A Butterfly Through the Mist - Chapter 82

At that moment, a fire ignited in Ilex’s heart.

A flame that no one could extinguish instantly burned down the garden that had bloomed in his soul.

His chest became a wasteland, as if no flowers had ever blossomed, as if no butterflies had ever flown.

Through the fire, twisted emotions of bizarre colors and shapes sprouted.

The Tilia before him did not have the face of someone making a joke. The moment he refused, she would truly leave to find another “means” to achieve her goal.

In the instant he became certain of this, the twisted feeling that had sprouted from the ashes devoured even the fire and consumed his heart.

“Is that so?”

Twisted possessiveness and jealousy blinded him. Ilex, who had discarded sincerity, spoke in a childish, mocking tone.

“Then I suppose we must sleep together.”

A smile, as if dripping blood, spread across his lips.

“Sleep with me.”

If that’s all you want from me. If the role you expect from me is nothing but garbage like this.

“I can’t just let another man benefit from this, can I?”

Fine. I’ll do it. What’s so difficult about that?

It was late spring, a season when beautifully blooming flowers lured in with their fragrance.

Beneath the dazzlingly bright sky, where it was difficult to keep one’s eyes open, Ilex Davenport whispered his only truth.

“I’ve wanted to sleep with you for a long time.”

***

Lies.

He had acted like a villain, leading Tilia away as she wished, but in reality, he had no intention of sleeping with her.

He wasn’t even sure how he had managed to keep up the act and bring her all the way to his room.

“An antidote.”

“Excuse me?”

After shoving Tilia into the room with nonsensical words, he rushed outside in search of his servant. The only one he trusted, Kevin, looked at his master, drenched in cold sweat, with a bewildered face.

“Get me an antidote for holy water poisoning. As soon as possible.”

Gripping Kevin’s shoulders and shaking him, Ilex shouted desperately, “I don’t care how much it costs—just get it now!”

Seeing his master’s frantic expression, Kevin turned pale and sprinted off at full speed.

It didn’t take long for the capable servant to return with the item.

“I… I spent an outrageous amount of money…”

Ilex didn’t even listen to the rest. Without hesitation, he rushed back inside the dormitory.

The only thought in his mind was putting it into Tilia’s mouth. His only desire was to save her and send her safely back to the examination hall.

He swore it. When he entered the room holding the antidote, he had absolutely no intention of undressing her.

No, if he were being honest, he did. But at the very least, he had no intention of defiling her while she was intoxicated by the holy water.

No matter what anyone said, his love was pure. He had never once thought of exploiting someone in a vulnerable state for his own gain.

He hadn’t. Truly, he hadn’t…

Until the bathroom door opened, and he saw her kneeling on the cold tiles, stark naked.

“Ilex. I’ve finished washing up.”

In that moment, when he locked eyes with the woman who seemed as though she had been created solely to tempt him.

“Then, now…”

As she revealed her bewitching body without a trace of hesitation, licking her lips as if she truly wanted him, draping her slender arms around his neck.

“What should I do?”

As if it were all a lie, his reason evaporated.

The antidote was swept away by the raging current of desire. The lust he had suppressed for so long exploded, firing straight toward one person.

He fell. He surrendered. Blinded by temptation, his reason knelt before lust.

Once, he had imagined it.

What if Tilia tried to seduce him? What if the woman who despised him so much smiled coquettishly and approached him as if she wanted him?

In his imagination, she had been provocative. Just the thought of it had forced him to stand under cold water for hours.

But no matter how vivid his fantasies had been, they were just that—fantasies. Reality was something else entirely.

The real Tilia, standing before him, was so much more sensual than the crude dreams he had crafted.

Yes.

As he slipped his tongue into Tilia’s narrow mouth, Ilex admitted it without resistance.

He would never be like his grandfather or his uncle, noble beings of high virtue. He had never grown past the seven-year-old who had once desperately wanted to capture a butterfly.

Love from a distance? What nonsense.

Love had to be touched. Skin had to press against skin, tongues had to intertwine. How could he ever be satisfied with just watching her smile from afar?

“Mmh…”

Tilia Ambrose’s tongue was so soft.

Damn it, love that existed only when he closed his eyes? What kind of bullshit was that?

She was the one who had drunk the holy water, yet it felt as if he was the one who had lost control. His lower body ached unbearably, as if he had taken the drug himself.

He couldn’t contain his desire. Could a person’s body be this indecent? Shouldn’t this be illegal? Absurd thoughts swirled chaotically in his mind. His body burned, unable to cope with the sensation of her soft flesh, which bore the marks of his grip wherever he touched her.

But unlike his desperate struggle, Tilia seemed entirely accustomed to the act of offering her body.

The moment he realized that, a different kind of heat surged to his head.

Wasn’t she supposed to hate men? Wasn’t that why she had discarded Samuel Jennings’s flowers and letter like trash?

No. Up until the time he had meticulously recorded his observations, she had clearly been repulsed by the entire male species.

So then… was there something that had changed her perception of men while he wasn’t watching?

His jaw clenched tightly. His lower body was already leaking with desire as he watched Tilia push her chest toward him, begging to be tormented. But unlike his burning body, his gray-blue eyes grew cold.

The only time he had not been able to follow her closely had been recent—when he was busy bowing his head to judges and officials to ensure Tilia’s safe escape to Ontaroa. That was the only gap in his surveillance.

If his suspicions were correct, then Tilia must have been enjoying herself while he was humbling himself before the law.

“Here… make it hurt.”

Had she said these words to other men as well? The very idea was pathetic and childish, yet it was enough to unleash the feral possessiveness he had barely managed to suppress.

“Make it hurt?”

“Aah…!”

“Say it properly. Do you want me to torment your nipples?”

At that moment, he understood. The reason he had been able to fool himself into thinking it was enough just to watch from afar. The reason he had convinced himself he didn’t need to be by her side.

It was because he had calculated, from the very beginning, that she wouldn’t let anyone—himself included—stand next to her.

“Agh… No…!”

The thought of the Tilia he had carefully rescued from her miserable fate now wrapping herself around another man drove him mad. Jealousy clawed at his insides, poisoning his words with bitterness.

“You were the one who asked me to suck on them.”

“Hngh…”

“I did exactly what you wanted, so what’s your complaint?”

No, maybe these were all just excuses. The truth was, unlike his grandfather’s words, he wasn’t like his uncle—he was just as depraved as his father.

“Spread your legs.”

Tilia’s cheeks flushed red at his command. The sight of her struggling to hide her embarrassment and shame was unbearably satisfying.

Ah. No matter how he looked at it, he could never love the way his grandfather had, merely gazing longingly at a portrait from afar.

Because now, just the sight of her acting as if this were her first time had made his erection swell to the point of bursting.

And when their wild, frenzied act came to an end, he saw the red stains left on the sheets.

Ilex froze, stiff as a statue.

He wanted to deny it, but the meaning of the blood was clear. His mind frantically retraced every moment of his actions from before.

How had he treated her? When she cried and struggled, how had he driven himself inside her…?

A madman. He had treated a virgin in the most vulgar, crude way possible. And worse, she had been under the influence of the holy water, not even in her right mind when she had come to him.

A curse slipped from his lips, the weight of self-loathing pressing down on him. Meanwhile, Tilia, her legs trembling, was gathering her clothes, determined to make her way to the examination hall.

Right. He had to get her there. She had to take her graduation exams.

Suppressing the urge to kidnap her and drag her to a doctor instead, Ilex shoved the antidote into her hands.

“Is this a contraceptive?”

The single question made him freeze. Without hesitation, Tilia downed the antidote, believing it to be birth control.

While she eagerly swallowed what she thought was contraception, Ilex stood motionless, as if he would crumble into dust at the slightest touch.

She glanced at him briefly, straightening the ribbon at her collar, then spoke, “I doubt it needs to be said, but I’ll say it just once.”

Her green eyes, impossibly clear and devoid of impurity, locked onto his. Unlike him, still half-dressed and disheveled, she was already fully clad in her uniform, showing no trace of the night’s events.

“I don’t want anyone to know about this.”

As if solidifying the invisible wall between them, she softly curled her lips into a slight smile before delivering the final blow.

“You wouldn’t want to be tied to me either, would you?”

With those final words—telling me to get dressed and come out—the door shut with a loud thud.