Deceived, Yet Drawn to You - Chapter 109

“Rufus, you can’t do that.”

Isabelle pressed a hand to her forehead, weighed down by deep fatigue.

“Right now, we can’t afford to take any risks. Do you know how many people recognize your face? If you’re spotted by anyone watching us even once… then there really won’t be any way out.”

Facing his mother’s refusal for the first time in his life, Rufus wore a stunned expression. The blue eyes he’d inherited from her wavered faintly, unable to believe that such words had come from the woman who had always shielded him without complaint, no matter what he did.

When was it again? It was around the time Rufus began to feel sensation returning to his body.

It was something he’d resigned himself to never experiencing again after being diagnosed with loss of sexual function, yet the physician had left the opinion that partial recovery might be possible. That alone made Rufus feel as if he were whole again.

That response had come close to its peak late one night, when he ran into a maid in front of the greenhouse. Even though Edmund’s contemptible woman had gotten in the way and the “confirmation” came to nothing, Rufus knew exactly what intent he’d had when he grabbed the maid’s wrist. Only after returning to his bedroom, when he realized his mother would learn the full story, did a chill finally run down his spine.

But Isabelle said nothing. Even after receiving the report, she worried instead that Rufus might have been hurt, and treated him with even greater care than usual. She even talked about holding a party to celebrate his recovery.

Isabelle was always like that. She never scolded her son, never blamed him, and always covered up any wrongdoing. No matter what Rufus did, she wasn’t someone who would ever reproach him.

And yet now, over nothing more than wanting to go out to a night market with his identity hidden, she was rebuking him like this. Treating him like a fool.

A blazing heat churned violently inside Rufus.

“I understand completely how you feel about wanting to go out, since you’ve finally come to the capital.”

Sensing his agitation, Isabelle carefully approached her son. She even forced a smile to hide any anxiety that might have crept onto her face, softening her voice.

“But Rufus, if you think of me, could you endure just a little longer?”

Isabelle’s request was close to a plea, filled with such urgency it felt desperate. Yet Rufus only felt suffocated, as if something were stuck in his heart. It was the helpless feeling that no one truly understood him.

“Fine. I’ll stay locked up in here.”

Rufus spun on his heel and headed for the bedroom.

“I might suffocate to death before I’m dragged off to Rorschach, though.”

“Rufus…!”

Bang. The sound of the door slamming shut rang sharply in Isabelle’s ears. She stood staring blankly at the place her son had left, then let out a long breath. When the sigh faded, all that remained was an emptiness she couldn’t explain.

***

At the hour when night insects chirred loudly, Rufus quietly opened his bedroom door, dressed in a black cloak.

With all the lights turned off, the interior of the townhouse was steeped in silence. Isabelle had trusted no one enough to keep permanent staff, and so the house was empty. Only once or twice a week did a supply handler hired by the Marchioness of Rainworth come by to restock food and necessities. Otherwise, stillness always filled the place.

Thanks to that, Rufus could move without drawing anyone’s attention. Isabelle used the bedroom at the far end of the second-floor corridor, so there was no need to creep around like a thief. Only when he opened the door leading outside did he pause, steady his breathing, and carefully pull the handle.

He knew the way well enough and walked without hesitation. It was a road he’d only seen once while fleeing Eldenvale to reach the hiding place, yet he remembered it clearly.

Rufus was fairly sharp. He knew it himself. He believed that he’d always been overshadowed by his half-brother, but that his intelligence and memory were second to none. He didn’t truly understand the ways of the world, but at this moment, he was brimming with confidence. Perhaps it came from the strange sense of liberation that no one was controlling him.

After crossing the unfamiliar streets for quite some time, Rufus noticed the sound of lively music drifting from somewhere. When he turned his gaze that way, the dazzling lights of a night market flickered in the distance. A smile naturally spread across his lips.

The reason he’d set out to find the night market in the first place was because he recalled the lewd conversations servants used to whisper among themselves. They said that in the stall-lined streets where the lights never went out late into the night, women who sold smiles to men always gathered…. The thought that he could have a novel experience there without worrying about troublesome attention, in a place noble sons didn’t frequent, made anticipation surge through him.

Just as he was quickening his steps, carried by that growing excitement.

Someone’s shadow shifted quietly a few paces away. When Rufus hesitated and stopped, they noticed his presence as well and lifted their heads slightly.

A woman blowing out cigarette smoke looked at Rufus and curved her heavily made-up face into a sultry smile. Another woman standing beside her looked him up and down and lifted the corner of her lips.

The two women wore revealing dresses that exposed more than half their chests, exuded the sharp scent of heavy perfume, and were adorned with cheap jewelry all over. It was immediately obvious they were the type who tempted men on the streets.

“Hi there, handsome gentleman?”

“Looking for a woman to keep you company?”

With that, they approached him with languid, seductive steps. Rufus was swept up in confusion.

“…Are you talking to me?”

“Who else would we be talking to?”

The women laughed as if they’d heard an amusing joke. As the distance between them shrank, the sensual fragrance stabbed at his nose.

“Did you lose your way? Want us to show you around?”

“We’re very good at guiding night guests.”

When one of the women came close enough to touch him and poked Rufus’s chest with a finger painted bright red, his heart began to pound strangely hard at the unfamiliar and dangerous aura. It was the first time in his life he’d received this kind of gaze. To the women, he was being seen as a “man.”

“Where were you headed? Want to grab a drink nearby?”

“….”

“Why aren’t you saying anything? And what’s with that black cloak?”

“Show us your handsome face.”

Their nasal voices chattered from both sides until he felt overwhelmed. Because he didn’t dislike it, he stayed still, and one of the women reached out and pushed back the hood Rufus was wearing.

“…Oh my.”

“You’re really quite a pretty gentleman.”

Rufus, who resembled Isabelle closely, had delicate features rather than a ruggedly masculine look. He wasn’t very tall, and his build was slight, far from giving the impression of a man who clearly fulfilled a masculine role.

“Hey, maybe this gentleman isn’t looking for women like us, but for men instead?”

The woman’s snickering remark struck a nerve at once. Rufus, who had been momentarily distracted, scowled fiercely.

“What kind of bullshit are you spouting right now?”

“Oh dear, did that upset you?”

“I’m busy, so get the hell out of my sight. You filthy creatures, how dare you run your mouths. Do you even know who I am?”

Rufus twisted his lips as he spat out curses, then brushed past the woman with a rough shove to her shoulder. At that, a voice that turned ice cold in an instant raked across his back.

“Says the one who was panting the moment he saw us, acting all important just because he’s a man.”

“Hannah, stop it. Let’s go.”

“Why should I? It’s annoying how he puts on airs like he’s something special.”

Rufus came to a dead stop. A chilling silence settled over the dark alley.

“Say that again. Say it one more time.”

“You think I won’t just because you tell me not to? Just looking at you, you seem like some idiot who’s never even been able to use what’s down there properly!”

Rufus’s clenched fist trembled violently.

“I see guys like you ten times a day. You’re nothing special, yet you act all big in front of women.”

Rufus walked toward the woman step by step and grabbed her slender wrist. The startled woman tried to pull her hand free, but it was useless. As her face drained pale with fear, a surge of superiority welled up inside him.

“Look me in the face and say that again!”

“What’s wrong with you, are you crazy?”

“Let go of Hannah!”

The situation turned grim in an instant. The frightened woman raised her hands and began striking Rufus wildly, and the other woman rushed at him as well. Rufus lifted one arm to shield his face from the blows, yet didn’t loosen his grip on the wrist he was holding. The three of them tangled together, grappling back and forth like a single mass, then lost their balance and collapsed in a heap.

Curses and screams tangled chaotically, then cut off abruptly.

At the same time, a dull cracking sound rang out as something hard struck the stone ground.