Chapter 34

“Uh, um. If it’s Madam Erna, she was running upstairs earlier…”

“I see.”

Before the knight could finish speaking, Kalion passed them and headed upstairs. He was the most courageous and daring on the battlefield, but he never ran once inside the Archduke Castle. Of course, this wasn’t the Archduke Castle, but it was still a place to show respect. But now, he was running, out of his mind.

The knights, who were shocked by Kalion’s actions, looked at each other for a moment.

“Come to think of it, Sir Kalion fell while protecting Madam Erna…”

“Unlike in the Archduke Castle, they were sharing a room here too…”

After a while, they all murmured with bright faces.

“Can we finally hear the good news?”

***

After searching through all of the mansion from the third floor to the basement, Kalion found her in Orpé’s quarters in the annex. And that was how they got here.

Hearing the sound of running water in the bathroom, Kalion nervously circled around the room. It can’t be possible that this ridiculous aftereffect becomes permanent, right?

He was told it would get better with time, but since he woke up to this moment, his desire didn’t diminish, but got stronger. But he had an unfounded hope that once he slept with Erna, it would fade a bit.

“Son of a… ”

Kalion stopped his steps and let out a curse. He really thought he’d gone crazy. The fact that he spent the whole day thinking about laying with Erna after waking up — If he was informed of this before he fell, he would have avoided being bitten by a demon at all cost!

Kalion walked over to the wall and pounded his head against it. It was only after he hit his forehead to the point he almost scraped it that he was able to think about his situation calmly. Let’s think positively.

The truth was he failed to sleep with Erna countless times. The first time, he didn’t want to grab her from walking out of it, and the second time, he grabbed her out of desire.

It was clear that his plan to complete it quickly would fail. That would be troublesome. He wanted to resolve the problem of a successor before winter came so he can focus on the new order’s work. It would be better to use this as an opportunity.

He thought he could do it now. He felt he was still reasonable, but there was also desire. When Kalion calmed his heart, he heard the sound of the bathroom door opening. He turned like lightning and looked over. He could see her damp hair, tousled from being dried with the towel, and her pajamas tightly wrapped around her body, covering her neck.

“Hey, let’s think it over. We don’t have to do it today… oh!”

Before Erna could finish speaking, he grabbed her wrist and led her to the bed. Erna turned to grab her fallen towel, but Kalion refuted that cleaning was useless now and sat Erna down on the bed.

Gulp. Erna became nervous at Kalion’s different attitude from usual. He lightly pressed Erna’s shoulder. She fell to the bed easily and he climbed right on top of her.

Oh my God, we are really doing this today? Erna closed her eyes at Kalion’s eager attitude. Then she heard the man’s  voice from above her.

“You don’t like it?”

Erna wanted to bite back at his comment, but at his voice that was lower than usual, she found herself instead staring at him with wide eyes. Kalion’s eyes were staring back at her, probing, searching.

Even in this situation, he was still handsome. As she looked into his dark blue eyes as he quietly stared at her, she could feel her heart beating faster little by little.

If asked whether she wanted it or not, she could confidently say no. But if asked if she hated it as much as the last time… she would probably be uncertain with her rejection.

A scene kept repeating in her head over and over when she kept looking at Kalion: the way he fell blocking the demons while she was chanting, and the way he slept as if he were dead after that.

She couldn’t bring herself to say it out loud… but she did feel grateful.

Could I have done it?

Of course, saving her would mean saving the city and its people, but if she was told to block the demons that flocked to her with her own body, she didn’t know if she could do it for certain. But this man did it. As she thought about it, it felt like a barrier that she had built in her heart was breaking down a bit. He was her lifesaver in a way. If he hadn’t blocked the demons, she could have gotten badly hurt or in the worst case scenario, her life in jeopardy. So then…

“It’s not that I like it… but it’s not as bad as last time.” Erna said so in a small voice, as if she had made up her mind. “If you want to do it, don’t ask unnecessary questions, do it quickly.”

At her answer, the corners of Kalion’s lips rose. At that sight, Erna realized that she had brought herself to danger.

Snap. Erna lowered her gaze as she heard something from below. When did he move? Kalion’s hand was unbuttoning her pajamas from below. Snap, snap. He wasn’t unbuttoning them, he was tearing them off!

Before Erna could even say what he was doing, Kalion applied force in his hand, pulling her pajamas down in one stroke. The buttons, which should have been sewn pretty tightly, were torn so easily that they rolled over the bed and the floor.

Kalion looked at Erna’s heaving chest. He thought it would be enough to take her pajamas off, but she was also tightly clad in her und*rw*ar.

With a displeased face, he reached out a hand. Then he remembered what happened last time. Wasn’t he slapped wildly in the cheek after grabbing and touching her recklessly? Actually, getting hit wasn’t a problem, but he was more concerned that Erna ran away to her room quickly after that. Kalion looked at the door for a moment. He wanted to compliment himself for locking the door and tossing the keys altogether. I can’t miss it again.

The moment he was about to hastily put his hand on Erna’s underwear, he saw Erna’s expression, as if she was holding back by clenching her teeth.

In an instant, his reason, which had gone away, quickly returned to him. That didn’t mean that the desire to hold her was gone. But he didn’t want to see Erna obviously being scared of him acting like this.

He didn’t want to force it. He knew this was something they had to do out of duty, but at least hoped it wasn’t terrifying. Like their wedding and first night.

Kalion stood up. Erna, who was very nervous, looked at him suspiciously as he suddenly retreated.

“There is something I want to tell you first.”

“What?”

“You know I’m a little strange right now.”

At least he knew. Erna was surprised that Kalion knew his condition himself.

“To be honest… The poison of the demons seems to be the problem.”

“Why poison?” Erna also got up and wrapped her now button-less pajamas around her as she listened to him.

“From the moment I woke up, my body felt strange. To be precise… I felt s*xual desire.”

At those words, Erna opened her eyes wide and asked again.

“At me?”

“Yes. So, when I asked the healer, he told me that this phenomenon often occurs as a result of the poison of the demons.”

Erna’s eyes flickered.

“It doesn’t last long, but… to be honest, I felt like I wanted to release it, so…”

“You came looking for me since we have to do it anyway?” Erna supplied for him.

“Yes…”

At Kalion’s words, Erna understood why he was acting so strange today. So, he was trying to deal with the l*st caused by the poison of the demon.

She was told the reason, but she felt an unknown sense of disappointment. After she thought for a moment, she asked Kalion a question.

“Then why are you telling me this?”

“What do you mean why?”

“Isn’t that something you can keep from me? It’s only proper that you have to keep your promise no matter what the situation is and I would have just thought today was a little different than usual. You honestly… wouldn’t be proud to say that you became like this because of demon’s poison.”

Erna was right. He didn’t have to tell her. Whatever he was trying to do, she’d be patient.

“Because you seemed scared.”

Erna looked at him quizically.

“Your face. You looked scared. I’m not a pervert who can hold someone who’s crying because she hates it. At the very least, I said it in the hope that if you knew why I was acting like this, you would be a little less afraid.”

At Kalion’s answer, Erna realized. He’s more conservative and thoughtful than she initially thought.

She sighed. “Honestly, I was scared, no, I was a little surprised just now, but I understand now that it was because of the poison of a demon. Ah, since it’s because of the poison of a demon, I also have something to say to you.”

“What?”

“…you.”

Suddenly Erna turned her head and said something under her breath. Because of that, Kalion couldn’t hear her properly.

“What?”

Her neck reddened before she knew it, and she spoke again with some difficulty, as if the words felt stuck inside her throat. “Thank you.” At Kalion’s silence, she continued. “Actually, I should have said it right when you woke up, but I haven’t been able to say it until now because everything was hectic. No matter what, thank you for protecting me.”

The moment she started speaking, the things inside her heart seemed to pour out after. It didn’t seem like the right situation to say all of it, but she felt relieved after saying it. Then,

“I was trying to hold back…” Kalion spoke. “But I can’t anymore.”

In that moment, Erna’s body fell back again.