Chapter 2 (Part 1)

Boom, boom!

The sky of the rainy season roared, shaking the entire castle. Occasionally, flashes of lightning seeped through the tightly shut window gaps. The room, with not a single breeze entering, was like the eye of a typhoon.

While the windows and the canopy remained still, the woman in the center of the room was thrashing her whole body.

“Ahh… No, no…”

Unable to even think of covering herself with a blanket, Ellenia lay curled up, eyes tightly shut, hands covering her ears.

It would have been better to rub her ears to make any kind of noise, but she was so drained that all she could do was tremble. Whenever her strength waned and the raw sound of thunder reached her eardrums, she would shrink her entire body, almost to the point of cramping.

‘I will beg for divine punishment!’

Tears, snot, and drool streamed from her eyes, nose, and mouth, soaking the blanket. Whenever she was too exhausted to be tense, her arms and legs would go limp, only to stiffen again at the sound that shook the entire atmosphere, and then go limp again… It was all a cycle.

“Please save me, please save me…”

At such times, light would flash through the window shutters as if on cue, and the flickering candle flames in the wall lamps would sway, creating an even more precarious atmosphere.

“…Please.”

What sin have I committed?

The only sound that intermittently came from her lips was a mumbling plea to no one in particular.

‘It must have been hard alone…’

Green eyes, shining as if knowing something.

Those deep eyes, shining under the disheveled golden hair, reminded her of her husband who used to comfort her during such days.

‘It’s alright, dear. I’m here.’

For the past 10 years, or rather her entire life, Ellenia had trembled as if she were about to die on stormy nights like this. The only time she could forget was during the rainy season 10 years ago when she shared a bed with her husband.

Before she could get used to his strong embrace, her husband went off to war, and as she trembled in fear that seemed to crush her soul, she could not even recall the times he comforted her.

So, on nights like this…… to prevent her from feeling anything but him……

‘Ellie. It’s alright, it’s alright. We’re just trying to avoid divine punishment. You’re not a sinful woman…….’

Ellenia felt as if she had returned to the rainy season 10 years ago, back in her husband’s comforting embrace.

Whenever she trembled at the distant flashes of lightning and finally broke down crying at the sound of thunder, her husband would wrap her tightly in a blanket and talk to her incessantly.

The sensation of those times enveloping her entire body was undoubtedly thanks to the two kisses he had placed on her palm today.

“My lord… no, my dear…”

Without lifting her head, Ellenia groped around the bed until she finally grabbed a pillow. She covered her head with it and pressed her ears with her hands, but… the growling sound of the sky still relentlessly pounded her eardrums.

“Ahh… no…”

‘Let’s focus on us, not the gods.’

What her husband used to do at such times.

With her head buried and trembling, her husband would cradle her head and whisper incessantly into her ear, gently embracing her curled-up back with his broad chest. And with his remaining hand, he would reach down to…

Ellenia brought her trembling hand down to herself.

“Ahh…”

Her husband would, that is…

Parting her tightly curled thighs, Ellenia’s fingertips reached her private parts.

Her legs, cramped from prolonged tension, barely loosened, making it difficult to push her hand between her thighs. When her hand finally touched the protruding part at the entrance.

“…Ahh.”

It had been long since she felt any sensation here. The intense pressure made her feel a small burst of heat at her temples.

‘To hear nothing, see nothing, fear nothing.’

That’s what he said.

Ellenia tried to recall the firm hand movements of her husband from long ago.

But her hand, barely reaching near her l*bia, couldn’t move freely due to her tensed body. She couldn’t push her hand further down or move her fingers properly.

‘Dear, relax. It’s alright.’

Her husband’s voice that used to whisper in her ear at such times. Despite trembling for hundreds and thousands of nights, the words from 10 years ago came back vividly as if it were yesterday.

“Hoo…”

Ellenia exhaled slowly with her face buried in the pillow. She barely managed to relax her body a little, lifting her hips and spreading her legs slightly. Even with that shy gap, her slender fingers found room to move.

Her fingers moved towards the split between her legs. She rubbed along the seam, but the dryness there brought a faint pain. Her fingers, moving back and forth along the folds, eventually caught on the most protruding part at the end.

“Ahh…”

Her diligent husband would stroke her below until she could forget all the fears brought by the storm.

Just like today, he would burrow beneath her curled-up body, covering her private parts with his palm as if shielding them from the gods, and move his hand languidly.

Pressing and rolling the skin surrounding her cl*toris, slipping into her hole, then tracing the folds again with his now slick fingers, finally rubbing that small bead as if extracting it.

The rough fingertips of the brave warrior moved with a precision sharper than any sword he held, caressing, soothing, and pressing firmly.

At such times, Ellenia would focus more on the tingling sensation at her curled toes and the burning feeling at her crown than on the flashing anger of the gods seeping through the window shutters.

Ellenia pressed down on her peak with her hand. The sharp sensation was dizzying but couldn’t compare to the flames she remembered.

Her fingers trembled slightly as she tapped it. Alongside the faint pain from the dryness, there was a tingling sensation. But she was still scared.

“Huh, huh…”

With trembling hands, Ellenia moved her hand, brushing her inner l*bia, pressing the deepest crevice, sliding, pressing hard, and exploring in various ways. She wrapped her cl*toris, pinched it, pressed it from below to above, and from above to below.

The sensation she felt was far less than what she had expected and imagined.

But there was surely a rising sensation in the distance, and if she continued like this…

Ellenia continued her clumsy hand movements, thinking of her husband’s patient waiting.

Like the flickering candlelight on the wall, the heat rising from below began to tickle her toes. 

Yes, a little more, a little more… 

If she could grasp that elusive sensation, she could forget for a moment…

Boom, bang!

“Ahh, my dear…”

Once again, the night sky enveloping Tarnu’s castle roared. Startled, she buried her face in the pillow, tears and snot streaming down her face, soaking the pillowcase.

“God, I am not doing this out of lust……”

The tears wouldn’t stop.

Not because she was a lewd woman, not because she inherited her mother’s filthy blood……

Wailing, Ellenia’s sobs echoed through the room, muffled by the pillow. It was easy when her husband was here, but now she was left alone……

Ellenia tried to recall her husband’s face. His pitch-black hair like the night sky, and the eyes beneath that shone like the fresh greenery of May. Whenever those green eyes warmly gazed at her tear-streaked face…

She couldn’t quite remember.

She remembered the prominent jawline of the brave warrior, the sharp nose that faintly pricked her lower abdomen when he explored her below with his mouth and rolled her cl*toris with his tongue…… but his face didn’t come to mind.

After all, it had been years since she longed for him with only a portrait.

Ellenia, oblivious to her awkwardly bare bottom sticking up, buried her face in the pillow and silently shed tears. Just thinking about her husband made it a little easier to forget the thunder that reverberated through the ceiling.

The eyes of her husband looking down at her from this bed.

The green eyes that flickered like flames with a low flashpoint…

That thought briefly turned into a concrete image.

A man with different colored hair who kissed her hand and met her eyes from beyond his eyelashes.

If it really were him, on a night like this, surely…

Knock, knock.

At that moment, there was a knock on the door.