The Lady Of The Red Moon (18)

Liris asked, flustered.

“What did you say? Yes?”

Kaiston turned his body fully toward her, then stared quietly at her slightly revealed amber eyes.

“Liris.”

He tried once more to tell her what she hadn’t heard. But perhaps the place was a problem.

“Commander!”

A gray-haired knight who had spotted him standing in the corridor ran over excitedly.

“Commander! Commander! Commander!”

“Haah. Zik.”

Kaiston irritably brushed his hair back.

“Haha, Commander! Just now the youngest squad leader of our Honeybee Company beat the third squad leader of the Butterfly Company!”

This oblivious subordinate didn’t notice the crease between Kaiston’s brows and cheerfully greeted Liris, who stood beside him.

“Liris! Today too you’re very… um… cute! Like a baby bear. Hahaha!”

“Ahaha… Thank you, Captain.”

Liris forced down her vexation and returned the greeting cheerily. Why would he call a woman a baby bear? Well, wrapped up like this and waddling swollen, she could see how he’d think so.

“The day after tomorrow, our captains will start competing. Won’t you come watch?”

Zik asked Liris while gauging Kaiston’s reaction.

“Uh… that’s…”

She did want to see. She wanted to confirm with her own eyes how skilled the fortress knights had become. But…

“No.”

Kaiston cut her off with a flat refusal. He hated young knights looking at her or talking to her even while she was so bundled up. Liris couldn’t help but sigh deeply.

“Yes, Master.”

Zik’s mouth tightened at her response. His shoulders sagged. Anyone could see he was plainly disappointed.

“Oh my, Commander. If you hide her away like that, a woman gets bored and runs off, you know?”

“What would someone without a lover know?”

Kaiston subtly ground his teeth and answered Zik.

“Haha. Still, I’m well-versed in theory, aren’t I? I give a lot of love advice to the kids, too.”

Liris was dumbfounded that Zik would say such things after calling a woman a ‘baby bear.’ But to Kaiston, Zik’s words sounded persuasive.

With nothing more to say, Kaiston spun around.

“Let’s go, Liris.”

“Ah, yes. Captain Zik, see you next time.”

“Yes, Liris. Commander! You mustn’t ignore what I said. Haha!”

After that admonition, watching Zik stride off cheerfully toward the training ground, Liris let out a small laugh.

“Captain Zik is really cheerful.”

“…So. Is that good?”

Because his voice was naturally low, Liris didn’t at first notice how much deeper his tone had become.

“Of course. A cheerful person brightens those around them.”

“……”

Her words sank Kaiston’s mood completely. Liris felt for Zik. His fists clenched on their own. He realized belatedly that it was useless to hide Liris from the knights. He hadn’t blindfolded her; how could he stop her from liking someone among the fortress knights? There were many young, handsome knights Liris’s age in the fortress.

Kaiston thought of Zik for a moment. The youngest of the captains at twenty-six, handsome enough and skilled to boot. If he left the Red Moon now, his talent would earn him good treatment anywhere. With his cheerful, affable nature he would surely win trust quickly, just as Liris said.

A good fellow. He wouldn’t lock a woman away like Kaiston did; he would care for her carefully and make her smile.

Compared to that, he was already twenty-nine, had spent his twenties entirely in the Red Moon and become a rather dull man. What he could offer her was only, at best—

“Master.”

Liris hurried over and gently took his hand.

“What did you say earlier?”

Kaiston gave a wry smile.

‘I only said some useless thing you never wanted to hear. What good would it do to be a knight for you? I can’t give you laughter, freedom, or happiness.’

‘At best, a promise to protect you. A confession that I like you. It would only embarrass you.’

“Liris.”

Kaiston cupped the cheek that peeked out from under Liris’s tightly drawn cloak.

“Shall we go to my room?”

“Yes?”

He looked softly into her eyes and smiled gently.

“I’ll do what you like.”

Startled, her amber eyes went wide, and he kissed her. Whether he noticed the knights glancing over with expressions as if they’d seen a ghost, Kaiston firmly took the hand she had dared to give and led her away.

He seemed to have a god-given talent for physical matters. He might as well earn some points this way.

“Aahng, Master…”

Liris trembled with intense pleasure that blurred her mind. She had lost count of how many times. Repeated climaxes left her breathing with no sign of settling.

Kaiston, who had brought Liris up to his room, massaged her whole body with a rose-scented oil to loosen her tense muscles. The oil had been a gift from Viscount Newman and his wife of Korum Castle, though at first neither of them knew it wasn’t just ordinary oil. As the oil soaked into her skin, Liris’s senses sharpened and strange moans escaped her lips.

Seeing Liris get so aroused before they had even started, Kaiston realized the oil’s true use.

Whenever his lips or hands brushed her, Liris writhed helplessly. He had started to please her, but it was Kaiston who gained more pleasure from her disarray. Before he knew it, he persistently tormented her—biting, sucking, and marking her skin, awakening every sense.

“Liris. How should I make you feel good?”

Kaiston asked as he gently stroked her back.

“Hng…”

“How do you want me to enter you?”

The whisper at her ear was so sweet she couldn’t keep her wits about her.

“Face down, Master…”

Kaiston laughed softly.

“So that’s what you liked after all.”

He turned her fully onto her stomach from her slanted position. As his lips trailed down her spine, Liris began to moan and clutched the bedsheet.

His hands spread her legs, and his lips trailed down toward the hollow of her buttocks.

“Aaah! Master…!”

His tongue licked an unimaginable spot and Liris’s body jolted violently. He paid it no mind and repeatedly stimulated her anal opening with his tongue.

“You like this place too, Liris.”

“Ugh, uht…”

The intensity of pleasure, beyond what shame could contain, scared her to the point of tears. His hand gently rubbed the source of her wetness, and he reinserted the fingers that had already gone in and out several times, rubbing the swollen pearl with his thumb.

She couldn’t endure the stimuli being given to every spot.

“Master, please… stop now…”

She felt like something terrible might happen if it continued. At her sobbing plea, his movements stopped.

“Sorry. You’re just too delicious.”

His hand slipped away and something hot and hard, different from before, pressed at her entrance. Fear and anticipation rose together. Even after a month of sharing bodies, the feeling of his entering was still overwhelming.

He held Liris’s hips with his hands and slowly pushed himself inside her.

“Hng…”

Her breath stopped on its own. The vast foreignness scraping her inner walls—it felt maddeningly good. This moment of joining with him.

He always opened himself to her after careful caresses, and she did not dislike that consideration. She appreciated his intention to serve her, and their well-prepared foreplay always brought tremendous pleasure.

Still, for Liris, the moment of joining was the best. She wanted him to feel lust for her and lose his reason. Just as she collapsed countless times before him, she wanted to see him collapse before her.

“Hng!”

“Haah… Liris.”

His manhood finally penetrated to her deepest place. The vivid sensation of being pierced by him alone felt like it would bring Liris to climax.

“It’s too, uht! good…”

Knowing her body was already heated, he thrust into her swiftly from the start. The slick joining sound was loud where they connected, soaked through.

“Aah… Master…”

Her soft flesh squelched and clung to him, biting and gripping his manhood, and he felt he might go mad. It felt unfair. So pretty. So endearing from head to toe. Why did even the inside of her drive a man insane?

He wished she had some flaw. If only she showed one ugly corner. What would he do if he fell endlessly like this and was left alone?

“Liris.”

Kaiston kissed the hollow of her shoulder blade. As he shifted position and touched a different place, an urgent moan escaped Liris.

“Agh…!”

Realizing he’d hit her most sensitive spot, Kaiston repeatedly prodded and stimulated it.

“Uht, ueng, heust…!”

Liris moaned in a sobbing way and gripped the sheet harder. Kaiston covered her hand with his. As his movements grew more intense, her amber eyes lost focus.

“Aah… Master, no more…”

“It’s okay, Liris. Don’t hold back.”

As the building pleasure reached its peak, her blurred vision completely went out.

“Hahng…!”

Her flesh tightened and convulsed as if to cut him off, and he, unable to hold back either, poured himself into her inside.

“Haah… Liris.”

His breath tickled her ear.

“Master…”

Liris called him in a voice still not fully calmed from excitement.

“Earlier, haah… what was it you said…?”

He had thought she’d forgotten, but she still held it in her heart.

“It wasn’t anything important.”

“Even if it’s not important to you, it could be important to me.”

He gave a bitter smile.

“I doubt it at all.”

“Still…”

He lightly kissed Liris’s rounded shoulder.

“It wasn’t anything. Just…”

Liris felt his hand covering hers tighten. She couldn’t see his expression, but somehow he seemed nervous.

“That I like you.”

Feeling her body in his arms flinch rigidly, Kaiston let out a small sigh.

“It was that obvious sort of thing.”