At that moment, Rosetta lifted her head in a daze. She met a gaze so upright it held not a hint of jest. She wondered if her ears had heard correctly.

“It’s a relief you’re human.”

He brought his forehead to hers, where sweat had begun to form, murmuring tenderly. Rosetta bit her lip to stifle a moan. The attempt was valiant, but the result was pitiful.

“Ugh…”

Rosetta grasped his firm forearms with both hands. As she held on, she felt his long fingers moving beneath her. The twitching muscles of his arm and the prominent veins pulsed beneath her palms. She let out soft moans, rubbing her sweat-dampened forehead against the crook of his neck.

Damn it, from head to toe, her body was needlessly sensitive. Or perhaps Cardier was needlessly skilled.

The intimacy she knew was merely rubbing bodies until a moderate heat arose, mingling somewhat dryly, and afterward, limbs entangled, falling asleep together. The satisfaction then was a mental languor… never had she panted like a newborn beast. This was too much, excessive.

Rosetta let out a sharp moan, arching her back.

“…Hng!”

That frail sound never grew familiar. She felt like a shell-less slug. Rosetta bit her lip until it hurt. As blood faintly seeped from her lips, he pressed his wet fingers to them. Her teeth parted. She turned her head. All she could do was suppress the moans threatening to escape with each syllable.

“Damn it, just… do it.”

“You’ll hurt if we go on like this.”

He spoke calmly, as if stating a fact, yet moved with maddening precision. The sensations pooling below her navel gradually curled her toes. He kissed her rounded forehead as she let out faint moans.

“Ah, ugh…”

“I want to see you truly feel it.”

His gaze was clear, as if satisfying his own desires came second. The sensations surging from below were like a tidal wave. Her throat burned with maddening desire. Rosetta frantically wrapped her arms around his neck. Sweat slid slickly along her thighs, pressed close to his abdomen. White sparks seemed to burst before her eyes. From some point, all she craved was the quenching of this fervent ecstasy.

“Please, hurry…”

As she twisted her hips to urge him, he gently pulled her arms away and rose. Rosetta, panting, watched him carelessly strip off his clothes. Her hips twitched with anticipation. He firmly grasped her trembling white thighs, pressing them down. He surged forward.

Ah, ahh…

Even in the darkness, his sweat-drenched thick neck, sharp nose, and wild masculine gaze stood out. He gave a mischievous smile. That smile traveled through their connection, trembling like a shiver.

“Breathe, Rosetta.”

Only then did Rosetta exhale the breath she’d held. She writhed, gasping like a fish hauled from the deep sea. Their joined bodies were so hot she felt she might faint. Damn it, despite this heat, she wanted to be closer to him. She craved the reality of their connection even more.

Rosetta lifted her legs, wrapping them around Cardier’s waist.

At the break of dawn.

Exhausted from the night’s fervor, Rosetta, who had fallen into a deep sleep, finally looked peaceful. Her eyes, swollen red from tears, appeared lush. Cardier gently brushed back her sweat-dampened hair with a tender touch.

The sight of her writhing in ecstasy beneath him gave him a perverse satisfaction. It was a conflicted emotion. He wanted to push her to her limits, yet also kneel at her feet like a lowly servant before a divine goddess.

When he first heard of her death, it felt as if the world crushed his throat. How could a fish survive without the sea? For half a year, he wandered like a soulless vagrant. Yet his stubborn life refused to end, and time flowed on, indifferent to personal despair.

“Roses bloom healthier when their branches are pruned.”

Had he not grasped the meaning of those words, he could not have endured. Life was pain. Each day dragged like a century. Yet, as long as breath remained, he somehow lived on. Except that, whether his eyes were closed or open, all he saw was Rosetta.

And yet, how did he recognize her?

The way she wrinkled her nose, her unconscious smile, the slight drop of one eyebrow, or her intonation. The way she favored her right arm for heavy tasks, the habitual shrug of her unstrained left shoulder, the way she gulped water or wine like rum. The way she gripped a dagger, the narrowed eyes before an attack, targeting vital points… And above all,

Her breath carried the scent of salt.

From the very first moment.

“Can you stand?”

Cardier instinctively tensed. In a world teeming with rough men, a woman’s voice meant one of two things: a witch, or he’d gone mad. But this woman was neither.

As the blindfold was removed and his bound hands freed, Cardier clenched his teeth and glared at her.

“Where are you dragging me now?”

“You’re the brat the Admiral’s looking for, right?”

“…My father sent you?”

She scanned him up and down, muttering an incomprehensible curse before nodding curtly.

“I’ll take you to him. Follow carefully.”

“But, the guards here…”

She was already at the stairs, glancing back with a look that said, “Guards, what?” Only then did Cardier realize the countless pirates from his cell to the stairs lay sprawled on the ground. A chill ran down his spine, and he hurriedly followed her.

“Watch your step.”

She casually steadied him with her foot each time he stumbled, as if handling a puppy, not a person. When they reached the final step, Cardier squinted against the blinding light. All the world’s wonders were there.

The open horizon, the rough sea with white foam, the sheer cliffs, and… her.

Her first impression was of a sleek, sturdy birch tree. She was nearly as tall as him, her sun-kissed, tawny skin glowing, her red hair vivid in the sunlight.

“Hey, hey. Snap out of it. We’ve got to get from here to there. Got any strength in those legs?”

She lightly tapped his shoulder, pointing her thumb behind her. A small sailboat, just big enough for two, was tethered at the island’s edge. In that moment, Cardier realized she had subdued the entire island alone.

“Move it. If Bilti, that wretch, shows up, even I can’t do much.”

Cardier nodded. The rocky island was steep, and with his strength sapped from a week without proper water, enduring the path was grueling.

His legs gave out in an instant. As he misstepped, he tumbled toward the cliff’s edge, straight into the terrifyingly churning sea below.

“You, you blasted fool…!”

Her face blanched with panic. Time seemed to slow. Only the deep blue sky and her face, radiant even against the backlight, remained.

“…Damn. How long was I out?”

Rosetta jolted awake. Sunlight streaming through the half-open curtains stung her eyes. The sun was high, suggesting noon had long passed. She groggily tried to rise from the bed, only to find an arm tightly wrapped around her waist.

“Awake?”

His low, masculine voice carried a faint heat. As she squirmed, Cardier pulled her closer, sheets and all, kissing her ear softly.

“Anything hurt?”

Hurt… She almost nodded instinctively but froze. His words vividly recalled the previous night. Even the memory of her frantically climbing atop him. After all that, her body felt strangely light. The parts that had pressed against him tingled, her kissed skin stung slightly, but… the usual lower back pain was absent.

Despite her frail body, she’d braced for worse.

Unlike reckless fools who crushed carelessly, Cardier seemed to have borne his weight solely on his arms. She marveled, inspecting her body, then let out a dry laugh. As her gaze wandered, Cardier kissed her forehead again.

Her cheek, pressed into the pillow, bore faint creases, yet even those seemed endearing in his warm gaze.