Side Story Episode 7 2024.06.
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2. “Kaiaaaaan!” Claudel broke into a bright smile the instant their eyes met. Of course, it was better than seeing her looking depressed, cowed, and wary of everyone. “Why did you only come nooow!” Her cheeks flushed red like ripe apples, she was already waving both arms through the air as she rose from where she had been sitting. “Here! Sit here…… ah!” Thud. Claudel staggered toward him in her excitement, only to trip over the hem of her own skirt and fall flat onto the carpet. And almost at the exact same moment, two guilty parties sprang to their feet. Madame Marcel and Hanna looked considerably more sober compared to the thoroughly drunk Claudel. “What is the meaning of this?” Seeing Kaian’s true face, his gaze seeming as though it could strangle her, Madame Marcel answered quickly, the alcohol draining from her expression. “Well, hic. Ugh. I apologize. Her Majesty said she was feeling melancholy.” “You gave Claudel alcohol?” Kaian’s eyes swept over the bottle, and another crease appeared between his brows. Liquor sent out from a proper brewery always had a stamped paper label showing who had made and sold it. Only a handful of breweries, those permitted by the lord and passed down as family businesses through generations, could receive a brewing license. But even at a glance, the bottle made of cloudy glass looked unfamiliar in shape and far from proper. Under his interrogation, Hanna confessed frankly. “There was a curious liquor from the Sol Continent, so I wanted to give it to my lady—no, to Her Majesty—as a gift.” “A curious liquor?” “Yes. It’s brewed with medicinal herbs, and they said it was a tonic wine that wouldn’t strain the body even if you drank it.” Hanna was not floundering to avoid Kaian’s reprimand. “Claudel said her legs seemed to ache these days. The doctor said before that it was related to blood circulation.” Seeing as she dared to say the queen’s name in front of him, Hanna seemed drunk as well. “Were you not said to be pregnant right now?” “Hehe. Just a teeny bit. I was only matching the mood, Master.” Medicinal wine or not, still. “It’s not real alcohol. Truly. They said it was closer to medicine. That’s why I drank it too.” “It makes you drunk and hazy like alcohol, but it is medicine, not liquor?” “Yes. Yes! That’s exactly it. They said after one good sleep, there wouldn’t be a headache or any hangover at all.” Just then, Claudel, who had been sprawled across the carpet, lifted her head and reached out toward Kaian. “Kaiaaan! Sob. Why can’t I reach you?” “…….” “Ah. This is tiring. Whew.” At Claudel’s disastrous state, Madame Marcel and Hanna shrank even further. “Get out at once.” “Yes.” Kaian threw one more line at the two women as they hurried toward the door. “Even if Julien wakes, under no circumstances are you to open that door.” We’re doomed. Hanna and Madame Marcel exchanged glances, both thinking the same thing. These days, if Julien woke from sleep and cried, they knew very well that he would not stop until Claudel held him. Everyone in the castle found even that side of Julien adorable, but it was true that Claudel had been suffering for it. “Yes. We will convey that.” If Julien started crying tonight, aside from Claudel, who would be drunk and sleeping deeply, no one would be able to sleep anywhere near this room. But they had sinned, so the two of them withdrew politely. Click. As the door closed, Kaian approached Claudel. “Kaia……
n…….” When he easily lifted Claudel up, she smiled bashfully in his arms and clung to him. “Now it’s all right.” “What is?” “I was sad because I couldn’t reach you.” His heart ached a little. The tiny woman sighing with her cheek pressed to his chest was the person who wished, more than anyone, for Kaian to be the happiest man in the world. “I miss you, but I can’t see youuu.” It was a rare sight. Aside from lightly drinking one or two cups of celebratory wine at banquets, Claudel had almost never drunk alcohol. She did not particularly enjoy it, and in Rowen Castle, she had spent a long time as a patient who needed recuperation. Naturally, the doctor had forbidden her from drinking, and seeing as she did not seek out alcohol even after she no longer needed medicine, Claudel herself did not seem to like it much either. Instead, she seemed to enjoy tasting various fragrant teas, so Kaian had ordered that a wide variety of tea leaves be kept on hand. Claudel drunk. Claudel, clinging defenselessly to him, was so disheveled that she seemed like a flower in full bloom, scattering petals everywhere. “You only get angry.” To think she would whine like this. When he had opened the door earlier and seen the three women clinking glasses and laughing brightly, he had been dumbfounded. But he could not help being intrigued by this unfamiliar side of Claudel that he was seeing for the first time. Kaian was always searching for pieces of Claudel. Like gathering shards of a broken mirror, he picked up each side of the woman he did not know and kept it in his heart. Even her less beautiful, suffering appearances were all parts of her. He was the very person who wished to remember even the childhood she disliked in her stead. “Don’t be angry.” “I’m sorry.” Kaian sat on the edge of the bed while holding her. Then Claudel, her body relaxed comfortably, moved her head back and forth and bumped her forehead lightly against his chest. Or should it be said that she was tapping his chest with her forehead? ‘She does a lot of strange things when drunk.’ Hanna had excused herself, saying it was medicinal wine, that it was not real alcohol, and that was why even she, a pregnant woman, had drunk it, but in any case, she looked as drunk as someone who had overindulged. “I wasn’t trying to get angry.” “When you were always begging me for it.” When Claudel spoke in an extremely wounded tone, Kaian felt as though he had committed a very, very grave wrong. He had loudly declared that he would do anything she wanted. “Even so, that is not allowed.” For a moment, his thoughts brushed against the idea that perhaps he should have simply done it, before he came to his senses with a stern expression. It was out of the question. He had even posted guards at the entrance to the rear garden so that truly no one could enter if they set their mind to it, but could he guarantee that no one would come in by following the connected waterways, or by pushing through some boundary in the dense forest? Besides, even if there was no one to peep, what if someone heard the sounds she made, even from far away? The only person in the entire world who should know the moans Claudel made when she was satisfied was Kaian himself. “Mean.” Thump. A fist flew at him. “You’re mean.” Thump. Kaian unconsciously grabbed at his own hair. Perhaps the sight looked somehow ridiculous, because Claudel reached out and lightly gripped his hair between her fingers. ‘It doesn’t hurt, at least.’ What she was doing was so absurd that he did not know how to react. “Hehe. Cute.” Claudel. As long as you are happy. Just as Kaian was calming himself, “If we had a daughter who looked like you, she would be so lovely.” Suddenly, a meaningful remark reached his ears. “I want one too.” “Do you want to have another child?” “Mm. But there isn’t one.” Kaian lifted Claudel’s chin and kissed her lightly. Her small, red lips tasted sweet and tart, like wild strawberries. “If that was what you wanted, you should have told me sooner.” “You’re busy, Kaian.” “You come first to me.” “It’s hard even to see your face.” Claudel must have had many complaints, because she mumbled something in a small voice that was difficult to understand. Even when he listened closely, he could not make out what she was saying at all, so he left her be for a moment before laying her carefully on the bed. “Haa.” Perhaps lying comfortably felt good, because Claudel smiled. Then, all of a sudden, she reached out and looped both arms around his neck. Kaian obediently let himself be pulled along as she wished and carefully laid his body over hers. “It would be nice if you listened this well normally too.” “Have I ever not listened to you?” “You’re overdoing it.” Kaian quietly looked down at Claudel. “I’m not overdoing it.” Looking into her golden eyes like this made it clear what he had worked so hard for. “What could possibly be more important to me than you?” But perhaps those words offended her, because Claudel suddenly changed. In a sharp tone unlike her, with her pronunciation twisted, she reproached him. “Liar.” “Why do you think that?” “If I’m important, but we spend all our time unable to see each other’s faces.” “I was wrong.” Kaian quickly added, “I won’t do it again.” “……
Really?” When Claudel asked in a softened tone, Kaian nodded. “I thought you’d grown tired of me.” “There’s no way that could happen. I’m not an idiot.” “I’m noooot an idiot!” Claudel shouted, then released the arms she had wrapped around the back of his neck and stroked Kaian’s face with her hands. “Kiss me.” Kaian sank deeply into her. It was very different from the light kiss he had given earlier to soothe the woman drunkenly babbling in a daze; it was the kiss Claudel had asked him for. “I want to touch you.” Kaian raised himself a little, pressed his lips to her cheek and forehead, and undid the buttons of his shirt. “As much as you want.” But as he undressed Claudel and saw her sleeveless undergarment, he remembered why he had gotten so furiously angry earlier without rhyme or reason. “Claudel.” “Mm?” “When you met Valquiter, did you swim dressed like this too?” Claudel rolled her head in circles. “I’m asking if that bastard saw you.” “Yes. But he was far away.” Claudel tilted her head and said, “I stayed in the water until that person left……
.” “Ha.” Even so, when he thought that perhaps, just perhaps, he might have seen something, the churning in his stomach would not settle. “Claudel. Have me.” “All right.” He pulled her body into his arms. “But in exchange, you have to give yourself to me too.” It absolutely could not be allowed for anyone else to desire her the way he did. Kaian held the woman, white and pure as though a handful of the northern snowfields had been scooped up and brought there, again and again, until her jet-black hair grew damp with sweat. *** When Claudel opened her eyes, judging by the bright light shooting in like arrows through the dimly drawn curtains, it seemed already well past lunchtime. “Ah. Haa…….” She let out a small groan and gently rubbed her temples with her palms. ‘What do I do?’ She remembered everything she had done last night. ‘I’m in trouble.’