As I entered, a soft knock ca at the door. Knowing who it was, I responded with a carefree tone.
"Co in."
Lady Yuan entered the room with practiced elegance, a bowl of water balanced in one hand, a towel draped over the other. She placed the bowl on the table with the kind of care most people reserved for holy relics, then bowed gracefully.
"Lord Cade... please let tend to your wounds."
I sighed and stared at her helplessly. If I refused right now, we were just going to start another back and forth argunt as we had been doing for the past few weeks. The woman was persistent. Infuriatingly so.
Lady Yuan was a deeply caring and affectionate person, unlike any other woman I had fucked before. Lira ca close, but Lira wasn’t openly affectionate the way this woman was. Lira’s care ca in sharp glances and practical gestures, easily dismissed as sothing else. Lady Yuan’s care was... obvious.
If I hadn’t warned her against showing preference outside this room she would already be doing it — was already doing it, honestly — and Po had started looking at with the kind of suspicion that made want to check over my shoulder.
Although, I suspected that was only a matter of ti regardless.
I tapped my thighs and said with an unhealthy smile.
"I will allow you, if you do it while sitting on my thighs..."
She hesitated for a mont, looking at with uncertainty etched deep within her eyes. Sothing flickered there — calculation, maybe, or resignation dressed up as acceptance. Then she took gentle steps forward even in her hesitation, and slowly folded into my lap.
I grabbed her waist and laid my head against her chest, sighing deeply. The tension in her body eased almost imdiately, her earlier wariness lting away until a delighted smile settled across her face.
’Strange woman.’
She brought her hand to my head and patted it gently.
"Lord Cade... your wounds."
I exhaled and removed my head from her breasts, looking at her.
She smiled and dragged the table closer to us, then dipped a corner of the towel into the water and began to clean the blood on my face. Her touch was light as she worked across my jaw, the corner of my mouth, the skin near my eyes.
The wound stung. I was unable to pretend it didn’t, not with her watching this closely. In fact, the way her eyes contorted with so much care made unwilling to pretend. There was sothing about being looked at like that — like I was sothing worth being careful with — that made the performance feel exhausting.
’When did I beco soone who enjoys this?’
"Lord Cade... have you ever wielded a sword before now?"
I raised a brow at her, then thought about the question. It wasn’t like there was much to think about, really. Sure, there were fencing programs my father often attended, but they had never interested one bit. Not even by mistake.
"Uh, no. Why do you ask?"
She seed surprised, then smiled and continued to wipe near the corner of my lips, her eyes narrowing in focus.
"You move well, and execute your attack patterns so effectively, unlike ... it took my entire childhood to be able to swing a sword properly, and yet... Lord Cade, you’re just really different."
’Goodness, I feel like a fraud when she’s hyping like this...’
I was tempted to tell her I wasn’t that good, but I only wondered what good that would do. Besides, it wasn’t like I hadn’t tried before. She’d just find a better explanation for why I was secretly a genius or blessed by fate or whatever story she’d constructed.
She continued nonetheless.
"I’m sure that if Lord Cade masters footwork, you’ll beco a peerless swordsman in no ti."
I paused for a mont, thinking about what she had said.
’For her to say sothing like that, then she must be fairly good with the sword herself. Co to think of it, she carries a sword around.’
Even now, that sa sword was resting against the wall near the door. Sotis she carried it with her; other tis, she left it in my room. I’d started to notice its presence the way you notice furniture — always there, part of the landscape of this strange situation I’d found myself in.
"Lady Yuan, how good are you with the sword?"
She paused, the damp towel covering just above the corner of my eye.
Then her face fell. "I’m not so good, Lord Cade... my mother... she was very disappointed in because I was a slow learner and I was weak."
I studied her for a mont, noting the careful way she held her expression together. Not practiced — more like exhausted. The kind of control that ca from years of having this conversation with herself.
"And yet, here you are going to take your rightful place," I said with a small smile.
But it suddenly felt like I had said sothing wrong. There was a small smile on her face, but it didn’t settle right with . The edges of it were too sharp. Too deliberate.
"I guess..."
I nodded, a little worried about that look but at the sa ti trying to suppress the worry. It wasn’t my place to dig. Wasn’t my place to care beyond what benefited .
And yet.
"So will you teach ?"
Lady Yuan raised her head in shock.
I grinned at her, grabbing her ass and pressing it tight within my grip.
"Teach all you know about the sword, and I will help you grow stronger. I’m sure you felt it, didn’t you... the slight difference from before."
She narrowed her brows, and seeing that I knew I was right, I pressed further.
"If we continue to have sex, you’ll continue to grow stronger, and it might even help you when you return ho. In return for helping you grow stronger, you can also help grow stronger by teaching how to use the sword better."
Lady Yuan seed lost in her thoughts, her fingers going still against the towel. Then her voice ca, quieter than before.
"But Lady Kass..."
"Let worry about Kassie. I want to absorb as much knowledge as I can."
She was silent again, her brows furrowed as she wandered across her mind. Then she looked at , the furrows deepening.
"How... how are you making grow stronger..."
Her eyes widened just after she asked the question, sothing clicking into place behind them.
"Lord Cade... are you a cultivator? You’re one of those esteed people?"
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