IPTYFM

CHAPTER XXVlll

“Johann, what’s wrong? Where are we going? Johann… Please, tell me why you’re doing this.”

At this moment, I began to fear my husband, as he no longer seemed like the man I knew. It was only when I started to sob that he stopped walking. Yet, he still didn’t explain his actions.

Johann, still holding me tightly, stood still in the middle of the square. He looked up at the church’s rooftop.

What could he be thinking about as he gazes at the cross?

He stared at it with a determined look, unlike his usual fearful reverence. I could only guess that he was deep in thought, different from his usual self.

As he fixed his gaze on the cross, Johann took a deep breath and then called my name.

“Rize.”

“Yes?”

“I love you.”

Johann finally broke the uneasy silence. He declared his love, not in a whisper like a secret, but loud enough for anyone to hear. A wave of joy replaced my anxiety, blossoming like spring sunlight melting snow.

“I love you too.”

Those were the same words, but when Johann said them to me, they felt incredibly valuable. Yet when I said them to him, they seemed so inadequate.

A simple ‘I love you’ couldn’t fully capture my feelings for him. Now I understood why Johann had used such extreme words to express his love, saying he would willingly die for me.

I too made a solemn vow of love.

“If God asked me to choose between my lost memories and you, I would choose you without hesitation. I love you that much, Johann.”

Then, Johann finally turned to look at me and embraced me tightly.

“Please keep that vow.”

“Of course. I promise, with my life.”

Then Johann let go of me and knelt down.

“Rize, will you marry me?”

I was so happy I had to suppress the tears ready to burst out and answer.

“Yes, I would love to.”

My answer would be the same a hundred, a thousand times over.

Was Johann pained by my attempts to recall our wedding? Making a new proposal to me. But the proposal was not the end.

He took me to the attic. And then he started to undress me.

It was the first time Johann initiated our relationship first. Even as I watched him hurriedly undress me, I couldn’t believe it. My heart raced, and my legs trembled. I felt as nervous as a bride on her wedding night.

Johann, who had been undressing me with fervor, suddenly stopped. His gaze was fixed on my left hand. Then he removed the wedding ring from my ring finger.

I thought he was doing this because he had proposed to me again and put the ring back on, but I was mistaken.

“We don’t need this anymore.”

Johann threw the ring away.

“Ah…”

We should sell that to get a new ring. It shouldn’t be discarded.

Shocked, I reached out towards the ring rolling into a corner of the attic. But Johann’s grip on my wrist as I turned my head towards him, was stronger than usual.

“Johann?”

“I, Johann Renner, take thee, Rize Einemann, as my wife…”

Johann, facing me in my plain chemise as if I was a bride in a wedding dress, began reciting vows as though we were in a church. It was as if he was re-enacting our wedding ceremony.

“I vow to love and cherish you, through whatever trials we may face, until death do us part.”

Overwhelmed with emotion, I listened to Johann’s vow, tears falling onto our clasped hands.

When he finished, I made the same pledge.

“I, Rize Einemann, take thee, Johann Renner, as my husband, huh…”

This time it was a memory to last a lifetime, and I had to get it right. But tears kept coming, and my voice trembled so much that I forgot my lines. It took me several tries to complete my vow, much longer than Johann.

“I vow to love and cherish you, through whatever trials we may face, until death do us part.”

Johann who was patiently listening to my faltering pledge, then embraced me tightly.

“You are my wife. Only my wife.”

Holding me close, Johann kissed me and made another obvious declaration.

“From now on, we live as an ordinary married couple.”

“That sounds good.”

“Let’s not go back to our hometown, but live here, as the Renners in this mountain village.”

“I like that idea.”

I answered without a second thought. Without any memories of my hometown, I felt no regret. Wherever my beloved husband was, that was home to me.

After a passionate kiss, Johann began undressing me again. He undressed me completely before he started to remove his own clothes.

“Aht!”

As the church bells rang outside, signaling the wedding, he came to me.

I was enjoying his fervent caresses with eyes closed that I suddenly gasped in surprise.

What is happening?

I could feel Johann’s size and weight inside me, his heat, yet I couldn’t believe it.

Johann entering me without any persuasion from me had never happened.

“Ah, Rize, just one more time, let me be with you once more.”

Moreover, it was the first time he didn’t stop after one climax, insisting on continuing, even after three times.