Time of the Blind Beast - Special Side Story 5

In the couple’s private bathroom, warm water was always prepared. The servants knew their habit of slipping in and out of the bath constantly whenever they were together.

“I only had two glasses of wine earlier… I guess I can’t handle alcohol well. I’m sleepy.”

Lisanne, who had washed herself and sunk into the warm bath, leaned her head back. The mix of the hot water and the tipsiness made her face look drowsy and languid. Ezekiel pulled her close, cradling the Lisanne nodding off against his chest.

“Sleepy? It’s fine, sleep.”

“No. If I fall asleep like this, I’ll have a headache in the morning…”

“Then look at me. I’ll make sure you don’t get a headache.”

Lisanne blinked slowly and lifted her head. Her husband’s large hand carefully swept the damp hair stuck to her forehead and cheek, then his warm lips pressed against hers. Their moist skin, dampened by the steam of the bath, clung together.

“Mmm…”

His hand at the back of her head pulled her closer still. There was no space to escape. The kiss grew deeper and deeper. A dizziness, entirely different from the tipsiness, rushed over her.

“Isn’t it strange, Lisanne?”

As their lips briefly parted, Ezekiel whispered.

“How is it that every time feels new, and every time feels so good?”

It truly was.

Lisanne closed her eyes, wrapping her arms around Ezekiel’s neck, and thought. They had kissed countless times, their bodies had joined countless times, and yet every moment their faces and bodies met, her heart raced the same.

Surely this excitement would never fade for the rest of their lives.

They would always be new to each other, and each day they would love each other more.

To feel one’s heart race because of someone, to share in both small and great joys together, and to look forward together to tomorrow and all the days after—that was true happiness.

“I know the reason why. Want me to tell you?”

“What is it?”

“It’s because it’s a blessing.”

The blessing of being together now.

And the faith that they would continue to be together in the future.

A small mishap like a misdelivered letter would become a stepping stone, making their relationship only stronger.

They would grow ever more unshakable. It was instinct.

…Still, it would be nice to get used to this a little.

Did it really need to be shocking, surprising, and dizzying every single time, as if it were the first?

“Ah, it’s too deep. Just a little…”

“Mm, slowly… I’m going in. The entrance is a little swollen. Does it hurt a lot?”

It was already their third time joining in the bathroom.

After washing clean again and returning to the bedroom, she thought they had agreed to sleep for the sake of tomorrow. But when he said her hair smelled of flowers and gathered her disheveled hair to quietly breathe it in, she felt uneasy. And sure enough, he once again slipped over her body.

“No, it’s fine…”

The dim lamplight was dizzying. Lisanne lifted her arm to shield her eyes, then turned her head away at Ezekiel’s request to show her face.

At first, she had been so embarrassed. Thinking back, perhaps she had been able to muster the courage for her first time only because his eyes had been blind then. Though the blind Ezekiel had been desperately curious about Lisanne’s true face as he caressed every inch of her body and filled in the rest with imagination, it hadn’t felt like her whole self was exposed, and so it was a little less shameful.

But now that his sight had fully returned, meeting his gaze while joining like this required far more courage than she imagined. Ezekiel enjoyed matching the Lisanne in his memory with the real Lisanne piece by piece, and before she knew it, she was exposing parts of herself she had never thought she could show anyone. It was astonishing how shameless a person could become, and yet at the same time, she was grateful that the man who made her shameless without limit was him.

“Stop looking. Why do you keep staring like that…”

“If I don’t, you’ll keep getting hurt. I’m sure I must have hurt you before too, but you never said a word.”

The day after she had struggled to take him in, there would sometimes be a drop or two of blood, or a dull ache in her belly. After noticing those faint traces of blood, Ezekiel began to watch Lisanne’s expressions and mixed their bodies more carefully.

“If the doctor hadn’t told me about this scar, I never would have known.”

His large hand stroked the wound that remained on her thigh.

Lisanne placed her hand on his. If it was scars, his body bore far more, carved as though his limbs had been hacked apart. Especially the deep scar from Levian’s blade, when he had led Davis’s spies and struck Ezekiel as he protected Lisanne from being dragged off by Akenaus. The murderous intent in that wound was still chilling to behold.

And yet Ezekiel felt more pain over the wound left on her thigh than the ones covering his own body.

Lisanne gently soothed him.

We will live our whole lives like this, embracing each other’s scars. Guarding against any new wounds ever appearing on the one we love.

The moment she embraced him, Ezekiel was provoked.

While plunging deep inside her, Ezekiel pressed his lips without pause to her cheeks and mouth. No matter how much he touched, even when he was already so deeply inside, it wasn’t enough. He hungered for her, hungered for love. He wanted to drink her endlessly, to become one body with her forever. His soul yearned for her.

Lisanne clung to his neck, giving herself to the waves that crashed over her again and again.

This ceaseless shaking, this trembling moment, was like a voyage. The two of them sailing alone toward that dazzling, ecstatic destination.

His thrusts grew faster. Even though her husband tried to be mindful of her, his strength and size were merciless from the start. The pounding shocks drove into her tight opening with heavy force. Her belly, along with her very consciousness, was scrambled to pieces. Her breath came short.

“Ah!”

The thick tip struck right at her climax. Lisanne jolted, and the already tight passage clenched down even harder. Ezekiel held his trembling wife close, trying to steady her under the overwhelming stimulation. It was all because he had drowned in ecstasy and lost control. The moment he relaxed even a little, he let his guard slip.

“I’m sorry… I was too rough.”

Tears fell, unbidden. The glistening drops that had welled at the corners of Lisanne’s eyes slid slowly down her cheeks, and Ezekiel kissed the trail of tears and swallowed the drops.

Sometimes he thought.

Isn’t this small woman like the universe itself?

So beautiful, so mysterious, so boundless. When he looked at her, he lost all sense of time. Like the ever-changing sky, she was always new. No matter how hard he tried to capture her with his eyes and memory, there were always parts that slipped away, leaving him regretful and longing.

If ten, twenty, thirty, forty years passed… would he finally hold every page of Lisanne?

“Lisanne.”

Her hazel eyes, wet and trembling, turned toward him.

“I love you.”

How many times must he say those words before his thirst eased?

“Yes, I love you too.”

And how many times must he hear her answering love before the wonder stopped feeling so new?

Now he could think of nothing else.

There was only the person before his eyes.

A climax that felt at once like a fleeting moment and like eternity drew near. Ezekiel wrapped his wife’s slender body tightly in his arms, and together they ascended into ecstasy.

The vision that had drifted far away slowly returned.

The afterglow lingered. Filled with the overflowing sensation inside her, Lisanne closed her eyes and breathed heavily.

Ezekiel, holding the exhausted Lisanne trapped in his arms so she couldn’t slip away, quietly looked down at her clear face, then suddenly spoke.

“But really, would you truly feel nothing if I met another woman, Lisanne? Would you just abandon me and leave?”

Though he hadn’t shown it, he had been deeply hurt by Lisanne’s overly calm and detached response earlier, when she had said that if his heart had changed, there was nothing she could do. He wondered if she didn’t even think it worth questioning or getting angry about, and Ezekiel suddenly felt sorrowful.

“…No, actually, after hearing you, I kept thinking about it.”

Lisanne, drained of all strength, smiled weakly and murmured.

“I think I would have circled around you too, trying to find out who the woman was in secret. This must be why they say married couples come to resemble each other.”

***

A little over a month later, Lisanne felt the stirrings of pregnancy. Though she had sensed her body was different, she was cautious. Only after not one but three physicians were called in succession, and all declared in unison that she was indeed with child, did Lisanne sit silently for a long while, then gently caress her belly, still unbelievable that life was within.

Since his wife had once lost a child, Ezekiel felt he couldn’t say he understood how she must feel. He only watched her quietly before embracing her from behind.

“…I’m sorry.”

Lisanne shed a few tears, and yet she also laughed often.

To honor the child who had vanished from the world without a trace, Ezekiel brought back stones and soil from the detention camp where Lisanne had miscarried, and at the Valdemaira family mausoleum, he raised a small headstone. When Lisanne slept peacefully at night, Ezekiel sat before the nameless stone, head bowed, repeating again the countless apologies he had made until now.

“Your father truly did wrong. I don’t deserve forgiveness. You can hate me, but please, just take care of your mother.”

Though all in Valdemaira called the child Lisanne now carried their first, Ezekiel and Lisanne were different. When alone, they called the coming child their second. Though their baby would never know they had an elder sibling above them, and though as parents they must never reveal it, their hearts couldn’t deny it.

It was a secret shared only between the two of them.

Perhaps thanks to Ezekiel’s prayers, Lisanne, whose frail body had always been a concern, enjoyed a remarkably smooth pregnancy. She did not suffer from morning sickness, nor did she catch even a light cold. Lisanne’s mother, who had herself miscarried several times before finally carrying Lisanne to term and had worried her daughter would endure the same, hurriedly packed and came to Claris upon hearing the news. She could not lift her head in public in Valdemaira because of her sins, but she stayed quietly in a separate wing, watching over her daughter. Seeing Lisanne pass each day without difficulty, she called it a miracle and felt relief.

And then, on a quiet winter evening as white snowflakes fluttered down, Lisanne gave birth after ten months of waiting.

The long-awaited daughter of Valdemaira, Helen, was born. And with her birth came the signal that their love had grown yet stronger.

-Time of the Blind Beast Special Side Story Complete-

With this, the long journey together with the two protagonists comes to a close. Once again, thank you to all the readers who remembered Time of the Blind Beast.