Episode 46
1[ Rubinus is a female, not a male. I have already edited the chapter where she was mentioned, so no worries<(￣︶￣)>]
The child of Rubinus who was kidnapped a month ago. This baby with red hair was that child.
Brody noticed this and glared at Shiloh.
Apparently, Shiloh promised her to return the child if she saved his mother.
However…
‘Shilo, please reconsider! The baby is innocent, isn’t it? So please…!’
Brody, who had clearly heard the woman screaming moments ago, realized that Shiloh had cheated her again and her eyes turned dark.
“What’s the matter?”
At that moment, Kyle, who was a witness to the promise at that time, arrived at the scene after coming out to find Brody.
Seeing that the witness had come forward, Brody asked Shiloh straight away.
“What were you trying to do to the baby?”
“…What could I do? I was going to send it back home like I promised you.”
He was lying, as he was avoiding Brody’s eyes.
Brody grabbed the back of her neck.
As expected, people don’t change easily. But she trusted this guy and got his promises in words.
Brody, infuriated, walked straight up to him and said through clenched teeth.
“If you said you’d send it back, keep your promise. Don’t be so cowardly and say one thing and do another, you little *****!”
The moment Brody was about to rush at him as if to grab him by the collar, Kyle grabbed her from behind and pulled her back, telling her to calm down.
But after hearing Brody’s words, Shiloh looked down at the baby in his hands without saying a word.
There was no pity or sympathy in the gaze looking at the baby. It was just as cold as the cold wind in the winter forest.
He stared at Brody with such a frozen gaze, then spoke to her.
“I’m grateful that you saved my mother’s life. But…”
“?”
“I don’t want to just quietly send this child back to Rubinus. I want to make Rubinus feel the way I felt when my mother came back as a breathing corpse.”
There was no pity or sympathy in his heart, only hatred. He looked at Brody, who was speechless, and continued speaking.
“Just because Mom came back to life doesn’t mean the three years of suffering we’ve endured will disappear, right?”
So he wanted to return the pain they received to Rubinus.
Through this child.
“…”
From the beginning, Shiloh had no intention of sending the baby back.
Although his mother’s recovery brightened his future, it did not heal the wounds of the past.
The woman who was crouching on the floor and crying, thought Brody was her last hope and came straight to her feet and begged.
“He said he would abandon the baby in the snow. If it leaves my arms even for a little bit, it will freeze to death. Please… please save that baby!”
The woman who had been caring for Rubinus’ baby had grown attached to it and was rebelling against Shiloh’s orders.
And fortunately for the woman, Brody shared her compassion for the baby.
But on the other hand, Shiloh’s hatred was understandable, so Brody ended up in a dilemma.
She couldn’t open her mouth freely.
It was unfair to place blame on an innocent baby, but it was not like she didn’t understand Shiloh’s circumstances.
Before Brody could open her mouth, a woman’s voice was heard calling out to Shiloh from behind.
“Shiloh.”
As if recognizing the owner of the voice, Shiloh turned around with a surprised expression.
At the same time, those around them all fell to the floor when they saw the owner of the voice.
“Leader!”
The woman standing there, panting, and supported by the witch, was none other than Eileen of the White Fox Tribe.
She was a woman with the same eyes, nose, and mouth as Shiloh. Shiloh came to his senses when he saw his mother like this and ran to her right away.
“Mom!”
Eileen’s body was thin and frail, and she seemed to have difficulty standing, but her black eyes were shining powerfully.
She reached out her hand that was like dry firewood and caressed her son’s cheek, then raised her head and looked at Brody.
And when her eyes met with Brody’s, who was watching her helplessly, her lips moved slightly.
Brody could tell that it was a smile. It was fleeting, but warm.
“Shiloh, I heard you captured Rubinus’ child…”
Shiloh couldn’t look at his mother properly after hearing those words.
He also knew that it was wrong to try to shift his hatred onto the child.
“It’s not that I don’t understand your feelings.”
The hand that touched her son’s cheek was extremely affectionate and warm.
“But it is the right choice to send the child back.”
Perhaps Shiloh knew that his mother would definitely ask for the child to be sent back if she heard about this, so he deliberately tried to deal with the child this early in the morning, before his mother woke up.
After finishing speaking, Eileen coughed slightly. It was only a small cough, but her body, which had not yet fully recovered, swayed anxiously even at that small effort.
However she didn’t stop there, she told them a story that no one knew but her.
“The day I went to stop Rubinus… the one who attacked me then wasn’t Rubinus.”
Everyone looked up in surprise. Shiloh was no exception. He looked at his mother in disbelief.
At that time, those who brought Eileen, who had lost consciousness, clearly said that Rubinus had attacked Eileen using dark magic while she was being taken away.
There was no way their words could be false.
But Eileen noticed their misunderstanding and continued speaking.
“Everyone thought Rubinus had tried to harm me. But Rubinus… had been under Amidal’s control before that.”
Black Witch Amidal.
She was a woman who tried to rule the Knohen Empire with black magic by devouring people’s souls with her twisted spells.
Long ago, Rubinus, who aspired to become a witch, sought greater power and fell under the temptation of the dark witch Amidal, beginning to take an interest in dark magic.
And as she entered the world of black magic, her mind was gradually taken over by Amidal. Because of this, even though Eileen sealed her black magic, Rubinus was easily taken over by her.
In this way, Amidal used Rubinus’s mind to attack Eileen until the moment she escaped from her.
Brody also knew that the Black Witch devoured the minds of those who made a contract with her.
In the original work ‘Blue Wolf’, which depicts this world view, Kyle, who was banished to the polar region and then returned, was unable to defeat Abel on his own so he made a contract with the black witch Amidal.
Kyle sold his body and soul to Amidal in an attempt to fight and defeat Abel, but Amidal swallowed Kyle’s mind and tried to kill Abel, and in the end, Abel ended up killing his brother, who was possessed by dark magic, with his own hands.
When the secret that no one knew was revealed through Eileen’s mouth, those gathered could not hide their bewilderment.
Shiloh also said nothing. Eileen spoke firmly to her thoughtful son.
“Shiloh, send the child back to Rubinus.”
Eileen learned that Rubinus had been under the control of the dark witch Amidal for a long time.
So, as a friend, she forgave Rubinus, but she still couldn’t give up on her.
Shiloh said yes to his mother’s request to send the child back, but his face did not ease up.
After Eileen was supported back to her quarters, Brody came to Shiloh, who was sitting alone in the secluded forest.
She had planned to leave early with Kyle, but she had to put off her departure for a while until things were roughly settled after explaining things to Kyle.
Brody approached Shiloh, who had a complicated face, and spoke cautiously.
“What are you going to do?”
Instead of just telling him to return the child, she asked him what he was planning.
He, who seemed to be thinking deeply, answered with a sigh in his voice.
“I guess I’m just a person with too much pride.”
“…”
“I don’t want to easily accept my mother’s words that Rubinus is not at fault.”
Brody nodded with a heavy heart at the sight of him seriously pouring out his heart.
“If hatred could be easily resolved, it isn’t hatred at all.”
She went to the rock where Shiloh was sitting, shook off the snow, and sat down on it.
“But… you’re going to send the baby back like your mother said, right?”
After hesitating for a while and starting to get worried, she asked, and Shiloh answered with a smirk.
“Well, I’m not that filial.”
Brody looked at him with stinking eyes after hearing that meaningful answer.
Shiloh sighed deeply, then opened his mouth in a playful voice.
“Ha, I don’t know. What if I go to give the baby back and the red foxes attack me for kidnapping the heir? That would be too scary for me.”
“…Don’t put on a show.”
Shiloh, who had been pretending to be weak, glanced at Brody, who noticed his prank and responded coldly. Then he said with a grumpy expression.
“Why should someone who doesn’t want to send the baby back have to go when someone who wants to do so doesn’t?”
“What are you talking about?”
“No, that’s not it. If someone wants to return the baby, they can find a way to do that, right?”
“Are you talking about me right now?”
Brody, who realized the meaning of the words belatedly, asked seriously if he was crazy.
But after she said that, Shiloh suddenly jumped up from his seat with a surprised look on his face, as if he had made some great discovery, and shouted.
“Yes, Brody! By the way, you were originally planning to go to the Rubinus Wilderness. Then you can just drop it off on your way!”
“Are you crazy? Why do you want us to clean up your own mess?”
Brody was furious at Shiloh’s thuggish behavior of dumping work on them.
Shiloh then gestured for her to calm down and explained.
“Wait a minute, Brody. Calm down and listen to me. You were originally going to the Rubinus Wilderness, but when you heard that they were blocking the outsiders there, you decided to dump the plan and go to the Crescent Mountains. Right? But think about it. If you take Rubinus’ baby, you can enter Volcan, the capital of the wilderness, with it. Then you can go there, give the baby to its mother, and go your way, isn’t it going to work?”
Wouldn’t this be a much better way than going through the Crescent Mountains, which were dotted with lava fields?
Shiloh actively persuaded her like this.
And Brody, who tried to ignore whatever he said, unknowingly fell for his persuasion.
If they don’t take the baby, they would have to trek through the rugged Crescent Mountains as planned.
Then it would take longer to get to Kyle’s home.
But if they took the baby with them, they could reach Kyle’s house more quickly through the route they originally intended.
Brody furrowed her brows as she started weighing her choices after hearing Shiloh’s words.
Was this really… an opportunity?
