Hiding My Identity From My Husband - Chapter 30

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 30

“Help me! Please!”
A thin, piercing scream cut through the air.
I ran toward the sound.
A small, frail child thrashed in the Artificial Mud Swamp, and the sight froze me for only an instant.
Countless black shadows rose above the water.
A pack of crocodiles churned the once-calm surface into chaos as they hunted.
My instincts kicked in, analyzing the threat.
‘Four of them… no, five.’
They had already formed a semicircle around the child.
The child’s small hands flailed helplessly, grasping at nothing while the mud crumbled mercilessly beneath them.
Their legs were trapped deep in the muck, with no hope of escape.
“Char! Help!”
At that moment, one crocodile slowly opened its jaws.
Long, razor-sharp teeth glinted in the sunlight, and a heavy, blunt tail sliced through the water with methodical grace.
One strike—that’s all it would take to end the child’s life.
So.
“Hah!”
I dove forward without hesitation.
I grabbed the child by the waist and rolled backward, away from the jaws.
Snap! The crocodile’s massive maw snapped shut. Barely missing us, the child trembled in terror, eyes wide with fear.
“You’re safe now. Stay behind me.”
“B-but…!”
Behind me might as well have been a trap—crocodiles surrounded us.
We were already encircled by the pack.
“I said you’re safe. Don’t worry. I’ll get you out of here.”
This was all bluster, really.
I had no gun. No blade.
‘Foolish.’
I should have brought them, just in case.
This was entirely my fault.
I’d let my guard down.
But now—
‘I have to save this child.’
I drew a breath to steady myself.
It had been far too long since I’d moved with this kind of intensity, and I worried my body wouldn’t answer—but I had no choice but to try.
Whoosh!
As the crocodile behind the child whipped its tail, I twisted my body out of reach. My fist drove straight into its eye.
Crack!
The impact was enough that the crocodile instinctively snapped its eye shut.
But immediately another lunged from the side, jaws open, going for my leg.
“Hmph!”
I dropped and jumped, landing hard across its snout.
I grabbed the edge of its mouth and forced it open with every ounce of strength I had left, wrenching until my fingers screamed.
Blood poured from my hands, but I couldn’t stop—if I gave ground now, the crocodile would drag me under in seconds.
Eyes. Nostrils. Throat.
I struck where I’d been trained to strike—where the creature was weakest.
My fingers drove deep into the soft flesh beneath its jaw.
“Aaaarghhh!”
The crocodile convulsed in agony, thrashing wildly. In that moment of chaos, I shouted at the child.
“Run! Get to solid ground!”
But in the same instant—
Another crocodile lunged from the side, jaws gaping wide.
Not at me.
At the child.
The crocodile’s teeth gleamed.
“No!”
I didn’t hesitate. I threw myself forward without a backward glance.
I knew what would happen—my body torn between those teeth.
But still, still the child—!
I squeezed my eyes shut, bracing for the pain that would come.
But then.
Crack!
A gunshot rang out from somewhere.
Whoosh—I rolled across the ground, twisting my body. The bullet merely tore through empty air—perhaps meant only to frighten—but it was enough to drive the crocodile away.
“Hah… hah…”
I drew breath in ragged gasps, scanning the swamp around me.
I quickly scooped up the child, who was crouched down and weeping.
At that same moment, crack! Bang! Bang! More gunfire erupted.
The crocodiles scattered in an instant.
“Ha…”
I let out a breathless laugh.
I couldn’t help it.
There was only one person I knew capable of marksmanship this precise.
“Char!”
It was Theo.
I stroked the weeping child’s head while letting myself collapse flat on my back.
“You’re early.”
But I’d known you’d come.
I closed my eyes.

* * *

“Char!”
Theo lowered his gun and rushed over, immediately examining Char.
Whether the child in her arms was crying or not was of no consequence to him.
His entire mind was consumed with Char alone.
“Are… are you all right?”
His face showed an uncharacteristic panic and confusion as he pressed his fingers below her ear.
Her pulse was racing.
She was still breathing.
Then…
‘She’s fainted.’
From blood loss.
Theo’s jaw clenched at the sight of Char’s mangled hands.
He tore at his own clothing and carefully wrapped her hands.
It wouldn’t achieve perfect hemostasis, but it would hold until they could reach a physician.
“Good heavens! Theo!”
Cecil’s cry pierced the air.
That child was Cecil’s nephew? Theo felt his rage deepen further.
“Theo! Open your eyes! You’re all right, aren’t you? Answer me!”
Cecil hopped from foot to foot, checking on Theo’s condition.
Theo turned his head toward her.
“Your nephew appears perfectly sound and wholly unharmed, Miss Cecil. Surely you can see that?”
“Y-yes?”
“And yet Char is in this state. Are your eyes nothing but buttonholes?”
“N-no, that is to say… I…”
“If you possessed any capacity for thought whatsoever, wouldn’t you be fetching a physician rather than standing about on those perfectly functional legs of yours?”
Theo’s voice, while naturally given to sarcasm, had never cut quite so viciously before.
For this reason, Cecil felt tears threatening to spill.
But the moment her gaze fell on Char’s unconscious form, a profound sense of duty washed over her—the realization that this was no moment for her own tears.
I am not a good person, but neither am I a wicked one.
I cannot weep for my own sorrow while someone lies dying.
Cecil pulled herself together.
“I’ll fetch the physician!”
And she ran at once to find one.
“Ugh…….”
Then Char stirred and slowly opened her eyes.
Behind eyelids that fluttered with deliberate slowness, brilliant violet irises appeared and vanished again in measured succession.
Watching her, Rue felt as though her breath had been stolen.
She had nearly lost the light in those eyes forever.
Nearly ceased to exist.
Nearly fallen into that hellish fate.
“What were you—”
“The child?”
It was concern for the child that cut through Rue’s anger.
Char asked with such perfect naturalness, opening her eyes as though this were the most obvious thing in the world.
“The child’s all right? That’s true, isn’t it?”
Rue felt the emotions surging up inside her become impossible to contain.
“You’re in this state and you’re worried about the child first?”
That child.
A child from nowhere, belonging to no one Rue knew.
Why throw away your life for such a child, why—
Rue clenched her fists, forcing back the sob that threatened to tear from her throat.
Blood dripped from her hand in a thin red line.
“That’s why I’m worried about the child. You nearly died saving her. So please, just tell me. The child’s all right, isn’t she?”
Char, who knew nothing of Rue’s heart—or perhaps chose not to know—asked once more.
Rue wanted to say the child was dead, but she held her tongue.
She knew exactly how much that would hurt her.
“The child…….”
Rue lowered her head as she answered.
“She’s fine.”
“Hah…….”
Only then did Char exhale in relief, a small smile crossing her face.
“Thank goodness.”
Then she turned her head to the side and closed her eyes again.
“Let me sleep a bit. I’m exhausted.”
Not exhausted—hurting.
Her flesh torn and gouged, wracked with pain.
Why wouldn’t she say it hurt?
“You…….”
Rue rested her forehead against Char’s sleeping cheek and shut her eyes tight.
“You’re someone who isn’t supposed to be hurt like this.”
She murmured the words in a voice that seemed ready to extinguish itself.
“This shouldn’t be happening.”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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