DFN | Chapter 1.2

His nose was perhaps already numb from the sweet smell still lingering in the air, so he could barely taste the tea, but whether it was because of some strong mint that had been added, he felt an intense, stinging sensation on his tongue.

“It’s a flower tea specially grown in my garden. It’s excellent for its calming effect, and it puts you in a good mood.”

So he had made tea from those flowers blooming so abundantly outside. When Ethan cautiously swallowed a sip, sure enough, whether the claim of a calming effect was no lie, his body began to feel languid. The tingling stimulation on his tongue somehow felt like an interesting texture, and Ethan drank a couple more sips of the tea.

“You’re going to leave here and get married in the capital?”

“Yes. I was introduced to a maiden from the capital through a matchmaker. I plan to settle my affairs and leave next month.”

“Is there something about Nightrow you’re dissatisfied with?”

“There’s nothing to do in this backwater.”

Ethan bit his lip at the blunt answer that had slipped out before he knew it. He hadn’t meant to be this rude.

“That’s all right. When you drink that tea, everyone becomes too comfortable and ends up being honest. It’s common these days for young men to drift toward the big cities.”

The baron went on with a dull conversation, going on about how hard it was for rural nobles to get by. Bellian’s voice, each syllable resonating gently, made Ethan’s eyelids feel heavy. Ethan made an effort to keep his eyes open and adjusted his posture. In the meantime, Bellian picked up the document on the table and looked it over. It was the document Mikhail had given.

“Hmm… a dairy cow is a first. If sir Mikhail has classified you as a dairy cow, it means you’re worth that much. His eye for these things is reliable.”

“A dairy cow… ?”

Bellian looked at Ethan, who was asking back slowly as if his tongue had gone loose, and smiled.

“It doesn’t say whether you’re a virgin or not. Didn’t Mikhail ask before you came in?”

“Uh… I’m a man. The word virgin is for women…”

The moment Ethan tried to raise his question, Bellian quickly cut him off.

“Oh, Ethan! I truly don’t want to, but following the traditions and laws of Nightrow, I must exercise the right of first night upon you, who are soon to be married. It is my duty to uphold the laws of the family without fail.”

“What law do you mean, my lord?”

“Traditionally, the right of first night was a law exercised upon brides-to-be. And so I have the duty to treat you not as a groom, but as a ‘bride who has come to offer me his first night,’ and conduct hygiene education.”

“I… am a bride?”

Ethan’s head, which had been growing heavier and heavier since he had smelled the sweet fragrance drifting through the mansion, had now begun to buzz in earnest. But rather than painful, it felt languid.

“It’s an old-fashioned law. I don’t want to follow it either. But doing things one doesn’t want to do is what it means to be a noble. So will you help me a little and go along with the law?”

Whether it was because the tea had relaxed his entire body, Ethan found even the act of thinking bothersome, and he simply nodded.

“…Ah, yes! If that is the case, you may treat me as a bride who has come to offer you his first night, my lord.”

The nuance of the word “bride” was a little grating, but since it was tradition, there was no particular reason to refuse.

Besides, even if he was a baron of low standing, Bellian was a noble. He was even politely asking a commoner. There was no reason not to comply.

“Then let me ask again. Are you a pure virgin who has never had sexual intercourse with another man, nor been violated?”

Ethan had fooled around with a village girl or two, but he had never been with a man, so he answered obediently once more.

“Yes. I am a pure virgin.”

“You’ve never lewdly shown your backside to anyone?”

“Uh, no, I haven’t.”

“Have you ever put another man’s cock in your mouth and sucked it?”

“Ugh, not at all…”

Something about the conversation felt unnatural and he hesitated a little, but Ethan answered compliantly. At that docile attitude, Bellian’s eyes flashed as if he had been waiting for this, and he gave an order.

“Let’s start with an inspection to see if what you say is true. Take off all your clothes.”

“Take them off… ? Here?”

“Don’t worry. It’s only a virginity inspection and a hygiene inspection to verify there are no lies in what you’ve said, so take everything off, not leaving even your underwear.”

Ethan hesitated and rose from the sofa, slowly undoing the laces of his tunic. As the collar fell open, his broad chest, somewhat lighter in color compared to his tanned arms and legs, was revealed, along with his crimson areolas.

“Dark on the outside, white on the inside. A pretty dappled pattern.”

At the sight of the unusually gleaming brown skin and lean muscles across his chest, which was perhaps because he had been sweating while splitting firewood even that morning, Bellian lifted the corners of his mouth in what seemed like admiration.

“Dappled dairy cows do tend to have especially large milk pails.”

Without catching those words, Ethan continued and took off his trousers. Below his thickly muscled pubic area, his large cock jutted out, covered in black pubic hair. At the same moment, the pungent male body odor rose sharply.

“I’m sorry, but it hasn’t been bath day yet, so I smell…”

Only then did Ethan flush slightly and pulled his trousers back up. Among his village friends, this level of smell was nothing, but in the fragrant baron’s manor without a speck of dust, it was an out-of-place stench. It wasn’t as if he had no excuse.

Commoner homes had no proper place to bathe, and heating hot water was an enormously laborious task, so for bachelors like Ethan, bathing once every two weeks was considered diligent.

As Ethan stood there holding up his waistband and just watching for cues, Bellian rolled up both sleeves and rose from his seat.

“Ethan. I clearly ordered you to take off your clothes, didn’t I?”

“Well…”

Bellian, who had drawn close before Ethan knew it, ran his index finger along the space between Ethan’s shoulder blades. It was a gesture like brushing off dust.

“The education for the first night has already begun. A dirty smell is not courtesy toward your partner. So take your trousers off again, take out your cock, and let your whole body feel just how filthy a male you have been until now.”

At the words that the hygiene education under the guise of the right of first night had begun, Ethan’s body stiffened with tension. It did feel strange to be taking off his trousers and underwear in the baron’s reception room, but as Bellian said, there was no woman who would like a dirty man.

“…Understood. I’ll take them off.”

Ethan took off his trousers and covered his groin with both hands clasped together. As he stood naked, giving off the raw male smell, Bellian circled around him as if appraising him, looking over his body. The sharp gaze that stared particularly hard at his chest left him unsure of how to react.

But one thing was certain: standing naked in this splendid, spacious reception room made him feel like a wretched creature. As his head began to bow lower and lower under the feeling of being diminished, Bellian suddenly struck his shoulder with something like a hard rod.

“Ugh!”

“Stand up straight and keep your eyes forward, it gets in the way of the inspection.”

Ethan flinched and quickly corrected his posture. What had struck him was a ruler with fine gradations drawn on it. Bellian poked the ruler at various parts of Ethan’s body. Down the neck’s sternocleidomastoid muscle, the shoulders, along the obliques, all the way down to the groin between his two thighs.

The ruler tapped and pushed its way between Ethan’s hands covering his cock. Then the tip of the ruler parted the thick pubic hair and pressed firmly against the tip of the glans.

“I’ll conduct a physical examination.”

“Ugh! my lord. That place…”

“Does refusing the right of first night now mean you intend to put the marriage on hold?”

Ethan desperately wanted to leave Nightrow, and that meant he absolutely had to marry the maiden from the capital. And since men in Nightrow had to be subject to the right of first night in order to get married, Ethan had no choice but to actively undergo this hygiene education.

“You’d perform the first night with a dirty body that hasn’t even been inspected? You’d use a body no one knows is a virgin or not, and turn what should be a sacred home into a lewd brothel? Ah, I suppose you just want to spread your legs lewdly every night and shake your hips? Your head must be full of nothing but thoughts of becoming a lewd temptress, playing with a dirty cock.”

Press. Press. Each time Bellian’s questions were thrown out, the thin metal ruler persistently jabbed at the tip of the glans. Each time, the stimulation sent a sharp tingle up his spine and his mouth went dry.

“Th, that’s not it!”

“What you want to offer me for the first night, is it a clean and pure pussy, or a lewd and dirty body?”

“Of course I’ll offer a clean and pure pussy!”

Pussy? He had reflexively agreed with the baron’s words and it seemed he had blurted out a strange word, but there was no time to question it further. The baron’s educational philosophy was strangely rational. What could be wrong with having intercourse with a clean body?

Besides, like that… Ethan glanced sideways at the baron’s face, dressed in a white formal uniform with silver tassels. It suited his jewel-like teal eyes well. For someone so white and beautiful, it would make sense that he wouldn’t want to be near someone like Ethan, who was covered in dirt and smelled of the barn all day.

“In that case, I’ll tell you the proper procedure for the inspection. Spread both thighs wide and squat down on the floor so the front and back are clearly visible. Put your hands behind your back and push your chest forward.”

“Yes, my lord.”

Now Ethan followed the order without hesitation. He squatted on the floor and spread both thighs wide open like a frog. Balancing well on the soles of his feet and putting his hands behind his back, he had to look up to see Bellian.

“Well done, Ethan.”

At that praise, Ethan felt a surge of confidence and his mind eased. Bellian placed the ruler against one nipple with his elegant hand in its white glove.

“The nipple is less than half an inch.”

Having measured the length of the nipple, he began stimulating it with the tip of the ruler, pressing and digging into the areola.

“Ah… ahh…! my lord, it hurts, hng…”

“I told you to put your hands behind your back, didn’t I? If you thrash about during the inspection, you’ll get hurt!”