Chapter 113
“Arzeletta.”
“Rzel. My Rzel.”
A yearning voice overlapped the sound of his calling her name. Her heart ached at the memory.
…If she were to do something like this, shouldn’t it be with Theogrim?
But it was not a matter of her will. It was she who had offered her prayers without control, and her master was under no obligation to return that love.
Above all, Arzeletta had never harbored this kind of desire towards Theogrim. She could swear on the names of all gods in the world.
Because Arzeletta’s love for Theogrim was a love of complete subjugation, even without carnal desire.
Arzeletta grew sad.
“…You look very surprised.”
The man, who had finished his long e*********n, asked. Arzeletta shook her head.
It was not this man’s, Ragnar’s, fault.
It was not Ragnar’s fault that she could neither desire nor be desired by the man to whom her soul would be subservient until her dying day.
To have her heart eternally entrusted to one man, yet her body drawn to another, was her own share of sorrow, not this man’s sin.
“……”
Ragnar lifted Arzeletta into his arms. Arzeletta, exhausted, leaned against Ragnar’s embrace.
As she rose, the man’s e*******e that had thoroughly wet her lower abdomen flowed past her navel and into the docile crevice between her legs.
Fine hairs stood up on the back of Ragnar’s neck as he watched his e*******e moisten her pubic hair, soft as rabbit fur.
He wanted to bite his tongue at his own foolishness. Until now, he had known nothing of desire, nothing of depravity, and certainly nothing of lewdness.
This arrogant Holy Knight was bitterly realizing that he knew nothing about all the things he had deemed sinful.
It was an allure beyond the realm of anything his rigid mind could possibly imagine.
Ragnar washed Arzeletta in the spring water. Even as she shivered in the cold water, the maid docilely entrusted herself to his hands. He silently watched as the evidence of their mutual desire was washed away in the glassy water.
When he gathered and swept aside her long hair, slightly wet from the spring water, Arzeletta’s back was revealed. Ragnar narrowed his brows.
As his fingertips touched her back, Arzeletta’s body stiffened. The tension transmitted through his fingertips made his face grow colder.
“…Please don’t look.”
Arzeletta whispered softly.
Her hunched back seemed so small that it gave the illusion of being less than a handspan. The ears of the woman, turned away, were red.
“…It must have hurt.”
“……!”
Arzeletta gasped.
“It’s proof that you were hurt, isn’t it.”
The clear voice lingering in her ear revived. Even though it was a comfort entirely different from that day, Arzeletta felt a little like crying.
Ragnar still looked down at Arzeletta’s wound with his usual gaze. His innermost self urged him to do something.
Arzeletta, immersed in the small spring, was beautiful. As if she had been born this way, the forest suited Arzeletta. Though she had lived her entire life as a sinner, Arzeletta at this moment was as transparent as if she knew no sin.
Drip,
The sound of water dripping from somewhere was heard. Along with the gentle lapping of water.
Ripples spread.
“…Please let me down here.”
Upon reaching the secluded castle wall, Arzeletta whispered softly.
It was the back of the castle, sparsely trafficked even during the day. A worry arose in Ragnar’s heart. It wasn’t about being noticed by someone. The problem was that any presence encountered in such darkness would certainly not be safe.
“Ah…”
Arzeletta exclaimed in surprise as Ragnar put more strength into the arm around her waist.
The faint sound of hooves on the stone ground echoed. Only upon finally reaching the gate did Ragnar let Arzeletta dismount.
Ragnar narrowed his brows, catching the unpleasant scent of blood and an emanating stench from somewhere.
“…This is not a place for someone like the Lord.”
Arzeletta, after a moment of contemplation, whispered softly.
Ragnar’s brows again narrowed at her words, which seemed to urge him onward.
“Starting tomorrow, you will bring the offerings directly.”
“……!”
Ragnar calmly added, looking down at the woman’s eyes as she gasped in surprise.
“I need to know what’s happening to you. You can’t come out of the castle looking for me like this every time.”
“But that’s…”
“It’s a command.”
Arzeletta’s lips sealed at his resolute words. Ragnar reached out from atop his horse.
He lifted Arzeletta’s chin and looked down at the ethereal face held in his hand.
…It was a face so beautiful it made one sad.
Ragnar decided to confront the trial thrown before him.
“……”
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