The sound of dripping water echoed particularly loudly inside the silent bathroom. Looking at the adorable woman before him, Roel’s golden pupils dilated as his mind stalled to a halt.
Lilian was born with a cold and lofty disposition. She rarely showed any intense emotions regardless of the situation. It was only during rare occasions, such as when they had close physical contact or exchanged words of affection, that she would reveal an embarrassed face to him, and it had never failed to enchant him.
But that trembling body, those reddened ears, and those eyes that were glimmering in embarrassment; this was a reaction that he had never seen before. These clues made some things apparent even if they weren’t said aloud.
The time of their disappearance, the sweet but intense sensations he had experienced in his dreams, his waking up inside of a bathtub, and that shy expression on her face; even the most dull-witted person would have been able to connect the dots!
Roel felt his heartbeat swiftly hasten whereas Lilian’s body trembled more and more. There were several seconds of awkward silence before Lilian frantically turned around.
“I-I’ll go change my clothes!”
She anxiously ran out of the bathroom, and the door automatically closed behind her.
Roel dazedly stared at the closed doors for a long while before he began blushing furiously. Heat gushed from his body into his brain, and he could almost hear how intensely his heart was thumping. Within the span of several seconds, his temperature shot up with the speed of a rocket ship, forcing him to douse himself with some cold water to regain his composure.
Could it be that senior and I… But why? No no, the reason is not important here! I need to first verify whether it did happen or not!
Roel quickly inspected his own body, but he had been soaking inside the bathtub for so long that any marks would have already disappeared. Left with no choice, he could only ask potential eye-witnesses.
He took a deep breath before establishing a communication window with the Primordial Earth Goddess.
“Peytra, are you there?”
“Yes, I’m here. What’s wrong?”
“I need to ask you something…”
He nervously posed his question, and Peytra answered him accordingly.
“You were in a weakened state then. In order to avoid placing greater stress on you, Grandar and I entrusted the witch the job of explaining the situation to that girl before severing our connection. I can’t say for sure what happened afterward.”
“I-is that so?”
Roel couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed by Peytra’s response, but the latter’s words suddenly took a 180-degree turn.
“While I didn’t witness anything, I must say that you woke up much quicker than you should have. The blessing I placed on you has also been consumed…”
“You placed a blessing on me?”
“I did. Have you forgotten about it? I gave it to you a few years ago, the fertility blessing…”
“!”
Roel was immediately reminded of the words the Primordial Earth Goddess had told him right after they sealed their contract, and his eyes widened in shock. In the dim mountain valley, Peytra nodded with a heartened, motherly smile.
…
I screwed up.
That was the thought on Lilian’s mind when she escaped from the bathroom. As soon as the bathroom door closed shut, she leaned against the door and slid to the ground as if all strength had suddenly left her body. She clasped her own face in deep remorse.
She wasn’t intending to tell Roel about their union so as to not burden him. After all, she was currently in a precarious position regarding the Austine Empire, and the two of them were going to part ways after this. It would only hurt him if he knew about it.
More importantly, she knew that Roel would surely treat her differently as a result of what had happened. That was simply the kind of person he was.
There was a period of time during Roel’s temporary age regression where the two of them had intimate physical contact with each other, but their usual interactions were not without restraints. If one really had to define it, it would be reminiscent of siblings.
Roel respected and admired Lilian as an older sister whereas Lilian doted on Roel as a younger brother.
It was this impression that Roel had of Lilian, as well as the knowledge that Emperor Lukas didn’t approve of their interactions, that made him tread carefully around her. He was worried that any transgression on his part would trouble her.
But this relationship couldn’t possibly stay the same when the two of them had already crossed the border. Roel would no longer be able to keep a passive stance when it came to Lilian, and the distance they had been subconsciously maintaining between them would swiftly collapse.
This put Lilian in a dilemma.
She would be delighted to be treasured and protected by the person she loved, but at the same time, she felt that she should be the one shouldering the burden as the older one here. Between these two conflicting sentiments, her desire to avoid implicating Roel and turning him against the powerful Emperor Lukas was stronger.
The best way to avoid that was for Roel stay ignorant about their union. The two of them were the only ones left in the room after the ancient gods severed their connection with Roel, so as long as she adamantly denied it, there would be nothing Roel could do.
In order to hide the traces, she even dragged Roel’s body to the bathroom to cleanse him despite being exhausted and hurt from her first experience. She thought that she would be able to hide everything from him once she washed their clothes and put them back on.
However, her plan went awry when Roel woke up faster than she had expected. She heard the sound of Roel falling down in the bathtub and got worried, so she barged in without a second thought. This moment of carelessness ended up giving it all away.
When Roel asked her about what happened, she couldn’t conceal her own embarrassment. Her mind was so overheated that she couldn’t even spin up a proper lie. All she could do was awkwardly stop his questioning before escaping in a fluster.
It looked like it was no longer possible to hide the truth from Roel, but she had no idea what she should do.
I knew from the start that it wasn’t right for me to do this to him while he was unconscious… Will he hate me for it? What if he thinks of me as a loose woman?
Lilian couldn’t stop herself from getting pessimistic about the situation. It took a while before she finally snapped out of it and hurriedly changed into her clothes. Then, she sat down on a chair and began waiting with unease.
Time ticked by, but Lilian didn’t regain her composure in the least. She racked her brain for a solution, but nothing came to mind.
Her wandering thoughts only halted when the bathroom door finally opened. From within, a fully-clothed Roel walked out.
“…”
Two hearts thumped as a pair of golden eyes met a pair of amethyst eyes.
Roel was already certain of what had happened after posing the question to Peytra, but that gave birth to another doubt: Why is Lilian unwilling to talk about it?
He had contemplated it and thought that she simply didn’t want to change their present relationship. Also, it was an awkward topic for her to talk about since this was not a subject she was exposed to in her education as a princess of the Austine Empire. While they had shared a few intimate moments in the past, those were mostly triggered by their bloodline resonance.
The Austine Empire was even more conservative than the Theocracy in terms of culture and traditions. Modesty was a virtue in the Austine Empire, and Lilian was viewed to be the role model amongst the conservatism proponents in the Austine Empire.
Unlike Nora, who was only putting on a poise front, Lilian was truly conservative deep down. That could be seen as much by how she had never danced with a male partner before meeting Roel. That was simply the upbringing she had received, and her cold nature naturally complemented it.
In fact, before she was aware that she was Roel’s bloodline kin, she had avoided physical contact with him despite the natural attraction from their bloodline resonance.
Roel couldn’t imagine how much courage it must have taken for a woman like her to suddenly fast forward into doing something this bold. Just recalling her trembling body and tearful expression made his heart go out to her.
He knew that she would require a great deal of mental preparation to talk about something like that, and Roel wasn’t so unconscientious as to make fun of her over it. Of course, he knew that this was a conversation they needed to have, and it would be unwise to postpone it. He would just have to avoid probing too deeply and causing her discomfort.
While Roel was thinking about how to approach this matter, Lilian’s nerves were already straining from the prolonged silence. The hands she was hiding behind her back were furiously twisting and turning. She forced a smile onto her face and broke the silence.
“Are you feeling better now? You must still be feeling a little exhausted from the earlier ordeal. Why don’t you take a short rest or…”
“Senior… I know.”
“!”
Despite Lilian’s attempt at sidetracking, Roel unhesitatingly cut into the crux of the matter. His candor shook Lilian’s resolve.
“… I don’t understand what you’re trying to say.”
“Just as I thought. You’re trying to hide this matter from me. Why made you have such thoughts?”
“…”
Lilian was unable to answer the question, so she chose to silently lower her head instead.
Roel narrowed his eyes. He spent a moment in thought before putting on a strained smile.
“Could it be that you don’t have any feelings for me? You were simply trying to help me, that’s why you…” he asked with a sorrowful voice.
“No! That’s not it!” Lilian immediately denied it in agitation.
Under Roel’s scheming, she was forced to abandon her initial plan.
Admitting what had happened between them last night was embarrassing to her, but it wasn’t unacceptable to her since it could change Roel’s attitude toward her. What was unacceptable to her, however, was for her own love to be misunderstood and misinterpreted. Compared to that, everything else was of minor importance.
So, Lilian bucked up her courage to walk up to Roel and hold his hand.
“I apologize for hiding the truth from you, but that isn’t the reason why I chose to do so. I simply don’t want to burden you with my current situation…” Lilian revealed her worries as her eyelids drooped down.
Roel was left at a loss for words.
He knew deep down that he could no longer treat Lilian the same way as before after learning about their union last night. He was already dissatisfied about Lilian’s departure from the very start, and that thought only grew stronger after all that had happened.
It was just that Lilian had already made up her mind.
“I’m happy that you’re worried about me, but I wish to resolve the matters in the Austine Empire by myself. Can you promise me that you won’t get involved in it?”
“But…”
“Trust me, Roel.”
“… Alright.”
Roel hesitated for a long while under Lilian’s pleading, but he eventually nodded in resignation.
Lilian had always been the most independent one amongst the women Roel was involved with. There were times when he hoped that Lilian could rely on him a little, but ironically, this was also a side of her that he liked and admired.
Everyone had their own path to walk on.
Lilian couldn’t constantly be with Roel because she had her own faction and connections to maintain,but in return, it gave her profound happiness and satisfaction whenever Roel relied on her like a younger brother. Undermining that was no different from trampling all over her pride.
Still, there were some things that Roel had to say as a man.
“Senior.”
“Hm?”
“I like you.”
“!”
Roel whispered a confession to Lilian before gently pulling her into his embrace.
Lilian was caught off guard by the abrupt attack. She gasped as her eyes widened to the brim. Redness flushed her cheeks within seconds.
“W-why are you saying this all of a sudden…”
“I’m answering the question you asked me last night. I don’t think I gave you a proper answer back then, so I’m making up for it now.”
“You have already given me a proper answer back then.”
“I did? Then… what was your response?”
Roel looked into her eyes and patiently awaited her answer. Recalling what she had said last night, Lilian’s eyes glazed over in deep affection.
“… I love you.”
It was the same answer as before, but Roel was fully conscious this time around. He didn’t give a response right away, but his breathing noticeably hastened. The two of them deeply looked into each other’s eyes before they finally succumbed to their rampaging emotions and kissed.
It started off with a light kiss, but it quickly deepened along with the intensity of their feelings. It was almost as if they were venting everything that they had kept repressed inside all this time. A surge of bliss and satisfaction slowly washed away Lilian’s unease, and Roel’s eyes slowly glazed over as well.
In tight embrace, they staggered toward a nearby chair and plopped down on it. Both of their faces revealed their inner desires. However, when their lips temporarily parted after a passionate kiss to catch their breath, Lilian suddenly showed a conflicted look.
“Senior?”
Noticing Lilian’s response, Roel thought that he had done something wrong to incur his lover’s unhappiness. Lilian averted her eyes and murmured softly.
“Sorry, I still can’t…”
“You still can’t? Senior, what do you mean by that?”
Roel was confused by Lilian’s vague answer, and his further questions only further fanned Lilian’s embarrassment. After a long internal conflict, she placed her hand on her abdomen.
“Here. It was too i-intense last night, so I still can’t…”
“!”
Those bashful words lit up an inferno in Roel’s mind, and his body immediately stiffened up. However, Lilian misunderstood his reaction and hurriedly explained.
“R-Roel, it’s different for both of us. A woman’s first time tends to be more demanding…”
“Senior, you don’t have to explain it to me. I understand.”
Seeing how Lilian had started awkwardly explaining human biology to him despite her embarrassment, Roel quickly hugged her and gently stroked her hair. Lilian also heaved a sigh of relief.
Just like that, the two of them slowly calmed down.
As a man who possessed the body of a transcendent and carried the blessing of the Primordial Earth Goddess, it was impossible for him not to feel lust after he had his first taste of the forbidden fruit. However, the occasional pained looks that flashed across Lilian’s face made his heart ache, and it gradually dulled his desires.
“Does it hurt a lot? If we use spells to…”
“I don’t want to use those for my first time. It’s a custom of our Austine Empire too,” Lilian shook her head and refuted the suggestion.
It was indubitably painful for her, but she wanted to cherish this experience. This pain wouldn’t last too long anyway considering that she was a high transcendent. However, there was another matter that she was worried about—protective measures.
Lilian was educated enough to understand the consequences of not taking protective measures, but the circumstances back then didn’t permit that.
Roel was unconscious and couldn’t give any warnings beforehand, and it was her first time too. By the time she realized what was going on, it was already too late. To make things worse, she had never learned any relevant spells to deal with as the imperial princess.
She was intending to ask the Witch Queen to help her resolve this issue after it was all over, but as if having seen through her thoughts, Artasia refused to make an appearance afterward. In the end, she could only head to the bathroom and wash it out as quickly as she could.
Of course, there were limitations to such a measure. Once a watering can had sprayed over a flower field, the moisture would swiftly seep into the ground, making it impossible to undo the watering. It was more of a psychological consolation than anything else.
“… It should be fine, I think.”
“Senior?”
“I-it’s nothing.”
Lilian shook her head as she decided against saying something as embarrassing as that. She didn’t think that it was likely for them to strike it on the first shot anyway.
The probability of reproduction for human transcendents reduced correspondingly to their Origin Levels. Given that both Roel and Lilian were high transcendents, the chances of them having a child on the first try was abysmally low.
If they got married and wanted to have a child in the future, they would require a huge amount of complementary magic tools and medicine used over many attempts before their love finally crystallized.
Those thoughts put Lilian’s mind at ease. She was painfully oblivious to the fertility blessing Roel had received from the Primordial Earth Goddess.
Roel also thought about this problem too, but looking at her already blushing face, he couldn’t bear to make her any more embarrassed.
It’s senior we’re talking about here. She would have dealt with it promptly.
This was where Roel’s impression of Lilian as a reliable older sister backfired on them. He believed far too much in her meticulousness that he chose not to probe into it. The following request from her further diverted his attention away from this topic.
“Can you accompany me to the bedroom?”
“Of course. Are you feeling tired?”
“A little, but that’s not the reason why… There is something I would like to show you.”
“Something? Ah. I-I understand.”
Realization swiftly struck Roel, and he tactfully chose not to say anything else. He carried Lilian up in his arms and began heading toward the neighboring room. Meanwhile, Lilian turned her head away out of sheer embarrassment.
They soon entered a bedroom, where they found themselves speechless at the sight of a completely tattered bed.
“You have suffered last night, senior,” Roel said with a pang of guilt.
Lilian shook her head in response. She pointed to a corner of the bed.
“It should be there.”
Roel took in a deep breath before making his way over under Lilian’s guidance. The lighting in the room was dim, but the trace of crimson blood on the bed sheet was impossible not to notice. It made his body shudder a little.
“Senior, I…”
“Hush. I don’t need any promises or vows. I just want you to know one thing…”
Lilian placed her finger on Roel’s lips and raised her head. She leaned toward his ears and whispered softly.
“I have never felt as blissful as I currently am.”
With a whisper overflowing with sweetness, Lilian wrapped her arms around Roel’s neck.
The sound of dripping water echoed particularly loudly inside the silent bathroom. Looking at the adorable woman before him, Roel’s golden pupils dilated as his mind stalled to a halt.
Lilian was born with a cold and lofty disposition. She rarely showed any intense emotions regardless of the situation. It was only during rare occasions, such as when they had close physical contact or exchanged words of affection, that she would reveal an embarrassed face to him, and it had never failed to enchant him.
But that trembling body, those reddened ears, and those eyes that were glimmering in embarrassment; this was a reaction that he had never seen before. These clues made some things apparent even if they weren’t said aloud.
The time of their disappearance, the sweet but intense sensations he had experienced in his dreams, his waking up inside of a bathtub, and that shy expression on her face; even the most dull-witted person would have been able to connect the dots!
Roel felt his heartbeat swiftly hasten whereas Lilian’s body trembled more and more. There were several seconds of awkward silence before Lilian frantically turned around.
“I-I’ll go change my clothes!”
She anxiously ran out of the bathroom, and the door automatically closed behind her.
Roel dazedly stared at the closed doors for a long while before he began blushing furiously. Heat gushed from his body into his brain, and he could almost hear how intensely his heart was thumping. Within the span of several seconds, his temperature shot up with the speed of a rocket ship, forcing him to douse himself with some cold water to regain his composure.
Could it be that senior and I… But why? No no, the reason is not important here! I need to first verify whether it did happen or not!
Roel quickly inspected his own body, but he had been soaking inside the bathtub for so long that any marks would have already disappeared. Left with no choice, he could only ask potential eye-witnesses.
He took a deep breath before establishing a communication window with the Primordial Earth Goddess.
“Peytra, are you there?”
“Yes, I’m here. What’s wrong?”
“I need to ask you something…”
He nervously posed his question, and Peytra answered him accordingly.
“You were in a weakened state then. In order to avoid placing greater stress on you, Grandar and I entrusted the witch the job of explaining the situation to that girl before severing our connection. I can’t say for sure what happened afterward.”
“I-is that so?”
Roel couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed by Peytra’s response, but the latter’s words suddenly took a 180-degree turn.
“While I didn’t witness anything, I must say that you woke up much quicker than you should have. The blessing I placed on you has also been consumed…”
“You placed a blessing on me?”
“I did. Have you forgotten about it? I gave it to you a few years ago, the fertility blessing…”
“!”
Roel was immediately reminded of the words the Primordial Earth Goddess had told him right after they sealed their contract, and his eyes widened in shock. In the dim mountain valley, Peytra nodded with a heartened, motherly smile.
…
I screwed up.
That was the thought on Lilian’s mind when she escaped from the bathroom. As soon as the bathroom door closed shut, she leaned against the door and slid to the ground as if all strength had suddenly left her body. She clasped her own face in deep remorse.
She wasn’t intending to tell Roel about their union so as to not burden him. After all, she was currently in a precarious position regarding the Austine Empire, and the two of them were going to part ways after this. It would only hurt him if he knew about it.
More importantly, she knew that Roel would surely treat her differently as a result of what had happened. That was simply the kind of person he was.
There was a period of time during Roel’s temporary age regression where the two of them had intimate physical contact with each other, but their usual interactions were not without restraints. If one really had to define it, it would be reminiscent of siblings.
Roel respected and admired Lilian as an older sister whereas Lilian doted on Roel as a younger brother.
It was this impression that Roel had of Lilian, as well as the knowledge that Emperor Lukas didn’t approve of their interactions, that made him tread carefully around her. He was worried that any transgression on his part would trouble her.
But this relationship couldn’t possibly stay the same when the two of them had already crossed the border. Roel would no longer be able to keep a passive stance when it came to Lilian, and the distance they had been subconsciously maintaining between them would swiftly collapse.
This put Lilian in a dilemma.
She would be delighted to be treasured and protected by the person she loved, but at the same time, she felt that she should be the one shouldering the burden as the older one here. Between these two conflicting sentiments, her desire to avoid implicating Roel and turning him against the powerful Emperor Lukas was stronger.
The best way to avoid that was for Roel stay ignorant about their union. The two of them were the only ones left in the room after the ancient gods severed their connection with Roel, so as long as she adamantly denied it, there would be nothing Roel could do.
In order to hide the traces, she even dragged Roel’s body to the bathroom to cleanse him despite being exhausted and hurt from her first experience. She thought that she would be able to hide everything from him once she washed their clothes and put them back on.
However, her plan went awry when Roel woke up faster than she had expected. She heard the sound of Roel falling down in the bathtub and got worried, so she barged in without a second thought. This moment of carelessness ended up giving it all away.
When Roel asked her about what happened, she couldn’t conceal her own embarrassment. Her mind was so overheated that she couldn’t even spin up a proper lie. All she could do was awkwardly stop his questioning before escaping in a fluster.
It looked like it was no longer possible to hide the truth from Roel, but she had no idea what she should do.
I knew from the start that it wasn’t right for me to do this to him while he was unconscious… Will he hate me for it? What if he thinks of me as a loose woman?
Lilian couldn’t stop herself from getting pessimistic about the situation. It took a while before she finally snapped out of it and hurriedly changed into her clothes. Then, she sat down on a chair and began waiting with unease.
Time ticked by, but Lilian didn’t regain her composure in the least. She racked her brain for a solution, but nothing came to mind.
Her wandering thoughts only halted when the bathroom door finally opened. From within, a fully-clothed Roel walked out.
“…”
Two hearts thumped as a pair of golden eyes met a pair of amethyst eyes.
Roel was already certain of what had happened after posing the question to Peytra, but that gave birth to another doubt: Why is Lilian unwilling to talk about it?
He had contemplated it and thought that she simply didn’t want to change their present relationship. Also, it was an awkward topic for her to talk about since this was not a subject she was exposed to in her education as a princess of the Austine Empire. While they had shared a few intimate moments in the past, those were mostly triggered by their bloodline resonance.
The Austine Empire was even more conservative than the Theocracy in terms of culture and traditions. Modesty was a virtue in the Austine Empire, and Lilian was viewed to be the role model amongst the conservatism proponents in the Austine Empire.
Unlike Nora, who was only putting on a poise front, Lilian was truly conservative deep down. That could be seen as much by how she had never danced with a male partner before meeting Roel. That was simply the upbringing she had received, and her cold nature naturally complemented it.
In fact, before she was aware that she was Roel’s bloodline kin, she had avoided physical contact with him despite the natural attraction from their bloodline resonance.
Roel couldn’t imagine how much courage it must have taken for a woman like her to suddenly fast forward into doing something this bold. Just recalling her trembling body and tearful expression made his heart go out to her.
He knew that she would require a great deal of mental preparation to talk about something like that, and Roel wasn’t so unconscientious as to make fun of her over it. Of course, he knew that this was a conversation they needed to have, and it would be unwise to postpone it. He would just have to avoid probing too deeply and causing her discomfort.
While Roel was thinking about how to approach this matter, Lilian’s nerves were already straining from the prolonged silence. The hands she was hiding behind her back were furiously twisting and turning. She forced a smile onto her face and broke the silence.
“Are you feeling better now? You must still be feeling a little exhausted from the earlier ordeal. Why don’t you take a short rest or…”
“Senior… I know.”
“!”
Despite Lilian’s attempt at sidetracking, Roel unhesitatingly cut into the crux of the matter. His candor shook Lilian’s resolve.
“… I don’t understand what you’re trying to say.”
“Just as I thought. You’re trying to hide this matter from me. Why made you have such thoughts?”
“…”
Lilian was unable to answer the question, so she chose to silently lower her head instead.
Roel narrowed his eyes. He spent a moment in thought before putting on a strained smile.
“Could it be that you don’t have any feelings for me? You were simply trying to help me, that’s why you…” he asked with a sorrowful voice.
“No! That’s not it!” Lilian immediately denied it in agitation.
Under Roel’s scheming, she was forced to abandon her initial plan.
Admitting what had happened between them last night was embarrassing to her, but it wasn’t unacceptable to her since it could change Roel’s attitude toward her. What was unacceptable to her, however, was for her own love to be misunderstood and misinterpreted. Compared to that, everything else was of minor importance.
So, Lilian bucked up her courage to walk up to Roel and hold his hand.
“I apologize for hiding the truth from you, but that isn’t the reason why I chose to do so. I simply don’t want to burden you with my current situation…” Lilian revealed her worries as her eyelids drooped down.
Roel was left at a loss for words.
He knew deep down that he could no longer treat Lilian the same way as before after learning about their union last night. He was already dissatisfied about Lilian’s departure from the very start, and that thought only grew stronger after all that had happened.
It was just that Lilian had already made up her mind.
“I’m happy that you’re worried about me, but I wish to resolve the matters in the Austine Empire by myself. Can you promise me that you won’t get involved in it?”
“But…”
“Trust me, Roel.”
“… Alright.”
Roel hesitated for a long while under Lilian’s pleading, but he eventually nodded in resignation.
Lilian had always been the most independent one amongst the women Roel was involved with. There were times when he hoped that Lilian could rely on him a little, but ironically, this was also a side of her that he liked and admired.
Everyone had their own path to walk on.
Lilian couldn’t constantly be with Roel because she had her own faction and connections to maintain,but in return, it gave her profound happiness and satisfaction whenever Roel relied on her like a younger brother. Undermining that was no different from trampling all over her pride.
Still, there were some things that Roel had to say as a man.
“Senior.”
“Hm?”
“I like you.”
“!”
Roel whispered a confession to Lilian before gently pulling her into his embrace.
Lilian was caught off guard by the abrupt attack. She gasped as her eyes widened to the brim. Redness flushed her cheeks within seconds.
“W-why are you saying this all of a sudden…”
“I’m answering the question you asked me last night. I don’t think I gave you a proper answer back then, so I’m making up for it now.”
“You have already given me a proper answer back then.”
“I did? Then… what was your response?”
Roel looked into her eyes and patiently awaited her answer. Recalling what she had said last night, Lilian’s eyes glazed over in deep affection.
“… I love you.”
It was the same answer as before, but Roel was fully conscious this time around. He didn’t give a response right away, but his breathing noticeably hastened. The two of them deeply looked into each other’s eyes before they finally succumbed to their rampaging emotions and kissed.
It started off with a light kiss, but it quickly deepened along with the intensity of their feelings. It was almost as if they were venting everything that they had kept repressed inside all this time. A surge of bliss and satisfaction slowly washed away Lilian’s unease, and Roel’s eyes slowly glazed over as well.
In tight embrace, they staggered toward a nearby chair and plopped down on it. Both of their faces revealed their inner desires. However, when their lips temporarily parted after a passionate kiss to catch their breath, Lilian suddenly showed a conflicted look.
“Senior?”
Noticing Lilian’s response, Roel thought that he had done something wrong to incur his lover’s unhappiness. Lilian averted her eyes and murmured softly.
“Sorry, I still can’t…”
“You still can’t? Senior, what do you mean by that?”
Roel was confused by Lilian’s vague answer, and his further questions only further fanned Lilian’s embarrassment. After a long internal conflict, she placed her hand on her abdomen.
“Here. It was too i-intense last night, so I still can’t…”
“!”
Those bashful words lit up an inferno in Roel’s mind, and his body immediately stiffened up. However, Lilian misunderstood his reaction and hurriedly explained.
“R-Roel, it’s different for both of us. A woman’s first time tends to be more demanding…”
“Senior, you don’t have to explain it to me. I understand.”
Seeing how Lilian had started awkwardly explaining human biology to him despite her embarrassment, Roel quickly hugged her and gently stroked her hair. Lilian also heaved a sigh of relief.
Just like that, the two of them slowly calmed down.
As a man who possessed the body of a transcendent and carried the blessing of the Primordial Earth Goddess, it was impossible for him not to feel lust after he had his first taste of the forbidden fruit. However, the occasional pained looks that flashed across Lilian’s face made his heart ache, and it gradually dulled his desires.
“Does it hurt a lot? If we use spells to…”
“I don’t want to use those for my first time. It’s a custom of our Austine Empire too,” Lilian shook her head and refuted the suggestion.
It was indubitably painful for her, but she wanted to cherish this experience. This pain wouldn’t last too long anyway considering that she was a high transcendent. However, there was another matter that she was worried about—protective measures.
Lilian was educated enough to understand the consequences of not taking protective measures, but the circumstances back then didn’t permit that.
Roel was unconscious and couldn’t give any warnings beforehand, and it was her first time too. By the time she realized what was going on, it was already too late. To make things worse, she had never learned any relevant spells to deal with as the imperial princess.
She was intending to ask the Witch Queen to help her resolve this issue after it was all over, but as if having seen through her thoughts, Artasia refused to make an appearance afterward. In the end, she could only head to the bathroom and wash it out as quickly as she could.
Of course, there were limitations to such a measure. Once a watering can had sprayed over a flower field, the moisture would swiftly seep into the ground, making it impossible to undo the watering. It was more of a psychological consolation than anything else.
“… It should be fine, I think.”
“Senior?”
“I-it’s nothing.”
Lilian shook her head as she decided against saying something as embarrassing as that. She didn’t think that it was likely for them to strike it on the first shot anyway.
The probability of reproduction for human transcendents reduced correspondingly to their Origin Levels. Given that both Roel and Lilian were high transcendents, the chances of them having a child on the first try was abysmally low.
If they got married and wanted to have a child in the future, they would require a huge amount of complementary magic tools and medicine used over many attempts before their love finally crystallized.
Those thoughts put Lilian’s mind at ease. She was painfully oblivious to the fertility blessing Roel had received from the Primordial Earth Goddess.
Roel also thought about this problem too, but looking at her already blushing face, he couldn’t bear to make her any more embarrassed.
It’s senior we’re talking about here. She would have dealt with it promptly.
This was where Roel’s impression of Lilian as a reliable older sister backfired on them. He believed far too much in her meticulousness that he chose not to probe into it. The following request from her further diverted his attention away from this topic.
“Can you accompany me to the bedroom?”
“Of course. Are you feeling tired?”
“A little, but that’s not the reason why… There is something I would like to show you.”
“Something? Ah. I-I understand.”
Realization swiftly struck Roel, and he tactfully chose not to say anything else. He carried Lilian up in his arms and began heading toward the neighboring room. Meanwhile, Lilian turned her head away out of sheer embarrassment.
They soon entered a bedroom, where they found themselves speechless at the sight of a completely tattered bed.
“You have suffered last night, senior,” Roel said with a pang of guilt.
Lilian shook her head in response. She pointed to a corner of the bed.
“It should be there.”
Roel took in a deep breath before making his way over under Lilian’s guidance. The lighting in the room was dim, but the trace of crimson blood on the bed sheet was impossible not to notice. It made his body shudder a little.
“Senior, I…”
“Hush. I don’t need any promises or vows. I just want you to know one thing…”
Lilian placed her finger on Roel’s lips and raised her head. She leaned toward his ears and whispered softly.
“I have never felt as blissful as I currently am.”
With a whisper overflowing with sweetness, Lilian wrapped her arms around Roel’s neck.
