18 "Why are you running?"

"Wait—Who did you say you were marrying", I trail off, my voice getting smaller at the end of the question.

"You." A terrifyingly beautiful smile breaks out from Obrecht's lips.

The silence between us stretches.

Slack-jawed, I gawk at him unconsciously. As my spirit returns, I dash for the pool. I can't wait any longer to try to sneak away. My gut tells me that if I don't escape from him now, I'll never be able to. This person might as well be as frightening as the Lycan-kind.

Obrecht's reflexes were as sharp as mine by tenfold. Before I could reach the edge of the pool, he manages to catch me and pins my down on my back.

"Why are you running?"

I felt his confusion and bafflement.

He's allowed to be confused and baffled??? He really doesn't know how terrifying he is?! Or how frightening he just nonchalantly says all that?!

I feel his conflicting emotions; he doesn't want to hurt me but he knows that if he eases his hold on me, I'll start running away again. His emotions tell me that he wants to know why I'm running yet he doesn't push for an answer.

I do not move for a moment, acting as I'm scared.

No, I am scared. How can he straightforwardly say that he'll marry me—a guy—in the most natural way?

I felt him lower his guard through my one-sided connection with him. Though still feeling weak, tired and cold, I succeeded in using my shadow to immobilize him temporarily.

I push him back slightly as I stagger towards the pool.

"Stop! Your fever's going to get worse!"

I do not listen to him as I dive deep into the depths of the pool. The water was bitingly cold. It lasts only a few seconds as I either grow accustomed to it, or numb to the coldness; I'm not sure which.

My feet push the water feebly, as my hands clutch the walls of the pool and use the few protruding stones to pull myself lower. The passage opened cylindrical downwards.

Minutes had passed by as I desperately find a way, yet there was none. The pool went deeper whilst black spots had started appearing in my sight, the longer and deeper I swam but in my stubbornness refused to swim back up.

My hands touch nothing but a smooth floor. There were no other passages. The pool of water just went deeper and then stopped.

Then.. h—how did I even get here?

The pressure at the bottom felt heavy, almost as if the water at the bottom floor was pulling me downwards. In my panic, I swallow a few mouthfuls of water. I suppress the urge to cough as my instincts kick in, propelling me to grasp upwards just for a breath of air. It's like I haven't learnt my lesson when it comes to water. Mother only taught us how to swim once while she controlled a big chunk of water in the air. Since there weren't any bodies of water near home, I am not that good at swimming; just the essentials. Yet, here I am, not knowing where my limits lie.

Partway to drowning, I hear a vague splashing. A hand snakes around my waist. One hard kick and we zoom past the water and break past the water's surface. The water in my lungs gush out as I cough and take big breaths.

I feel myself being lifted from the pool, the droplets from my hair falling on Obrecht's shoulder. He puts me down on the floor beside the bed, drenched and cold. With air again in my lungs, my hazy mind recovers and wonders when my shadow let go of my hold on Obrecht.

Helplessly, he grabs the fur and covers me with it.

"Do you have a death wish", he feebly jests. He holds his forehead, running it through his hair later to shake off the excess water.

"There's no way out", I say after a while. I stare at the cave's ceiling.

"Mm. I know." I turn my head to him. My expression twists.

Then how?

"Don't think about it too deeply." He rubs my head as if it's the most natural thing to do. "There is no way out of Inferis. At least none that I know of." He sits beside me, gazing intently.

"What do you mean?"

"As I have said."

I purse my lips as I resume staring at the ceiling. I squeeze my eyes shut.

"Get better first." All of a sudden, he drops his serious expression and grins. "We can always talk later." He stands to rummage for a change of clothes.

My eyes follow him. I avert my eyes as my cheeks started heating. It seems like Obrecht didn't have any qualms with me seeing him change his clothes. I cover half of my face with the back of my arm.

"I don't have clothes that might fit you. I'll try and trade for a few that might fit you tomorrow, but for now, how about you wear this?" He offers a few clothes to me, as I peek at him through my fingers.

An awkward silence lingers, making me flustered for no certain reason. It may have partly been because of my failed attempt to escape, but I refuse to have it be the only cause for it. I sit up. I can't even look him in the eye anymore, without feeling embarrassed.

"Hahahaha!" Obrecht's booming voice make me flinch. It sweeps away at least a bit of the awkwardness. ��You know, if you don't like me marrying you to the point that you try to run away, you could have just told me so." He laughs some more.

Oh… So he's a reasonable good guy a—

"We could always have it a few years later. How does that sound?"

I feel annoyed; annoyed at him and at myself for even believing him for a second there.

I should've known!

I throw the fur hard on his face as I stand up. I move to the darkest corner to change my clothes. I raise the hem of my shirt half-way but then freeze when I see him observantly watching my every move. A shiver passes my spine. I let go of the shirt's hem.

"…." Can you not watch me, pervert?

Motivated with a new idea, I try hard to spread my shadow around me before having projecting it upwards like a small curtain. It almost dissolves a bit as the fever in me and Obrecht's gaze made it hard to concentrate.

I hear a small disappointed sigh from the other side once the black shadow completely hides me. I blush a bit.

Perverted entity.

Dressed up, the shadow around me splashes back to the ground and gets vacuumed in the direction of my feet. I pinch the collar of his shirt and try to lift it up a bit. Obrecht's shirt was more than just a little big for me. The hem even reached up to my thighs, and I had to hold on to the pants because they were too wide. I think I might just trip on the pant legs at this rate.

Obrecht gives a satisfied hum and I glare at him. Not a word about my figure, I threaten him with my eyes, to which he covers the grin on his face with a hand and looks away.

Night comes unannounced, although I have hard time telling exactly what time it is inside the Obrecht's cave. The cool soothing feeling of the balm he had made from the grounded black-leafed herbs he found, relieved the ache of my bruises and wounds a lot. It was my first time see such a color of herbs that isn't poisonous.

Clack!

Obrecht put down the small arrow stems he had finished carving. He checks the width of the tips and its fit with the small metallic conic arrowheads.

"Aren't you going home", I ask, flatly.

"It's fine. I'll just go back home around early morning."

"Oh", I answer monotonously.

He stops what he's doing to look at me. Walking over, he says, "You aren't sleeping yet?"

"….."

"What are you afraid of? I'm not going to do anything to you." He smirks.

"You talk as if we'd known each other for such a long time before…"

"Hmm", he presses his lips together in thought for a while. "I don't know why, either. You just don't seem like a bad person—you have that sort innocent aura around you."

"…..You better not be pertaining to my height and stature", I threaten lightly, as I move to the inner side of the bed and face the cave wall.