They Say an Age Gap Like This Doesn’t Even Need Matching - Chapter 21

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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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Even as my mind remained hazy from the unfamiliar stimulation, the sensation was so foreign that I could sense the danger lurking within the pleasure.
Each time something—whether thigh or knee—brushed and rubbed against my lower body, my hips involuntarily lifted of their own accord.
‘I need to stop… I have to stop this….’
I had never realized I was so susceptible to pleasure.
I had easily resisted the Nightmare King’s seduction, so why couldn’t I stop now?
“Ah, Ser….”
His voice, tinged with languid breathing, sent a delicious shiver through me.
I could feel that he desired me completely, that my presence alone excited him.
Now his kisses were shifting in a different direction.
Elhart, who had been pressing his lips against my jaw and cheek, began to trail them down my neck toward my lips.
I was not naive enough not to understand what this meant.
‘No… this can’t happen.’
If I surrendered to pleasure and spent a night with him by mistake, Elhart would insist on marrying me no matter what.
Without even knowing that I was a person from over three hundred years ago…!
‘Get a hold of yourself.’
I barely managed to tap his shoulder.
“Elhart.”
At my call, he lifted his head from where he had been licking my collarbone.
His eyes, glazed over with pleasure and hazy, turned toward me.
He blinked slowly, his lips parting slightly.
“Ah….”
His face, already flushed, turned a deep crimson in an instant.
He hastily propped himself up, taking in my disheveled appearance with both eyes before holding his breath.
“The cold… it seems to have cleared up completely now.”
I whispered, my gaze fixed on his lips, glistening with saliva.
“So come here.”
I patted the space beside me with my hand.
Elhart lay down next to me with an awkward slowness.
“Do you still want to sleep together?”
He answered my question as if it were obvious.
“Yes.”
“You’re not losing sleep because of me, are you?”
It was half jest and half earnest.
“…I couldn’t sleep anyway.”
“What…?”
What did he mean by that?
Elhart, noticing my bewildered expression, spoke at once.
“I couldn’t sleep because I was afraid you would disappear if I closed my eyes.”
So he had endured these past few days without a single moment of sleep.
So you’re saying you’ve been holding on without sleeping for the past few days.
“No, you still need to sleep.”
Faced with his absurdity, I said so, and he shook his head as if it were fine.
From his firmly pressed lips, I could strongly feel his determination to hold me here even if it meant forgoing sleep.
‘There’s no helping it.’
If I didn’t say something definitive, he wouldn’t seem to find peace.
“I won’t leave.”
I had no intention of disappearing arbitrarily after agreeing to work as a maid.
“Of course, there will come a day when I leave your side eventually… but I won’t go without a word.”
“Truly?”
“I’ll stake my name on it.”
“…!”
His eyes widened considerably.
It was strange that I would stake my very name just to reassure him, but seeing him smile with relief, I thought—what did it matter?
“Then… were you always lying on your side like this to watch over me?”
He blinked a couple of times before nodding slightly.
“Do you normally sleep on your back?”
“I used to.”
He answers whatever I ask so readily.
Perhaps his guard has dissolved because the kiss satisfied him.
Suddenly, I recalled the snow leopard that Mikhail and I used to feed during the founding of Bardia.
It would normally forbid anyone from touching it, claiming to be a beast, yet after eating its fill, it would sprawl lazily and let us pet it as much as we wished.
Hmm… if that’s the case.
“By any chance, would it be alright if I touched your hair?”
“…If you wish it, by all means.”
As expected, he permits it.
I reached out and carefully ran my fingers through Elhart’s hair, something I had always wanted to touch.
His locks, tinged with a blue hue like the night sky, were far softer than I had imagined.
The sensation wrapping around my fingertips was so addictive that it was difficult to withdraw my hand.
Meanwhile, Elhart gently enclosed my nearby hand in his own.
I could feel him exhale a long breath, his eyes half-lidded.
His earlobes remained flushed with no sign of paling, though the rise and fall of his chest seemed to have slowed somewhat.
“May I ask you one thing?”
“Yes.”
“You don’t have a lover, do you? A fiancée or someone you hold in your heart?”
I couldn’t help but laugh at the absurdity.
“Aren’t you asking rather quickly?”
“That’s… true.”
His ready agreement was amusing as well.
“So, your answer?”
He gazed at my lips with bated breath, seeming somewhat tense.
“Particularly?”
Remembering my past—never having experienced even a single romance—I felt a pang of that.
“…There simply wasn’t an environment for such things.”
Even so, the faces of the founding meritocrats who had fallen in love, married, and borne children came to mind, but Mikhail and I were especially busy, weren’t we?
‘That’s right. I wasn’t the only one who couldn’t experience romance.’
He had been alone as well.
It meant I wasn’t strange.
“That’s fortunate.”
This time, a genuinely satisfied smile graced his lips.
“…And you? What about your situation?”
Since he didn’t have one, I suspected that might be why he was doing this, but I asked anyway.
“I also wasn’t in a position for such things.”
Indeed, I had practically lived on the battlefield.
So there was another person like me besides Mikhail.
“What, we’re the same.”
I found myself laughing softly without thinking.
After that, we continued exchanging rather pointless conversation.
Personal hobbies, things we liked and disliked.
We deliberately asked and answered about things that held no particular importance.
“You like sour things? I’ve never met someone who eats lemons as a snack.”
“Is that so? I find you more peculiar. You like cinnamon.”
“Cake with cinnamon is truly delicious. You must try it.”
“Is there any food you particularly dislike?”
“Wyvern stew with leeks?”
“…Such a dish exists?”
I was simply curious about such things. It seemed he was too.
The quiet stillness of the night created an illusion that only he and I remained in the world.
It was a strange feeling.
A faint lingering excitement and tranquility coexisted.
It was a continuous succession of bizarre moments I had never experienced before.
The reflection of myself in his eyes was smiling.
As if such trivial conversation was deeply enjoyable.
“….”
At some point, we stopped talking and simply gazed at each other intently.
And then at some point, I must have fallen asleep.
Just as we were, holding hands and facing one another.
***
The Banquet Hall continued to pour forth brilliant light and music deep into the night.
By contrast, Princess Bellonia’s Quarters remained suffocatingly silent.
The master who had appeared only briefly before departing had left behind a mood of profound despondency.
“Why… what on earth could it be…?”
Bellonia’s restless pacing through the chamber halted at the sound of two deliberate knocks upon the door.
As she spun around, her eyes fell upon the door standing wide open.
She had neither seen nor heard anyone open it.
A man emerged from the shadows of the Dimly Lit Corridor and stepped forward.
Pristine white ceremonial robes adorned with silver embroidery, and a face unsettlingly devoid of expression.
It was Crown Prince Auriel.
“Oh, brother…?”
Auriel walked slowly into the chamber.
The door closed quietly behind him, leaving only the two of them.
“So it was you. You took what belongs to me.”
His voice carried the certainty of one who had already confirmed the truth.
“Where is it?”
“What do you mean…? I don’t know anything about…?”
Auriel took a step closer to Bellonia.
“It is not something to be used carelessly.”
His voice was low and gentle.
There was neither anger nor reproach in it.
Yet that very gentleness terrified her all the more.
Bellonia retreated instinctively as she spoke.
“I only… did it for you, brother…?”
“No.”
His resolute voice cut through her words.
“You have never acted for my sake. You move only to satisfy your own desires.”
Auriel passed by her and came to a halt before the vanity.
Without the slightest hesitation, he opened a small jewelry box and withdrew a silver vial.
“Half of it is gone.”
Auriel tilted the vial to examine its contents, murmuring softly.
“Brother…?”
Bellonia’s face had gone deathly pale.
“Who did you intend to use it on?”

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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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