Chapter 4 He Is Injured

[Avira]'s POV

I widened my eyes.

“What?”

Kylan tapped his own chest with a finger and repeated what he had just said.

I looked at the money pouch. The temptation of fifteen gold coins was indeed huge. Too bad the risk was huge too. What if, after I cursed him out, Kylan changed his mind and killed me? Dead people couldn't spend money.

“Can I ask first where the last person who took this job is buried now?”

Kylan frowned. “You talk too much nonsense.”

See? See? He really had no patience at all. If I actually cursed him out, he would definitely twist my head off on the spot and throw it out.

“Sorry, Alpha King. I'm just a little tired. You're joking with me, right?”

“No one is joking with you. Sit down and do as I say.”

I sat on the very edge of the chair, both feet pointed toward the door.

“Then let's agree first. You can't dock my pay just because I do what you said.”

“Fine.”

“And you can't transfer me to the stables to shovel dung.”

He glanced at me. “You have a lot of conditions. Any more?”

I swallowed the last condition back down.

Something like don't kill me was better left unsaid.

“Ahem, then I'll start... You gave me too much work!”

“Go on.”

“Clean the study, wipe the bookshelves, number the books, organize the documents. When you said it, it was only one sentence, but actually doing all that takes several people.”

Kylan leaned back in his chair and showed a faint smile.

“Today I was up on the ladder, and you called me down to fetch a document. I had just brought it over, and then you told me to climb back up and find another book.”

“I need all kinds of reference materials when I review documents. Isn't that normal?”

“But every time, you only spoke after I'd climbed back up.”

I closed my mouth. He rested one hand on the edge of the desk. He didn't get angry, and he didn't argue again.

I gradually grew bolder and couldn't help continuing. “Also, tonight you told me to renumber the account books. Then what about the volumes you took away and didn't put back?”

“Just leave empty spaces.”

“Then I have to know how many you took out first.”

Kylan paused and reached for the account books. I stood up on instinct.

“Sit down!”

He ordered me, then picked up a notebook and set it in front of me. He opened the last few pages and tapped the numbers written there.

“I recorded every number I took here. In your mind, is the Alpha King of this pack really such a disorganized person?”

Oh, shit. Why didn't you say so earlier!

I looked at those few lines and suddenly wanted to drag over the ladder I'd climbed today and make him climb it himself.

“You didn't tell me this morning.”

“You didn't ask either.”

“How would I dare ask? If I don't answer you within three sentences, I get transferred to shovel dung too.”

He frowned at my words.

“Who said that?”

I fell silent and rubbed my fingers together, deducting ten points from myself in my head.

My mouth really was faster than my brain. Why had I let that slip? How was I supposed to answer now? I couldn't exactly say the female steward in the outer hall told me. Wouldn't that just be getting her in trouble?

“Why aren't you speaking?”

I lowered my head and looked at the little clock on the desk. My mind raced, and I changed the subject.

“I worked all day and still haven't had dinner. I'm hungry.”

He followed my gaze and moved his hand off the notebook.

“Why didn't you say so earlier?”

“You kept telling me to do things. I didn't have time to eat dinner.”

This time, he didn't answer right away.

A plate of cold roast meat by the fireplace kept giving off its smell. That was probably his dinner, and he had barely touched it.

I swallowed and looked away. Good. The topic had been successfully changed. Now I could take the money and leave, right?

Kylan tugged the bell rope, and the butler answered at once outside the door.

“Save a dinner for her and send it to her room. Also, the female steward in the outer hall is old. Since she can't even arrange the daily life of the maids in the main castle properly, transfer her to the stables.”

I sucked in a sharp breath and immediately wanted to stop him, but I couldn't think of any reason, so I could only sit back down holding my breath, going over and over which sentence had given me away. But it seemed I really hadn't said anything...

The person outside acknowledged the order, and the footsteps gradually faded. Kylan's gaze turned back. I thought that was the end of it, but then he spoke again.

“What else?” he asked.

The money pouch was still beside his hand. I slumped back in the chair.

Impossible to please. Other people spent money to buy flattery. He spent money to make people pick faults, yet he was still never satisfied. Did even cursing him have to suit his taste?

I lowered my head and smoothed the wrinkles in my skirt. Gritting my teeth, I decided to give up on that bag of gold.

This money was not easy to earn at all. Besides, money could be earned again, but I only had one life. I couldn't stay in this room any longer, in case Kylan suddenly got unhappy and I suffered for it.

“Alpha King, I think this joke should end. I don't know what kind of answer you actually want to hear.”

“I want to hear the truth.”

“The truth is sometimes hard to hear.”

“I know.”

He answered too quickly, and I didn't know how to respond. The only sound left in the study was the fire burning in the fireplace. He looked at me as if, if I didn't speak, he really could wait here all night.

I let out a sigh and simply lowered my head. If speaking was wrong and staying silent was wrong too, then I might as well stay silent like this. I refused to believe he would never get hungry.

Even though he said he knew the truth was hard to hear, I wasn't falling for it.

At the Gray Valley Tavern, when drunk customers asked questions that were hard to answer, they would slap the table and say, “Go on, say it. I won't get angry.” Usually, once you really said it, they stood up and started smashing plates.

“Are you afraid of me?”

“...A little.”

Obviously. In this castle, even in the whole pack, who wasn't afraid of him?

His gaze moved away from my face, and he pushed the money pouch over.

“I won't punish you tonight for telling the truth. Fifteen gold coins. Take them.”

“You... don't have any other demands?”

“No.”

I snatched up the money pouch and blinked.

He kept his word, plus twenty points. He didn't keep making things hard for me, another five points. Too bad he was only in a good mood tonight. Who knew about tomorrow? I couldn't add too many for now.

Kylan turned his head and let out a short laugh.

My hand stopped while putting away the money pouch, and I shot him a suspicious look, not understanding what was so funny about what I had done.

“It's nothing. Put it away,” he said.

I let out a breath of relief, stuffed the money into the inner pocket of my skirt, and patted it twice.

“One more thing.” Just as I was about to leave, he suddenly spoke.

My hand froze in midair. My heart, which had just settled, lifted again.

“In the future, when it's time to eat, you can tell me.”

I stared at him blankly, and only after a while did I nod.

“Then can I go eat now?”

He smiled, stood up, and nodded.

I got up too. My legs were a little numb, and I stumbled, bracing myself on the edge of the desk.

Kylan immediately walked over and raised a hand, as if to steady me, but stopped halfway.

A drop of blood fell from the edge of his palm and struck the paper in front of me.

I stared at the red spot slowly spreading out, thinking I must have seen it wrong. I reached for the sheet on instinct, wanting to look more closely.

But before I could touch it, Kylan swiftly pulled the paper away, folded it up, and his face returned to its usual indifference.

“Get out.”

The black cuff flipped back with his movement. Only then did I see clearly that blood had soaked the inside of Kylan's forearm too.

I suddenly understood where the faint medicinal smell I'd noticed on him earlier had come from.

“You're bleeding.”

“I know.”

“Do you need me to call someone?”

“No.”

He threw the folded paper into the wastebasket. I looked at his arm. Blood was still slowly seeping out.

“At least get a clean bandage—”

I pointed at his arm. Before I could touch his clothes, my wrist suddenly tightened.

Kylan grabbed me. An Alpha's pressure spread through the room.

My heartbeat sped up, and I held my breath.

“Avira.” He stared into my eyes, his voice pressed very low. “You are not to tell anyone what you saw tonight.”