Chapter 40: BWCGD

Chapter 40

Unaware of the dark thoughts hidden beneath the surface, Evelyn looked at her empty finger and trailed off.

Perhaps disappointed, she bit her red lower lip with her neat white teeth.

Watching her trembling lips, Kallian gently brushed the damp strands of hair away from her forehead.

Then, as if nothing had happened, he subtly changed the subject.

"What are you doing wearing trousers? Didn't Emma prepare a dress for you?"

"She did, but I couldn't find it. Besides... trousers are more comfortable than dresses."

Every time he touched her, her expression twisted as though she was troubled.

Seeing her wear every emotion on her face, Kallian shamelessly drank in every inch of her.

He despised himself for forcing this beastly act under the excuse of purification.

Yet at the same time, the sweet traces flowing into his mouth filled him with satisfaction, and the contradiction made him sick enough to laugh bitterly.

He did not know why her absence had made him so uneasy.

But he decided not to think about it any further.

If he wanted something, he would simply make it his.

There was no need to overthink something so simple.

Meanwhile, his large hand slipped beneath her tunic.

Seeing her hand hovering helplessly in the air, Kallian took it and placed it in his own hair.

"...Ha."

Evelyn seemed determined not to tighten her grip.

But as the growing stimulation became too much to bear, she finally gave in.

Suppressing the desire surging within him at the sight of her body moving as though it desperately wanted him, the veins along his neck and temples bulged to the point of bursting.

"I'm going insane."

To release the burning heat inside him, he casually stripped off the shirt hanging loosely from his shoulders.

"I think I've washed you enough by now."

Beads of sweat rolled endlessly over the hard muscles of his chest.

Beneath them, the Guardian's mark shimmered in the shifting shadows.

The serpent wrapped around the demonic sword—

Ouroboros.

"Hng!"

Startled, Evelyn quickly pulled her hand away from his body.

"You'll have to get used to it."

He lightly caught her wrist and pressed her hand against his chest.

Her trembling fingers hesitated for only a moment before slowly stroking the firm muscles and sliding downward.

The air grew even hotter.

A gentle breeze briefly cooled their bodies pressed tightly together.

Only for a moment.

The sound of a waterfall crashing onto the quiet lake brought them back to reality.

But whenever her warmth swallowed him whole, everything around them became silent once more.

Their lips still locked together, they struggled helplessly in that strange swamp of warmth.

Then—

"...Hoo."

Breathing roughly, Kallian pressed himself firmly against Evelyn.

The overwhelming sensation made her let out a soft moan as she wrapped her arms around him.

The two became hopelessly entangled beneath the dim moonlight.

By then, the sounds and movements around them no longer mattered.

"Ah... no... not there... please... please stop..."

Unable to contain her emotions, Evelyn's nails dug into his arm.

Listening to her trembling voice as she clung to him, Kallian was swept toward his own peak.

My head feels like it's melting from the cold.

Holding both of Evelyn's cheeks, he kissed her trembling lips once more.

Her sweet fragrance filled his mouth.

"...Ha..."

Sweet.

As he greedily, sometimes gently, sucked on her soft tongue, that intoxicating sweetness gradually erased every thought from his mind.

For a long while, like a beast that had lost its reason, he bit and ravaged her lips, immersed in the lingering afterglow.

"Damn it."

Only when the metallic taste of blood spread through his mouth and his tongue began to sting did Kallian finally release her swollen lips.

How many times had he reached the peak without even taking things further?

He suddenly wondered what kind of pleasure something even more intimate might bring.

But if I don't hold on to my reason here...

A warning rang through his mind that he might repeat another act of madness.

Just as he clenched his teeth so hard that the veins at his temples bulged from the shame of giving in to base desire—

"Your Grace, the Grand Duke—Huff...!"

Benjamin, who had finally reached the lakeside while gasping for breath, froze in disbelief before immediately turning his back.

After collecting all the monster corpses and finishing the patrol, the two had still not returned, so he had apparently come to search for them.

"I-I'm sorry! Truly! I swear! I didn't see anything!"

Kallian immediately turned, hiding Evelyn within his arms, and glared coldly at Benjamin's back.

"Stop interrupting and get out."

Breaking into a cold sweat at his icy tone, Benjamin hurriedly added one last thing before fleeing faster than lightning.

"Ahem! A carrier hawk has arrived from the Imperial Palace! I believe Your Grace should read the message!"

* * *

At that same time, the Imperial Palace was shrouded in a grim atmosphere.

The Emperor, Theodore, was in an exceptionally foul mood after being visited late at night by the High Priest.

Bang!

Theodore slammed the report submitted by High Priest Julius onto the table and frowned deeply.

Former Countess Lawrence, Louise, found dead beneath the Quanta Bridge!

"They found her with all four limbs severed? What in the world were the Holy Knights escorting the prisoner doing while all this happened?!"

This was what had occurred.

As soon as the escort party passed through the eastern gateway of the continent, they were ambushed.

While the knights struggled in confusion to suppress the attackers, the tragedy took place.

Even the guards protecting the carriage were found dead.

The only thing they could conclude was that the culprit was an exceptionally skilled swordsman.

In the end, no one knew exactly what had happened.

Not even Count Lawrence himself.

"What is the Count doing now?"

"He has shut himself inside his office and refuses to come out. It seems the shock has been overwhelming."

"How frustrating."

Leaning back into his cushioned chair, Theodore rubbed his weary face.

"If the Grand Duke had been the one escorting the prisoner, none of this would have happened..."

At those words, the High Priest, who had been lounging casually in his chair, straightened his posture.

The moment he heard the words 'Grand Duke,' his brows furrowed with unmistakable displeasure.

Even with that darkened expression, he was still an extraordinarily handsome middle-aged man.

His smooth golden hair looked as though it had been woven from silk.

His clear, almost transparent violet eyes only enhanced his sacred appearance.

Though he and the Emperor shared the same blood, they were separated by a distance as great as the difference in their very natures.

Julius Maximus Adin Icar.

That was the High Priest's true name.

He was the Fourth Prince, born to the late Emperor and Empress, who had abandoned politics early in life to walk the path of a priest.

The people applauded Julius for his holy and virtuous way of life.

But the ambitions he harbored were far greater.

He had chosen the temple as both a refuge to preserve his life and a foundation upon which to fulfill his ambitions.

Because of that decision, when the current Emperor purged the late Emperor, the former Empress, and every branch of the imperial family connected to her, Julius alone survived.

"Do you truly believe that, Your Majesty?"

Hiding his true thoughts, Julius smoothed the crease between his brows and lifted his teacup.

"The fact that the dead prisoner was the mother of the new Grand Duchess... isn't that the very flaw in this case?"

Closing his heavy eyelids, Theodore lowered his hand as though he could hardly believe what he had heard.

"Are you daring to suspect the Grand Duke?"

"Doesn't the situation naturally invite suspicion? The Grand Duke suddenly involved himself in the Count's family affairs. And if the Grand Duchess truly suffered years of abuse at the prisoner's hands, anyone would arrive at the same conclusion."

The Emperor was already suffering from countless problems within the Empire.

Now, on top of that, the prisoner being escorted to the monastery had been murdered.

If news of this spread, it would undoubtedly throw the Empire into turmoil.

Theodore pressed his fingers against his temple.

Just imagining the public crying out over the collapse of law and order gave him a pounding headache.

"You make it sound as though the Grand Duke avenged his wife."

Watching the Emperor's vulnerable expression, Julius calmly took another sip of tea.

"Please do not be angered. I am merely discussing a possibility, Your Majesty."

No matter how much the Emperor favored the Grand Duke, the one thing he ultimately had to protect was the Empire of Cardian.

Moreover, Theodore had long carried an inferiority complex toward his close friend, the late Grand Duke Tristan.

Though Tristan had played a decisive role in helping Theodore, the Second Prince, ascend the throne...

...he had also taken away the person Theodore loved most.

"As you know, the men of Orpheus are famous for losing all reason once they fall in love. Just look at how the former Grand Duchess could never forget her deceased husband..."

As expected, the moment Julius lightly touched the Emperor's deepest wound, Theodore's purple eyes narrowed.

Yes... this must be difficult for him.

The son of the woman he had loved enough to stake everything on.

The Emperor's feelings toward the Grand Duke were far too complicated for anyone else to understand.

Had the Grand Duke not been the spitting image of Tristan, Theodore might have insisted by any means possible that the boy was his own son.

Moreover, after giving birth to Cedric, the Empress had conceived three more children.

But aside from the Imperial Princess who had entered a political marriage, none of them had ever seen the light of day.

Left with an unreliable heir, the Emperor could not help but harbor both admiration and fear toward overwhelming power.

Like a serpent, Julius whispered slyly,

"Cutting off the limbs and burying them at the four corners of the land is a law of the North. No matter that he is a Guardian, it deeply concerns me that the Empire entrusts its future to someone capable of such brutality."

The people revered the Orpheus family for risking their lives to hunt monsters.

But not everyone admired them.

Increasingly, rumors had begun to spread that the Grand Duke had allied himself with Babel, opened the Gates, and intended to rule the Empire through fear.

And of course, the Emperor was well aware of those rumors.

"What do you think will happen if, when the Empire faces a great crisis, the Grand Duke alone claims all the glory for stopping the Gates and Dungeons from running rampant and for saving mankind?"