Come and Cry at My Funeral - Chapter 140
Meanwhile, watching Izar rub his face in irritation, Freesia felt her mouth dry up.
‘I made a mistake. What should I do?’
She had just wanted to boast a little to her husband, but her vanity had blinded her, leading her to a slip of the tongue. And to someone who hated being deceived the most!
‘What kind of punishment do the domain residents receive for hunting for food without the lord’s permission?’
She was too flustered to remember, but as his golden eyes stared intently at her, she stammered.
“I’m sorry. I will accept any punishment you give me.”
“Punishment, huh.”
Izar bit his lip occasionally to suppress the laughter that kept trying to escape. Her small lips quivering as she said she would accept the punishment, her face turning bright red…
Izar lightly ran his hand over his throat. The longing made his throat feel parched as if water had dried up. In the cracks of the parched earth, a once dormant desire began to flow with heat again.
“What kind of punishment do you want to receive?”
“Well… I…”
Freesia looked down at the hand slowly wrapping around her waist, her lips trembling.
She still couldn’t believe their relationship had changed like this, nor that Izar’s touch now carried such blatant heat.
‘Was he always like this?’
In her past life, they had only slept together once, and it had been very restrained. Before and after that, he had never touched her or caressed her in such a meaningful way.
She was embarrassed by how much she liked being drawn into his embrace, even as it bewildered her.
“I’m waiting for your answer.”
His low voice tickled her ear. His hand was now softly caressing her hip.
The feather-light touch made Freesia blush as she looked up at him, recalling how he had gripped her hips so fiercely the night before.
“I’ll take whatever punishment you give me, but…”
“But?”
“I hope it’s not too embarrassing.”
“…”
Izar stared intently at her embarrassed face.
‘She looks like a crabapple.’
He began to understand a little why some men couldn’t leave a woman’s embrace all day.
His hand, which had been wandering around her hips, slowly moved up to her waist, pulling her tightly against him.
“Mm…”
The touch of his lips on her neck made her let out a low, scratchy moan. The heat from their bodies pressed together made her dizzy.
But Freesia tried to hold onto his hand. When a husband wanted to embrace his wife, she should gratefully accept. However…
“I can’t do it anymore today.”
Thinking of the wild carrot seeds she hadn’t yet fully consumed made her want to run away.
Their second child, who might grow up happily unlike their briar baby.
She wanted to see that child’s face, but remembering her limited lifespan, she wondered how she could harbor such reckless and irresponsible desires.
She was disgusted with herself.
Freesia covered her face with her hands and whispered desperately.
“I feel too swollen and it hurts too much.”
“…”
An awkward silence fell between them. But this pain was also a fact.
Izar slowly kissed her hair and whispered in her ear.
“I understand, so relax.”
“But…”
While Freesia hesitated awkwardly, he encircled her with his arms.
“For now, just stay still like this.”
Of course, he wanted to strip her bare again, to bite and fill her…
‘There will be many more nights to hold her anyway.’
For now, he felt a sense of satisfaction and lethargy from having her fully in his embrace. This languid feeling was a new emotion in his life.
As he watched Freesia awkwardly fidgeting with the arrows, Izar pondered the news he had heard that day.
‘…A fire at the temple.’
Last night, a scribe had dozed off while transcribing, knocking over a candle and starting the blaze.
The old priest who greeted him outside had apologized with a face still smudged with soot.
And no wonder…
<There’s truly no excuse. Of all places, the fire started where the Arcturus family’s vows were kept.>
The marriage vows made before God for generations had burned. Although some could be restored, the most crucial ones had been consumed by the flames.
The contract that had removed Freesia’s vows.
‘So, the problem has resolved itself?’
He could cut ties with the Antares family and find a suitable daughter from a loyal vassal family. He would be like his father, marrying a woman from a humble family.
‘At least this woman loves me.’
His father had been ignored by his mother, left to wallow miserably, but his fate would be different. Just the thought brought him immense satisfaction.
“Hah.”
Suddenly, he felt an urge to return to the duchy as soon as possible.
A place where he wouldn’t fill Freesia with false hopes, where there were no foolish men with presumptuous intentions.
Somewhere he could disappear with this woman, without any cause for her to leave.
* * *
The fire at the temple was quickly extinguished and cleaned up, considering its initial impact.
The auxiliary library of the temple, where the fire originated, was fortunately a bit removed from the main building. While there were ‘inevitable’ casualties, the priests did not mourn the loss of the one who caused the fire.
‘How could such a mistake happen?’
High Priest Alpherg, who oversaw the capital’s temple, felt the same.
Since the valuable marriage contracts, a significant source of the temple’s revenue, had been burned, they would now lose a considerable portion of the budget as compensation.
But no matter how troubled he was by financial issues, he knew how to play the game of public relations.
“You have truly done a great job, Reverend Canopus. If it weren’t for you, the entire auxiliary building would have burned down.”
“I need not your praise, Your Holiness.”
The young priest, kneeling on one knee before the High Priest, raised his head.
“I merely did my duty as a servant of Adamant.”
