The Small Room

Lyset’s crimson lips parted little by little.

Though her revealed white teeth were clenched tight, they began to open under Christoph’s insistent lips and tongue.

Then, as her mouth opened fully, Christoph’s tongue slipped in instinctively—yet almost like a dance. Lyset’s tongue, trembling, received it for the first time.

Their tongues entwined again and again, exchanging sweet saliva.

It was their first deep kiss, and as Lyset’s hands trembled, she accidentally knocked books from the shelf.

Thud.

At that small sound, their lips parted.

Lyset looked into Christoph’s eyes, brimming with fierce love and desire for her.

Fearing he might hear the frantic pounding of her heart, she pressed a pale hand to her chest.

To Christoph, Lyset in her nun’s habit, blushing as she touched her breast, looked more beautiful and sacred than anything in the world.

“Lyset, today—no, now! I will make you mine.”

At those intense words, a thrill burst through Lyset’s whole body.

“P-please… follow me.”

Barely managing the words, Lyset turned toward a small door at the far end of the library where she fetched cleaning tools and a book cart. After checking no one was around, she quietly opened it.

Inside was a clutter of old book carts, damaged volumes, and cleaning tools. A small cot for resting stood there too.

When Christoph stepped in, Lyset carefully closed the door and slid the bolt.

She sighed as if steeling herself, then slowly turned.

“I too want to be your woman, Christoph. Above all, it is my own honest desire as a woman.”

“Thank you for saying that, Lyset.”

“But Christoph—before you take me, before I give myself to you, I must first say something. Without telling you, I cannot be yours.”

“What is it, Lyset?”

“It is about what I believe.”

Christoph nodded, as though he understood.

“Lyset, I cannot say everything, but I know well you cannot yet cast off the bonds of a nun. The priest who aids me—though I cannot name him—now reviews the first agreements of canon law between our Duchy and the Holy See.”

“That is not it. It is not about being a Holy Sister, or about the ‘Lord.’ From the start—I have never believed in that god.”

“Wh-what?”

Christoph asked in shock.

After leading him to this small room, her confession was nothing Christoph had imagined.

“Promise me you won’t be shocked. And if after hearing it your feelings change, you may leave this room at once.”

“I won’t be shocked. Speak honestly. Tell me exactly what you wish to say.”

“I do not believe in that god. The gods I serve are the old ones, long vanished from this land—Olrun and Manafreya.”

Olrun and Manafreya.

Christoph’s breath caught for a moment.

Of course, he had never seen the cruel persecutions of the old religion firsthand—only heard of them. In all his conscious years, he had never once encountered anyone in the duchy who still believed.

Even the scholars who taught him spoke only obliquely, dismissing it as merely “a part of Nordenheim’s history.”

But he knew well the law that made such faiths taboo, to be destroyed and punished without mercy.

As sovereign, it was his sworn duty to see that those who worshipped the old gods were executed.

Christoph fell silent.

Looking into his frozen eyes, Lyset spoke again, slowly and firmly, as if to remind him.

“I believe in Olrun and Manafreya. And most importantly, if we become the most precious beings to each other, you and I will achieve something immense. I do not know how it will come. But there will be countless wars—wars even among the gods themselves. That is what I must tell you.”

Tears welled in Lyset’s eyes.

“Christoph, I too want to be with you, to be in your arms. But because of me, you may face immense danger in order to achieve that destiny.”

Her lips were silenced again by Christoph’s kiss.

“I understand. But I am already gambling with my life. And that gamble began the moment I saw you, years ago, during the Christmas Mass on the second floor—ever since I knew you were a Holy Sister.”

“Ah!!!”

“So no matter what you say, I will not change.”

“Ch-Christoph…”

Those words were enough for her. From here, not even the gods themselves could stop the flow.

Christoph moved to pull her tighter.

But Lyset gently took his hand down, looking at him with shy, flushed eyes unlike before.

She first removed the cross pendant from her neck and set it aside. Then reaching back, she loosened the cords tied across her back, then those at her waist.

Shiik—

Her habit slipped to the floor. Blushing, Lyset bowed her head low.

It was the first time she had revealed herself to another. Though she had imagined, through Adelin’s teasing jokes, how relations between men and women took place, she had no idea what to actually do when faced with it.

“Wh-what should I do now…”

Christoph embraced her bowed figure and kissed her lips again.

“Ah, Christoph… yes.”

Lyset murmured in ecstasy as her tongue sought his, while Christoph sucked at her lips and laid her gently upon the cot, his arm around her waist.

This was the moment they had both long awaited and dreamed of.

Christoph did not wish to act roughly for his own pleasure, but to savor Lyset’s pure beauty, tracing and memorizing every line of her body, teasing her slowly.

His trembling hands caressed her white, soft body. Though of age now, Lyset’s six years in the convent had left such sensations utterly foreign to her.

For Lyset, her love for Christoph had been pure affection, with physical desire only a faint root.

But her endlessly beautiful body was itself a divine gift. To entrust it wholly to the man she loved—Christoph—was an immense joy, the dawn of new pleasures.

By his touch alone, Christoph could tell how exquisite her form was, and how tense she was for what would come.

“I-I’m embarrassed.”

Moaning, Lyset hastily covered her mouth with both hands.

By now Christoph was fully bare. He climbed atop her, seized both her hands, and met her eyes.

“I will take you. But that also means you take me. We will have each other—become the most important, irreplaceable beings to one another.”

Tears filled her eyes as Lyset looked at him and nodded.

And then, very carefully, they became one.

It was as though time itself flowed under the blessing of Olrun and Manafreya.

Lyset looked up at Christoph, trembling and panting above her. Christoph, having poured out his all, gazed down at her with love. Tears streaked her cheeks, yet her eyes and lips bore the happiest smile.

“Christoph, I have taken you.”

“And I you, Lyset.”

“I love you, Christoph.”

“And I you, Lyset.”

Christoph embraced her again and kissed her. When at last the kiss broke, Lyset looked startled.

“Could our voices… have been heard outside?”

“Wh-who knows? Lyset, isn’t the door thick enough?”

“It’s just a door. Luckily, with the coronation tomorrow, no one has been in the library today. And this little room is so out of the way—I think it’s fine.”

“If it weren’t fine, someone would have knocked already.”

“True. Perhaps Olrun and Manafreya themselves kept our sounds from leaking out.”

Lyset smiled as she tried to rise, but sank back with pain.

Christoph quickly supported her up.

“This cot is a mess now… what shall we do?”

“Indeed, what shall we do? And it isn’t just the bed… that’s the greater problem.”

As if truly worried, Christoph stroked her hair and kissed her forehead.