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Chapter 9

But, but.

The cold face that did not give me a smile, the eyes that lifted the stick without mercy are now dotted with love.

I was deeply embarrassed by the eyes that seemed to flow with honey.

Why are you looking at me like that, teacher?

“It’s been a while since I’ve been called by that name, so it felt different. I thought I was going crazy because I missed you, Liana. No, I was crazy. I prayed that your face would rise like a mirage wherever I looked, and that I would never wake up from the dream where I could see you.”

He lowered his head, pressed his lips to my cheek, and whispered.

As his soft lips moved, his intense voice licked my skin.

I couldn’t respond.

Because I had no way of knowing what had happened.

In ten years…… What the hell happened?

“Teacher, this is Liana. Liana Mitchell.”

I even wondered if he had mistaken me for someone else.

“Do you think I look crazy too? I couldn’t have forgotten you. I thought of you every day. As naturally as you breathe when you open your eyes after dreaming, you are naturally embedded in my head first. In fact, I’m still afraid. If I turn my head, you will disappear like smoke.”

“Teacher.”

“It’s useless to look at me with those eyes. Because I have no intention of letting you go.”

What the hell happened to me in the last ten years?

I couldn’t finally get the question out of my mouth.

Blake tilted his head and came closer. His body odor filled my nostrils.

“Wait…… Ah!”

As I was about to turn my head away from Blake’s lips, the hand gently caressing my thigh tightened. My legs trembled as I felt the terrible power grabbing my thighs.

Then my head was lifted and my lips swallowed.

A voice calling for Blake rose, but it was all chewed up in his mouth.

“Ooheup, heup!”

It’s the first kiss in my life. It wasn’t sweet, and there was no tickling excitement.

The thick body odor of a man who was excited by longing and his tongue poking violently took hold of my reason. My body slumped over, unable to bear the weight of his lips rubbing harshly.

If it hadn’t been for the steel arms that tightly wrapped around my back, I would have collapsed backward.

Blake pressed our lips together and poked his tongue in every corner of my mouth, without a moment’s pause, like a thirsty man. He licked the sensitive skin on the inside of my cheeks, and thrust his tongue deep into my throat with the force to pierce my throat.

My closed eyelids trembled.

“Ha, uh…….”

A pained voice began to flow from my mouth.

It was as if my head was melting hot from the kiss that pushed me without a break.

He pulled out my whole tongue and sucked it, then crushed the soft flesh under his own tongue as if digging it. Saliva gushed out, moans and wet sounds filled the air vigorously.

“Huhp, uh, wa, wait…… !”

I couldn’t breathe, either because of the heat, or because of Blake, who was covering my mouth. I opened my mouth wide and panted wildly, then tapped him on the shoulder and chest in that kiss that seemed like it would never end.

Turning his head, he bit my cheek painfully, then crawled and swallowed my lips.

“My, my breath…… Uhp, hheuup.”

“Haa, I missed you, Liana.”

He rolled up the hem of my dress and ran his hot palms over my bare skin. He gently rubbed my side, then stroked my back as if stroking a child’s head. Then he touched each of the prominent backbones with his hand, evoking a strange sensation.

My thighs trembled at the strange sensation I had never felt before.

My eyes were wet, and my head was a mess. I pleaded with a weeping voice as I crushed the hem of Blake’s straight robe.

“The, the baby…….”

Blake stopped as he turned his head and kissed my lips deeply. His teeth bit my lip slightly and gently rubbed it with the tip of his tongue as if regretfully.

I seized the opportunity to take advantage of the quiet moment to run away, and tilted my head back.

Hughuwek was asleep and exhaling happily even in this situation.

Kiss.

Once again, our lips touched lightly and then fell apart. Blake’s gaze rested on me for a long time, then he turned to the child.

…… Could it be that Blake is Hughuwek’s father?

Nonsense.

The question of whether we were lovers suddenly came to mind. However, I didn’t ask aloud.

[Don’t trust anyone, Liana.

Never, never, never trust anyone.

Don’t trust anyone, nobody.

Liana, please, please, pl……]

The note that ‘I’ had written before I lost my memory put a lock on my lips.

…… How much can I tell Blake? Would it be alright if I revealed that I lost my memory?

How do I trust Blake?

Even when I was 16, we had never had a bond so deep as to share a secret with him.

He was just a tutor who came to my home twice a week.

To such Blake…… Can I reveal my condition right now?

I shook my head.

I got up, hugging Hughuwek tightly in my arms.

I was almost knocked over because of my weak legs, but I was able to center myself quickly before Blake reached out and grabbed my arm.

“Liana, why are you looking at me like that? Huh?”

Swallowing, I calmed my trembling voice to the best of my ability and said.

“Seeing this child…… Do you have any thoughts?”

“…… I’m fine, Liana. I can understand no matter whose child you are having. You just need to stay by my side.”

“… .”

“No way, is this my child?”

Blake stood up in surprise.

He asked again, grabbing my forearm as if he was about to crush it.

“Whatever you say is fine, please tell me, Liana. Is that child yours and mine? Huh? Please, Liana.”

Even Blake wasn’t sure if it was his own.

If he was my only lover…… I shouldn’t have gotten this kind of reaction.

Other than Blake…… Does that mean there’s another guy?

***

I have many memories of Blake, but the sharpest of them is the moment I was beaten by him.

Whip, slap!

A slender baton struck my delicate skin.

A long straight line of red marks continued on my white calf.

Exactly the third time I got hit, I bent my knees and hid my calves.

“Get up, there are seven left.”

“Haa…… It hurts so much. Can’t you give me a chance once? I’ll definitely do my homework next time. Heuk.”

Sitting in an antique velvet chair, Blake was like a god to me at this moment. The only savior who could rescue me from that wretched rod.

Without shame, I knelt before Blake. Tears welled up in my eyes and my vision blurred.

“What would I do if you made a fuss?”

“Get, get hit double…….”

“Get up.”

What was I thinking, savior? Even if I stabbed him, it was clear that not a drop of blood would come out. Even when a ten-year-old young student begged like this, there was no way he would care.

I was a fool for expecting mercy from him.

Where did my father bring such a human being as this teacher….?

“Get up.”

I climbed into the desk with an expression that I hated him to death.

“Ahk!”

Blake suddenly grabbed my calf in one hand and gave me a tight squeeze. The hem of my skirt and the flesh of the calf were crushed all at once in his grasp.

“Even if you look at me like that, I won’t let you go.”

How did I look at you?

I wanted to protest that I looked at him because I thought he wouldn’t look back at me, but I had never had a good time talking back to Blake.

I pouted and rolled my skirt up to my knees.

Watching Blake untie his watch and roll up his sleeves, I frustratedly said, ‘Today I’m dead.’

As I later found out, Mr. Blake was not a Crovatium person. I had never heard of his family, so I assumed he was a country nobleman with a small estate at best. However, it turned out that he was the youngest prince of Letonia, a kingdom located on the eastern continent.

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