[No title provided]
Hazel de Butler was a bit stubborn. "This is Hazel de Butler. May I come in for a moment?"
It was late at night. Her voice drifted in from outside the door to the room prepared for me in Butler Territory. Even if the damage hadn't been too severe, most people would have collapsed from exhaustion after the monster invasion. But with Lloyd's life hanging by a thread, it was only natural that Hazel couldn't sleep.
I responded to the countess who had come to another man's room in the dead of night.
"Come in."
At my permission, the door opened, and Hazel stepped inside. The moonlight filtering through the window illuminated her resolute expression.
"What's the matter? For a countess to visit at this hour?"
"...I'm sorry, but could you give me that medicine?"
Hazel spoke those words straight to me as I asked her purpose. For someone who usually stuttered, her tone was surprisingly firm, and I looked at her with a peculiar expression.
The only item in Butler Territory that could save Lloyd right now was Talion's horn, just as she'd said. But no matter how much the boy's life—who might become the next count—was at stake, Talion was ultimately mine. Moreover, since they'd shut the gates right behind my back, no one had dared demand the horn from me.
Hazel had only gazed at me with desperate eyes, saying nothing. Yet here she was, unable to give up, coming to my room late at night to make her request.
"Why should I?"
I tossed the obvious question at her. Even if Charlie had pulled a stunt in the middle and the imperial crown prince had gotten involved, Hazel had known about it—or at least, she bore responsibility for the incident.
Hazel flinched at my question and slowly knelt on the floor. She bowed low, pressing her forehead to the ground, and spoke to me.
"I'm truly sorry for what happened today. It was all my fault, so please vent your anger on me alone. Spare Lloyd, I beg you."
I scratched my chin as I watched her prostrate herself in apology. I couldn't understand what was driving her to this extent.
Could Lloyd be her biological child? But Talion's reaction confirmed Hazel was definitely a virgin.
"You think I'll get over it just because you bow your head?"
"...I'll gladly accept any punishment you give me. So please..."
Hazel replied with her forehead still pressed to the floor.
I gazed down at her silently. Her massively developed hips, as prominent as her huge breasts, began to capture my attention.
"Any punishment, gladly? Fine, then. Strip."
I said that to Hazel, and I saw her body jolt as she slowly rose from her position.
How will she react, I wonder?
Honestly, I thought she'd just storm out of the room. No matter that she came from a merchant family or was a bit naive, my demand was unreasonable enough.
But contrary to my expectations, Hazel began unfastening the fabrics wrapping her body without hesitation. Her ornate dress fell to the floor, and she slowly removed the undergarments covering her vital areas.
Soon, moonlight poured over Hazel's naked form. Below her impossibly large breasts was a waistline so narrow it was dizzying. The wide hips I'd glimpsed when she knelt in supplication naturally drew my gaze.
Her face flushed crimson, Hazel stood trembling before me, not covering her private parts. She seemed worried that if she upset me even slightly, I might withhold the unicorn's horn.
I frowned a little at her reaction and asked her.
"Why go this far?"
"To pr-protect Lloyd... b-but it's true that I wronged you, Hero."
Hazel squeezed her eyes shut and answered me like that.
I already knew Charlie had been involved in why she'd locked the gates, and that he'd undoubtedly used the boy she cherished so dearly to persuade her. So her answer solved none of my curiosities.
"No, not that. Why do you go so far out of your way for that brat? That's what I don't get."
Hazel, who had her eyes closed, cautiously opened them at my question.
"A mother... taking care of her child is only natural."
I let out a scoff at her words. There were plenty of mothers in the world who didn't properly care for their own kids. I might even be one such case myself.
Of course, I didn't know exactly what had happened to my own mother. By the time I could form memories, I was just a homeless wanderer on the streets.
"He's not even your biological child."
"...I-I've never once thought of Lloyd as not my own child."
I frowned slightly at her words. I couldn't fathom what magic the previous count had worked on her to make her dote on the boy so fiercely.
"Did the previous count, Jeffrey, do you some great favor?"
"..."
Hazel fell silent like her mouth was glued shut at my words. A brief silence followed, and then she hesitantly began to reveal her past.
"People think the count showed interest in me in that way, but that's not true. He loved only his wife until the day he died."
Her explanation, once started, was straightforward. Hazel had been born the daughter of a small merchant family, and like most such families, they had accumulated unbearable debts by the time she came of age. The count, who had ties to her father, paid off those debts in exchange for her.
"Am I missing something? So basically, he bought you with money?"
"The count's only worry was... that when he and his wife passed away in their old age, there'd be no one to care for the children."
I scratched my head at that explanation too. At the moment Hazel entered as his concubine, the count's two grown sons were still alive and well, at least.
It was a famous story even in the imperial capital: Hazel became the concubine, rebellion broke out, the sons died, and the mad countess tormented her afterward.
"Then why not just hire a wet nurse?"
"Th-the count wanted a mother for his children, not a wet nurse."
"Well, I don't buy it."
I sneered at Hazel, who kept defending the count to the end. To me, steeped in distrust and disgust of humanity, her story just sounded like prettily packaged lies.
Perhaps offended by my expression, Hazel hurriedly continued her explanation.
"After we married, the count never made any other demands of me. Not once."
"Other demands? Like what?"
"...Like asking me to strip in front of him, as you did, Hero."
I finally burst out laughing at her response. So this ridiculous woman held some kind of respect for the count because he never laid a finger on her.
But having seen her naked, I could guess why the count never made sexual demands. Clothed, Hazel was attractive enough to draw men's gazes, but nude, she had a body so devilishly alluring it stirred male desire to the core.
Honestly, right now, I felt a surging urge to mount her and thrust my cock inside rather than keep talking.
Seeing this and holding back? He'd have to be impotent first.
From her explanation, I began speculating on the count's psyche in my own way, unlike her. The count, captivated by Hazel's beauty, must have wanted her as his concubine by any means. Perhaps her family's sudden crisis was even his doing.
He'd gotten her that way, but his body was frail with age and wouldn't obey. At first, just looking might have sufficed, but Hazel was no mere visual treat.
Having a ripe young woman before him—one he couldn't have claimed even in his youth—yet unable to take her due to his withered body? That must have been torment for the count.
Of course, it was all my imagination; the truth was unknowable. But if, as she claimed, he'd only done her a favor and needed someone to watch over the youngest until adulthood, there were countless ways besides making her his concubine.
"Anyway, that's none of my business."
"Pardon?"
"Come closer."
I said that to Hazel. Whether out of conviction that she had to protect Lloyd to repay a debt of gratitude, she approached me in obedience.
Seen up close, her body was far too exquisite to waste as the mother of a brat like Lloyd.