164.

“Jo….”

“…….”

“Don’t… mock me…”

“…Huh?”

“Why are you… bringing up something from so long ago…”

“…….”

“Back then, I didn’t know much…”

Inette’s whole body trembled like red flower petals, unable to stay still. Her deep eyes, frantically searching the air, were filled with anxious tears. The usual indignation or provocation that would have been seen normally was nowhere to be found, having melted away in that moisture.

Such shame.

The delicate line connecting her quivering jaw and ear looked pitiful. Johannes’ gaze, which had been constantly tracing Inette’s shoulders with lips that seemed about to get wet, inevitably got stuck on that line. How could it not be fixed there? Right now, this child is at a loss for what to do in front of ‘me’. This child…

This child is ‘so’ conscious of me.

With such an awareness arising.

How dare…

It felt like his breath was being cut off. Johannes’ lips parted slightly beneath his intensely blue eyes. His breathing, which had seemed to stop dead for a moment as if witnessing an incredibly shocking sight, rose more roughly like the rebound from a fall. Even Johannes’ shoulders began to tremble gradually, his gaze still fixed on Inette’s jawline in the same posture as when he had been leaning on her shoulder.

He was bewitched suddenly and violently, as if a flash of lightning had struck in an unexpected place. That feeling. It was exactly like the feeling of a servant who had captured in his eyes the ecstatic sight of his beautiful sovereign crouched naked on the throne he served, trembling violently.

No matter what, even if he sensed he would be beheaded immediately, he could not tear his eyes away.

“Don’t ever mention that again.”

Inette’s confused voice became even more subdued. The king, noticing Johannes’ impure and lowly gaze, curled up on the splendid throne with both knees raised, at a loss for what to do.

The one who should have retreated with glorious anger even in defeat was stuck in the corner of the seat, her white shoulders trembling like an aspen. Take those eyes off me. Don’t you dare look at me. With a noble body that even carelessly tempts the hearts of insects, she was whimpering like that.

Is the fall of a noble always this majestic?

Johannes could not be in his right mind at her unintentional seduction. With each of her spasms, it felt like his heart was being crushed. You are so tremendous to me. I can’t take my eyes off your radiance, no, I can’t even blink once, it feels like my eyes will go completely red and blind. Ah… at this moment.

If I want to spread your knees and plunge a knife into your white, tender abdomen. If I want to die at your feet, my whole body pierced by the spears of the law that would come after. Am I truly mad?

“Do you… dislike being reminded of that day?”

Johannes lowered his hand that had been leaning on the wall and asked, lowering his body close. With his upper body kneeling, he bent deeply almost touching her thighs, only slightly raising his head. As if he were a subordinate watching his master’s expression, he sought her answer with a gesture that was extremely submissive yet secretly rude. Inette shook her head with wet eyes, receiving his unsettling gaze fully.

“I don’t like it…”

“Why… don’t you like it?”

“I don’t…”

“…….”

“I don’t know. Just. I just don’t like it…”

“…….”

“Why do you keep asking… I said I don’t like it…”

A faint red metallic color flickered in Inette’s eyes that had fallen outside of Johannes. It seemed she felt some antipathy towards Johannes, who was questioning her as if pursuing her. However, even that sharp color only served as an aphrodisiac to further stimulate the excitement that Johannes was trying to secretly conceal. His already intoxicated heart ached again intensely.

How… can you be so ecstatic? Johannes felt as if his throat would close up.

Even when cornered like this, you beautiful one cannot discard your final dagger. In the end, you are inevitably my king. Even if you tremble with the shame you learned late, that is your innate nature. That kind of body. Before your inborn temperament, I always fall to nothing more than a worthless beast, despite the hierarchy between us.

So you were a woman who made me into a mere worm.

It was incomprehensible. Why, whenever this certainty arose, did it become so dizzyingly intoxicating like this? He only felt breathless and his head spun to the point of fainting. Ah, let’s die, Inette.

Let’s die together abruptly as you wished…

“What is it… that you don’t know…”

Johannes raised his upper body slightly as he crept closer to Inette’s chest area. It was a distance where his rapid breaths directly hit the hem of Inette’s nightgown. The only rein restraining him, who was now trembling with indiscriminate ecstasy, was a predator’s consideration that Inette should not be hurt because of him. He clenched his jaw as if about to grind his molars and questioned Inette again.

“You’re embarrassed now, aren’t you? Because that time is still so vivid… you’re embarrassed to look at me. That’s why you don’t like it, right?”

Although it was only his own lips that had opened, his feelings were as if tracing her abdomen with a blunt knife tip. Inette, her stomach heavily pressed, cried out as if startled while sitting.

“Who’s embarrassed about what? That’s not it.”

“It’s not?”

“Right. It’s not. It’s… not.”

Inette, who had been staring at Johannes with a seemingly wronged look, lowered her head again. Her still reddened cheeks and neck twisted as she shrank back. It seemed as if rubbing a soft rose petal against that skin would make it melt and seep in like sap. Johannes propped himself up with both arms below her waist and thrust his head into the center of the throne. Climbing up the collarbone of the precarious ruler… climbing up to her ear, he finally let out a shallow groan against her earlobe.

“…Really?”

…Ah.

A low panting broke out. It was unclear whose it was. It might have been both of theirs. Startled by that strange noise perhaps. Flinch. Inette’s shoulders jumped a little belatedly. She seemed about to flee backwards, but her back had been against the wall from the start. With her escape route blocked, she froze, flattened against the wall.

Johannes slowly lowered his forehead to rest on her upper chest, as if seeking forgiveness. The thought briefly occurred to him that it was the posture of a lowly and vulgar person like a rag, but he rather liked it. The more clearly dirty he was, the more her pure light would shine. His heart pounded even more vigorously at this relationship that was no different from self-torment in itself. He raised one hand that had been on the floor and gently stroked her lower abdomen as if pressing it.

Thanks to her body still lacking curves, his hand caressing his sister’s belly was directly visible in his deeply bent field of view. It felt as if he were smearing mud that had fallen from his own body onto hers. The hard sensation of the chastity belt came into contact with the tip of his widely spread thumb. Below this. His vision immediately blurred and all his nerves were captivated by the sensation of the metal plate. He had to desperately hold his breath to control his hand that kept gaining strength.

He almost whispered. Ah, right here, I want to plunge a knife. I want to plant the flag of conquest. In your body, my woman. Actually, I… could do it right now…

Suddenly he felt like Idris.

“Johannes Valdemar.”

A light turned on in his hazy vision at that moment.

“…go die.”

There was a faint tremor mixed in Inette’s voice as she murmured something. Johannes, slightly surprised that he had not noticed that trembling while constantly touching her, raised his head slightly. Inette, whose eyes met his, still had a face flushed red with shame.

The tears she had managed not to drop after a desperate effort were still in her eyes. Taking rapid breaths, she averted her gaze to the side as if unable to bear looking, and repeated her request.

“Didn’t you hear me? Please go and die…”

Even that figure, forcibly uttering harsh words, is beautiful.

“Go and die, you say… This is my bedroom.”

Johannes let out an uncontrollable laugh and raised himself to her front. Her cursing sounded especially amusing and sweet to his ears tonight. He gently stroked her ear, peering at the side of his sister’s face as she pressed it against the wall, doing her best to avoid his gaze. However, Inette shook off his teasing by abruptly standing up.

“Then I’ll leave.”

“Where are you going?”

Johannes jumped up as well and grabbed her wrist. Inette shook her arms up and down, pushing him away again.

“Anywhere that’s not your place!”

“What are you saying? Don’t go.”

Even to Johannes’ eyes, Inette’s gestures now did not look like her usual whining. Nevertheless, he absolutely could not hold back the laughter that kept leaking out. How could he help it when it looked even more like a tantrum because it wasn’t intentional whining?

Moreover, her pained expression was a shy crimson color more than ever, making him flutter. His insides, which had been completely burned up with pitch-black excitement until just now, now itched with innocent longing like a boy’s. Right now, he was certainly not in his right mind. Johannes carefully folded his subtle heat under his still flushed face.

“My place… is your place, isn’t it?”

Johannes firmly held Inette’s wrist and slowly pushed her back against the wall with his whole body, whispering as if suppressing her. He lightly reached out and gently scratched her forehead, cupping both her cheeks as if trapping them. When he wiped the underside of her trembling eyes with the tip of his thumb, all the hot moisture that had been welling up stained it. That touch seemed at a glance to be faithful to emotions and sincere to the other person. Was that why?

Then Inette’s gaze rose towards him. Inette, who had been painfully contorting her eyebrows, closed her eyes again like someone surrendering to the oncoming warmth. She rested her temple deeply in Johannes’ hand that was confining her. What followed was a faint sigh.

“I really don’t like you today, Johan…”

“You’re lying. You don’t dislike it…”

“I do. Why are you doing this to me? Did I… do something wrong to you?”

“There’s no way. I’m sorry. Your reaction was so enjoyable… I crossed the line without realizing it. It was all a joke.”

“What exactly is enjoyable? There are other things for a person to be mischievous about, did you have to expose that matter…? Do I have to inevitably admit my flaw for your heartless feelings to be satisfied…?”

“What are you saying? Flaw? Ah, I shouldn’t have teased you in the first place. I was wrong. Okay? Don’t have strange thoughts.”

“How can you torment me so much…”

“As you said, I’m a heartless guy. That’s why I did it. I’m sorry.”

Inette’s eyelashes, which were soaked and stuck to the skin under her eyes, trembled finely, and then her bright wall eyes rose hesitantly. Captured in his hands, Inette seemed to be examining his sincerity with an expression like a curled-up cat. She soon found relief, as if she had discovered something. With her long hair fluttering, she leapt into his arms.

“Your reaction is just… too pretty.”

Johannes felt Inette’s breath flowing and then suddenly stopping against his neck, and ended up laughing once. He just felt hot with an unbelievably safe feeling.