Dogs Among Withered Roses - Chapter 30

Erkin had heard about it indirectly from other soldatos as well, but he didn’t feel any particular urge to confirm it for himself right away.

“I wasn’t told that much.”

It was true. After smashing the heads of those men who looked like plucked chickens with a hammer, he hadn’t set foot in the scrapyard again. All he’d heard from the soldato who had been there with him was that they were lying in the corner of the container like corpses, recovering with their limbs broken.

Something about how their disposal hadn’t been decided yet.

Michele, who had heard they’d been dragged to the scrapyard near Norick Port, seemed convinced that Russo would soon be stuffed into a drum, fused with cement, and sunk into the sea. But if that had been the goal, there would’ve been no need to give him time to recover from broken bones in the first place.

Recalling Ricardo’s message that Russo would never face Berenice alive again, Erkin’s brows slowly drew out. If he wouldn’t face her alive, then it sounded like there would be a time he’d face her after death.

It wasn’t a face that could even be given a proper funeral.

After reaching the first floor, Erkin turned the wheelchair toward the side door leading to the park connected to the hospital. Nodding lightly to the nurses and doctors he’d grown familiar with from going in and out of the hospital, he asked, “Is there anything else you’re curious about?”

“No. That’s enough.”

Their clear gazes met through the reflection in the glass door. As if she had already drawn a conclusion about how Russo would be dealt with, there was no lingering question left on Berenice’s face.

He was briefly curious about what thoughts filled her head, but Erkin no longer cared what kind of end Russo would meet. Someone would take care of it well enough.

More than that, he didn’t want the name ‘Russo Gucci’ to linger in her mind any longer because of his unnecessary questions, so Erkin focused only on guiding the wheelchair down the gentle slope.

The empty space left by Russo Gucci’s existence was replaced by a peaceful walk. As they wandered through the park like a maze, their pace slowed, and Berenice’s slender body, wrapped in a knit cardigan over her hospital gown, swayed gently as if carried by the wind.

When they reached the spot he’d checked out a few days earlier, Erkin secured the wheelchair so it wouldn’t roll on its own. It was a place where sunlight filtered softly through the loosely spread branches above.

After confirming several times that the wheelchair was firmly fixed, he sat down on the bench right beside it.

As mid‑March passed, the trees revealed the buds they had been holding in full. But the pale green shoots were still immature, and only small leaves like stray hairs had sprouted, so it was hard to say the greenery was lush or that there was much to enjoy yet.

Erkin, who had been silently looking up at the sky, gradually leaned his upper body at an angle. He had worried she might be disappointed since there wasn’t much to see….

It had been unnecessary concern.

Just filling her lungs with the outside air seemed to ease her breathing, and the faint smile on Berenice’s face looked far more peaceful than when she had been forced to sleep under sedatives. At the very least, it wasn’t the face of someone dwelling on Russo Gucci. Deciding that much was enough, Erkin stood up.

“If you feel cold, tell me right away. It’ll be troublesome if you catch a cold out here.”

Berenice stared straight at him as he lowered his body to tuck the thick blanket snugly around her.

“You?”

“You, Miss.”

Answering shortly as if asking who else it would be, he lifted his gaze and looked at her bare neck. The deep cut Russo Gucci had left with a knife was still vivid across it. Even though he didn’t want to dwell on it, his eyes were inevitably drawn to the reddish scar against her slender, pale neck.

When Erkin recalled the blood that had soaked his hands when he held Berenice in his arms after she tumbled down the stairs, tension tightened in his neck and his cheek twitched faintly.

At the same time, a desperate voice flashed through his mind, insisting that he had never intended to hurt her, that it was only because Berenice had grabbed his cock and squeezed it like she was going to kill him that he had unintentionally put strength into it.

Noticing where Erkin’s gaze had landed, Berenice lifted her chin slightly. Her deliberately dignified expression looked as if she considered that wound some kind of honorable medal.

After grabbing someone else’s dick and tearing at it, she makes a face like that….

Erkin’s eyes narrowed. As if mimicking him, Berenice narrowed her eyes in the same way and raised her hand to cover her neck, but he caught that hand and lowered it. Her bare hand, cooler than it had been in the hospital room, was tucked neatly back under the blanket, and Erkin slowly straightened his body.

“Even now, you take medicine and fall asleep all the time. Taking more medication on top of that isn’t something you should be doing to your body.”

“You’re really worried.”

Berenice clasped her hands together under the blanket and lifted her head. Her gaze, which had been directed at the blue sky no longer framed by a square window, tilted slightly toward Erkin. He, who had been looking around, found her gaze settling on him and asked briefly, “What is it?”

“Thank you.”

“All of a sudden? For what?”

“This seems like the best spot.”

Or maybe not. Berenice’s clear eyes rolled gently, as if telling him not to pretend he didn’t know and to look around with her.

“The trees you can see are bigger than the others, and the new buds are fairly full, so they look like clusters of flower buds. The pond is prettier here than the one we saw earlier. And that’s not all.”

“….”

“Even if it meant taking a longer route, you only picked paths that were flat enough that the wheelchair wouldn’t shake—”

“Stop—”

Erkin, unable to listen any longer, reached out quickly. As if she had expected it, Berenice laughed softly and turned her head. The face that avoided his hand was full of a playful mischief he had never seen before.

“There’s another park on the opposite side, isn’t there? I’ve been there before, so I know.”

“Yes, yes. I get it, so—”

“You went to both places, right? You checked this location in advance too? You didn’t even look around while we were walking like you were searching for a good spot.”

“…If you already know, why ask?”

“What else? I wanted to hear it from you.”

Berenice shrugged as if there could be no other reason. Leaning back against the wheelchair, she persistently held his gaze.

Faced with her insistent eyes pressing for an answer, Erkin closed his eyes tightly for a moment in surrender, then opened them again. Even meeting her gaze with both eyes, after removing the eyepatch, felt a little overwhelming.

“It’s as you said.”

Someone might think it was just a walk in a park connected to the hospital. But since she had come outside after so long, he at least didn’t want her to feel like it had been pointless.

That was all. There was no grand intention.

It wasn’t difficult to look around in advance while going back and forth to the hospital during shift changes. And before that, finding a safe route for the person he was protecting was part of a bodyguard’s duty. Erkin dismissed the praise, saying it wasn’t something to be thanked for.

“It’s just part of what I should do as a bodyguard.”

“Then that’s good.”

“Whatever it is, as long as it’s good, it’s good, right?” The murmured voice sounded as fresh as today’s weather. The breeze brushing against his cheek carried a chill, but the sunlight pouring down from above was pleasantly warm, just like the day itself.

The woman, who had closed her eyes as she enjoyed nature, slowly tilted her head back. The wind that slipped through the tender new shoots gently stirred her slightly messy hair that she hadn’t bothered to fix.

Thinking the strands clinging to her eyes and nose might bother her, Erkin slowly reached out his hand. Just as his fingertips, with all their strength eased away, were about to touch the corner of her right eye, Berenice’s eyes snapped open.

Even seeing the hand cast over her face, the woman didn’t flinch in the slightest. There was no sharp wariness in her eyes that took it for granted he would never harm her.

The moment he noticed the faint trust lingering in her gaze, something in Erkin’s chest throbbed strangely. It felt like something was gripping him tightly, urgently holding him back with a crushing force.

“Want me to fix your hair?”

“…It’s a bit bothersome.”

“Alright, then.”

Berenice closed her eyes again. Erkin brushed along the smooth line of her forehead and the gently closed eyelids with his fingertips. His ring finger that grazed her thick eyelashes tingled faintly.

Ignoring the sensation, he finished arranging her hair, then lightly pressed the back of his hand against her cheek as if checking the temperature of water.

“Your cheek is cold.”

“I’m not cold. Let’s go just a bit farther.”

Berenice pointed toward the pond.

They called it a pond, but it was large enough to resemble a small lake, and along the walking path that circled it, a bridge stretched across the water.

Going there was fine, but the problem was that the bridge wasn’t wide enough for a wheelchair to pass comfortably. Still, Erkin pushed the wheelchair along the path as Berenice directed, moving slowly.

When they reached the front of the bridge, Erkin extended both arms so Berenice could grab on and stand. As she steadied herself without much difficulty, he supported her waist and the backs of her knees and lifted her into his arms.

“Does anything hurt?”

“…No.”

The weight of an adult woman with casts on her limbs wasn’t light at all. Yet Erkin’s body, carrying Berenice as he walked slowly forward, remained steady without the slightest sway.

Only when the wind blew did his steps shift slightly, like the calm ripples of a lake stirred by a breeze, and Berenice’s body settled comfortably against his chest.