Side Story 1. I’ll Try to Endure

The lazy afternoon sunlight flowed in through the window bars.

What time could it be?

Having lost my accurate sense of time, I blinked my eyelids drowsily. How long has it been since I slept in like this? It felt like I had a deep sleep without even dreaming for the first time in a while.

Maybe that’s why.

The reason I’m seeing an unfamiliar ceiling is…

“Gasp!”

What does oversleeping have to do with an unfamiliar ceiling!

This is just because I spent the first night in a new room, right?!

Along with this lightning-like realization, I remembered that starting today, a week-long series of banquets would be held.

Startled, I tried to get up, but the pain shooting through my entire body made me lie back down on the bed.

“Ugh…”

“Sera?”

A pleasant baritone voice came from right next to me. It was Johann. When I turned my head, he was smiling gently with sleepy eyes.

“Did you sleep well?”

“Ah…”

Bare skin.

Johann’s bare chest was exposed below his neck. Only then could I recall what had happened last night.

<Wait, Johann…!>

<Haa, Sera… You really drive me crazy.>

<Ugh, gently…>

Wow.

This is insane.

Is this really happening to me?

Even though I borrowed some courage from alcohol, honestly, I didn’t drink much wine. Rather than being drunk on alcohol, I think I was drunk on Johann. That’s probably why I could do such hot and irrational things last night.

This is not an exaggeration, but you really can get drunk on a person like you’re drunk on alcohol. When I recall my hazy mind, it really was like that.

It was my first experience.

Caught in a strange feeling, I stared blankly at the man lying lazily.

Johann raised an eyebrow.

“What’s that expression?”

“Fox.”

“What?”

“It’s nothing.”

I answered sulkily.

Johann looked at me silently for a moment, then started laughing out loud.

“Haha! Hahaha!”

“What’s so funny?”

“Nothing. Nothing at all.”

But he keeps laughing.

Really. It’s so annoying.

“You’re mistaken, I’m not a fox but a wolf.”

“……?!”

I opened my eyes wide.

Under the blanket, Johann’s large hand wrapped around my waist. Even though we had such a passionate bodily conversation last night, maybe because it was daytime now, it felt very embarrassing.

The area where his hand touched felt hot as if I had been burned.

I felt the heat rising to my face in an instant. I don’t know for sure, but my face must be bright red like a ripe tomato right now.

“Wh-what are you doing?”

“Hmm. Are you still not used to it?”

“How can I get used to it in just one day!”

I shouted “Bah!” I was flustered, embarrassed, and hot. In short, I felt like I was going crazy.

However, unlike me, Johann was completely nonchalant. Rather, he seemed to be going crazy wanting to do more, if I had to say.

My prediction was spot on.

“So soft.”

“Ah, wait.”

Johann, who had closed the distance in an instant, held me tightly in his arms and buried his face in my neck. The completely attached body gave a strange sensation.

How should I put it?

It felt like electric grains were filled from the top of my head to the tips of my toes, emitting electricity. A tingling and ticklish sensation seemed to flow through my blood vessels.

Johann mumbled, taking a deep breath.

“You smell so good.”

“Didn’t you treat me like a smelly person before?”

“Well, you don’t wash sometimes.”

“So you don’t like it?”

Do I want to hear him say he likes me even when I smell?

I’m really something.

After asking such a useless question, I was secretly waiting for his answer with a pounding heart when Johann opened his mouth as if it was obvious.

“No, of course I like it.”

Hehe.

You like me even when I smell bad?

Isn’t that completely true love?

“Because then I can use it as an excuse to wash together.”

“……!”

But you should listen to people’s words until the end.

Was this man originally such a flirty character? I was so flustered that I opened and closed my mouth like a carp.

How, how can a person say such things without any shame…!

I desperately wanted to say something, but in that moment of surprise, I lost the chance to argue. Johann, who had been lying on top of me with our bodies overlapping, started moving his hands.

Right now, my whole body is in a sensitive state.

In other words, even a single touch of his fingertip makes my body twitch uncontrollably.

“Sera…”

His voice calling my name was sweet like honey.

I could feel it in the intimate air. That my slight twitching movements were enormously stimulating him.

Ah, my whole body is screaming…

“Wait.”

I gently pushed Johann away as if to soothe him.

Johann slightly raised the upper part of his body as though he wanted to hear what I was going to say. However, the lower part was still tightly attached, and his fingers were fiddling with a sensitive area.

“It hurts.”

“……”

At those words, Johann stopped stimulating me as if he was playing.

Worry tinged his blue eyes.

“Does it hurt a lot?”

I nodded slightly.

I knew this as a woman too. That the first experience brings pain. But I didn’t know that the pain would continue like this even after sleeping and waking up.

<Ah, it hurts… It hurts so much…>

Last night, after exploring each other’s bodies for a while, I refused Johann when he made his first attempt.

Johann closed his eyes tightly, sweating profusely. His Adam’s apple bobbed up and down several times as if he was trying to endure something.

He kissed my lips softly again and then rubbed his face like he was dying of thirst.

This isn’t right…

In my heart, I was ready to accept Johann, but my body wasn’t cooperating.

I hesitated, then made a solemn decision and cupped Johann’s cheeks with both hands to make him look at me.

<I’ll try to endure.>

<You look like you’re going off to battle. It’s okay. I don’t want to hurt you.>

<It’s a gateway we have to pass through anyway.>

<What? Gateway?>

<Yes, hurry. But you have to do it slowly.>

<……>

Johann looked at me with an inscrutable expression, like he didn’t know whether to be dumbfounded or happy, then slowly started to try again.

That’s how we spent a hot night.

Anyway, I didn’t know that such pain would be waiting for me after sleeping and waking up as an aftereffect.

“More importantly, don’t we have to attend the banquet?”

Although I don’t know where I got the courage last night to successfully spend the first night, now I felt like I couldn’t do it again. If I had to make a comparison, it was like having to exercise at the same intensity the next day after getting unbearable muscle pain from exercising for the first time in 3 years.

I changed the subject to avoid this situation.

Well, it’s true that we need to prepare for the banquet anyway.

Looking out the window, the afternoon sun was shining yellowish. Even though it’s spring with quite long days, the fact that the light is that color means… it was quite late in the afternoon.

“It starts in the early evening, so it’s barely enough time if we start preparing now.”

“You’ve become quite the lady.”

Johann smiled slightly.

He seemed to find it curious and amusing that I had joined the ranks of noble ladies who spend hours getting ready.

Ahem.

I’ve become the Empress, you know.

“So get up now.”

I said again, feeling my shoulders rise. I was just crowned Empress yesterday, and I couldn’t not show my face at the 7-day banquet that would be my first social stage.

I remembered Countess Adria’s advice not to be intimidated. I wanted to perfectly showcase the etiquette I had learned intensively during my training sessions and establish myself well in the ecosystem called high society. That would help Johann too.

But this man wouldn’t budge an inch.

“I said get up?”

“Just a little longer.”

“Hey? This man, really.”

Johann just completely relaxed his whole body. I was trapped under his weight.

“Can’t… breathe…”

He lifted his body slightly. In other words, he supported his weight with his arms just enough for me to breathe.

“Are you really not going?”

“You don’t seem to feel any regret at all.”

I didn’t know at this time.

We did enough, what’s there to regret? I’m dying of pain.

But this only applied to me. Johann said that because I fell asleep, he had to endure even though he could have done more. Apparently, he had a hard time for hours alone because he couldn’t sleep.

Anyway, I pushed Johann away. He retreated with an expression that looked like he was dying of disappointment.

As the blanket was removed, cool air touched my skin. I felt embarrassed for no reason and quickly got up to put on the negligee that was carelessly thrown on the floor.

“Ugh.”

It hurt so much inside my legs when I bent my waist.

Johann looked at me languidly, lying on his side with one hand propping up his chin.

“You can’t walk properly.”

“No, I can walk.”

Although I couldn’t help limping a bit, I could walk without showing it if I paid attention.

Johann stared at me trying hard for a moment, then suddenly got up and lifted me in both arms as I had painfully gotten out of bed.

“Ah!”

“You don’t need to force yourself when you’re in pain.”

“But I had seven dresses fitted.”

Oh no.

My true feelings came out without me realizing?

Actually, I really like dresses and wanted to quickly try on the pretty custom-made dresses that were made. But Johann was firm.

“We’ll go from tomorrow.”

He pulled the blanket over and wrapped me up tightly in an instant.

This…

I just got up with such effort.

It’s too hard to get up again.

“Everyone will be waiting.”

“If they’re perceptive, they won’t wait.”

Johann leaned his head close to me without giving an inch. The sweet kiss made me dizzy.