Chapter 9: COMFORTABLE BED

Kuu…uu… ku…uu…

The birds were chirping to welcome another new day. The sun was too lazy to get up from the bed maybe. A yellow hue could be seen in the eastern sky.

"Mm…" Veronica moaned softly. She rubbed her face against the pillow. Feeling the touch of silk and squishy pillow, she sighed in content. Anyone could see the smile on her lips.

'Is this morning already?' she wondered. So soft,' thinking that she shifted to the left side. 'I never slept in a soft bed before.'

While she was being joyful about her luxurious life, a sudden thought hit her hard. She never had a soft bed. If this bed wasn't hers, then who did it belong to?

Her eyes flew open. The room was dark. A slight light was coming out of the open window. From there, she could see the quiet city.

For as long as she could remember, every day she woke up and saw the sky since she lived in the tower. However, judging by the current view of the city, it certainly didn't seem like she was in her room.

With a jolt, she sat up. Her head throbbed in tremendous pain. She flinched. While holding her head, she adjusted her eyes to the dark and her heart dropped.

She finally confirmed with her own eyes that this wasn't the room where she always woke up. 'Where am I? Why do I have a headache?' she pondered as she tried to get up from the bed gingerly.

Her head spun when she stood up. "Oh!" she let out a yelp as she began to fall down.

At that moment, a strong arm wrapped around her waist and protected her from falling.

Veronica let out a gasp. "T-thank you!" she said without thinking.

"Why did you move so quickly right after you woke up?" a deep, hoarse voice spoke.

She jumped out of fright. Seeing a man hugging her close to him made her face turn pale. 'Why is this man in my room? And on the same bed? Wait, did I spend the whole night with him?' The horror of realization made her lose the strength of her legs.

However, the man's grip on her waist only tightened. "Are you okay?" he asked.

"You…" she looked at him warily. "Who are you?"

The man slightly raised his eyebrows. "Who am I? Don't you remember?"

'Remember what?' She tried to think frantically. Just then, she noticed the blue gem locket hanging from his neck. Feeling surprised, she looked at him once again and recognized that person instantly. "N-naked man?"

The man let out a deep sigh and stated, "Princess, I have a name. It's Arthur. Stop calling me 'naked man'. I'm not the only one who gets naked during bathing."

Veronica nervously remarked, "I-I'm sorry. I didn't mean to offend you."

He inquired, "Can you stand on your own feet now?"

"Yes?" She tilted her head not realizing why he asked this question.

He flatly spoke, "Then, let go of my robe. Your action makes me think that you are trying to take my clothes off for some ulterior motive."

She looked at his chest and saw that her hands were clenching his robe in such a way that his robe was about to fall off. She quickly let go of him. "I didn't mean it. I'm sorry." She paused before asking, "Where am I?" She looked around curiously. "And why am I with you?"

Without answering her question, he questioned her in return, "Don't you remember what happened last night?"

"What happened last night…" Veronica's voice trailed off as she took a trip down her memory lane. She recalled being a maid serving drinks. After that, a customer forcefully tried to rape her and then…

And then…

Slowly but surely, Veronica's face turned completely red like a ripe tomato. "I… we…" she stuttered. She never thought she would be sexually frustrated enough to ask an unknown man to give her pleasure.

'No! This can't be!' she screamed internally and covered her ears to control her vivid memory that flashed in her head. There was another shock that awaited her. When she thought about that, her face became ghastly pale.

She slowly turned his way and asked him, "Did we…"

Arthur must have understood what she wanted to say. He answered, "Relax. I have no intention of taking advantage of a woman who doesn't want to sleep with me. Whatever I did last night was to relieve you from the drug effect."

"Is that so…" she gave him a doubtful look. She had the right to not believe a total stranger.

Arthur wasn't surprised by her action though. He felt even more satisfied that he didn't lose control last night. When he saw her nude body, he nearly banged her right then and there. He used his last drop of will not to eat her alive.

Even right now remembering her alluring sight made him hard.

Veronica must have caught on to his words. "Did you say last night? That means…" she gasped and looked out of the window. Although it couldn't be seen through the faraway forest, she could visualize the sun was about to get up from its bed.

She remembered that from today onwards, she had to go to the innermost temple and give her attendance to the Head Priest. Her brain told her, 'I have to leave.'

Just as she thought that she turned around and ran toward the exit. At first, she opened the bathroom door. Realizing that she made a mistake, she strode in the direction of the other door.

Arthur was momentarily astounded by her action. However, he calmed himself first and not wanting to scare her, he unhurriedly commented, "Are you going to go wearing just that?"

"Eh?" Veronica paused and looked at him.

Arthur shrugged and mentioned, "I mean, it looks good on you but it's not appropriate."

Only then she gazed at herself and saw that the silver colored silk robe she was wearing was half open. Her left nipple and navel peeked out of the robe.