Chapter 16

 Even while starting to pant, Ella looked into Larque’s eyes. Ash gray. Ash remains that had burned away in flames. Darker than that and lower in saturation. They were fierce eyes. The gentle light that had lingered eventually left nothing but lust. He suddenly stepped out of the water. Maids came in from beyond the bathroom and quickly draped him with a robe. Ella blankly watched this scene before covering her chest. Her fullness was too much for her thin arms to cover, but Ella felt ashamed.

 The emperor was ruthless. Larque lit dried tobacco leaves after putting on his purple robe. Maids approached to clean the bathtub. She hurriedly got out of the tub. She was again in wet underclothes. She stood hesitantly before him with a flushed face. The bathroom that had been full of steam grew cool as the maids had left the windows open. The man was sprawled on the couch with his long body stretched out. She glanced up at his center. The erect thing could be described as magnificent. Perhaps because of that thing as thick as the man’s arm. Her entrance had been throbbing since earlier. The familiar size that used to fill her made her mouth dry.

 “Master.”

 The sunset scattered across his black hair. Hair so black it appeared blue. Ella traced his body with her gaze. The long scars she felt when touching his chest. The bumpy surface. The violence and yet seemingly smoothly groomed dark skin and soft lips.

 “Master……”

 Her transparent underclothes revealed what was inside as they dried. Ella bit her lower lip hard. He had started ignoring her like this after they left Castle Roenel. It had been over 5 days since his touch had checked if she rode properly, if her sore spots were alright. She resented him. Ella hesitated and surrendered. She thought he wouldn’t easily give in since it wasn’t the first time she had thrown tantrums about the baby.

 He was Larque’s son after all. Everything about the baby was under his jurisdiction. From the smallest, most trivial things to matters that needed to be handled meticulously. It wasn’t something a servant girl should have any say in. He might think she was overstepping. No, it was definitely overstepping. But all Ella could do was cry and beg him or make pillow talk.

 She knelt down. The marble floor felt cold against her skin. Her cheeks were wet with tears. She crawled on her knees. Slowly, slowly. Though her pace was slow, the couch where he lay wasn’t far. His erect c*ck between his robe was dripping fluid. She looked up at the man. His impatient expression was harsh and fierce.

Ella panted softly, hoping he would come closer. The reason for her tears was that she wanted him to yield to her. As he always had, to back down. Because Larque had always been that way. Because he hadn’t listened to those around him who said that as a master of a servant girl, he should tame her with beatings like a proper master. Ella knew how much better off she was than other servant girls.

 If it weren’t for the baby, it wouldn’t have been a gloomy life. Unlike Anita, Marie, or Ligita, she didn’t scream under her master’s hands, nor did she spread her legs while sobbing loudly like them. Larque was a gentle master. Not once, not once had he raised a hand against her.

 If only it weren’t for the baby…… But the baby, the baby……

 “Master. It hurts.”

 The wound on her forehead was healing. Though not quickly. So the pain was elsewhere. It was the first time she had pleaded this way. Because it was he who wetted her dry p*ssy and filled her. She had never filled herself. Moreover, she had never crawled on her knees to him before. For other servant girls, crawling on their knees would be nothing. In truth, it wasn’t much for Ella either. Even without him teaching her, she knew her place well. But she felt hurt.

 “I need you, Master.”

 She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. Her precariously tied underclothes came undone and fell to the floor. Her br*asts, swollen from carrying the child, hung like water drops. She panted through her tears. He didn’t pull her closer.

 “Master……I’ll be good now. I won’t throw tantrums about the baby anymore.”

 She wiped her tears and sniffled softly. He held out his smoked tobacco to Ella. She stared at him blankly before placing the tobacco on the tray and then licked his fingers with her tongue. After preciously licking his index and middle fingers, she took them downward. Her entrance was sufficiently warmed. She tried to insert his fingers into her wet, damp lower region.

 “Such impudence……”

 He withdrew his hand. Ella’s crying grew louder. She was afraid of being ignored. Hating the thought of being abandoned, she had tried to leave first. She hated him. Ella burst into tears and shook her head. Larque pushed her away. Ella collapsed weakly to the floor and sobbed loudly.

 “Hic, hic master……”

 This was always how the taming went. After taking away her contraceptive medicine when she didn’t want to conceive a child, he had intercourse with her for several months. Ella couldn’t forget him who would occasionally come to mind. Before having the child, she had been afraid of such things. Because she didn’t want to live as just another servant girl, because she wanted to choose her own life, she was afraid of conceiving his seed.

 On days when she wasn’t menstruating, Ella trembled in anxiety every day. Nothing was as frightening as lying in his bed during her fertile periods. Larque had uncannily detected her fear. After discovering that she was secretly meeting an apothecary for medicine, he had rapidly grown cold. One day, he had servants search through her drawers. Ella, who had planned to take the contraceptive medicine according to her cycle, trembled like a sick dog when she saw that the missing contraceptives had fallen into his hands.

 That had been two years ago.

 ‘Should I cut off the apothecary’s hands? Or should I take the breath from his young child? Ella. What do you think?’

 Then too, the master had been half-reclining on the couch. Wearing his purple robe, he threw the medicine at her who was kneeling. The dried leaves contained in the cloth pouch spilled at her feet. Her shoulders trembled violently. Her throat was too choked to cry. Should she say she didn’t know he wanted a baby? She didn’t know.

 Sometimes Larque would ask if she liked babies. He would ask that while they lay with their heads on pillows, quietly gazing at each other. Do you like babies? It was a sweet voice. She would only breathe softly. Just staring at him blankly. She didn’t know. Marie’s babies were pretty.

 They were boys, the older one named Claude and the younger one Ewin. Both had bright blonde hair and faces that resembled both parents. If Ella bore Larque’s child, that child too would have a face exactly like its father’s and would whine to her. She carefully asked back. Do you like babies? He shook his head.

 But why…… She looked at him with a bewildered expression. She thought about the illegitimate children of nobles. A child conceived by a servant girl had nothing to do with succession. The knights of the order were the same. Nothing to do with succession…… However, it was natural for servant girls to conceive their master’s seed.

 An everyday occurrence that shouldn’t be surprising. But Ella hated it. She was afraid of being bound to him. If she hadn’t loved him, if she hadn’t held him in her heart, perhaps pregnancy wouldn’t have been frightening. But…… Even in that moment when he threatened to cut off the apothecary’s hands, she had loved him.

 She liked babies. Because they were pretty. Because they were cute. Marie’s little babies were cute, and Anita’s young children were pretty too. They were pure and lovely. To Larque’s demand to choose between the apothecary’s hands and his son’s life, Ella couldn’t answer. As she hesitated and just stared at the floor, he lifted Ella and threw her onto the bed.

 ‘Strip.’

 It was a low murmur. Ella was sniffling, not daring to even look at him.

 ‘Do you want the apothecary’s young child to die too?’

 The apothecary’s young son…… She remembered the boy with his face flushed with shyness. Ella got up and removed her dress. The door closed. The Duke’s bedroom, emptied of servants, was desolately quiet. Ella collapsed onto the bed. The man removed his purple robe and climbed on top of her. His thing stabbed at her hole. Ella twisted her waist with a moan. He poured into her. How many months had passed? Though a servant girl’s duty was typically to serve her master at night, Ella had to stay confined until she conceived a child. Confined to his bedroom, she only had intercourse with him for the purpose of pregnancy. She would eat, have s*x, bathe, and have s*x again. Those were such days. And again…… It was horrible.

 It would have been better to be hit with a riding crop on her buttocks or thighs. Better to receive his thing after being hit with a riding crop on the thighs like other servant girls. The man rose from the couch. Ella knelt before him while sniffling.

 “……I won’t be ill-mannered anymore. Master. I won’t be ill-mannered anymore.”

 She was out of breath. She begged before him while panting softly. Before having the baby, Ella had knelt like this. Promising never to take the medicine again. That she wouldn’t waste the seed he gave her. She whispered that she didn’t know he wanted a baby. When she was very young, she thought she would be beaten if she had his baby. Because Victoire had said that if a lowborn wench stole the master’s seed, she would be beaten until her back split open and she died. So she was scared when he kissed her every day and touched her br*asts.