While his tone sounded gentle, a brief flash of what looked like fangs peeked out from behind his lips when he spoke. Euphemia’s eyes opened as wide as physically possible.
“Saved me…? Ah!”
That’s right! I just remembered! How could it have slipped my mind until now? How did I end up in this man’s bed? It was because of last night, or rather what happened early this morning.
What happened several hours earlier came rushing back to her: the men who suddenly jumped out in the middle of the freeway; being threatened with a gun, pushed onto the brush, nearly raped, and then—
Euphemia reflexively wrapped her arms around herself in a tight grip. It did nothing to stop her from reliving the sensation of filthy fingers and tongues running over her skin. Nor did it stop the memory of their disgustingly hot breath against her earlobes or their vulgar snickers.
“Hey, are you okay?”
He put his large, solid hand on her shoulder, jolting Euphemia into the realization she was shaking so hard the bed trembled under her. Surprised, she lifted her head and came face to face with the unfamiliar man. He had bent his towering body to lean over the bed to assess her well-being.
I feel like I’ve seen these eyes before, but something’s different—right, they were glowing silver last night.
His eyes submerged her high-strung, panic-stricken heart in a cool, refreshing stream of pure water. Though his eyes had a cold color, they encased her in a warm blanket of kindness—the man’s eyes held that kind of power.
And the large hand he rested on her shoulder was very warm. She became unaware of the passage of time, engulfed in a mysterious exchange of chill and warmth as it slowly silenced the raging storm of fear that had threatened to swallow her whole only moments before.
The man patiently waiting for her shoulders to stop trembling suddenly caught her eye and stared in awe. “You have huge eyes. They’re unbelievably emerald.”
“Eh? Eyes? Ah. Did you save me?”
“Didn’t I just say so?” the man said dismissively, dropping his gaze from her eyes.
Following his lead, Euphemia lowered her gaze to her attire. She was still wearing the same pants, and a towel had been meticulously wrapped around her chest underneath the covers. She took a closer look to see her ripped blouse still clinging to her underneath the towel. In other words, aside from removing her shoes and wrapping her in a towel, this man hadn’t touched her.
Maybe he’s not a bad guy after all?
“Um…what happened to those men?”
“Beats me. They ran off somewhere. I don’t know who they are, and I don’t care. But I’d say with the way things went down they won’t be attackin’ you again.”
That was a given. One man had been thrown 5 mols into a cactus bush and abandoned his accomplice to flee with their only means of transportation, while the other had witnessed a wild Muta killed barehanded in front of him. Anyone who valued their life would do anything to avoid getting involved with this man again. While that was true, they hadn’t targeted Euphemia just because she had been at the wrong place at the wrong time.
“But they knew that I would be driving on that exact freeway at that exact time!”
“Do you always return to the city from the Wilds at that hour?”
“Not always. Last night was an exception…”
“It was more this morning than last night,” he corrected her. “Don’t do it again. If you want to live, that is.”
“I won’t.”
“……”
Euphemia’s eyes were still lowered to her clothing, so she hadn’t noticed the man’s eyes widen partially before he averted them.
“Well, I did send them off with a warning. They probably were lyin’ in wait to ambush you, but in my professional opinion, it likely won’t happen again. So you can relax for now and leave the rest to the police.”
Euphemia stayed quiet.
Did his warning have that strong of an impact among thugs and gangs? Euphemia couldn’t deny his inhuman strength. But going to the police meant informing her older sister. That was bad. Very bad. Then again, if someone out there had marked her as a target, things weren’t going to end with this one incident.
“What’s wrong?” the man asked when he saw her shoulders droop.
“Nothing. So, about that M-Muta…what happened to it?” she stuttered, changing the topic.
“You remembered that part? I’ve already taken care of it. You don’t have to know the details. Actually, forget the whole thing ever happened.”
In other words, the man had attended to all sorts of things since she had fainted.
What in the frontier worlds did he do with that Bijour? For that matter, what does he mean by, ‘I’ve already taken care of it.’ I doubt he kept it as a pet. Does he mean he just killed it and left its remains behind? Did he dispose of the body?
Euphemia was a biologist specialized in phytology. That meant she mostly worked with plants, but she worked with living things on a daily basis, regardless. Dealing with the corpse of a dangerous and rare specimen required filling out a lot of troublesome paperwork with city authorities. She hesitated to ask him how he did it in such short order—he probably wouldn’t answer her anyway.
“So, I know this is coming awfully late, but I want to thank you. Thank you for saving me,” Euphemia said nervously.
She was gradually coming to understand he didn’t mean her any harm—or rather, he had little interest in her and that made her feel just a smidge disappointed.