The Wind Calms the Fire - Chapter 69

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 69
As they stood holding each other, time stretched forward, and Rhea’s eyes darted with growing alarm. Wrapped firmly in his embrace, her body could not move an inch.
Her heart was racing faster by the moment, and she felt embarrassed thinking he must feel it through his chest.
“I… Your Highness.”
She twisted her body, trying to push him away.
Carrion released the tension in his arms without resistance.
“Let me go down…”
As Rhea turned to leave, his arm caught hers, pulling her back to face him.
The two stood barely a hand’s breadth apart.
“Soon we will be engaged. And married, I suppose.”
“Yes.”
His gaze and expression were so grave that Rhea grew tense.
‘Is he about to lay out marriage conditions?’
“Before that, don’t you think we ought to establish what marriage means between us?”
“What do you mean…?”
“When we marry, we become husband and wife. Our understanding of what that means must align—yours and mine.”
She frowned, wondering if his words concealed some deeper meaning.
“I want our marriage to be a promise that we become an ordinary married couple.”
“Ordinary?”
“The kind that anyone expects when they hear a man and woman are wed. Trusting each other, relying on one another, supporting each other…”
As she listened, Rhea’s expression softened.
“…sharing one bed, and doing our best every night.”
‘What?’
Rhea blinked rapidly. She thought she’d just heard something strange.
Carrion leaned down and brushed his lips lightly against hers.
Her eyes widened in surprise, and he narrowed his gaze as he spoke.
“If I wanted to do such things even without it being treatment, would you despise me for it?”
Her eyes went wide.
One of his arms curved around her waist, pulling her closer, and she inhaled sharply in surprise.
“On our wedding night, I wish to become truly husband and wife with you.”
His hand swept across her cheek.
Rhea said nothing, only blinking rapidly.
Seeing the raw longing that filled his eyes, she felt heat flood her face.
He grew anxious, waiting for her answer.
She might think this sudden, but for him it was a matter of profound importance.
Emboldened by her lack of rejection, he drew his face closer.
With their noses nearly touching, he waited a moment.
Rhea carefully placed her hands on his shoulders.
‘What’s the difference between a kiss for treatment and one that isn’t…’
The instant she felt his gaze change, Rhea closed her eyes.
His lips descended on hers at once, devouring them.
His head tilted, and his lips aligned with hers at the perfect angle.
As her lips parted, his tongue pressed deep inside.
‘Ah…’
He frowned slightly.
A sharp sensation coursed through his head, like the ache that follows eating something too sweet.
All the honest desire he’d held back while suffering from nightmares was suddenly laid bare.
Each time he’d kissed her under the guise of treatment, he’d fought desperately to remain unmoved.
But the truth was he wanted to savor her lips freely, to thrill at the sound of her breathing.
Eyes closed, Rhea responded to his fierce kiss.
Their tangled tongues slipped against each other. The intensity sent an involuntary shiver down her spine.
The sky seemed to spin and the ground to sway beneath her.
As her legs weakened and she stumbled, he caught her firmly, and their bodies pressed completely together.
“Mm.”
Rhea’s lower lashes trembled finely, and her grip on his shoulders tightened.
‘It’s different…’
She’d always thought him a surprisingly passionate kisser.
But now that passion carried something more—an undisguised hunger.
The sweep of his tongue was relentless, pushing her toward the edge.
Before she knew it, her arms had wound around his neck of their own accord.
“Mm…!”
His hand cradled the nape of her neck, steadying her as her center of gravity wavered.
Her body leaned entirely against him, nearly cradled in his arms.
His lips licked, nibbled, and softly brushed against hers.
He drew her lower lip between his teeth, then gently bit her chin.
As his lips descended beneath her jaw, her head tilted back of its own accord.
“Mm…”
The natural transition from kiss to caress didn’t feel uncomfortable to her.
His lips caught her earlobe between them, and he licked upward before pressing his mouth against the curve of her ear.
A soft kiss.
Light touches traced down the line of her neck.
“Your Highness!”
A distant voice called out.
Rhea started, her eyes flying open.
In his gaze, a quiet, burning intensity rippled like still water disturbed.
His face drew near, his lips gently catching and pulling at hers before he withdrew.
Rhea awkwardly lowered her arms from where they’d been clinging around his neck.
The breath they each exhaled hung thick in the air between them.
Carrion took her hand and brought it up, bending at the waist to press a kiss against the back of her palm.
In that position, he tilted his head only slightly, lifting his gaze to meet hers.
Rhea felt as though he were asking again the question he’d posed earlier: ‘Would you despise me for doing this?’
She didn’t pull her hand from his grip; she simply held his gaze.
She watched even as he straightened his torso to kiss the inside of his own palm.
The whole exchange—this secret signal passing between them—felt charged with something intimate and forbidden.
The moment Rhea turned her eyes toward the door, Carrion strode ahead and pulled it open.
The two of them left the room and walked in silence for a time.
Behind them came Peni’s cheerful voice.
“Your Highness.”
Peni approached and spoke.
“When I couldn’t find you, I thought you’d both stepped out into the garden.”
The voice that had called to them moments earlier had been Peni’s, from the garden after all.
“The carriage is ready. He’s asked me to fetch you both.”
Rhea smiled at Peni and nodded.
Her heart was racing so hard that if she spoke now, her voice would surely tremble.
She glanced at his profile and bit her lower lip slightly.
For a man who’d just done something so shameless, his expression showed barely any change.
But when she caught sight of his reddened ears, she blinked and quickly looked away.
Her own ears felt warm too.
This ticklish feeling in her chest was very strange—but not unwelcome.
* * *
Orbin called at the Droen Vault Company again today.
Not because he came from the Droen family, but because among the numerous private financial institutions that had sprung up throughout the Capital, the Droen Vault Company operated with the greatest transparency.
He’d entrusted a portion of the substantial sum granted by the Emperor to the company for investment.
He was seeking out investment opportunities on his own for the rest, and the information provided by the vault company proved quite valuable.
“Hmm. I heard a new dye was recently discovered. Haven’t the goods arrived yet?”
“We’re attempting to secure some as well. But it’s impossible to know whether a dye will be profitable until we see how the market responds.”
“That’s true…”
The door burst open with a loud crash.
Who would enter the VIP reception room so rudely?
Orbin turned his head irritably, then went pale.
“M-Mother?”
“Is there any truth to me being your mother?”
The matriarch Morga glared forward and approached with broad strides, bringing down her thick palm against Orbin’s back without mercy.
“Ow! That hurts!”
Orbin cried out.
It wasn’t mere dramatics—Morga’s hand was truly fierce.
Seeing her son flail his arms trying desperately to shield himself, Morga grabbed his ear and shook it.
“Ahhhhh!”
“There I was, waiting and waiting. And you’ve been coming and going from the vault company right under my nose without so much as a greeting? When did you arrive in the Capital? When?”
“Ow! My ear’s going to fall off! I’m serious, it really hurts!”
While Orbin’s mother beat her son, the employee who had been consulting with Orbin slipped quietly away.
Even when Orbin cried out that he was dying, no one so much as glanced in.
Likely, no one would venture near the place.
Once Morga had vented her anger, her mood lightened somewhat, and she picked up the documents spread across the table, letting out a sharp snort.
“So you left home and started gambling with money?”
“Gambling? I’m managing the Northeast finances.”
Orbin touched his ringing ears and grumbled.
His beaten back throbbed with heat. By tomorrow, he was sure it would be covered in bruises.
“Mother, please. How old am I now? Must you still resort to hitting me?”
“Eighty years old or not, if you do something worthy of a beating, you’ll be beaten!”
When Morga raised her hand, Orbin instinctively flinched.
At his pathetic posture, Morga clicked her tongue and gave her son a long, appraising look from head to foot.
Over six years, he hadn’t gone hungry—his face gleamed with health.
Still, she hadn’t expected her runaway child to return to her in tears.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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