♚♚♚
ROCK and Phoebe decided to leave Mateus Manor after dinner. Ebel suggested they stay the night, but Rock wanted to get home before the date changed because she needed to open her shop early the next morning.
Fortunately, the majority of roads inside the imperial capital were well-lit by streetlights. There were no hindrances to taking out the carriage, and Ebel happily lent his to them—though he was terribly disappointed Rock couldn’t stay longer.
“I’ll have Iniel take you home. You should be back before midnight if you hurry.”
Iniel, Ebel’s coachman, was already waiting for them in the garden. He had the berline carriage all hooked up to the two horses, ready to go.
“Today was a day well spent. Thank you, Roxy.” Ebel longingly took Rock’s hand in his as he saw her off at the carriage.
“I’m also so happy to have spent today with you.”
As Rock smiled, Ebel kissed the back of her hand. Then he whispered in a soft voice so Phoebe couldn’t hear.
“Let’s visit your mother’s grave someday soon too. It’s a promise.”
“Y-Yes…please do come with me.”
It wasn’t just the lingering soft touch of his lips on the back of her hand that made Rock’s heart flutter.
✦ ✦ ✦
♚♚♚
ROCK stared out the moving carriage’s window at Mateus Manor as it steadily grew more distant. In the dark of night, Ebel disappeared from view in the twinkling of an eye, and that saddened her.
With him out of sight, she leaned back into her seat, and Phoebe quickly pounced with a well-timed question, as if he was waiting for her to finish.
“Planning a trip with His Excellency?”
“What?! H-How did you…?!”
Becoming flustered was the same as saying yes
But Rock couldn’t help panicking, and her father frowned with exasperation at her reaction.
“That’s what’ll happen if you visit Vale’s grave.”
Apparently, her father had excellent hearing on par with a werewolf’s.
“Y-You could call it a trip, but it’s not like any funny business is going to happen…” Growing rapidly more uncomfortable by the second, Rock pulled her feet onto the seat and hugged her knees. “And it’s not like we’ve decided to go alone or anything! Why don’t you join us, Father?”
“You want to take your father on your pre-wedding vacation? I think not.”
“P-Pre—it’s nothing like that! I swear!”
“Says you.” Phoebe grinned like a cat before gently ruffling Rock’s wine-colored hair. “Well, as your guardian, I can’t say I wholeheartedly approve. But I won’t stop you.”
“Uggh… I keep telling you it’s not that kind of trip—”
Trying to defend herself further would only dig her a deeper hole. Despite knowing that, Rock still tried to explain herself.
But her excuse was cut short by the whole carriage shaking in its frame. It shook so hard, Rock and Phoebe were knocked out of their seats.
“What was that?!”
“Whoa! What just happened?”
The carriage ceiling creaked and groaned just as they reacted to the situation. The berline carriage had a solid top that wouldn’t break even if rocks fell on it, but it seemed like something especially heavy was on top.
Even the coachman realized something was off. He must’ve pulled hard on the reins since the carriage tilted to the side as the horses brayed.
“UWAH!”
Rock was about to be thrown into the seat facing her. Phoebe caught her just in time and glared outside the window.
“What happened?!”
The imperial capital’s nightscape spread outside the window. Seeing as it was still a brightly illuminated, clean cityscape, they hadn’t made it out of the aristocrat district yet. Were they in someone’s garden? Or was it a park? Rock could see a gorgeous garden illuminated by the stars beyond a stone gate covered in ivy.
The small window connecting to the coachman’s seat opened, and Iniel shouted to them while Rock was still trying to process the situation.
“Something’s wrong! Please get off!”
Hearing those orders, Phoebe reached out to open the carriage door. But a huge, dark figure loomed over the window just as he was about to wrench the door open.
Glittering gold eyes, pointed ears, a large mouth full of fangs, and a body covered in black fur—
“…Ebel?” Rock instinctively uttered that name when she saw the werewolf peering in through the window.
The werewolf suddenly took a step back and then swung up its large arm that was thicker than an oak log.
“Watch out!”
Phoebe yanked Rock to him just as the carriage was struck by a powerful force and fell sideways with a bang. They were tossed around inside the carriage and slammed into what used to be the ceiling. Shortly after Rock lifted her head, the door was ripped off, and a massive shadow fell on them as they collapsed in a heap inside.
“Wha—? What’s going on?”
The werewolf silently peered into the flipped-over carriage, ignoring Phoebe’s moaned question. As soon as its golden eyes landed on Rock, it gently scooped her into its arms.
“Th-Thank you…very much,” Rock thanked it in a daze.
Rock believed the werewolf was Ebel up until that moment.
She didn’t know what went wrong with the carriage, but she wholly believed that he’d transformed into a werewolf and ran to her rescue.
But this werewolf held her under one arm and jumped into the air, leaving Phoebe pinned under the wreckage. It leaped onto the vine-covered stone gate and cautiously assessed the sideways carriage below.
“Why…?”
Something’s wrong, Rock thought.
Ebel would’ve helped Phoebe up and checked on Iniel and the horses, not just escape with her.
She could see the toppled, broken carriage on top of the road illuminated by the round streetlights. It looked like Iniel cut the white horses loose at the last second as they both stood there unharmed. But Iniel himself was lying face down on the ground, and Phoebe was finally starting to pull himself out from under the carriage.
Doubts rising fast, Rock fearfully looked up at the werewolf.
Unfortunately, werewolves were indistinguishable from each other.
So far, aside from Ebel, the only other werewolf she had seen was Guido Linus. There was almost no difference in their appearance, except for Guido looking a little bigger, which might’ve had more to do with their original physique.
And the werewolf holding her now was—
“Not him…”
Tailor Rock had measured Ebel in his werewolf form as well. So she was able to tell that the werewolf holding her wasn’t him. This one had narrower shoulders and was slightly shorter.
In other words—
“Father!” Rock screamed at the top of her lungs. “It’s not him!”
A terrifying look flashed across Phoebe’s face as he raised it to look at her.
“I’m coming for you right now!”
However, his reliable words were dashed by the werewolf abandoning its perch on the stone gate to hop over to one tree branch and then the next inside the garden.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Let go! Let go of me, you mutt!”
Rock thrashed around, trying to free herself of the stranger’s furry arms. But the werewolf didn’t relax his hold on her even as she struggled with all her might. He stood perfectly still on top of what should’ve been an unsteady branch, despite it being a large tree.
“Would you mind not struggling so much?” it said in an unfamiliar voice. “I want to transport you safely. Please.”
A not-so-young male voice came from the fanged mouth.
“Who are you?! What do you want with me?!”
The werewolf jumped again without answering Rock’s questions. This time, he leaped on top of an off-fountain inside the garden. Then another branch. And then he sprung on top of a wooden gazebo roof that’d looked much farther away a moment ago at an unbelievable speed.
“Father! Father!” Rock screamed for Phoebe until her voice went hoarse, even though she couldn’t see him anymore.
The nighttime garden was rapidly growing more distant.
Rock knew she was being carried away—kidnapped. She couldn’t escape.
“Roxy! Damn you! GIVE ME BACK MY DAUGHTEEEEEEEER!”
Phoebe’s enraged shout echoed from a hopeless distance.