Chapter 51

“What on earth….”

“I told you, it would look unsightly.”

“Who did this… who could have done such a thing….”

His back was covered in old scars. Countless wounds, as if torn and then healed over, crisscrossed his skin. Scar upon scar overlapped, filling his entire back. The scars ran from just below his neck almost down to his hips. In other words, his whole back was covered in scars.

But what shocked Lisbeth even more was something else. Her hand carefully traced over the letters. While the other marks were slashes, these letters… were burns.

Branded in the old script she had learned as a child, it read:

‘Traitor.’

As her hand followed the scar engraved in the center of his back, Dion flinched, clasping his hands together tightly.

Tears rolled down Lisbeth’s cheeks. Her voice came out so distorted it was almost unrecognizable.

“Who did this to you. Who….”

“…It’s all right, it doesn’t hurt anymore.”

“How can you say it doesn’t hurt! There are so many, so many scars… And this burn….”

“Miss.”

Dion lifted his head and met Lisbeth’s eyes. A faint smile hovered on his face. He wiped away the tears soaking Lisbeth’s cheeks and eyes, and placed a gentle kiss on her lips.

“It’s all right now. These are all wounds that have already healed.”

“Don’t tell me, at the temple….”

“I caused a bit of a stir and was excommunicated.”

Dion answered in a voice as if it were nothing, even with a hint of mischief.

“I didn’t want to show you because I thought it would hurt your heart.”

“How could they be so cruel…!”

“It’s all right, it was just a gate I had to pass through to meet you, Miss.”

Lisbeth could not hold back any longer and hugged him tightly. In the end, she broke down and wept aloud.

“Ugh, Dion, I’m sorry… I’m so sorry….”

“Shh, Miss. No, Beth. Don’t cry. What if Diana wakes up.”

“I never thought you’d suffer like this, so much, so much… How could the temple be so cruel….”

“This is merciful, compared to what could have been. It hurt for a moment, but at least I was able to leave the temple with my head held high to come to you.”

The tears would not stop. Was this the price they had to pay, to love each other like ordinary people? Dion tried to calm Lisbeth, gently patting her back as she sobbed.

“But now, we don’t have to be apart anymore. I paid a cheap price for that.”

“It must have… hurt a lot….”

“It wasn’t painless, but having you leave me was far more painful, Miss.”

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry….”

Dion laid Lisbeth, who was sobbing so hard her whole body flushed, down on the bed, and kissed her forehead and the corners of her eyes.

“Don’t be sorry.”

“Dion….”

“I don’t regret it either.”

“All right, I won’t.”

“I love you, Miss.”

Even if his body was left in tatters, he didn’t care, as long as he could be by her side like this… That’s what Dion thought, though he didn’t say it aloud. If he did, Lisbeth, who was only just calming down, would surely start crying again.

Lisbeth swallowed her tears and managed a smile. To Dion, who thought her tear-stained, smiling face was so beautiful, she said,

“I love you too, Dion.”

Their lips met again.

After that, both of them were too busy exploring each other’s bodies, as if they were trying to make up for the more than three years they had lost. Their gestures—tongues entwined, exploring and searching each other’s mouths—were desperate. Even when they parted for breath, their lips soon found each other again. Lisbeth felt her mind grow hazy; still, she couldn’t pull away from his lips.

Even so, with both hands, she couldn’t stop caressing every part of his body. Both of them felt their senses growing sharper and more sensitive. Wherever the other’s hand touched felt like it was burning. Dion, as if to finish what he’d started earlier, lowered himself and took her n*pple in his mouth again. With his other hand, he teased the opposite n*pple, tracing its hollow. Lisbeth shuddered and panted under the relentless attention of his mouth and hands.

“Ah, mm, Dion, ah!”

As his tongue licked her sensitive skin, a thrill of excitement ran down her spine. The tingling in her back made Lisbeth arch her hips again and again.

“A little more, more….”

“Dion…!”

“You’re beautiful, Beth. So beautiful.”

His hands tore away Lisbeth’s undergarments as if ripping them. The curves of her body were exposed in full. Left bare in an instant, Lisbeth let out a sigh-like m*an as Dion buried his lips in her hollow navel. He caressed her bare skin, leaving kisses all over her belly. Peck, peck, peck—on her navel and waist, under her ribs and on her prominent hip bones, the kisses felt ticklish and electrifying. Lisbeth arched her back, gripping the slightly rougher hair on Dion’s head. It was a little longer than before.

Dion slipped his hand under Lisbeth’s hips and gently lifted her. Then, without hesitation, he buried his face between her legs. His hot breath teased her already heated core. Lisbeth herself could feel how wet she was.

“Dion, ah….”

Instead of answering, Dion gently parted her with both hands. Squelch… The sound of her wet flesh being spread open was explicit. Lisbeth’s cheeks flushed with embarrassment.

Haa… Dion’s eyes, staring at the exposed red entrance before him, grew so dark it was impossible to know their depth. He seemed to trace her lower body with his gaze. The way his eyes lingered made it feel as if he was stroking her.

And then Dion licked her, slowly, from the parted entrance upward. Pressing his flat tongue firmly, he swept up, reaching deep inside the open folds. The intense sensation made Lisbeth’s hips jerk. She looked down at Dion’s face, positioned between her thighs. With a satisfied expression, he looked up at Lisbeth and once again licked her from her perineum to her inner lips.

“Ah, ah!”

He grinned and licked his lips with his tongue. The sight was so sensual that Lisbeth’s ears burned. He spread her outer lips wide and, as if honey were smeared inside, licked and sucked with devotion. He tickled with the tip of his tongue and then pressed and rolled upward. Each time her cl*toris caught on his tongue, Lisbeth cried out in pleasure.

“Hng, ah! Ah, ah!”

“Miss, you taste so good.”

A sharp pleasure struck Lisbeth again and again, making her lower belly and groin ache. Her core convulsed lightly. The stimulation, after so long, made her head spin. It was a sensation both unfamiliar and yet not unfamiliar at all.