I Picked Up an Abandoned Villain in the Polar Region

Episode 53

 

The itchiness on Brody’s body had gotten worse.

Until two days ago, she could bear it, but now she couldn’t bear it any longer.

The itchy sensation felt as if bugs were crawling all over her body.

Also, the itching that was concentrated on the collarbone and arms gradually expanded to the entire body and legs.

Last night, she scratched so much that she even bled.

She couldn’t stand it anymore, so she was taking care of the baby while scratching her skin with her fingernails until it bled…

In the meantime, she heard Kyle sigh, and for a moment, she felt like she had been hit in the head.

‘What am I doing now?’

That person didn’t even get up and say “are you okay?” even though she was suffering like this right next to him.

Because of that, she felt an unbearable sense of vertigo when she saw herself holding a baby and walking alone.

What am I doing here now?

It was unfair. She had been suffering for days and couldn’t sleep because of the baby.

But for some reason, Kyle didn’t worry about her at all, and instead focused on his own thoughts.

Every time Brody saw the baby cry, she thought of him, feeling sorry for him who couldn’t sleep.

Who am I suffering like this for?

Who am I going through this difficult journey for?

Everything I was going through is because of him, so why do I have to bear all this alone?

Brody bit her lips hard, a sense of resentment welling up from the depths of her chest.

Brody’s sharp eyes, looking at Kyle’s back, were filled with resentment.

Brody had never once resented Kyle, no matter how difficult the situation was while traveling with him.

But Brody was different now.

The warmth that had once been in her heart had disappeared, and in its place were only cold emotions that had grown tired from the hard days.

 

***

 

It had been five days since they entered the wilderness of Rubinus.

Amidst the days that flowed unpleasantly, an incident finally erupted.

Brody, who hadn’t slept the night before, was barely in her right mind. Of course, so was Kyle.

They did not exchange a word with each other. It was different from the past when they had climbed the Rhodes Mountains without saying a word because they were so hungry.

The atmosphere was tense, as if walking on a knife’s edge, and now that Brody, who always tried to melt this atmosphere, closed her mouth, the atmosphere became completely cold.

In that moment, it was clear how her bright personality has played a role in this journey so far.

Until yesterday, the sun was shining brightly in the pale gray sky, but starting this morning, dark clouds began to gather.

Rain was the worst thing that could happen to them now.

It was hard enough just to walk on muddy ground, but there was nothing more painful than walking in the rain on a day when the cold still hadn’t fully gone away.

But the gloomy sky seemed to be testing their patience.

The dark clouds grew closer, and their pace became faster as if they were running away.

Because it was warm during the day but cold at night, they couldn’t just throw away their clothes, having to carry the heavy clothes on their back and walk, which was really hard work.

And as their loads grew heavier, darker shadows fell over their faces.

“Kyle, let’s take a break.”

Brody called out to Kyle, who was running ahead of them without even thinking about the people following behind.

“…”

But Kyle was too busy moving on, either thinking about something else or just ignoring her.

“Kyle! Stop for a second!”

It was only after a frustrated cry finally burst from Brody’s mouth that his steps came to a halt.

Annoyance ruined the mood of both the giver and receiver.

Kyle stopped and sat down where he had stopped, without returning to face Brody.

Brody would normally feel sorry for getting annoyed at him, but not now.

Brody’s resentment towards him had been snowballing with every action he took since last night.

She sat there with her lips tightly shut, as if suppressing the irritation boiling inside her.

‘Itchy.’

Even when she walked down the road, her body still felt itchy. And the more she endured the itchiness, the more sensitive she became.

Brody bit the inside of her mouth and pulled out a bottle of milk.

Then she fed the milk to Ron, who had been whining about being hungry for a while.

Ron didn’t cry as long as he was fed milk, making the surroundings become quiet. And Brody began to nod off while holding the bottle of milk.

Even though she tried not to fall asleep, her head kept falling without her realizing it.

Of course, Brody wasn’t the only one who was enjoying this moment of silence.

Kyle, who had only fallen into a light sleep around dawn, also sat down and dozed off.

But even during this brief moment of respite, his mind was inevitably clouded by memories of the past that would not go away like leeches.

He could try not to think about it when he was awake, but now, when his consciousness was clouded, it was difficult to block out the thoughts that came into his mind.

This time, the memory that came to mind was the day he had his last private conversation with his father.

It was absurd for a father to ask his older son to compete with his younger brother for the position of successor that had been his for his entire life. But that day the order was given.

In his memory, he and his father were venting their anger at each other.

‘If you had shown yourself to be trustworthy, your younger brother would not have dared to look down on you, and the people would have fully accepted you as the successor! The elders would not have unanimously agreed to Abel’s words that he would become the successor!’

‘What more can I do to prove myself trustworthy here? I have lived the way my father taught me and told me to live! I have devoted my life to living that way! And now you are taking away my life’s purpose? Do you think that is right?’

…The screams of that day were so vivid to him.

The moment when he lost his temper and started talking back to his father and got into a rage.

The moment when he lost his sense of reason due to that sense of betrayal.

Until the moment when he finally decided to kill his younger brother.

When he recalled these memories, strangely enough, the emotions he felt at that time became so vivid that he couldn’t even handle them.

His whole mind was almost being consumed by the sharpness of hatred once again, when suddenly…

“Neeeeh!”

A loud, head-shaking cry woke him from his rage.

His eyes widened in surprise.

At the same time, he saw Ron crying and freaking out in the distance, and Brody fidgeting and repeatedly apologizing to Ron, making him wonder what was wrong.

His heart was pounding.

The fear he had felt in his dream earlier and the shock he felt from the crying mixed together, making his head feel like it was going to split open.

Kyle couldn’t stand it any longer and got up from his seat. He felt like he was in hell. He wanted to get away from all the things that were bothering him right now.

“What do I do, what do I do! Ron, are you okay? I’m sorry, it was my fault, what do I do!”

Meanwhile, Brody was panicking after realizing that the bottle had moved while she was napping, sending some milk up the baby’s nose.

Of course, immediately after that, Ron cried so hard that everyone around him felt like crying too. And the sound of his crying shocked Brody so hard that she held Ron in her arms and trembled.

As Ron’s face grew redder, Brody’s face grew corpse-like pale.

Brody felt so sorry that she held the baby in her arms and kept apologizing, and without realizing it, she was crying.

She knew what to do.

In an emergency situation, the only person she could turn to was Kyle.

But the moment Brody turned her head in his direction, Kyle jumped up from his seat and tried to walk away, leaving her behind.

“…”

For a moment, her heart sank.

‘What is he doing now?’

Brody’s face, which had been filled with confusion, hardened coldly.

She felt that he was being all arrogant as he walked away, pretending not to notice the chaos around him.

His behavior was getting more and more out of line. She was angry at him for not showing her even the slightest consideration.

He was acting like she was the only one responsible for all of this, behaving without any regard for the people he was going with.

It was absurd that he acting as if he was the only one who was stressed, even though he wasn’t the only one who was suffering.

And she also couldn’t understand why she was putting up with all those behaviors.

‘Rather, I’m the one who accepted that wolf’s request and is accompanying him on this difficult journey. But instead of being treated with respect, why is he making me feel so miserable?’

She was just a guide.

Even as she continued to comfort Ron, a sense of injustice rose to her throat.

It was not that she didn’t know that Kyle’s personality was so arrogant. Brody thoroughly knew about Kyle’s selfish personality from the beginning.

But she didn’t think that after having built up a relationship over time, he would still act so inconsiderately.

If she had known this would happen, she wouldn’t have traveled with him.

She wouldn’t have decided to be his guide.

The resentment that had never existed before grew terribly. In fact, the resentment that had started the night before had sprouted all morning, and Brody, exhausted from the hardships of several days, accepted the resentment growing in her heart.

She clenched her teeth and chased after Kyle, hatred for him rising with every step she took.

As tension grew between the two, as if it would explode if it were to be touched even a little, the heavens abandoned them once again.

Raindrops fell from the cloud-covered sky.

“What?”

Kyle, who was walking around frantically, holding his head as if it was going to burst, looked up at the sky in disbelief.

But as raindrops began to fall one by one on his raised face, the anxiety he had been harboring all along became a reality.

He looked up at the sky and burst into laughter.

This couldn’t be happening.

The heavens couldn’t abandon them on their journey, which was filled with all sorts of unfortunate events.

It really seemed as if everything in the world was pushing the patience of these two people to its limit.

Brody was equally desperate. The rain began to fall one or two drops at a time, but soon began to pour down like a shower.

Brody quickly wrapped Ron in a blanket to keep him from getting wet, then shouted at Kyle.

“Kyle! Come back! You can’t go on like this!”

They had to pitch a tent to avoid the rain.

Brody, who had barely caught up with Kyle, continued to yell at him.

But strangely enough, Kyle didn’t move from his spot.