Bridal Class - Chapter 76

※ This book contains depictions of confinement, dubiously consensual and/or non consensual acts due to hierarchy and power dynamics. Please take this into consideration while reading.

“…Actually, this garden holds special memories for me too.”

“For you too, Brother?!”

“Yes, I’ll tell you more about it later.”

Actually, it was here that I once… His last words were lost in the breeze that blew at that moment. As they walked together, Iscarion suddenly took a step back and knelt before her.

“I’m really sorry, Rosie. I was wrong.”

“…Brother Isca!”

“I apologize again for what I did to you. I swear I’ll never do it again. I did it because I didn’t want to lose you. I was so anxious that such an amazing woman like you, who had grown beyond my worth, would leave me…”

“…”

“But I realized while keeping you locked up to tame you that you can’t keep someone with force. It was a lesson I learned during that time.”

Even though he could have forced her to stay and gone through with the wedding, Iscarion didn’t. Despite his efforts to tame her body and own her under the guise of ‘bridal lessons’, he felt an inexplicable emptiness and sorrow.

He realized that even if he forcibly got her pregnant to keep her by his side, if her true heart wasn’t with him, they wouldn’t truly be together. He learned this during the time he kept her confined in the annex.

“In the end, I was the one who learned something during that time, Rosie.”

“Brother…”

“Maybe it wasn’t ‘bridal education’ but ‘groom education’ instead.”

“What’s that? That’s so weird!”

Rosen finally let out a small laugh. The soft, soothing scent of flowers, the clear singing of birds, and the place filled with childhood memories made her heart slowly begin to move. She was finally ready to answer his earnest question.

“Rosénia, will you marry me? Please be with me, not as my fiancée but as my partner for life.”

“Yes, I will. I’ll be with you forever, Brother.”

“Oh, Rosie…”

Overwhelmed with emotion at her lovely answer, Iscarion hugged her tightly.

Her words about being together forever felt like a divine revelation to him. He couldn’t take his eyes off her flushed, delicate lips.

Seeing his pleading eyes, Rosen gave a slight nod. Then, as if drawn to each other, their lips met. It was a blissful kiss that unified their hearts.

“Mmm…”

“Mm, mmm…”

After a long, sweet moment, their lips parted, a thin thread of saliva still connecting them. Iscarion, feeling a bit uncomfortable, tried to pull away from Rosen. His lower body had been responding since they had walked through the garden together, and now it was aching intensely.

“Rosen.”

Breathing lightly, he hugged her tightly, his voice deeper and more husky than usual, betraying his hidden desire.

“Shall we go inside?”

Rosen, too, had felt her intimate parts growing moist since their kiss. She felt her lower body twitching in anticipation of the pleasure to come, but despite her flushed cheeks, she tugged on his arm and made him promise.

“Promise you won’t do it like before, Brother.”

“Like before?”

“Punishing me painfully and deliberately humiliating me.”

“Of course, I promise.”

He readily agreed, gently holding her in his arms.

“I’ll never do anything you don’t like again.”

“Okay, then… it’s fine.”

Iscarion carried her into an empty bedroom in the mansion, holding her like a precious princess. As he began to undress her, she urgently spoke.

“Brother, turn off the lights.”

“Okay, I will.”

“And we still need to use protection.”

“Whatever you want.”

“It’s embarrassing if I’m the only one naked…”

“I’ll undress right away.”

He complied with everything she said. Though his true preference leaned toward the type of relationship they had in the annex, none of that mattered now. The most important thing was that her heart had returned to him.

Iscarion knew well that he couldn’t live without her. Whether Rosen stayed by his side or not was not a matter of preference but of survival. Given a choice between preference and survival, anyone would choose the latter, wouldn’t they?

“I’ll only do what you like from now on.”

A life without her was unimaginable, so if she preferred a courteous man, he would become one.

“I love you, Rosie.”

“Mhm, I love you too…”

I love you, Rosénia. My Rosie.

Under his now familiar touch, Rosen surrendered to the learned pleasure. Love… Drunk on the soft, fair skin of his bride, Iscarion whispered softly.

“Let’s live happily together, forever and ever.”

Just like in the fairy tales he used to read to her as a child, he hoped their happiness would last a very long time. Hoping that it would never change, Iscarion tenderly kissed his beloved bride, whom he had finally fully embraced after a long wait.

—Main story, end