The Knight Commander's Secret Temptation on the Dawn of Betrayal
Without a doubt, I am nothing like a cuckold.
Sexuality is a natural emotion, after all, and I have always felt a surge of desire when I see a beautiful woman.
And in that regard,
“gulp…”
At this very moment, I could only swallow my dry saliva automatically, overwhelmed by an overwhelming temptation.
Franklin stood right in front of me, her body pressed close, staring at me with hot eyes.
Then she leaned in and whispered in my ear, her voice as sweet as melted sugar.
“I waited… since the first time I saw you. I’ve been waiting for this moment.”
“…General…?”
“You probably don’t know… how much I’ve respected you all this time. Looking at you, who’s so different from me… how my heart raced…”
“What? …What do you mean…?”
She suddenly dropped a confession-like line that left me stunned.
Then she exhaled hot breath against my face and slowly began to caress my cheek.
“Hehe… you’re so cute… my captain…”
With those words,
“M-my… my lips…!!!”
She grabbed my still-unreleased arm with all her strength and pulled my lips toward hers.
And then…
—click—
“!!”
The soft sensation on my lips.
It was unbearably hot yet impossibly sweet, like touching fire, and at the same time carried a strange sense of peace.
It flowed straight through my mouth and into my head, flooding my mind with something intense.
An unbearable feeling.
It spun my head, raced my heart, and blurred my vision.
Only after realizing what it was…
‘Shit… alcohol…!’
I immediately began to lose consciousness.
‘How… I never thought indirect drinking like this could work… damn it. At a moment like this…’
The high-concentration alcohol that had filled her stomach and now filled my mouth.
Meanwhile, the effects of Franklin’s innate magic reacted to it, amplifying its power far beyond normal, and it rushed into my mouth at lightning speed.
And her unintended strike hit me like a bolt from the blue.
It was already enough to take down someone who had only had two drinks and was feeling a bit tipsy.
“Huuu… cool… cool…”
*
Accepting expectations is not something that can be called good.
It gives many things, but it also brings burdens, and when things don’t go as planned, it can become a massive pressure in itself.
A life where even small mistakes are not tolerated.
An existence that must always show a perfect image.
Because she was born into that position,
whether she wanted to or not,
regardless of who she was,
she had to live wearing the mask of perfection.
Even when things were difficult and painful, she had to pretend to be calm.
Even when facing hard situations, she had to pretend to be relaxed and overcome them.
She knew she was wearing a false image.
In reality, she was far from perfect, and her talent was not particularly outstanding.
The only reason she could maintain the mask of herself now was because of constant effort made in hidden places.
To surpass others with the same level of talent, one must invest more time.
Those who don’t know this just think she’s amazing,
but behind her is someone who endured the agony of spitting blood and barely held on to her current self.
And for someone who has lived such a life,
the man who…
unlike her clumsy pretense of perfection,
showed a truly flawless image,
was enough to become an idol and a symbol of aspiration, even if he was an enemy.
A person who truly embodies what she should pursue.
Even with a fundamental gap, he lights the way for her, who has always felt frustration deep inside, to take one step further.
That was the image of the man named Cromwell contained in the heart of the woman named Franklin,
and the trigger that made her feel admiration, respect, and something else beyond that.
…Uuuu…”
Franklin slowly regained consciousness in the throbbing pain of her head.
Overwhelmed by severe headache and nausea from excessive drinking, she began to feel a burning thirst.
‘What… what the hell happened?… I remember drinking the last drink… but after that… I don’t remember…’
Her memories cut off after she downed several cups of the alcohol Cromwell had poured.
Feeling confused by the fact, she forced her heavy eyelids open with great effort.
And then…
“Eh?”
The next moment, the man right in front of her nose.
It was… Cromwell, lying asleep beside her on the narrow bed.
‘W-what is this?… W-what kind of situation is this? D-did I really… have a relationship with General Cromwell yesterday…?’
She couldn’t be sure due to her hazy mind, but the situation felt unmistakably real.
So Franklin hurriedly pulled back the blanket and checked her own body condition.
However,
‘T-this… at least… nothing big happened…?’
She was dressed in the same uniform as yesterday, with no signs of her clothes being removed.
From that, she realized that nothing had crossed any lines.
‘But… then why did the captain sleep next to me…? Did he really… put me to sleep while I was drunk? Uuuu…’
Feeling confused in every way,
Franklin first stood up from the bed and looked at Cromwell, who was sleeping peacefully beside her.
‘Well… considering General Cromwell’s character, it’s only natural… but…’
She accepted the current situation and felt a little relieved.
However, completely unrelated to the fact, a fundamental sense of loss as a woman began to bloom in her heart at this moment.
‘But… no matter how you look at it… he didn’t even lay a hand on me in that situation… Does that mean I have no charm at all?’
Thinking about it from the beginning and laying out the situation was not pleasant at all.
In reality, she had been forced to do something more important than touching, but from Franklin’s perspective, where that memory had vanished, it was a situation that could easily lead to misunderstanding.
Feeling strangely depressed,
Franklin glanced at the defenseless man in front of her and swallowed a little dry saliva.
‘Well… what’s the point? Since it’s already like this, I can just make it a fait accompli from now on. Even if the process is a bit twisted, the ending is roughly the same. Then right now…’
After all, if the other person doesn’t cross the line, she can just cross it herself.
Deciding that, Franklin slowly began to approach Cromwell.
However,
“General Franklin! Come out quickly!”
“…Tsk…”
The noisy voice coming from outside.
Franklin’s subordinate’s urgent voice, which tried to tackle her at a critical moment, forced a string of curses out of her mouth.
“What’s all the commotion? From this morning…”
Walking out with her dissatisfaction still in her voice,
Franklin immediately lost the energy to complain about what she had just said and stood there with a stiff, hardened expression, unable to speak.
At this moment, her eyes caught sight of a group of people.
They were not soldiers or warriors, but civilians who looked like ordinary people at first glance.
Although a few young men were mixed in, most were elderly people, women, or children,
people who did not belong in a besieged fortress during wartime, and they were all in miserable condition, wearing dark expressions.
Their appearance evoked the word “refugee” in a literal sense.
Especially the woman at the front, who seemed to have the soul sucked out of her, showing an expression so eerie it could be called hatred.
So, the atmosphere inside the fortress, which should have been lively from yesterday’s celebration, was now gloomy in every way.
Looking at this, Franklin asked her subordinate beside her in a quiet but stiff voice.
“Who are these people? They look like settlers living nearby, but why are they all like this…”
“T-that is… well…”
Her subordinate began to cautiously explain the situation.
Hearing that, Franklin’s eyebrows furrowed automatically.
‘These filthy imperial soldiers… no matter how urgent the situation is, how could they do something like this!’
Feeling intense anger,
Franklin immediately gave permission for the woman standing in front of these people to be brought inside.