Tyrant's Obsession With The Heiress-Chapter 82: Wanting To Learn More About The Lady

It was the second time Orpheus had come to his knees for her. He’d never done it for a woman before, and he certainly never had the intention of ever doing it. But with Lady Karina, it felt natural.

"You have been walking for a long time," he stated, carefully assessing her feet. "And you walked barefoot the other night, so your feet have not yet recovered."

The man even remembered that she was barefoot the night when he found her after her return from the beast sanctuary. She didn’t think he would take that into consideration, and she didn’t deny that he was right either.

Her feet had been aching since her little venture and she hadn’t had the time to rest them.

"Still...you do not have to..." Lady Karina trailed off, feeling a spark tingle through her when his thumb brushed over her heel.

"Let me," Orpheus insisted, looking up at her. "Please." His voice softened with that plea, and she no longer had a reason to refuse.

Here this man was, covered in armour, on his knees with her foot in his large hand. She didn’t even notice when he removed his gauntlets, and then her eyes trailed over to the wooden table to find them resting there so he must have taken them off as soon as they entered the room.

Lady Karina nodded her reply and he offered a grateful smile, something so out of the ordinary for him. He was so very handsome when he smiled; it was enough to make her chest ache with something she hadn’t felt before.

She gripped the edges of the bed when she felt his rough but gentle hands start to knead the tension from the arches under her foot. With each stroke, her toes relaxed, and she groaned softly from relief.

The sound that came out of her lovely lips made Orpheus’ jaw tighten, but he kept his head down and his eyes focused on her foot. Her skin was so soft and smooth, making her foot quite a delicate part of her body that he handled with surprising care.

He wanted to relieve her of her discomfort, even if it was just a little. It wasn’t an apology for everything he’d done, but it was a start at something, wasn’t it?

Lady Karina let her head fall back in bliss, relishing the feel of the man’s thumbs working out the pain in her heel.

"Do you dance a lot, my lady?" Orpheus suddenly asked; it was a genuine question since he noticed the underside of her foot seemed hard in certain spots.

"I used to," Lady Karina replied solemnly, leaning forward to look down at him. "My mother taught me many Irishalan dances; it was like routine for us to dance every day in Moonveil’s gardens during the summer and spring."

Orpheus didn’t understand why he couldn’t look her in the eye at that moment, although it was pleasant to hear some part of the lady’s childhood. He knew he had no right to ask; he had no right to make her remember peaceful days he had taken away, but he wanted to learn more about her.

He wanted to know things like what was her favourite colour, what else did she enjoy besides dancing, what made her cry, or maybe he already knew plenty of what brought tears to her eyes.

But the problem was, he didn’t know how to ask such things. It would be awkward to suddenly pose those questions to the lady, so he needed to find a way to discover the answers to them by spending more time with her or observing her more closely.

"My mother..." Lady Karina murmured, her eyes turning dull with old grief. "She loved Moonveil... She loved how safe we were, how everyone lived like a family as if the outside world didn’t exist."

That revelation made something churn inside Orpheus. It was like taking a dagger straight to his heart. Not like he’d never felt the twist of a blade in his chest before, but this metaphorical one seemed more painful than a real one.

Why did he have to take Moonveil? Why did he have to kill people and destroy things with his darkness? Naturally, he had the goal of the White Phoenix, but was there the possibility that he could have done it another way?

If he had come peacefully and shown that he could be trusted, would the lady and her father have welcomed him? Would they have shown him the way to the White Phoenix and allowed him to be blessed by its ashes?

"She sounds like a lovely lady," Orpheus commented, not knowing what else to say as he moved his attention to her left foot.

"Aye, I think she would have liked you." Lady Karina reached out and cupped the right side of his face, making him look up at her with pure shock at her statement.

Surely, the lady said that in jest. Why would the Lady Hyacinth become fond of a beast who ruined her daughter’s life?

"I speak truth, my pet," Lady Karina reassured, her warm hand brushing over his hollow cheek. "My mother always believed there was more to a person than what meets the eye. Even in those who seem like villains at first glance, she always believed there was a story behind them."

"I do not mean to disrespect her, but that sounds like quite a naive vision of the world," Orpheus remarked, leaning into her touch. "Some villains may be broken, but there are ones who are pure evil, ones who have no excuses for what they do."

Ones like me. He wanted to say it but withheld from doing so.

"Even so, darkness is born when light leaves; people aren’t born to evil and bad, but something drives them to it." Lady Karina brushed her thumb over his cheekbone. "I am not saying that it is justifiable, just that everyone has a story that deserves to be heard."

Orpheus thought on her words. It was still a naive take, but it was what the lady and her mother believed. Perhaps they were too pure for this world. Perhaps the world didn’t deserve people like them.

"Do you understand, my pet?" Her eyes softened as she looked at him, holding something in them he couldn’t quite decipher yet. "I know it must sound like pure madness to you, but I hope you can consider what I have said."

"Aye, my lady." He turned his head and kissed her palm. "You may even ramble nonsense to me; I will still try to find a way to understand it even if it makes no sense."

A/N: Hi all! Thank you for reading this far. I will be setting some milestones to achieve in exchange for bonus Chapters!

Milestone 1: 50 cumulative PARAGRAPH comments = 1 bonus Chapter

Milestone 2: Massage chair gift/Luxury car gift = 2 bonus Chapters

Milestone 3: Magic castle gift = 4 bonus Chapters + 2 regular Chapters