Chapter 3.1

Violet’s jewel-like eyes appeared from beneath her eyelids. She had been deeply asleep, unable to gather her senses, but suddenly her eyes opened as if startled.

Sunlight streamed through the window. She slowly blinked at the clean scene that brightened the morning.

‘Is it a dream?’

The scenery of the morning was no different from usual. However, the brief illusion quickly faded.

As her mind returned, a dull sensation spread from below. The feel of bare skin against the sheets and a heavy, aching fatigue.

Things different from usual. Yet, despite the subtle memories brushing through her mind seeming false, her body was neat and clean.

Even when she rubbed her legs lightly, the sticky dampness that had felt like wetness was gone.

But Violet bit her lower lip. Her body was indeed clean, yet when she moved her legs slightly, a subtle sensation spread through her nerves, as if something might flow out from inside.

The proof that the night that seemed like a dream wasn’t a dream remained inside her body.

Then why is my body clean? As if someone had cleaned it for me.

When her thoughts reached there, her face flushed instantly. Unwanted imaginations surged, and simultaneously, the warmth behind her wrapped around her vividly.

“Ah……”

She reflexively leaned forward, but it was in vain. Unnoticed, thick arms that had been encircling her since she awoke tightened around her waist, preventing movement.

Her back clung closely to a solid chest, and something firm and er*ect pressed between her soft b*ttocks.

As the thick, hot thing subtly pressed down on her skin, her mind became completely clear.

The memory from last night, which could be believed as a dream, that continued even to today.

“……”

Violet swallowed hard and slowly raised her head.

Since when had he been watching? 

She met eyes with the owner of the warmth who had been looking down at her, his arm supporting his head.

“Have you awakened?”

The man Violet knew.

The man who had uttered raw, lustful words all night was nowhere to be found, greeting her with the polite tone she was accustomed to hearing.

Dein was calm, as if he had always woken up in the same bed with her.

His rough hand, supporting his head, brushed aside the hair stuck to Violet’s face with an unexpectedly delicate touch.

“Are you usually a sleepyhead? Or was last night too intense for you?”

No, he was indeed different. He wasn’t the same as last night, but he wasn’t the Dein Violet knew either.

Seeing playful teasing emerge from the mouth that usually offered short greetings derived from formal speech and courtesy.

“Why…… that, how……”

Knock. Knock.

Violet, who was about to open her mouth, was startled by the knock and sat up. Forgetting she was n*ked, she looked at the firmly closed door beyond the large man.

“Princess, have you awakened? I’ve prepared a simple breakfast and washing water. We’d also like to prepare a bath if allowed. May we enter?”

Her face turned pale. The stormy time had continued since last night.

Violet looked back and forth between Dein and the door where the voice came from.

Unlike her, who didn’t know what to do, Dein looked up at Violet with indifference. He seemed to be watching her closely, waiting for her answer.

Realizing he couldn’t offer any solution, Violet opened her trembling lips with a tearful face.

First, it was necessary to dismiss the people outside. Everything else would follow.

“Just a little later today……”

“Come in.”

The thin voice was covered by the low, cracked voice of the man. Silence flowed from outside, as if they were about to reply again.

“What are you……”

Violet looked down at Dein, unable to hide her confusion.

However, a strange answer came from the man who frowned unpleasantly.

“Attending the bath means they see and touch your n*ked body every day.”

“What does that…… what’s important now!”

Violet spoke with a face almost in tears. She wanted to shout loudly, but she could only whisper angrily due to the presence outside.

“Um…… Princess?”

They called her again from outside. They seemed to be confirming the sound they heard, as if it couldn’t be true.

“Ah!”

Unable to do anything, Dein pulled Violet towards him in an instant.

Sitting against the bedside, he trapped her in his arms and pulled the blanket up to her neck. Soon, he wrapped his arms around her tightly, making her lean close to him.

“I said come in.”

The man raised his voice again. A loud and clear tone. As the voice that was clearly not the owner of the room was heard, a sense of commotion was felt from outside.

“……Yes.”

But soon, with a trembling reply, the sound of the door creaking open was heard. It was accompanied by a slow sound due to the maids hesitating as they pushed it, unlike usual.

The faces of the Imperial maids, who entered pretending to be calm, turned red.

The noble lady, blushing and at a loss, trapped in the man’s arms, and the man holding her calmly.

Pieces of cloth torn like rags on the floor and sheets thrown about randomly. Even the stained marks seen here and there on the crumpled sheets.

Undeniable evidence of blatant lovemaking was everywhere.

“How long are you going to stand there and stare?”

A slightly irritated tone broke the silence. Dein gestured to the tray-bearing maid towards the side table.

“Put it there and leave. We don’t need a bath prepared, so don’t come until called.”

The maids were bewildered by the commanding tone as if he were ordering his own people.

They naturally recognized who he was. There was no one in the Empire who wouldn’t know him.

Dein Bates was someone who could command the Imperial maids.

But this was the Princess’s bedroom, and the one they served was Violet.

The head maid gathered her courage and spoke first.

“But if you are to attend the banquet, preparations should start now……”

A breathy laugh escaped Dein’s lips. He pulled Violet, who couldn’t say anything with her head down, closer into his arms and lifted her face with a hand on her chin.

“Mm!”

Their lips met immediately. Violet had no time to be surprised. Her mouth opened naturally at the familiar kiss she had grown accustomed to overnight.

The man’s tongue rubbed, licked, and poked inside her mouth. The sticky stimulation, like thrusting below, made her mind hazy.

The intense kiss stopped only after the overflowing saliva wetted her lips and formed a thin silver thread.

“Hah, hah……”

Looking down at Violet, who was catching her breath with a dazed face, Dein gently stroked her lips with his thumb.

“Princess Violet is not feeling well and will find it difficult to attend the banquet from today. Inform them that I, too, will be absent to care for the Princess.”

As the saliva slickly smeared, his fingers went straight to the man’s mouth. With a sticky sound, he sucked in her trace and slowly turned his gaze to the maids.

“I’m a bit tired from nursing her all night as well.”

Silence flowed in the room. A few young maids blushed and bowed their heads deeply.

“If you understand, leave. Convey exactly what you’ve heard and seen.”

Lowering his gaze to Violet, Dein waved his hand towards the maids, giving another order to dismiss them.

There was nothing more to say. The maids placed the tray on the side table and fled the room.

Left alone in the wide room again, Violet, who barely regained her senses, looked at Dein with a worried face.

“They might gossip about what happened when they leave.”

“They’ll talk about what they saw. Everyone will find out, and of course, they’ll report first to His Majesty and the Crown Princess.”

Violet was shocked by the indifferent reply. She seemed to be the only one bewildered by this absurd situation.

“You act as if something serious happened, but we’re engaged to be married anyway. Heating the bedroom early isn’t a big deal.”

Dein spoke sarcastically, slightly pulling down the blanket she was wrapped in. His lips pressing against her shoulder were a bit forceful as he held her small movements in check.

“If you hate being entangled with a man like me even in this situation, well, there’s no choice. For the sake of your honor, the only answer left is marriage.”

Violet couldn’t say anything. She had tried to accept him beside Olivia, but it seemed he wanted her instead.

It was confusing. It felt like self-deprecation because there was no reason or value for it.

At that moment, the blatant intimacy from yesterday flashed through her mind.

‘The you I imagined was always soaked and begging me for more.’

‘You were waiting for me to touch and thrust into you, spewing obscene and vulgar words from your cute lips.’

Yes. That’s what he said. In Dein’s mind, Violet had always been like that.

Violet’s face turned red in an instant. Embarrassment and shame. She felt a slight sense of self-deprecation, wondering if she appeared easy to the person she liked.

With tears brimming in her eyes, she bit her lower lip slightly and trembled.