Chapter 6: 3.2

Chapter 3.2

“Hmmm…” came a low, nasal voice. It rumbled through her jumbled apologies and silenced her.

The voice was coming from the rectangle hatch. Emma flinched in surprise.

Just as she had predicted, the person was a man.

He stared at her for a long time, then narrowed his eyes. His gaze was penetrating, and it felt like it was boring through her forehead, eyelids, and cheeks.

“Come closer,” said the low-pitched voice, sounding almost magnetically enticing.

Emma was shocked by the way he sounded, but she could tell this was nothing more than a thinly veiled, high-handed command.

Emma said nothing, just remained rooted to the spot. His blunt instructions had really surprised her. 

The man sighed briefly and made a motion that looked like he was scratching his head. He spoke again, “I said come closer.”

“Me…?” Emma unconsciously pointed at herself.

“Who else if not you?” he said again in that low voice that sounded like something being dragged over a cave floor. It was aloof, a little sarcastic, but rich sounding in its tones. “Or don’t you want to?”

“Oh, I do. I do,” Emma said, wondering if he was trying to help. Was he trying to get a closer look at her to see if she was a weirdo before letting her inside?

Emma wouldn’t blame him if he did turn her away. She was, after all, just an uninvited guest who had shown up in the middle of the night. She knew she didn’t look like a bad person at least.

The man’s irritated, displeased tone of voice must mean he had been sleeping when she woke him up. He sounded quite upset in fact. 

“Come here,” he repeated, in that overbearing way of his. But there was something oddly attractive about his speech.

It was almost as if he was casting a spell.

Emma couldn’t help but be enchanted by his alluring voice. But even then, she scolded herself for falling for such nonsense. It didn’t matter how young his voice sounded, he could still be a middle-aged man or someone’s grandfather.

In such a serious situation, it was a shame how much Emma liked his voice. She berated herself further, biting her bottom lip.

When she still didn’t come closer, the man said bluntly, “Are you going to stay there all night?”

Emma finally came to her sense and raised her eyes to him. “No. L-like this?” she said as she came a little closer to the door, kindling a tiny spark of hope in her chest.

As she got closer, she felt the weight of his stern gaze on her. She felt her breathing accelerate as an inexplicable eerie feeling crept over her. “Is this close enough?”

The man stayed silent and just stared at her with a critical expression. His look was that of an archeologist who had just discovered a new species and was trying to dig it up and dissect it. Emma really did feel like his new discovery.

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Emma hunched over under the weight of his silence.

Is he even human?

Her mind suddenly became alert with suspicion.

Was he trying to manipulate her like a puppet?

Maybe she was already dead? Maybe she had died after she had crashed down that hill earlier… She thought she was limping around, but maybe her soul had left her body and she was now a wandering soul. The thought was like one of those scary stories she used to hear in the past. With this thought, her delusion of being in danger vanished.

“I am not sure about you.” The man’s blunt voice instantly awakened the reality of running away. 

Emma’s consciousness, that had been half-lost to her own fantasy world, quickly came back to reality. “Sir, I am not sure what you–”

“I said I’m not sure about you.”

Emma’s eyes widened in surprise. “Oh?”

What did he mean? Did he mean that he wasn’t sure if he trusted her?

Emma briefly considered his suspicion. She looked up into his dark-eyed gaze, but quickly lowered her eyes in shock.

Her mouth dried up as her anxious heart thumped loudly. It felt like she was freezing from her fingertips, and like her peripheral senses were slowly disappearing

“What should I do with you? I…”

On a serious note, that man must be as anxious as she was. In a cruel world where one never knew other’s intention, how could one just open their door to anyone? In a world where an aunt or butler, who a person had relied on for so many years, could just turn around and rob your home, how was one supposed to trust a stranger?

It was a common consensus in the world that the more pitiful and humbles strangers were when they asked for help, the more they would be refused and ignored.

Not to mention that the exterior of the mansion was overly defensive. But Emma could put that down to the location of the place.

‘Perhaps it’s precaution, or perhaps dangerous things often happen here?’

Each window had a heavy overlay. If it were attacked from the outside, there seemed to be no weakness for penetration. And there was only one entrance and exit to the entire building. The solid front door consisted of a stone gate with heavy metal bracing that looked like it could hold up during a war.

Even the stables and sheds looked strong at first glance.

No matter what was happening outside, once the door to the mansion was locked, whoever was inside was safe.

“I said this earlier, but I am not some queer person. Really. I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

“Wrong place at the wrong time…” the man repeated, slowly closing his eyes as if to savor her words. Then he opened them again and a cold smile spread over his face. “That’s quite an interesting story you got there,” he said in a tone that was so blunt, it was petty.

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