Chapter 1 — The boundary line, the marriage between a girl and a wolf. Part 2
“Good evening, Lady with eyes like the night.”
In a low tone, the wolf spoke up.
“It’s dangerous to walk alone on a night as dark as this one. If you wish so, I could escort you home.”
He was literally an escort wolf1.
As weird as it might seem for a wolf to be speaking, I didn’t find it strange at all.
Probably because of that pure white fur which shone like a blade looked otherworldly enough.
It made me think that a wolf who could speak wasn’t that much of a rare occurrence.
The fur of the prideful yet composed wolf shone like silver, reflecting off the city lights.
If anything, it was beautiful.
I closed my eyes for a second, before opening them again. Then, I answered him with a slick smile.
“Thanks for the offer, fine wolf. But I’ll be alright, my house isn’t that far from here.”
That was a lie. It would still take around half an hour to get home, but I couldn’t just blindly trust this wolf.
“Also, I don’t think it’d be nice to ask so much from a gentleman that I just met.”
I moved my left hand closer to my lips and smiled more. This scene was so fake, an act filled with false sympathy, and yet it was still slightly fun.
“That’s too bad.” His mouth twisted a bit making his fangs visible: he was smiling. “You will have to excuse me as you are a finer lady than what your young appearance suggests.”
“Thank you, but this is only a facade. The true me is a much crueler woman.”
That was no lie.
“How unusual, I never knew a woman could be this charming.” He seemed to have…shrugged. The root of his front legs moved a bit.
I parted my left hand a bit from my lips so that they were visible and relaxed my hand, almost as if inviting him.
“I notice you seem used to this sort of behavior.”
“I hear that a lot, that I have a straightforward character.”
I answered nonchalantly, just as usual.
I smiled slightly. He did so as well, both of us hiding our true emotions.
I licked my lips, the wind brushing past my hair and clouding my view.
The wolf seemed to have something to say to me again.
“Would you like to marry me?”
It took me a few seconds to fully comprehend what he had asked, and when I did, I could feel my cheeks burning red. I covered my cheek with my left hand and looked away, letting the wind blow my hair over my face, hiding it.
We just met, and even so, he unexpectedly proposed to me.
Moreover, he’s a wolf, and yet he understands our language. He couldn’t be real…not part of the reality I knew, at least.
Yet why—why was my heart racing so much?
Fate—I drove that clichéd word out of my brain as soon as it surfaced.
Logic stated doubt, instinct whispered acceptance. The deepest part of my soul was attracted to this wolf.
Almost as if my shadow had spoken to me, like a half of me had returned to me, or as though I had found another self at the other end of the world, sharing a sympathy that wasn’t quite sympathy.
In the end, where lies the other self that isn’t me?
I’m here.
Be it an illusion, be it reality, it was here.
A presentiment, antic.i.p.ation for something, almost like an augury that said something would change. That the world around me was about to change.
A slightly stronger wind blew, rustling through the leaves of the forest. Like a m.u.f.fled cry, like the lamentations of a person, it enveloped me.
“What will happen if I refuse?” Recovering from the earlier shock, I asked this, trying to buy some time.
Truth be told, I had no intention to refuse.
“I’ll take you by force.”
He looked up, slightly worried but still smiling.
His gaze wavered, uneasy for an instant.
It was then that I grasped my skirt and gracefully bowed forward, my long hair sliding forward silently, forming arcs as it swayed.
“In that case, I’ll gladly accept.”
The silver wolf let out a sigh of relief.
“That’s a relief. Well then, let me guide you to my residence.”
“I think you are forgetting something really important before that.”
He looked back at me, a hint of strangeness in his face. That reaction looked similar to how a puppy would act if it suddenly grew big and it was strangely cute.
With my lips still tilted into a smile, I drove my hair away and bent forward.
I placed my red lips on the wolf’s, who still was clueless about what was happening.
For only an instant, as gentle as the wind, with a bit of formality and a bit of affection involved.
“I’m Tsukagi Saki. I might be incompetent but bear with me, Pure White Wolf-san.”
“Now this is a surprise.” His gaze danced about as he desperately searched for words.
He looked at the still-smiling me and let out a sigh of bewilderment mixed with a bitter smile.
“I’m Moon Eater.”