The Cursed Beast Caught My Leash - Chapter 115

It was just as Islay had once taught her.

Stella bit down as if to take him into her mouth, slipping her tongue between his parted lips to steal his breath. The wet sound of mucous membranes being sucked was unabashedly loud.

“Haa. Hhng.”

Just as he had kissed her while giving her room to breathe, whenever her breath faltered, she withdrew briefly, exhaled a shallow sigh, and pressed her lips to his again. With both hands cradling his face, her kiss took complete control, and there was no way Islay could remain unaffected.

When a dull ache struck his thigh, Islay grabbed her small shoulder.

“Wait, Estella.”

Outside the bedroom, one of Alexio’s knights was standing guard. Unable to allow a man into his sister’s room unescorted, Alexio had posted a subordinate.

Stella, who had just pulled away from his lips, touched her forehead to his. Panting softly, she turned her gaze to the closed door and suddenly raised her voice.

“Whoever’s outside, leave your post. And don’t return until morning.”

“……”

“That’s an order.”

Even without opening the door, she could picture the guard’s confused expression. After a brief hesitation, the knight turned and walked away. No footsteps followed.

Now they were truly alone. It had been so long since they’d had time together with no watching eyes or listening ears.

Stella looked up at him as if to ask, Isn’t it enough now? Islay lost his words for a moment as their eyes met.

Even in the darkness, her golden irises shone stubbornly bright. Stella had climbed halfway onto him, wrapping both arms around his neck. The way she pressed her lips to his was almost desperate.

Still burdened by memories of that final, painful night, Islay couldn’t bring himself to respond fully. Yet Stella clung as though something terrible would happen if they were even briefly apart. Her kiss wasn’t carnal—it was earnest.

Their breathing mingled hotly in the urgency. As he embraced her charging into him, Islay tilted his head back. His Adam’s apple, jutting sharply, rose and fell heavily with a trembling breath.

“Haa… Estella…”

Each time Stella’s lips grazed his, Islay’s breath slipped out like a soul escaping. It was a sound that made their union all the more heated.

Below the disheveled hem of her dress, her pale thighs showed. Islay, like a boy encountering a naked woman for the first time, breathed heavily, his chest rising and falling. A chill shiver coursed through his body as he felt himself harden.

Even so, he didn’t push her down or lift her skirt further. He simply lowered his hand to grasp her thigh and slowly caressed it.

Stella gave his lower lip a small bite before pulling back. Islay, for once, panted like someone flung out of water. It wasn’t the lack of breath—it was the toll of forcing himself under control.

“I have something important to tell you. I said I had a dream.”

Even as she straddled him, Stella hadn’t forgotten the main point.

After having the same dream again and again, she had become convinced: the dreams were fragments of a real past. Perhaps they even held clues about the catastrophe that had tormented Peruno for so long.

High Priest Simon had raised Theia with strict discipline, not to protect his foster daughter, but to ensure her inner sight remained untainted.

But Simon’s intentions went awry. Before long, he would discover Theia’s secret meetings with Peruno. And from there, everything would begin.

This wasn’t just folklore about whoever had cursed Peruno—it was a chance to return to the past and witness it firsthand.

“It’s not just a dream. If—by any chance—I can find a clue, Islay…”

Stella gently cupped his cheeks in both hands.

“We might be able to break the curse. Just as we’ve wished all along—you becoming an ordinary man.”

Alongside this, there was also a strong suspicion that Hendrick Regan and Pantege were hiding something. They had gone so far as to stage a deception with hastily assembled troops just to whisk her away—there had to be a reason that justified such a move.

Stella told the story—something anyone else would have dismissed as absurd—with complete seriousness in front of him. Islay listened attentively to her words. Yet he didn’t appear particularly shaken.

Partly because he had never held much hope for his own future, and more importantly, because the matter of breaking the curse was inevitably entangled with the Mind’s Eye, leaving him unwilling to be easily swayed.

And then, his thoughts settled on something entirely unrelated.

“So in your dream, you were that woman?”

“Yes. Though our consciousnesses were separate, that’s how it felt. I could even feel the breeze coming through the window.”

The man who rarely revealed any indignation in front of Stella raised his thick eyebrows.

“And you lay with another man in his arms?”

“He was your ancestor. The founder of Peruno, even—”

“I don’t care whose descendant he was. Stop having that dream.”

His tone was so absolute, Stella nearly let out a laugh despite herself.

“That’s not something I can control at will… Were you even listening properly to what I said?”

“I heard it all. There hasn’t been a single thing you’ve said that I haven’t engraved into my mind.”

Despite how it sounded like a joke, Islay’s face was more serious than ever. Stella blinked, then finally let out a soft laugh. It was the first smile she had shown since their reunion.

Seeing her bright face blooming with laughter, Islay fell silent for a moment, as if momentarily entranced. She gently swept her hand over his shoulder.

“Then listen seriously now. Prince Regan knows something. When morning comes, there’s something I must confirm with him.”

“Do whatever you need, Estella. I’ll strangle the bastard with my own hands afterward.”

Islay spoke coldly, his expression chilling in an instant.

“Every man who touched you—and every one who even tried—I’ll find them all and kill them.”

In stark contrast to the way he had just treated her like a delicate sugar figurine, his rage toward those who had dared to harm her erupted with ruthless hostility.

Stella gently stroked his chest, as if calming a furious beast.

“…Islay.”

“……”

“What happened to Father Padro?”

The crimson gleam in his eyes turned toward her. Stella didn’t press further and quietly waited for his reply.

“He’ll walk a path of penance for the rest of his life at the holy site of Nortelli. The priests who followed him will as well.”

“…You didn’t punish Padro?”

“No. He wasn’t even injured. It wasn’t the outcome I wanted.”

Conspiring in secret behind his lord to sacrifice Stella should have warranted severe punishment. Even so, Stella understood why Islay had shown him mercy.

In the end, she smiled once again.

Islay often called himself worse than a beast and fell into bouts of bitter self-loathing, but to Stella, there was no man more humane or compassionate.

“When the monsters invaded the fortress city, I saw Father Padro taking the lead in evacuating people. He didn’t hesitate, even though he could’ve been hurt, and carried children in his arms as he ran. Of course, you probably still resent and dislike him… but he truly is a priest who values the greater good above all.”

Even though he had once sought her blood, it had been her own will, and Padro had only ever acted in pursuit of peace for Calis.

Though he was an old priest, Islay had grown tired of hearing her praise another man, so he gave a slight nod, ending the conversation.

“All right, Estella. Let’s stop talking about Hendrick and priests and whatever else. Didn’t you say you wanted to be with me until morning?”

“Mm, I did.”

Stella answered obediently, then climbed fully into his lap and pressed her lips to his once more. As she playfully rubbed her nose against his with a soft kiss, the warmth of her breath lit a spark in Islay’s previously dry breath.

“Whenever you’re by my side, I always feel like time slips away too quickly.”

Islay murmured softly as he loosely wound his fingers into the waves of her hair.