Stigma Effect
chapter-9

Chapter 9 – Warmth

Translator: Skye Editor: thursdays PR: sj_myself

Raphlet’s back hit the bottom of the bathtub.

He had grabbed Yuriel as they were falling and pulled her into his arms so that she would fall on top of him.

There wasn’t a single scratch on her body thanks to his swift action, but Yuriel was much more surprised than if she were to have fallen by herself.

Raphlet got up as soon as his body touched the floor and stepped out of the bath to scan Yuriel’s body for any injuries. When he confirmed she wasn’t hurt, he let out a sigh and tried to push himself away, but Yuriel grabbed him by the forearm and pulled him close.

“Master, are you all right?”

“…I’m fine. What about you? Weren’t you surprised to fall down suddenly?”

Yuriel’s eyes glistened with tears.

The Raphlet before her in this dream was no different from the one she knew in her childhood. He didn’t care if he was injured himself and only showed concern for Yuriel, worried that she might have gotten a shock.

When Yuriel first began receiving beatings on his behalf, she was once severely punished for ten days as Raphlet argued against her new position to his parents.

As soon as she was released from punishment, Raphlet would examine her to see if she was hurt anywhere and ask her if she was okay.

He never looked back at himself, so Yuriel had to be by his side.

Yuriel vowed to stay next to him once she woke up from this dream.

In fact, this must have been a dream for that reason. It was a dream telling her to stay by Raphlet’s side so that he wouldn’t be alone and to protect him.

“What do you mean you’re fine. Your arms, no, your back. Please show me your back.”

Yuriel threw herself on him with no hesitation. She had a lot of experience serving him as a maid. A minute was more than enough for her to strip and dress someone. Her nimble fingers quickly unbuttoned Raphlet’s wet shirt and pulled it back.

A wet, solid body was revealed. It was an admirable body that caught people’s eyes. Yuriel was on the verge of tears as she moved her hands around his back, scanning for injuries.

“An injury, injury…Oh. There’s nothing.”

“I told you I was all right. I wouldn’t get hurt over something like this, so don’t worry,” Raphlet said, grabbing her wrists. Yuriel’s fingers, which had been groping his back, hung in midair as they had no place to go.

Only then did Yuriel realize what she had done.

She had rushed in naked and stripped Raphlet of his clothes. And as if that wasn’t enough, she even dared to have a scene in this dream of her master fondling her breasts.

Yuriel staggered, feeling dizzy, and ended up leaning forward.

As soon as her forehead touched Raphlet’s back, he spoke in a low voice that sounded clearly troubled.

“I’m really fine, so it’d be best if you don’t touch me too much right now. I can endure it of course, but…”

He turned around and pulled her into his arms.

At the feeling of something hard and hot poking her, Yuriel cast her gaze downwards but quickly raised her head back up in shock.

How dare I, even the master’s erection…

Raphlet was a man of nobility. Even if this was a dream, he was not one to show this kind of lust towards her…

Yuriel let out a groan while pulling at her hair.

“I’m sorry, Master….”

I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry for dreaming this kind of dream.

It was clear that the Raphlet in her dream didn’t know why she was feeling guilty. His expressionless face gently loosened.

After apologizing several times in a row, Yuriel found herself comfortably hugged.

“I’m really fine, Yuriel. You’re the one who has to be careful as you’re still in the early stages of pregnancy. I’m sorry for startling you,” he said, pressing a quick kiss to her lips.

What…?

Yuriel opened her eyes while caressing her stomach.

She could only remember the last moment of her dream. She was pregnant with someone’s child, and…

But she couldn’t recall who had appeared and what conversation she had been having.

It’s my first time having a dream where no monsters appeared… Hm, is it the first time? I think I might have had a different dream on the train.

Yuriel pondered over it for a while, but she ended up deciding to think of it as her first time as she couldn’t remember.

To think this kind of dream would be her first “normal” dream.

Yuriel remembered hearing that dreams were the manifestations of one’s desires. The only other person who knew about Yuriel’s prophetic dreams thought those were also an expression of some kind of desire and wanted to study her.

Yuriel cooperated, but in the end, they weren’t able to find out what it ultimately was.

So then, was this dream reflecting a desire to build a family? But she didn’t want anything other than being next to Raphlet.

Even if she was going to start a family, it would only be after Raphlet settled down and his own child was born. When the moment came that she could no longer support Raphlet, then her child would devote themself to Raphlet and his child.

Yuriel thought so while groping her flat lower abdomen and staring blankly at the ceiling.

“I see you’re up, but why are you touching your stomach….? Oh, come to think of it, you haven’t eaten since yesterday.”

“Sir Helio.”

“They said your body is all right now, so let’s eat first.”

Yuriel pressed her hands against the bed and raised herself up. Her long, loose hair trickled down. Roughly combing her hair with her fingers, Yuriel stuck her legs off the bed.

“This is where you’ll be living from now on, so I’ll give you a brief tour for now.”

“You’ll be guiding me yourself, Sir Helio? I’m fine with being guided by someone else if you’re busy.”

“I’m the best person for this task as I have to explain what I’ve arranged for you while you were out.”

All the pain Yuriel felt before she fainted was now completely gone. Excluding the fatigue from not being able to sleep well the past few days, she was in the same condition as usual.

Helio, who confirmed Yuriel was getting out of bed, took the lead and began to guide her.

The place where the Knights of Albraca resided was designed with intuitive and easily recognizable structures.

There were four paths that stretched out from the strategy office which was in the center. Helio walked on the path heading north and pointed his finger at a building.

“If you become Commander Raphlet’s personal maid, you’ll use that northern blue building. The knights and servants under his direct command all live there. The soldiers below them use a different building, but that’s information you don’t need to know, so I’ll skip it.”

As Yuriel listened carefully to Helio’s explanation, she sensed something strange.

“What do you mean by ‘if’ I become his personal maid…?” she asked, tilting her head.

“Ah, well, I can’t do anything if Commander Raphlet doesn’t want a personal maid. We can’t force him to do anything if he doesn’t want to, but you don’t have to worry. If you’re able to prove your ability, you can stay within the order regardless of whether Raphlet accepts you as his maid or not.”

Recalling how Raphlet tried to send her back at the train station earlier, Yuriel let out a worried sigh.

She felt stifled by the unfamiliarity of his cold way of speaking and demeanor. She couldn’t fathom what he must have gone through since joining the order that would cause him to look so expressionless like that. She had no idea at all.

Yuriel tried to forget that memory by changing the topic and forced a smile.

“Sir Helio, are you close with Raphlet? Since you both have the same rank, I assume you would have a lot of exchanges…”

“We aren’t close. We cooperate with each other solely for the sake of the operations, but our relationship isn’t one where we could casually talk and laugh with each other. Ah, but since Raphlet never smiles, ‘laugh’ would be an unnecessary word.”

Helio muttered coldly with a smiling face. Rather than intimacy, his face seemed to be full of hostility.

“If it weren’t for us both being in the same order, he’s someone whose face I wouldn’t even want to see. I’m not virtuous enough to have someone next to me who isn’t even like a human being,” he added, looking down at the blue stones laid in regular intervals.

At the clear rage coming from his voice, Yuriel unconsciously vented her dissatisfaction.

“What are you saying? Raphlet is just clumsy at expressing his emotions. You don’t know how warm and kind he can be, please don’t speak so carelessly about him when you don’t even know anything.”

“‘Warm.’ Well, I suppose if the kindness you’re talking about includes willingly sacrificing your own knights for a cause, that’s quite plausible,” Helio snickered.

On the surface, Helio gave off the aura of an upper-class gentleman, but underneath, he turned out to be no different from a scoundrel.

He was the type of person the people back at the Mogris territory told Yuriel to avoid. They warned her that she could run into trouble just by keeping such a shameless and flashy person next to her.

“He’s quite a warm person indeed.”

“He’s much more of a warm and kind person than someone who tortures a civilian to figure out how to predict the activity of monsters,” Yuriel shot back sarcastically, rubbing her lips.

She regarded Helio as an enemy. If anyone disliked Raphlet, they were an automatic enemy to Yuriel.

At the sight of her face–which hadn’t distorted even during torture–now suddenly marred by a frown, Helio let out a hollow laugh.

It was evident that this woman was a fervent admirer of Raphlet.

Helio was about to give some proper advice to this innocent, young lady who seemed to know nothing when a low voice came from behind them.

“Torture? What are you talking about?”

Yuriel’s face lit up at once, recognizing the owner of the voice immediately.

“Raphlet!”

She ran forward and hovered around him like a dog wagging its tail.

Raphlet grabbed her shoulder, moving her behind him, and stepped forward. As soon as he grabbed her shoulder, Yuriel’s face overflowed with emotion.

With Yuriel full of joy behind him, Raphlet addressed Helio in a sharp tone.

“Commander Helio. Did you torture Yuriel?”