Chapter 3. Beauty (7)
Was it his imagination that something like resentment could be felt beneath that calm voice? When Eckart said nothing, Ronen released the hand he had been holding. The hand felt empty without its warmth. So much so that he unconsciously wanted to follow that warmth and embrace it again.
Unable to hide his momentary confusion at the sudden impulse, Ronen muttered in a voice full of resignation.
“I suppose there would be no one to hear a prostitute’s confession. Since I’m a sinner who goes against the scriptures. I think I briefly mistook that you, Sir, would pray for me.”
This time, Eckart caught Ronen as he turned away with a face showing no lingering attachment. Unlike his rough palms, Ronen’s hands were soft and warm. Barely holding back his senses that wanted to be drawn there, he voiced the only comfort he could offer.
“There are countless sinners who go against the scriptures. Not only those who commit fornication, but also those who worship idols, adulterers, those who covet, sodomites, thieves and drunkards, those who revile, and extortioners… God has given opportunities to them all, and they can all seek forgiveness and repent. You are the same. You are…”
For someone not skilled with words, this was already more than enough. Yet he wanted to pull out every verse he knew to comfort Ronen. He wanted her to find solace.
Eckart finally gave Ronen what he had wanted.
“…If I am acceptable to you, I will pray for you.”
Ronen’s expression brightened visibly, even through the veil covering his face. Eckart acknowledged it. He had wanted to see Ronen’s joyful expression.
However, since someone who hadn’t received ordination couldn’t commit the grave sin of impersonating a priest, the two took seats in the chapel. He believed God would generously forgive him for praying for a pitiful woman whom no one would hear confess.
Only, why was he sitting here… that was the question.
“What fortune that a Holy Knight should visit Duran—it seems even I have days when God’s grace accompanies me.”
The pleasure district of Antonello territory. Duran, the city that people from the adjacent territories, as well as the Grand Duchy of Canis and the Kingdom of Yespe, visited seeking joy. The reason he was here was because of a casual remark Ardwino had made.
Recently, Ardwino had been sticking close to Hakan, hearing various stories and bringing them to Eckart like a mother bird. Though he had no interest in others’ affairs, the problem was that most of the topics were about that woman. The Grand Duke’s woman, Ronen.
Though he had expected she wouldn’t be the Grand Duke’s wife, the fact that she was a famous prostitute in Duran was secretly surprising. Not that he judged people by appearance alone, but somehow Ronen gave off an atmosphere closer to the Grand Duke’s mistress than a prostitute.
He had been continuously bothered since accidentally encountering her during that walk. The sight of Ronen’s back as she turned away as if being dragged kept flickering before his eyes. As if belatedly regretting not chasing after her that day, when he came to his senses, he was already in Duran. It was because his heart had moved him to mount his horse.
Though he didn’t know what he wanted to confirm by coming here, one thing was certain—he had more to confess. It was surely no coincidence that he spotted the cathedral.
Eckart, who had entered the cathedral wanting to calm his troubled mind and return, thus came to meet Ronen. Though he couldn’t know her intentions or sincerity, it was certain that he had come here wanting to see her deep in his heart, and before his eyes was the woman who had led him to this place.
As soon as he learned that such a woman was being harassed by those dressed as knights but behaving like street thugs, his body moved first, eventually leading to this situation.
“I feel at peace with Sir Knight here. I never knew it would be such a joyful thing to know that even if I die, at least one person would pray for me.”
“…Are you perhaps ill somewhere?”
Worry crept into Eckart’s voice. Ronen pushed the veil covering his face back behind his head and answered with a smiling face.
“Don’t all people die? With Sir Knight’s prayers, perhaps even I might be saved from hell’s pit of fire.”
He had heard words close to curses—that he who had fallen and committed fornication would suffer eternal torment burning in hell’s fires after death—so often that his heart had grown callused, not just his ears. This was the greatest fear any believer could have.
Just the fact that someone would pray for him brought comfort. Even if he couldn’t be saved, at least the path to hell wouldn’t be lonely.
Ronen made the sign of the cross and opened his mouth.
“…I have committed great sins.”
“Please speak.”
“First, I have habitually slept with men outside of marriage. They visited my bedchamber in turns or together, and coveted my body.”
Ronen closed his eyes. His sins were too numerous to list them all.
When he remained silent, Eckart unconsciously turned his head to look at Ronen. He shouldn’t have done that. Just like that first day he saw him, Eckart’s gaze was captured and couldn’t move. Even with his eyes closed, even though those mysterious-colored pupils weren’t visible.
The moment he saw Ronen without a mask or veil covering his face, Eckart realized he had made a great mistake, but couldn’t turn back.
“It was purely for pleasure alone. I repeated lewd acts countless times.”
Seeing those moving lips brought to mind the red tongue that had been toyed with by the Grand Duke’s fingers. Eckart muttered as if bewitched.
“Lewd acts, you say…”
“We touched and licked each other’s bodies.”
The red tongue licking up the Grand Duke’s fingers seemed to flicker before his eyes, and Eckart hastily closed his eyes. But it only became more vivid. Heat rose in his body and his breathing became rough.
Though he thought he should apologize and leave this place immediately, his body wouldn’t move. He tried to control his mind with his hands clasped, but the image of Ronen committing fornication kept coming to mind, disturbing him.
That’s why he didn’t notice that Ronen was looking at him.
Just one span. That was the distance between the two.
In the space no wider than an adult man’s palm, a strange atmosphere began to circulate. Just as the breath exhaled by excited men would heat up a room, an unknown heat built up between Eckart and Ronen.
Ronen looked with bewilderment at Eckart, who sat with his hands clasped as if in prayer, eyes closed. Only now did he realize how different priests and Holy Knights were, even if they walked the same path of asceticism. To be tempted and tormented by his confession.
Hadn’t they said he was so pure and devout that he wouldn’t even set foot in Duran? The prostitutes had said that even if they danced naked in front of him, he wouldn’t bat an eye. Those were all wrong assumptions. This situation, with Eckart sitting before him shaken by his confession, proved it.
Though he might have felt disappointment in Eckart for receiving his prayer in such a way, Ronen was instead swept up in a dizzying excitement. Seized by a strong sense of immorality, his mind grew distant. He could feel the blood in his body rushing toward his center, gradually raising his head.
He vividly remembered the dream that had tormented him until dawn. Wearing this very dress, he had mingled bodies with an incubus bearing Eckart’s appearance. That face colored with pleasure, those lips letting out moans.
Though he had come to confess because he couldn’t overcome the guilt from that dream, nothing else entered his vision anymore. He couldn’t see the statue that would be looking down at him, or the murals speaking of doctrine—only the man sitting right beside him was burned into his eyes.
After hesitating briefly, Ronen opened his mouth.
“In particular, I took their members in my mouth and sucked until I inevitably received and swallowed their semen.”
“…With your mouth?”
“Yes. With my hands too, with my feet, with my face… I used my entire body to lead them down the path of pleasure. They likewise indulged in me, and I thought the pleasure those acts gave was sweet.”
Even now, he desired those acts. Right now, he wanted to kneel before that man and take his body into his mouth. He was curious about his moans, his face heated with excitement, the muscles and firm skin of his entire body, the desire hidden beneath that cool and cold exterior.
He wanted to lead him to pleasure and melt into that ecstasy himself.
Whether he felt Ronen’s burning lust, Eckart also opened his eyes to meet his gaze. He stopped his slow breathing and captured Ronen in his clear blue pupils. It felt like being sucked into the depths of a deep sea.
“Moreover, that wasn’t enough—I even had dreams. Just last night, unable to resist the temptation of an incubus that bewitched me, I mingled bodies with it.”
Ronen, who had briefly paused, stared intently at Eckart as he spoke.
“…It was an incubus with your face.”
Ronen, uttering words of temptation with his sacred and beautiful face, was truly no different from a demon wearing an angel’s skin.
Unable to endure the urge driving him, strength filled Eckart’s hands until they trembled violently. Though his face sweating cold and suffering was pitiful, it also fanned his lust, making Ronen’s voice sink dampily.
“…I can no longer endure it.”
At Ronen’s words, Eckart’s Adam’s apple bobbed greatly.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
