Chapter 28
A red gaze flickered through the dark shadows where the sunlight had faded.
It was said that the fires of hell could melt even a person’s soul. She couldn’t understand why the description of hell from the scriptures came to mind.
Her breathing stopped, yet she was short of breath. No. Perhaps it was not her breath that was short, but something else.
“To think I’d see my wife in a place like this.”
He spoke as if it were a shame. His voice, sinking in languidly like the afternoon hour, climbed up Ninia’s ankles like smoke.
Her heels touched the wall. Her body, following its instincts, tried to step back, but Ninia was already cornered.
“I almost missed such an interesting act. Why wasn’t I invited, Count?”
“…My apologies.”
At his laughter-laced tone, Raid bowed his head. It was a wise choice. Tarahan was not smiling. He was a man who had no qualms about killing people anytime, anywhere, and that was true even now.
“So. What was it about my wife that you liked so much?”
Tarahan asked, but Raid could not answer. At that, he continued speaking, brushing past Raid.
His steps reached Ninia. A hand shot out in an instant and grabbed her hand.
It was the hand the Count had kissed. Tarahan’s heat covered the already vanished warmth. A groan escaped at the hand that hurt as if it would break.
“…Ah!”
The thin skin was instantly marked with a handprint. Tarahan kissed the back of her reddened hand. His gaze was fixed on Raid.
“Lift your head. Count. Look at my wife.”
Raid had no choice but to look at Ninia. It was she who lowered her gaze instead. Tarahan continued to speak, regardless of her reaction.
“Go on, tell me. Was it the part where she pretends not to be, after coming in to seduce men, that was so tempting, or was it this innocent-looking face?”
Tarahan, holding Ninia’s hand over his, made her hold her own face.
Her gaze became entangled with the red eyes. As if he knew she was avoiding the Count’s eyes, he whispered in her ear.
“That one can’t answer, so you tell me.”
“I…”
Her dry lips trembled. Whatever he thought, she had to deny it.
That he had seen wrong. But her terrified body just trembled, unable to produce a proper voice.
“If you want the Count, I’ll allow it. How about it, is that what you want?”
“Your Excellency.”
“You shut up.”
His voice, devoid of laughter, was murderous. Raid closed his mouth again.
While the Count watched, Tarahan kissed Ninia’s ear. The lips that bit her earlobe traveled down her neck. Ninia struggled to swallow the sound escaping her lips. As if he didn’t like such an attempt, Tarahan thrust his thumb into her tightly closed lips.
“To know so well how to seduce a man.”
“…Hut!”
“If you wanted it so badly, you should have sought me out first. Didn’t I tell you before?”
The cruel words throttled Ninia, toying with her. The area under her trembling eyelids grew wet. Her watery eyes were begging him to stop.
Tarahan pressed on the corner of her eye. Hot tears soaked into his finger.
“How about here? If you wish, you might be able to have two men at once.”
“…Your Excellency, please. No.”
Her trembling hand gripped Tarahan’s wrist. Tarahan looked down at her hand, which was barely resting on him, not even gripping with any force, and bit her neck.
“I picked it up for you as you wished. So what is there to be dissatisfied about now?”
Tarahan berated her. She had begged so earnestly, and he had picked up the trash someone else had thrown away, but the trash wanted to roll around in an even filthier place. At those words, Ninia closed her eyes.
“How much more do I have to accommodate you? In what manner does my wife need to be defiled to know satisfaction. I thought I had rolled around in the mud a fair bit myself… but it seems I’ll have to try quite hard to perfectly match your tastes. Otherwise, I think my pride might get a little hurt.”
A sweet voice whispered in her ear. Shards of glass that had gone inside her seemed to dance within, carving up her delicate flesh.
The pain of being whipped on her bare back in front of the priests was not like this. Tears flowed from the corners of her crushed eyes.
“…Go, I want to go back. Please.”
Ninia was consumed by fear. It felt as if he would command her to couple with the Count right in front of him, at any moment.
She would be fine with any punishment if they returned to the main building. Anything but that one command. So for now, she wanted to escape from in front of the Count, from the corridor of the annex.
But Ninia’s words became the switch that burned away the last shred of reason Tarahan had left.
“Go back. To where?”
The sweet voice had turned ice-cold. Ninia’s trembling body froze for a moment, his gaze just as cruelly frozen.
“The temple that sold you to me? Or the bosom of the goddess?”
By the time she thought something was wrong, it was already too late. Tarahan, who had grabbed her chin painfully to fix her gaze, spoke with glistening eyes.
“You’re not going anywhere.”
Grit. The sound of teeth grinding together was heard. Unlike his eyes, which were consumed by blazing fire, the corners of his mouth drew a curve once more.
“My wife will need to learn how to be grateful.”
Dry lips were pressed against a hot fever. Like an ember fanned by a faint wind, the cruel conflagration completely devoured Ninia.
🌻🌻🌻
Her eyelids were heavy. Ninia slowly opened her eyes. A huge bed and the posts supporting the bed canopy. The blue ceiling.
The unfamiliar sight filling her vision made her anxious instead. Ninia, trying to get up, had to curl up at a dull pain.
‘…What happened?’
She couldn’t quite remember how she had come here from the cold corridor. She looked down at her wrist. A red handprint was stamped on her translucent skin.
But the red marks were not only on her wrist. Her neck. Her collarbone. Ninia’s entire body was smeared with Tarahan’s marks, big and small.
Like a small floodgate opening, the forgotten scenes began to dominate her mind one by one.
Ninia fumbled and pulled the blanket up. She had been left naked in his bed. For the past day, she had performed her wifely duties.
‘Why…’
Ninia blinked blankly. The memories that came to mind didn’t feel like her own. But Tarahan’s traces remained on her flesh, deep inside her. The hand clutching the blanket flinched. Her ruined body flushed with shame.
As her consciousness gradually returned, the pain in her body awoke with it. Ninia felt her aching body and yet thought of him. What was laughable was that, even after being subjected to such humiliation, not a shred of resentment toward him arose.
She was just curious. Why he hadn’t abandoned her. And.
‘Why did he embrace me?’
If what he had picked up seemed dirty, he could have just thrown it away. Instead, he held it in his arms.
The process was brutal, and at times violent, but it colored her anew. Ninia was still within his domain.
‘…Have I now become a person who knows how to be grateful?’
Ninia touched the mark engraved on her wrist and recalled his words. The marks looked as if they would not fade for a long time.
‘It’s because I have no holy power that they remain.’
Powerful holy power had healed even a sword wound overnight. But now that all the holy power in her body was gone, Tarahan’s marks dominated her body.
Was it exaltation? Or a fall?
A strange emotion gripped Ninia. She let out a faint sigh.
Ninia slowly sat up. A groan escaped at the unfamiliar pain, but she could at least lean her upper body against the headboard.
With her view now a bit higher, Ninia looked beyond the bed.
With the massive bed at the center, only the necessary furniture filled the interior. The inside seemed several times larger than her own quarters, but it was overly bleak.
‘…His room.’
A room of this size within the castle could only be the Grand Duke’s bedroom. But even without its size, she was certain this was Tarahan’s space.
His scent. His movements. Every one of his voices was melted into this place.
Ninia drew her knees up and pulled the blanket tighter. Only her warmth remained, but it still felt as if she were being held. It was when she pressed her cheek against the soft fabric.
Creak. A very small noise caused a stir in the quiet space. Ninia lifted her head in the direction of the sound.
“…Ah.”
Through the small gap of the slightly open door, clear green eyes were looking at her. The peeping eyes turned away as soon as their gazes met.
Blond hair, swaying, was visible through the gap in the door, then soon disappeared. In the empty corridor, only the traces of the setting sun remained.
