Imprint
1512 Words
Chapter 006: Imprint
Anindira raged the entire way.
She struggled, kicked, and pounded her fists against the young man's shoulder—doing whatever she could while still being carried like a sack of rice.
“Sir! Put me down! Put me down!!”
Her voice cracked between panic, embarrassment, and anger, all tangled together.
“Save your energy,” the young man replied casually, completely unaffected by her resistance.
“No matter what you do, you're not strong enough to break free from me. You'll only exhaust yourself, so you'd better stay still.”
His voice did not rise, nor did he sound particularly concerned.
He said it as though he were stating a simple fact—that struggling would only make things worse.
Meanwhile, Anindira became increasingly distressed by how ineffective all her efforts were. This young man... his body felt like stone. Hard, solid, and utterly unmoving.
After they had traveled what seemed a sufficient distance from the border of the Forbidden Forest, the young man finally stopped. His breathing had not changed at all despite walking swiftly while carrying another person.
“Do you see that?” he suddenly asked.
A moment later, Anindira's body was lifted slightly.
The young man adjusted his grip, raising one of her legs with one hand while keeping his other arm firmly around her body to prevent her from falling.
Anindira's eyes widened.
The sole of her foot gaped open.
A long, torn wound stretched across it, sliced by the sharp stones she had crossed earlier—a wound she had not even noticed because her body had been flooded with adrenaline and fear the entire time.
“Didn't you realize it?” the young man asked flatly. “How did you keep walking with your foot in this condition?”
Anindira looked at him pitifully, her trembling lips quivering as though only now was her body allowing the pain to reach her consciousness.
“A-ahhh... owwww...”
Her whine broke free.
Tears gathered at the corners of her eyes as the burning pain finally surged into her sole like glowing embers.
“It hurts... Why am I only feeling it now...? No wonder... my foot's felt weird this whole time...”
The young man closed his eyes briefly, whether from frustration or disbelief.
“You're only noticing it now?” he finally asked in astonishment.
“Were you really that tense that you didn't realize a wound this serious?”
Anindira did not answer.
She simply stared at the young man's indistinct face—barely visible through the mist and framed by long black hair outlining his jaw—with watery eyes.
Her body trembled from the cold, the pain, and also... embarrassment, because it turned out he was right. She had badly injured herself without realizing it.
And now, whether she liked it or not, she was completely dependent on this stranger.
The young man let out a long breath as he looked at Anindira clutching her injured foot while enduring the pain.
“Hufth...” he sighed, sounding more patient than before.
“I understand. You're a lost woman, alone, with no one you know. It's no surprise that you're tense... That's why I hope you can trust me. Considering that you and I are bound by an Imprint now. You're not alone. I'll do anything to make you happy...”
The words came naturally, as though they were important.
Yet they fell entirely in vain.
Anindira only stared blankly, her eyes still brimming with tears from the pain in her foot. Every word he spoke flowed past her without truly entering her mind.
The young man watched her for a long moment before sighing again.
“Hufth... I truly have no idea what you're thinking. I don't even know whether you understand the situation between us.”
His eyes narrowed as he studied her.
“From your scent, I know you don't have a mate yet... but I'm confused because I can't smell your father. So I don't even know where I'm supposed to take you home...”
Yet Anindira did not understand a single part of that complaint.
“Sir, is that real?”
Her innocent question cut straight through his grumbling.
She pointed directly beneath his eye. Still in his arms, she failed to realize how close they actually were. Those eyes... they had captivated her from the very beginning, stirring a curiosity she could not explain.
“From your clothes,” Anindira continued while carefully examining the young man's irises glowing beneath the forest's gentle light, “I can tell you're a native. So it doesn't seem possible that those are contact lenses...”
Her admiration was so pure, so foreign—
and to a resident of this world, so foolish.
She did not realize that something called contact lenses was not even part of this world's knowledge.
Nor did she know that the gaze enchanting her was not merely physical appearance, but also a supernatural bond that had never been recorded by any science in the world where she had been born.
On the other hand, the young man froze.
Not because of Anindira's question—he did not understand a single word she was saying—but because of her fingertip touching the skin beneath his eye.
A small action that, to Anindira, was nothing more than innocent curiosity.
But in this world, it was a gesture reserved for someone trying to charm a member of the opposite s*x.
The young man seemed to swallow slowly, his throat moving visibly.
“Ehm...” He cleared his throat, trying to keep his voice steady.
“You should stop that... or you'll regret it if I can't restrain myself.”
His words seemed to snap Anindira out of a trance.
The hand touching his face jerked away instantly as though struck by electricity.
“I'm sorry!” she cried out.
“I didn't mean anything bad by it, really! Please forgive me... It wasn't intentional...”
Her face turned red.
Panic, embarrassment, confusion—everything piled together at once. Even by the standards of her own world, what she had just done was already quite rude.
“Hey, calm down!” the young man exclaimed when Anindira started moving too wildly in his arms. “You could fall!”
Anindira immediately froze.
The young man stared at her with eyes nearly bulging—not angry, but more horrified that he might accidentally drop her.
“Okay...” Anindira murmured softly, lowering her head.
“I don't know what you're saying... but I think you're upset with me and telling me to be quiet. Thank you... for not throwing me to the ground...”
The young man blinked.
For a moment, he looked confused—perhaps because his instincts told him that the girl's conclusions always leaped far beyond reason.
But in the end, he let out a long sigh.
“Have you calmed down now?” he asked, tilting his head slightly to make sure she was no longer thrashing around.
“I'll find a place for us to rest.”
Anindira did not understand his words, but this time she chose to remain silent.
Resigned.
Afraid of making another mistake.
And also... because her shoulders were beginning to ache after crying, struggling, and panicking one after another for so long.
The young man resumed walking, carrying her steadily as the forest gradually darkened beneath the approaching dusk.
In this world, an Imprint is a bond that appears in an instant—a feeling of affection driven so deeply into the heart that it can never be pulled back out. The bond is born when the eyes of a man and a woman meet.
For a man, an Imprint can happen only once in a lifetime.
Once he has Imprinted on a woman, his feelings will remain locked onto that woman until one of them dies.
Forever.
For a woman, however, the rule is different.
A woman may Imprint on more than one man throughout her lifetime... but she can only be Imprinted upon by a single man.
When it happens to both sides at the same moment—when a man and a woman Imprint on each other in the same instant—it is called a True Imprint.
An absolute bond.
One that nothing can replace.
There was only one thing Anindira did not realize:
that the gaze they had just shared was not merely a meeting of eyes.
The young man felt it with perfect clarity—an emotional impact so powerful that it stole his breath. He knew exactly what it was. He knew exactly what had just happened.
And he knew, without words, without promises, without any ritual at all...
That today, at the edge of this Forbidden Forest, he had found the woman who would bind his heart until the end of his life.
Anindira.
The lost girl who did not even understand the danger—or the meaning—behind the small touch she had given him moments ago.
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