Soothing
Her beloved son lusted after her.
The tragedy that had become reality pressed against her skin with visceral, inescapable force.
Darin was a woman of sound mind. Had it been a single "mistake," she might not have suffered so terribly—but her son seized every opportunity to torment her, and her spirit crumbled with alarming speed.
She had despaired and lamented again and again, yet she had ended up here, in this warehouse. Alone with a beast whose only thought was to devour his own mother.
What on earth had happened to her son during those three years on campaign? Darin could not bring herself to believe Kael had always been this way. She preferred to think the expedition had twisted him.
Once—no, even just before he left for the campaign—they had been the closest mother and son in the world…
Tears were inevitable, given how catastrophically their relationship had collapsed. Sniffling, she stood frozen before the warehouse, wiping at her eyes—a pitiful figure of a girl.
With a sharp motion, Darin shoved away the son who had slipped his hand around her waist. Her strength was clearly inadequate, yet her son stepped back slightly. He wanted his mother to calm down.
Kael looked at his mother's slumped shoulders. Moments ago he had been ready to drag her into the warehouse and consummate their union, but forcing himself on a woman whose mind had fled would be dangerous in many ways.
Severe shock and stress during intercourse could induce fatal shock. And he hadn't brought any aphrodisiacs either.
So no matter how urgent his desire, he needed to step back for now.
"Please… can't you just stop doing this…?"
At the woman's mournful plea, Kael narrowed his eyes. A man as sharp as he was could hardly fail to grasp what his mother meant by those words.
"There are servants everywhere—what do you think you're doing? It's as if you don't care if anyone catches us at this disgraceful business…"
Darin felt as though a vast danger had arrived right at her doorstep. It wasn't that her son was completely oblivious to the eyes of others—but his caution was pitifully lacking compared to her own. Faced with her flesh and blood's half-hearted restraint, the mother found herself unable to read his thoughts, and the confusion only deepened her distress.
"Haa…"
The beast's heat-maddened gaze, fixed on his mother, softened a fraction. Conversation seemed necessary—not for him, but for her.
"I don't care if other people learn about my relationship with Mother."
What Kael said was rather shocking. For the future head of the house to claim he paid no mind to the world's opinion—how much did he stand to lose by such a declaration?
"That… what on earth…"
Unable to comprehend her son's words, Darin stood with her mouth hanging open, unable even to close it. Kael himself, however, seemed entirely unbothered.
"To be frank, when a man courts the woman he loves, what good is it to go about fretting over other people's eyes? My head is already filled with nothing but a certain vermilion-haired woman."
"……"
"I avoid the gaze of others solely for Mother's sake."
For her sake? Whether that was truly for her benefit, Darin could not say—but one thing she understood with perfect clarity.
To her, having this filthy relationship exposed was as good as death.
To Kael, he was simply courting the woman he loved, and so there was nothing wrong with it—an attitude of pure, unshakable confidence.
If anything, he looked desperate to show her off. Look how lovely my lover is—that was the air he gave off.
"Even at the victory ceremony, I introduced Mother as my childhood friend out of consideration for how conscious you are of others' eyes—not because I myself wished to hide. You do know that the high nobles of the central capital are rather tolerant of incest, given their obsession with bloodlines?"
Her son's unfathomable attitude only made Darin's head spin harder. Even granting that the distant central capital might be as he said—she was already a married woman, and the servants' eyes were everywhere. What did he propose to do if they were caught?
"D-don't you feel any shame in front of the servants who've always been with you? As the heir of the house, no less?"
"Hmm. Does Mother believe our household would oppose it? I think rather differently. In the end, they are barbarians of Bayorn. They may be startled at first, but many of them will think little of it. 'If you want something, take it by force'—that is our fundamental nature, after all."
Darin slowly turned her son's words over in her mind. Looked at that way, he was not entirely wrong. He meant it not from a modern sensibility, but from the standpoint of Bayorn's provincial barbarians.
Even so—many of Bayorn's retainers were loyal to her, and so the household would inevitably split into factions. Once that happened, a bloody wind would begin to blow through the territory. This was not a matter that would end with mere censure of a mother-son relationship. She and Kael were the core figures of the domain.
And more than anything else…
"What… what do you plan to say to your father, and to your sister Piel…?"
Hearing his mother's words, Kael smiled with perfect composure and looked out beyond the castle walls. Darin could only wonder why he was acting that way—but he seemed to possess some kind of certainty.
"If other people's eyes bother you so much, why don't the two of us simply leave the territory? We can leave House Bayorn to Piel."
"What…? Why on earth would you—?"
Why on earth? Darin was not asking the question idly. For a young man with a brilliant future ahead of him to renounce his place as heir just to win his mother's heart? By any ordinary measure, it was an incomprehensible decision.
"Because I love Mother."
The sight of a man making such a fervent confession while thrusting his rigidly erect cock toward her was grotesque. And yet the declaration that he would abandon everything and look only at her felt, somehow, utterly sincere.
Any ordinary woman, faced with a man of Kael's caliber courting her with such genuine intensity, would have pretended reluctance even as she spread her legs on the spot.
Tragically, the one receiving this passionate confession was not some distant woman—it was his mother. As flesh and blood, an unbridgeable gulf of position stood between them.
"Y-you're insane, Kael! You've gone mad!"
Her son's bizarre obsession set the woman's heart hammering without mercy. Even knowing there was nowhere left to retreat, Darin could not help but stumble backward on pure reflex.
Rustle. The man slowly closed the distance toward the mother who was trying to put space between them. Watching her shudder with profound, alien revulsion, the son gave a soft snort of laughter. Yes—his woman was properly frightened. He would have to go just a little more slowly.
"A son does not mean to devour his mother."
Kael stopped following her and slowly turned his head. His gaze drifted toward the orange orchard, a place dense with memories of one particular woman. Looking carefully, the rows of orange fruit hanging at measured intervals formed a landscape like a painting.
"I simply do not wish to let this chance slip away. I know my methods are worse than a beast's—but even if I went back to the past, I would cling to something similar. Well, I might treat you a little more gently… but that would be the limit."
This place was as precious as treasure to Darin, and Kael's feelings about it were not so different.
Only their positions differed.
The difference between mother and son.
The difference between male and female.
That alone.
"Mother must be reeling from how sudden this union has been—but unfortunately, I am the one who has endured these feelings for decades. Patience has become rather difficult."
I'm sorry, but I love you too much to help it. It was a worthless excuse—and yet, at her son's slightly gentler manner, her rigid body, which had not even been able to blink, began slowly to loosen.
She still could not tell what her son was trying to say, but it seemed he was trying to reassure her just as despair was about to swallow her whole.
In the end, the one who had inflicted this despair was her own son—and yet, when the very person who had tormented her so viciously offered even a scrap of mercy, a strange sweetness began to seep through.
"Mother, you may think me a madman if you like. I am, after all, a man who has gone mad for the woman who once tended this orange garden."
But the aftershock of despair had been so immense that tears still streamed from the Viscountess's eyes, and cold sweat ran thick down her face to wet her lips.
"But I would ask you to remember that this madman held himself back for five whole days out of consideration for you."
And then, finished speaking, the man began his advance—intent on stealing those cherry-sweet, plump lips. With not even a single step of space left to retreat, Darin could only look up at her son with blinking, sorrowful eyes.
"Mother, would you open your mouth for me?"
The tone was that of a request, yet the air of coercion was unmistakable. At the same time, the girl's waist was seized in the giant's grip. Kael gazed into the amber eyes of the lovely little thing looking up at him and smiled without a word.
Darin knew that turning her head away even now was what a mother ought to do. But her son, who had lost his mind over her, was showing her this much consideration—if she rejected even this, wouldn't she invite still worse consequences?
The rapist who had been blinded by lust only moments ago was now treating her gently out of so-called love, and so she found herself thinking she ought to play along.
And, absurdly, somewhere deep in her heart…
She even felt a twinge of pity for her own son, who had gone five days without releasing his desire.
Having finished that thought, Darin could no longer move at all. Half by force, half by her own will, the girl's two legs rooted themselves to the earth like the base of an orange tree.
Blue eyes seething with affection and lust met hers with perfect clarity. Kael had no intention of prying his mother's mouth open by force—but neither did he intend to withdraw. He was simply waiting. Waiting until his mother opened her mouth of her own accord.
A man this handsome, this capable, was yearning for her with complete sincerity—should she feel flattered? Or, because he was her own flesh and blood, should she still feel nothing but revulsion?
To keep from going mad, should she feel joy or pain? With her mind short-circuited, Darin could only surrender her body to the heat that bound her fingers.
Not knowing what to do, her head gone blank as a sheet of white paper, Darin—
Ah…
—could only part her small, soft lips shyly, tears rolling down her cheeks.
Mmph!?
The instant she felt that invasive tongue about to ravage her mouth, Darin squeezed her eyes shut.
And as Kael kissed her, he slowly stroked his mother's back and vermilion hair, offering a kind invitation.
For now, return to the annex and rest thoroughly.
He would treat her gently—he promised.
So tonight, leave the window open.