Swan Grave - Chapter 20

CHAPTER 4. The Crossed Line

The maids who shared the same room asked all day how Rothbart had been. For Anna, it was a topic difficult to answer. She could only smile awkwardly and let her words trail off.

But no one found it strange. Their master, despite his handsome face, was notoriously capricious. Nodding their heads, they said surely Anna must have had a hard time today, and that sooner or later she would be the one to complain and grumble.

After chatting noisily, one by one they went to bed as the night deepened. Only Anna lay wide awake in the darkness. Whether from the shock of today’s events, she couldn’t fall asleep at all.

“Once a year, when the three moons overlap and glow red… If you go to the lake in the forest behind this mansion, the full moon will be reflected on the water. That is the door through which a swan can return to her original world.”

Calling her under the pretense of paying the price, Rothbart leaned deep into the sofa and spoke generously. Even though it was nothing more than fair payment for her body, his arrogant manner made Anna feel twice humiliated. But she couldn’t argue. She only bowed low, desperate not to miss a single word he spoke, replaying them over and over.

Late into the night when everyone else was asleep, Anna rose and went to the window at the end of the bed. She thought she could see the lake Rothbart had mentioned, far in the distance.

“But remember. Unless the conditions are met, the door will not open.”

Though she had finally learned how to return to her original world, Anna couldn’t rejoice wholeheartedly. That the condition was to bear a child—it still didn’t feel real.

Moreover, she had no idea how to tell Sehyun. In truth, that troubled her even more.

“Or have you already done it with the Marquess? Is that why he’s making you his personal maid?”

Sehyun had said that bluntly when she became Rothbart’s personal maid. If he found out she had truly lain with him, and now even had to bear his child, how much more would he condemn her?

Explaining that it was the only way to return to their original world would mean little. He would only sneer, saying he had been right all along, and accuse her of cheapening herself in the end. She could already hear it without needing to.

Should she really tell Sehyun, only to hear such reproach?

And even if they did return together to their original world, there remained practical problems.

Already, many had doubted why Sehyun, popular in their department, was dating someone like Anna. If they suddenly broke up, and then rumors spread that he said, “She secretly gave birth,” it would be disastrous.

He, too, would need to have a child with someone from this world to return, but unlike Anna, he had nothing that could be used against him. A woman bearing a child and a man fathering one carried very different weights…

Of course, if Sehyun could keep silent, none of it mattered. But from her recent experiences with him, Anna couldn’t be sure.

Until now, Anna had neglected her studies because of her mother’s illness and lived keeping distance from others. For her, there might be little to lose even if rumors spread. But even so, at some unexpected moment, those rumors could stab her like a knife, or trip her up at a crucial time.

Anna shook her head.

‘Maybe I’m just being overly sensitive.’

Nothing was certain yet.

Even if she no longer trusted Sehyun, they had shared hardships since falling into this world together. The loneliness of suddenly being dropped into an unfamiliar world—surely only Sehyun and Anna could truly understand that.

Anna also knew well how desperately Sehyun wished to return to their original world. To try to monopolize the method of returning made her feel a vague guilt.

Still, she didn’t have the courage to tell Sehyun right away. If she prepared her heart a little more, she thought it would be fine to tell him then.

Thinking about it, Sehyun’s return should at least come after hers. She could tell him once she became pregnant. In any case, simply telling him the method would be fulfilling her duty.

Resolving herself so, Anna hugged her knees tightly. Yet even with her arms full, she felt empty.

***

Frequent encounters made her lose track of time. The flow of consciousness was ultimately ruled by the accumulation of moments. To prove those words, Anna quickly grew accustomed to Rothbart.

The humiliation and shyness of the beginning had completely disappeared. It wasn’t that she felt no shame, but that feeling soon faded.

Rothbart kept her always at his side, then ordered her to lift her skirt whenever he pleased, even telling her she had no need for underwear.

Today was the same. From morning, there had been no signal, and she thought it might pass quietly, but in the afternoon, as the sun began to set, he suddenly pulled Anna toward him.

He bent her over his desk and at once thrust his hardened cock inside. Beneath the black hem of her dress, crumpled up to her waist, her pale ass swallowed his thick shaft greedily.

“Ahhht, it hurts…”

“It’s not pain, it’s arousal. If not, then how do you explain your pussy drooling around my cock?”

It wasn’t wrong. Pain aside, her drenched pussy devoured Rothbart’s length as if reclaiming what had once been stolen.

“Ahhhk, ah! Ah!”

Each time Rothbart thrust his hips, the desk shook, scattering objects. A clearly expensive fountain pen rolled to the floor, but Rothbart ignored it and only quickened his pace.

He held Anna’s thin arms immobile and ravaged her insides with his hips alone, then, unsatisfied, gripped her round ass and shook her roughly.

Anna’s body was tossed helplessly by his movements. She felt like a puppet.

Today it was the desk, yesterday before the window frame. Terrified someone in the garden might see, Anna panicked, but he still pressed her breasts against the glass.

He took her in every place. On chairs, on carpeted floors, on long sofas…

But never again on the bed after that time in the Marchioness’s room. As if that place were forbidden to Anna. As if to Rothbart, the bed belonged only to his lawful wife.

Anna endured it. In truth, she was nothing more than a broodmare, or a vessel for his lust. Sweet whispers on a bed were not suited to them, nor worth expecting.

Instead, Anna wished Rothbart would treat her even more ruthlessly, like a stand-in, a tool.

Physical intimacy shook the heart more than expected. The pleasure given by another’s body. The liberation of showing every hidden part of herself to someone with nothing between them… Once the barrier broke, nothing held her back.

Rothbart already had someone he had given his heart to, so it may have meant little to him. But Anna was different. Rothbart was her first man, and Anna knew no pleasure other than what he had given her. Having no one else, Anna was easily swayed by him.

“Haa… Ianna… Ianna!”

Especially when the Marquess, holding her, muttered the Marchioness’s name, one corner of Anna’s heart quivered with some emotion, whether it was pleasure or jealousy, she couldn’t tell.

“Ah, ahngh, ahh!”

As if under the illusion that he was calling her, Anna’s body convulsed. It was not a good sign. Anna tried desperately to suppress her own heart, afraid Rothbart might notice.

But of course, Rothbart couldn’t fail to notice. Realizing that every time he murmured the Marchioness’s name Anna’s pussy clenched tightly, Rothbart mischievously whispered his wife’s name into her ear as he quickened the pace of his thrusts.

“Ahhhk, nnngh, I-I’m going to cum, stop, ahh…!”

“You can’t cum yet.”

Rothbart smiled wickedly and gripped her waist firmly with his left hand. His right hand slid down her belly to her mound. His fingers, gliding skillfully, rubbed Anna’s swollen clit.

“Don’t, ah, ahhhh!”

The direct stimulation on her sensitive flesh made Anna’s body twist uncontrollably. A tingling pleasure like electricity shot through her whole body, her inner walls tightening and loosening in waves. Her mouth hung slack, her tongue wandering uselessly, her limbs flailing in vain.

Before long, his cock pulsed, then erupted inside her, striking her womb. His semen was always excessive, overflowing. Whether because he was a demon, or simply innately virile…

Semen dripped down Anna’s labia, falling in drops. Rothbart chuckled and, with his fingers, scooped the spilled seed and shoved it back inside.

“You say no with your mouth, but your body is far more honest.”

Sex with him was always one-sided, rough without consideration. He never cared for Anna’s consent, only forcing her body open. The pleasure pouring into her from his cock, relentless and merciless, seemed to scorn her.

Yet while Rothbart seemed intent only on sating his lust, he never forgot to drive Anna wild with arousal, making a mess of her. It was as if his true aim was to drag out and expose the parts of herself she wished to hide, stripping away her pride and shame completely.

And his goal was advancing step by step.