On the other hand, Elicity was too shocked to regain her senses. When the man’s hot tongue licked her neck, a strange sensation coursed through her entire body.

‘This… something’s not right.’

Elicity raised her trembling arm and tapped her husband’s arm. However, he did not stop. Soon, he moved his lips away from her neck and down toward her collarbone.

As his soft, hot tongue traveled lower, Elicity shuddered, letting out a frail whimper.

“Ah, ugh…”

His lips descended over her exhaled breath. Pressing his lips against hers as if to swallow them, he began to kiss her.

It was her first kiss. Elicity’s eyes widened momentarily, but upon meeting two intense flames, she quickly squeezed them shut again.

The first kiss felt strange.

She had thought it would be sweet, like eating chocolate, or as if fireworks would explode in her mind. But instead, the kiss grew rougher and left her breathless.

His tongue, moving through her lips as if claiming them, left saliva trailing at the corners of her mouth—whose it was, she couldn’t even tell.

What was even stranger was her own reaction. Unconsciously, Elicity pressed her body against her husband.

She had completely forgotten that she was only wearing a thin slip, having already shed her dress. With trembling hands, she clutched his shoulders and gasped for air.

Her neatly styled chestnut-brown hair had come undone, now cascading over her bare skin.

There was no time to feel embarrassed. His thick, heated hands suddenly grabbed her full, rounded br*asts.

As a sensation tingled down to the crown of her head, Elicity was certain—she wouldn’t be surprised if she died at that moment.

This can’t go on.

“S-Stop!!”

Just as Alex was about to lower his lips again, he flinched at her words.

His gaze, darkened with desire, locked onto hers.

“…Stop?”

“Y-Yes. Please… stop.”

“……”

Fortunately, her husband was not a beast. Though his chest heaved roughly, he immediately halted his movements and handed her a blanket.

With her face flushed red as if it might explode, Elicity covered herself with the blanket.

‘Just now… I was about to moan. How could I get so excited during my first time…?’

Not only that, but just moments ago, she had been rubbing against him. She wanted to crawl into a hole and disappear.

But then, her husband spoke.

“Did you… dislike it?”

“……!”

“I was told… this was the way.”

His hesitant tone made Elicity’s grip on the blanket loosen. She had no idea how to respond.

After biting her lip for a long while, she finally reached a conclusion and spoke.

“No, it’s not that, but… Could we just go a little slower?”

“……”

“As you know, this is my first time.”

As soon as she finished speaking, those crimson eyes turned to her again. Eyes she had thought beautiful now felt unbearably heavy.

Then, she recalled the lips that had relentlessly explored her skin, the solid chest pressing over her, the thick scent surrounding her. Her breath grew hot again, and Elicity lowered her gaze.

“…Alright, I will go slow.”

“……”

With that, Elicity, with trembling hands, let the blanket slip away from her body.

Under the dim candlelight, her pale, curvaceous form was revealed, and she heard his breath quicken once more.

Seeing his deepening gaze and reddened eyes, Elicity had a faint premonition of her fate tonight.

As expected, at first, he was careful, just as she had asked. But gradually, he grew more assertive.

“Ugh…”

Wherever his lips touched, pleasure blossomed, and a tight knot formed in her lower abdomen.

Occasionally, when she opened her eyes, she caught glimpses of the man consumed by desire. Each time, the nape of her neck tingled, and her lips trembled.

“H-Honey.”

“Please.”

Elicity found herself pleading in an unsteady voice, not even knowing what she was asking for—only that she wanted him to ease this aching desperation.

She felt as if he was the only one who could lead her out of this overwhelming sensation.

Once again, Elicity felt herself collapsing helplessly.

But just minutes later—

“Ah!!”

Pain.

Dear God.

Her husband was not a savior but a hunter. Without mercy, he had forced that thick, terrifying thing inside her, despite it being her first time.

Of course, he had said he was sorry. He had even kissed her cheeks a few times.

But none of that changed the pain surging from deep within. Tears streamed down her face as she turned her head from side to side.

It wasn’t that she hadn’t felt aroused.

The problem was that Alex was simply too overwhelming for her body to handle, and in his intoxication with pleasure, he had failed to fully consider that this was her first time.

On top of that, he was far too vigorous.

As the sensation of being split in two coursed through her, a friend’s words echoed in her mind.

—Elicity, my first night was incredibly painful. And after that, it was never good. I don’t think being with a man is ever truly enjoyable for a woman.

At that moment, Elicity felt an eerie certainty that her friend’s words were true.

And after that… she could barely remember what happened next.

After that, she vaguely remembered sobbing a little, Alex being startled by her tears, and, overcome with resentment, turning her back to him to face the wall. And then… seeing her like that, he had left the bridal chamber.

***

Elicity stared blankly at the door through which her husband had left for a long time. His lingering scent filled the air, making it hard for her to regain her composure.

But soon, she snapped back to reality as she recalled that Bella was waiting for her. Forcing her heavy legs to move, she stepped out of the room.

With a heavy heart, she made her way to her daughter’s room, where she found Bella already fast asleep.

“I should have given her a goodnight kiss…”

Murmuring quietly, Elicity turned to the nanny beside her.

“Nemilla, did she fall asleep easily? I told Bella I would come before she slept, but I couldn’t make it. She must have waited for me a long time, didn’t she?”

“Well, um…”

The nanny hesitated before answering.

“About two hours ago, just before the young lady fell asleep, the master came to see her.”

“…What?”

“He told her that you were too exhausted to come tonight and comforted her until she fell asleep before he left.”

“Alex did?”

The nanny gave a small nod. Now that she looked closely, her face was pale as if she had seen a ghost.

“My goodness… He must have had so much work to do, yet he still stopped by to see Bella and even came to see me…”

Elicity murmured in disbelief. Though the unexpected gesture pleased her, the memory of earlier events drained her energy once again.

Just then, Bella stirred slightly with a small whimper. Worried she might wake her, Elicity quickly silenced herself.

A deep sigh escaped from the depths of her chest. Elicity was a noblewoman who had long since come of age. It didn’t take her long to understand why her husband had been so rough with her on their first night.

It wasn’t an act of coercion. He hadn’t disregarded her feelings for his own pleasure.

Alex simply had never been taught how to please a woman.

This realization meant that Elicity was his first woman. It was something she should have felt happy about, and yet, at that moment, she hadn’t been able to think that way.

She had grown up under indifferent, neglectful parents and suffered violence from her older brother. The frightening rumors she had heard from others and the night that was to come again… To Elicity, it was not something to understand but rather something to fear.

At least, that was how it had been when she was younger.

Unlike now.

Only now did she feel like she could vaguely recall her husband’s face on their first night.

Back then, when he had hurriedly pulled away from her sobbing form, his face had been even paler than a corpse’s.

Now, Elicity could easily guess what must have been going through Alex’s mind at that moment.

***

“Madam, why not have breakfast with the master today?”

The next morning, as Elicity made her way down to the dining room, she paused.

It had always been an unspoken rule that breakfast was taken separately in one’s own quarters. However, the head servant, believing that the relationship between the master and mistress had changed recently, seemed intent on breaking that tradition.

Elicity fell into thought for a moment. The memories of the previous night weighed heavily on her.

‘…It would be best to clear things up.’

Of course, she couldn’t say something as insane as having returned from the past, but she could offer some excuse about feeling awkward after such a long time apart.

After deliberating, she finally responded with an unaffected expression.

“Well, since my husband has returned after a long absence, it would indeed be impolite to exclude him from breakfast. Even if it’s just for show, I’ll stop by his office before heading to the dining room.”

Upon arriving outside her husband’s office, she found herself in a familiar situation—just like in the study the other day.

The knights and attendants looked at her with wide eyes. Though, perhaps due to the circulating rumors, they didn’t appear as if they had seen a ghost this time.

“L-Lady, I apologize, but the master is not in his office at the moment.”

“Then where is he? As far as I know, he usually stays in his office after returning from the battlefield.”

“He trains in the practice grounds until about nine in the morning before heading to his office. Did you not know?”

“…Oh.”

Elicity’s face instantly grew hot.

She hadn’t known.

Before her return, she had been too busy waking Isabella, feeding her, dressing her, and making her read in the mornings. She never paid any attention to her husband before ten o’clock.

Even if she needed to see him, she only ever went after that, so she had no way of knowing he spent his mornings at the training grounds.

“……”

After a moment of hesitation, Elicity finally spoke.

“You are Sir Damian, correct? Escort me to the training grounds.”

***

The grand ducal estate was as vast as the open sea. Because of that, Elicity found herself regretting her decision to visit the training grounds.

‘That’s right… The training grounds are quite far from my husband’s study.’

She had never set foot in the training grounds since she had no reason to. But apparently, her husband trained there without fail once a day.

‘…I really don’t know much about my husband at all, do I?’

Suppressing the growing guilt in her heart, Elicity continued walking.

She walked in silence for a long while until, at last, she reached the training grounds.

And the moment she spotted a well-built man swinging a sword in the distance, a small gasp escaped her lips.