Chapter 204
“Ashtel, how many times have I told you not to leave other things on the table?”
“Okayyy.”
Without complaining, she crumpled up the newspaper and tossed it onto the sofa.
But Payne was quick with another lecture.
“And how many times have I said that throwing things is childish…”
“Alright, alright, I won’t do it.”
Ashtel pouted.
With her golden hair pulled back in a high ponytail, she laid a napkin neatly across her knees. Watching her, Payne’s stern gaze softened.
It had already been three months since they started living together. At first, when they escaped from the temple, Payne constantly worried that paladins would come after them again.
But with all the chaos that had happened, nobody looked for Payne for over a month and a half. Eventually, Duvalcan and Van stopped by and told him the verdict had come down: Payne was officially cleared of all charges and could serve as a priest anywhere now.
But Payne hadn’t returned to Mediale.
The secret about his origins, which Ashtel had told him, was still too much to process.
“My father was Duke Panchest…”
Two days after settling into the cottage, Ashtel had asked Payne what he wanted to do about Serena, Prohmen, and the Duke—now stuck in the demon realm.
Payne asked what they’d done to him, and Ashtel told him everything, leaving nothing out. That’s how he learned the secrets of his childhood, and why he’d been raised here.
According to Katzel’s teachings, forgiveness is right.
“…Just do as you like, Ashtel.”
But after saying that, he’d looked away.
Ashtel knew Payne didn’t hate them enough to want revenge, but she also understood how much pain they’d caused him. So she’d sent a message via Carmen’s communicating device, asking her sisters to rough them up a bit in the demon realm… and, well, that was the result.
Three months after all that, it was officially announced: the pope and cardinal resigned, and the Duke had stepped down.
Today, Ashtel had hoped for a day full of fun and maybe something a little more intimate with Payne, but…
Unfortunately, ever since Payne’s heat (and the curse) had faded, she hadn’t been able to touch him.
To be precise, not since Payne’s heat cycle ended.
“Payne… can’t we just, you know, today?”
“No.”
“You’re so mean. You liked it too.”
“Is that what matters right now? Did you ever stop to think about what your body’s been through, now that you’re human?”
Payne shot her a sharp look.
It wasn’t that he didn’t want intimacy—far from it—but the real reason for restraint was Ashtel’s body, now as delicate as any noblewoman’s.
For the first month after they’d moved in, Payne had struggled alone with the lingering effects of his curse and the aftermath of his ‘heat’. Unfortunately, in one moment of lost control, he’d ended up overwhelming Ashtel, and she’d spent the next three days sick in bed.
It was a sobering experience.
“Until I’ve learned proper restraint, we’re not doing that again.”
“But Payne, you’re the infamous ‘Iron Wall Priest,’ aren’t you?”
“Where did you even hear that…? Regardless, that’s in the past. I have to build up my self-control from scratch. So no. Absolutely not.”
“Ugh. I liked it, even if it was exhausting…”
Ashtel’s gaze drifted to Payne’s chest, his stomach, his legs—and most of all, his, uh, generously endowed body.
Noticing where her eyes were wandering, Payne bit his lip and quickly turned his attention to the food.
“Let’s eat before it gets cold.”
“Okay!”
Ashtel was so innocent and helpless around the house that Payne ended up doing most of the chores himself. He went to work at a nearby temple, came home in the evenings, and spent weekends taking care of her.
As time went on, not being able to touch her became a constant torment—a subtle, nagging discomfort, even though his own heat had passed.
Payne swallowed hard and started to slice his bread, only to realize Ashtel hadn’t touched her food yet.
“Aren’t you going to eat?”
“Hey, Payne, I’ve been thinking…”
“Yes?”
“Maybe your mother actually loved you.”
“…What?”
Payne’s cutlery froze.
“Where is this coming from?”
“Well, she left you at Mediale, right?”
“She abandoned me. She didn’t want me around anymore.”
“No, but according to what you told me, it was your mother who placed the curse on you. She must have known what she’d done.”
Ashtel had learned all this from Payne, back when she helped remove the curse. Payne’s father had always been indifferent, so the only one who could have cursed him was his mother.
“She must have hated you. But she also must have loved you. I think, at some point when her heart was weak, she let a demon trick her into placing the curse. And once she realized what she’d done, she left you at Mediale.”
Despite not knowing the circumstances, Ashtel spoke seriously
“So you’d be safe from demons and curses.”
She had abandoned Payne at the most sacred place in the Roxa Empire, Katzel Mediale
Payne stared at her in disbelief.
“Even so… my mother…”
“I’m not saying she did the right thing.”
After all, she was the one who cursed him in the first place.
Ashtel gave Payne a gentle smile.
“I just wanted you to know. You weren’t unloved. Not even once.”
It’s just that the one who loved him was heartbreakingly weak.
“Payne, you were loved.”
Hearing that, Payne put down his utensils.
His vision blurred, making it impossible to keep eating.
But in the end, he held back his tears and met Ashtel’s gaze.
Did she know? That even if he’d never truly known his mother’s love, he could finally believe in love now.
All thanks to Ashtel, the succubus who loved him.
“I think… I can love you, too.”
Ashtel, caught off-guard by his confession, shyly asked him to say it again. But Payne only turned away, with his ears red.
A faint smile broke across his face as steady as the sunrise over the horizon.
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