“Arsen, you don’t need to go around catching rabbits anymore. If you want to see rabbits, you can just come here.”

Finding Arsen’s excitement amusing, Lydia giggled and hit his forearm. Arsen let out a laugh of disbelief.

“You shouldn’t just be looking at rabbits; you two should hurry up and have little ones of your own.”

“Priest, you sound like some stuffy old grandfather.”

“Can’t you understand this desire to become a grandfather, Your Highness?”

Byron and Lydia exchanged playful jokes as they began to tour the expanded temple. Sensing the two had much to talk about, Arsen sent everyone back except for minimal personnel.

“This is the priest’s quarters.”

“It’s cozy.”

Unlike before, when the quarters were just a room with a door and a straw bed, the quarters had changed into a fairly comfortable space. There was a window and, though small, a fireplace, which wasn’t bad.

“Priest, we need you to come look at something right away.”

“Go ahead, we’ll rest here for a while.”

In the middle of explaining the quarters, a servant working under Wellington urgently sought Byron. After sending Byron off, Lydia plopped down on the bed in the quarters and patted her thighs.

“Are your legs hurting?”

“I’m a bit tired after walking for the first time in a while.”

“Stretch them out this way.”

Arsen grabbed both of Lydia’s ankles and lifted them onto his thighs.

“Being here like this reminds me of back then, doesn’t it, Arsen?”

“When you were a saintess candidate?”

Though it paled in comparison to the priestess quarters at the Central Temple, the fact that it was quarters within a temple and the solemn atmosphere were similar.

“I’d rather not recall it.”

It was the worst period for Arsen. Honestly, it was a bolt from the blue. Coming to look at a venue for their wedding, only to have her unexpectedly become a saintess.

“Really? Actually, I think about that time occasionally.”

Lydia’s voice, questioning with surprise, carried a faint trace of nostalgia.

“I didn’t expect you to want to revisit a moment when we could have been separated forever, Lydia.”

He felt a surge of emotion. Had he been the only one anxious? Did Lydia not care if they had parted ways back then?

“No, no, that’s not what I meant.”

At that time, Lydia had also felt stifled and desperate at the thought of never being able to embrace Arsen again. But with the passage of time, negative emotions were beautified, and good memories surfaced freshly.

For instance,

“We committed sacrilege every night, didn’t we?”

The bad things they did in the temple.

The possibility of being separated from Arsen forever was a truly desperate situation. How her heart had boiled when she sent him away, not knowing if she would see him the next day.

Honestly, she wanted to elope with Arsen without thinking about the consequences. She definitely felt that way then, but with time, as if the memories had been beautified, they changed from being purely painful to something else.

How to put it—there was a certain thrill to their secret meetings.

As darkness fell, Lydia would stand by the window, anxiously waiting for Arsen. When he arrived safely without being caught and climbed through the window, an unparalleled joy would bloom. Honestly, she had never been as happy to see Arsen as she was then.

With the fireplace lit, lying on the tiny bed that could barely fit one person, embracing Arsen, her heart would pound. If there was even a small sound outside the door, her lower abdomen would tighten with a jolt.

The firmly closed door seemed as if it might open at any moment, and it felt like the Goddess might look down and punish them. Yet, she couldn’t stop sharing warmth with Arsen.

Lydia realized then how thrilling it was to do something forbidden. She was even addicted to it, one might say.

She hadn’t told Arsen for fear of hurting his feelings, but she hadn’t felt the same thrill after that time in the temple. It absolutely wasn’t that her love had cooled. It was just the situation, the situation.

But now, with a similar situation arising, her heart suddenly began to pound.

She was quite the pervert. But wouldn’t it be okay to give a small gift to her husband who had gone around trying to catch a rabbit for her?

“We committed sacrilege every night, didn’t we?”

“Sacrilege……”

Without needing further explanation, Arsen understood perfectly what she meant. They had indeed done many things that would anger the Goddess. And now it seemed they were about to do it again.

Well, he could make many donations in the future.

Arsen offered a brief prayer inwardly and started lighting the fireplace.

“Why are you lighting a fire? Are you cold?”

Lydia tilted her head curiously, watching Arsen throw dry firewood into the fireplace.

“Won’t we be cold once we’re n*ked? Both of us.”

“N*ked? What are you talking about?”

Lydia tried to stop Arsen, who looked ready to throw in all the available firewood, and lightly hit his chest.

“I didn’t plan on getting n*ked.”

When Arsen looked at her protestingly, as if to say “you seduced me first and now you’re backing out?”, Lydia playfully shrugged her shoulders.

She lifted her chin slightly as if to say she was a proper lady who knew nothing of such things, looking impossibly prim.

Always so cute and adorable, taking it all for herself. Arsen wrapped his arm around Lydia’s waist and lightly kissed her chin.

“Ah, would you prefer to keep our clothes on today?”

Arsen’s lips moved from her dainty chin to her white nape.

“My wife certainly could never have been a saintess.”

He pulled Lydia’s waist close and whispered, burying his face in her neck.

“With such lewd thoughts inside you.”

“Lewd? I’m less lewd than you who’s thinking about getting n*ked here—mmm, that tickles, Arsen.”

When he blew a soft breath on her tender skin, Lydia hunched her shoulders and burst into small laughter. Her clear laughter tickled his ears.

It would be nice just to hold her like this, but… doing other things would be even better.

“Lydia, I would normally agree with you, but since this is a temple, I cannot tell lies.”

“Are you saying I’m more perverted than you?”

“Yes. Normal people don’t enter a temple and think about seducing their husbands. They usually pray.”

While condemning Lydia as an unparalleled pervert, his hand had already slipped under her skirt, caressing her smooth calf.

“But here you are, thinking about doing such things in a temple.”

“What nonsense! How dare you condemn your wife as a pervert, Arsen, you’re no gentleman.”

Despite grumbling, Lydia slightly straightened her knees to allow Arsen to move more comfortably. Arsen cupped her buttocks and lifted her onto the bed.

“Since I’m not a gentleman, do you hate it?”

Lydia, now naturally sitting on his thighs facing him, seemed embarrassed and avoided his gaze. Though they had been in this position countless times, Lydia always felt shy.

“I like you even if you’re a pervert.”

As he whispered while caressing Lydia’s flushed cheeks, she sharply turned her head and bit his finger hard. She seemed upset at being teased as a pervert.

Her red lips biting his finger were unbearably *rotic and cute, but Arsen decided to keep that thought to himself, fearing Lydia might really get angry.

“Alright, let’s say I’m the bigger pervert.”

When Arsen nodded in surrender, the pressure of Lydia’s teeth on his finger lessened. Instead of pulling his finger away, Arsen subtly scratched her tongue with his fingertip.

Mmm, as Lydia twisted her tongue away, his finger, moist with saliva, pressed gently against her lower lip as it withdrew. Arsen’s lips immediately replaced his finger.

Between the crackling sounds of dry firewood catching fire, Lydia’s faint gasps mixed in.

When Lydia pushed Arsen’s shoulder away, short of breath, he seemed to yield momentarily before entering her.

“Ah…!”

Arsen covered her lips with his own, stifling the m*an that escaped.

Had someone outside heard? Lydia’s heart pounded. Given the location, Arsen moved more slowly than usual.

The footsteps outside the door and Arsen’s movements. Before she could focus on either, the heat rising from her core quickly consumed Lydia.

A momentary electrifying thrill ran down her spine as Arsen’s movements became more intense, unable to contain his excitement.

While continuously stroking her rigid back, Arsen didn’t stop moving. Their breathing grew ragged. Lydia was already clinging to his neck, silently sobbing.

Despite the uncomfortable position and being unable to move freely or make noise, Lydia’s excitement was palpable.

He felt the same. The sense of fulfillment filling him from deep inside was astounding.

He thought the Goddess might curse them immediately if she saw this. Yet even with that thought, he couldn’t stop. No, it made him even more heated.

Arsen buried his face in Lydia’s neck, which exuded a sweet, *rotic scent. This must be what people mean when they say they could die happily.

The small room in the temple was filled with passion-induced heat blossoms.

* * *

“In the west wing, there’s a school where children study. Children with nowhere to go also receive room and board at the temple.”

Byron lowered his hand pointing west and now pointed east.

“In the east wing, we’ve set up a medical clinic. Patients who need to be monitored for a few days also receive room and board at the temple.”

Byron’s voice gradually rose as he explained that there were also more people coming to pray than before.

“And yet here…!”

Byron barely stopped himself just before losing his temper.

Before such a Byron stood Lydia and Arsen, both hanging their heads as if deeply ashamed.

In a moment of temptation, they had done what shouldn’t be done, and were caught, leaving them speechless even with ten mouths.