The Serpent of Paradise - Chapter 40

At Alexei’s words, Mikhail roughly swept back his fine platinum-blond hair, which fell beautifully no matter how carelessly it was left.

“Do you swing that way? What a filthy taste.”

Mikhail was famous at the gambling tables for his appearance, second only to his skill. Among the hulking men who were uniformly rough, soaked in alcohol, and red around the nose, his lean, firm body and handsome face stood out terribly.

Pale skin, delicate features, and graceful lines to his body. More than anything, there was his arrogant gaze, as though he were looking down on everyone. Some whispered that Mikhail must be the illegitimate child of a noble family. It was true, but he had no desire to tell them.

“Don’t get the wrong idea, boy. A male? The meat is tough and reeks. And I don’t bed women younger than me. They lack the flavor of proper ripeness. If I have my choice, I prefer a widow whose husband hasn’t been dead long. There’s a certain amusement in hearing her call my name while crying out for her husband.”

“….”

Mikhail thought it was the dogshit preference of a madman, but saw no need to say so aloud.

“What I need is someone quick-witted who can lie shamelessly time and again. A pretty face would be even better. Then I heard something suitable had turned up, so I came to collect it.”

At those words, Mikhail reached out and picked up the gold ingot.

“Too bad. You’ll be going home empty-handed.”

The game ended quickly. Mikhail won. Even as he watched the gold ingot disappear inside Mikhail’s clothes, Alexei merely grinned. That night, Mikhail was loaded into the luggage compartment of Alexei’s carriage and dragged to his estate.

It began with a merciless beating.

“I’m not doing this because I particularly hate you. You simply need to be trained a little.”

Alexei spoke as he punched Mikhail, who was tied up underground. Despite claiming he was training him, Alexei seemed to enjoy the way Mikhail glared at him as though he wanted to kill him. The endless beatings continued for days.

‘What does this crazy bastard want?’

Had he brought Mikhail here because he wanted to beat him to death? But if that were the case, he never beat him badly enough to kill him. Then one night, the person who always brought his meals secretly entered and untied Mikhail’s hands and feet.

“I have a younger brother about your age. Hurry and run.”

“Thank… you.”

After expressing gratitude to someone for the first time in a long while, Mikhail ran frantically toward the exit. But the moment he emerged from underground….

“Took you long enough.”

Alexei stood before the entrance with his arms crossed, as though he had been waiting.

“How….”

How had he known Mikhail would try to escape? Ignoring Mikhail’s bewilderment, Alexei shouted toward the corridor behind him.

“See? Didn’t I tell you he would run straight out without suspecting a thing?”

A voice mingled with snickering laughter came from the dark underground corridor.

“He’s more stupid and naive than I expected. He even thanked me.”

The man who emerged laughing was the same person who freed Mikhail moments ago, claiming he reminded him of his younger brother. Watching the two men roar with laughter, Mikhail realized they had been playing a trick on him.

“You fucking bastards!”

But before Mikhail could even reach Alexei, a fist slammed into his stomach, and he lost consciousness. When he opened his eyes, he was tied up in the same place again. Similar incidents continued after that. Whenever he thought he found an opportunity to escape and ran outside, Alexei was waiting for him.

Then, on the day Mikhail managed to free his bound hands and feet on his own, he didn’t go outside. Instead, he sat and waited for Alexei to come to him. When Alexei finally entered after a long while, Mikhail said, “I can’t leave this place until I kill you.”

“I’ve been waiting to hear that.”

From that day onward, Mikhail accompanied Alexei. Others said that Alexei, who had neither wife nor children, recognized Mikhail’s talent and adopted him. Whenever Mikhail heard that, he had to struggle not to laugh bitterly.

Alexei taught him many things. First, beginning while Mikhail was still underground, he taught him never to trust anyone. The world was filled with hostility, everyone was after him, and he must never become deeply attached to anything. Only then could he protect both the fortune Alexei would leave him and his own life.

The next thing Alexei taught him was knowledge. Letters, numbers, scholarship, architecture, shipbuilding, trade, foreign languages…. There was no end to what Mikhail had to study.

“Your Ils is still terrible. How do you expect to conduct business like that?”

The instant Mikhail spoke Ils incorrectly, Alexei slapped him across the face without mercy. Mikhail staggered but didn’t fall, then moved his tongue again and spoke proper Ils.

He mastered advanced Novgod vocabulary that even nobles rarely used, learned to read ledgers properly and find their weaknesses, learned to fire a gun, and learned where to stab a person to kill them in a single strike.

To Mikhail, knowledge was a means of survival. Throughout the entire process of learning, he never once enjoyed it.

***

Mikhail emerged from his memories and looked at Anastasia, who was diligently copying the letters. The smile still hadn’t left her face.

Moments ago, the page had been filled with his name. Now it was covered in the names of flowers. They were messy words written in black ink, yet somehow, to Mikhail, they looked like flowers blooming across the page.

Sensing his gaze, Anastasia raised her head and looked at him. When their eyes met, the turmoil stirred by remembering Alexei settled into calm in an instant.

He always thought her eyes were green like a forest. Especially when he faced their clear depths, they looked like a pond with a forest submerged beneath its surface.

“Lord Mikhail?”

Mikhail frowned at Anastasia’s voice. He heard her call him that all the time, yet suddenly it grated on him unusually badly. As he wondered why the sound of her calling his name bothered him, Mikhail realized an unnecessary word had been attached to it.

“Don’t you think you can stop calling me ‘Lord’ now?”

“Pardon?”

At Mikhail’s unexpected words, Anastasia wondered whether there was something wrong with the way she addressed him. Didn’t everyone call him Lord Mikhail? Igor, Yuri, and Natasha too. She had merely followed Natasha, whose position she thought most resembled her own, and called him Lord Mikhail….

Was there a different title she was supposed to use in a situation like this?

Thinking it might be the answer, Anastasia tried a title she once heard in passing.

“Then… Sir Mikhail?”

The furrow between Mikhail’s brows deepened. Apparently, that wasn’t the correct answer either.

“I meant that you may call me by my name.”

At this rate, Anastasia would never find the answer and would only agonize over it alone, so Mikhail finally told her himself. At his words, Anastasia looked so startled that she seemed ready to leap from her seat.

“I can’t do that!”

“Why not?”

“What do you mean, why? Lord Mikhail, you’re….”

Anastasia didn’t know how to explain it. From the moment they first met, she thought he was different from everyone else. A stranger who suddenly appeared in her world, where she once believed only Edenhurst was beautiful. She feared him at first, but he gave her things no one else did.

He gave her his clean, splendid, comfortable bed, brought her a doctor and medicine, and gifted her new belongings of which she was the first owner.

When he returned, he rescued her from danger, gave her so many things that she still didn’t dare count them all, assigned a maid to her, and gave her the time they shared over meals. And now… he was even taking time to personally teach her the reading she longed to learn.

That was why Anastasia believed Mikhail was an angel God sent to her.

He had neither wings nor a halo, but he shone brightly enough without them that she couldn’t possibly be mistaken. And he wanted her to call someone like that by his name?

The only people she ever addressed solely by name were the children she grew up with in the village when she was very young. After coming to Edenhurst, she rarely had any occasion to address the other servants directly, so it was only natural for Anastasia to attach an honorific whenever she called someone.

“Sir? How dreadful. To begin with, I don’t even have a title yet. I’m a commoner just like you.”

“But….”

Anastasia still hesitated, unable to call his name. Then Mikhail suddenly stepped back slightly as though he had lost interest and said, “If it’s difficult, there’s no need to force yourself. More importantly, let’s try writing some other words.”

“….”

She should have been grateful that he didn’t force her, yet Anastasia somehow felt disappointed.

‘Should I have tried calling him…?’

If she said it a few times, perhaps she could call him without it feeling awkward. If she could practice just once….

At that moment, Mikhail suddenly held out a sheet of paper before Anastasia and asked, “How did you say this was read?”

The paper he held out was densely covered in writing. It was the word she practiced over and over when she first entered the library. The word she repeated silently as she wrote it….

“Mikhail?”

When she read his name aloud, Mikhail shrugged.

“You can say it perfectly well. That’s what you should call me.”

“Uh…?”

Anastasia stared blankly for a moment before realizing what happened. He had tricked her into calling him by his name. Feeling somehow deceived, Anastasia shot to her feet.

“Lord Mikha….”

“Mikhail.”

Mikhail cut her off before she could add the honorific again and strode toward her. He came so close that they seemed about to touch, making Anastasia try to take a step back. But the desk was behind her, leaving Anastasia bracing herself against it with both hands as she looked up at Mikhail.

He lowered his head slightly and met Anastasia’s gaze. She saw his face every day for more than a week, yet Anastasia suddenly felt her breath catch.

He was always beautiful. Beautiful enough to eclipse every memory the moment she saw him. The sunlight streaming into the library struck his pale platinum-blond hair and shattered beautifully across it. Then there were the deep blue eyes meeting hers. She had never seen it, but perhaps the sea said to stretch endlessly into the distance was this color.

Anastasia wanted to reach out. What would his hair feel like if she touched it? The softest thing she ever touched was the velvet lining of the shoe box he gave her. She liked the way it curled around her fingers and glided softly beneath them, so she stroked it more times than she could count… but somehow, she thought Mikhail’s hair would be even softer.

When Anastasia unconsciously raised her hand, Mikhail lowered his face closer as though inviting her to touch him. His hair slipped down with a soft rustle and swayed before her face. At that moment, Anastasia realized the distance between them was far too small.

They would touch.

The moment she realized it, Anastasia squeezed her eyes shut. The soft tips of his hair tickled her forehead. As though that were a signal, burning heat rushed into her face. The next moment, something soft and yielding touched her forehead.

The sensation lasted only briefly, pressing lightly before lifting away. Then Mikhail’s voice followed.

“Let’s call this my tuition.”

“…Pardon?”

When the startled Anastasia opened her eyes, he had already retreated several steps. As though he had no further business there, Mikhail turned away.

“Take the paper and pen with you and practice. I’ll be going now.”

Mikhail hurried out of the library as though fleeing. Because of that, Anastasia didn’t see what he held in his hand.

Left alone in the library after he disappeared in an instant, Anastasia touched her forehead with a dazed expression.

Nothing touched it anymore, yet it felt as though a scorching brand had been seared into her skin.