CH 122

His pillar, which had reached the end of her walls, was growing with a truly piercing force.

“Ha-uht!”

Unable to contain the growing pleasure, Azela lifted her face and kissed the nape of his neck. As she involuntarily sucked it with force, a red mark was quickly engraved on the nape of his neck. The bedroom, which had only felt chilly in the morning air, heated up.

“Azela…”

As Zagnac lowered his head and rested his forehead on her shoulder, sweat dripped from his forehead and down Azela’s shoulders. She could feel him clenching his teeth, and she left a mark of her on his back as she burrowed her fingernails.

Gazing at him with a half-closed gaze, his body glowed brightly in the moonlight.

“…I like it.”

Between sobbing moans, she caressed his cheek and whispered softly.

Yes, that’s what I like about you.

Azela furrowed her brows, fearing that she would burst into tears. At the same time, Zagnac’s movements sped up, so she closed her eyes tightly and buried her head back into his shoulder.

“Ku-ugh…”

Zagnac groaned through his teeth as he clenched his teeth. As he swayed quickly, sweat trickled down her forehead.

The moment he pushed deep into her and all movement stopped like time had stopped. Everything stopped at that moment. Even though everything was over, neither Zagnac nor Azela moved for a while.

“Haa, haa.”

Azela sighed and pulled the strength away from her hands that were cradling his back.

She was tired. She was so tired she couldn’t do anything anymore.

When she draped her body over Zagnac and closed her eyes, he lifted his arms and hugged the limp Azela warmly in his arms. In his arms, she fell asleep, forgetting to wash herself or put on clothes.

“…Azela.”

Even though he quietly called her name, all that came back was the sound of her soundly asleep and breathing, so Zagnac moved cautiously. In case she woke up, he braced her torso and carefully pulled out his pillar, which was still inside her.

“Uh… Umm.”

Perhaps that hurt, she furrowed her eyebrows and tossed and turned with a small moan.

Meanwhile, Zagnac froze again and waited for her to fall into a deep sleep, forgetting to breathe. He waited awkwardly for a few minutes before Azela evened out her breath as he slowly straightened his knees.

“Whoo…”

Fearing that the sound of his breathing would awaken her, with a very small exhalation, he put his hands under her knees and carefully lifted her into his arms. Perhaps feeling the coldness of the sudden change in posture, Azela furrowed her brow and dug into his arms.

“Oh my.”

A gentle smile came on his face as he looked down at Azela, who burrowed into his arms.

There was no sound of footsteps or breathing in the quiet bedroom. Like she would break if he touched her, Zagnac treated Azela very dearly. When he carefully landed on the bed and put down the pillow, he then turned his sore arm.

“Phew.”

Still, his actions did not end there. Raising the warm wet towel he had prepared in advance, Zagnac carefully wiped the blood from her face and hands so that Azela would not wake up.

Even though the blood that had already hardened hadn’t been wiped off well, he repeated that action over and over again. When the towel turned red, he washed it with water and wiped the blood from Azela’s body.

“…It’s alright.”

As he cast a spell of ‘it’s alright,’ he didn’t know if he was talking to Azela or to himself.

After wiping off all the blood, he took off her top and put on a nightgown lest she would be embarrassed when she woke up in the morning.

When he was done, Zagnac, who had just finished dressing her, sat down on the chair next to the bed and gazed down at Azela, who was still soundly asleep. Even after dawn, until the sun rose and he heard the faint sound of the mansion’s servants waking up and cleaning, he just looked at her as she was still soundly asleep on the spot.

Knock, knock.

When he heard a knock to wake Azela up in the morning, Zagnac stood up. When the door to the bedroom was opened slightly, the handmaid, who was about to greet Azela, stared at her master with a startled face.

“Ma, maste—!”

“Shh.”

Not wanting to wake her at the loud noise, Zagnac brought his finger to his lips and smiled. As he glanced at the bed and saw that Azela was still soundly asleep, he spoke softly.

“Since she hasn’t woken up, wait a while and come back.”

“Yes, I see.”

After receiving the master’s order, the handmaid bowed her head and hurriedly left. Zagnac, who closed the door, walked over to the side of her bed and sat down. He looked at the sleeping Azela for a while, just doing nothing.

* * *

“…Your Highness, you have to eat and drink, if you stay like this, you will get sick.”

“I’m okay.”

“Princess…”

Despite the nanny’s voice, Livia did not raise her head. It was already the fourth day. Daran put down the meal in her hand and sighed heavily.

“Since Count Todd’s mistress… mo, since the Countess came, you’ve been reading books like this.”

With a voice mingled with a sigh, Daran lifted up one of the books that Livia was reading stacked to one side of her. Most of them were forbidden books related to ancient magic.

“…If you get caught reading a forbidden book, then it’s really big trouble.”

“I can do it unnoticed.”

“Oh, my.”

Livia said calmly as she put down the finished book and held a new book in her hand. Seeing that, Daran leaned over and met her gaze.

“You know you shouldn’t use ancient magic, right?”

“I know. The moment I am caught using it, the Emperor will slit my throat.”

“Don’t say such horrible things…!”

“It is true. There’s no way the Emperor will treat me favorably.”

Not too long ago, Livia would tremble when her mother, Serena, came and used violence, and she would cry under the blanket in fear at the mention of the emperor, but now, it was different. Daran couldn’t understand her attitude of being so casual about her death, and it broke her heart.

“Why is this…”

Daran put down the book she was holding and shook her head excitedly.

She did not use or care about ancient magic except when she was a child because it brought disaster to Livia. She didn’t even know how to use it properly, so she didn’t even want to use it to deal with situations.

So, except for the people in the imperial palace, no one knew that Livia could use ancient magic.

On the day of her eighth birthday, Livia held onto Daran and cried.

“It would be nice if the magic that I couldn’t even use would disappear.”

Nonetheless, why did she become interested in ancient magic and start reading books related to it? Daran gazed at Livia with a worried gaze. It would be nice if this would show her a good path, but somehow the anxiety had come over her that Livia might not be able to.

However, she herself was a subordinate to the end. She couldn’t blindly stop Livia from doing what she wanted to do.

“…Eat while you read.”

She let out a sigh and finally lifted the meal that she had put down. All she could do was this. There was nothing else but to feed the Princess so she wouldn’t starve.

* * *

Benjamin was buried in the sunny ground. It was land owned by Duke Ferial. The fact that he was dead was known to no one but Zagnac, Azela, and the butler Baharf.

“…What are you going to say to Findar?”

Azela whispered softly as she watched as Benjamin’s tombstone, prepared by Zagnac, was erected. Zagnac also just watched the monument being erected.

“I don’t know. There were many customers waiting for Benja, so he went down to the outskirts without saying goodbye.”

“…Wouldn’t Findar be suspicious?”

“She has no way of knowing, so she can’t even doubt it.”

Azela crumpled her face.

Findar tried to help her somehow, but somehow she felt like she was betraying Findar, which made her feel bad.