Time of the Blind Beast - Side Story 8

“Class is over?”

“It’s over. What were you doing alone?”

“Waiting for you.”

The lessons Lisanne had started as a pastime continued steadily again today. Even though neighbors, having learned that the one who bought this mansion through Madam Serva was no ordinary person, strictly warned their children, the kids who adored the “beautiful and kind Teacher Lisanne” still secretly came to her despite their parents’ stern orders. And Lisanne was not the sort of person who could coldly turn children away. In the end, Ezekiel decided to yield her to them for just two hours a day.

“Lisanne.”

“Why?”

“Don’t you think a wife should reward her husband for waiting so patiently?”

He tapped his cheek with a finger. Lisanne brushed her lips lightly against him and quickly pulled away. A fleeting touch like a passing breeze could never satisfy him. Ezekiel immediately cupped Lisanne’s cheeks in his hands and pressed his lips deeply against hers. He stole her breath, swallowed it, and mingled their tongues.

It was Lisanne whose lips parted first, breath short. After catching her breath like a sigh, she glanced around Ezekiel, who was uncharacteristically tidy and clean.

“You really just sat here and waited, doing nothing?”

“Yes. Why?”

“I thought you’d at least go out for target practice or exercise. You can’t stand it unless you’re constantly moving.”

Indeed, Lisanne knew him too well. If he hadn’t been secretly writing letters, just as she said, Ezekiel would have spent those two hours out training his body.

Ezekiel feigned innocence without a blink. “I came here to rest, so I must do nothing and rest well.”

“Liar. Even at dawn today, you ran around the neighborhood while I was asleep. Anna said she jumps every morning in surprise. She says she never even hears the door open and close, though her room is the closest to the front door.”

“That’s just habit.”

The first rule of stealth was to leave no trace. Move without a sound, and leave no clue in the place you stayed. Even now, though it was no longer wartime and Akenaus was dead so he need not fear assassins, the ingrained habits of a soldier could not be erased.

“…Well, even I, lying right next to you, never hear a sound. I’m not a heavy sleeper, but if you’re determined to slip out, I don’t hear a thing. I don’t even know you were gone, since you’re already back by the time I open my eyes.”

Of course.

Ezekiel had long kept detailed reports of Lisanne’s every routine—what time she rose and slept, what she did, and whom she met. He was confident he knew her every move more thoroughly than even Lisanne herself.

“I must always be back before you wake. At last, finally, the moment you open your eyes, I’m the first one you look for.”

At the Derosa mansion, though their hearts had reached each other, he had been blind and unable to see Lisanne. After regaining his sight, not knowing she was Rose, he had nearly made a dreadful mistake. Though he managed to save her, Lisanne, her heart hardened and withered by the suffering of the detention camp, did not open herself to him. She would not even lie beside him as before, and he was left to steal glances at her face like a thief while she slept.

But now she finally met his gaze. They lay together on the bed until sleep took them, parted only by dreams, and when morning came, they sought each other first of all.

Ezekiel, who lived by a disciplined routine, always woke much earlier than Lisanne. At the main house, the moment he opened his eyes, he would leap from bed and begin the day, but at the western estate, it was different. He lingered in bed uncharacteristically for a soldier, studying every detail of her sleeping face.

In truth, he could lose all track of time just watching. He even felt childish enough to want to whine that he wished to remain buried in bed with her forever.

But Ezekiel knew well the responsibility of his rank. For the sake of a soldier’s duty, physical training could not be neglected. After running a circuit of the neighborhood with unfaltering strides, he would return to find his wife, still sleeping, begin to stir awake.

Even in drowsy half-sleep, she reached out to search for him in the empty space. Then Ezekiel would quickly change into indoor clothes and slip back into bed. By then, Lisanne would open her drowsy eyes.

Blink, blink, until her gaze finally focused, and then came their full eye contact. His heart tickled and swelled. To greet such a peaceful, uneventful morning.

Beautiful.

It was beautiful.

A feeling he could live with his whole life and never tire of. So it had always been with Lisanne. Whether she did something or did nothing at all, the simple fact of her safe existence filled him with overwhelming joy.

“But doesn’t it get boring to just stare at me all day?”

Lisanne showed her concern, since Ezekiel spent nearly all his time watching his wife’s daily life except when she was asleep or when he was maintaining his physical training. When she woke, he would bring her a simple breakfast to bed, lend his shoulder while she read, cut branches himself when she said the garden saplings needed tending, and even helped Lisanne grade the children’s spelling or arithmetic problems.

Quite literally, Ezekiel’s day was overwhelmingly filled with his wife.

“Lisanne, you are the most interesting to me.”

“My goodness, if anyone heard that coming from the mouth of Ezekiel Valdemaira, no one would believe it.”

Lisanne laughed as she sat on the bed. Ezekiel, noticing that she was about to pick up the pillow under which he had hidden his letter to use as a cushion, naturally wrapped his arm around her shoulders and laid her down.

“Wait a moment… the sun hasn’t even set yet.”

Of course, along with hiding the letter from her sight, there was also no small amount of personal desire mixed in.

“That’s why I like it even more.”

They had always joined their bodies in the dark. Without knowing what expression Lisanne was making, only imagining while licking, sucking, groping, and caressing every inch of her.

The miracle of seeing with his own eyes what he had once only imagined was always delightful. Though he had prided himself on understanding Lisanne’s expressions and responses, now he knew. What he had once thought he “knew well” was nothing more than the tip of the iceberg.

“I want to see you more closely.”

Even the brush of her gaze set his heart ablaze.

Skillfully covering her body with his own, Ezekiel brought his lips to her forehead. Following the elegant slope downward, there were Lisanne’s lips. He kissed them deeply while his hand tugged at her collar to loosen it.

“Dinner will be ready soon…”

“I know. That’s why just a little, only a little.”

“…You don’t mean only a little.”

Even knowing that, Lisanne gave in to him. Ezekiel buried his lips in the swell of her breast.

Lisanne’s breathing began to grow heavier. The light in her eyes glistened with heat through her lashes, and her cheeks flushed. He pressed kisses constantly to her soft skin, slid down between her thighs, and yet he kept stealing glances at her face. He didn’t want to miss even for a moment the colorful expressions only he could see. No matter how great an artist, none in the world could paint such a beautiful face of a lover.

As the sound of wet friction deepened, Lisanne pressed her lips down hard with the back of her hand.

“Why are you covering your mouth?”

Ezekiel frowned at the vanished moans.

“If the sound… goes outside, what will we do…”

Her voice broke, scattered by panting breaths.

“You know well how sharp our servants’ eyes are. If we’re out of sight, they don’t even come near the bedroom.”

Especially Anna, who had witnessed their days at the Derosa mansion, was the quickest to notice. If both masters were nowhere nearby, Anna would automatically delay the dinner time.

“Even so, it’s embarrassing to show my face…”

“They’ll understand. We’re newlyweds. What would be strange is not going into the bedroom.”

They had not yet held a wedding. That was planned only after Lisanne had enjoyed a long enough rest at the western estate, when they returned leisurely to the Valdemaira main house.

Slowly, taking their time. Much later.

When the citizens of Claris had forgotten Lisanne’s face.

In secret, just the two of them.