Mess 184
by Cristae184.
“Before Seraphy became head of the Validus family…” Luni began, then abruptly closed her mouth and beckoned Orkis and Karl over with a vigorous wave.
She asked them, “Would it be fair to call it worse than garbage?”
“Wasn’t it even lower than that?” Karl replied.
“That’s true, but isn’t that a little too blunt…” Luni said, sounding half-apologetic.
The three of them held their discussion more earnestly than ever.
“……”
Having heard it all, Seraphy simply scowled at them.
Sensing her glare, the three quietly put some distance between themselves and her.
“Now I’m getting annoyed just listening to this,” Seraphy growled.
“What’s so bad about Validus anyway? It has a grand legacy!”
“And you’re the one who built it,” Luni replied cheerfully. Orkis and Karl nodded in agreement.
They were not merely trying to flatter her out of caution.
The truth was that under the previous Count—the head of Validus before Seraphy—the family had truly been without hope or future.
What he had done was so egregious that it was a miracle the house survived at all.
“Anyway, that’s exactly the important part,” Luni went on.
“Before Seraphy became head, there was no reason for anyone to profit from Validus even if it collapsed.”
Every bit of Validus’s current honor had been achieved thanks to Seraphy.
So, as Seraphy suspected, there was no reason for Count Loria to introduce the former head to temple loan sharks with the intent to ruin the family.
There was simply nothing to gain.
“That’s true, but…”
Seraphy, too, found that point troubling.
‘Did Count Loria really have anything to do with it?’
Seraphy wondered if her suspicions weren’t becoming excessive.
Perhaps the connection was pure coincidence, and they’d simply been acquaintances.
‘…No.’
Yet she refused to let her doubts go.
‘There’s something there. I can feel it.’
To dismiss Count Loria now would be too dangerous.
For over a year, he had remained utterly elusive while somehow being linked to case after case.
At last, after hitting wall after wall, a new thought occurred to Seraphy.
‘…He moves for the Crown Prince’s sake.’
Whatever the reason, the ultimate aim of every incident in which Count Loria seemed involved was always to strengthen the Crown Prince’s faction.
“If Validus had fallen…” Seraphy murmured, almost entranced, “what would the Crown Prince have gained?”
“There’s plenty,” Luni said, counting off on her fingers.
“Baglosa would have kept a monopoly on the tea trade, the real estate law would have passed, giving them more slush funds…”
Every example she listed was something that would have happened if Seraphy had not opposed the Crown Prince and his supporters.
“They would have framed Glocke for the murder of her own people, Fenny and Lily would have kept squabbling because of mutual misunderstandings…”
“And then?”
“Let’s leave aside the lands abandoned by the gods—those were just bad luck. But after that, there’s the alumina…”
For the first time, Luni faltered.
Her half-extended fingers began to tremble.
With a look of disbelief, she turned urgently to Seraphy.
“…That can’t be.”
Orkis, shaken, stammered as well.
“Neither Seraphy nor any of the previous Validus heads knew about alumina. So how could Count Loria have possibly known about it?”
“If all this was planned in advance—!”
If Count Loria had really wanted to annihilate Validus, and introduced the temple loan sharks to the former head with that purpose…
Karl couldn’t finish. For the first time in ages, fear constricted his throat and made his breath quake.
“Urk.”
Luni couldn’t suppress her gag reflex.
But the most deeply shaken of all was Seraphy herself.
Her face went white, and for the first time in a long while, she felt true fear.
A chilling speculation appeared in her mind.
It’s impossible.
It can’t be.
Seraphy tried to deny it, again and again. Yet there was nothing else that could explain the situation.
‘He knows.’
Maybe Count Loria was someone just like herself.
‘That bastard knows the original work, too.’
The tragedy of House Baglosa dominated the headlines at once.
The victim was a recently-exposed noble criminal, and the murderer was his own son—facts that spread through the empire in an instant.
It was soon known that the killer, after murdering his father, had attempted to commit another killing, and had been apprehended in the act.
Exactly who his next target was remained uncertain, but it was reported that he’d been seen, drenched in blood and brandishing a knife, heading for the Consilium.
At that very time, the Elder Council was in session there.
“……”
With a rigid face, Orkis read the newspaper, then turned toward the fidgeting figure beside him.
“…The paper?”
Seraphy, blinking vaguely, let out a wide, jaw-cracking yawn.
With her mouth open and arms stretched forward as her body shivered, she looked very much like a sleepy puppy.
‘I wonder how Lara’s doing.’
Orkis briefly thought of the little white dog monopolizing everyone’s affection at the house, then folded up the paper and set it on the nightstand.
“You’ll get indigestion if you lie down right after eating.”
The table beside the bed still held their empty breakfast dishes.
“It’s not like I ate it all….”
As Seraphy wriggled deeper into the blankets, she stopped short, eyes drawn to Orkis’s stomach, where sharply defined abs stood out.
“How do you eat so much and stay like that?”
Seraphy slipped her hand into the open seam of Orkis’s robe.
His abs, a little sticky from the previous night’s events, gave away all they’d been up to.
“Jealous…”
No matter how much he ate, he never gained weight.
She dug her fingers into the firm but supple muscle, which twitched under her touch.
Seraphy grinned mischievously.
“Heh, I like this…”
Wrapping her arms around his waist, she squeezed.
She’d have liked nothing more than to lounge in bed a while longer, but it was time to get up.
As she pushed herself up with her left arm, she suddenly slid back under the covers. Her startled gaze quickly shadowed over.
“…Was it not enough?” Orkis asked, pushing back the blanket and tilting his head.
“Ah…”
Embarrassed, Seraphy tried to snatch the blanket back over herself. She still wasn’t used to exposing her bare body in the daylight.
“Given that answer, I must have left you wanting,” Orkis teased.
“N-no! It was amazing! My back still hurts!”
“Oh? So you did like it.”
“H-hold on—hey… mmm…”
She only realized her slip of the tongue too late; already his fingers were tracing the lines of her body.
Her own skin had become a little sticky; with more friction, Orkis found the sensation all the more satisfying.
One finger became a palm, and the palm, shifting from gentle to bold, was moving daringly in no time.
“Haa, mm…!”
They say a late-budding thief is the boldest. Orkis almost felt disgusted with himself for how eager he was to seize any chance to be near Seraphy.
But with her flushed, breathless and beautiful beneath him, he could only marvel at how he’d ever held back so long.
‘How did I restrain myself before?’
He’d kept to himself with the purity of a priest, despite this precious, lovable woman being right before his eyes.
He gained a new respect for his former self.
And felt a bit foolish, too.
“Kis…”
Her voice brought him back to himself; he bent and kissed the corner of her eye.
Seraphy let out a sound somewhere between a moan and a whimper, still dazed, lingering heat in her voice.
“We really have to get up now.”
She sounded almost like she was pouting: today was supposed to be busy, so he shouldn’t tempt her.
“……”
Just as Orkis tried to move away with a reluctant sigh—
“But…”
Seraphy hooked her legs around his waist.
“…Make it quick.”
“……”
Startled, Orkis stared down at her wide-eyed. Seraphy hid her crimson face in the pillow, mumbling beneath her breath, her tone both annoyed and needy.
Orkis grew serious.
What on earth was she thinking, acting this way?
She seemed to think he had boundless self-restraint—but it must have been a disappointing night for her.
And does she really think it will end quickly just because she asks for it?
“……”
His pride was pricked.
Firsts or not, Orkis knew there was nothing lacking in himself.
He could still hear the Validus matron’s worried plea on leave, asking him not to overdo it.
“Seraphy.”
He called her name, voice slow, thick, and sweet. Then he exhaled—slowly, deeply, at some length.
His muscled abdomen and hips rose and fell, causing Seraphy’s legs around his waist to quiver.
“Be glad we ate breakfast, at least.”
With one large hand, he began to stroke her exposed legs, working down to ankles, calves, knees.
Brushing lightly behind her knee, then up to her soft thigh.
Seraphy only then realized what she’d started.
But it was already too late—meeting the fierce, violet light in Orkis’s eyes, she knew it was futile.
Her face went red as a ripe tomato and she grew frantic.
Orkis was exasperated. What was the point of realizing now?
So he gripped her waist, pulling her firmly toward him as she tried to wriggle away.
Their faces almost touching, Orkis met her gaze.
“I won’t tire out so easily.”
And with practiced, well-built strength, he covered her at once.
“…Are you crazy?”
This was the greeting of a dedicated secretary to her superior, staggering from the bedroom only after the sun had already passed its zenith and was beginning to drop into the west.
No matter how close they’d become, Seraphy was still her boss, so Luni had always maintained formal address—never stiffly, but always with some degree of respect.
But today,
“You might as well go shout from the rooftops that you spent the entire day screwing.”
Luni had finally dropped all formality.
She thrust something into Seraphy’s hands.