Chapter 35

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Translator: Harry Potta

Chapter: 35

Chapter Title: Kaiyan

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"Want to do it once more?"

She wondered what he might say instead of 'Fearless.'

'No, that's no good. Not something worthy of a first kiss memory.'

Even though they had shared their bodies multiple times and knew each other as husband and wife, a maiden's lingering sentiment for romance reared its head.

Clodel cupped his face with both hands.

His head tilted down toward her, as if to say, go ahead if you dare.

*Smack.*

A small, cute sound passed between their lips as they lightly touched and parted.

Both their heads were drenched to the crown, yet those lips brushed like a fleeting touch—still, the sticky cling and release felt like plucking an unripe cherry, leaving a lingering regret.

That was when Kaiyan, who had been watching her lead, finally moved.

"Ah."

In the water, one arm supported Clodel's hips while the other gripped the back of her neck.

"That's not how you kiss."

"Pardon? That... "

Kaiyan roughly pressed his lips to hers, invading the hidden depths.

Her short 'Pardon?'—carrying a hint of doubt about whether kissing had a specific method—melted away inside her mouth amid the dizzying frenzy.

"......"

Clodel melted into Kaiyan's embrace, breathlessly sharing her air with him.

Sharing?

It was more like it was stolen from her.

The lukewarm lake water that had refreshingly enveloped her body until moments ago now heated up from their fervor, pooling hotly against her chest.

"Haa. Haa."

When her lips were finally freed from the savage invader, Clodel leaned weakly against his shoulder, gasping for the breath she lacked.

Holding her, Kaiyan unhesitatingly parted the water toward the lakeshore.

Their bodies, afloat for so long, were pushed toward land, and the earth's pull made them slump, a sudden chill rushing in.

Clodel hunched her shoulders, her lips trembling.

But it was fine soon enough.

As if a monster had risen from the lake.

The man emerging from the water was swift and agile.

His massive, solid frame pinned the petite woman beneath him in an instant.

The chill evaporated from her body, swept away by another sensation.

It had been quite some time since Kaiyan first felt the impulse to kiss Clodel.

After their wedding night and several more passed, he hadn't kissed her.

He had never been with a woman before.

Before the late Duke Temneth died, he had heard that Queen Sylvia asked about his marriage to Princess Biange.

The siblings with golden hair and blue eyes, strikingly like the queen herself.

They were cousins, but grew up more like true siblings, so the idea of marrying Biange immediately struck him as incestuous.

Cousin marriages were common in the Kingdom of Oberon.

He knew intellectually that in other countries, even uncles married nieces, but the thought of becoming husband to Biange filled him with visceral refusal.

At that time, Kaiyan firmly stated he wanted no talk of marriage to Biange—make it as if it never happened.

House Temneth had always raised heirs ascetically, and as far as Kaiyan knew, his father had no woman but his mother.

Of course, a child could only know so much of a parent's private life.

He couldn't know now if his father had kept a secret lover.

His strong conviction that there were no affairs stemmed from the late duke's character—he never spoke idly.

He wasn't the type to preach to his son about the misfortunes of a lord's depravity while indulging behind his back.

Kaiyan respected and emulated that trait.

As a result, he had never been with a woman, only overhearing soldiers after a fierce battle, drunk and boasting crudely like street toughs.

'Kuh. Last night, that wench stuck her lips right out at me.'

'Felt so damn good.'

'Haha! She was begging for it.'

He wondered what was so great about stealing a whore's kiss, only to learn it was a main routine.

According to them, women paid for the night never allowed kisses.

Kisses were only for those who shared hearts.

Kaiyan figured the storyteller never got permission anyway.

Women were delicate, intricate beings.

His mother, his aunt Queen Sylvia, and even his younger cousin Biange proved it.

No crude brute could win a kiss from a heart-aligned woman.

He dismissed it as soldiers bragging like they'd snagged a unicorn's horn after blood-soaked days swinging swords.

Still, the idea that women only kissed those whose hearts connected rang true.

Watching Clodel grit her teeth and seal her lips throughout their wedding night made the rumor feel real.

Her body yielded, but her will screamed her heart did not.

Kissing her terrified, eyes-squeezed-shut face felt impossible then.

After Herzol passed and color returned to Clodel's lips—like petals on the breeze, or a fluttering butterfly—they haunted his gaze, but Kaiyan couldn't reach out.

He had been rejected already, essentially.

Clodel had never once desired him.

'Can I kiss you?'

It was Clodel who approached first.

Her touch on his cheek, seeking permission.

The woman in his arms gazing up seemed to hold him in her heart.

As if he meant something to her.

He knew it couldn't be.

Clodel of House Vermonte was forcibly wed to Kaiyan of House Temneth by royal decree.

In Rowen lands, the only thing she might fancy was a cold tombstone in the castle crypt.

She hadn't come to Rowen to marry him.

She came to die here.

Thinking of welcoming such a woman as wife had tangled Kaiyan's thoughts absurdly.

He had been furious at her plan to die without permission and escape.

That's why he saved her.

To teach the woman daring to die on his whim in the domain of Rowen's lord and Duke Temneth that nothing escaped his will.

"Slower... just a bit..."

A slender moan rode her lips, brushed his cheek, grazed his ear, and faded.

The baskets of food she prepared for him were shoved aside and spilled; the cute flower crown scattered, crushed under their movements.

'Why did I say I'd teach her to swim?'

Gazing at the woman lying atop the water, Kaiyan's throat burned.

Her red hair fluttered over the lake's reflection of blue sky, like a mystical halo.

Sunlight softly danced on her water-beaded white skin.

Beneath her wet, rippling clothes, the body he'd once traded ten carriages to savor tormented him.

Watching, Kaiyan felt parched despite being submerged.

Nights watching her sleep had been mere prelude to this trial.

Her golden eyes, open, were too beautiful.

He forgot his promise to catch her, not play—his hand slipped away.

The urge to touch those eyes surged.

But he hadn't expected her to fall in.

'Liar. You said no playing around.'

The moment she pouted threats with harmless fists pounding his chest.

His heart ached.

Each tiny tap from her fist nudged something in his heart.

A kiss was permission, acceptance.

Her offering lips first—did it mean she accepted him as husband, at least?

But now wasn't the time for such questions.

"My lord duke. Hn."

Her wet clothes couldn't hinder his touch.

Lips joined his impulsive caresses, turning their movements lewd beyond compare.

Who knew lips for meals and talk could stir such sensitivity.

Kaiyan devoured Clodel's lips.

Yet each taste of what tantalized him stole a piece of his soul to her.

'Father. I followed your teachings as Temneth's heir to avoid depravity.'

Never shamed his lineage, never shirked his heavy duty.

Why hadn't he warned that a wife could captivate the heart so?

That one could grow attached, obsessed with the first woman shared intimately.

Teachings against casual flings complicating the house weren't enough; he should have taught how to quell uncontrollable desire for one's wife.

Kaiyan greedily caressed Clodel, then pulled back.

Not restraint, but preparation for more.

Clodel's half-lidded eyes and chafed lip area flushed red.

Noticing his gaze, Kaiyan grew more urgent.

As he tugged her clinging wet clothes down, she panicked.

"No. My lord."

"No one's coming here."

The garden was sealed for their time alone.

Clodel shook with chill—or shock?—and shook her head at his impatience.

"That's... absurd. Absolutely not."

Seeing reason flicker in her hazy eyes, Kaiyan kissed her again.

"Hn."

Her thin voice was pleasing, like the finest harp string plucked.

"My lord. Please stop."

But sensing he wouldn't yield, the flowerbed-bound woman kept warding him off.

"Clodel."

Her noon-sun golden eyes widened at her name.

"Say my name too."

Her fists pushing his shoulders slackened, sliding up his neck to embrace.

"......Kaiyan."

The man granting her name fiercely claimed the gap her call opened.