The color was undeniably jet-black.

“I’d rather die than part ways with you. Right, Kain?”

Eve’s head nodded of its own accord in response. Apparently, this was some kind of elopement…………….

“I love you.”

So it really was.

Looking at her with affectionate eyes, the man grabbed her hand and pulled her along.

“There’s a boat waiting for us just beyond that hill. Trust me and follow my lead!”

A small ferry landing sat just past the hill. An old man smoking cheap tobacco on a skiff spotted them and rose smoothly like a water ghost.

“You took so damn long I thought you weren’t coming.”

“Of course we’re coming! We forked over every last penny we had to you, old man.”

“Eloping by tricking the monastery director’s daughter! You’ve truly lost your mind, Yugen.”

Eve learned that the man’s name was Yugen.

And that she had been dragged right into Kain’s past.

Hardly anything in Belper Mansion lived and moved.

Kamien heard footsteps descending from upstairs. Like a loyal slave, he stood beside the staircase and waited for his master.

“Did you come down?”

Eve was dressed in dazzling attire as she descended the stairs.

The pale golden dress, sparkling like the dawn-kissed morning sea, highlighted Eve’s clean complexion.

Her half-updo hair resembled a deep red rosebud, and her lips, tinted with pink rouge, retained a fresh, dewy luster.

“Kamien.”

With a playful smile, Eve held out her hand. The moment Kamien clasped it, Eve pulled him in, sinking deeply into his embrace.

“I had a scary dream. You’ll comfort me, won’t you?”

Slender arms wrapped tightly around his neck. Her voluptuous upper body pressed gently against his hard abdomen.

It was a temptation no healthy young man could possibly refuse. Yet Kamien indifferently pushed Eve’s shoulder away to detach her.

“Your twisted sense of humor hasn’t changed.”

“Did you notice already?”

“You didn’t exactly intend to hide it, Kain.”

Tee-hee. Eve—no, Kain—split the corners of her lips wide.

“How is it? Doesn’t this dress suit me well?”

Stepping back a pace, Kamien scanned her with a dry gaze.

“Not bad. White suits you better, though.”

“I’m sick and tired of white. The moment I become the master of this body, I’ll never wear it again.”

Grasping the hem of the dress, which rustled like expensive wrapping paper, Kain spun around in circles. She seemed in high spirits to have ‘fully’ emerged outside her portrait for once.

Though someone else was stuck in the opposite predicament.

“Has the new master safely entered the trial?”

“She won’t make it out safely, you know? Heh-heh.”

Since previous masters of Arno were linked by blood, they shared information to a certain extent.

However, Eve was a ‘new master’. Knowing nothing, she had to crash head-first into reality from scratch.

The probability of such a person passing Kain’s ‘trial’—which ranked among the hardest in the mansion—was practically zero.

“Unless Kamien, you gave her a hint again.”

“The mirror. You’re the one who told her, aren’t you?”

“You have a strange look on your face. Did you pull some other trick?”

Kamien offered no reply. A tense, taut atmosphere hung between Kain and him.

At that moment, a faint weeping sound echoed from the next room. Kain’s razor-sharp gaze snapped directly toward it.

“Shut your trap?!”

Astoundingly, a single roar from Kain silenced the noise. Scarcely any ghost stories in this mansion dared talk back to Kain.

Furthermore, Kain could travel anywhere as long as a frame existed. Avoiding her eyes inside the mansion was practically impossible.

Once you became Kain’s master, no place was safer than the mansion. That was, if you could actually manage to become the master.

I didn’t think it would be easy.

Eve, now trapped as Kain, let out a deep sigh. She never imagined she would end up locked inside a painting.

Tracing Kain’s past must be the aftermath of that.

Anyway, no proper way out of the painting came to mind right now. To gain any sort of hint, following Kain’s footsteps was probably her best bet.

Just as Kain had once done, she had been led away by a man named Yugen to embark on an elopement.

The small skiff moved downstream, carried by darkness and the river current. Throughout the journey, Yugen and the boatman chattered endlessly.

Thanks to that, Eve picked up a wealth of information.

Kain’s father was a missionary from the Western Continent, who met Kain’s mother on the Eastern Continent and married her—right down to the story of how they settled here and founded the monastery.

Kain was born and raised in that monastery.

So the rumor of her being a cradle Catholic was true, then.

The sheltered daughter had been pious, yet on the flip side, she dreamed of freedom. Right before such a Kain, Yugen had appeared.

A young, sturdy woodcutter who chopped and hauled the firewood the monastery desperately needed.

Their happiness in fresh love was short-lived. They crashed into her parents’ fierce opposition.

Kain’s father detested Yugen. Kain was his precious daughter, destined to succeed him as the director of the monastery.

And yet she wanted a mere woodcutter for a husband! A superstitious fellow who didn’t even think of devoting himself to religion!

<You any come end good guy. if meet that to won’t you>

Young lovers always burned brighter the harder people tried to tear them apart. Kain and Yugen were no exception.

Rather than part ways, they chose an elopement.

So that’s why I’m on this boat?

Even while Eve was piecing the situation together, Yugen and the boatman kept talking.

“Hm. You’re planning to go all the way to a remote countryside like that?”

“What choice do I have if we don’t want to get caught? I stole a precious daughter, so I’ve got to run far, far away and hide.”

“As you well know, Yugen, the countryside is a closed-off place. Do you think they’ll embrace strangers when they don’t even know what crimes they ran away from?”

“I’m not putting my faith in rural goodwill. I’m trusting my own healthy pair of arms.”

Woodcutters were needed anywhere. Even if not a woodcutter, places were always looking for strong, able-bodied young laborers.

Yugen confidently brought Kain along.

Just as he thought, the rural folk eyed the unfamiliar faces with wariness, yet still handed out odd jobs. However, they didn’t hand out proper ‘wages’ the way Yugen imagined.

“Does this make any sense?! You work people to the bone and then wipe your hands clean of it!”

Yugen, who had spent two blistering days hauling construction materials under the scorching sun, was outraged. Instead of sympathy, however, the villagers unleashed a barrage of beatings on Yugen with clubs.

Numbers always won out in the end. They even didn’t hesitate to threaten harm to Kain while Yugen was away.

With nowhere to turn, the pair lost the courage to resist further. In the end, Yugen and Kain were reduced to conditions resembling household servants for the village. They received just enough food to avoid starving to death, and barely enough clothing to keep from freezing.

The life was grueling enough to make her wish she could just turn back. However, unlike the journey down, traveling back upstream against the river current was far too long and harsh.

A lavish villa was under construction in the countryside. Yugen was primarily drafted for heavy labor on that very villa.

The person who came down to the villa built with his blood, sweat, and tears was the most famous painter of the day.

People said the pictures he painted looked as though they were alive and moving.

“Oh?”

The painter’s eyes lit up when he saw Kain, who had come to deliver midday snacks to Yugen.

“I want to use you as a model. I’ll pay you a generous wage.”

Kain hated the idea. The painter’s gaze fixed upon her felt deeply unpleasant.

He wasn’t treating her strictly as a woman, exactly, but it evoked the gross discomfort of sticky soot clinging all over her skin.

Still, she wasn’t in a position to refuse. Being a model meant nothing more than sitting quietly still.

Before Yugen—battered and broken from grueling physical labor—she couldn’t possibly throw a tantrum over something like this.

Yet, one thing nagged at her.

“Um………… I’ve left my hometown due to unavoidable circumstances. If I become a model for such a famous painter, I’m worried news might reach back home.”

“There’s no such danger. This painting will never be made public.“

Reassured by the promise that it would remain solely his personal collection, Kain felt a wave of relief.

Contrary to her worries, the painter treated Kain well. He made sure she ate meals before having her pose, and even packed sweets for her to eat on her way back.

To Kain, who had never eaten a full meal since leaving home, it was an immense act of kindness.

°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･