Grant Me Your Grace

Hissin relaxed his grip on the arm around her waist, and her bound arms came free. 

Glancing up at him, Dahlia slowly removed her veil. She was still unsure, but she had no other choice.

‘What if he’s surprised to see my disfigured face, and he looks at me in disgust, like the first time I told the maids about the rash…’

The weight of her worries grew heavier by the second. 

Without meaning to, I uncovered my face and stared at the floor.

His fingertips lifted Dahlia’s chin. Facing her head on, his eyes took in her face and neck covered in reddish burns.

As if he would not turn away from anything.

Like nothing was horrible.

Hissin tilted his head as he examined the spots carefully. He kissed her cheek, silently, as if caressing something precious.

“You must have been in a lot of pain.”

A strange light suddenly flashed in the red eyes that had been so relaxed the entire time. 

It was concern, it was sadness, it was anger and resentment, but then it settled to the bottom, a depth so dark that no color could be clearly seen.

A deep, dark light that could never have been accumulated in a day or two.

The grief-stricken beauty of her face was heightened in the overcast moonlight, and Dahlia felt herself stirring with a sadness she didn’t recognize.

‘Why do you grieve for this suffering that even I have given up on?’ 

Dahlia’s eyes welled up with a sorrow that seemed too deep for mere sympathy.

The curse that everyone blames for the injustice of my life seems to be genuinely heartbreaking.

His thumb stroked her cheek, and Dahlia closed her eyes slowly, loving the feel of the warmth against his fingertips.

Beyond her closed eyes, the darkness grew a little darker, and the warmth of his lips descended upon her untouched cheek. 

The heat of Hissin’s body spread across her skin, stripped of warmth in the desert of night.

Kiss, smooch—

A tickling sound followed each time their lips met and parted. 

And so, after kissing Dahlia’s cheeks and mouth repeatedly, Hissin pressed his lips to hers.

Dahlia shuddered at the strange, unfamiliar sensation. All her nerves were focused on his lips, making the sensation even more stimulating.

Unsure of what to do, she clasped her hands together, and soon Hissin’s fingers were wrapped around the nape of her neck and caressed it. Her shoulders relaxed under his gentle touch.

Their lips remained still, and then Hissin slowly opened his mouth. 

The moist, slippery surface of his lips lingered lazily over her upper lip.

He sucked on her lower lip, rolling it in his mouth as if it were candy, and then did the same with her upper lip. 

The sound of sucking, swallowing, tickled his ears obscenely. Dahlia’s fingers twitched, and she clutched at the hem of his robe.

It felt so different against the backs of her hands and arms. The hot, slick warmth made her exhale through her nose.

Nervously, she pressed her lips together, and Hissin’s tongue darted out to lick her frightened lips.

There’s nothing to worry about.

‘Just give me permission to be inside you.’

She wondered if her blood was responding to him. From the moment Hissin’s lips touched it, every spot had been tingling. 

As if it wanted to feel his warmth just a little longer.

Dahlia relaxed her lips. She felt Hissin’s mouth curl into a smile as their lips met again.

In one swift motion, Hissin pressed her chin down and slid his tongue in.

The hot tongue plunged in. It licked slowly along the even teeth, meeting Dahlia’s tongue, which was still hidden in her mouth.

Startled, Dahlia quickly curled her tongue inside. 

But even if she tried to escape, it was still in her mouth. Dahlia’s tongue became entangled with Hissin’s.

In an instant, her tongue was pulled out of her lips and sucked into his mouth.

“Mmm…”

The root of my tongue pulled taut, causing my throat to protest. 

The tips of the interlocking lips curled upward a little more, and then I felt the Hissin begin to swirl inside.

His tongue teased the inside of my cheeks, then dug in until I couldn’t breathe, scraping the roof of my mouth. It was a far cry from the affectionate kiss earlier.

With a deft movement, as if he were slipping his fingers in and out of her, Dahlia barely had time to breathe before she was forced to accept his tongue.

“Hmph…”

A wet voice came from her throat as she lost herself in the pleasure. 

Every time their tongues met and tangled, breath seemed to escape through the cracks. 

Perhaps my soul was escaping by the handful along with my breath.

But all that escaped her lips was a soft moan and saliva.

 Whenever Dahlia was too tired to hold her breath, Hissin would open the gap for a moment or blow into it for her.

Dahlia would then eagerly gulp it down, like a young bird taking food from its mother. As if she had forgotten how to breathe on her own, only the breath of Hissin kept her alive.

Puck, phew—

His breath fluttered in Dahlia’s mouth, just as it had licked up her arm, and Hissin bit her bottom lip painfully in excitement. Her plump, slightly puffy lips pressed against his gnashing teeth, then sucked back in hard.

After a long time of biting and sucking on Dahlia’s lips, delving inside her, Hissin slowly tilted his head and moved downward. 

When he had licked all the saliva from the tip of her lips with the tip of his tongue, he leaned in and brought his mouth to the nape of her neck.

“Mmm…”

Dahlia flinched again at the unfamiliar touch. 

However, Hissin didn’t pull away. Instead, he bit his lip for a moment, then leaned in with his massive body.

Without warning, Dahlia’s body tilted back, revealing the nape of her neck covered in red spots.

Hissin stared in disbelief at the skin that looked like it was covered in red blood from the spots. 

The more severe the pain, the darker the spots, so naturally the lower part of her neck was more hideous than her face.

The moonlight was blurry, but not so much so that she couldn’t make out what was in front of her. Dahlia covered her neck with her hands in shame.

“Don’t look.”

Turning her gaze away, she said, “It’s… worse down here.”

But Hissin pushed the hand covering her neck aside.

“Don’t cover it.”

“Then close your eyes.”

“It doesn’t hurt.”

“You’re lying.”

Dahlia covered Hissin’s eyes with her hand. 

‘If it’s disgusting to myself, how much more so to others?’

The maids were the same way: in front of her, they stretched the corners of their mouths as if they didn’t care, but behind her, they gossiped about how she must commit some sort of foul deed to get such a hideous skin disease.

Only Bertha, who had been in the palace since she was an ignorant child, didn’t mind the spots.

Dahlia applied a little more pressure to the hand covering his eyes and spoke in a slurred voice, “You… you’ll see me that way eventually.”

Letting Dahlia do as she pleased, Hissin turned his head and kissed her wrist.

“Well, there’s nothing about you that doesn’t catch my eye, Your Highness.”

Instead of pulling away, Hissin lowered his head to kiss the slender neck. 

A tickling sound followed, like a kiss on the cheek.

“If ‘those eyes’ are anything like mine now, I might just pluck them all out.”

The ghastly words were spoken without a care in the world, and then Hissin stuck out his tongue once more and began to lick the flesh. 

When his tongue traveled along the exposed hairline and up to her earlobe, she shuddered and goosebumps rose.

“Hmph…”

Dahlia let out a stifled moan as his tongue nibbled on her thick earlobe. 

There was no mole on her ear. Hissin licked it carefully, as if there were spots there, too. His tongue traced the auricle and began to tease the tiny hole.

“Ha, ah…”

A squeaky sound came from just in front of her eardrum. 

Dahlia’s stomach clenched involuntarily. Her ears were burning, but why was heat rising between her legs? Dahlia shook her head, trying to push Hissin’s shoulder away. 

Only to have her face trapped in his hands and her ear rubbed against his tongue.

“Hmph. There, that’s enough…”

“Your Highness has shielded my eyes, so I can’t see anything, so I can only kiss whatever I can reach.”

Hissin’s thick voice trickled along her damp ear lobes. 

There was a faint hint of laughter in his voice.

Unlike his childish self, he was enjoying this situation.