Swan Grave - Chapter 41

That’s how life is. There are limits to what human strength can do. Having let go of her heart, Anna decided that when the chance came, she’d also tell Sehyun the way swans could return to their original world. Until now, she had put it off again and again, lacking both the chance and the courage to tell him, but now it felt as though the time had come.

‘Well… the worst that could happen is that my reputation will suffer if Sehyun oppa, who went back first, runs his mouth with nonsense.’

She was tired of everything. What did it matter if her reputation was ruined a little?

Besides, the Lady of Brabant might already have told him the way to return.

Anna quietly looked at her hands. She recalled again Rothbart’s large palm overlapping hers. Remembering the dreadful comfort that warmth had given her, Anna quietly clenched her hand.

***

Just as Anna became Rothbart’s personal maid, so too did the rumor spread quickly that Sehyun, the stable boy, had been chosen by Lady Brabant. Hearing the news, Rose paced her room anxiously.

“As expected, Joseph is surely a swan. That’s why Lady Brabant moved so quickly.”

Had she been a little later, she might have lost her chance forever. But even now, the situation was far from good. Though she had been a step ahead, immediately after, Odile snatched Joseph away. Joseph wouldn’t have had time to tell Anna about returning to the original world, and if Anna didn’t know, then all of it would be meaningless.

But for now, Joseph was practically locked away in Odile’s room. Since Odile rarely ever came out, it was like a fortress. Rose thought of luring Odile out and freeing Joseph, but no matter how she considered it, it seemed impossible.

Meanwhile, time passed moment by moment. The day of the red moon was just around the corner.

‘There’s no choice. I’ll have to tell her myself…’

Rose clicked her tongue softly. She had wanted to handle things easily without moving herself, but in the end, she had to act twice. If she had known, she would’ve approached Anna from the start.

With the day of the red moon so near, Rothbart was bound to be on edge. But she had no choice but to take that risk. Getting rid of Anna was the priority.

She’d have to approach with utmost caution. First, she needed an excuse to call Anna out. Should she use Joseph’s name? Or Svanhild’s?

Either way, the thought of sidling up to Anna made her sick. As she stepped out of her room, trying to stifle her irritation, something pitch black suddenly filled her vision.

“What!”

Rose, startled, tried with all her strength to resist, but it was pointless. A dull pain struck the back of her head, her body collapsed to the floor, and her consciousness sank down into the depths. What greeted her was complete darkness.

***

The morning sun rose, and light began to seep into the mansion. As always, Anna went to see Rothbart.

The moment she stepped into his room, Rothbart pulled her onto the bed. Though it wasn’t unusual for him to take her in the morning, today his every gesture was unusually rough. Startled, Anna found herself staring at his face. What she met was his tightly shut lips and the displeasure lurking in his red eyes.

He was never a cheerful man, but today he seemed particularly low-spirited. He pushed Anna onto the disheveled bed that bore the clear signs of a recent sleep. Anna’s face was shoved straight into the mattress.

“Ugh!”

The bedding, which had covered Rothbart’s body through the night, was saturated with his scent. As that masculine smell rushed deep into her nose and momentarily clouded her mind, Rothbart roughly seized her buttocks.

“Ahh!”

Though her body had grown accustomed to him and easily grew wet, this time his cock tore into her flesh before her body could release any fluids.

He thrust all the way to the root in a single motion, his weight driving him in. Pinned between the bed and Rothbart, Anna couldn’t move an inch. It felt as if her whole body was bound. Crushed under the pressure, unable to so much as move a finger, the only thing vivid to her was his cock forcing its way inside.

He moved slowly, only his hips driving mercilessly into her depths. Sharp pain spread through her body first, and only after came the dull pleasure creeping in, loosening her tense body.

“Mm! Nngh!”

She couldn’t breathe, as if she’d fallen into water. Suffocation tightened around her throat, and only sighs like escaping air spilled weakly from her lips.

Normally, by now he would have said at least one mocking word, but today Rothbart kept his lips firmly shut and said nothing. He only clutched her arms roughly and pounded into her insides.

Whether he was punishing her or venting his anger…

For a moment, he had seemed all right, but then what had soured his mood again? He had suddenly come to her room. More and more, it was becoming difficult to keep up with Rothbart’s whims.

Elegant, long hands tore at her clothes. It didn’t take long for her to be exposed like the flesh of a peeled fruit under his impatient touch.

Her pale naked body, curled forward, shook helplessly beneath his massive frame. Rothbart’s cock drove into her without giving a moment’s reprieve. Every time her buttocks struck his groin, her body was shoved forward, toppling as if pushed. For her slender arms, it was a merciless and inconsiderate act to withstand.

Anna endured his violent movements as they were, only longing for this time to pass quickly.

Like that, Rothbart climaxed inside her several times. The languid sensation of semen spreading through her body was so vivid it made her skin crawl each time.

Though it hadn’t been long since she’d stepped into this room, her whole body was already soaked in exhaustion from several couplings. Her limbs drooped heavy as wet cotton, unable to budge. Her pale thighs were spread shamelessly wide, and from within, her reddened flesh twitched as pearled bubbles of semen were endlessly pushed out.

Rothbart’s cock was also swollen with her fluids. Unlike Anna, sprawled raw and limp like meat on a platter with not even the strength to move a finger, his face showed no sign of fatigue, still pristine.

Only belatedly did guilt flicker across Rothbart’s face. He gazed down at Anna with eyes flushed red like heated glass and murmured.

“I’m sorry.”

Because such things had happened more than once or twice, Anna had never expected an apology from him, and she was startled. Rothbart bowed his head silently and went on.

“I was uneasy, that’s why.”

The honesty he confessed, despite his pride, shook Anna’s heart. The man who had always been immaculate and noble now only seemed pitiful, like a wounded beast. Even though it was Anna herself who was left a complete mess. Unknowingly, Anna reached out toward his hand.

“…What reason is there to be uneasy?”

“Because today is the day of the Red Moon.”

That time had already come. Not realizing, Anna instinctively turned her head toward the sky outside the window. But since it was still midday, the only thing that greeted her was the clear blue sky.

Rothbart, still holding Anna’s hand, continued his confession quietly. His thick lashes cast a shadow like an eave over his red pupils.

“Just as my wife returned on the day the red moon rose, I felt as though you might leave too.”

“…I have not even conceived yet. You said one must give birth to return. There’s no way I could leave.”

“But if you could leave, you would do so at once, wouldn’t you?”

Rothbart spoke as though it were a certainty.

If it had been the Anna of the past, she’d of course have nodded her head. But now, it was unclear.

It wasn’t that she didn’t want to return. No, more precisely, she wanted to run away from him. Because he shook her heart so violently. Because the feelings he stirred in her were so unfamiliar, ones she had never known before.