The Lady Of The Red Moon (6)

Only then did Kaiston realize the situation had turned strange.

He had started with the deliberate aim of loosening her muscles, but as he massaged, he found the woman’s legs unnaturally soft and pliant.

They were nothing like the hard, thick bodies of his men.

Out of habit, having trained men until exhaustion and loosened muscles until they screamed, he had unconsciously created this situation.

Under the tousled, wavy platinum hair splayed on the sofa, the flushed woman catching her breath looked strangely erotic.

The white dress she wore under the pale-blue cloak was meant to look pure, but to his eyes it seemed as lewd as a temptress’s garment.

The hem that should have reached below her knees had ridden up, fully exposing beneath the skirt.

His gaze traced the white stockings to the lace underwear held by a garter belt.

The intimate parts that had taken him several times the previous night were shyly concealed there.

Unconsciously, the back of his hand brushed over it.

“Ugh…”

She flinched with a small moan.

Her reaction only made him want to torment her more.

With one hand, he still kneaded the inside of her thigh, while the other gently stroked over her thin white undergarment.

“Euh… Master…”

Under his touch, the fabric dampened, and platinum pubic hair began to show through.

Each time he kneaded her thigh, the pink flesh between the parted petals became more enticing.

Whether from pleasure or shame, moisture gathered in her amber eyes and her small, full lips parted as she kept sighing.

Craving the sweet taste again darkened his violet eyes.

Her naked body, which had haunted his thoughts all day, appeared vividly in his mind.

A fierce urge seized him to mount and pin her down.

If he had been slightly younger, or a bit less patient and restrained, he might almost have done it.

Was he mad? In someone else’s boudoir?

He withdrew his hands from her body and sprang to his feet.

He nervously swept his hair back and closed his eyes.

To lose his reason like this… He was on the verge of being completely played by the Emperor’s scheme.

Liris also pulled herself together, hastily straightened her clothes, and rose from the sofa.

She hesitated to apologize. The situation was awkward so she only watched his stiff expression.

After a while, he finally looked back at Liris.

He pressed the fallen cloak hood back over Liris’s head.

He wrapped it so tightly that even his own eyes couldn’t see her face.

“Be careful not to show your face.”

“Yes, Master.”

Even then, after some time had passed, Viscount Newman returned to the parlor.

He had ordered the dinner prepared and personally inspected the bedroom Kaiston would use.

After sending Liris to the room she would use, Kaiston spoke.

“Liris… that is, my slave—”

Viscount Newman quickly gave the impression he understood and said, “Liris, of course,” as if to ease the conversation.

“It must have been tiring coming all the way to the Red Moon…”

“Ah, I see. I’ll have my physician take her pulse, and send food that’s easy to digest and high in nutrition.”

“……”

He had only meant to ask that she be prepared to rest quickly.

Kaiston narrowed his eyes and looked at him.

Something had been bothering him for a while, but he couldn’t put his finger on what it was.

“…There’s no need to fuss so much… you’re very considerate.”

The viscount smiled gently and bowed his head slightly.

“You’re flattering me. It’s the natural thing to do.”

“Is it natural?”

Kaiston tilted his head slightly. Even if she’s a slave, a woman is a woman, after all?

“Of course.”

Though it was unlikely, Newman answered boldly.

Not knowing when he might take a spouse, Newman wanted to help Kaiston manage relations with women smoothly, even in this way.

Newman led him to the dining room.

Their only son attended the academy in the capital, so only the couple and Kaiston sat at the long table.

Accustomed to communal meals with his knights, a proper dinner like this had been rare.

The cooks of Korum Castle seemed far better than the fortress chefs.

He ate slowly and with decorum.

Viscount Newman watched Kaiston closely.

When he first met Kaiston, he was only seventeen.

The boyish crown prince, unable to shake the sorrow of a fallen kingdom, had been sent into exile to the Red Moon.

Newman didn’t exactly know how he endured and survived in that place where people constantly died.

But it seemed the Emperor knew he was the sort of man who could hold the Red Moon.

Otherwise the Emperor wouldn’t have bound him there with such tedious, strict covenants from the start.

The suffocating restriction was that “He may not be away from the Red Moon for more than thirty days per year, and to be absent from the fortress for over a week he must obtain the Emperor’s direct permission.”

Even running nonstop from the Red Moon to the duke’s seat at Sinal Castle was a two-day journey, and to the Isles it was a fortnight.

He thought it an absurd condition.

Still, in return, as long as he guarded the Red Moon, his parents held in the Isles would live in state hospitality and peace until their deaths.

Kaiston didn’t much regard the Emperor as a lord, but he steadfastly kept his post.

News from his parents in the Isles was not bad at times, and the situation of the old kingdom absorbed into the Isles was reassuring enough.

Because the Emperor embraced and cared for his former subjects without discrimination, Kaiston felt duty-bound to guard the Red Moon properly.

Even if his people no longer remembered their old king, that was how it was.

To him, they were like children.

He would be thirty after this winter.

Barring an unexpected large-scale raid, he rarely lost his subordinate knights anymore.

The half-trained knights drawn by his reputation gradually coalesced at the Red Moon, and Sinal grew prosperous.

While the Red Moon’s knights, receiving comparatively generous pay, bought houses in nearby towns and married, he remained alone.

The once youthful boy had become a full-grown man, a towering figure with the awe of a war god, yet to Viscount Newman he remained a pitiable figure.

If he knew he was thought of that way despite being protected, he would surely be rather bemused.

Newman smiled contentedly, knowing he had eaten well and was satisfied.

“Would you like more dessert?”

When Kaiston devoured the cold, sweet chocolate trifle served as dessert, Newman asked with an expectant gaze.

Kaiston couldn’t answer immediately.

After he hesitated for a while, Newman spoke.

“I’ll have them sent up to your room so you can have them if you get peckish.”

Only then did he nod.

Newman couldn’t help smiling; it was clear he was concerned about that slave called Liris.

Though she wore her hood low so he couldn’t see her face, she seemed quite pretty.

He decided to bring up not only chocolate trifle but other sweets as well.

After the meal, Newman ushered him into his study.

With time on their hands, they discussed the situations of nearby strongholds and preparations for the coming bitter cold, and the evening flew by.

Their conversation ended only as midnight approached.

Meanwhile, Liris sat alone in her room, restless.

Although she must know Liris was a slave, the common-born maid carefully bathed her and applied ointment to the bruises on her body.

Afterwards, the lord’s physician came in, took her pulse, and gave her several beneficial medicines.

The food sent up was plainly nourishing and made with care, and it tasted excellent.

The desserts that followed were lavish and varied, leaving her surprised.

She felt deeply uncomfortable wondering why she was treated this way.

So she forced herself to ignore the mouthwatering desserts and waited until Kaiston returned.

“Master.”

Kaiston opened the door near midnight and, seeing Liris’s pleased face, glanced at the untouched dessert plate.

“Do you dislike sweets?”

“Pardon?”

Liris looked at the dessert plate Kaiston was eyeing.

“I wasn’t sure if I could eat them…”

“Eat them. If you leave them, they’ll just be thrown away.”

As if that could be true, they were such high-quality desserts.

Still, at his words that those sweet things were hers, she became very happy and couldn’t help smiling brightly.

“Thank you.”

Kaiston looked at her in silence, nodded once, and went into the bath chamber.

“Wow… what luxury.”

She thought she should eat as much as she could now since she wouldn’t dream of such things back at the fortress, and took a full mouthful of the sweet chocolate trifle.

She had restrained herself in the name of keeping her figure and had never eaten freely before.

If she’d known things would turn out this way, she’d have eaten her fill of everything.

She wondered why she’d starved herself into a tight corset to look good for someone.