DH 04

#4

Chapter 04.

I had no experience, but I wasn’t so naive as to not understand what this situation was. The moment I realized, I tried to spring up and push Gert away.

“Wait, Gert! Snap out of it!”

But no matter how hard I pushed, Gert didn’t budge.

Instead, he pulled me closer, more deeply.

I couldn’t just give up and do nothing. To escape this situation, I struggled desperately.

“Gert! I said, wake up! Do you know what you’re doing?”

Realizing pushing him away was futile, I raised my fist and struck his chest.

My resistance seemed to have little effect but was at least annoying him.

Gert, who had shown no reaction to anything I did until then, suddenly seized my hand with one of his.

Trapped by Gert above and below, unable to move, I met his gaze, which was boring into me.

‘…This man’s eyes are completely glazed over…’

It wasn’t just his eyes. His face was flushed in a way I couldn’t place, and his breathing was ragged. The lingering scent of thick honey from my memory mixed with the smell of liquor, tickling my nose.

This was the first time I’d seen Gert so defenseless. Seeing this unfamiliar side of him up close made my heart pound so hard my head buzzed.

Gert, who had been staring at me, buried his face in the crook of my neck and mumbled in a blunt, slurred voice, unlike his usual sharp tone.

“…You said it was good.”
“What?”
“You said you liked it too… touching mine….”

His voice was full of grievance. Faced with this unexpectedly childish side of a man six years my senior, my mind went blank for a moment.

‘…Wait, so.’

I belatedly processed his words.

‘Did I… say I liked it while drunk?’

Through the haze of memory, fragments of what I’d done in my drunken state surfaced and sank repeatedly.

Saying the heater was good, kissing it, sucking on it, climbing on top of it…

Thinking that ‘heater’ was Gert made heat rush to my face.

But there was still a chance to turn this around. I desperately tried to persuade him.

“Hey, Gert. Remember our promise? That we wouldn’t share a bed even though we’re married… I was drunk earlier too…”
“Stop?”

It seemed our communication wasn’t completely severed, as Gert, who had been rubbing his nose against my neck, slowly responded to my words.

Just as I was about to quickly nod in agreement, Gert muttered sullenly.

“Was I… lacking? If I try harder… would it work then?”
“No, I—Ugh!”

But my protest didn’t continue. As if refusing to listen, Gert’s lips swallowed mine.

“Ha, smack, ha…”

Finally released after what felt like an eternity, I desperately gasped for air, breathing shallowly.

Meanwhile, Gert rubbed his lips against my cheek, eyelids, forehead, the bridge of my nose, whispering.

“You’re cute…”

Hearing Gert’s muttered words, sighed out, made my heart flutter for a moment.

I was usually indifferent to compliments about my looks—being called pretty or a beauty goddess. What I wanted was praise for my skill, my excellent songs, for me as a minstrel.

But strangely, the moment I heard Gert call me ‘cute,’ something deep inside me trembled.

After mumbling for a while longer, Gert pulled me into another embrace. I struggled to break free again, but Gert’s arms, each as thick as my thigh, bound me tightly first. It was like being caught by a snake.

‘Come to think of it, this guy Gert once strangled a snake monster as thick as a log to death…’

Escaping on my own was impossible. In fact, I thought I shouldn’t provoke him too much. He was already drunk, his reason gone. If I struggled here and caused him to tighten his grip…

In the suffocating pressure, my chest pressed against his. Thump, thump, thump. An indistinguishable heartbeat reverberated to the top of my head.

Trapped in Gert’s arms like a mouse caught by a snake, unable to move, Gert kept kissing my jaw while holding me.

Looking at his handsome face, distorted without its usual composure, my resolve to escape from him somehow softened.

‘…He is handsome.’

Honestly, when I decided to marry Gert, I secretly harbored some expectation of sleeping with him.

It was understandable. He was the greatest hero in Petalien becoming my husband!

And in terms of looks alone, he was exactly my type among all the men I’d met.

Deciding to marry him for an epic or whatever in the first place was because I had a basic fondness for him.

So, while I rationally accepted his declaration on our wedding day that we wouldn’t share a bed, a corner of my heart was definitely disappointed.

‘But that doesn’t mean I wanted it like this…!’

Anyway, regardless of the cause and circumstances that led to this, Gert’s current ‘performance’ was certainly enough to satisfy the expectations and fantasies I once held.

‘Experience? Or is it just talent?’

The Gert I knew until now kept his distance from women, almost obsessively so. He looked down on other heroes who boasted of their conquests.

Maybe this was Gert’s first time too?

Thinking that, a sudden, inexplicable greed surged. An intense possessiveness I’d never imagined feeling enveloped me, and without realizing it, I hugged Gert back. The locks on my heart came undone too.

Perhaps surprised that I was hugging him back, I heard Gert sharply inhale above my head.

Then, as if everything until now had been a game, he suddenly transformed like a starved dog, clinging to me greedily with his whole body. His desperate gestures made him seem like someone who wanted to be attached to me by any means necessary.

Not just seeking pleasure, but gestures that seemed to crave me.

That attitude of his placed a sliver of delusion onto this relationship, born of drunkenness, that it held some sincerity.

Maybe, perhaps, Gert had wanted me too, deep down? He just couldn’t show it because of his declaration that we wouldn’t sleep together, but in reality…

Thinking that, my entire body suddenly grew sensitively hot.

Whether it was overwhelming emotion or overflowing desire, I couldn’t bear it any longer and tightened my arms around Gert.

After that, Gert didn’t let me go until dawn broke, and I was utterly exhausted, nearly passing out.

And when I came to my senses again, what I faced was Gert’s face, pale and ashen as if yesterday’s passion had been a lie.

Meeting his gaze, which seemed to say he’d made a mistake, I realized something had gone terribly wrong.