It had been five days since she had been living in the tent with her husband, separated by a partition.

The season had changed, but they still hadn’t consummated their marriage.

Sometimes showing greed, yet unbearably cold.

Sometimes seeming to draw close, yet keeping his distance.

His ambiguous attitude only increased her confusion with each passing day.

Lucilia took a deep breath to calm her uncomfortably racing heart.

‘I must talk to him today.’

Being cautious was one thing, but if things continued like this, she truly felt she would be abandoned by him.

She moved with trembling steps and grabbed the partition.

“Excuse me…”

“What is it?”

An invisible wall surrounded his polite tone.

It was difficult to speak freely, but she was determined to find out her husband’s true intentions.

“I wanted to talk.”

“It’s not related to the battle, is it?”

“Even so.”

“I need to focus on the battle. If you have something to say, please wait until we return to the estate.”

Lucilia’s face turned bright red at his words, colder than usual.

After showing a gentle attitude for a while, the cold wind was blowing again.

Well, he hadn’t let her close since their marriage.

She should have gotten used to her husband’s coldness by now, but she couldn’t adapt. Suddenly, sorrow enveloped her like a summer downpour.

If he was going to reject her like that, then why earlier…

Was he excited?

His center had certainly appeared that way.

She didn’t want to do anything with him right away; she just wanted to know how to open his heart.

When she opened her eyes again, the conflict had disappeared completely, and a determined light filled her clear eyes.

She didn’t know where such courage came from, but her feet moved on their own.

Lucilia boldly pushed the partition aside.

“I wanted to ask, ask something…”

The strange sight that dominated her vision completely crushed her spirit.

Aaron was drying his wet body with his upper body fully exposed.

Lucilia froze like a taxidermied deer in the middle of a snowy field.

Lost in deep thought, she hadn’t even heard the sound of water.

If she had known he was bathing, she would have waited longer.

It was too late to hide her embarrassment.

Lucilia stood with her eyes wide open, unable to compose her face, which had turned bright red as if melting.

“What is it?”

He seemed quite surprised as well, but perhaps because of that, he reprimanded her in an even more indifferent tone.

Though it was just a short question, it felt like he was scolding her for being so rude.

Lucilia, unable to control the emotions stemming from her accumulated sorrows, confronted him directly.

“Why won’t you spend the night with me?”

It wasn’t an expression one would expect from the lips of a saint who was once a symbol of holiness.

Aaron’s pupils, which had maintained indifference throughout, trembled helplessly.

“I believe I misheard.”

“No, you heard correctly.”

A moment of silence fell.

Neither Lucilia, who had attacked suddenly, nor Aaron, who had been struck by her unexpected boldness, could speak.

The sound of Aaron swallowing broke the silence as his Adam’s apple moved greatly.

She had the illusion that sensual desire lurked in his direct gaze. It was hard to believe he had maintained such an ascetic attitude toward his wife until now.

Lucilia’s body heated up in response. Despite having no experience with men, she was swept up in a strange impulse.

She spoke timidly with a trembling voice:

“Please… embrace me tonight.”

Her voice faded toward the end. Because of this, Aaron frowned.

She wasn’t sure if he was frustrated because he couldn’t hear properly, or if he was dumbfounded because he had heard correctly.

One thing was certain: he didn’t look pleased.

It seemed she had chosen the wrong day.

Just as she was shuddering with belated regret:

Aaron approached without hesitation and grabbed Lucilia’s chin.

The man who had been excessively polite until now had become a completely different person. His gaze, measuring whether to devour his prey or let it go, was truly chilling.

“Are you saying you want to consummate our marriage tonight?”

“…Yes.”

She was so nervous that a piece of her memory was cut off.

She could barely remember how she had conversed with him.

Seducing him, then immediately regretting it…

That’s roughly how it went, she thought.

“Ah!”

Her body staggered backward under the man’s strength.

Soon her waist was grabbed, and in an instant, they crossed the partition and reached her bed.

In the blink of an eye, Lucilia and Aaron’s bodies collapsed onto the bed, overlapping.
The flimsy wooden bed creaked as if it might break.

She was so surprised she could barely breathe, but he spoke calmly as if she didn’t matter:

“When dawn breaks, you might be carried out on a stretcher.”

“A stretcher? Why…?”

“You seem not to know about the coupling of men and women.”

His hand pulled up her skirt.

Aaron intently observed her flinching as if burned, then swiftly pulled down the piece of cloth.

Her eyes, filled with shock, trembled precariously, but he paid no attention. He seemed to have decided to devour her.

Though this was what she wanted, she was too tense to move a finger.

“You clearly said you would endure it all, didn’t you?”

“Yes, yes. But…”

“If you dislike it, say so now. There’s still a chance to take it back.”

“No. I won’t take it back. I’m not a saint anymore.”

“I know. Everyone calls you a witch.”

“So I’m saying I don’t dislike it.”

When she answered like that, if she hadn’t seen wrong, Aaron’s face was clearly filled with determination.

In an instant, hot lips dug into her nape.

“Hnngh!”

Though he didn’t bite, it felt as if her flesh might be torn off.

It was a sensation she had never felt before.

First consumed by a tingling feeling, then sobbing from indescribable pain.

Deep marks were left on the pristine snow where no footsteps had reached before.

She was about to lose her mind from the ruthlessness that ravaged and butchered her. Even amid this, a strange sensation spread through her cells to her limbs.

Lucilia trembled at the pleasure that pierced more intensely than her shaking body.

* * *

His heart began to ache right after penetrating the narrow gap. It was perplexing how such a terrible illness could come on so suddenly.

It was an enormous shock to Aaron, who was born with a body resistant to cold and impervious to ordinary impacts.

Perhaps it was because he had recklessly swung his sword and hunted enemies, abusing his body.

Even so, it was unbelievable that his body would develop a problem overnight.

If he were to die, he should die honorably in battle after wiping out those Mrangel people.

Irritation welled up from the injustice of it all.

Before he could even contemplate why his life had become so complicated, tears flowed down his cheeks.

Now tears too?

Startled, Aaron wiped away the liquid wetting his dry face with his finger.

Though the partition blocked any view, it felt as if Lucilia was watching his unsightly appearance.

His large frame, lying on its side, sank into agony and then heaved with a deep sigh.

Aaron pounded his aching chest with his fist as he felt the warmth of tears flowing again.

The s*xual desire he had suppressed all his life seemed to have gone mad after enjoying freedom.

If not that, perhaps it had become poison because he couldn’t fully release it when Lucilia was sobbing earlier.

Perhaps he shouldn’t have covered her eyes, which had the ability to read minds. She must have cried out of fear.

“Haa… d＊mn it.”

His softly muttered curse seemed to cross the partition, as there was a startled movement from the other side.

Aaron unconsciously closed his mouth to comfort the frightened Lucilia.

What kind of consideration was this? He laughed at his own unconscious behavior.

Crying, then laughing.

All because of that woman…

‘How did we end up entangled like this?’

Lucilia was the daughter of Marquis Teneri, who had raised up Aaron’s fallen family.

If that were all, he might have been somewhat pleased, but she had risen to a position where the distance between them was impossible to erase.

She was a saint.

‘One who heard the voice of God and was chosen by God!’

To desire the body of such a saint?

He wasn’t a beast in human clothing; he swore he had never been captivated by such delusions.

But looking back, it wasn’t completely groundless that they had reached this point.

He couldn’t deny that the restraint he had been tightly holding since becoming husband and wife through an unwanted marriage had gradually loosened.

The noise of that day floated in Aaron’s ears.