Chapter 98
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 98
A cold shiver raced down her spine.
Thalia lowered her gaze, struggling to mask her agitation. She couldn’t even fathom why she had let such words slip past her lips.
Her heart hammered so violently she feared it might burst at any moment. The mere thought that he might hear that frantic thumping made her skin crawl with goosebumps. Caught in a whirlwind of panic, Thalia began to pour out whatever words came to mind.
“It’s a horrifying thought, isn’t it? So stop forcing that vile medicine on me. That’s how much—that’s how much I loathe it...”
The words she spat out to cover her tracks only seemed to expose her inner turmoil further, making her ears burn with heat. She licked her lips, which were parching rapidly.
She felt Barkas, who had been standing motionless, approach the side of the bed. However, she couldn’t bring herself to look up.
Surely, he was wearing an expression of utter disbelief. Only a few hours ago, she had been rampaging like someone possessed by a demon, and now she was spouting such nonsense; he was bound to look disgusted. Perhaps he even wore a cold, mocking sneer.
As if being chased, she continued her rambling.
“Do you have any idea how foul that medicine is? My stomach aches after I take it. But you keep forcing it on me, so I only said that to make you stop—”
“Thalia.”
The voice vibrating just above her forehead made Thalia fall silent.
As she slowly, creakingly lifted her head, eyes like a winter lake at dawn filled her vision. He stared at her as if looking at a puzzle piece that refused to fit, then spoke in a low, hushed voice.
“I’ll feed it to you. Come here.”
Thalia blinked blankly. She couldn’t fully process the words she had just heard.
With confused eyes, she looked down at the medicine bottle in his hand, then shifted her gaze to his smooth, firm lips. A strange thirst suddenly rose within her. Thalia bit at her dry lips and looked away.
“I just...”
I just said it, don’t take it so seriously. Just as she was about to mutter those words, he uncapped the bottle.
Thalia’s head snapped up.
His transparent eyes, which revealed nothing of his thoughts, stared at her as if confirming her intent. It was a gaze that seemed to see right through her, yet at the same time, seemed to be looking at nothing at all. Keeping those ore-like eyes fixed on her, he brought the bottle to his own lips.
Her heart gave a small spasm.
If she told him to stop now, she could at least preserve a shred of her pride. Had she not struggled all this time to avoid losing that one thing, even if it meant death? Without even that, she would truly become nothing.
‘But...’
She looked up at him with trembling eyes. The memory of the day his lips had touched hers surfaced in her mind. If giving up a handful of pride meant she could reconfirm that night...
Thalia squeezed her eyes shut.
Then, a large hand with prominent knuckles wrapped around the nape of her neck. The scent of water, mint, and the smell of the wind that always made her anxious brushed against the tip of her nose. Soon, the soft, damp heat of his lips, carrying the scent of deep wildflowers, covered hers.
Once, those lips had spat out nothing but sharp words that made her heart ache. When she was young, she had even thought that touching them might bring a pain like being cut by a blade. Those once-cruel lips were now shattering all her senses.
Thalia unconsciously gripped his shirt.
He tilted her head back and pressed his lips down even harder. Thalia, who had been stiffening her body, yielded to the pressure on her cheeks and opened her mouth. The concentrated herbal extract flowed over the tip of her tongue.
She frowned at the bitter taste that felt like it was burning her throat, but only for a moment, as his tongue pushed its way past her lips.
Startled by the deep intrusion, she tried to push against his chest, causing him to retreat slightly. But before she could feel relieved, he swept against the sensitive lining of her inner cheek.
Thalia recoiled at the unfamiliar stimulation. He changed direction, rubbing against the roof of her mouth before stickily entangling her tongue. Saliva pooled in her mouth.
The bitter liquid and their shared breath mixed and flowed down the corner of her mouth. Before she could feel any shame, the pointed tip of his tongue delved deep once more. Her throat tightened instinctively, sucking him in. It was a moment where the primal movement of swallowing transformed into something terrifyingly visceral.
She shuddered, letting out a strange moan she had never imagined could come from her own mouth. The wet, squelching sounds felt as if they were soaking into her very eardrums. Unable to handle the increasingly violent movements, Thalia pounded on his iron-like shoulders with her fists.
Finally, his lips pulled away. A thread of silver stretched between them.
She watched it with trembling eyes before timidly looking up. There, she saw his calm face, as if he were merely observing her reaction. Suddenly, a profound confusion washed over her.
Could that sticky encounter just now have been entirely her delusion? She froze at his serene expression, which made her doubt her own reality, until Barkas picked up the medicine bottle and gave it a light shake.
“There’s still some left.”
His beautiful voice, laced with a faint rasp, stimulated her ears. Thalia’s eyes widened before she hurriedly looked down. She could feel a heavy throbbing in her temples. He leaned toward her ear and demanded another piece of her pride.
“What should I do with this?”
Thalia bit her stinging lips and stared down at the flickering shadows of the fire. After agonizing in the suffocating silence for a long moment, she finally nodded. But he showed no reaction.
After hesitating, Thalia forced a voice out of her constricted throat.
“...Feed me.”
In an instant, her head was tilted back.
Immediately, the highly concentrated liquid seeped into her mouth. As she gulped it down, an unpleasant heat flowed down her esophagus. However, the stinging bitterness was quickly washed away by the slick heat of his mouth.
Thalia exhaled raggedly, clutching his shirt. He swam ceaselessly through the narrow space. Pushed back by his forceful strength, her back eventually hit the bedsheets.
Thalia looked up at him with a frightened face. She wanted to sit up, but she couldn’t escape him for even a second. Barkas, leaning over with one hand braced on the bed, continued to drink from her lips.
In his face, shrouded in deep shadows, only his eyes shone brilliantly. It felt as if she were immersed in a cold flame. All her senses were melting away, yet her chest felt chilled with anxiety.
“Open your mouth wider.”
A voice thick with moisture dampened her lips. Looking up at him with trembling eyes, Thalia slowly opened her jaw further.
He immediately scraped against her tongue and invaded near her throat. He lingered there for a while, as if enjoying the sensation of her gasping and sucking on him, before slowly withdrawing.
Her mind grew hazy from the repetition. When she twisted her head to the side to suck in the depleted air, he grabbed a handful of her hair. His long fingers wound through her tresses, pulling with a strength that wasn’t painful, yet felt terrifyingly obscene.
“Barkas...”
A pleading tone mixed into her ragged breaths. She didn’t even know what she was begging for. As she looked up with wet eyes, she caught sight of his slightly distorted brow. A somewhat rough palm stroked up her sweat-dampened neck.
Suddenly, a terrible curiosity arose.
Has he ever touched anyone else like this?
The image of him kissing Aila flashed through her mind. He must have pinned that woman to a bed and drank from her lips, too. Just as he had complied with her demand without a word, he would have silently complied with hers as well.
Because, to him, such acts meant nothing. What felt like a world-ending event to her was truly nothing to him.
“...Why are you crying?”
He asked in a heavy, sunken voice, releasing the lips he had been holding. A calloused thumb brushed beneath her eye. Thalia hid her pupils beneath her lashes.
“...I’m tired. I want to sleep now.”
Barkas, narrowing his eyes, slowly straightened his body. He looked so composed that it was hard to believe he was the same person who had been greedily ransacking her mouth moments ago.
He walked to the window and pushed it open. The cool, damp air pushed out the heat lingering in the room. Thalia stared blankly at his profile submerged in darkness before turning away and closing her eyes.
Her mind gradually became muddled. When I wake up tomorrow, will I think of today as a dream again?
Lost in such thoughts, it wasn’t long before Thalia sank into unconsciousness.
*
“I have ensured everyone’s silence, so the unpleasant incident from last night will not spread.”
Barkas, who was patting Torque as the horse snorted roughly, looked at the Lord of Dorkaen. The man’s lips curled into a smirk as he spoke flippantly.
“By the way, you have truly taken a remarkable wife. Where in that angelic appearance does such a formidable temper—”
“Uzan Darken.”
Whether he read the hint of warning in the voice or not, the man shut his mouth.
Barkas added calmly, “I think it would be best if you started by silencing your own mouth first.”