Chapter 15

 She didn’t want to hand it back to the wet nurse. Larque didn’t respond and removed his armor himself. The metal pieces covering his shoulders, arms, and abdomen fell to the floor one by one. Before long, the man’s naked body was revealed. When Ella looked at him with embarrassed eyes, he silently entered the bath and took his place.

 “Ella.”

 “But I’m holding the baby……”

 “Come in.”

 “But……”

 “Come in and attend to me.”

 “……”

 “Even if a child is born between you and me, it doesn’t change your status.”

 His tone was cold. Ella bit her lips and lowered her gaze. It felt like being stabbed in the side with an ice pick. She put the baby down on the floor briefly and removed her clothes. When she took off the outer garment the maids had put on her, her undergarments were revealed. Holding the baby again in thin undergarments that openly revealed her cleavage. The baby that had been crawling on the floor was back in her arms.

She dipped one foot in the bathtub. As she hesitated, he pulled her arm, seemingly impatient with her demeanor. Ella lost her balance and stumbled. The man caught her and the child effortlessly. Being of Durac’s seed, the child was quite heavy. Separated from its birth mother, the baby stared at its unfamiliar father with round eyes.

 “Give him to me.”

 Ella, now settled in the tub, stretched out her arms. He didn’t turn his head toward Ella. He only stared at the child.

 “Maa… hmm……”

 The child babbled. It wasn’t a cry mixed with tears. However, Ella grew anxious and needlessly bit her lips. The child’s round eyes returned to her several times. The little one must have sensed the coldness in its father’s gaze. Ella carefully observed the man across from her.

 It was a gaze devoid of warmth. Like holding someone else’s child. Though his posture holding the baby in one arm was stable, that was all there was to it. Ella pleaded with him once more.

 “Please give him to me. He’s uncomfortable.”

 “Are you anxious?”

 “Of course not.”

 “Your eyes say otherwise.”

 “No.”

 “Are you afraid I might submerge this child?”

 “……”

 “Ella.”

 “……How could you… how could you say such terrible things? He’s your son, Master. Why would you say such horrible……”

 “But that’s the look in your eyes, Ella. Just look at how you’re trembling. If there were a mirror, I’d like to show you.”

 The man adjusted his hold on the child. His manner of holding the infant was quite familiar. Ella watched the father and son with suspicious eyes. Contrary to her concerns, the child in its father’s arms was smiling brightly. Despite his wet underclothes, the baby’s mouth and eyes were brimming with smiles, seemingly comfortable in the water. The man removed the child’s underclothes. His touch was careful.

 “He seems to be enjoying it.”

 Eselmund appeared comfortable and happy. The child held tight to his father’s sturdy arm as he swam in the bathtub. Larque helped his son swim while holding him against his chest.

 “Papa……”

 Eselmund looked at Larque. He wore a faint smile as he cradled his son’s back. The veins standing out on his hand looked dark. Though the scars of blisters on each knuckle must have been hard, Eselmund didn’t return to Ella. Suddenly, sadness washed over her. She lifted her head with melancholic eyes.

 The man’s gaze, though moist, remained fixed in place, never softening.

 “Eselmund likes you, Master.”

 Their young son loved Larque. It was natural. He was at an age to love both parents. An age to be desperate with that love, an age to need as much as he loved.

 “Papa!”

 Eselmund, playing in the water, turned to Larque. The child suddenly pointed at his mother and called out “Mama!” Ella stretched her arms toward him, her cheeks flushed pink.

 However, Eselmund shook his head vigorously and buried his cheek in his father’s arm.

 “Come here.”

 Larque gestured toward Ella. She carefully lifted her hips and moved. The three family members sat closely together in the spacious marble bathtub. Though befitting a noble’s bath, it was palatially spacious and luxurious, yet they sat huddled together. Larque’s arm wrapped around her waist. Ella didn’t resist. Side by side, they held their child together.

 It was a sweet moment. He sat the child he held in one arm on Ella’s thigh and washed the child’s face with water. She looked at the child’s clear face and grinned. Since conceiving the child, she found herself smiling for no reason more often. The child was such an immense joy that it reduced all the worries that came with pregnancy into a single context.

 She played with his white, soft cheeks. Eselmund had inherited everything from Larque. The soft black hair and gray-blue eyes. His eyebrows and nose bridge were the same, and his lips were pleasantly plump, true to Duke Durac’s bloodline.

 Sitting on his father’s thigh and splashing water, Eselmund grabbed Ella’s chest. The child naturally nuzzled against his mother’s br*ast. The way he flapped his arms while splashing water made him look just like a baby bird. Ella found it so adorable that she stroked his soft black hair. Larque stopped the child as he tried to latch onto her nipple. He took his son, who was squirming and clinging to his mother, and floated him in the water.

 “It’s not feeding time, you shouldn’t bother your mother.”

 Though his tone was deliberately stern, his words were affectionate. The baby, whose milk teeth were starting to come in, opened his mouth wide as if he had much to say. Larque, who had been holding the baby’s armpits, carried him in one arm and turned to Ella.

 “I don’t mind.”

 “He’ll develop bad habits.”

 “But it’s fine……”

 She narrowed her eyes and watched Eselmund. The way he smiled brightly while holding onto Larque’s arm didn’t seem to show any discomfort. That was a relief.

 “He looks so much like you, Master. Don’t you think so too?”

 “Of course, he’s my son.”

 Ella lost her words. She looked at him with a faint smile. The baby playing and splashing water nuzzled against his arm. The way he blinked suggested he would soon start fussing.

“Give him to me. He seems tired.”

 “Already?”

 “He’s just a baby.”

 “Seems it’s time to put him to sleep.”

 Ella nodded. As she tried to get out of the water, Larque rang the bell. Servants waiting beyond the bathroom door came in carrying large towels on trays. Larque lifted the baby from Ella’s arms. She covered her chest while watching the baby being wrapped in a large towel.

 “Come here.”

 The maids carrying the baby left the bathroom. The image of the baby whimpering and looking back at Ella kept overlapping in her mind. The man’s long arm grabbed her. Ella turned to look at him with a pained expression.

 “Didn’t I play with the baby? Didn’t I cherish him as much as you wanted?”

 “……”

 “Ella.”

 It felt like a pin stabbing one side of her chest. It was always like this. This was how he had always tamed her. He knew what she wanted but wouldn’t give it to her. He always mocked her while pretending to be generous, pretending to embrace her with tolerance.

 “Master.”

 Larque was watching her with his arms resting on the bathtub rail. His lips were heavily sealed. Ella clenched her molars. Her chest ached. He was the man who knew best what she wanted. What her weaknesses were, what she feared most. Rather than having the baby be rejected by him, it would be better to flee to San Parvale. There was no need to endure him if that was the life ahead.

 She looked up at the man. It was a chilly silence. One side of her chest began to ache. She sat beside him with a face that looked ready to cry. She looked at the man once more. His sealed lips made her flinch. Ella gently stretched her arms and wrapped them around his neck. The man still didn’t move. He didn’t wrap his arms around her waist. She lifted her hips and kneaded his firm thighs. Then she wrapped her hand around his half-erect center. She moved closer to kiss his closed lips. His eyes hadn’t softened. She thought of Eselmund. The face that resembled Eselmund. The face that Eselmund needed. The face of the man her baby loved.

 The man was occasionally affectionate to the baby. Because he knew what she wanted. That’s why he became affectionate to the baby when he wanted to subjugate Ella.

 “Master……please soften your heart.”

 They had been rocky even before spending a day in Roman territory. Being a servant girl who wouldn’t easily yield once upset, Larque had struggled with her. This time it was Ella. She rubbed her p*ssy against her master’s thigh like a proper servant girl. In her wet underclothes, she pressed her br*asts against his chest. She wrapped her arms around his neck with the hand that had been touching his center. She gently overlapped their lips and sucked on his soft skin.

 “Please. Please……”

 The man’s thighs were like stone. What was being crushed was her p*ssy. The firm muscle pressed against her entrance. Ella palpitated her hole while touching his chest. The man’s n*pples were standing erect like hers. It was miserable to beg for love. It was even more so to shake her hips asking the man she loved to care for the child born between them….. How long could this continue?

 “Ahk!”

 While whimpering with her lips bitten, her nipple was pinched. She opened her closed eyes and looked at him. They were beast-like eyes. Eyes parched with lust. Eyes stained with thirst. The man was familiar to Ella. That expression of his was also very familiar and natural.

 “Hnngh!”

 He sucked on her nipple. Lukewarm br*ast milk slid down his throat. Ella whimpered and lifted her hips. The man’s lips that had been biting her nipple slid to one side. His thick hands that had been kneading her br*asts now massaged both of her buttocks. Her p*ssy between her spreading and closing buttocks began to throb.