105—Andante
Early in the morning, several carriages rolled into the mansion grounds. Stirred by the clamor, Euphemia, who had been sleeping soundly, slowly opened her eyes.
‘……’
Just a short while ago at dawn, when she had briefly woken, he had been right there beside her.
But peering through her bleary vision at the spot next to her now, no one was there.
She reached out with her slender hand, feeling the empty space. A lingering warmth met her touch.
It meant he had risen from the bed only moments ago.
‘Then……’
Should she have stayed lying down just a little longer?
She was grateful that, true to his promise, he had come back to her side after being with Uriel. But waking up alone still left a bitter taste, nonetheless.
Especially after last night’s intimacy—it made the emptiness feel even deeper.
Was this how it felt to watch people who had basked in the warmth of a roaring bonfire abandon it without a second thought once it dwindled to cold ashes?
Harboring a quiet resentment toward Ferzen, Euphemia propped herself up and turned her head toward the clock.
“Ah……”
Then she saw him.
Standing by the window, quietly gazing out at the world below.
“You……”
Before she could even utter the word cautiously, Ferzen turned, meeting her eyes. Euphemia flinched.
“I……”
“……”
“Have never once broken a promise to you. That disappointed look on your face wounds me a little.”
“Th-that’s not……”
As she shook her head to protest, Ferzen approached and settled comfortably on the edge of the bed, reaching out a hand.
Stroke.
A large hand trailed teasingly along her collarbone with the back of his knuckles.
At the ticklish sensation, Euphemia flushed and parted her lips.
“J-just now, when I woke up…… you were definitely beside me…… but then you were gone……”
“You checked again, did you?”
“I-it’s not that I don’t trust you……! I just…… it…… hurt my feelings……?”
Abandoning her excuses midway, Euphemia gauged Ferzen’s reaction.
“Who knows.”
Ferzen gave an ambiguous reply.
Euphemia fidgeted, her distinctive golden eyes darting this way and that.
At first, he wondered if it was an act, but the genuine anxiety mingling with her gestures rang true.
He hadn’t meant to make her walk on eggshells like this.
Yet it was a stark reminder of how deeply she depended on him—and how thoroughly tamed she had become.
The fierce determination she had once shown in dragging Ruerg forward was long gone. Still, Ferzen didn’t dislike this version of Euphemia.
No—he couldn’t possibly.
After all, he was the one who had shaped her this way.
Stroke.
Finally, as her eyebrows trembled, Euphemia tugged down the strap of her negligee just a touch……
“Do you…… want to touch my breasts……?”
She made the lewd suggestion.
“I-if not…… I-I’ll suck…… your thing…… with my mouth……”
“……”
“D-do you want…… something else……? J-just say it…… I-I’ll do it……”
“Euphemia.”
“Yes……”
“I’m not upset, so there’s no need for this.”
“R-really……?”
Relief washed over her face, though doubt lingered. Like a baby, she wriggled into his embrace and nestled softly against him.
Ferzen gently patted her back, then rose.
“Let’s go.”
“Where to……?”
“It seems my brother sent a birthday gift. If it’s as we discussed…… it should be various items for the child. Essentially, for you.”
“B-birthday……?”
“Ah……”
Come to think of it, he had never mentioned his birthday to Euphemia.
“June 30th. I’ll be away supervising exams anyway, so no need to prepare anything special.”
“I-I see……”
I want to prepare something.
If Uriel didn’t know Ferzen’s birthday.
If she could celebrate it alone with him.
How much quiet jealousy would she swallow?
But with all this commotion from the carriages, even if Uriel hadn’t known, she’d find out now, like it or not.
Pocketing the thought, Euphemia rose from the bed with Ferzen.
“Ah……”
Drip.
The semen Ferzen had ejaculated inside her last night trickled out.
“What’s wrong?”
Ferzen eyed her curiously as she froze mid-motion in her awkward stance.
Euphemia shyly pulled down her panties a bit and lifted the hem of her negligee with both hands.
Thick semen oozed from between her smooth folds, lewdly stretching in a long thread that barely clung to the center of her panties.
“Your…… semen is…… leaking out……”
It was embarrassing.
But when it was just the two of them, she could be as lascivious as she wanted.
Uriel—daughter of the great noble house Alfred—could never show such a sight.
She was probably rigid and conservative about sex, too.
“Will you…… wipe it for me……?”
“……”
Humans accustomed to intense stimulation lose interest in lesser thrills.
So each time Ferzen slept with Uriel, Euphemia quietly hoped he’d compare her.
“Ah……”
Without a word, Ferzen fetched a towel, knelt slightly, and gently wiped her folds.
It felt odd, like being treated as a child, but the sensation of being cherished brought a silly smile to her lips.
“……”
After breakfast, as they headed to the mansion’s storage together, Uriel frowned.
She fundamentally believed herself superior to Euphemia.
But she knew she couldn’t win the favor of Ferzen’s brother—Jeremiah, head of Brutein, her brother-in-law.
Clenching her small fist tightly.
Items for a child she wouldn’t even use yet.
What was so fascinating about their purposes? Euphemia pestered the maids with questions, wasting Ferzen’s time.
Ferzen claimed it was just a promised matter from before her arrival, with no ulterior motive.
But considering the timeline, he must have heard she’d become his concubine.
So he was likely drawing a line early, wary of her grandfather Coleone Wayne Barreta Alfred using her as an excuse to meddle.
Unlike Ferzen, who would branch off to a collateral line, Jeremiah would carry the direct bloodline.
‘No opening to insert myself here……’
Sighing, Uriel turned away.
It was time to head to the academy anyway—no need to watch Euphemia’s irritating display.
With a light glance at Ferzen in farewell, Uriel boarded her carriage and leaned back comfortably.
“Let’s depart.”
“Understood.”
Steady. Smooth.
The carriage rolled on.
Inside, Uriel gently stroked her lower abdomen.
His seed, received into her womb so many times already.
Would it take root safely?
‘I hope…… my next period doesn’t come.’
Her small wish rode the breeze through the window and flew away.
Step.
“……”
Roer Paul Bistaen Claudia.
From early morning, he wandered aimlessly through the park.
In truth, he had walked in a daze and ended up here before he knew it.
‘What should I do……’
Last night’s shocking news from his wife—a proclamation—had driven a nail into Roer’s already fractured heart.
The Claudia family had chosen the Robelium Kingdom as the stage to shine for the first imperial prince in the succession race.
He hated Ferzen, but clashing with the second prince’s forces—backed by Brutein—and Robelium held no meaning.
To achieve feats, expand influence, build fame……
He had to avoid Robelium as much as possible.
Colliding without full battle readiness would be the height of stupidity.
But when his wife—no, Coleone Wayne Barreta Alfred, that old monster—relayed the order, Roer easily saw it.
It was a silent pressure to avoid friction with Ferzen intentionally.
‘Haha……’
Who could have foreseen that the sword he’d painstakingly seized to strike his enemy would turn into shackles binding him instead?
If fortune and misfortune came together, where was the Claudia family’s fortune amid all this?
Crunch!
“……”
At the sound from the bushes, Roer turned.
A snake.
Even now, true to his knightly duty, he caught it to prevent harm to others.
A mouse tail protruded from its mouth, half-swallowed.
Suddenly, the sight mirrored the Claudia family’s plight. Roer crushed the snake in one grip and slumped onto the bench, limp.
The tail coiled around his wrist went slack.
Was the predator-prey bond an unbreakable fate?
“Fine weather, isn’t it?”
“……”
Snapping from his reverie—overlaying the devoured mouse with his family’s fate—Roer turned to the one who sat beside him.
Even in summer, the robed figure looked deeply uncomfortable.
“Do you know?”
“Know what?”
“Rodents devoured by snakes seek out the snakes’ winter dens and crush their heads.”
“……”
“To boost their own survival odds the next year. And to sate their hunger, as a bonus.”
“……”
“Spring, summer, autumn. The food chain holds steady through three seasons. Only winter reverses it.”
In a mortal world, nothing lasted forever.
Not even the most ideal order.
And the fact that this stranger had pierced his inner turmoil at a glance stirred suspicion more than wonder in Roer.
“……Who are you?”
“A good sign. After all, human bonds begin with the desire to know one another.”
“……”
Within the robe, a faint face appeared.
The man’s lips curved into a sly smile.