Chapter 7

 The woman beneath him went wild. Her slender waist arched. Unable to bear the pleasure, she scratched his shoulder with the hand that had been holding his head. Larque let out a low groan along with a sigh and hugged her. He held her tightly in his arms and kissed the skin below her round br*asts. Her body smelled of the fishy scent of the river. Was it the Yoluz River? The village was situated by a small river. A rough wasteland untouched by human hands and a small river like a stream. The villagers called it the Moon River because the moonlight shimmered like the surface of the water. The woman was like a mermaid who lived in that river. A mermaid trapped in the river, unable to return to the sea. Larque thought of the woman standing alone in the shallow water of the river, bathed in the moonlight.

 He had told her to warm the bed, and she had disappeared before his eyes. If she was going to leave the barracks, she should have told him she was leaving, but she didn’t seem to think about such things, even as she walked towards a dangerous place like the river. If she had been a slave or a servant, he would have been able to take her life for disobeying his orders, but she was Ella. He couldn’t lay a finger on Ella. He couldn’t beat her or slap her. He had never even thought of such a thing. How could he lay a hand on this small, thin woman who was like a delicate china doll? He kissed her forehead and called her name.

 “Ella.”

 A sigh-like moan escaped his lips as well. Ella sobbed even in the missionary position. She diligently moved her hips. The woman clung to him. Her p*ssy was leaking fluids. She suddenly tried to touch their juncture.

 “Ah, ah! Master. There, ah! I think it’s wrong. Ah……Nn……”

 Larque didn’t answer and kissed the whimpering woman’s lips. She was still trying to touch their juncture, where he was inserted. He tried to stop her, then let her be. She often wanted to touch his c*ck while he was inside her. She didn’t seem to be very interested at other times, but when his c*ck was inside her, her eyes would widen.

“Big? Is it big?”

 Larque asked. Sweat ran down his temples. He brushed back the hair that covered his forehead. His hair was black and short. Ella, seemingly out of her mind, touched his hair and looked down at the c*ck that was buried in her hole, hitting her cunt. The brown c*ck was hideously large. Ella touched the foam that clung to it. Larque pulled his c*ck out of her gaping p*ssy and put it in Ella’s hand. His c*ck was the size of his forearm. Its volume and length were not like those of a human. The blood-engorged thing twitched toward Ella. She stared down at it with her legs spread wide. It was a disgraceful position for anyone to see. But in bed, it was always just the two of them. The status of master and servant girl. That clear vertical relationship didn’t bother them. It didn’t feel important. Only the pursuit of pleasure mattered. Ella stared blankly at the long, horse-like c*ck, then grabbed it and put it back into her hole. The c*ck slipped inside her without resistance. They panted again. The night was long, and dawn came slowly. The man and woman were entangled like snakes, unable to break free from each other.

 ***

 After suppressing the Remond rebels of the colony, the king’s knights ordered their servants to take down their tents. The lord who governed the border area and the knights escorted them. The dead soldiers were burned and cremated, and the surviving soldiers lined up again in formation. The servants loaded their belongings onto donkeys, and the servant girls rode mules or mule-drawn carts.

 Ella was stiff on the day of their departure. Marie burst into tears, and the servant girls were so stiff that they could hardly breathe. Ella looked at the body of the woman who had thrown a stone at her a few days ago. She was unrecognizable. From head to toe. At first glance, she didn’t even look human. There wasn’t a single spot on her body that was unscathed, and it sent chills down Ella’s spine. The crushed fingernails and insteps, the torn chest, and the scalp that looked as if it had been ripped off made her feel sick. Ella knew the woman. She would have recognized her even if her eyes had been gouged out while she was still alive.

 She was the sister of the woman who had poured sewage on Marie, and she was also the woman who had made Ella’s forehead bleed a few days ago. Ella trembled, clutching her chest. Marie cried like she was going crazy. Ella couldn’t do anything for a while because Marie was crying so much. Ligita, the oldest of them, took Marie and left first.

 The woman’s sister had poured sewage on Marie. It was sewage mixed with animal excrement. Rotten food was also mixed in. Ella remembered that incident. And she also remembered the ringleader of that incident. Not that it mattered if she remembered. She had been executed by Sir Endymion’s hand. The man’s hand was cruel and merciless. He was a man who cared about his servant girls, but to the rest of the world, except for his servant girls, he was a man who acted like a devil.

 Marie knew the man’s disposition. That’s why she didn’t say anything. But now the woman’s sister was dead. Her neck had been cut off and her head put on a spike. Before she was beheaded, she had been flogged to death. A knight’s servant girl was such a personal possession to a knight. To touch her was tantamount to defiling his honor. Knights were cold to their servant girls. They would molest them and grab them at will. Nevertheless, they were a part of them that no one but the knights could defile.

 A day or so after the woman’s head had been put on a spike, Ella realized that they were out of milk in the kitchen, so she went down to the village with Marie. There was the lord’s castle in the area where they had set up camp, but it was not within walking distance. They got most of their food supplies from the village. Ella went down to the village with Marie to get some much-needed groceries. And……

 “Are you alright, Ella?”

 Anita asked. The woman’s gentle green eyes were filled with concern. Ella felt nauseous. That woman had been alive just a few days ago. Even after her sister was beheaded, her spirit had not been broken. On the contrary, it seemed to have burned even more fiercely with anger. It was a mistake to come down to the village. No, they had chosen the wrong house to stop by. They should have known what kind of house it was. Ella trembled and shuddered.

 It was Larque’s doing. Larque had tortured her and then hanged her alive. Ella trembled and hugged Anita. Anita hugged her back and turned away from the body.

 “I was told it was a farmhouse with dairy cows. There aren’t many in the village…… Anita, I didn’t know. I didn’t know.”

 Ella hugged Anita’s back tightly. How could she have known that the house they happened to stop by would be the house of the dead woman? It was a military border area, but the number of residents in the village was not small. Ella was horrified. She was disgusted with herself. She shouldn’t have come down to the village. She should have borrowed a mule and headed to the lord’s castle, even if…… The tears wouldn’t come. Her chest felt tight, and it was hard to breathe.

 “Ella.”

 Sir Arthur’s voice came from behind her. Ella opened her closed eyes. She pushed Anita away and looked at Sir Arthur. She lowered her head, her clothes disheveled.

 “Get in the carriage.”

 Sir Arthur muttered without emotion. His youthful voice was low and steady, as colorless as his youthful features. He was no longer a boy, even in name. Normally, she would have gotten into the carriage without a word, but she didn’t want to now. She looked up and stared at Sir Arthur.

 “I don’t want to.”

 “Ella.”

 Anita grabbed her arm. It was a sign not to disobey. Even though he was a squire, his status was different from that of a servant girl. Even though he was a knight’s squire, he was still a nobleman, and in a manner of speaking, he was like an apprentice, so he was of a precious status that could not be compared to that of a servant girl. Moreover, Arthur was a man who would receive the official title of knight once he returned to the capital. When Ella shook her head violently and showed her thorns, Arthur stared at her intently and then looked at the corpse hanging from the tree. Anita watched the man who showed no shred of emotion and closed her mouth.

 But Arthur moved without a word. Anita sighed. She rubbed Ella’s back. The sun, like the yellow flesh of a plum, caressed the woman’s forehead. The wound on her white, doughy skin stood out more than usual today. The corpse hanging from the tree spoke volumes about how her master had taken the wound.

 It wasn’t long before a soldier came running up to them, panting. Ella remembered that he was the soldier who had been guarding Sir Larque’s barracks. She looked at him with a somewhat sullen face.

 “The Lord has summoned you.”

 The out-of-breath soldier said, wiping his dark cheek. Ella followed him.

 The red cloak fluttered in the wind. Ella recalled the texture she had felt as she was wrapped in the fabric. Then she looked at him without a word. The wind ruffled her long silver hair. His eyes stole glances at every nook and cranny of Ella’s body before settling on the piece of cloth covering her forehead. The wound on her forehead had originally been a little larger and deeper. It was only natural since it hadn’t been just any stone. It had been large enough to kill her if it had hit her head-on. Ella remembered the stone and the hand flying in a parabola. The woman had been fuming, and she had been dazed, blood trickling down her forehead.