Chapter 101
He felt his nerves grow sharply on edge.
As he trickled the fresh-smelling liquid little by little into the narrow, damp space, her flushed face faintly twisted. She seemed to truly hate the taste of the potion.
But he could not empathize with the sensations she felt. He could sense the strong grassy smell that pierced his nose and the intense bitterness that stimulated his taste buds, but those sensations did not lead to discomfort.
Varkas pushed his tongue into her tightly shrunken mouth and drew it back repeatedly, pulling her struggling body even closer.
She swallowed what had pooled in her mouth and shuddered faintly. Her panting breaths dampened even his own throat.
He tried to wrap her tightly curled tongue around his own, but when it did not go as he wanted, he lifted his head.
Her face, completely disheveled from the unfamiliar act, entered his sight.
Suddenly, something sharp scraped down his spine.
He pressed down on her swollen lower lip with his thumb, forcing her jaw open. Then, inhaling the ragged breaths flowing out of that damp opening, he urged her roughly.
“Stick out your tongue.”
Her tear-filled eyes wavered with anxiety.
He pushed his finger inside her teeth and lightly pressed down on her wet tongue.
A somewhat impatient voice slipped out.
“Hurry.”
The woman, who had been looking up at him with confused eyes, slowly stuck out her tongue.
As soon as he took it into his mouth and gently sucked on it, her frail body stiffened in shock as if it might break.
He wrapped his hand around her taut nape and tilted his head even closer.
Her small tongue squirmed teasingly. He persistently ensnared it whenever it tried to escape, wrapping his arm around her supple waist.
Beneath the thin fabric of her clothes, he could feel her delicate bones and soft curves.
Her body, which had noticeably lost weight in just two seasons, seemed as though it would shatter to pieces if he applied even a little strength. Feeling somehow anxious, he released the tongue he had been holding.
Transparent saliva flowed between her sore, vivid-red lips. As he licked it up, he heard a voice that sounded as if it might cry.
“Why......”
She looked up at him with eyes that seemed tormented by fever.
“Why are you going this far?”
He drew his brows together.
Rather, he wanted to ask her.
Why shouldn’t he do this?
They were husband and wife.
It would not be strange even if they did acts far beyond this. He had simply not demanded them because he knew she would not want them.
But you were the one who reached out your hand.
Suppressing the urge to blame her that way, he looked into her chaotic eyes, impossible to read.
At the look in her eyes, where confusion, wariness, and doubt were mixed together, his insides began to twist more and more.
He slowly loosened his arms.
“If you hate me doing this, then don’t provoke me from now on.” The woman bit her lip and lowered her eyes.
Her ruined mouth once again drew his gaze. Scoffing at himself for that, he rose from the bed, but then a hoarse voice scraped at his nerves.
“W-who said I hated it?”
Varkas looked down at her with cold eyes.
As if she were asking for something she had left in his care, she demanded,
“I won’t cry now, so keep going. There’s still medicine left.” For an instant, a savage heat churned inside his stomach.
He frowned at the sensation, which was close to unpleasant.
What exactly did this woman want from him?
“I want you to hurt. Very, very badly.”
The words she had once muttered while drugged flashed through his mind.
At the time, he had brushed them off as nothing important. Even now, more than ten years later, only his sense of pain had not returned. Now, he could no longer even recall what pain had felt like.
But perhaps, a thought crossed his mind, this sensation he was feeling now might be close to pain.
“I-if you don’t want to, then fine. Go away.”
Unable to endure the lengthening silence, Thalia pushed against his chest.
He snatched that hand and gripped it, pulling her absurdly light body onto his knees. Her body, which had been stiff with tension, quickly softened.
He wound her eerily smooth hair around his fingers and bit her wet lips.
She was always a woman who could only be satisfied after making a mess of others, and even herself.
From the moment he had made such a woman his responsibility, he had already guessed that his orderly world would be ruined.
Varkas closed his eyes as he felt a heat like his insides were festering.
It was as if he were swallowing poison.
***
The journey continued smoothly.
After visiting the major territories of the northeast, they moved south and toured several commercial regions.
For a while, grand views of large cities, magnificent enough to make one’s eyes widen, unfolded one after another, and wealthy merchants and nobles welcomed them with fervent enthusiasm.
However, none of it managed to draw her interest. Her mind was filled entirely with confusion.
Thalia touched her stinging lips and looked out the window.
Between the knights marching in orderly formation, Varkas’s figure came in and out of view.
Wearing a black breastplate and riding his horse with straight posture, he looked like the very image of a stern lord. It was impossible to think of him as the primal man who devoured her lips every night.
Feeling her insides twist on their own, Thalia drew the curtain over the window. But even after blocking her sight, the thoughts circling inside her head did not stop.
She obsessively went back over the acts she had repeated with him.
Varkas never kissed her first unless she asked. But that did not mean he seemed to be reluctantly going along with it. He always continued kissing her persistently until she was driven to her limit and struggled. At times, it even felt as though he was the more impatient one.
But when she grew frightened by the contact that deepened beyond what she could handle and pushed him away, Varkas would withdraw obediently with an indifferent face. At those times, everything felt like her own excessive interpretation again.
Thalia habitually worried at her lip, then felt a prick of pain and frowned. When she touched it with her fingertips, a faint trace of blood came away.
There was no way to know whether it was a wound she had made or one Varkas had made. Recently, Varkas had tormented her lips more often.
Thalia, who had been fiddling with her swollen lips, slowly closed her eyes. Just as she was about to take a nap to empty her cluttered mind, the carriage that had been running without pause stopped moving.
“We have arrived. Please step down.” A blunt voice came through the window.
After straightening her disheveled clothes, Thalia went out of the carriage.
Across the wide plain, large cone-shaped tents and old huts stood here and there. Bewilderment rose at the rather plain scenery. Compared to the north, where the gap between rich and poor was severe, the south was generally wealthy, so it had been quite some time since she had visited a village.
“We will be staying here tonight.”
The young mounted warrior Varkas had assigned as her escort approached and explained.
“It may be inconvenient, but please bear with it for just one day.”
Thalia moved without giving any reply.
Varkas was in the middle of talking with a man who appeared to be the village administrator. While she stared blankly at the sight, Varkas gave her a nod.
Thalia carefully approached his side. Then Varkas placed a hand on her shoulder and spoke to the administrator in a businesslike tone.
“We will set up our own tent separately, so you only need to prepare lodging for my wife.”
Thalia looked up at him in surprise.
“What does that mean?”
“There will be a light subjugation tonight.”
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