Chapter 159
“…You’re laughing?”
The Esper found it strange that Lea, far from being intimidated by his threat, was actually laughing. Just as he began to realize something was off, she spoke up in a bright tone.
“No, it’s just too funny. ‘Noble Empress,’ you say. Isn’t it hilarious how you claim anyone is noble as long as they have a high rank, regardless of their background?”
The man, realizing what she meant, instantly flushed with embarrassment. It was because he had forgotten that Lea was the Empress’s own daughter.
He tried to stammer out an excuse, but the other Espers around them no longer kept silent.
“You bastard. Thanks to you, I won’t even get any guiding!”
“How ridiculous, acting all high and mighty just because you’re a baron’s son.”
The Esper, caught between others now threatening him, began to release Lea’s shoulder.
But before he could, something flew in even faster and severed the hand gripping her shoulder.
“Argh!”
Lea couldn’t avoid the blood that spurted out like a fountain in front of her, and it splattered across her face and shoulder.
“My, what a mistake.”
A low, casual voice rang out, oddly ill-matched with what had just happened. No one had noticed when he returned, but now, Calix was walking over with a terrifying expression.
Though she’d experienced this many times in the past, Lea was still left stunned by the filthy sensation. The heat of the blood felt like it wouldn’t come off. She touched her face as she stared blankly at Calix approaching.
Calix strode over and stopped right in front of her. His face twisted with rage as he tried to wipe the blood from her pale face with his hand.
“I couldn’t control it, so I made a mistake. Sorry.”
He was irritated that, having overused his powers again today, he hadn’t managed to shield her from the spray of blood. It also disgusted him that the filth of some nameless wretch had sullied what was his.
“AAAGH!”
He coldly looked down at the wretch thrashing on the ground, clutching his severed wrist.
“Be quiet.”
With those weighty words, the scream vanished. Calix had sealed his mouth with his wind ability.
Lea, her heart pounding wildly with shock, tried to speak, but only her lips moved, no sound came out. Calix’s power had extended to her as well.
“Vice Commander.”
“…Yes, Commander-in-Chief.”
Zion, who had just finished his tasks and returned, stepped forward at his call.
“We’ve caught a spy. Interrogate him.”
“Yes…”
After giving his order to Zion, Calix scooped Lea up and carried her to his tent. No one at the scene dared say a word until he was gone.
Lucy stared after the departing Lea and Calix with a strange look in her eyes.
* * *
Inside the tent, Calix set Lea down on the bed and used water and wind to wash her clean. All traces of blood, which soaked not only her face but her neck and shoulders as well, vanished without a trace. But still, he wasn’t satisfied.
Even for a brief moment, the thought of Lea being exposed to another Esper’s filth made him want to cleanse her even more thoroughly.
He roughly tore off the clothes she was wearing. ‘Tore’ was more accurate than ‘removed’.
“Ah, Your Highness…”
Even when Lea called out to him, he acted as if he didn’t hear, stripping off all her clothes before urgently pressing his lips to every spot the blood had touched.
He took her soft cheek fully into his mouth, sucking hard. Beneath him, Lea moved weakly, trying somehow to provide guiding through contact.
That resistance only made Calix feel as if she was rebelling, so he bound her limbs with his wind ability. Only when Lea, pinned as if in a spider’s web, couldn’t move at all did some of his tension ease.
He lowered his head, his saliva marking one side of her small face. Then, after deeply kissing behind her ear, he trailed kisses down her neck. Wherever his lips passed, deep red marks were left on Lea’s pale skin.
He paused at the line where her neck met her shoulder. There remained the clear mark from where she’d been splashed with that scalding-hot water in his place.
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