Innocence, Corruption - CHAPTER 2 - Drenched in Lust Every Night - (Part 4)
CHAPTER 2 – Drenched in Lust Every Night – (Part 4)
His words brought Lillian to a standstill. Although he didn’t physically block her path, the voice of Cedric, the Iron-Blooded Commander who led the Knights, carried enough authority to be intimidating.
She stiffened and turned to find Cedric staring directly at her, his eyebrows arched.
“There’s still something we need to discuss.”
“Ah… yes. Thank you for earlier.”
“Not that.”
Lilian bit her lip out of habit. It seemed Cedric had no intention of easily letting go of the insult he received.
‘He said he’d let it go as if nothing happened.’
In truth, he had already shown her mercy once.
The kiss that night.
If Lillian had reported it to the authorities, she would have been expelled from the monastery.
However, Cedric acted as if that night never happened.
It was his form of mercy.
But for Lillian, deeply trapped in unrequited love, there remained a lingering discomfort. So, the day after getting drunk, she sought him out while still under the influence.
‘It’s because you gave me an opportunity that I resorted to such an unreasonable coercion.’
It was a pathetic excuse. Cedric was clearly the victim. Lillian didn’t want to leave a bad impression on the man she loved.
It was time to put an end to it after 17 years. She would cleanly disappear from his spotless life.
She had already applied for a transfer to Turin and had made up her mind to do so. However…
“Do you have any idea how confused I was?”
A muted sigh settled on her round forehead.
“Why didn’t you come to the capital’s celebration? Was it because of me?”
His voice carried a sense of guilt. Her noble and beautiful knight even had a kind heart.
“No, I’m truly sorry for causing you concern. I’ve been very rude. I shouldn’t have dared to do that to a dear comrade and soon-to-be-ordained Sir Edelgard…….”
‘If I was never going to have you, I wanted to have your child.
I wanted a beautiful baby that looks just like you, and if you’ll let me have it, I’ll spend all my life’s savings to raise it with nothing but love.’
She couldn’t say this. It was a humiliation worse than the offense she committed.
“I was…… blinded by lust. Please forget about it.”
It was a plausible excuse. After all, people would think of her as a crazy woman. Blame it on a temporary loss of sanity.
“Are you truly consumed by lust for me? Coming to me in broad daylight… to the extent of begging…?”
A low, whispering voice.
His voice, penetrating to the depths of her mind, was gentle yet powerful enough to conquer her. His distinctly masculine voice resembled something divine to Lillian.
“Answer me.”
Oh my goodness. Lillian closed her eyes. The spot where his warm breath had passed felt ticklish as if a phoenix feather had brushed against it.
“Say it. Is it truly because of lust?”
Even his rough breath sent shivers down to her toes. Lillian, who had tensed her body, raised her head belatedly.
Cedric’s high nose was dangerously close to touching her cheek.
“Have you been having indecent thoughts about me every night? Did I appear in those fantasies?”
His eyes, as beautiful as the highest grade of jewelry, moved shrewdly as they searched her.
“Did you indulge in lustful thoughts because of me every night?”
“…”
“I’m asking you now.”
At the sudden lowering of his tone, Lillian’s pupils trembled as if in an earthquake.
<Do you acknowledge the sin of defying the church and betraying the Lord? The executioner Cedric Edelgart, representing the esteemed High Priest, is asking you now.>
The stern gaze and tone he used were reminiscent of when he interrogated heretics. The hem of the dress she held trembled.
‘He must think of me as a heretic.’
The church always taught priests to keep their bodies and minds pure. By violating this principle and openly tempting him, she had been branded as a heretic who had sold her soul to the devil.
Their fates were all the same. With a refined weapon-like hand, they would be executed with a broken neck.
“Sir Edelgart, are you here? Priest Raphael has been looking for you.”
Just then, as if to save Lillian, a group of knights appeared from the back of the wide corridor. They had finished their swordsmanship training, and each held a wooden sword.
As the lively chatter reached their ears, Cedric’s grip loosened. Taking advantage of the opportunity, Lilian quickly twisted her shoulder and slipped out of his persistent grasp.
“Oh, Priestess Lilian!”
She, who had been completely obscured from Cedric’s view, belatedly made a few awkward gestures as she became visible. Lilian quickly acknowledged their greetings and hastily left the atrium.
***
“Hah, hah…”
Her heart pounded. Even as she ran out of the hall and into the priests’ carriage, her heart still felt like it was going to burst.
This was a big problem. While the Cathedral was generally indulgent in luxury and pleasure, Cedric was never an exception.
The Duke Edelgard was inherently conservative. Furthermore, his external family, the Verde family, was one of the “Seven Apostles” based on the saints. Cedric was baptized as an infant by the Pope himself, he was different from the start.
‘What have I done to such a faithful man?’
She blackmailed him to have sex with her so she could secretly get pregnant and have the baby…….
If Cedric were to discover this plan, he wouldn’t likely settle for a simple report.
He might go so far as to personally pull out her fingernails in the torture chamber of Priest Johann on the underground floor. Until her demon reveals itself to the world.
Ugh. A shiver ran down her spine involuntarily. Priest Johann’s torture chamber was the scariest tale that mischievous kids in the capital feared the most.
‘I should keep silent until my formal assignment to Turin. I’ll have to stay away from him until then.”’
Sacrificing her life for Cedric was not a regrettable choice.
But being unjustly branded as a heretic and dying was absolutely out of the question. She couldn’t afford to be remembered in his memories as a traitor even in death.