Chapter 34
Thinking of Cyrone’s deep, calm eyes—like a shadowed mask—Reiffers felt a chill crawl up his spine.
“Yes. Soon, I’ll send you to join your mother.”
Regretting the days gone by, he ground his teeth, closing the curtain. At Horace’s signal, the carriage swiftly left Welrod Palace.
* * *
With Reiffers gone, only Cyrone and Elia remained in the inner chamber.
Elia, standing alone, tried hard not to let her conflicted expression show. This was nothing new. After all, she had lived as the daughter of the empire’s most prestigious Reiffers family.
Yet even habits she had relied on before Cyrone now crumbled hopelessly.
“……”
Elia quietly repeated the loaded conversation between Cyrone and Reiffers. It was clear Cyrone knew something about Reiffers. So it was something even Elia, a member of the Reiffers family, did not know.
Especially unlike Cyrone, who always seemed so composed like the victor, Reiffers’s flustered expression was something never seen before. As a power player of the empire, even all the privileges and experience Reiffers had skillfully enjoyed seemed useless before Cyrone…
Complex thoughts tangled in Elia’s mind.
“Who did you dress up so nicely to show off to?”
Cyrone, sitting with his chin resting on his hand, asked lazily. The delicate, painted lines around his eyes softened kindly. At times, he was no different from the boy Elia had once loved.
Which of the two, Cyrone aiming a gun at Rias just recently, or the Cyrone now before her, was the real one? Elia was simply confused.
Elia wore a bright pale-green dress as radiant as her eyes, and Cyrone seemed struck by how unfamiliar she looked. His eyes slowly softened as if recalling the forest where they first met.
Elia seemed completely unaware that the boy she met in the woods was Cyrone. Cyrone’s timeline was always far ahead of hers.
“You haven’t changed. Not then, not now.”
Cyrone slowly pushed back his chair and stood. A gentle seasonal breeze drifted through the window. Elia’s red hair swayed softly in the wind.
“You’re still beautiful no matter what you wear.”
Like the fading light of dusk, Cyrone’s eyes grew languid. The red glow of the afternoon settled over the room. Before Elia knew it, Cyrone’s scent drew close to her side. A dazzling and cool scent that was unmistakably his.
Whenever Cyrone’s scent wrapped around her body like this, Elia’s heart still felt heavy as a habit. She couldn’t bring herself to meet Cyrone’s gaze and closed her eyes tightly.
“You still can’t hide your expression in front of me.”
Cyrone’s dry gaze brushed lightly across Elia’s cheek before pulling away. His scent surged close, then faded again like an unreachable phantom… Everything about Cyrone repeated this pattern of distancing and drawing near.
“You keep making me worry.”
Cyrone murmured close to Elia’s ear. His breath teased her sensitive skin, sending a tingling sensation down to her toes. Cyrone’s lips lightly grazed her earlobe.
“Your Highness!”
The sharp sensation overwhelmed Elia’s body instantly. Like instinct, she couldn’t resist responding to Cyrone. She raised her hands to push him away but was powerless. Cyrone urgently held her jaw and captured her lips completely.
“Mmmph…”
Their tongues tangled roughly together. As their saliva mixed, wet, lewd sounds spilled out. The more Elia turned her head to escape, the more fiercely Cyrone pushed into her.
Soon, the scorching heat between them had her gasping.
“Cy-Cyrone… Hah…”
Elia staggered back, but there was nowhere left to run. Before she knew it, her body was pinned against the wall. Cyrone’s hand slipped beneath the voluminous folds of her skirt, fingers tracing familiar paths along the sensitive skin of her inner thigh.
“This place is still just as sensitive.”
Cyrone gazed at Elia’s tangled red hair, heavy with restless breaths. Even if you wove together every flower that blooms across the four seasons, it wouldn’t be as beautiful as that. The thought surged instinctively, but Cyrone’s expression soon hardened.
“Your child will probably have hair similar to yours.”
He gently touched Elia’s hair, cool from the night air. His voice near her ear was deep and chilling, making Elia’s entire body stiffen.
Cyrone slowly circled around Elia. The marks of his lips still lingered on her slender nape. The sensitive sensations hidden beneath the full sweep of her skirt, all were his. His face grew rigid and dry.
“If it takes after you, the eye color will be light too.”
Like he was trying to carve flesh and swallow bone, Cyrone stubbornly stared at Elia and forcefully lifted her chin.
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