Beast in the Woods, Deep in the Night

3.1

For a split second, Christine looked at Duff calmly.

The words he uttered were friendly yet intimidating. It was a tone of voice that seemed to be a mixture of the authority he held as the master of the guild, his title as Baron Goldman, and his heavy body adorned in leather and jewels.

Moreover, before returning to her twenty-second birthday, Christine had been slapped by him. She still felt the cheek that was hit by his rough hand tingling. She couldn’t help but feel a sense of fear when she saw him.

But at the same time, Christine felt a strange sense of superiority. Unlike her past self, who knew nothing, she knew a lot about Duff’s weaknesses.

In any case, since she had not yet broken the curse, the chimera’s tear that kept her and her mother alive was in Duff’s hands, so Christine had no intention of rebelling when she didn’t need to.

“I apologize. I just arrived and was so hungry that I wanted to eat first. Well… I couldn’t even do that because I ran out of money.”

“You’re cute. You can now lie without even changing your expression. You were trying to take a breather away from my eyes.”

“If I wasn’t cute, I wouldn’t have succeeded in this request. Isn’t that right, Master?”

“…”

Duff was speechless for a moment.

He didn’t know whether to call it shamelessness or say that it was very self-objectifying, but it was difficult to refute because it was true.

Christine Baines was damn pretty. Her appearance was a great asset to the guild, as she could seduce any person within a week to get any information she wanted.

Her ample breasts, slender waist, and gracefully long legs made one salivate just by looking at her.

She also had an excellent ability to handle the commissions she received neatly, so he liked that he was able to earn a huge brokerage fee for his guild every month. But what he liked the most was that he could hold the lives of the mother and daughter in his hands and do whatever he wanted with them.

‘Even if she survives with my help because she’s young, isn’t she crazy to spend a few gold coins every month on her dying mother’s nursing and medicine?’

Well, that allowed the guild to use Christine, so there was no complaint. Duff made Christine sit across from him, then slammed on the table to order a beer and grilled chicken for himself.

“I told you to pay me back whenever you get money. Otherwise, I’ll have to send your mother to your dead father.”

Christine curled her fists under the table with a fake smile on her face. She wanted to stab Duff to death for making a joke about her parents’ lives.

But if she did something like that, she and her mother might really succumb to the pain and collapse. The Chimera’s Tear was in the largest of Duff’s safes.

As tension grew around the table, Duff’s order arrived.

He devoured the crispy grilled chicken covered in garlic butter and drank the cold beer.

“Tell me if you’re hungry, Christine. I’ll feed you until you’re full if you just act a little cute.

“…”

“The offer I made before is still valid…”

“It’s fine.”

Christine frowned as if she had heard something disgusting and quickly refused.

Duff sneered at her firm reaction and took a sip of his beer. He also used her appearance as much as possible to get the information the client desired.

‘What’s wrong with being the second wife of a man who’s a baron and a guild master?’

Every time he saw Christine showing off her ridiculous pride in front of him, he felt sick to his stomach, wondering how worthless she thought he was.

“How long do you think you’ll be able to be arrogant like that? You’re twenty-two this year, so you’ll lose your looks next year, Christine.”

Christine sneered inwardly. It wasn’t once or twice that Duff tried to lower her self-esteem by mentioning her age, but now more than ever, his words didn’t sound pleasant.

It wasn’t age that defeated her. It was him.

It was a deplorable thing for him to slap a guild member who had devoted her entire life to the guild, a member who endured being treated like a dog until the curse consumed her body, just for failing a request once.

Besides, she was beautiful even at the age of twenty-nine.

Now that Christine was well aware of that fact, she couldn’t just sit by and listen to him.

“Well… You don’t know that. In any case, while I was taking care of the request, I heard something strange.”

“What did you hear?”

“The man I followed to gather information this time was a businessman, right? He met up with other businesspeople and had a worried conversation. He said he didn’t think he would be able to get the gold bars he had left in the safe.”

“…”

“From what I’ve heard, he left the gold bars somewhere, but I guess the person in charge of that place was addicted to gambling and used the customers’ money. The businessmen were angry and looking for a contract killer. They were making a fuss, saying that they would make sure that person’s neck and body would be completely detached.”