“Ah… ugh… y-you’re too deep…”

When he pushed past her cervix and struck the very back of her womb, tears spilled from her eyes. She knew Fendrick only grew more excited whenever she cried but that didn’t mean she could stop it.

Fendrick asked teasingly.

“Shall I stop, then?”

“Hii…!”
He had no intention of stopping; she knew that. Even as he asked the question, he pressed himself in to the very limit. He wouldn’t pull out until she said the answer he wanted.

“N-no… no…”

“Then?”

Fendrick began to trace slow circles over her cl*toris with his thumb. Katarina arched her back, her thighs trembling uncontrollably.

“Inside… please, inside… ugh…”

“What.”

“You… you know…”

When she tried to gloss over the words, Fendrick pinched her n*pple lightly and pressed a kiss to her cheek. He kissed her forehead, the tip of her nose, her neck, and kept coaxing her.

“Say it properly, Rina. Go on. In detail.”

She regretted ever telling him her childhood nickname. It felt like confessing a crime.

But there was no taking it back. Katarina opened her mouth on instinct.

“Inside me… ugh… please come inside me… my lord…”

Fendrick licked her earlobe and whispered sweetly.

“Not ‘my lord.’ Say my name.”

“Fe… Fendrick… please make me pregnant…”

Hearing the words he wanted, Fendrick smiled—beautifully—and drove his hips upward with a sharp thrust.

“Ah! Ahh…!”

She felt as though her mind were slipping away. The stage where taking him hurt was long past; now all that was left was pleasure so intense she could barely withstand it.

Maybe it was because she kept begging him to finish inside her, to make her pregnant, but the thought of truly wanting to conceive flickered through her mind.

Lost in pleasure, her blurred thoughts wandered freely.

‘If I get pregnant… maybe he’ll keep me by his side forever. Ah—wait, if I get pregnant, I’m supposed to go to Lady Loretta…’

“Ah—ugh, ahn…!”

‘She said she’d demand a breakup in exchange for giving back the child…Then my lord would lose his fiancée…And then, if he were alone, maybe… maybe I could…’

“So you’re doing it with me and thinking about something else now, Rina? You must be feeling relaxed.”

“N-no—ah…!”

Her body was suddenly flipped over.

Whenever Fendrick wanted to push her to her limits, he would have s*x with her from behind.

Her hips were lifted high, her face pressed into the mattress.

No matter how hard she tried to avoid that position, or how she positioned herself, it was useless.

He was too big, and at this angle, he penetrated her far more deeply. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t support her weight with her arms.

Flattened against the sheets, hips raised as if begging him to thrust, Katarina rubbed her chest against the bedding and writhed helplessly.

“Ah— f-forgive me, ugh— ah! A-ah, my lord, my lord…!”

“I told you to use my name.”

She could feel Fendrick’s hands spreading her open. She didn’t want to imagine what he could see.

Each time he thrust upwards, her body lurched forward, and each time he pulled her straight back onto him.

Warm slickness streamed down the insides of her thighs.

“Ah—ah…!”

She couldn’t last long. As soon as Katarina cl*maxed, Fendrick spilled himself inside her as well. The thick rush of heat filled her completely, then overflowed, trickling down in milky trails.

“Aah…”

Katarina collapsed onto the bed but there was never any chance to rest. Fendrick wrapped his arms around her from behind, seizing her br*asts. This man never finished in a single round.

‘At this rate, if I still don’t conceive… maybe it really just means it isn’t meant to happen. If I were going to get pregnant, it would’ve happened long ago.’

She felt him growing and hardening again inside her, and a moan escaped her lips.

***

Fendrick’s personal physician arrived at the mansion.

Katarina approached Weber in the reception room to inform him Fendrick was away. It seemed their appointments had crossed.

“Master Weber, the lord has gone to Herrenhaus. He said he had a meeting that would run until late today.”

“Oh dear… Did I get the date wrong?”

Flustered, Weber pulled a notebook from his inner pocket.

“If it’s urgent, you may want to go to Herrenhaus. I can give you the address—it’s a place the lord visits often. Or I can send someone to bring him here if you prefer?”

But Weber shook his head.

“No, that won’t be necessary… He asked me to bring him something, and I need to deliver a message along with it.”

“Oh, then I can take it to him.”

Even at Katarina’s offer, Weber hesitated, looking somehow reluctant.

“That has to be delivered to His Lordship directly.”

“Then could you tell me when you’ll be returning? I can let him know you visited and when he should expect you again.”

“Hmm…”

Katarina answered him politely, but Weber still seemed hesitant, glancing at her now and then. His brows were drawn in a gentle, troubled shape—almost as if he pitied her.

‘Why is he looking at me like that…?’

She found it strange, but didn’t show it.

Weber looked at the ceiling, then the floor, debating internally, before finally speaking as though he had no other choice.

“His Lordship should be taking a certain medication these days. Do you happen to know about it?”

“Oh. Yes, that one. The pills he keeps in his bedroom and takes regularly, right?”

“In the bedroom? Then that should be it. Do you know how many are left?”

“Just a moment. I’ll check.”

Katarina went to Fendrick’s bedroom and opened the bedside drawer. Inside the glass vial, a single round pill remained.

Come to think of it—what even was this medicine?

With the small question lingering, she returned to the reception room.

“There was only one left.”

At that, Weber’s expression changed. He shifted anxiously, then, as if reaching a decision, spoke.

“Then it can’t be delayed. He needs this today. I’ll leave him a letter—could you deliver them together?”

“Yes, of course. I’ll bring you some writing tools.”

Katarina smiled and brought him paper, a quill, and ink. She stood a few steps back with her hands folded neatly while he wrote.

Meanwhile, a storm churned quietly inside her.

‘What kind of medicine is so important that it can’t ever run out? He doesn’t seem ill. And he always takes it in the evening. No… he took it during the day once, too…’

She tilted her head—then realized a single, unmistakable pattern.

Fendrick always took that pill right before sharing his bed with her.

‘Wait… could it be something related to me?’

A ripple of unease passed through her.

What kind of medicine would a man need to take before sleeping with a woman, one he absolutely must not forget?

While she was thinking, Weber finished the letter. When he pulled a vial from his bag, she recognized it immediately, the same one Fendrick had been taking.

Weber handed her the vial, filled with round pills, along with the freshly written letter.

“Then please give this to His Lordship when he returns.”

“Yes, sir.”

And in that moment, Katarina understood instinctively.

She had held her tongue until now, afraid that rumors might spread inside the manor and reach Fendrick’s ears, but this might be her only chance to ask.

“Sir, I… have something I’ve been wanting to ask. Since you prepare His Lordship’s medicines yourself, I thought you might know a lot about pharmacology.”

“What is it?”

Weber, who had been gathering his things to stand, looked at her. Encouraged, Katarina explained the poison Loretta had supposedly forced on her.

Weber raised his brows high and shook his head.

“That’s the first I’ve ever heard of such a thing.”

“I know someone who was told they had taken that poison, and it was used to threaten them. So I was trying to figure out if there was any way I could help.”

Weber scratched thoughtfully at his beard before answering.

“Well, you see… His Lordship had many enemies from a very young age, carrying this enormous house entirely on his shoulders. So yes, there were times he was poisoned.”

Katarina’s face drained of color at the idea that Fendrick nearly died as a child. But Weber merely shrugged, continuing casually.

“I helped him build up a resistance by giving him tiny doses of poison from a young age and creating various antidotes. I know quite a lot about poisons. I can assure you that there is no such mechanism. Poisons simply don’t work that way. Whoever said that was lying.”

“I… I see. Thank you. He’ll be relieved to hear what you’ve said.”

“Tell him there’s nothing to worry about. Now then, I’ll head out. Don’t forget to deliver both the letter and the medicine.”

“Of course. Safe travels, sir.”

She bowed slightly as Weber walked away. Once he disappeared from sight, Katarina looked down at the letter in her hands.

It was comforting to know she hadn’t been poisoned, but something else now pulled sharply at her nerves.

‘Medicine he needs specifically before… we sleep together.’

What was it?

A chill slipped down her spine.

She checked the sealing wax on the envelope—then opened it.