Chapter 63
Chapter 63
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 63
Chapter Title: Ulstro Kingdom - The Crumbling Women (7)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
After parting from Serennia in the corridor, he followed a maid's guidance to a guest room, where he was able to change clothes. He found it odd that there were outfits perfectly sized for him, but the maid explained they were among gifts received long ago.
From the baby clothes visible nearby and the maid's strangely reluctant attitude, he roughly pieced together the truth.
They were probably clothes gifted ahead of time by people eager to impress Serennia, assuming a child would be born any day now. After all, blending in with the crowd of generic baby or toddler gifts wouldn't stand out, so the real purpose was likely just to catch her eye, actual use be damned.
'She must have caught their attention in a whole different way.'
When he stepped out, changed from casual light armor into proper formal attire, the maid let out an involuntary gasp of admiration. It was simply too striking an appearance to ignore.
"Oh my... I always thought you were handsome, but dressed like this... you're really..."
"Haha, thank you."
As they walked the quiet corridor toward the dining hall, she suddenly brought up an unexpected topic.
"...Please take good care of the Countess."
"Pardon? What do you..."
Valdes made no effort to hide his confusion, and her eyes darted about wildly.
"Well... Viscount Hermeng, the Countess's husband, is terribly busy. She gets quite lonely on a normal day. But lately, she's been talking about you a lot, Mr. Valdes. She said she's finally found an apprentice she likes..."
"Ah."
He nodded along obligingly.
"Of course. My master is an important person to me too."
"Hehe. That's a relief."
Even without her fretting, he fully intended to treat Serennia very well. Of course, in a direction wildly different from what the maid had in mind. But if it made Serennia happy in the end, what did it matter?
Serennia had arrived at the dining hall first and was seated at the head of the table.
"Ah, sorry. You got here fir—?"
As Valdes approached with an apology, his eyes widened. From a distance, chairs and candelabras had obscured the view, but up close, Serennia was wearing a purple dinner dress.
It was dinnertime, so something semiformal or a light dinner dress was par for the course, but the design was the problem. For a dinner dress, it left her arms and upper chest fully exposed, with the hem riding only halfway up her thighs—a rather high level of exposure. A quick glance at the back revealed it plunged low there too.
"D-don't get the wrong idea. I just couldn't find anything suitable since it's been so long since I last wore a dress..."
Serennia floundered with excuses, her face beet red.
For her part, she felt utterly wronged. She rarely bothered changing into a dinner dress for evening meals and often ate in her armor instead.
As a result, dresses she never wore had gathered dust in a corner of her wardrobe. Servants occasionally dusted and maintained them, but infrequent wear meant small issues inevitably piled up.
She couldn't very well wear those in front of her disciple as his master. And since she'd told him to change while refusing to don her light armor herself, this was the outfit she'd ended up with.
Of course, Valdes harbored no such misunderstandings. He didn't care what dress Serennia wore in the first place. If she chose to don something this revealing, he was simply grateful.
Even if it was an outfit destined to come off soon.
"Haha. What misunderstanding are you talking about?"
Valdes brushed it off with a casual laugh and took a seat nearby.
"...Shut your mouth."
"Master has a surprisingly cute side to her."
"Wh-what nonsense are you... spouting..."
Flustered, she stammered and reached for the wine glass beside her. Pure embarrassment drove her to gulp it down hastily. The cool wine sliding down her throat brought a measure of calm.
"It's true. You're cute, but..."
He scanned her dressed-up figure from top to bottom, a sly smile playing on his lips.
"That dress suits you perfectly. It almost looks plain next to your beauty."
"...Hmph."
The meal hadn't even begun, yet she poured herself another glass and downed it.
Far more embarrassed than she'd expected, her throat kept going dry. She could have had water, but having grabbed the wine first by habit, she kept reaching for it.
'Calling your master cute...'
It had been ages since anyone called her cute.
Beautiful? That came often enough from fellow knights or nobles she crossed paths with. Exchanging insincere flattery was practically in a noble's blood. She tossed out "beautiful" compliments to noblewomen and ladies in turn.
But cute? Hardly. Who calls a married woman in her thirties cute? Let alone one of the kingdom's strongest knights?
'Over ten years...'
She'd learned about the child issue not long after her marriage, so it was quite some time ago.
"...That's your problem."
"Pardon? Was my etiquette off somehow? I thought I'd learned it decently well..."
Valdes, who had been enjoying his meal heartily, gave her a puzzled look.
This left Serennia the flustered one instead. She'd gotten lost in thought alone and missed her cue to speak. To invite him to dinner only to zone out the moment they started eating was embarrassing.
Her throat parched for no good reason, she gulped down more wine.
'...Hoo.'
It was meant to steady her nerves, yet unlike before, her stomach now burned hotly. It felt as if someone had spiked the wine in the interim.
"Th-that's not it. I'm not talking about dining etiquette."
"Then what is the problem?"
"Coming from a mercenary background, you're too casual when dealing with women."
She pulled an exaggerated displeased expression, and Valdes chuckled softly.
"Master, aren't you being a bit too straitlaced?"
"Wh-what?"
"If I suddenly changed my attitude, wouldn't that be as good as advertising that I have a lover?"
"Ugh. Y-yeah, you're right..."
She had no comeback for that. They were in a secret relationship; suddenly putting distance between himself and other women would be tantamount to spreading rumors himself.
"Besides, Mercy sis doesn't really mind."
"She doesn't?"
"No. That's how much we trust each other."
"...I see..."
Trust each other, huh.
Serennia felt a sharp plunge into depression. Surely she and her husband had trusted one another too. It was heartbreaking that such fervent love had crumbled over a single issue with children.
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing."
Her low mood killed her appetite as well.
Serennia propped her chin on her left hand and endlessly twirled her fork over the pasta. Not eating, just spinning, the noodle bundle wrapped around it grew larger and larger. Finally, a meatball-sized clump whipped through the air, splattering sauce below her chest.
"Ah..."
"Come on, someone your age playing around with her food."
"What? Who's play—"
As she looked up, ready to snap, her eyes went wide.
"...spilled..."
"Not like a child spilling so sloppily."
Valdes rose from his chair, stepped right beside her, and wiped her dress with a napkin. She felt his familiar movements cleaning below her chest.
As she turned her head, her disciple's face drew close—lips almost brushing—and she froze, fork still in hand.
"Uh, uh, y-you..."
"Hm. Lucky the dress is purple; it doesn't show much. Still, you'd best strip it off and get it to the laundry as soon as I leave."
"......"
She glared at him, face redder than when he'd called her cute. She wanted to say something, but her mouth wouldn't cooperate.
"What's with that look? Oh, because I touched under your breasts? Haha, with how busty you are, I figured you couldn't see the stain below, so I wiped it."
"Y-you little...!"
No matter how she sliced it, he was clearly teasing his master.
She felt wronged for getting embarrassed over her own dirty thoughts.
"Insolent brat. Daring to tease your master! And groping a woman's breasts when you're not even her lover!"
"Psh, who'd call this groping breasts? At least..."
Squish.
"?!"
"...this qualifies as groping breasts."
Serennia gaped, too shocked to close her mouth.
She felt his warm hand slip fully inside her dress. Despite years of swordplay, his palm wasn't entirely rough. The mix of soft skin and embedded calluses kneaded her breast in an oddly unbalanced way.
"Hehe. You're awfully surprised."
"......"
As he calmly withdrew his hand and returned to his seat like nothing had happened, Serennia fell into doubt.
'Am I the weird one? Are young guys these days really this casual? Is this a generation gap?'
Her head spun, cheeks burning.
To cool off, she reached for the wine again—but the glass was empty. Even the bottle was bone-dry.
'Did I drink that much?'
She hadn't even served Valdes a glass. Meaning in mere minutes since starting the meal, she'd downed an entire fresh bottle by herself.
"Hoo..."
She stole a glance at Valdes. He offered her some steak with an innocent expression, as if nothing had happened—like it was all a dream.
'...A dream?'
Her eyes flashed open.
'Am I drunk? Me?'
It made sense. More likely she'd hallucinated from drink than her disciple suddenly groping her breast. Of course, even drunk, imagining her disciple fondling her was mortifying.
'But drunk? Hmm... Sure, I'm not a heavy drinker, but I'm still a master...'
Masters could get drunk, but their tolerance far outstripped normals'. Yet she'd only had one bottle of wine. And it wasn't particularly strong either.
"Hmm... Maybe I'm just tired?"
"You always look tired."
"Eek!"
She really might be drunk after all.
He'd come right up beside her, and she hadn't noticed.
So... was this Valdes real, or imagination?
"Y-yeah?"
"Yes. You always look tired, full of worries, and strained."
"Hmm..."
"Don't always shoulder your troubles alone. You can rely on me sometimes, Master."
'...Huh?'
This was no illusion—it had to be a dream.
And not just any dream: the lines Valdes had just spoken were straight from the novel Retired Knight and Male Disciple.
It was the point midway through where the steamy scenes truly kicked off.
Even in retirement, troubles from the capital encroached on her life. Around the time the knight fretted over fallout reaching her village. She received comfort from the disciple she loved but couldn't confess to due to their age gap, and they finally confirmed their feelings for the first time.
An especially pivotal part—she'd reread it just two days ago. No chance of mistake.
"...I-I..."
"Master, you're not alone. I'm right here, aren't I?"
"But... no. You and I are just master and disciple."
Like entranced, she recited the novel's lines. Even knowing full well what came next.
"Then, what if we were man and woman?"
"Wh-what do you... Mmph!"
Valdes's lips pressed over hers.
She'd known exactly what was coming, yet she couldn't stop her heart from pounding.
Was it because Valdes was so handsome? The novel's influence? Or the pent-up lust from lonely days finally bursting forth?
"Chuu, churup... Haa, mm... Chuup, slurp......♡"
A kiss after so long. Kisses were still as soft and sweet as ever.
Her head went blank, eyes glazing over. No—being drunk, she was probably already like that. She didn't know when the dream began, but it hardly mattered.
Not when it felt this thrilling, this enjoyable.
He wasn't her beloved husband, but so what? With scenes like this, it had to be a dream anyway. That husband of hers was probably rolling in the hay with some other woman right now. And he was the root cause of no children anyway. What a bastard.
Compared to his infidelity, a little dream affair was barely a blip.
The only guilt came from the novel's disciple role being played by her real disciple—her daughter-figure's lover, Valdes. But... it was just a dream.
Right. A dream.
So...
"...Haa, my disciple...♥"
...I can do a little as I please...♥
```