Chapter 1.5

Is Rian alright?

Her room was quiet. Awake, Kaiden glanced at the door with concern.

Was she trembling in fear? Of course, she wasn’t a child. She must be at least twenty.

Yet, lowly thoughts crept up in his heart. It would be nice if she feared the thunder and called for him. If she asked him to stay by her side tonight and came to him.

He wanted to gently hold her and soothe her to sleep. Telling her not to be afraid. That he would protect her.

Rian….

Kaiden closed his eyes as if holding her in his arms. He wanted to smell her sweet scent and tried to press his nose against her skin.

But he couldn’t quite sense the fragrance, so he gently bit her with his lips.

He licked her soft skin. Still, he couldn’t quite feel it. Yet, his lower body swelled heavily.

Then, the sound of a door opening creaked.

Reality pierced through his imagination.

“Rian?”

Kaiden, who was lowering his hand to his pants front, sat up abruptly.

She was peeking this way through the slightly open door.

“Um, Sir Kaiden, are you alright?”

“Ah.”

He exhaled as if he had never been tense and smiled gently.

Seeing her shy and bright smile made his lips relax naturally.

It seemed she hadn’t been trembling in fear alone. That was a relief….

“What about you? Did you have a scary dream?”

Kaiden got off the sofa and approached her.

Up close, her eyes seemed red, making him worried.

Surely she hadn’t cried. Was she unable to sleep? Because I had come uninvited….

“…Were you scared, Rian?”

“No. I’m not afraid of thunder. I came out because I was worried about you, Sir.”

For a moment, he stood dumbfounded, then laughed softly.

“Oh dear. It was because of me. Though I may seem weak, I am a knight.”

Kaiden rubbed his bear-like chest as he spoke, and Rian laughed aloud.

Ah…. Her unexpected laughter, like ringing bells, filled his chest painfully. He finally understood the abstract expression often used by others about happiness swelling one’s chest.

You’re so lovely, Rian. You’re so beautiful.

“Well, to a brave knight…. I’m sorry. I said something foolish.”

As she apologized shyly, he quickly shook his head.

“No. Not at all. I’m glad you’re concerned. Actually, I have many things I fear….”

“Really? What are you afraid of?”

Her tired blue eyes sparkled with deep curiosity.

“Is there something even a splendid knight like you fears, Sir?”

Receiving her intense interest, Kaiden rubbed his pounding chest, pondering his answer.

“Um…. Sleeping alone?”

Ah, I’m such a hopeless fool.

“Really?”

Rian widened her eyes, studying his expression. She seemed to be trying to discern whether he was joking or serious.

Well. Was it a joke or serious? Even he didn’t know. It was just an honest thought that slipped out, not a proper answer….

He hesitated. 

Should I say I dislike sleeping alone and suggest we sleep together?

Should I speak frankly? That I want to hold her and sleep. That I want to kiss her if she doesn’t mind. That I want to undress her and kiss her from head to toe if she doesn’t mind.

That I want to savor her milky skin with my lips and tongue, bury my manhood deep within her, share passionate love, let my s*men flow inside her,

That her presence makes me desperately aroused.

Kaiden’s large chest heaved.

“Rian. I….”

I want to make love to you. I want you. I want to give myself to you.

He simply couldn’t speak. The woman he had longed for had come this close. It might be his last chance to get closer to her.

His heart trembled like a cowardly mouse. What if she rejected him? What if she made a frightened or disdainful expression, not wanting to be with him?

Though he had easily passed countless tests and harsh training to become a royal knight, answering a single question from the woman he loved was so difficult.

“Then… shall I put you to sleep?”

What saved Kaiden, who felt like he was about to choke, was her cautious voice.

“If you’re afraid to sleep alone. Shall I… put you to sleep in my room?”

Her blue eyes subtly trembled like a lake touched by the wind.

Yet they were firmly fixed on him. The smile on her moist lips seemed to encourage him to be brave.

Ah…. My angel was you. The divine messenger who could breathe life into me or take it away.

“Yes. Please, I would appreciate it.”

Kaiden nodded quickly. Suppressing the urge to immediately embrace her delicate shoulders and sink his teeth into her slender neck.

* * *

Why is it? I’ve heard royal knights are extremely popular with women, but why does Sir Kaiden act like an innocent boy?

As if he were a rural boy who had never experienced a woman.

Rian knew that royal knights were expected to possess strict self-control and nobility. Until they reached their coming-of-age at sixteen, s*xual contact was strictly forbidden, and they focused solely on physical and mental training.

She used to listen intently to the stories her father, who dreamed of being a knight, would tell. Though she never expected to actually meet a real knight.

But truly, this man… he must be over twenty, yet could he have lived in the royal castle without ever meeting a woman?

Somehow, he seems cute. Though it’s rude to think a grown man is cute….

Rian quietly pursed her lips as she looked at the man lying beside her with his eyes tightly shut.

In fact, she had noticed his gaze flitting between her lips and chest, blushing, ever since she came out of the bath.

Despite this, she didn’t feel displeased but rather pitiful. It was an unreasonable emotion, like worrying if a thief trying to steal her belongings could do so safely without trembling.

But… somehow, he seemed pitiful and cute. He treated her so politely, and because of her, he was sleeping curled up like this….

She watched Kaiden’s broad shoulders rise and fall in rhythm with his gentle breathing without getting tired.

His curled-up body, trying not to take over the small bed, didn’t touch her even though she lay right beside him, and his considerate actions made her heart tingle.

He didn’t need to go this far.

I don’t mind if he touches me….

Rian thought while looking at his hunched shoulders and chest.

Rather… I want to touch him. I wish I had patted him and said good night. Would that have been too obvious? It might have been rude.

But maybe… he would have liked being touched? Because….

Because that part of him has been… enlarged since earlier.

Rian inadvertently noticed his lower body’s state as well. When he turned around to leave after telling her to take a bath first, his pants front was covered with a towel, but it protruded so fiercely.

From that moment, curiosity arose in her.

What does that man’s pants look like inside…?

She was already twenty-three. An age where everyone in the village was clamoring for her to get married. She knew enough about male and female sexuality.

Though she scoffed at her kind father’s words, she refused to date anyone unless they had a physique and character as excellent as her father’s. 

She had occasionally witnessed village men indiscriminately exposing themselves behind trees and relieving themselves, and had also seen men and women making love in the forest.

She knew roughly about the physical differences between men and women and s*xual activities.

But she couldn’t quite imagine what was inside Kaiden’s pants. The bizarrely large protrusion was a contour she had never seen before. She couldn’t believe that his thing was the same kind as the other men’s she had seen.

It seemed like a monster was hiding in his pants…. When she first saw it in front of the bathtub, she thought it was grotesque and creepy.

But didn’t the village ladies say that the bigger a man’s thing is, the better?

If that’s true… Kaiden was a very good man.

“Hmm….”

Suddenly, Rian recalled the Avalore proverb, ‘A true knight does not refuse a lady’s request,’ and blushed.

If I asked this man to take off his pants and show me, would he have granted my request?

“I must be crazy.”

Fool. What are you thinking?

If such a man exists, he wouldn’t be a true knight but a foolish man.

Rian closed her eyes, covering her mouth with a clenched hand so her trembling breath wouldn’t touch the man lying beside her.

And she tried to stop her rude imagination by thinking of the noble angels painted on the church walls.

But even the angel’s face, raising a sword with a strong arm, kept changing into Kaiden’s face.

It was a night difficult to fall asleep.