The Best Place to Stay
Perhaps because it was the best lodging, or perhaps not.
After the two of them stepped into the bathroom, the tub was already filled with warm water.
Even within the Fortress, only a few spots were available for use.
Michael inserted his hand to check the temperature, then walked to the rattan chair placed in one corner of the spacious bathroom.
Upon it lay Irene, slumped with her heaving breaths still coming in shallow bursts.
While he undressed and filled the tub with water, Michael never left her side.
How many times had he now accidentally brushed against the most sensitive places on her body, leaving her wet down there for the third time already?
From midday onward, Irene had lost all strength in her fingers.
She stared at the approaching Michael with a dazed expression.
Is it really okay for me to do this?
She had always been sensitive to stimulation before, but now it seemed she had turned into a pervert who would become aroused just from being touched.
Of course, it was all thanks to Michael’s touch alone, so there was no harm in that.
Michael knelt on one knee beside the chair and began to strip away the remaining clothes from Irene.
His hands at first had been clumsy when undressing her, but now they moved with the swiftness and skill of someone who had lived his entire life only to remove her clothes and bare her skin.
Once her garments were gone, he quickly shed his own.
His bare body stood exposed before her, rough and unyielding, as if he had no regard for shame whatsoever.
Irene’s gaze drifted toward the scar on his chest.
It was a wound that had never existed in her previous life.
Because he still carried demonic energy within it, he had longed for complete purification in this life.
If that scar hadn’t been there, things would never have turned out like this.
Would he have remained the pure, noble paladin who knew nothing of carnal pleasures, just as in her previous life?
As her thoughts wandered, Michael leaned forward and pressed his forehead against hers.
“You seem to be thinking something quite wicked, Irene.”
“……”
Even then, his senses were sharper than any ghost’s.
When Irene tried to look away and bite her lip, he offered no further questioning.
Instead, he gathered her into his arms and carried her toward the tub.
As their bodies sank into the water, the surface of the large tub rippled and made a soft slapping sound.
“Ha……”
The warm water that reached up to her neck felt wonderful.
Irene naturally leaned her body against his and rested her weight upon him.
It was a habit she often repeated after bathing in the lake inside the dungeon.
Michael scooped up water with his hand and poured it over her shoulders and head.
His long fingers, hardened with calluses, massaged the curve of her neck and shoulders.
Just as she was about to surrender completely to the pleasant sensation that lay between pain and coolness.
“Ah!”
Suddenly, the hand pressing her shoulder tightened with surprising force.
The intense pain that twisted through her knotted muscles made Irene flail her arms in panic, trying to escape his grip.
Of course, it was all in vain.
From the very beginning, his hand had been hunting her.
Irene struggled against the pain that tore through her.
“A, aah! It hurts! Stop!”
The agony in the parts of her body that had grown stiff from work brought tears to her eyes.
It was far more intense than the pain he had eased for her when she suffered from muscle soreness before entering the dungeon.
Just as Irene reached the limit of her endurance and decided she would have to endure whatever it took to break free from his embrace.
Once again, he sensed her thoughts with perfect clarity.
His grip loosened.
Then he kissed the very spot he had tormented.
Slurp.
He licked up the water that had flowed down her body with his tongue.
And in a low voice, he whispered against her ear.
“What were you thinking just a moment ago?”
It was odd that he had asked no further questions and simply let the matter drop.
Perhaps he had intended to pin her down in his arms and continue the interrogation until she confessed.
What should she do?
Should she tell him what she had been thinking?
Or should she keep it to herself?
While Irene was lost in indecision, he lifted her chin with his hand and rubbed his cheek against hers.
Just as a dog might soothe its owner’s mood, Irene also rested her head upon his.
And opened her mouth.
“It’s just… that it felt so strange to be like this with you.”
“To have become like this……”
“The paladin who is purer and more noble than anyone else in the world, yet who has spent the entire day without a shred of shame, entangled with me.”
“I wonder if you wouldn’t have ended up this way if you hadn’t been addicted to demonic energy.”
It was a thought she had been carrying for a long time.
If Michael had not been addicted to demonic energy, he would never have wanted purification in the first place.
That was why the fear that once the scar vanished and his mind was restored, he might still look at her with disgust, always lingered in her mind.
“So you thought that, even though I didn’t particularly enjoy it, you were forced to hold me in your arms because of that scar.”
“……”
“Yes.”
His voice trembled as he confirmed her thoughts once more.
That was indeed the truth.
In her previous life, hadn’t he desperately avoided her gaze?
Hadn’t he trembled and retreated the moment even his hand brushed against her?
In this life too, if the scar had not existed, he would surely have behaved the same way.
“Hmm.”
Upon hearing her answer, he seemed to fall into thought for a moment.
Then he slid his hand downward and slipped between her thighs.
“If demonic energy had disrupted your reason, you would have plunged into this narrow place without a single thought right now.”
“Uhn……”
“You, as a purifier, wouldn’t understand.
Demonic energy only makes one crave carnal pleasure.
In relationships stained by demonic energy, finding genuine pleasure is difficult.
Just thrusting and pounding in this cute place, slapping, thrusting again, and pounding.
Other than that, there is nothing else you can think about.”
The hand that had been probing slightly beneath her retreated.
“So…… you never thought of doing something like this.”
The hand that had emerged from below slowly caressed her flat belly.
Just that touch alone sent a shiver down her spine, and memories of all the pleasures he had given her surfaced.
He tenderly stroked every inch of her body as if handling precious porcelain.
All the while, he pressed kisses to her shoulders and cheeks again and again.
There was a sexual undertone, yet his touch was not meant to satisfy his desire.
Instead of feeding his own hunger, it was simply a hand filled with concern that Irene was feeling good inside him.
As soft caresses continued, his own arousal beneath her slowly rose.
Yet he showed no sign of intending to push it inside her as he once had.
After a moment, he turned her around so she faced him, allowing him to see her panting form.
He lifted his hand and wiped away the droplets of water on her face.
The expression on his face as he looked at her was deeply sorrowful, as though he feared his own true feelings had been misunderstood.
“I’m sorry for making you think that I only wanted your body.
I simply…… believed that was a way to express love.
Of course, I will not deny that I felt the greatest joy of a physical body inside you.”
He exhaled a long breath.
“But if I had known you were suffering from such thoughts, I never would have done anything more……”
It seemed only a faint sadness remained in his face whenever a bitter smile crossed it.
Just as though regretting that he had caused Irene any misunderstanding.
Yet in the end, even as he looked down at the firm erection that had not softened, he muttered under his breath.
“If only it could be cut off, it might feel better somehow.”
At those words, Irene let out a startled cry.
“What are you saying?!”
While saying so, Irene tried to rise from the tub.
But the hand that had been gripping his thigh slipped……
“Kk!”
Her hand seized the already fully erect part of him with surprising force.