Chapter 138. The Thawing of Rimeyer (1)
The first time she saw a man in his raw, naked state.
And not just any man—a monstrous weapon of flesh that defied all common sense with its sheer size and thickness. Rimeyer's usually composed blue eyes widened in shock and horror, as if they might burst from their sockets.
'That... That thing is attached to a human body...?'
The tranquil hot spring.
Between the Knight Commander holding her breath underwater and the Count standing naked with his obscene weapon on full display, a silence thicker than the steam began to settle, sticky and suffocating.
"Would you mind putting that away?"
Rimeyer turned her flushed face away, eyes half-lidded.
"Ah... I thought you were Violetta. Sorry for startling you."
Lucian awkwardly covered his raging lower half as he made his excuse. But the glare from Rimeyer, still crouched in the water, was razor-sharp.
"And what exactly were you planning to do if it had been her?"
Her icy tone made Lucian exhale deeply.
"No, this is just my condition acting up. It... rises on its own. I was only going to play a little prank on Violetta."
"More excuses, Lucian."
"Haah..."
Lucian was growing weary of constantly having to explain himself lately.
The relaxation he'd barely managed to soak into his muscles from the hot spring was evaporating, replaced by renewed tension. And of all times, now—when his lower half was throbbing with blood.
He turned abruptly and sat against a rock, putting some distance between them.
"Rimeyer, you know about my condition, don't you? The cursed blood of the Eckhart family."
"..."
"I'm just trying to survive. If I don't release this beastly heat every day, the pain feels like it'll tear my heart and veins apart. I end up screaming."
"..."
"Living like this—losing my reason, becoming an animal—it's exhausting."
Rimeyer pressed her lips together. She did have some vague knowledge of Lucian's "Mana Overload Syndrome."
But deep down, she'd always assumed he was just making excuses to indulge in women, that he was nothing more than a lecher reveling in his own pleasure.
Yet now, the sheer exhaustion radiating from his broad back as he sat turned away, the raw honesty in his confession—
A sharp pang shot through Rimeyer's chest. Guilt and pity welled up for how she'd misunderstood and treated him like a beast all this time.
"So... what does it take to relieve it?"
Her tone was still stiff, but her expression had softened slightly.
"The source of life inside me, boiling with mana—I have to expel it through physical contact with a woman. Only then does it quiet down for a while."
"Then since we left the castle... how have you been managing?"
"Well..."
Lucian hesitated. He thought of Kara, who had silently relieved his suffering every night with her mouth, but he couldn't bring himself to say her name. He wanted to protect her pride.
"I've been enduring it. But every day feels like hell... Right now, I'm on the verge of exploding."
"Hmm..."
Rimeyer stared at the rippling water, lost in thought.
Lucian held onto a sliver of hope—that maybe she understood him now, that he wouldn't have to make any more pitiful excuses.
"Ahh—"
When she stayed silent, Lucian took a deep breath of the crisp night air and sank back into the water up to his neck.
Only the quiet lapping of water filled the air as minutes slipped by.
"Lucian... If it's that painful... I could... help you."
Lucian's eyes flew open beneath the water.
Rimeyer's voice, usually so sharp and cold, now trembled faintly—like a shy girl melting in the warm spring.
'What is she saying all of a sudden?'
Completely oblivious to Rimeyer's hidden feelings, Lucian assumed she was just pitying him for his terrible condition and making an unreasonable offer.
"Ah... It's fine. If it gets unbearable, I can always ask Violetta or Kara later. You don't have to—"
"Am I not good enough?"
Her voice turned icy in an instant. Wounded pride—or perhaps disappointment—was plain on her face.
"No, that's not—"
Before Lucian could finish, Rimeyer closed the distance between them with a splash.
Her snow-white face, submerged up to her chin, was now flushed red to the neck from the heat and embarrassment. Keeping her eyes fixed somewhere around his chest, she whispered in a small voice:
"Just... with my hands... would that work?"
Without giving him time to answer, Rimeyer's crimson arm reached out from beneath the water.
And her hand cautiously closed around Lucian's still-throbbing, monstrous erection.
"Ngh—!"
A stifled groan escaped Lucian's lips.
Rimeyer's hand was... bizarre.
From above the water, the back of her hand looked pristine—smooth and unblemished, the delicate hand of a noblewoman.
But the sensation against his skin was entirely different.
The palm gripping him was rough and calloused, hardened by decades of wielding a sword—a warrior's hand.
Her smooth fingers wrapped around his shaft while the coarse calluses on her palm scraped against the sensitive head and veins beneath. The extreme duality of the sensation—something Lucian had never experienced before—delivered an intoxicating stimulus. The hand that wielded the Blanc family's unique sword techniques had no calluses on certain fingers, leaving them soft and supple. It was a completely different feel from Kara's.
"Haah... Rimeyer..."
But her movements were unmistakably clumsy.
Like a virgin who'd never touched a man before, she gripped him with the same force she'd use to clutch a thick sword hilt—far too tight. And the rhythm of her strokes was stiff and monotonous.
Yet that very clumsiness drove Lucian wild.
Under the warm spring water, each rough stroke of her calloused palm sent electric jolts of pleasure up his spine.
Lucian stared at the woman handling him in disbelief.
The Ice Witch—her silver hair pinned up, her smooth shoulders hunched and bare under the water, biting her lip as she worked his cock.
'This can't be real.'
Lucian panted.
It felt like he'd been dragged into some fantasy conjured by the succubus Bella.
The Royal Knight Captain, who could freeze a man with a single icy glare, was now blushing furiously as she jerked him off in this dark hot spring.
The sheer dissonance, the surreal thrill of it—
It wasn't just the physical friction. It detonated the pleasure centers in Lucian's brain.
"Does it... hurt? Should I loosen my grip?"
Rimeyer glanced up at him awkwardly. Lucian threw his head back, veins bulging in his neck.
"No... No, ngh—keep going. That rough hand... feels incredible..."
Though her ears burned red at his moans, Rimeyer gradually quickened her movements beneath the water.
Splash, splash. The spring's ripples swayed between them, amplifying the lewd sounds.
Rimeyer—completely naked, submerged, gripping and stroking his cock.
That fact alone was enough to white out Lucian's mind with pleasure, threatening to push him over the edge.
But the warm water had one peculiar drawback. The resistance and heat dulled the sensation of Rimeyer's rough, thrilling touch.
'This isn't enough. I need to feel her hands on bare skin.'
Unable to resist, Lucian surged upright, parting the water.
Splaaash—!
"Ah!"
Startled by his sudden movement, Rimeyer let out an involuntary cry.
And when her cold blue eyes locked onto Lucian's lower half, now fully exposed above the water—her breath hitched.
Underwater, she'd convinced herself she was just handling a "large, hard, but smooth-skinned club" too big to fully grasp.
But now, unveiled through the steam, its true form was horrifying.
A massive pillar flushed dark red, veins thick as snakes coiling around it, and a swollen, glistening head ready to burst.
Facing a man's fully aroused genitalia for the first time, Rimeyer's pupils dilated in panic. Her heart hammered wildly.
"Haah... Haah... Sorry for startling you. But the water dulls the sensation. I couldn't feel you properly."