But all he had to do was close his fingers, and I’d go bye-bye in a flash.
But why? I stared at him, and he tipped his head slightly to one side with a bitter smile.
His beautiful face regarded me as it might a naughty child, and a shiver ran through my body. And every time I shivered, the rough surface of his fingers grazed my skin and sent fear tremoring through me all over again.
“Ah…”
“Say my name, Cece. You can do it, can’t you?” he entreated me sweetly, this demon in human skin. There was no way out but for me to respond.
“L-Lord…Lucas…er…Lukie…”
My tongue was so stiff I couldn’t move it properly, so my voice sounded like a child’s. But as soon as I managed to say his nickname, Lucas gave me a devilish grin.
I made the right decision! I’m so glad I called him Lord Lukie. I saved my own life!
Choking back tears, I struck a victory pose in my mind, like a baseball player the moment he won the high school championship. That’s how moved I was!
My lifeline was frayed but firmly in my grasp. Or so I thought until I realized I’d overlooked one crucial matter—that the Cline family was on the verge of being wiped out.
“Heh heh. Oh my beautiful, adorable Cece. So beautiful, and yet the prince never made a move?”
Eek, there was more! I wasn’t holding onto the lifeline at all!
At this point I would have to answer, so I rallied fragile, fragmented thoughts in spite of the fear that gripped me. But that fear still had a grip on my tongue, so I stumbled over my words.
“Hey, Cece? Was our kiss really your first?”
“Mm, nn… Y-yesh, Lord…Lukie…”
“I see. And is this the first time anyone’s teased your earlobe?”
“Eek! Y-yes, it…is…”
Excuse me, but could you please stop asking me about every single thing you do to me? I’m so embarrassed I could explode!
“Well…did the prince ever touch your breasts?”
“Wha—?! A-absolutely not!”
Oh no, I was so aghast that he asked a lady that question that I talked back! Well…I may be a prostitute now, but I kind of just became one! And since I’m still a virgin, surely I can still reasonably call myself a lady.
In noble society, such lewd conduct was absolutely prohibited. And for unmarried ladies, it would be an utter scandal. Even if the man in question was your fiancé, you could expect cruel whispers and upturned noses. That was why generally, once two families had agreed to an engagement, they would marry off the betrothed as quickly as possible. For all those reasons, the prince had been very careful about not touching me; after all, he was in no hurry to end his days of fooling around.
Now, if the man in question was someone other than your betrothed, your engagement would immediately be broken off, and you’d either be forced to return to your domain or sent off to some far-flung nunnery—and those weren’t much different from prisons, really.
I would’ve been in dire straits had the heroine pulled that move on me. Such indiscretions would’ve been a huge scandal for the royal family too, however, so I’d always been tightly guarded to ensure nothing like that occurred.
I digress, but that was why it was so shocking that he would pose such an audacious question to a woman who’d been positioned as the next princess consort.
“Aw, don’t be angry with me, Cece. I just wanted to be sure no one had ever touched you before.”
“I’m not swearing anything to you, but y-you’re the first person who’s ever kissed me, or touched me…and you’ll be the first person to do everything beyond that too! I promise!”
Just saying that was mortifying, and tears of frustration welled up behind my eyes.
…Huh? I was glaring at him, so why did he have a huge grin on his face?
His eyes gleamed with a sparkle I’d never seen before. I didn’t even know he was capable of making such a face. His skin was slightly flushed too… D-damn, that’s kind of sexy…
“Ahh, Cece…” he crooned.
Wait, why is this guy so sexy?! “Y-you get it, then?”
“Yes. Thank you for making that oath, Cecilia.” He kissed the bite marks around my left ring finger again. He was fast. Literally. I hadn’t even noticed him taking my hand in his. Wait, I accidentally swore to him! I’ve made a terrible mistake…
Well, I suppose it wasn’t a problem since the prince really hadn’t made any advances on me. Although when I thought about how many people were in my family and how I was holding their lives in my hands… Well, that didn’t make me feel great about swearing at all, regardless of if we’d actually done anything or not.
“But I need to confirm one more thing.”
There’s more?!
“Did Lord Thomas Mueller of the prime minister’s family give you this dress?”
“Huh? Yes… Why do you…?”
I heard a sudden ripping sound and then felt the instant chill of the air on my back. It all happened so fast I couldn’t even finish my sentence.
“Wha…?!”
I stood there, transfixed by the line traced by Lucas’s arm to the gleaming knife he held to my back. My heartbeat thundered in my eardrums.
The knife moved slowly toward my chest, and even as its tip dug into the fabric, still I could do nothing but watch. There was another brief ripping noise, then a line slit soundlessly through my dress from the bust all the way to the hem at my feet.
The knife I’d been staring at vanished with a whoosh, and then its owner slowly turned his gaze upon me. His face reminded me of the beautiful goddess statues we had in church, with a smile just as beautiful. But his pupils were still wide open, and despite the curve of his mouth, his eyes were not smiling. Even though just moments ago his golden eyes had been filled with happiness, there was no longer a hint of light in them. They just stared at me, thick and unwavering.
Ahh, I can’t stop shaking. My legs were frozen, my throat constricted, and I struggled to breathe. I didn’t know what I’d done wrong, so I didn’t know how to get him to have mercy on me.
We stared at each other, unblinking, until at last—“Take it off,” he said. “I’ll get you another dress to replace it, so take that one off right now.”
“Uh, okay.”
I nodded again and again like a broken puppet. I forgot my shame, embarrassment, and everything else as I tugged at the slit of my dress, which only hung on by my arms.
Was it normal for a knight to just slash a dress open with his knife if he wanted you to take it off? If the Knight of the Blue Rose sent me a dress here, would it inspire such envy someone would send an assassin to kill me? I probably would have collapsed on the spot if my mind hadn’t been occupied with those ridiculous thoughts.
Once I finished frantically disrobing, Lucas violently yanked the dress out of my hands, produced the knife again out of thin air, and used it to pin the dress to the wall. I saw all this out of the corner of my eye, and trembled even more as the silver edge pierced the dress that had just moments ago been on me.
What…is going on? I don’t understand! He already ripped the dress apart, why pin it to the wall? Wait, he’s still holding a knife. Just how many knives does he have?! You don’t need to use a knife for any of this, do you? And he stabbed it so deeply! Half the blade is stuck in the wall. Does he have some kind of grudge against that dress?!
My brain was so overloaded that I couldn’t even direct my stream of consciousness—but could you blame me?
I shrank back from Lucas cautiously, so intent on following his movements and those of the knife in his hand that I forgot I was completely naked. Terrified and cold, I wrapped my arms around my shivering body in a feeble attempt at protection.
“You’re naked… Where are your undergarments…?” Lucas’s cheeks reddened slightly, his gaze faltering for a bewildered moment.
Oh, so now the demon becomes a human again!
Catching a glimpse of his humanity eased my fear a tiny bit, but I wanted to keep him in this position, so I found myself blurting out the answer. I told him I hadn’t been given undergarments, either because this was a brothel or because Thomas Mueller, the sadistic bastard who brought me here, wanted to harass me even further.
“So that,” I said, “is why I look…like this. Huh? Wait…I’m naked!”
Only as I explained it to him did I realize…that I was stark naked.
Not even in my past life had anyone seen me completely naked!
And yet here I was, naked as the day I was born, standing in front of a man and enthusiastically explaining why I was buck naked. It was absolutely unthinkable behavior for a young lady like myself. Waves of shame and fear washed over me, and as my body flushed bright red, I scrambled to cover my breasts and private parts with my hands. I tried, but then I remembered the gleaming knife. I was afraid if I hid myself the demon might make a reappearance, so I unconsciously looked up at Lucas…only to explode in embarrassment.
His golden eyes stared intently at my naked body. As usual, his pupils were dilated, but his rapt gaze was filled with an undeniable, unabashed desire that seemed to scorch my skin.
“White…soft…sparse…the same color as your hair.”
“Wha—?! Don’t say that out lo—waah!”
His hand traveled from my collarbone to my breasts, then glided down along my hips until it reached a very sensitive spot. His fingers traced the curve of me and then fondled the pubic hair that peeked out from beneath my hand, which desperately tried to hide it.
Whether he intended it or not, his words only made me feel more embarrassed and heat rushed to my face.
“Oh, Cece… Cecilia…you’re so beautiful, I simply can’t believe it…”
The excitement in his husky voice was obvious, but this was no time for that.
“L-L-Lord Lukie?!”
I’d like you all to praise me for not letting out a scream.
Because suddenly, Lucas knelt in front of me, firmly grabbed me by the hips, and pressed that beautiful face of his against the hand I was using to cover that most intimate spot…and then kissed it.
Locked right onto the bite marks around my ring finger, of course.
He must really love tooth-mark rings! But again, I didn’t have time to think about such things. He was furiously, relentlessly planting kisses on me, his head constantly changing angles. And since his target was my most private area, I was so embarrassed that I suddenly broke out into a sweat.
“L-Lord Lukie…”
I frantically called his name, and he exhaled a hot breath onto my pubic hair, then flicked his golden gaze upward at me.