Chapter 2

Ever since her husband’s funeral, Romian had eaten only the bare minimum. She would chew on a piece of dry, stale bread, or if even that felt like too much effort, she would stave off her hunger with fruit like apples or pears.

But today, unlike her usual self, she bustled about preparing a meal. She wanted to do her best for her younger brother, whom she was reuniting with after twenty years. Soon, a rich aroma filled the house. She thought it had been a very long time since the home had smelled like a place where people actually lived.

The table was laden with a variety of dishes—cannelloni topped with ricotta cheese, beef stew, chicken pie, and more—yet Romian still looked at Eric with an apologetic expression.

“I haven’t prepared much. I’m sorry it’s so meager.”

“It’s more than enough. This is a feast for me, sister.”

“You must be hungry. Let’s eat.”

Romian cut a generous slice of chicken pie and placed it neatly on Eric’s plate. At this, the corners of Eric’s eyes curved softly. Just as his sister had done, he also cut a slice of chicken pie and placed it on Romian’s plate.

The siblings looked at each other for a moment and smiled awkwardly.

“How are our parents doing?”

At Eric’s question, Romian’s heart sank. Their parents had passed away after falling deeply ill from their longing for Eric. Romian smiled bitterly.

“…They’re gone.”

“I thought so. I had a feeling.”

“They would surely be happy, though. Because we’ve… found you, Eric.”

Eric nodded silently and took a large bite of the chicken pie on his plate. Romian watched him with a curious expression.

“How does it taste?”

“It tastes exactly like the one mother used to make for me when I was little.”

“Really? I’m so glad.”

Only then did a smile finally bloom on Romian’s face. Her husband had always complained about her cooking, and she had been worried that Eric would do the same.

“How have you been all this time…?”

“I don’t remember much, but I grew up in an orphanage from a young age. I stayed there until I was seventeen, then I couldn’t take it anymore and ran away. After that, I worked for a merchant. Then, I happened to see the newspaper.”

Eric candidly recounted his life story. He said that before he was admitted to the orphanage, men in uniforms had asked him for his parents’ names and address, but at only three years old, he couldn’t have answered any of their questions.

The only things he remembered from his early childhood were three: his own name, Eric; his sister’s name, Romian; and the beautiful night he had spent watching fireworks with her.

As Romian listened to her younger brother’s story, tears welled up in her large eyes once more. After they had filed the missing person’s report, their parents had searched the orphanages first. They had scoured every single one in the vicinity of their village. How could they have failed to find him for all those long years? In that moment, Romian felt a profound sense of resentment toward the world.

“How could this happen? This will sound like an excuse, but there wasn’t a single orphanage I didn’t visit over those twenty years, Eric… How much did he suffer all alone as a child… I’m sorry… I’m so sorry…”

“Don’t cry, Sister.”

“I’ll always be a sinner in your eyes, Eric…”

“Don’t say that. I’m happier than ever to have found my family.”

Eric rose from his seat, knelt beside Romian, and gently kissed the back of her soft hand.

“Eric…”

A momentary flush of shyness crossed Romian’s face as she looked down at her younger brother. Eric thought she looked just like Roseberry basking in the sunlight.

“Now, smile for me, Sister.”

“What?”

“I want to see you smile brightly.”

Eric reached out and gently wiped away her tears. Then, he gazed at her with a tenderness that seemed to soothe a child. As if responding to his warm gaze, Romian offered him a radiant smile.

“There we go. Beautiful.”

At his praise, her cheeks flushed shyly once more. Her heart pounded wildly, but Romian struggled to compose her flushed expression.

The feeling was unfamiliar, yet not unpleasant. Her husband had never once spoken such sweet words to her. It was only natural, she thought, that she should feel this way.

***

As night fell, Romian’s parents appeared in her dream, as they always did. Seeing them, she finally broke into a bright smile.

Now that she had found her long-lost younger brother, she no longer felt guilty meeting them. In fact, she was overjoyed. She couldn’t wait to tell them that she had found Eric.

Romian ran toward them, waving her hand.

*Mother, Father! I’ve finally found Eric, the one we’ve been searching for all this time!*

But for some reason, her parents didn’t seem happy at all to hear the news. Their faces remained grim as they stared at her, and soon, tears began to stream down their cheeks.

‘Mother, Father, why… why are you crying again? It’s Eric! We’ve finally found our Eric!’

Romian’s steps, which had been rushing toward them, came to a sudden halt.

Crimson tears of blood were streaming from her mother’s and father’s eyes. Their grotesque forms, dripping with blood, lunged at her as if to strangle her at any moment.

“Hah!”

Romian woke from her dream, a ragged gasp escaping her lips. She had been so sure she wouldn’t have a nightmare tonight, but it seemed she had been wrong. Her entire body was drenched in a cold sweat. She wiped her face with her hands, her breath coming in heavy gasps.

“Why…”

Just as Romian was staring out the window into the darkness, her face devoid of all expression, a voice called from outside the room.

“Sister, are you asleep?”

It was Eric.

She startled, turning her head just as the door creaked open on its old hinges. Even in the darkness, Eric’s striking features were evident as he looked at Romian with concern.

“I heard you moaning in your sleep,” he said. “I thought you might be sick.”

“Oh… I’m sorry. Did I wake you?”

“I wasn’t asleep yet.”

Eric smiled warmly and stepped closer. But as he took in his sister’s state, he quickly averted his gaze, looking troubled.

Romian had been tossing and turning violently in her nightmare, and the blanket she’d been using had fallen to the floor. Her thin slip dress had ridden up, exposing her smooth legs. She was bare-thighed before her adult younger brother—the thought made her blush with shame.

“Eric, I’m sorry, but could you get me a glass of water?”

“Sure.”

As he headed to the kitchen, Romian hurriedly straightened her clothes. She quickly picked up the blanket that had fallen to the floor, then reached under her pillow. A small pill bottle appeared. Romian took out a blue pill from the bottle as if it were a familiar routine and placed it in her mouth. As soon as Eric brought the water, she swallowed the pill with a gulp.

“What kind of medicine is that?”

“It’s a sleeping pill… I have insomnia.”

“Insomnia?”

Eric listened obediently to his sister’s words, but he looked at the pill bottle in her hand with a suspicious expression. As if to ease her younger brother’s worry, Romian continued casually.

“It’s nothing serious.”

“Isn’t it bad for your health…?”

“When I have nightmares, I can’t sleep all night, and it makes daily life so difficult. I’m trying to reduce the medication, but it’s not going well…”

“Does the medicine help you sleep?”

“Yes. I fall asleep for eight hours, like I’ve passed out.”

After losing Eric, the insomnia that plagued Romian felt like her destiny. Each day was a struggle, a burden she bore as the penance a sinner must endure.

She had taken the medicine, so she would fall asleep within thirty minutes. Already, the drug’s effects were making her whole body feel languid. Romian blinked her large eyes.

“I think I’m going to fall asleep soon. Eric, you can go back to your room now.”

“I’ll stay with you until you fall asleep.”

“Huh…?”

Before she knew it, Eric had climbed onto the bed and pressed himself close to Romian’s side. The pleasant scent of his body lingered at the tip of her nose. Romian felt her consciousness fading as she lifted her gaze to look at him.

Eric grinned and placed his hand over hers, clasping it. The gesture, so much like that of a lover, made Romian’s cheeks flush with shyness once again.

“I’ll never let go of your hand again,” he whispered. “And you must never let go of mine, either.”

“I promise, Eric…”

“Goodnight, Romian.”

Perhaps it was the warmth of his body against hers, but the medicine’s effects began to spread rapidly. Romian drifted off to sleep just like that.

“Romian, are you asleep?”

Eric asked the same question he had when he first came to her room, but his voice was now thick with a much deeper intensity. Romian merely breathed steadily in her sleep, offering no answer to his question.

“Fuck.”

A curse, jarringly out of place on his beautiful face, escaped his lips. He scrambled to mount Romian, his trousers already straining against the bulge.

“I’m sorry, sister. I didn’t plan on fucking you this soon… but who told you to sleep so defenselessly?”

The sleeping pills were said to knock one out for eight hours. That meant he could devour Romian all night without any repercussions.

In a swift motion, Eric stripped off her thin slip. When he removed the last barrier concealing her breasts, her pale pink nipples were shyly revealed.

“You’re so beautiful, sister.”

Eric gazed at her breasts with rapturous eyes and squeezed them. Her pink nipples quickly hardened, standing erect. He tapped them with his fingertips before pressing the two mounds of flesh together. The sight of her breasts, gathered and pushed together, was a masterpiece.

“Ah…”

As he lightly scratched the tips of her nipples with his nails, a soft moan escaped Romian’s lips. She seemed completely unaware that her whimpering, childlike whimpers were only fueling Eric’s lust.

After playing with his sister’s breasts like toys for a long time, he finally took a hardened nipple into his mouth and sucked it hard. Her body writhed each time her nipple was roughly swallowed by his hot mouth.

Eric greedily devoured her full breasts, his fingers circling her areolae before he pinched her nipples between his index finger and thumb, rubbing them slowly.

“You like this too, don’t you, sister? Hmm?”

He whispered, biting Romian’s plump earlobe. Then, he nibbled the edge of her ear with his teeth before breathing heavily against it.

His hand slid down past her concave navel, delving deeper. As it slipped beneath her thin underwear, he could feel the coarse texture of her pubic hair.

“You’re already wet.”

He chuckled again. The pretty dimple below his cheek gave him an innocent look.

Eric’s middle finger parted her labia and slipped inside. Despite the slick wetness, the interior was so tight that insertion wasn’t easy. Even with just one finger inside, her sensitive walls clamped tightly around it. He withdrew his finger, then thrust it back in quickly. The friction of flesh against flesh made a lewd, squelching sound.

“Ngh…”

Feeling the stimulation, she frowned and trembled. Eric held his breath for a moment, wondering if she was waking up, but soon heard her soft, steady breathing again.

Relieved, Eric shoved another finger deep inside her. The slick, wet walls of her vagina contracted, tightening around his fingers once more. With each thrust of his two fingers, he felt Romian’s body heat steadily rise.

After thoroughly working her tender inner walls for a while, he abruptly withdrew his hand. The accumulated arousal fluid gushed out in thick clumps, soaking the sheets.

Soon, Eric completely stripped off the underwear that had been clinging to her thighs. He spread her vulva wide, peering down as if observing her. Even in the darkness, her flushed, red flesh was clearly visible. As he coated his palm in her juices and stroked her clitoris, the tiny nub began to swell and harden.

“Are you really asleep? How can you be leaking so much even while you’re out like this?”

Though she was lost in a deep, heavy slumber, her insides were already flooded with sticky fluids. The love juices that had pooled at her tautly stretched vaginal opening gushed out in a sudden torrent.

Eric quickly buried his face between her thighs and extended his tongue toward her opening. Then, he began to lick her slick clitoris like a dog. Each time he relentlessly licked and sucked on the swollen nub, a fresh wave of hot love juice gushed from Romian’s vulva.

Eric drank her in, sucking every last drop as if savoring the juice of a sweet fruit. The obscene sounds of him greedily lapping at her vulva continued for a long while. Even in her sleep, Romian’s hips twitched, as if she were experiencing a faint orgasm.

“Ha, sister. Can you make me feel good too?”

As he unbuckled his pants, Eric’s cock sprang free. It stood erect, reaching down to his navel and dripping with pre-cum. He pressed his cock into Romian’s small hand and began to stroke it.

“Fuck, sister…! Ah, that’s so good.”

Even though she was asleep, the thought of Romian pleasuring him with her own hand sent Eric over the edge immediately. Semen erupted from the tip of his glans, splattering across her hand, her slender face, and her flat stomach. Being his first ejaculation, the semen was thick and milky white.

“Ha, sister. I’m going in. You’ll love this. You probably haven’t had a chance to have real sex while living with that old man, have you?”

Even after ejaculating once, Eric’s cock remained just as large as before. If not for the milky-white semen coating its base, it would have been impossible to tell he’d already come.

Without hesitation, he slowly pushed his glans into her wet pussy. He’d noticed how small her opening was when he’d inserted his fingers, but the pressure of her tightening around his massive cock was beyond imagination.

“Fuck… Ah, sister… I feel like my cock’s gonna snap.”

Filthy words poured from Eric’s lips. The vein bulging on his handsome forehead clearly showed just how aroused he was.

Eric’s cock grew even larger inside Romian’s delicate interior. Soon, his hardening cock repeatedly slid out to the tip and thrust back in to the root. Each time he pierced through her, the love juices pooled inside leaked out.

Thwack!

Eric’s cock slammed deep inside her, then scraped against her inner walls as it pulled out. His cock was immediately sucked back into her gaping entrance.

“Ngh… Sister… Sister… Haah…”

Romian’s slender body tossed and turned as he fucked her like a beast. Eric clamped his mouth over the peak of her bouncing breast, sucking it like a nursing babe. Suddenly, he wished milk would flow from her breast. It would surely taste as sweet as nectar, the drink of the gods.

Eric drove himself even faster. Blood coursed through his veins, and pleasure made his vision flicker. From the seamless junction of their bodies, a torrent of fluid—whosever it was—splashed out.

Even as he thrust his cock inside her, Eric wanted to go deeper. He lifted Romian’s legs and draped them over his shoulders with ease. Her hips rose, her body curling, and the penetration became much smoother.

Thud, thud. The sound of their bodies colliding echoed through the chilly air. His fully erect penis plunged deep and hard, nearly touching her cervix.

“Ngh!”

Finally, Eric released his seed directly into her womb. Only after he had ejaculated enough to make her flat lower belly bulge did he smile with satisfaction.

His sweat-drenched, muscular body collapsed on top of Romian. He rubbed his face against her glistening, sweat-slicked breasts and whispered languidly, “I love you, Romian.”