Chapter 88: Chapter 88

TRISTAN:

Albus and Arthur were too damn excited to come out that it was taking all of my will to keep them at bay.

I only got to touch Dahlia’s fully clothed frame around her waist and leg like this, and my whole body was instantly sent into a wild frenzy of desire.

She was too damn beautiful! How did I resist not seeing her for more than two weeks?...

Dahlia pushed herself away from my embrace and squeezed herself to my right side. I moved involuntarily and let her seat beside me.

I did not hate being near her, but I tried to sit further away since my body was getting excited just by sitting so close to her like this...

She did not seem affected by my presence at all, however. She looked absent-mindedly outside the carriage window.

We stayed in silence thereafter.

“That spirit stone… How will you recognize it if it were your mother’s,” Dahlia suddenly asked out of the blue.

I looked at her, initially confused… I didn’t expect her to speak after staying silent for a long time.

“Among kin, there will be a feeling.”

“A feeling?”

I nodded. “Spirit stones emit certain energies. When we encounter a spirit stone in its pure form, we will be able to tell whether that spirit stone is from someone we know or not. We will just know based on a feeling…”

“Was that how you found out that Lady Jeteris was your sister?”

I shook my head. “When a spirit stone is still inside a person, it’s impossible to feel it. It is still incorporated with the flesh, so feeling it won’t work.”

“Then how did you find Livia?”

“A friend helped me… It took me quite a while to find her.”

There was silence between us once more. Suddenly, I remembered how Dahlly had felt when she mentioned staying at Livia’s house on the day she left.

“Dahlia, I know it’s too late, but I’m sorry,” I began to say. “I’m sorry that I was not able to tell you who Livia was, and it caused you to suffer so much about it… I’m sorry.”

“Glad to know you still have a tiny bit of conscience left somewhere...”

“Well, Lina did help a lot to remind me how bad you’ve felt. That kick in the shin made sure I remembered it well…”

Dahlia suddenly burst into a peal of laughter. It was refreshing to see her face full of smiles once more.

“I’m glad Lina kept her promise to me. Did she also deliver my message? Was it why you remembered to say sorry?”

She looked at me for a long time. I wanted nothing more than to drown in her stare.

After a while, Dahlia sighed as if she was disappointed. “You weren’t able to tell me about Livia because you lied from the beginning… A lie always needs more lies to cover it up,” was what she had to say, and Dahlia was right.

“I’m sorry for causing you pain,” I said. Indeed, I had no excuse. I wanted my vengeance, and I used her for it.

The carriage suddenly slowed down into a halt. Dahlia and I, suddenly alarmed, both looked out at our sides of the carriage window.

In the horizon, I can see that several carriages before us were in a halt as if they were waiting in line during a slow procession.

I opened the coachman’s window.

“What happened?”

“Sir, we are already near the gates of Dalrus, but I think something’s wrong. It looks like there’s a checkpoint.”

“A checkpoint? Why bother setting one,” I asked Gideon, who was beside the coachman.

“They might be looking for something, my lord. I’ll take a look and ask around.”

At this, Gideon got off from the carriage and started to walk at towards the beginning of the carriage line.

It took some time before Gideon came back to the carriage, and when he did, he was with five other men that looked far too dangerous to be merely guards.

Perhaps it was Dahlia who first saw the men approach. She had looked out of the window carriage nervously ever since Gideon came down to investigate.

Dahlia turned sharply towards me, “Tristan, didn’t you tell me before that you were sorry?”

I gave her a surprised look and nodded.

“Then if you are sorry, you must promise me one thing,” she replied.

I could only keep my mouth shut as she came closer, almost just one breath away from my face.

“Promise me you will live to see the day that you will succeed in this revenge… Otherwise, all these lies would have been for nothing…”

Before I could ask her what she meant, Dahlia suddenly grabbed me by the collar and kissed me passionately on the lips.

I was so surprised that it took me at least two seconds to process what was happening. However, my hands had already snaked their way into around her slim waist by the time I realized what she was doing.

Dahlia did not stop there. She lifted her skirt, revealing her luscious legs wrapped in a pair of black laced hose. She straddled herself into my right knee and sat there, her legs spread, coming closer towards me;

Her right knee brushed against my crotch, which reacted as soon as it came in contact with her skin.

She continued to kiss me by the lips, and then she pulled away and kissed me by the neck, tearing my shirt a bit open, exposing my flesh.

“What? D-Dhally…”

Her left hand went inside my shirt, ruffling the rest of my clothes while her right hand ran through my hair. She caressed it wildly until she reached into the back of my head, forcing me to kiss her even deeply.

Dahlia’s touches were still becoming fiercer when all of a sudden the carriage door on her side flew wide open, and three of the five men came into view.

Like me, they too were taken aback by the scene they just witnessed.

“Tsk, you imbeciles! Why would you open our carriage door without even knocking,” Dahlly said in an impatient yet sultry voice.

One of them had recovered enough from the shocking display of affection and began bowing down.

“Apologies, my lady. We needed to check all the visitors coming through this area. May we?” As he finished speaking, he held a long metal wand in his hand.

I knew what that wand was. I had heard of it before.

It was a rune detector, and it seemed to gleam malevolently under the morning sun…