Side Story 2.10

“…Kai….”

Someone whispered gently into his ear.

“Wake up, Kaiden.”

At the voice, sounding like a sweet song, Kaiden smiled with his eyes still closed.

Then he heard a stifled little laugh.

“I think Daddy is having a good dream, Elric.”

Mm…?

“Shall we tickle him? Shall our Elric tickle Daddy?”

After those whispered words in a voice trying hard to suppress laughter, something soft and fragrant slapped lightly against Kaiden’s cheek. It tickled like being hit with a feather, but the sensation waking him made him frown unconsciously.

“Ah, no, Elric. That’s not how you tickle someone.”

After Rian’s flustered voice, something soft and fragrant fluttered against the tip of his nose.

“Wake up, Kaiden. It’s morning.”

She giggled again. Listening closely, he could hear another laughing voice too. Who was that?

“Mmm….”

Still foggy with sleep, he kept his eyes tightly shut and reached a hand toward where the voice came from. He caught hold of an arm that felt familiar and gave it a sharp tug.

“Ah!”

Thump, as she fell against his chest, he wrapped her tightly in his arms.

“M-my dear….”

What? My dear?

“Let go of me, you fool….”

Why was she suddenly speaking so politely? The voice of his lover, sounding flustered and shy, stirred him.

Suddenly a shiver ran all the way through his belly, and Kaiden looked down at her in his arms with half-open eyes.

Ah, Rian. My Rian.

“…What did you just call me,”

He asked lowly, lifting one corner of his mouth in a teasing smile.

“What did you just call me?”

You called me my dear. I’m sure of it. Absolutely sure.

A feeling that struck deep in his chest ran down through his waist and gathered below.

“Say it again, Rian.”

I like hearing that.

“M-my dear…?”

Though her voice was clearly full of confusion, she naturally said the words again.

“Haa…. I like that….”

‘My dear.’ Somehow it makes it sound as if we’re husband and wife already, raising a child together.

“I love it so much, Rian….”

Kaiden, his eyes still heavy with sleep, let out a sweet sigh as he fumbled over her back. At some point she had gotten dressed, and he could no longer feel her soft skin. Dissatisfied, he shifted his attention to the nape of her neck, fragrant with her scent. Huuuh, as he breathed it in deeply, he hardened below.

“Say it again…. Please?”

“Kaiden…?”

The confusion in her voice deepened, but he paid it no mind and continued groping over her body.

“I want more, Rian…. It was our first night….”

His fellow knights had often snickered and talked about how couples who had just shared their first bed wanted to do nothing else all day. They said it while he covered their shifts for them, because they had lovers.

“Honey….”

Kaiden bravely tried out that embarrassing endearment as well. Back when he was at the royal castle, whenever Gaeris called his lovers by such names, they would swoon in delight and cling to his hairy chest.

As he groped at her body, he writhed his hips, wanting to be inside her again as soon as possible.

“Will you… bear my child?”

“Pfft.”

But then suddenly, laughter burst out from beside the bed.

“Oh dear me, I shouldn’t have followed Madame in here. Shall we wait outside, Young Master?”

What…? Young Master? And who was that voice?

Kaiden’s eyes flew open as sleep vanished in an instant.

“Kaiden….”

Rian was looking askance at him with her face dyed bright red.

“I woke you because it seemed you ought to eat quickly… but what sort of dream were you having that it felt so vivid?”

Though her expression was pouty as if she were just about to start scolding him, the corners of her mouth were lifted slightly.

“Ah….”

Only then did Kaiden return fully to reality, and his face grew even redder than hers.

So it had all been a dream. It was the first dream he had ever had that was so vivid. Even after waking, he had mistaken himself for the version of himself who had grown up with Rian as a childhood friend with no distance between them, and had blundered badly.

“I-I beg your pardon, Madame.”

His face soon turned pale.

What exactly did I just babble? I feel like I said something strange.

“I was dreaming….”

Even though it had happened only moments before, he could not remember what he had said to her. The contents of the dream were still vivid, and yet.

Still, there was one thing he knew: he had used intimate speech to his wife.

“If… I said anything unpleasant, it was merely sleep talk, so please forget it….”

“You really are….”

Hee hee hee, her shoulders started shaking with laughter.

“It seems in your dream you were quite a naughty knight, weren’t you?”

“That’s not….”

Unable to think of any excuse, Kaiden pressed his lips shut.

Then Rian shot him another look.

“You just called me ‘Honey.’ Surely you do not secretly wish to live like Sir Gaeris, do you?”

Since she knew very well about the colorful love life of the flirtatious Gaeris, Kaiden quickly shook his head.

“Absolutely not. I swear it.”

“Then were you Kaiden?”

She asked while still lying sprawled atop him, her cheek resting on the back of her hand.

“In the dream, did you live once again as yourself, just as you wished?”

Those eyes, sparkling with curiosity like stars, were exactly the same as in his dream.

“…Yes. I was Kaiden O’Connell.”

A satisfied smile spread across his face as he looked at her.

“Loving and yearning only for you….”

Smack, when he kissed her forehead, her cheeks flushed like pink dahlias.

“And we had just spent our first night together, but because it was my first time, I could not use all my strength, so even now, like this….”

Whispering low, Kaiden subtly rubbed against her with the part of him that still had not settled down.

At any rate, the serious problem was that he had been away from her for an entire week.

“My dear….”

She drew in her shoulders and bit her lip as if troubled. The hollow of her chest, revealed beyond her loosened collar, was unbearably alluring, and Kaiden abruptly lifted his upper body and turned them over, climbing atop her as if pouncing.

“You’re not enough for me, Rian….”

“Mmph….”

When their lips met deeply, a thrilling sensation ran through his entire body. Even the way her hand dug into his arm as if clawing at it delighted him. It made his heart pound and the front of his trousers swell as if he had returned to that dream of their wedding night.

“W-wait a moment, my dear….”

But Rian pushed at his chest and struggled beneath him, trying to wriggle free.

“Eat first. And this evening you said you have a meeting with your vassals…. Actually, it is not morning. We took a nap, remember?”

She gathered together the front of her bodice, where the ribbons had all come undone, and pursed her lips. The sight of her shyly wiping at the corners of her mouth, still slick with saliva, nearly drove him madder still, but he had no choice and got up.

“Ah. That’s right. The meeting later….”

“And before bed, you have to help me write a letter to send to Princess Giselle for a little while. If we do not finish it nicely by today and hand it to her when she visits tomorrow, the Princess might sulk.”

With her ears red as well, she sprang up before he could catch hold of her and fled out of bed to stand by the door.

Sighing in regret, he picked up the clothes scattered on the floor.

“But aren’t you good at writing letters too?”

After coming to Eldenhold and learning her letters, she had been praised by her teacher for her aptitude. Her small and neat handwriting was elegant and adorable, and he was immensely proud of his wife.

“Oh, hardly. Writing is so difficult for me. It is easy to say what I feel in words… but somehow, once it is set down on paper, if I write a poor sentence and send it, I cannot correct it afterward, and it remains forever.”

My wife, of whom I am so proud.

“Hm. I find that even if I read the letters you sent me over and over, they are still only a pleasure.”

“Why did you read them again? How embarrassing.”

“Because I like them. And I know full well that you secretly read my letters over and over too.”

My beloved wife.

“Tch. I told you only to keep mine, not reread them….”

Thanks to his adorable wife, who would cut her eyes at him so primly at the slightest thing, the smile never seemed to leave the lips of the once-stern Kaiden.

“Anyway, once you are fully dressed, come to the greenhouse. We are eating there today, so I will go wait first with Elric. Take your time, all right?”

“Yes, Madame.”

What sort of surprise had she arranged this time, inviting him to the greenhouse?

Rian would sometimes hold little events for him in the private greenhouse she tended. To celebrate finally mastering her letters, she had once written him a short note and read it aloud to him, and to celebrate his safe return from campaign, she had made him a flower crown and held a ceremony for him. On New Year’s festival day, she had even shown him the traditional dance of Perrindale.

“……”

Watching the back of his wife as she hurried out of the room, Kaiden stood there a moment, forgetting even to dress, recalling the dream he had just had.

Ah, now I finally understand why her letters in that dream had kept growing shorter. It must have been because she did not like writing them.

“Hehe.”

The smile lingering at the corners of his mouth deepened.

His gaze, turned toward the room where sunset light was seeping in, now went toward those who had wished to come here with them but had remained behind in their hometown.

If they had all come together, as in the dream, it truly would have been happy. If he were to take up a pen now, he felt he could vividly paint the sight of both their families living in harmony together in this cozy castle.

Would he live such a life someday? No, perhaps he had already lived such a life in some past life.

Perhaps next month he ought to visit both of their old family homes in Perrindale.

“Hup….”

Still heavy with the afterglow of the dream, he stretched his heavy body and gave a long yawn and stretch.

“Martin. Are you there?”

Looking down at the wrinkled clothes, he soon called for his page.

“Would you bring me a fresh set of clothes? Choose the prettiest one. My wife has invited me to dine.”

Before long, splendidly dressed, Kaiden descended the castle stairs with a full heart.

A broad and magnificent castle, abundant supplies and beautiful ornaments, and loyal workers all waited, ready to be of use to him whenever he might require them.

The boy who had once been dragged through dark back alleys by his father to steal had now become one of the King’s knights, and in his domain he ruled with devotion, so that none would ever have to steal from hunger.

But among all the things he had gained in this life, by far the finest was—

“Have you arrived, Sir Kaiden?”

One woman he had found in the small, peaceful Perrindale, and.

“This way, please. Madame and Young Master Elric are waiting for you.”

The precious fruits he had made together with her.

“Would you look at me for a moment. Does this outfit seem all right, even to the nanny?”

“Oh my! You look so handsome! Madam will fall for you all over again, hoho!”

“S-shh. Rian will hear.”

He opened the greenhouse door with a fluttering heart, as if today were the very first day he had fallen in love with her.

Ah, if tomorrow I go to the farm and bring back the ducks and name them the Quack-Quack family, what will my wife say?

Already, in his mind, clouds of imagination were beginning to rise over what gift he should give in return for the one he would receive from his wife.

<Following the Impure Thoughts of the Innocent> Side Story fin.