The Tale Continues (Saiunkoku Monogatari Fanfiction: Ryuuki x Shuurei lemon)

Chapter 48: Midnight

Seiran woke up with a start in the middle of the night when he heard a scream from the next room. It was Jyuusan. He run to her room in alarm and saw her screaming in her sleep. Some of the servants had already come running in too.

''No! Stop! Nooo!!!'' Jyuusan yelled as she tossed and turned in her sleep. Tears are running from her tightly shut eyes and beads of sweat are on her forehead. ''No! Stop!'' she yelled again.

''Jyuusan . . . Jyuusan, wake up.'' He shook her and Jyuusan suddenly sat up on the bed, wide-eyed. She is trembling and fear is mirrored in her eyes. She looked around and they saw relief in her face as she realized she was just dreaming. She first saw Seiran who had shaken her awake and then at the ladies in waiting who are also looking at her with worry.

''Prepare her a soothing tea,'' he instructed the ladies in waiting. Jyuusan held her head as she recalled what happened to her again and screamed as she saw it happen over and over again inside her mind. Seiran hugged her to try to comfort her and she sobbed and screamed at his chest. He stroked her hair and let her express the emotions she had suppressed for so long.

Jyuusan drunk several cups of tea especially made for soothing one's mind. But every now and then tears would fall again even though she no longer wanted to cry. She had given up on yelling since her throat had started to hurt. She has no more voice to yell. She wondered when she would have no more tears to cry.

''Enough. I don't want to see it anymore,'' Jyuusan said in a pained voice and she gripped Seiran's sleeves tightly. It does not matter whether her eyes are closed or open. She can see it happening over and over again in her mind. She can still feel the bandit's hands groping her hungrily. She can still remember exactly where she was kissed. And from her memory, she saw herself as a child trying to get away from a man trice older than her who was trying to rape her. She saw the bandits face again and she could almost feel him kiss her body hungrily.

''Enough!'' She said in a whisper. It was desperate. Then as she remembered the bandit kiss her again, it was replaced with Seiran's face as she remembered how he kissed her. She can no longer remember how the bandit's kiss on her lips felt but she can remember Seiran's.

She looked up to him. Seeing that tearstained face made Seiran's chest tighten. Jyuusan suddenly kissed him. 'She is trying to forget by replacing it with someone else. I'm just like an image projection here,' Seiran thought. He was taken aback when she removed her clothes except her undergarments.

''Um, Jyuusan-hime?'' She kissed him again and tears are still flowing down her cheeks. He cupped her face and wiped her tears with his thumb. ''Would it be better if it was me?'' he asked and she nodded. He then kissed her and asked what part of her that bandit had been able to touch or kiss.

''Everything,'' she said in a whisper. ''He touched everything and kissed the exposed skin you can see,'' Jyuusan continued in a shaky voice that exuded anger and pain. He looked at her, so the only things that was not kissed are her most private parts covered by her undergarments.

The leader of the bandits have taken his time thinking no one would disturb him. He clenched his fists. No wonder Jyuusan cannot forget it. That old man was older than her for several decades. He remembered the kiss marks he saw on her body and gritted his teeth. He wanted to tear that bandit into shreds and burn him to ashes. Then he will scatter the ashes in a lake if only it could help erase the horrible memory he left to Jyuusan.

Seiran wanted his smiling, loud, and devious Jyuusan back. He cannot take seeing her like this. It's crushing his heart to see this woman like this. He would do anything to make her stop sobbing.