The Monster Lady and the Holy Knight - Chapter 78

Before she realized it, her back was touching the bed.

Ah, uh. A strange sound escaped between their lips as they overlapped at different angles. Veronica couldn’t understand why she was making such embarrassing noises. It hurt. Her tongue and lips were being sucked, and they stung, so why?

This was serious. She couldn’t distinguish between pain and pleasure anymore.

The man, supporting himself on his arms over the bed, finally pulled his lips away. Between their gasping breaths, their gazes met.

“…Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Because you’re beautiful.”

At that moment, a cold hand came up to her bare skin and painfully squeezed her round flesh. Veronica winced reflexively, and Leon, watching her closely, didn’t ease his grip. Ah, he had figured it out. From the moment they kissed, he had realized that her reactions to pain and pleasure were the same.

No, don’t look.

“Don’t turn your head away.”

As she tried to turn away, her chin was grabbed, and his fingers pushed through her parted lips. Heat rose to her eyes. While he held her gaze, helplessly locking eyes with him, the intruding fingers rubbed her tongue, exploring her soft mouth and teeth. The hand moving deeply inside was blatantly suggestive.

The wet sounds were like the sound of rain. Veronica’s mind grew hazy. Fearing her consciousness might slip away like being swept by a wave, she started moving her tongue clumsily. She bit and licked his fingers, and Leon watched her actions with darkening eyes. She liked the deep crease in his brow. She didn’t mind his completely maddened expression. More, deeper. Enough to forget that they were in a church right now.

“Ah…”

An inarticulate sound slipped past her throat as Leon pulled his hand away and lowered his head beneath the hem of her chemise. The sight of the man burrowing into her, his face pressed into her skin, was enough to provoke an extreme response. Unable to resist the strange feeling of sin, Veronica grasped his red hair. It felt like something childish. It was strange, even ticklish enough to make her curl her toes. Behind such innocent expressions, how much raw desire lay hidden?

“You taste like snow. Like fresh, fallen snow that a child might try tasting once.”

The man’s voice echoed in her ears. Veronica absentmindedly turned her head to the window, where rain fell in steady drops. She wasn’t afraid. It was amazing. Before he arrived, the whole world had shaken as if monsters were rampaging.

“Raise your arms. I’ll undress you.”

Naturally, Veronica was the faster one to undress. She had only managed to remove his gauntlets and armguards, and Leon belatedly raised his torso to start removing the rest of his armor. His eyes remained fixed on her exposed skin. Feeling the heat, Veronica subtly pulled the nearby blanket towards herself.

“Don’t look at me like that.”

“Oh, sorry. It’s my first time seeing a woman’s body.”

“First? Then, is it true that the imperial family sleeps with their clothes on?”

“I don’t know. You don’t still think I was involved with the princess, do you?”

“Weren’t you?”

“Not just her, but with anyone. You’re my first,” Leon answered firmly, clearly disliking being misunderstood.

Come to think of it, he had said so last time, too. Veronica reconsidered. So what if it wasn’t true?

“I don’t really care, even if it’s a lie.”

A crack formed on his handsome brow. Finally, after lifting off the black under armor worn beneath his plate, Leon muttered as he naturally leaned on the bed.

“Really? Well, I do care.”

Shadows lingered over his masculine body. Veronica’s eyes unconsciously traced his broad, muscular shoulders and the muscles descending beneath them. There were old scars scattered here and there.

“What do you care about?”

“What you did while I wasn’t around. Whether it was just breathing or something more. Whether you liked it or hated it. I care about everything, from one to ten.”

He was utterly unashamed of displaying his jealousy. In fact, he’d been that way since they first met. Honest to the point of disarming anyone.

“I didn’t do anything with anyone.”

“Ah, is this my turn to use your favorite line?”

Leon smiled slyly as he pulled away the blanket covering her.

“Liar.”

His masculine, primal scent wrapped around her body softly. As his cool skin pressed against hers, fine hairs rose, and nerves she hadn’t known existed lifted their heads. The combination of stimulation and comfort was astonishing. Veronica, as if on instinct, reached her arms around the man covering her.

“It’s true. I thought I was going to die, too. My body adapted even without holy power. Maybe assimilation started progressing bit by bit back then.”

Since the day you left.

In other words, if he hadn’t left, the assimilation might not have progressed. Of course, in that case, she wouldn’t have controlled the Bahamut’s strange power, and the duel in the palace or the bait operation might have failed.

Leon’s expression hardened. Veronica watched him quietly, then changed the subject.

“Still, I find it hard to believe. Not about the holy power, but you saying you’ve never held another woman.”

It was something she couldn’t quite accept. If this really was his first time, why was he crossing the line now? Had he forsaken his beliefs just to seek her forgiveness? When she had asked him to hold her, she had naturally assumed his faith had already crumbled. She had intended to corrupt him further, not considering that it might be his first time. She had believed he had spent the night with the princess.

Why?

Since their reunion, he’d been acting differently. He’d been anxious, as if she were a fleeting mirage, pouring out his feelings.

“It doesn’t matter if you don’t believe me. But isn’t my nervousness proof enough?”

“Nervous?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because I might hurt you.”

“It hurt when you touched me while kissing earlier.”

Leon seemed flustered, letting out an awkward sound, then remained silent for a moment.

“Sorry.”

“You don’t need to apologize. After all, I wanted you to hold me so I could feel pain.”

His handsome face briefly hardened. Veronica lowered her eyes and continued, “When it hurts, I can’t hear the sound of the rain well. So you don’t need to be gentle like before.”

“……”

“We don’t have much time left, anyway.”

There was no need to bother with foreplay. It might be her first time, but Veronica knew the basics of the relationship between men and women. Girls from the streets like her often knew more about such matters than noble ladies. She’d heard that, despite receiving all sorts of education, nobles considered the most crucial part of life taboo. It was absurd.

“They say the first time always hurts.”

“Still, if it becomes unbearable, tell me. I’ll stop immediately.”

His low voice wrapped around her indifferently. He was always like that—unintentionally kind.

“Even when you’re inside me?”

“…You keep saying things I never expected.”

“I heard somewhere that men can’t stop once they start.”

“What, do we get stuck like dogs?”

Leon let out a scoffing laugh, kissing her forehead, nose, then briefly her lips. As he teased her collarbone, his hand skillfully slid down. She couldn’t believe this was his first time. Did everyone start acting this naturally when they reached a certain age?

Ah, maybe, after all, he was raised as a commoner, so he could’ve picked things up here and there. No, but wasn’t he raised in a monastery? Her thoughts flowed without order as her breaths grew increasingly ragged.

“Ah…”

His hand reached a place no one else had touched. The sharp sensation that seemed to crush her nerves made Veronica instinctively dig her nails into his shoulders.

She hated it. He had said she could tell him if she couldn’t endure, but what she truly couldn’t bear was his gentleness. The caring touch that seemed to hold affection. She hadn’t wanted to make love but to fall.

“Just do it, please. Forget all this and just do it.”

Veronica pleaded, almost sobbing. She had meant to speak firmly, but her voice trembled.

No. She didn’t want to feel good.

“Veronica.”

“Just ruin me!”

When she shouted in frustration, their gazes clashed like a muddy swamp. It was the first time he’d called her name. She knew it, but she deliberately answered like that. Ruin me. Leon’s expression twisted.

It felt unfair. Why is it that humans end up hurt even when they hurt others? Were we really born from one body like the Bahamut, she wondered.

***

Everything vanished, leaving only sounds.

The pattering of rain. The creaking bed. Gasping breaths and the sound of sheets shifting as if a fish were flopping on land. Pushing, pressing, her nerves melted and flowed. Creak, creak. Creak.

It hurts, feels strange. Please.

The rain that had been easing up began pouring heavily again. The window rattled violently in the fierce wind, and the distant sound of a tree snapping reached them. She was lost in thought, but each sound brought her back to reality.

They were lying together in a church. In the house of God, she was taking His son. She thought she would feel immense joy for having corrupted him, but instead, all she felt was unbearable sadness.

Veronica collapsed, lying face down. Lips touched her thin back immediately. Leon explored her back gently, like a boy with a broken doll. No, to be precise, he was caressing her scars of glory. The scars she had received where he had abandoned her. The place where God’s agent commanded, and the holy knight’s whip fell—it was deserving of being called glorious.

“I’m sorry.”

His sunken voice fell upon her back. I’m sorry. For the umpteenth time, his apologies continued. He kept saying it was all his fault. That he shouldn’t have left her, that she should never forgive him.

What a fool. Even if he hadn’t said it, she had never intended to forgive him. Still, with every drop of his apology, the sorrow in her heart seemed to fade, as if her heart was made of water.

She wished the rain would never stop. That it would keep falling forever, endlessly.