TWFLLYM Ch 85

This Is How First Nights Usually Are, Your Highness

His promise to ensure there were no problems with her being a witch or the Crown Prince's lover was genuine. He could make it happen.

[Roserikta] "Anyone looking at this…… would know you gave it to me, Your Highness."

She spoke as she carefully touched the locket around her neck.

He nodded.

[Kalart] "That is what I wanted."

[Roserikta] "I…… I didn't want anything like this. It is too much, and honestly, a witch has no use for human titles……"

[Kalart] "I know. I never thought you would rejoice over something like this. I did this for myself. This way, you won't use the excuse that you lack the status to fit in with me."

[Roserikta] "I wasn't using that as an excuse……"

[Kalart] "You are doing it right now."

He leaned in and pressed his cheek against hers.

As mentioned earlier, his shirt was only half unbuttoned. The slight physical contact felt more intense than ever, and she felt it too.

[Kalart] "If you don't want to share a bed because you dislike me, just say so. If you are only by my side for a specific reason now but plan to leave someday, and therefore have no intention of fully accepting me, tell me. If those are your true feelings, I will accept them somehow. Don't use other things as an excuse."

[Roserikta] "It's not like that."

She was the one taken aback.

What is he saying? He thought I was avoiding him because I plan to leave someday?

I didn't mean that... I just thought... it was the natural thing to do…

Ah, that's what he meant.

He's telling me not to think that way.

He's saying I don't have to leave if I don't want to. That he will make sure of it.

He felt this way since then. He planned to be with me for a long time.

[Roserikta] "You know it's not that I dislike you. It's the exact opposite."

[Kalart] "As I said, I don't know unless you tell me."

He still thinks he's in the weaker position.

He shouldn't. I like him so much that I don't even care about being a witch anymore.

I'm the one who doesn't want to leave.

Why doesn't he know that?

The answer, actually, was simple. She had never told him.

She hesitated slightly before gripping his half-unbuttoned shirt.

[Roserikta] "Are you saying you will believe me if I show you with my body how much I want you?"

He gripped her wrist as if to stop her and ground his teeth.

[Kalart] "I am not that pathetic. I feel anxious thinking I am the only one who wants you. Because that means you could leave me at any moment."

[Roserikta] "You are not the only one who wants this."

Her desperate need to prove him wrong was the undeniable proof of her feelings.

Slip.

Her hand gripped his shirt.

[Kalart] "……"

Instead of stopping her, he simply watched her hand move.

Slip, clatter.

The remaining buttons came undone, and the shirt fell to the floor. She placed her hand on his beautifully sculpted body.

[Roserikta] "Aren't you the one who feels this is a waste, Your Highness?"

[Kalart] "……What is."

His voice had grown low and husky. She moved her hand across him, maintaining eye contact. The body heat against her palm felt scorching.

[Roserikta] "Becoming my partner. You might not know it, Your Highness, but you are…… highly coveted. Many people besides me must want you. It feels like a waste to……"

[Kalart] "Good. Take it all."

He grabbed her wrist and pressed her hand firmly against his chest.

[Kalart] "It is all yours."

The heat from his body felt like it might burn her hand. No, it felt like it might melt her.

It melted all the boundaries Roserikta had carefully built up until now. Those boundaries dissolved into water and turned into affection. That affection flowed toward Kalart and ignited into pure heat.

She closed her eyes. Kalart naturally leaned in and captured her lips. As she received his breathless kisses, she felt her body lift effortlessly.

Holding her in one arm, he walked toward the bed, which was covered in a chaotic spread of flower petals.

[Kalart] "This is for you."

Lying on the petals felt entirely different. As the thin pajamas slipped aside, exposing her skin, he grabbed a handful of petals and sprinkled them over her.

[Kalart] "I have no idea if this looks pretty or not. Things like this don't change how I feel. The Head Maid laid them out for you."

The petals brushing against her skin felt so soft that they created a strange, unfamiliar sensation.

[Roserikta] "Your Highness. It tick……les."

She curled up slightly, not even knowing what the sensation meant.

[Kalart] "Then I will do for you what you did then."

He meant the time her fingers tickled while picking laughter mushrooms. However, he didn't use his fingertips this time.

Graze.

[Roserikta] "Your Highness!"

She let out a soft groan at the sensation of hard teeth scraping her bare skin. It wasn't from pain. The touch of his teeth meant his lips had touched her first.

[Kalart] "Did it hurt?"

[Roserikta] "No, that's not it……"

[Kalart] "Then it is fine."

Slip, glide.

Where his teeth grazed, her precarious collar fell open. The peach-colored pajamas grew messy, and the red of the petals cast vivid, provocative shadows across her.

Watching the scene unfold on the bed, Kalart let out a sharp sigh for reasons only he knew.

[Kalart] "If I am clumsy and cause you pain, hit me anywhere you want. Smack some sense into me."

She let out a small laugh. His extremely practical words contrasted sharply with the surreal stimulation he created.

[Roserikta] "I think I should say the same thing."

[Kalart] "I am not joking."

He took her hand and kissed her fingertips.

[Kalart] "I am serious. I don't want to hurt you. I can't let you think the night spent with me is terrible. So you must tell me."

He looked as resolute as a man biting down on a blade. His intensity made her nervous as well. She swallowed hard and nodded.

[Roserikta] "I will."

He gently drew the fingertips that still carried the trace of his kiss into his mouth.

That was the beginning.

---

As a result, hitting him proved quite useless.

At some point, Kalart acted as if he had lost his mind. He continued kissing her, seemingly unaware that their lips, pressed together for so long, had swollen with a dull ache.

She suspected marks would definitely remain on the back of her neck. Not to mention her earlobes, which he had chewed on softly. And, of course, many other places she couldn't speak of.

If she had to describe Kalart's caresses, she would call them persistent and exploratory. The fact that he knew nothing actually became a weapon.

I don't know, so I’ll learn by doing. That was his approach.

Therefore, his wish that her night with him would remain a happy memory became slightly complicated.

Looking back, she suspected their first night existed in a grey area—somewhere between 'wonderful' and 'so good it became agonizing.'

[Roserikta] "……"

He is too much.

Roserikta narrowed her eyes and watched Kalart's sleeping face. She thought she had fallen asleep first, but the situation had reversed. The fading moonlight at dawn woke her.

His peacefully sleeping face looked beautiful even now. No, it somehow looked even more beautiful. The feeling of him being a flawless, inanimate sculpture was gone, replaced by a dizzying charm that seemed to bewitch people.

[Roserikta] "And you aren't even a witch."

Acting like a witch. I'm the witch.

He shifted in his sleep. The thin sheet, barely covering his shoulder, slipped down.

Roserikta, trapped tightly in his embrace, groaned as she reached out to pull the sheet back up. After covering him and patting his shoulder, she whispered near his ear.

[Roserikta] "Sleep well."

It happened then. The arm that had loosened in sleep pulled her tightly against him again.

[Kalart] "Where are you going?"

She couldn't believe it. He still had his eyes closed.

[Roserikta] "I'm not going anywhere."

[Kalart] "Then why are you moving?"

[Roserikta] "To cover you with the blanket."

She stared at his peacefully closed eyelids and asked.

[Roserikta] "……Are you not asleep?"

[Kalart] "I am sleeping."

[Roserikta] "But you are talking."

[Kalart] "That is because you must not go anywhere."

He buried her deep into his chest. His arms and legs, tangling around her body, formed the most comfortable and cozy prison in the world.

[Kalart] "Don't go."

Where would I go at this hour?

[Roserikta] "……Yes."

He smiled with his eyes closed.

[Kalart] "You promised."

He rubbed his chin against her forehead.

[Kalart] "Sleep well, and I will see you when we wake up tomorrow."

For a greeting said while holding someone so tightly with faces pressed together, it was very strange. And because of that, it was sweet. It sounded like he would miss her even in the moment he fell asleep.

[Roserikta] "……"

Kalart must have been incredibly exhausted, for he fell asleep before hearing her reply.

And the next morning.

He realized he should have heard her answer, no matter what.

[Kalart] "……"

He had expected to see her face the moment he opened his eyes, but the spot next to him was empty.

Roserikta had vanished.

Without anyone knowing, and without leaving a single reason behind.

---

"Chaos" was not the right word.

It was an uproar far greater than that, yet the Imperial Palace remained as silent as a graveyard. Everyone kept their mouths shut tight, afraid even the sound of their breathing might leak out. They kept their eyes wide open, terrified that the sound of their shifting pupils might be heard.

The Crown Prince's lover had vanished.

And on today, of all days.

Today was the day Roserikta was scheduled to be appointed as the Honorary Head of the Royal Guard of the House of Martianan.

The Royal Guard, who had woken at dawn and sweated to prepare for the parade, immediately launched into a search.

Hundreds of maids and servants turned the palace upside down. The Imperial Secretaries, known as the smartest men in the Empire, tore at their hair as they sought answers for Roserikta's disappearance.

The reason no one spoke a word during this crisis was simple: as time passed, the Prince's face turned white and rigid, looking as if it might shatter at any moment. It broke their hearts to see it.

[Eaton] "A report has come in from the 3rd Search Party, Your Highness. They found no trace of Lady Roserikta in the twelve sectors from the north to the northeast of the capital."

[Kalart] "The same as the 1st and 2nd Search Parties."

[Eaton] "Yes, Your Highness."

[Kalart] "The 5th and 6th Search Parties too."

[Eaton] "Yes. That is correct."

[Kalart] "And the 7th and 8th?"

[Eaton] "No reports have arrived yet."

[Kalart] "And the Southern Border Guard?"

[Eaton] "They also have nothing……"

Kalart, who had been standing while leaning on the desk with one hand, straightened his upper body.

And then, Crash!

He flipped the desk over.

[Knights] "Your Highness!"

The startled knights called out to him. His silver hair was a mess, and his eyes were bloodshot. The teeth marks on his lower lip, which he had chewed relentlessly, were vivid. He had deteriorated this much in just half a day.

The Royal Guard rushed in, instantly busy trying to right the desk, pick up the fallen items, and check on the Prince.

[Eaton] "Your Highness, please sit. Right now……"

[Kalart] "Don't mind every single thing I do. You all have other tasks to focus on."

Kalart turned toward the window. His knuckles turned white as he gripped the window frame. They feared he might break it.

[Kalart] "If searching has been useless until now……"

Listening only to his voice, Kalart sounded the same as always. The wrinkle between his brows was so deep it looked painful, yet he spoke calmly. It was unsettling.

[Kalart] "We must assume it is the work of the Black Witch."

Crack.

The window frame finally broke. Unable to withstand his grip, it cracked and tilted to one side.

[Knights] "Your……"

[Knights] "Ah……"

The Royal Guard stamped their feet, not knowing what to do. Kalart spun around.

The knights hesitated, glancing at his hand to see if he was hurt, but Kalart spoke before they could.

[Kalart] "I am going south."

Their reaction was slightly delayed.

[Eaton] "South…… What, Your Highness?"

[Klein] "Do you mean what I think you mean, Your Highness?"

Eaton and Klein jumped up and shouted. Klein looked ready to grab Kalart and beg.

[Klein] "No, wait a moment……. Your Highness. Going south means launching a military campaign!"

[Kalart] "There is no other way."

[Klein] "Your Highness! It hasn't even been a full day yet. A subjugation war…… The Emperor isn't even in the capital! People might misinterpret this as a political move!"

Kalart's composure finally shattered.

[Kalart] "The Black Witch isn't going to wait around considering our political situation!"

His broken composure turned into a roar that struck everyone's ears.

Having screamed, Kalart's chest heaved roughly as he struggled to catch his breath.

He knew deciding to launch a military campaign within half a day was unprecedented.

The Crown Prince of the Empire mobilizing the army wouldn't just cause a stir within the Empire. It was obvious how neighboring small nations would react, and he knew exactly what nonsense the anti-Crown Prince faction would spout.

But none of that could be a reason to wait. A person's life didn't wait on political circumstances. And if that life was Roserikta's, there was absolutely no need to say more.

[Kalart] "Klein. Take my seal to the Chief Justice right now…… No, I will go myself. That will save time. Eaton, prepare."

[Eaton] "Your Highness……"

The Empire was on the brink of war.

Any human could tell how serious the situation was. And not only humans, but a cat could tell too.

[Clobell] "Are you all idiots?"