MHHC Chapter 101

Turning Point

Valentin left delicate kisses across her skin.

Past her earlobe and jawline, down her slender nape and collarbone, and below...

Each sensation was unfamiliar, something she'd never felt before.

His breath scattered across her skin like embers. Sparks crackled and flew in the wake of his slow exhalations.

"Ah, Valentin..."

Adelheid gasped, releasing hot breaths. He caught her hands as they wandered aimlessly through the air and guided them to encircle his neck.

Adelheid clung to Valentin's nape desperately, like someone standing at a cliff's edge. His hands, hot as heated iron, caressed her slowly.

"..."

Adelheid bit her lips until they paled, acutely feeling every stimulus blooming from his fingertips. Feverish breaths escaped her.

His movements were utterly selfless, focused solely on her—tearfully delicate and tender.

"Adele."

At his call, she barely lifted her dampened eyelids to look at Valentin.

The moment their eyes met—his deepened with concentration on her—her heart lurched. Just as her gaze clouded with anticipation—

"Ah..."

He grasped her chin and devoured her lips again. The impatient heat of mutual longing permeated their breaths. Their entangled breathing deepened feverishly in moments.

Her body softened beneath his solid frame. Through a single thin layer of clothing, she felt his racing heartbeat against her pressed chest.

"Val, entin, I, now, please..."

She pleaded without knowing what she wanted. As he gazed at Adelheid with flushed cheeks as if entranced, he finally rose and removed the rest of his clothing.

Adelheid noticed thin scales covering the lower half of his torso.

As if the parts that would touch her must be entirely his own, unmixed with any other skin.

In the past, such a sight would have terrified her. But now, strangely, even that felt endearing. All of it was welcome.

His obsessive fixation on her, yet his tenderness that couldn't forcefully impose anything, that fierce patience—

"Valentin..."

The moment she called his name like a sigh, he surged over her roughly. Adelheid whimpered helplessly, her lips pressed against the back of her hand.

Each time he drove into her, an overwhelming sense of fulfillment crashed over her. It felt like being soaked by inescapable waves.

"Don't hide."

He entwined his fingers through her delicate knuckles and pressed them against the bed.

He lowered his lips to her skin, exposed without concealment. He left bite marks greedily across her soft flesh.

Even with such savage eyes, Valentin remained supremely tender. Ticklish breaths burst between her swollen lips. Her toes curled and her spine stiffened.

"Ah..."

She let out a sigh-like gasp unconsciously. Being held completely in his embrace and gently rocked—it drove her mad with pleasure.

He never rushed her or drove her savagely.

From beginning to end, as if only her fulfillment mattered, as if nothing else was important.

"Valen... tin..."

Finally, he pulled Adelheid's slender trembling waist into his embrace with all his strength as she sobbed.

The end was not far off.

She dreamed again. A forest in the rain.

There Adelheid encountered 'the Princess.' At the approaching presence, the woman looking at her feet raised empty eyes.

"So it's you."

A smile like a sigh lingered briefly on the Princess's lips before fading.

"Watching this life of yours, I wanted to ask something. Why did you say you wanted to live as a human when Valentin gave you the chance?"

Adelheid cautiously stepped forward. The answer came immediately without need for contemplation.

"Because I'd always been treated like livestock rather than a person. I couldn't entrust a life lived as someone's possession to yet another."

The Princess stared at Adelheid as if demanding further explanation. Adelheid carefully selected words to complete her sentence.

"When I've accomplished nothing myself, I cannot stand upright by borrowing another's abilities. Even if possible for a moment, living through eternity that way... would lead to greater misfortune."

"..."

"Does that answer your question?"

"One more thing. Why did you keep close those who poured hatred on you? You even cherished them considerably."

The subject was ambiguous. It seemed like questioning about the Ansgarians, or perhaps reproach about Greta. The answer was actually clear.

"I don't want to answer anger with anger, hatred with hatred. I believe someday there will be a beginning to a virtuous cycle. I'm insufficient, but I hope to one day dare obtain such peace."

The Princess laughed somewhat sharply.

"Too much. People's long hatred taught you pointless submission."

Well. She only half agreed with that.

To say she had no desire to avoid being hated would be a lie, but that yearning now seemed as old as the soot stuck beneath a pot's bottom.

"My peace of mind is important to me. Rather than spending a lifetime hating someone, I want to look around and live gratefully for the present, however small."

"...Even so, a virtuous cycle. Isn't that an overly naive thought? You believe in such things?"

"Isn't belief humanity's privilege? That insignificant belief ultimately established gods and brought their decline. Human wishes make divinity dwell even in dead bodies."

The moment she indirectly referenced Valentin, the Princess glared at Adelheid with all her strength as if detesting her thoroughly.

But that anger didn't last. As if lacking even the audacity for it, she soon lowered her thin eyelids weakly.

"...if only, that day..."

The voice was so small she almost let it pass like wind if she hadn't been listening closely. The Princess completed her words with great difficulty.

"...That day, what choice do you think you would have made?"

'That day.' The day the Princess reflected on so deeply could only be one moment. A moment pooled in an instant, so regretted she remained pitifully fixed, unable to leave.

Adelheid calmly observed the Princess trembling while clutching bloodstained hems.

The blood soaking the white collar must have flowed from Valentin's flesh. Adelheid barely tore her gaze from that horrific mark.

"Please answer."

The Princess and she were divided only into upstream and downstream—a single river channel. So she dared to speak.

"Perhaps I would have made the same choice as you."

"..."

"But I wouldn't just keep regretting anymore."

From the Princess's eyes as she stared blankly at Adelheid, a single transparent tear dropped onto her cheek.

The pale Princess's lips trembled finely, then she exhaled as if deflated.

"You are me, but you don't seem quite the same existence as me."

"..."

"But this time..."

The Princess's final voice was blocked by the sound of rain and didn't reach her.

Was it a blessing? A curse? Adelheid watched as if entranced as a faint smile bloomed on the face resembling her own.

It was when she twisted her features against the increasingly heavy downpour.

"Adele."

The Princess's form blurred like a softly molded clay figure, then stood again in that place as a tearfully familiar existence. Valentin—it was him.

"Adelheid."

The voice calling her was vivid as if real. When she reached out to respond, he tilted his torso and buried his face in her palm. Tender breath spread through the air.

"You promised to pity only me this time."

She would. Nodding while answering repeatedly, he smiled brilliantly beyond measure.

Only after seeing that smile did Adelheid suddenly realize this was a dream.

She opened her eyes to dawn. Adelheid blinked slowly to separate dream from reality. Though not a nightmare, cold sweat dampened her back.

'This is...'

The imperial palace, the room, and Valentin. She regained stability from Valentin's warmth embracing her waist tightly. Gradually the dream faded and reality returned.

Adelheid exhaled slowly and buried her forehead against Valentin's broad, solid chest.

His body temperature and weight touching her bare skin provided pleasant stability.

Even looking back, last night's events felt dreamlike.

A succession of overwhelming moments, focused entirely on each other, entwined and connected.

The skin rubbed beneath his rough palms, the warmth of scattered breaths, the voice resonating low against her heated ears.

Even pleading almost desperately at the end, unable to match his stamina.

Despite such passion, she felt not even minor muscle pain. Thanks to Valentin's consideration throughout the long night so she wouldn't be crushed.

When she shifted for a more comfortable position in his embrace, Valentin reflexively tightened his hold to not lose her.

"Adele. Are you awake?"

He whispered, wrapping both arms seamlessly around Adelheid's waist. His voice, deepened profoundly with drowsiness, resonated in her ears.

"Does anything hurt? How do you feel?"

"I, I don't hurt, um..."

"Mm."

"I'm... fine..."

At her barely mustered answer, Valentin laughed, his Adam's apple bobbing low. His veined hand lifted her chin as she avoided his gaze.