Rihana lifted her head to look at Raiden and gave him a bright smile. Seeing her force herself to smile made him feel somehow unpleasant. One of Raiden’s eyebrows twitched slightly.

‘It didn’t really seem that way though.’

The words he had been about to speak somehow circled around inside his mouth. Clearly, it hadn’t felt like Casian disliked her. While he had sensed some invisible wall between the two, he hadn’t gotten the impression that Casian disliked Rihana. 

No, it might even be the opposite. The moment Casian saw him, his expression had treated him like a fly buzzing around his woman.

Anyway, both seemed to have feelings for each other but there appeared to be some small misunderstanding between them. But that thought would soon change. At the Imperial party he attended with Rihana, he witnessed Casian entangled in passionate kisses with a stunningly beautiful woman.

The Imperial party was grand, just like always. The banquet hall, noisy with gorgeous dresses, elaborate makeup, and various perfumes all mixed together, stimulated every sense—sight, touch, and hearing.

Casian, living up to his reputation as the Empire’s most handsome man, drew all eyes in the party hall the moment he appeared. Today, having Princess Melissa by his side made it even more so.

The uniform mixing dark navy and gold particularly suited Casian with his ash-colored hair. Princess Melissa, wearing a golden dress with navy accents at the waist and neckline to match him, held another woman’s fiancé’s hand while beaming with a happy smile. 

Meanwhile, members of the Imperial Knight Order had to work while enjoying the festivities, prepared for any potential unpleasant incidents, so they wore uniforms instead of dresses.

That part was already infuriating, but seeing a man with a fiancée and a princess who clearly knew he had a fiancée clinging together like lovers made Letia’s stomach churn completely.

“There’s a limit to being stupid—how could she allow that?”

Having heard from Rihana that Casian had visited her estate to ask about an escort, Letia spent the entire party criticizing her foolishness.

“And why did you hide this handsome guy like this? Since you dressed him in pretty clothes, you should show off his pretty face too.”

Letia pointed at Raiden, who had more than half his face covered with a mask, and questioned Rihana accusingly.

“It’s the rule for non-nobles to wear masks.”

“You know only the captain follows those d*mn rules, right?”

“…”

“Ugh, this foolish…!”

Unable to add the word “b*tch” to her one-year-older sister, friend, and workplace superior, Letia trailed off while Rihana smiled gently watching her.

Actually, while rules were rules, there was another real reason she had covered Raiden’s face. She didn’t want to show Raiden’s face to the numerous noble ladies present here. And she didn’t want him to catch the eye of the Princess, who liked beautiful and handsome things.

Right now the Princess was completely absorbed with her fiancé, but she might quickly change her mind upon seeing Raiden’s face. 

Her twisted emotions about having her fiancé stolen made her regard the Princess as a woman who only cared about faces, but it certainly wasn’t a thought without basis.

“Don’t worry about Rai and just enjoy the party, Letia.”

Worried that Letia might try to remove Raiden’s mask, Rihana sent him behind her back and positioned herself as a shield between Letia and Raiden. Though with Rihana’s height only reaching Raiden’s chest, she couldn’t really serve as much of a shield.

Raiden looked down at Rihana standing in front of him. Her small head, neatly tied in a single knot, bounced here and there. Without realizing it, he reached out to touch her fine black hair, then startled at his own action and quickly lowered his hand. Since he was currently in slave status, he couldn’t carelessly touch his master’s body.

* * *

“Aren’t your legs tired?”

Rihana asked as they went up to the second-floor lounge. She had been standing throughout the party, so she intended to let him rest a bit. While it was equally boring and tedious for her, she thought it must be much more boring for Raiden since he couldn’t drink or dance.

“I’m fine. But… you’re swaying.”

She had only drunk about two glasses of wine that Letia gave her, but she did feel a bit dizzy. She wasn’t particularly weak with alcohol, and she hadn’t drunk on an empty stomach either, so it was strange. It was probably because of her fiancé, who had been standing and smiling alongside the Princess the entire time.

Thud.

“Ah…”

When she nearly fell after missing a step on the stairs, a large hand immediately wrapped around Rihana’s shoulder.

Rihana turned her head to look up at Raiden. Even wearing a black mask, his sculpted features weren’t hidden. Despite being covered, she had seen several young ladies at the party unable to take their eyes off Raiden. It must have been because of his dazzlingly bright blonde hair. She should have made him wear a hat.

Even though he belonged to the Duchess and she was merely protecting him temporarily, she felt possessive. She wished no one else could see Raiden.

So this was a creepily petty possessiveness. Since she had him with her now, she wanted him to be completely hers alone. She shouldn’t have allowed him to be her guard. She should have kept him locked in the bedroom at the estate for only her to see.

It was ironic that she, who had said not to treat slaves like objects, was now treating Raiden like an object herself.

“I’m fine, I just missed my footing a bit.”

Rihana gently shook off Raiden’s hand on her shoulder and started walking again. Raiden kept his hands ready behind her, protecting her in case she missed another step.

“Oh, come to think of it, you haven’t been able to eat anything. Aren’t you hungry?”

“I’m fine.”

After climbing all the stairs to the second floor, Rihana turned to look at Raiden with a bright smile, then looked forward again. The brief glimpse of her face showed cheeks flushed red from the alcohol, contrasting strikingly with her black hair and black eyes.

“I should have taken care of that—I’m sorry. Let’s go to the lounge and ask for some food…”

Suddenly, Rihana stopped walking as she turned the corner. Raiden looked at Rihana, whose face had turned deathly pale as she stared ahead, then raised his head to look where she was looking.

At the entrance to the royal family’s exclusive lounge in the center of the corridor, there was Casian leaning against the entrance wall, unable to enter inside, and the Princess on her tiptoes continuously kissing his lips.

“Hmph, of course. There’s no way you would fancy someone like her who doesn’t have any femininity and is just a brute with strength.”

Whatever was so urgent, she breathed heavily while kissing Casian before even finishing her sentences. Casian lowered his head to help her freely explore his lips. 

His hands had already slipped inside her dress, daring to knead the Princess’s thighs. Their disheveled clothing and her rapid breathing clearly showed how passionately the two were devouring each other.

“Enough about her. Focus on me now, Your Highness.”

Like he was tired of hearing about his fiancée, Casian lifted his head to stop Melissa’s kiss and spoke in a rough voice.

Rihana’s face contorted instantly. She already knew Casian didn’t love her, and she knew that at least half the women in the Empire had been with him, yet her heart shattered anew.

Even though she desperately wanted to leave the scene, her legs felt like they’re glued to the ground.

She hadn’t known that agreeing to escort the Princess meant having this kind of relationship. 

No, she had known but hadn’t seen it directly with her eyes, so it hadn’t really hit her. Her fiancé’s affair, treating her worse than a stranger, was something that made her heart collapse and the sky shatter into pieces.

Rihana gritted her teeth to keep from shedding the tears that blurred her vision. If she cried here and now, she felt like she would fall to a place where she couldn’t be more miserable. But contrary to her feelings, the precariously hanging tears streamed down her cheeks. Rihana closed her eyes, and the tears that had been pooling spilled down, pushed by her eyelids.

Then, a large, warm hand covered her eyes from behind. Rihana immediately realized who the owner of that hand was. Raiden always had that distinctive pleasant, cool winter scent.

“Shall I help you forget, my master?”

A low baritone voice stimulated her ear. Without realizing it, Rihana nodded slightly.

* * *

Hot moans flowed from between Rihana’s lips. Being touched like this on a moving horse was an extremely unfamiliar experience for her. No, since Raiden’s hand was the first to touch her intimate area, she couldn’t say only this experience was unfamiliar.

Behind her, Raiden gripped the horse’s reins with one hand while continuously caressing Rihana’s intimate area with the other. He handled the horse with expert-level skill that made his slave status seem meaningless.

Setting aside his horse-riding skills, she had no idea how he could so skillfully touch the parts that made her body instinctively flinch.

She should have known better than to send the carriage ahead first. When returning from Imperial banquets, she usually needed the cool breeze and would ride back alone on horseback, but this time she had habitually sent the carriage away even though Raiden was accompanying her.

If this act had taken place inside a carriage, wouldn’t it have been less embarrassing? Rihana thought while squeezing her eyes shut.

“A little more.”

Raiden whispered his pleasant baritone into Rihana’s ear. Her entire body trembled like electricity was flowing through it at that voice.

“Lean against me.”

At the s*xy baritone stimulating her ear, Rihana instinctively held her breath and clumsily leaned her back against his broad, firm chest.

When alone with her, he always used “I” instead of the formal “this one,” making her still doubt whether he was really of slave status, but right now she had no leisure to ponder such doubts. His hand, which had been caressing her intimate area over her clothes, suddenly slipped inside her clothing.

“Mmh…”

“You need to relax.”

At Raiden’s coaxing, low-spoken words, Rihana tried to relax her body while tilting her head up. Her head leaned against Raiden’s firm chest.

The hand touching her below provided stimulation so intense it was hard to handle. Pleasure that made her body feel like it wasn’t her own rushed over her like a tidal wave along with excitement, burning her mind white. 

It was a sensation that far exceeded the range of pleasure she had heard about, read about, and could imagine from those experiences. She had learned through swordsmanship that theory and practice differed in many ways, but with such lewd acts, the gap seemed far too large.