His handsome face was equally wretchedly distorted.
“I didn’t want to… treat you so carelessly.”
“…….”
Ranshel felt like his heart was breaking.
A sharp ache surged up, making his stomach churn.
The desire to defend him was causing a commotion in Ranshel’s mind.
Zavad did his best, even as his reason completely evaporated.
Ranshel felt, with his entire body, Zavad’s desperate effort to ensure he did not bleed.
In fact, apart from the bruises left on his skin when Zavad couldn’t control his strength, there were no wounds on Ranshel’s body.
“Young Master, I really am fine.”
“You are not fine…!”
Zavad seemed unable to bear the anger and self-reproach flowing through his entire body, so he deeply bowed his head and clutched at his hair.
“I don’t want you to be hurt.”
“Young Mas…”
“Everything that hurts you will be brutally massacred.”
“…….”
“But what should I do if that thing is myself? Should I slit my throat? Should I bash my head against that wall?”
Ranshel brought the hand he was reaching out toward Zavad to his own chest.
He knew that was not what Zavad meant, but his head kept making a mistake.
He pressed his palm against his chest, as if trying to calm his wildly beating heart.
“…Why are you saying such things?”
“I can’t tolerate it. How could I, I did that to you….”
A grinding sound came from Zavad’s clenched teeth.
Ranshel steadied his trembling breath and spoke.
“Young Master, I am… your servant. Just, a servant.”
No nobleman would suffer like this over laying a hand on the servant who attended to him.
Ranshel intended to remind him of his place, just as Zavad always did.
He was the filthy commoner Zavad found so repulsive, and Zavad treating his body carelessly would not even be considered a minor offense.
“Why do you need to be distressed over a single night with someone beneath you? No matter how you treat me, I am…”
“Ranshel.”
Zavad cut him off with a fierce whisper. His bowed head lifted up.
Ranshel, suppressed by Zavad’s gaze, swallowed the words trying to escape his throat.
“I… wanted to keep you by my side until the day I die. I wanted to be the master who possessed you, who protected you. I never wanted to be a beast who brutally abuses you….”
Ranshel exerted force on the hand pressing his chest.
He tried somehow to suppress his overwhelmingly pounding heart.
“How can you be… just a servant to me?”
“…….”
“What kind of lunatic treats just a servant like this…”
Zavad’s eyes still shone fiercely, but the voice flowing from his lips was trembling pitifully.
Ranshel felt his confusion completely.
The inner wall he had built so firmly was shaking uncontrollably, as if hit by an earthquake, and the things he had kept confined inside were surging as if to overflow.
Ranshel felt the heartbeat that refused to subside no matter how much he suppressed it with his whole body, and he pressed and parted his lips repeatedly.
But no sound could escape his mouth.
Zavad’s burning red eyes were reflecting him.
The eyes, which had been entirely consumed by sexual desire under the influence of the fragrance, now only held pure emotion.
When the desire that had been emitting murky steam was cut away, the sincerity embedded within was revealed.
“I want to cut off these two hands that grabbed you so roughly.”
“…….”
“I want to cut out the lips that hurt your skin and left bruises. I want to pull out my teeth.”
“…….”
“I cannot forgive myself….”
The finely trembling fingertips fondling Ranshel’s bruised skin, the voice breaking weakly, spoke the color of his emotions.
Ranshel felt both despair and euphoria rising within him simultaneously.
Ranshel still vividly remembered the moment he thought Zavad had fallen for Frey at first sight.
When Zavad smiled gently and kissed Frey’s hand, Ranshel thought that was love.
He assumed Zavad would naturally be so tender when he harbored feelings for someone.
However, that was all a huge misunderstanding.
His love did not wear the shell of gentleness.
He wrapped himself in a rough, solid hide, raising sharp thorns to defend himself.
He guarded himself to prevent anyone from carelessly wounding his heart.
And within that, as Ranshel had long suspected, was hidden a very vulnerable and clumsy demeanor.
His love was fear.
Fear that Ranshel’s soft flesh might be injured, that he might fall ill from the cold seeping in.
Zavad was constantly afraid that Ranshel would be hurt, and he sought to drive away anything that might pose a danger to him.
Such possessive protection was his expression.
Perhaps it was a manifestation of feelings even he didn’t recognize.
All of that was love, but neither of them knew it.
Zavad was still looking at Ranshel’s bruised body with an agonizing face.
Ranshel reached out his hand to him again.
He quickly grabbed the fingertips of the person who flinched away, afraid to touch him.
He felt Zavad’s body stiffen.
“Don’t touch me. The effect of the fragrance might still be lingering…”
Even as he said that, Ranshel tightly held the fingers that couldn’t bring themselves to push Ranshel away with force, for fear of hurting him.
Instead of pulling the sitting Zavad toward himself, Ranshel immediately leaned his upper body deeply toward him.
Ranshel kissed his lips.
Unlike Ranshel’s lips, which were torn from biting them while enduring the continuous sexual stimulation, Zavad’s lips were still soft and moist.
“…Do you dislike it?”
When Ranshel pulled his lips away slightly and whispered, Zavad shook his head almost imperceptibly.
Ranshel moved a little more boldly.
He parted his lips that had brushed Zavad’s clenched jaw and bit the back of his neck, where his Adam’s apple bobbed.
As Ranshel sucked the elastic skin into his mouth, he felt Zavad’s fingertips, which were under Ranshel’s hand, twitch.
“…Are you displeased?”
Zavad shook his head again.
Ranshel looked him in the eye and slowly whispered.
“Me neither. I wasn’t displeased, and I didn’t dislike it.”
It was definitely painful and difficult.
Zavad couldn’t control his excessive strength, and he pushed Ranshel relentlessly with inexhaustible stamina.
However, those things were not a problem for Ranshel at all.
“…It felt good.”
Ranshel endured the creeping embarrassment and added.
“In fact, it felt too, good….”
“…….”
Color slowly returned to Zavad’s pale complexion.
The color of his ears was as red as Ranshel’s hair.
“…But, you were hurt.”
He slowly muttered, sweeping back Ranshel’s tousled hair.
“Well, it was painful. Because you grabbed me too hard…”
Ranshel conceded honestly this time.
Considering Zavad at that moment, the throbbing pain all over his body now was unavoidable.
He was even relieved that Zavad hadn’t broken any part of his body.
Zavad’s face crumpled again.
“That’s the problem. I can’t possibly… accept that I hurt you.”
“Will you hurt me again?”
Ranshel leaned his head close to Zavad and asked.
He had no intention of letting Zavad suffer from guilt again.
Soon, a look of determination crossed Zavad’s face.
“That won’t happen. It will never happen again.”
“Then there’s no problem now, is there?”
“…But even if I don’t want to hurt you, you might still get hurt.”
“We’re not going to use the fragrance again, so you can just ask me.”
Ranshel answered deliberately lightly.
To prevent Zavad from thinking too deeply.
To prevent his head from suddenly realizing the problem with the situation and activating his self-control.
“I’ll answer. Anytime.”
“…….”
“Hurry, ask me….”
Ranshel whispered gently right in front of Zavad’s lips.
With just a minimal gap, their breaths mingled together.
The gaze meeting in the air gradually warmed up.
Soon after, Zavad’s lips touched his and then pulled away.
“…Does it hurt?”
“No.”
Next was Ranshel’s long neck, just as Zavad had done before.
Ranshel closed his eyes at the heat of Zavad’s tongue touching his neck.
“Does it hurt?”
“…No.”
Gradually, Zavad’s lips moved downward.
As they passed his plump collarbone and grazed his chest, which was still bare, Ranshel’s tightly closed eyelids fluttered.
“Does it hurt now?”
“…N-No, ugh…”
“Here?”
“It… doesn’t hurt, ah…”
“…And here?”
“Ah, ugh… Haa….”
His neat breathing became ragged, and hot warmth was left wherever Zavad’s lips brushed.
Ranshel was now clutching and messing up Zavad’s hair with both hands, his hips twitching.
“…Can I continue?”
“Yes, continue… Ugh, please continue….”
The strong scent that had permeated the resting place had long since vanished, but the body temperatures of the two people refused to cool down.
