The Lady Of The Red Moon (10)

The Emperor looked at the two men before him with cold eyes.

“Raiden.”

He was his only nephew with the dark-blue hair and blue eyes typical of the Aikadum Imperial Family. In a court where cousin marriages were common, he was considered a strong candidate for the position of consort.

But Raiden’s twisted obsession with his cousin and his quick temper had changed the Emperor’s mind.

In the end, the imperial princess spent her time running away in fear of her cousin.

“Millen.”

A handsome youth with fine blond hair and reddish-brown eyes.

He was bold enough to smile even before the Emperor.

The eldest son of Grand General Luther Grandis and an accomplished knight himself, he had been close with the princess since childhood.

Because of his bright, cheerful nature, the princess treated him without reserve, and they had become close friends.

However, the moment someone mentioned that the princess might be betrothed to Raiden, he changed.

He tried to force a kiss.

The Emperor tutted.

By personal ability and bloodline, he had considered both of them more than fit to inherit the throne.

But not anymore.

They hadn’t even managed to win the heart of the princess.

To the Emperor, who already had his first choice decided, their behavior was ugly and laughable.

Yet he had not completely cast them out; he was merely testing ‘him’—the one now in question.

“Your Majesty, what on earth happened? The princess…”

Raiden’s voice trembled with barely contained fury.

“Where on earth have you sent her?”

Millen’s reddish-brown eyes were also fixed on the Emperor.

Even if he wore his habitual smile, there was no ease in his heart.

“From now on, you two,” said the Emperor in an icy voice. “Forget the existence of the princess.”

“Your Majesty!”

“You have already lost your qualifications. You understand what that means, don’t you?”

Millen clenched his teeth.

Yes, of course he knew.

But this was not something he had done without such resolve from the start.

“I never intended to seek Your Majesty’s permission in the first place.”

Millen’s smile deepened.

“I will find her, no matter what. How will you protect her now that she’s no longer even the princess?”

Having said that, Millen bowed without waiting for the Emperor’s answer and left the room.

“That son of a bitch…”

Raiden, grinding his teeth as he watched the man’s retreating figure, turned back to look at his uncle, the Emperor.

“This time, Your Majesty, you made a mistake.”

Malice appeared in Raiden’s eyes.

“If he finds the princess he’ll trample her as befits a slave’s status.”

The Emperor snorted in response.

“Then what will you do?”

Raiden furrowed his brow, not catching the intent of the question.

When he did not answer, the Emperor asked again.

“With the princess gone, the place in the line of succession returns to you. What will you do?”

Raiden gave a hollow laugh.

“Is that even a question?”

The faint smile vanished from his face.

With an expression as cold as ice, he answered the Emperor’s question.

“Not once. I have never imagined that anything in this Empire would not be mine.”

It was an arrogant thing to say before the Emperor of the Empire, but the listener could only lift the corner of his mouth.

“Try it, then.”

The Emperor said, as if amused, “Go on, risk everything and fight to take it.”

Provoked, Raiden laughed coldly.

“Of course I will. Do not regret it.”

Having answered thus, he bowed and left the Emperor’s study without hesitation.

Left alone after they left, the Emperor leaned back in his chair comfortably.

“He’s not that easy to deal with, that one.”

Thinking of what was to come, a smile rose to his lips.

Which side would regret it, truly.

Liris, who had dozed off while waiting for Kaiston after eating the gruel a servant brought, woke only in the morning.

She squirmed and turned the other way in the dazzling sunlight.

“……!”

The moment she turned, she was so startled by the man’s face right in front of her that she almost cried out.

Kaiston was asleep in his disheveled uniform, not having changed into sleepwear.

His dark hair, imbued with shadows, fell messily over his straight forehead.

Beneath thick, heavy brows his violet eyes, like hidden gems, were half-closed.

A sharply defined nose and tightly set lips.

A thick Adam’s apple showed along his strong jawline.

He felt intensely wild and rough, yet somehow very…

“Handsome, Master.”

Liris couldn’t help but murmur and smile broadly.

Her choice to come to his side like an adventure was not only because of her father’s wishes.

An old couple she had met on the Isles.

Their tender, loving gazes at each other—She had never seen such a couple in any noble household.

And unlike the stories full of harsh rumors and terror, the Duke of Sinal was very different.

Thinking about it made Liris’s heart inexplicably race.

Her hand touched his cheek.

Perhaps because he was the man who had taken her body, or because he had rescued her like a prince on a white horse in their first meeting, or because, despite pretending not to care, he looked after her in a cute way.

Liris lightly pressed her lips to his.

At the warm touch and breath on his lips, his brows twitched and his eyelids slowly opened.

His slightly dazed violet eyes fell on the cheeky slave who had audaciously sought her master’s lips.

“Ah…”

Liris smiled awkwardly and pulled away.

“Are you awake, Master?”

His violet eyes drooped again.

Liris would probably not realize how shocking it would be for others that he was in his bed at this hour.

Kaiston, who briefly thought of Saik and the subordinate knights who would be horrified, decided to erase them from his mind and let things be.

He had been trained to go without sleep for a week without complaint, yet he felt unusually tired and worn out.

It was probably because of this woman who dared to touch him from the morning.

He felt every movement of her as she opened her round eyes and looked about, perhaps wondering if her master had fallen asleep again.

“Ah!”

In an instant, his violet eyes opened, he grabbed her wrist, pinned it down, and mounted her.

“Liris.”

“Yes, Master?”

“Men aren’t to be touched in the morning.”

Liris blinked with innocent eyes.

“Why?”

His violet eyes deepened as he looked down at her.

“You’ll know when you experience it.”

He slowly bent his head and kissed the nape of her neck.

The eyes of the woman beneath him widened.

“Ah… Master… please…”

Not knowing what to do, Liris clenched the bedsheet tightly.

He, who had taken her perky breasts into his mouth and rolled his tongue over the erect peak, listened indifferently.

“Please, what am I supposed to do?”

Her legs spread wide, his fingers had been moving in and out ceaselessly between them, and she had already reached climax several times.

When he thrust his index and middle fingers deep and scraped her inner walls, her body trembled.

Her womanhood and thighs, and even the bedsheet, were soaked with the fluids she had spilled.

Liris had never thought she would be so sexually sensitive.

They had only shared their bodies for two days.

She kept collapsing helplessly under the stimulation he gave.

“Ah… please…”

Her hazy amber eyes, moist with tears, looked longingly at her master.

“Liris.”

Kaiston urged.

“Tell me you want me.”

“I want… Master… ugh… I want Master.”

Only then did he withdraw his hand from her.

At the sensation of his fingers leaving, Liris’s body jerked upward.

He tossed off his uniform carelessly.

Because it was the first time she saw his body in bright sunlight, her blurred eyes suddenly sharpened.

It was an astonishingly perfect body.

A body filled with flawless muscle, yet not excessive, even carrying a clear sheen.

Even the scars here and there made her heart race. Clearly she was already firmly under his spell.

She had never imagined she’d think like this, but in any case, he was clearly the best partner for sex.

When a sensation far beyond his fingers began to penetrate her body, Liris let out a frantic moan and shut her eyes tight.

“Liris. Open your eyes and look at me.”

At his command, she opened her eyes and met his heated violet gaze.

“Ahk!”

He stared straight into her and drove himself home to the hilt.

“Haa. Liris.”

Overwhelmed by brutal pleasure, he emitted a sigh-like exclamation.

He grabbed both her ankles, spread them wide, and thrust as if to pierce her through.

“Hk, ughk, ah…”

Rapture spread.

Rough breaths and moans filled the room.

Her inner walls, brought to a peak by his foreplay and intensely sensitive, twitched and tightened around him.

He repeated withdrawing fully and thrusting in, watching the entrance that swallowed him.

“If you keep… ugh, looking like that…”

Even as shame rose, his insistent gaze made her body burn more.

Kaiston threw one of her legs over his shoulder.

In the new position his manhood drove even deeper, feeling as if it touched the entrance to her womb.

“Hruuk…! Master…”

Shaking roughly, the tears that had pooled in her eyes spilled down.