Chapter 68
There was no answer.
“If you desire it, I will provide a house for the two of you,” Ragnar said.
A gasp of surprise rippled through the crowd. Arzeletta’s eyes widened in turn. Ragnar looked down at her—though it felt more like he was looking up at something precious—and silently met her startled green eyes. It had been a sudden impulse. Now, he was reflecting on what he had just said.
What in the world was he doing?
“Because I don’t wish to commit a sin on the lord’s sacred land, so…”
“If there is something you wish for, speak it. Since it concerns the precious butcher of my domain, I intend to be generous.”
“Because I wanted to be close to you, my lord… to remain nearby…”
“If you wish, I could even give you a small plot of land and gold.”
It was as if he were testing her.
Yoseph groaned quietly. The chatter that had filled the air just moments ago disappeared. No one in the village had ever received such treatment or gifts from the lord himself when it came to marriage rites.
But perhaps this situation—just perhaps—meant they’d been caught.
‘The lord must be pitying that maid,’ they thought. Then perhaps she could be pitied, just this once.
Maybe he wasn’t blaming them for their wrongdoing. Maybe he was trying to put the matter to rest by expressing pity and giving a gift to that maid.
After all, turning the butcher’s bride into a toy wasn’t something that happened only in this land. It wasn’t anything to boast about, but it was a widely accepted reality. No one had ever been punished for it. Perhaps their great lord intended to bury what had happened today with a generous gesture.
If so, then this scene would appear more noble than anything else.
But things didn’t go as they expected.
Ragnar’s eyes narrowed. The woman crouched beneath him was shaking her head. She was looking up at him, her face declaring that he was the only one she would ever raise her eyes to.
Her tear-filled eyes swayed Ragnar’s heart. Her face—refusing such an extravagant gift, the kind one might never receive again in a lifetime—this lowly maid’s refusal brought him a strange sense of relief.
In that moment, Ragnar realized that he had been weighed down by the very words he had just spoken.
“My lord, I…”
Arzeletta didn’t say much more. She only shook her head, her eyes full of tears.
Ragnar silently looked at the woman cast out into the middle of the road, her body exposed in a pitiful state.
Even abandoned amidst the malice of the people, she was, at this very moment, breathtakingly beautiful. Scraped by dirt and stone, her clothes torn, her hair disheveled and scattered.
Arzeletta shook her head. Her black hair shimmered as if making a sound beneath the moonlight.
The townspeople exchanged glances with conflicted expressions. It seemed no one could think of anything to say.
Today’s game of quickly making Arzeletta the hunchback’s bride had failed, but neither did they want to witness those wretches receiving a generous gift from the lord that even they could hardly hope to obtain.
Ragnar knew this was the answer he had wanted. With a shadowed expression, he gave an order.
“Stand up, maid.”
“O-oh, my clothes…!”
Perhaps from fear of disobeying his command, Arzeletta responded more quickly than usual.
At her words, Ragnar’s gaze touched upon Arzeletta’s chest.
A poorly made garment, more vulgar than a courtesan’s underclothes, clumsily pieced together with sheer lace. It could hardly be called clothing—a rag.
And yet, just because it had been draped over that woman, the malice-filled scraps of cloth had transformed into a scene from myth.
This “ceremonial dress,” created with the intent of sending Arzeletta off to Yoseph in malice, continued even now to transparently reveal her bare skin. Arzeletta lowered her arms to barely cover her chest, but the glossy sheen over her full b*****s and the shaded flatness of her lower belly that flowed down into the valley between her legs could not be hidden.
“I—I have no clothes… so I dared to disobey…”
“……”
“I can’t go anywhere… in this state…”
Arzeletta looked up at Ragnar.
“…!”
And then Arzeletta’s eyes widened.
Unbelievable as it was, what had just descended over her body—this was clearly…
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