“Would you please tell my father I’ll be waiting in the rest room?”
“Let me escort you there.”
“I’ve already been quite rude enough. I can make it to the rest room on my own.”
“Even so.”
“Please don’t make me feel any more uncomfortable, Marquis.”
The Marquis still looked unconvinced. However, it would also be improper to force his courtesy upon a lady who had already clearly declined.
Though slightly furrowing his brow, Marquis Caul didn’t press further.
“I’ll relay that to the Minister. Please make sure to see a doctor when you return to the mansion.”
Terzia nodded with the brightest smile she could manage.
She watched his retreating figure for a long while until he disappeared into the crowd.
After confirming he was completely hidden among the masses, Terzia glanced around cautiously before pulling back the curtain and slipping onto the terrace.
The warm night air, heavy with spring scents, enveloped her as she emerged onto the spacious terrace. The air, cooler than during the day, drew heat from her body where cold sweat had formed.
Clutching the jacket tightly, Terzia peered through the thick curtains to observe the hall. Confirming that most attention was focused on the returning procession receiving the Emperor’s commendation, she quietly lowered both curtains.
Drawn curtains signaled someone’s presence inside, and it was proper etiquette not to enter without permission.
“Haah.”
Only then could Terzia finally relax her expression and catch her breath.
She repeatedly clenched and unclenched her fists, checking if sensation was returning to her fingertips. As the pressure disguised as tension and pain disappeared, anger suddenly burst forth.
“Rigel Arfair, you bastard…!”
That face, sweetly smiling the moment their eyes met, remained vivid in her mind.
Rigel must have thought she’d forgotten him. That’s why he deliberately revealed his presence so completely to check. Because he knew she was the only human who knew his true nature!
Terzia bit her trembling lips hard. Tears fell helplessly from the terror that had felt like imminent death.
‘Ah, no, my makeup will be ruined.’
She quickly wiped her tears with the jacket sleeve but gave up after just a few attempts. Once started, her tears began flowing beyond control.
Terzia gripped the terrace railing and stood still, letting her tears fall.
Six years of waiting. The resentment at not receiving a single message, yet the inevitable longing. The anticipation of their reunion, and the joy she should have felt. All of it shattered completely.
She knew he would return as casually as he had left, but she never dreamed their first reunion would unfold like this.
‘Why did I waste all this time on such useless worries?’
The sleepless nights after hearing news of his return flashed before her eyes like a kaleidoscope. She must have lost her sense of what Rigel Arfair truly was after being apart for so long.
Terzia tried her best to understand him charitably. Yes, he probably just wanted to check if she had changed. He probably hadn’t intended to cause her pain deliberately.
But even so, even so, did he have to verify it so mercilessly!
“You bastard…”
“Are you talking about me?”
And the source of all this trouble appeared as dangerously and suddenly as he had arrived.
“Eek!”
Terzia let out a startled shriek. An unexpected hand reached out and spun her around.
Like déjà vu, his face filled her vision before she could prepare herself.
That impossibly beautiful face remained unchanged. Those languid, detached long eyes with their subtle double eyelids. The precise facial lines from his neat brow to his chin, as if drawn with the finest brush.
The black hair scattered across his forehead swayed in the gentle breeze that happened to blow by.
Even though he was right before her eyes, she couldn’t believe what she was seeing.
That’s why Terzia had to verify. Like those dreams she often had, was this just an illusion that would vanish in an instant?
Her lips parted.
“…Rigel.”
But Terzia couldn’t continue. He suddenly leaned in and covered her lower lip with his own.
The scent from her memories—Rigel’s fragrance, reminiscent of sun-dried grass—rushed to her nose.
‘Huh?’
Soft, pliant flesh enveloped her lower lip and gave it a firm, deliberate suck.
What… what was this?
Before she could fully grasp what was happening, he pulled away nonchalantly. Terzia blinked in a daze.
Was she hallucinating? Or was this all just a dream?
“Hello.”
Rigel Arfair greeted her warmly.
His shadowed, red eyes showed no trace of concern for her confusion. Instead, he licked his lips with a satisfied smile.
Only then did Terzia understand what had just happened. She had bitten her lip hard back in the banquet hall, drawing blood, and the traces of it still lingered on her lips.
He had sucked it away. That had to be it.
Rigel’s gaze remained fixed on her lips.
Terzia stared up at him, utterly speechless. Rigel, as always, said little.
He casually pushed off the jacket she had been wearing, Marquis Caul’s jacket, and let it fall to the ground. Then, without hesitation, he wrapped his hand around her neck.
Though he didn’t apply pressure, the motion was reminiscent of a predator gripping its prey’s throat.
Her defenseless neck fit lightly into his large hand. A shiver ran down her spine in an instant.
Wait, no. Surely not?
“Rigel! Just a moment…”
Once again, Terzia’s words were cut off. With a single motion, Rigel effortlessly untied the scarf around her neck.
Between her right collarbone and just below her ear, faint twin marks—like an indelible brand—gleamed white under the moonlight.
It was the only trace of him left on her body. And in that moment, she realized, like a lightning strike, what was about to happen.
“Wait, hold on. You can’t possibly mean to…!”
Rigel didn’t seem to be listening.
He leaned in again, but this time, not toward her lips. His destination was her neck. Unlike the light grip earlier, his arms now wrapped tightly around her shoulders and waist, leaving no room for escape.
Seeing his red eyes, now devoid of reason, Terzia instinctively knew resistance was futile.
Her body remembered better than her mind how to endure being consumed by him without pain. Feeling the touch of his disheveled black hair under her chin and the warmth of his breath against her skin, she let her body go limp.
She could feel his lips tracing her skin with deliberate precision. Rigel whispered in a honeyed voice.
“Have you been well, Terzia?”
No, I haven’t. You bastard.
Terzia swallowed her response and closed her eyes, resigned. She hadn’t expected much, but she never imagined that their reunion would begin like this—without so much as a proper conversation, with her being seized so abruptly.
At the very least, an apology would have been nice…
But Rigel seemed unusually pleased. His actions—pressing short, repeated kisses to the scarred area—were filled with a giddy anticipation.
Then he opened his mouth. She felt the cool touch of something sharp—two things no human could ever possess—against her skin.
Terzia’s mind snapped to attention, and she hastily whispered.
“Ah, do it in a way that doesn’t hurt.”
Just like six years ago, the night before Rigel left.
“You’ll come to like this ‘method’ too. There’s no pain.”
And indeed, it hadn’t hurt that night. Her breath had grown hot, and a deep itch in the innermost part of her thighs had been unbearable, but at least there had been no pain.
Rigel had clearly done something to her back then. She didn’t know exactly what or how. There hadn’t been time to ask.
Still, anything was better than pain.
“It’s been so long, I don’t think I can handle it otherwise. So, please…”
“No.”
But Rigel refused her outright.
“Not this time. Later, maybe. But not now.”
Terzia was left dumbfounded. No?
I asked you, and you said no…?
Rigel showed no hesitation. The faint, long-forgotten pain buried in her memories pierced her neck once more.
Terzia’s vision exploded into white.
She couldn’t even scream, not even let out a small whimper.
She couldn’t think of anything. Rigel wouldn’t let her. Like an endless abyss, like a deep, sinking eternity, Rigel Arfair consumed her completely.
And so, on the secluded terrace of the imperial palace under the moonlight, Terzia was once again devoured by her beloved old friend, the one who had left her waiting for six years, the cause of her solitude, and the impossibly beautiful monster in human guise.
She was devoured.
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