The Guardian Knight of Affection-Starved Young Ladies - Chapter 133



132 – Richeza (04)

133.

The head of the Zikaud family.

Richeza Zikaud’s father was, in a word, nothing short of a beast.

“…Dad?”

“Oh, Richeza. Did you sleep well?”

Richeza had known this fact for quite some time.

One day when she was six years old.

Richeza witnessed her father with another woman for the first time.

It was a day when she was very young and innocent.

Richeza couldn’t possibly relate that scene to the fact that her father didn’t love her mother.

Because she thought her father was a great person.

A great person who led the Zikaud family excellently.

To six-year-old Richeza, her father was such a being.

The reputation of the Zikaud family was not bad in social circles.

No, rather, it could be said to be good.

And that is still true to this day.

The head of the Zikaud family falls short of being a great person.

But people thought he was still a capable head of the family.

A decent position in the empire and social circles.

The head of the Zikaud family was young and had a decent face.

It was not uncommon for a woman Richeza had never seen before to be in the mansion.

“Ah, Dad… What about Mom…”

“Is she your daughter?”

“My lovely daughter. Richeza, we have a guest, so play by yourself for a while.”

“But…”

Every few months.

Sometimes every few weeks.

There was always a woman Richeza had never seen before fawning over her father.

And among them, her mother was never there.

Richeza realized that her father didn’t love her mother when she was ten years old.

They say that the sooner a young lady finds a match, the more she repays the favor.

That wasn’t an exception for Richesa either.

By ten, she’d had s*x ed.

Her ears were practically bleeding from lectures on the proper conduct for a woman.

Be demure.

Don’t expose your body carelessly.

That night should’ve been just another normal night.

She was thirsty, so she’d snuck out of her room in the middle of the night.

It was the dead of night, everyone was asleep, yet her father’s room had a light on.

Naturally, to ask what he was doing so late, she headed there.

And then, just as she was about to open the door…

Strange noises reached her ears.

Whimpering moans.

Her father’s voice, akin to an animal’s.

A sound she’d never heard before, a continuous splashing sound.

A thought suddenly occurred to her, and she didn’t open the door all the way.

Naturally, the thought she mustn’t be discovered was the reason.

And what she saw through the small crack in the door was burned into her mind like an indelible brand.

Did her father not love her mother?

That kind of thing was done with someone you loved.

She’d been taught it was done with someone you were married to.

But her father intertwined bodies with countless women other than her mother.

Sometimes, the family’s maid would be beside her father.

At first, she was bewildered.

She was also uneasy.

If her father didn’t love her mother, what would happen to her mother?

*

Her father doesn’t love her mother.

A political marriage.

They said it wasn’t uncommon for couples bound by that to come to like one another, every so often.

But that wasn’t something she could say to her father.

“Richessa.”

“…Yes?”

“You’re beautiful, just like your mother. Won’t you come here?”

“…”

The man wearing the mask of a father, did not hide his desire, not even from his own daughter.

Though he never had before.

Father asked if we wouldn’t take a bath together after so long.

It was unbearably disgusting.

That night was the first I spent retching, all through the dark.

Father no longer seemed so impressive.

He started to look like a beast in human skin.

It’s often said, beasts are honest in their desires.

I never thought that was a bad thing.

Because they are beasts.

If father’s actions aren’t different from theirs.

Can I see father as human?

I don’t know.

The sticky gaze sweeping over my body is disgusting.

The way he is now, having never cared before, is disgusting.

I started avoiding the man who is my father, more and more.

It’s not that I didn’t try to tell mother.

But mother, always gazing out the window, would just leave when I tried to speak of it, as if to say ‘deal with it’.

My brothers and sisters weren’t much different.

Arrogance and vanity.

Always uttering the name Jicaud.

Everything had to be the way they wanted it.

My brother’s marriage prospects changed countless times.

My younger brothers, they caused more than a few problems in society using the name Jicaud.

Did I do something wrong?

Is this how all nobles are?

Told to cherish my body.

Taught to always be demure.

Maybe, it’s clear that these beasts of a family are the strange ones.

“Miss Zikawood…!”

“I have nothing to say. Tell your family yourselves.”

“I was just being hasty…”

How many times is this now?

A man approaching.

From noble mtl dot com

A man I happened to meet.

Even the men my family forcefully entangled me with.

They were no different from the beasts of my family.

Barely a few weeks.

Barely a few days, and they couldn’t hold back.

Not even in an official relationship, they’d look at my body so blatantly.

They’d always make excuses and try to create an atmosphere if given the chance.

Maybe I’m just being sensitive.

But then the women I saw as a child, beside my father, constantly changing, come to mind.

Their moans echo and won’t leave my head.

I hated that they’d look at me with the same eyes as my father, eyes that would just devour my body.

Am I not worth seeing?

Am I just a tool to fulfill their desires?

I remembered my mother, looking lonely out the window.

Unloved.

Will I be like her?

Unloved, abandoned,

Used as a disposable for their desires.

That day, after leaving the noble who tried to touch my thigh during dinner,

I didn’t want to go back to my family, so I was wandering through the social circles.

That day, I…

I met a young lady with pure passion in her eyes.

*

Talking with Daphnis was enjoyable.

Time flew by, and I loved hearing about her pure passion.

Daphnis was an ambitious person.

She wanted to rise higher and become capable.

Yet, she was pure.

Transparent ambition.

Different from desire.

She never spoke ill of others and always thought about how to improve.

Even with Belle, with whom she disagreed, she only argued over differences in opinion.

She never insulted her as a person.

I liked that about her.

She exuded a feeling of being loved.

A person who was lovable just as she was.

I liked her pure ambition.

I wanted to be part of the sparkling future she dreamed of.

And so, I fell in love with Daphnis.

I drove away all the men who approached her.

I drove away all the men who approached me.

In case she met a man like my father, so her pure ambition wouldn’t be sacrificed to dirty desires.

So she wouldn’t lose her purity.

So she could dream of that bright future.

I hope you shine brilliantly.

Because I don’t want that purity to be tainted.

You are like the ideal I dream of.

Just as the lovely girl you are.

Be my hope.

Then one day.

Daphnis fell in love with a boy.

The boy’s name was Kalen.

A boy with deep, dark eyes, quite handsome.

Should I say he was like Daphnis?

Perhaps it was love at first sight.

A clichéd and childish story.

But, because of that, it was purely Daphnis-like.

Gradually, he grew more interested in the boy.

He even brought him up in conversations several times.

That was the problem.

He could fend off men who approached first.

But it was the first time a man caught Daphnis’s interest.

Even suggesting to go eat something as unforgivable as ‘chocolate dessert’ together.

That time, he intervened purely to get rid of the boy.

But the boy was more communicative than expected.

Even when he unconsciously revealed his feelings for Daphnis, the boy didn’t show the same disgusting look as others.

That only piqued his interest a little.

Men are all the same.

Even when he deliberately provoked the boy to unmask him.

The boy didn’t take off the mask, as if it was truly his own.

Thus, Dranus, Ecclesia, Plache, and Lyle.

The boy’s name gradually echoed loudly in social circles.

Would he reveal his true colors now that he had gained fame?

He didn’t like the way he was friendly with so many young ladies from the start.

They were all just friends, and the ladies liked the boy unilaterally, so he didn’t cut them off.

But it doesn’t change.

He couldn’t let the boy trample on his hopes.

*

The day he met him like that.

The boy didn’t even know how to handle a woman’s hand.

Was it unexpected?

I remember the clumsy but earnest way he cared for my hands.

It was surprisingly fun.

To see a man, so close to many noble ladies, showing such clumsiness.

To pay 30 gold coins for a fan because it resembled my eyes.

Offering me honey milk was unexpected.

I liked the way he coldly pushed away the approaching noble ladies.

Barely passed.

Kallen kept passing, and the more he did, the fewer excuses I had to separate him from Daphnis.

This can’t happen.

I can’t let him meet Daphnis.

Somehow, spending time with the boy was more enjoyable than I thought, and I kept forgetting my true intentions.

And so, evening came.

Thanks to one boy, I remembered what I had forgotten.

A blatant gaze that seemed to have a purpose for my body.

He didn’t even try to hide his desire.

I was unlucky.

It was different from the situations where I easily repelled men.

Today, I met a man for whom that method didn’t work.

It hurt.

And it was scary.

For the first time, I was trapped in a situation I couldn’t handle.

All I could do was lie there helplessly.

Ironically, the face that came to mind was that of a boy.

The hand that wiped my cheek was still warm.

The coat he covered me with was even warmer.

His embrace was so comforting that I almost cried.

Father didn’t love Mother.

He just vented his filthy desires and replaced women like consumables.

Other men were no different.

But one boy.

Kallen was different.

Why do all the young ladies show interest in just one boy?

The boy treats each of them sincerely.

The woman by his father’s side changed countless times.

But the young ladies by Kallen’s side all look at him unwaveringly.

So…

I must admit.

Kallen, you are different.

You are warmer than I thought.

I can’t possibly forget that.

*

“I was scared.”

On the uncomfortable bed.

A girl with reddened eyes whispered softly.

Daphnis, I was afraid you might change.

Untainted by anything.

Pure and lovely person.

Loving you might be an illusion created by my desperation.

You are my ideal.

I wish that lovely image of you would last forever.

And.

“I’m scared, Kallen.”

I’m afraid I won’t be able to control this feeling I have for you.

Thump, thump, thump.

The heartbeat clearly heard through the thick blanket.

Her cheeks flushed, desperately longing for a touch.

She still dislikes men.

She just came to like one boy.

The feelings she had for Daphnis were infinitely close to love, but certainly not love.

Kallen’s heart was warmer than expected, which is why he couldn’t keep his distance.

“I’m sorry, Daphnis.”

A pure and lovely girl like you.

Great and beautiful ladies like them.

I finally understood why they were so desperate for this boy’s attention.

Richeza covered half her face with the blanket and smiled prettily.

What that apology meant.

Only her gaze towards Kallen could tell.