Chapter 49
Yet even as the whole summer passed, Ezechail showed no noticeable improvement. Accordingly, Merlo began traveling back and forth between the branch and main residences more frequently.
“My lady, there’s still no new word?”
The Valdemaera main house must have been hounding him terribly, for whenever Merlo returned from Cleris, his cheeks were deeply sunken and the skin around his eyes was blackened.
“The main house called in several doctors to examine him as well. They said that, barring an illness, symptoms of poisoning should improve quickly once an antidote was administered. The fact that there’s been no progress throughout the summer probably means the opportunity to cure him has already been lost.”
It was not only Merlo. Lady Serva, who at first had seemed relieved that treatment could finally begin, saying that it eased her mind considerably, gradually began to show signs of impatience as well.
Was he actually being cured?
Or was this nothing more than a meaningless struggle?
Even among the servants, people exchanged opinions about Ezechail’s chances of recovery. Though Rose had never heard them with her own ears, there was no doubt about it. Whenever she appeared, they would abruptly stop the conversations they had been having among themselves and put on awkward expressions, creating such a strange atmosphere that it was impossible not to notice.
But the person who must have felt the most frustrated was Ezechail. Dr. Briman could simply accept his promised payment and leave regardless of whether the treatment succeeded or failed, but Ezechail was the one who would have to endure the aftermath.
Rose would occasionally come across Ezechail staring into empty space. As though trying to distinguish even the faintest shadow in the uniform darkness, he would gaze at the wall for a long while with a chilly expression. The period when he saw things he should not have seen had been a problem, but this period, when he could not see what he ought to see, was ultimately a problem as well. Rose understood that bleak feeling. No matter how strong-minded a man was, there was no way he could truly be all right.
And Rose was not all right either.
Her safety was guaranteed only while he remained unable to see ahead. The day his eyes changed, Rose would have to wake from her dream. And she would have to prepare for the bitterly cold winter that was to come.
“……Major. It’s still summer. The season hasn’t changed. The harvest season is autumn, remember? We still have a little more time.”
So the fact that the unfinished season continued was, if anything, a comfort.
To him, and to her.
“Yes, summer hasn’t ended yet.”
Ezechail did not vent the anxiety lurking within him directly at Rose, either. Instead, he let the storm inside him loose in an indirect way.
On days when turbulent waves raged through his chest, he held Rose more roughly than usual. Whether day or night, heedless of the hour, he cast himself and Rose together into the most primal and intense sensation known to mankind.
“Rose, I will definitely escape this pitch-black darkness and see the snow-white winter with you.”
He pressed his member against Rose’s narrow entrance and thrust deep into her wet interior. The blunt, thick head prodded and pressed against her belly. The pressure, which never became entirely familiar no matter how many times she experienced it, left her breathless.
“Hnnng…….”
She could clearly feel how far inside him he was. Only when he thrust into her did she become aware of the empty space within her that she had never consciously noticed before.
“It’s too much, please go a little slower…….”
Tears welled in her eyes at the sensation of being filled to the point of overflowing. It felt as though her insides were being violently crushed. It was always like this.
Had she properly closed the door so no one could enter? What work had she left to do today? Had she perhaps promised to meet Merlo? She hurriedly tried to rummage through her memories before her reason was completely overrun, but the sensation of the man joining their bodies and pounding into her turned her mind utterly white and made everything evaporate.
Rose clung to Ezechail’s shoulders, swaying and swaying again. No matter how wet she was, he was far too large and powerful for it not to hurt, and each time she suffered as though she were dying. Even amid the sting and numb ache, a sharp pleasure pricked into her like a needle. The viscous, slippery moisture gradually soothed the pain.
Her entrance gradually loosened. Ezechail did not miss the opening and pushed another inch inside.
“……No more. Even now, it’s too…….”
“I know.”
Rose struggled even when only half of Ezechail had entered her. After burying himself to the deepest point she could take, he raced toward the peak of sensation.
Swept away by his overwhelming strength, Rose closed her eyes. She was too dizzy to see ahead.
A hazy ecstasy surged through her. Moans that could not become words escaped in fragments.
Rose was the first to reach the climax. This order, too, had become a habit. Ezechail always pushed her until she reacted with a distant, mindless rapture that her reason could never resist, and only then did he reach his own climax a beat later.
“Ahh, ah…… ah!”
Countless stars bloomed like flowers across the darkness blocking her vision.
It felt as though her consciousness were shattering into pieces. The sensations gripping her limbs were so intense that she could think of nothing. In this moment alone, she could forget “Rose.” She did not have to worry about “tomorrow.” If it were possible, she wanted to remain submerged in this ecstasy forever.
Ezechail must have been sharing the same sensation.
Soon afterward, Ezechail, too, spilled the rough result of his excitement in surging waves deep inside her. The man, who had supported himself with his arms the entire time for fear that his weight might press painfully down on Rose, finally relaxed slightly at the moment of his last climax and pulled her into his arms.
Rose, too, embraced the man’s feverishly heated body while drawing ragged breaths.
Their thick breaths tangled together. His lips, following the breath that had descended from her throat, swallowed Rose’s lips once more.
Even after the afterglow had passed, he remained inside her without withdrawing. Rose, too, continued to be tormented by a subtle pleasure.
Exhaling the short, panting breaths that fluttered around her neck, she raised her head and looked up at the man’s delicate eyes. She gazed for a moment at eyes that never seemed to meet hers no matter how carefully she tried to focus, then lowered her gaze.
Because he had released all his strength at once, the contours of his muscles, swollen and uneven with arousal, were faintly visible. Rose slid her fingers along those lines. She liked the firm yet elastic feel.
Ezechail caught Rose’s fingers as they tickled his abdominal muscles and brought them to his mouth. He touched and licked them, and even when Rose tried to withdraw her hand, he refused to let go, stubbornly biting and sucking at it.
“Major.”
“Hm?”
“You don’t happen to have a habit of eating people, do you?”
Ezechail gave a snort at the joke she made with a faint smile.
“I never had such a habit, but I want to put you inside me and carry you around.”
He kissed her for a long, long time and whispered,
“So that we can remain one body forever. So we’ll never be separated.”
How wonderful would it be if that were truly possible?
If there were some way for their two bodies to merge into one and never part?
Rose became conscious of the traces he had left in her belly.
Even if she could not wish for forever, she could at least cherish this moment, when she was connected to him as one. She deeply accepted the part of Ezechail that remained enclosed within her.
❖ ❖ ❖
If winter announced its beginning with scent, spring with rain, and summer with sunlight, then autumn was heralded by wind. Cool breezes brushed their cheeks in the mornings and evenings.
The estate, where subtle whispers had circulated throughout the summer, fell silent as autumn arrived.
If he had shown no reaction despite trying so many antidotes, wasn’t it already hopeless?
Beneath that openly shared prediction, everyone began avoiding burdensome subjects and spoke only of the day’s business.
“I simply cannot read either Lord Ezechail’s mind or my lady’s. I can’t even begin to guess. Just how are you planning to resolve this situation……?”
They were meeting in secret, away from the servants’ eyes.
Since everyone knew Merlo as a fruit merchant, Rose feared that others would find it strange if they saw her speaking with him too often. Thus, she would brush past him and secretly hand him notes or letters. But whenever it became necessary to speak in person, they arranged a time and met in the garden just as before.
Merlo shook his head from side to side.
“Or do you have some other reason to believe things will work out? Have you ever asked Lord Ezechail? Asked him what he plans to do if his eyesight doesn’t return?”
Rose did not know why he was asking this now. She stared at him before replying with a question of her own.
“Didn’t the Valdemaera family already notify us unilaterally that they would sever ties if his eyesight didn’t recover?”
“……They did, didn’t they? I completely forgot, honestly. No, but my lady, are you really confident you can get him to sign a separation agreement? Judging from his temperament, it seems like that would be difficult even for you.”
Of course it would be difficult. Ezechail’s pride in the Valdemaera family was greater than anyone could imagine.
She had thrown out that condition to draw Merlo’s and the Valdemaera family’s attention toward Ezechail, not because she actually possessed a precise means of carrying it out.
Rose bit the tender flesh inside her lip.
Riding the momentum, Merlo pressed her again.
“You’re not hiding something from me, are you? If there is, then let’s know it together. What are we supposed to do when you made such a great show of claiming he could be treated and would recover, only for there to be no word at all until now? I did my best to take your side at the main house while running errands…… but at this rate, I’ll be in trouble along with you, too.”
“There’s nothing I’m hiding. And there’s no reason for me to hide anything.”
“This is driving me insane…….”
Merlo covered his forehead and clicked his tongue before suddenly turning suspicious and fixing his gaze on Rose.
“You’re not secretly interfering somehow, are you? If his eyesight returns, you’ll be forced to part, and you don’t want that…….”
“…….”
“……I’m sorry. I crossed a line just now, even if I was the one who said it. I’m worried, so all sorts of thoughts have been occurring to me. His Excellency keeps demanding to know why nothing has changed even though he’s granted all your requests, but Lord Ezechail and you seem to be carrying on without much sign of impatience.”
It was impossible that she was not impatient. But Ezechail’s impatience and hers were different in meaning. She simply could not let it show.
Even after Merlo left, Rose continued to mull over the suspicion he had raised.
“You’re not secretly interfering somehow, are you? If his eyesight returns, you’ll be forced to part, and you don’t want that…….”
The reason she had been unable to immediately and forcefully deny the rude accusation was probably that she was not confident her own heart was pure.
Ezechail was someone who wished to escape this moment as soon as possible, while she was someone who wished to hold on to it for even a little longer. That gap had made her hesitate over the answer, if only for an instant.
Even though she had never actually interfered with his treatment.
Even though she no longer wished to add to her sins.