Overall, the meeting with Vlad turned out to be rather fruitful. From the initial plans for the great project of building the road, through the foundations of the spice trade all the way to the mayor sending his people after the figures clearly acting against the welfare of the city as a whole that was outlined in Elia's mother diary, it could be said that all the matters were finished.

With just the slight arrangments for the security of the town just in case, if the family of my fiancee would be crafty enough to try something even sooner than I expected, most of my men were already stationed either on the walls, at the gates or simply in many of the mansion's rooms.

By the time we could finally return to the mansion after wrapping up the last details at the magistrate, the sun was barely peeking out from behind the city walls, throwing a grand spectacle of shadows on the stone slabs making up the town's square. Just walking through a few tens of meters of this open space was enough to put Elia's in the clingy mood, pushing her arms to wrap around my side, as she refused to let go while forcing me to slow my pace down to match hers as she rested her head on the side of my shoulder.

"That was a busy day. I never expected you to come up with so many novelties."

Slowly running her hand along my arm, she was looking somewhere further, as if her sight wasn't limited by the building that would normally obstruct her field of view. Looking at her with the corner of my eye, I couldn't help but be drawn to her dreamy expression.

"It's not that I came up with them on the spot. Most of the ideas I have I actually discovered in the remote corners of the country when I was off, fighting in the northern war."

The conflict I spoke about was one of the main reasons that caused the usual unrest in such a big country to finally reach the tipping point. A long, exhaustive war that didn't even brough a definitive conclusion to the conflicting matter was for a reason called THE FIRST northern war in the later ages. Using the fact that in all her stories that she told me about back when we were travelling to Tarnow, she never ever mentioned leaving the Crown lands, I pushed the blame for all the inventions I was bringing up for some random fortunate encounters I happened upon back then.

"Still, that doesn't take any bit of your glory. Who cares if someone figured out a way to improve the lives of everyone if he never managed to bring his ideas to reality? It's not the words that matter, but acts."

With those words, we reached the doorstep of Elia's mansion, allowing me to finally free myself from her clinginess. Still conflicted about the current and future nature of our relationship, I couldn't help but feel strange when she was so touchy with me.

Stepping inside this enormous palace, way too big for comfort in my book, I felt an overwhelming coldness. Even though the winter was still in its full swing, with how we spent most of our time mostly in Vlad's office using both ours and his servants and attendants to take care of all the matters we were discussing, while this short, leisure trip back to the mansion didn't really upset us in terms of the temperature, when surrounded by the icy-cold, stone walls that the mansion was made off, without even the last rays of the sun that accompanied us on the outside, the grand hall that presented itself in a majestic way during the day, not looked like a coffin.

"It's cold!"

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While she was the owner of this place, she had simply no way to change the reality of this building. While heating up a single room was still possible with a small fireplace that I hoped this mansion didn't lack, doing so for the entire palace would not only be wasteful but in fact, was simply impossible.

"Come here."

Even if I still didn't resolve this little conflict in my heart, I couldn't bear the sight of Elia's arms trembling when the refreshing air of the outside got replaced by the stagnant and freezing atmosphere of this place. Instead of running right to our chambers to hide from the temperature under a thick set of blankets, I brought her back into my embrace, trying to shield her from the freezing aura of this place to the best of my capability.

"While we can stay like this for a while, I still need you to guide me to where I'm supposed to sleep."

Despite complete lack of intention to make it sound romantic or deep, by whispering it directly into her ear separated from my mouth by a minimal distance, it somehow ended up turning into an intimate act!

"Sure, come with me."

With her body slightly trembling in reaction to my whisper, Elia grabbed my hand and moved forward, while still keeping her body close to mine. Despite the hour not being that late in my perception, there was no way to artificially keep such a huge mansion bright, without literally burning the money on the candles, forcing us to walk through the corridors with only a slight sphere of light cast by a single candle that Elia picked from one of the shelves carved in the wall.

Contrary to my expectations, despite how big this mansion was, we managed to arrive in place in just a few moments. Standing in front of huge doors, I could already tell that this place was most likely one of the guests' room, just from the way it was located on the side of the corridor instead of opening up from its main side.

"I'm sorry we won't head to the master's chamber, but I don't want to sleep in the same bed as that fucking mother of mine did…"

So that was the reason. In my own, troubled head, I was already making conjectures about the meaning of this small action of hers, only for all of them to vanish under her rational reasoning. It was only after a moment after Elia already pushed the doors open and pulled me inside when I realised another meaning of what she just said.

She was supposed to lead me to the place where I could get some sleep, yet she spoke about not wanting to sleep in her mother's bed herself?

With that notion crashing all over my mind, I could only stare as Elia reached for the fireplace and used her candle to light it up from the candle she was holding, before putting it at the small shelf above the heating stove.

"Close the doors… please."

With her voice breaking a bit, she turned around to face me, watching as I mindlessly followed her request. Keeping my eyes on her as if charmed by some unnatural force, I pushed the doors with my back before my hands reached to its knob and locked the entrance to the room.

Clack.

As soon as the sound of the lock announced that our privacy was secured, Elia reached towards her shoulders, pushing the straps of her dress to the side and allowing her dress to fall out of her upper body, with only her belt holding the cloth that covered the bottom half of her charms.

"Come."

Reaching with her hands towards me, I could see the light from the fireplace reflected on her fair skin. While I had seen more nudity in the few years of my life in the future times than most of the people from the current age would see in their entire lives, the sight of her nipples standing proudly on top of her perky breasts, jiggling ever so slightly to the rhythm of her breath.

Drawn by the sight and her invitation, I was only able to notice that I was moving when half of the distance that initially separated us already disappeared. In the very next moment, Elia's hands wrapped around my neck as she reached with her lips forward, placing them lightly on top of my mouth.

While we shared a long, yet light kiss, Elia dropped one of her hands on top of mine before bringing it up and placing my palm on top of her breast. At the same time as I felt for the first time in my entire, both lives, how the nipple rubbing against the palm of a hand managed to get my blood boiling, she moved to the side, pulling me towards the sizeable bed that took the most of the space in the room.

"It's okay. I'm okay with it, or rather, I want it."

With her calm voice entering through my ears only to caress my brain as she sat on the edge of the bed and pulled my body over her. What I was right now experiencing, was in no way comparable to the emotionless fucking of the future. Every smallest gesture of hers was filled with intimacy and emotion as if a slight rubbing of her hand against my cheek could transfer more feeling than an orgy of the entire university campus.

Lowering my head once again, I kissed her lips, while feeling her hands slowly unbuttoning my clothes only for my upper body to get exposed in just a matter of a single moment. With how close we were, my hands could only caress the sides of her waist, while I continued to press my lips against hers, only to feel her playful tongue joining the fun a moment later.

It wouldn't be long before the atmosphere of the night would cast away all the restraints, already diminishing my earlier worries as I succumbed to the insane feeling of tasting Elia's saliva.