Ch.62Monopoly (1)

*

I still can’t help but feel my face burning whenever I recall that night.

Right now it’s just a flush, but the first morning after that day, the air between us was unbearably awkward.

Without a word of a lie, Silvia and I didn’t speak a single word to each other all day.

Forget conversation—whenever our eyes met, we’d both blush and hastily turn away, to the point where we barely even saw each other’s faces.

It wasn’t until the next day that Silvia nervously approached me and whispered in a small voice:

“Was I… not good enough?”

“Pardon?”

“…Since that night… you won’t even look at me… I have a lot of muscles, so I’m not very feminine… I thought maybe…”

Her usual confidence was nowhere to be found. As she asked if she lacked charm with the face of a shy maiden, she was truly dazzlingly beautiful, but that beauty no longer appeared the same to my eyes as before.

In the past, even seeing Silvia naked felt like looking at a well-sculpted statue.

She was beautiful, impressive, and even felt somewhat sacred.

Perhaps that was natural.

After all, hers was the body of a hero who had saved humanity.

But now it was different.

The sensation of my lower half swelling tightly just from seeing her blush shyly, even fully clothed.

Though covered by clothes, her figure now appeared more lustful than sacred, and the sweet scent of her skin that I could smell whenever she came close now aroused excitement rather than comfort.

Ah, Silvia.

Were you always like this? Or am I only now realizing it?

Why are you so overflowing with sensuality?

In the end, that day I grabbed the arm of the fidgeting Silvia and led her to her room.

And I embraced her again.

No, the next day too, and the day after that—we made love every day for five days.

So that just as I could think of no one but her, she would think only of me.

Silvia no longer did that startling action that had surprised me on the first night.

A conflicted expression would briefly cross her face each time I was about to climax, but she always gently let me go.

I suppose since we were mixing our bodies every night, she could feel sufficiently assured that I had become her lover without resorting to such acts.

Naturally, I came to fully understand every corner of her body.

Where to thrust to please her, where to touch to make her happy, where and how to bite and suck if I wanted to see her reactions unfold, and even what words she liked to hear—all of it.

Silvia, too, seemed to have figured out where to lick my member, where to squeeze, and what speed would give me the most pleasure.

Perhaps because we grew accustomed to each other, every day felt new as time passed.

Even if there had been no changes, it would have remained blissful enough to want to experience daily, yet it kept getting better with each passing day.

I could neither grow used to it nor resist it.

Now I would become aroused like a fourteen-year-old boy just by having her beside me.

Floundering mindlessly in that ecstatic pleasure, I suddenly began to realize what I was doing.

And at the same time, I understood that we couldn’t continue like this.

Our physical union, while certainly involving affection, was fundamentally Silvia comforting me with her body after I had committed murder under the curse and was suffering from anxiety and pain.

So why had that terrible murder happened in the first place?

Because I had gone to find my parents’ belongings to properly restore Laila’s grave.

And I had found those belongings at the cost of five human lives.

Lost in carnal desire, I had forgotten that I had something I needed to do.

Despite the unfortunate accident, something I still had to do:

Properly bury those five people who died because of Laila and me, and erect gravestones for them.

However trivial compared to my crime, it was the minimum obligation placed upon me.

And so, after five days of howling like beasts and mixing our bodies every night, our routine ended on the morning of the sixth day at my request.

Silvia readily agreed to my plea that we should restrain ourselves until I finished making the gravestones, as I wanted to properly create graves for Laila and those men.

Honestly, I was worried she might refuse since she seemed as lost in sex as I was, perhaps even more so, but surprisingly, she nodded immediately.

She agreed, saying she would respect the proper courtesy toward the deceased.

Perhaps she respected this because she had experienced something similar to me.

After all, this curse must have left deeper wounds on her than on me.

Seeing my expression grow serious, she carefully approached and whispered in my ear:

“You know… actually, my hips have been hurting so much these past few days because of Ash, and my legs keep trembling…”

She said this with a bright red face, smiling and looking straight at me.

She was so lovable that a tickling impulse surged within my chest.

Even that seemingly innocent smile of hers somehow looked incredibly lustful.

Those lips,

Those lips that had wrapped around and licked mine, curved into a half-moon as she whispered softly:

“Hehe, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to beat Ash at that…”

I grabbed her cheeks and kissed her lips several times.

In the end, we did it again that day.

It wasn’t until the next day that I finally began carving the gravestones.

*

As always, today was a peaceful morning.

The harsh sunlight scattered softly as it hit the leaves, and the gentle breeze blew through, slightly tousling my hair.

The chirping of birds singing their joyful songs sounded so peaceful and beautiful, despite knowing all too well how dangerous this forest was.

For me now, the inner peace brought by this natural tranquility was incredibly precious.

Because it helped me forget my troubled mind.

As I was embracing a large rock in the backyard of the cabin, gradually carving it with a chisel, I suddenly paused and took a slow, deep breath.

Slowly steadying my breath, I inhaled the air filled with dust bathed in sunlight and the subtle scent of grass, then exhaled with a sigh.

“Hah… I can’t concentrate.”

Let me correct myself.

My troubled mind hadn’t disappeared at all.

It had been almost two weeks since I stopped having sex with Silvia.

Before embracing her, I had never thought about women and didn’t have much desire. But now, even just two weeks of abstinence felt unbearably difficult.

I felt like I had become some kind of ascetic.

I shouldn’t have lustful thoughts while carving gravestones for my sister and the people we killed, so I bit my lip and tried to regain my focus, but I couldn’t concentrate.

Could a person change this much just from sleeping with one woman?

No, not just any woman.

It was Silvia.

Honestly, though I hadn’t noticed before due to my lack of interest, there must have been quite a few men who enjoyed lustful fantasies about Silvia.

And for good reason—how could anyone not love someone so strong, with such an impressive appearance, such excellent character, and such a beautiful face?

And she had lain beneath me, moaning in ecstasy for hours, over and over again.

Moreover, she even begged me to give her orders in a small, desperate voice that flowed between sweet breaths.

I could pounce on Silvia right now if I wanted to.

Because Silvia wouldn’t reject me.

Despite being unable to take a single step outside this forest, I somehow felt a surge of pride.

“You crazy bastard, what are you doing?”

I spat out a self-deprecating curse and took another deep breath, trying somehow to calm these impure thoughts.

Perhaps I had become too accustomed to stimulation.

Since entering this forest, I had been exposed to all kinds of intense situations.

The difference between the past twenty years of my life—spent mostly researching magic in my room and occasionally helping the Count with his work—and the tumultuous three months that had recently engulfed me was enormous, enough to make me feel like a completely different person.

I had lost precious people one after another, been cursed terribly and confined myself to this forest, and even killed people.

And… I had also felt passionate emotions toward someone for the first time.

For the first time, I had loved with all my heart, and for the first time, I had shared physical love.

Looking back now, I was very impulsive, somewhat clumsy, and at the same time, quite dependent.

To be more honest:

“I was a bit… too much like a beast.”

I muttered that while stroking the half-carved gravestone.

“Restraint might be the right choice.”

I too had grown up reading romance novels and hearing beautiful love stories passed down through others, and thus longed for a beautiful love built on layers of trust and memories.

Like my parents, a love where you seem to know what the other is thinking just by looking into their eyes.

A relationship built over a long period might lack the violent sweetness of impulsive love that burns like fire, but like a fine liquor that takes time to make, it has a subtle fragrance.

I had vague thoughts of wanting such a love.

But in the end, I couldn’t resist the temptation of that sweet fruit and bit into it fully…

Of course, I have no regrets.

Because the fruit called Silvia was so sweet and made me happy.

I was just a little embarrassed.

‘What should I put in you?’

‘A-Ash’s…’

No, I was very embarrassed.

Even now, when I close my eyes, I can clearly see the shape of her body and the texture of her skin.

Ah, I’m really crazy.

What was I thinking, handling her ‘that way’ when I’m so weak that a light flick from Silvia could split my head in two?

I had never once in my life seen a man treat a woman like that.

Of course, I hadn’t directly seen other people making love, but surely my father or the Count wouldn’t treat their wives that way.

They say you never know what happens in the bedroom until you go up there, and that was certainly true.

This forceful attitude and mischievous teasing that even I had never seen before.

Could this be my instinct?

Or was it that I, who had been like a cornered mouse suffering from a series of misfortunes, unconsciously showed aggression?

It was a question I couldn’t answer even after thinking about it.

One thing was certain, though: even if Silvia and I became husband and wife, we probably wouldn’t be like my father and mother.

Ours would be a love of intense desire rather than subtle affection.

That wasn’t necessarily bad, but I couldn’t help feeling a bit regretful.

As I said earlier, I had secretly longed for that kind of love.

If nothing unusual had happened to me, my marriage partner would probably have been Alice.

I didn’t have intense affection for Alice, but we had spent time together.

Memories of her secretly handing me candy after teasing me, or taking me to the mansion and applying medicine when I fell and scraped my knee while crying.

Alice had that family-like comfort of shared memories built up slowly.

“I hope she’s doing well.”

I hope nothing has happened to the Count’s family or to her.

Even though I’ll probably never see her face again, she’s like family to me, who has lost everyone.

That’s when it happened.

“Who are you talking about?”

I don’t know how long she had been there, but Silvia was standing beside me.

.