It was an open secret that Bernadetta and Hubert had been ‘seeing’ one another privately for some weeks now. While Hubert, personally, would have been just as happy to keep the matter truly private some amount of of tacit acknowledgement was necessary merely to head off any accusations of foul play that might arise from some outsider’s glimpse at their arrangement. Hubert was all too pleased to be the dark and sinister man, but some lines must be drawn, at least before blades were. He couldn’t have some well meaning idiot like Alois charging in to defend her honor.

 

Not that he had in any way impugned her honor. At least…. Not in any significant way. Not yet. Oh, there’d been a caress here, a stolen kiss here– enough to make her cover her face and go running off to hide, the very first time. But not anything to get anyone truly up in arms about.

 

And so it was with great relish that he dribbled the wax from his black candle onto the back of the envelope, and waited just a moment before pressing the form of his sigil-ring into the hardening form.

 

0000000000000000

 

There was a letter, slid under the bottom of the door of Bernadetta’s room.

It sat there for some time, cast in the fading light of the Monastery afternoon, not because it was unseen, but because the figure half buried in covers and the plush arms of a big stuffed bear was staring at it with a sort of mute horror.

Bernadetta was no stranger to mysterious letters left under doorways. They were the sort of thing that often appeared in her various stories. It could be anything.. A letter of dismissal from the Academy, a sharp rebuke from her father, a challenge to the death from one of her many enemies . Or worse… a proposition.

So she sat there for some time in her fortress of fluff, half embroidered fabrics, and book-bindings, staring at the paper interloper like it was made of the purest, deadliest poison imaginable.

But eventually, as the light began to dim behind the doors, the suspense proved too much and she found herself trembling as she approached the envelope on the ground. She lifted it up, holding it out and away from her face.  Shaking hands fumbled the paper open and with a squeak of quiet terror, she dumped its contents onto the ground before her.

 

My dearest Lady Varley,

 

It pleases me to extend to you an invitation to a certain exclusive game. Should you choose to participate, please find your way to the second basement, fifth corridor, past the statue of the Wretched Knight.

 

As above this is an exclusive game. Tell no one, and bring nothing but your passion.

 

With fondest regards,

 

The man in the dark

“Oh nooooo!!!!” Bernie squealed as she read the letter for the third time “Oh Bernie, what are you going to do now??” She fell back onto her bed, holding the letter up in the air as her eyes scanned it once more.

“The man in the d-d-dark?” She swallowed “that sounds like a brigand’s name . O-o-or a dark priest of evil! Or..or… or a monster . And what’s all this about a game?? It’s probably a trap! It has to be a trap! Only an idiot would go wandering around the b-basement on the w-whim of some maniac’s letter! Are you an idiot, Bernie? Huh? Are you??”

It turned out, of course, that she must have been…because as soon as night fell and the other students were surely asleep… Bernadetta wandered on shaking legs into the night and towards the basements of Garreg Mach.

Carefully, she crawled her way into the depths of the monastery, following the letter’s instructions with trepidation. Hoping every moment that she wouldn’t run into another student, or the man in the dark .

 

Bernadette managed to go the entire night time journey down to the basement without being seen, though several times she heard footsteps, coming down the hall, or near a corner. Students weren’t technically disallowed from wandering the halls at night, but if a guard found here there would be questions.

 

The basement was dark, only lit by a few, lonely and distant torches along the walls as she walked, her footsteps the only sound.

.
Questions, of course, would have been worse than any nighttime assassin. At least a killer would get it done with quick. Instead of letting her slowly die of humiliation as she tried to explain herself to one of the guards…or worse… a Knight . She fought an instinctive shudder, huddling inward like a woman caught in a freezing gale as she crept deeper into the basement, keeping her eyes out for the statue.

“This is a mistake Bernie” She said to herself to make the hall feel a little less lonely “You’re making a terrible mistake, a horrible mistake. You’re going to wind up dead or …or…”

Muttering to herself, Bernadette reached the statue of the Wreched Knight, a hunched stone figure in armor with a stone lantern, beckoning the viewer to come toward. Unusually tonight, the lantern was lit, illuminating a narrow and hidden corridor just behind the statue.

 

“…..well that’s not normal” She said softly “ominous is what it is… dangerous”

 

She turned around, as if to walk away.

 

“I can’t do this anymore” she murmured softly. “I’m going back to my room…”

Still…the light beckoned behind her…It flickered, invitingly.

 

Bring nothing but your passion.

 

Bernie bit her lip, chewing it nervously…before she took a deep breath and turned her way around and marched down the hall with conviction. Nervous, jittery conviction.

 

She had passion alright. Passion for a lot of things! And she wasn’t going to let fear stand in the way this time.

Still, the deeper she walked, the smaller and more shaky her steps became.

 

The cold stones of the narrow corridor nearly scraped her shoulders as she walked, making her way through the near darkness to who-knew-where. But just as she was thinking of turning back, she saw that there was a light at the far end of the tunnel. Soft, like candle light.

 

Without her bow or her room to protect her, she felt all the smaller in the narrow hallway. But the light pulled her forward. Step by step she approached the candlelight with shaking shoulders and more curiosity than she knew was safe.

 

Her hesitant steps found the mouth of the corridor, emptying into a small, windowless room. Polished restraints protruded from metal plates bolted into the stone walls. A great wooden rack dominated one side of the room. There was a wooden chair, a long table with various instruments laid out on black velvet, and other details, but Bernadette’s mind didn’t have time to process them.

 

She felt a cold point against the back of her neck.

 

“I see you decided to join me for our game.”

 

“KYAAA!!!” Bernadette shrieked , flailing her arms and stumbling forward in the reflexive attempt to run away “Don’t kill me! I’d do anything ! I’m not worth it! I’m sorry!!”

There was nowhere to run, of course, except for into the ominous room ahead of her. There was the sound of boot-steps behind her, and then the scraping of metal upon stone.

 

Into the ominous room she ran, because she had to run somewhere . Her fight or flight reflexes were going crazy.

 

“Oh Bernie” She bemoaned out loud “you’ve gone and done it again. You went and left your room and NOW look what’s happening” She saw the wooden table covered in velvet…and dove under it “you’ve gone and gotten yourself in the grip of a vicious killer!”

Her blood froze “Oh no… it’s got to be that DEATH KNIGHT again!”

 

There was a dark chuckle, and the bootsteps came toward her. From her low vantage point all she could see was a pair of black polished boots and the hem of a black cloak.  The figure stood at the table.

“Death knight? I don’t know if I should be flattered, or offended.”

 

Bernadetta’s purple haired head peeked out from under the table, and she looked up the figure’s body…starting at the black boots and moving her way up

 

“…. h-hold on” she squeaked “H-Hubert? Is that you?”

 

The laugh came– rich, dark and sinister.

“I sealed the letter with my house sigil, Bernadetta,” he said, shaking his head. “Did you think that someone was impersonating me?”

 

Bernadetta flushed, pursing her lips in a little pout as she crawled her way out from under the table. Even as she stood, she still quivered like a leaf.

 

“I tore the seal to pieces” She admitted “b-because my hands were shaking”

 

“Ah. Heh. And yet you still came.” He reached a gloved hand down to her to help her up. “You’re more daring than you first appear.”

 

She took his hand in her quivering fingers, and stood as tall as she could…even if she came nowhere near his impressive height.

 

“D-daring?” She smiled weakly “m-me? No, no, no. Bernie’s hardly daring at all!” She said, waving her free hand dismissively “I just..uhm… I had to see what was down here?”

The dark cloaked figure pulled her closer once she was standing, and tipped his chin down to look into her eyes.

“And now that you see the little game room I’ve put together, what do you think?”

 

She looked around the room, taking in all the strange furniture for a moment before she smiled like a cornered rabbit.

“I-it’s the kind of game that requires a lot of sitting, right? B-because you got yourself all these comfy chairs?” Of course she noticed the restraints, and the strange shapes of some of the furniture. She saw enough to know that whatever his game was, it certainly wasn’t chess.

 

Hubert’s wicked smile sliced across his face, shining ominously in the candle light.

“Sitting, you could say, is one element,” he purred. His fingers slid up her spine, and lingered on the nape of her neck. “Though that is certainly not the most entertaining aspect.”

 

“EEeeep!” her voice trailed off mid squeak, turning into a shivering whisper as his fingers lingered on the back of her neck.

 

“N-no?” She asked, managing to meet his eyes for the briefest of moments before she flicked them back to the ground with a full body shiver “You’re not going to e-execute me, are you? To k-keep me silent about our …our…our” she whispered up at him “Secret Trysts?”

 

He chuckled darkly, his soft calf-skin gloves tracing her neck and collar.

“Oh, Bernadetta. If I get my way, you’ll only die a little death. And so will I.”

Bernadetta swallowed and met his eyes again

“A …a little death?” She whispered “Oh ge-geeze, what sort of m-mess have I gotten myself into now?”

Still , she found herself leaning into the soft touch of his gloved fingers.

 

His heavily lidded, golden eyes seemed to bore into hers for a moment, as he smirked.

“Why Bernadetta, my dear, it’s only a game, after all. Would you like me to tell you more about it?”

She nodded hesitantly in response, her eyes locked on his as she felt her heart begin to race. It wasn’t quite anxiety that was filling her, but it had some of the same symptoms…the flushing of her skin. The pounding of her heart. That tingling anticipation through her body…

 

He leaned in, his lips brushing the ridge of her ear, soft black hair brushing against her face.

 

His voice purred in her ear, quiet, intimate, and incredibly sinister.

 

“I intend to ravish you. In as uncivilized a manner as you will allow.”

“G-Geh!” Was her eloquent response.

Her face had gone completely red by this point, framing her widened eyes and the shocked circle of her mouth.

It took a moment of silence before she was able to stop shaking like a leaf and squeak out

“R-ravish me?” she bit her lip, eyes darting around the room. “N-nobody else is here to s-spy on us are they?”

 

“I assure you, we are utterly alone. …unless you’d prefer I go fetch someone to watch?” He had put just enough distance between their faces for her to appreciate the dry smirk on his pale lips.

Bernie’s face somehow turned redder. She attempted to hide behind her floppy locks of hair, shrinking  down and closer to him at the same time.

“N-no!” She said , head shaking vehemently “n-no way! My reputation would be in tatters! My family would hear!”

 

“Ah, well now that would certainly be a shame,” Hubert purred. “Something to be avoided.”

She nervously brushed her hair from her face

“People would t-talk” She said nervously “b-b-but if you promise this place is private..”

 

“Take a look.”

 

Hubert gestured behind him. As Bernadetta glanced back, she could see that a barred gate had been dragged in front of the narrow entrance. Likely what had made the scraping sound.

She sighed out a heavy breath, and wrapped her arms around herself. An anxious smile tugged at her lips

“Nobody’s g-getting through that.” Or out. That thought bounced feverishly around her head just long enough to make her heart pound anxiously in her chest. She swallowed

 

“I g-guess I came all this w-way” she said, tilting her chin up “I l-left my room and everything”

 

“So you did,” he agreed, his fingertips stroking down her back. “It would be a shame if you left now.”

 

Bernadetta swallowed thickly

“If I l-left now, I’d probably get caught by one of the knights” She justified , her eyes wide behind the fringe of her hair “and I’d have to explain why I was s-slinking about!”

She looked up to meet his gaze with a timid look

 

“O…Okay… I’ll play your game, Hubert.”

 

“Excellent,” he purred, leaning in to kiss her on the temple. “Then the first thing we must declare is how to end the game, if you desire it.”

 

“End the game?” She asked shyly “I’d say I’d scream but I m-might do that anyway.”

 

“Precisely,” he agreed. “Or tell me to stop, but not really mean it. Therefore, we need some way for you to end the game that I will recognize as legitimate.”

 

“W…What if I call you something s-super silly” Bernadetta said, perking up “like …. H-h-h..hhh”

She hid her face in her hands

“Oh I can’t say it! You’ll hate me if I do!”

 

His smirk twisted up into a quite sinister one indeed.

 

“Oh now I absolutely NEED to hear it.”

Bernie sunk into herself, burying her face deeper in her hands. From the slats of her fingers came her muffled reply.

“Hugbert”

 

There was a brief look of astonishment on Hubert’s severe and sharp face.

 

And then he burst out laughing.

“Oh my pride. Perfect, Bernadetta.”

“Waahhhh!” she whined from behind her fingers “I..I..” She stammered “it’s like what I’d name a stuffed bear! It’s terrible! Oooh, i can hear how much you hate it in that wicked laugh!”

She peeked through her fingers at the taller man, smiling weakly “But if i-it’s perfect for stopping the game, I’ll remember to use it”

 

“Yes, I think a name like that would bring all passionate activity to an immediate halt,” he mused. “And with that, now the game can begin.”

“H-how are we supposed to start?” She asked.

 

“Oh, I can think of any number of ways,” he said, kissing her lips softly, before he eased away from her and sat, lounging, in a simple chair.. “But first, I think I will tell you to strip.”

 

Bernadette flushed scarlet once more and her shaking hands hesitated at the clasp of her uniform’s neck

“S-strip?” She squeaked “oh Hu-Hubert… t-this is uhm… a b-big step from s-stolen kisses!”

“How observant of you,” he agreed, his amused expression unchanged, as he sat there, expectantly.

She hesitated, her short nails clicking against the clasps of her uniform as she toyed with the idea of just slipping them free and obeying the order versus the intense feeling of flustered heat that threatened to send her scrabbling back under that table.

WIth a swallow, she unclasped the collar of her uniform, and began working at the buttons with quivering hands “…I..I’ll try.”

 

“Now then, I do hope you won’t make me wait too long. I might get impatient and cut them off of you.”

That brought a shiver to Bernie’s spine…and she wasn’t sure if it was the nerves or the anticipation that did it.

“You wouldn’t!” She squeaked “I’d have to s-s-sneak back to my room NAKED if you did that!”

The uniform’s jacket came loose and she hugged the flaps around herself with a timid look, yet to actually expose her body beyond the merest tease.

 

Hubert leaned on his hand the smirk on his face crawling into the territory of a leer.

 

“That’s not my problem, now is it, dear Bernadetta?”

“…no. You’ll just have to deal with me a-after! I..I’d be so humiliated that I’d never l-leave my room again!” Bernie pouted.

Despite her complaints… she pulled away the jacket, letting it drop to the floor in a heap.

Her undershirt was simple white silk that clung tight to her small breasts and slight frame, the fabric tented slightly where her nipples had started to stiffen. She swallowed, and reached down to her pants with an inquisitive look.

 

Hubert’s cool gaze was piercing as he studied her form. Without looking away, he reached over to the nearby table and snatched a black implement from off its velvet cushion. A riding crop.

“Keep going.”

“Eeep!!” Bernadetta yelped “a-a-are you going to …you aren’t! You COULDN’T!” She protested loudly, even as she shakingly unfastened the buttons of her uniform skirt. One by one, they slipped free, and her pants slid just a little bit lower down her hips.

 

She could feel his eyes on her, the cold, snakelike intensity of his gaze bore into her like cold fire; he watched as the hem of her skirt sank lower and lower.

 

Idly, he tapped the pliable rod of the crop on his knee, leaning his chin on his hand.

 

“Couldn’t what ?”

 

“W…Whip me with that crop?” She stammered, letting her skirt drop to join her fallen jacket.

 

All at once, the pale curve of her hips and her shapely legs were revealed as the fabric hit the ground. She swallowed, now only clad in her silken undershirt and pale underwear. Bernie hesitated again, looking up to meet Hubert’s eyes as she wrapped her arms around herself with a timid look in her deep grey eyes.

 

“Whip you?” he repeated, his voice thick with a sinister honey. “Now whatever would give you the impression that I was going to whip you, my dear?”

 

Bernadetta looked away, turning her eyes toward the ground with a little whimper.

 

“I…I know a riding crop when I s-see one!” she said “I know what you do with those! You w-whip…well…horses…but…but… I mean… you could use it on… on… well… you certainly a-aren’t going to use it on yourself!”

 

That made Hubert laugh.

“No, you’re very observant. I’m not going to use it on myself,” he agreed. “You were right the first time.”

She covered the space above her nipples with her arm as her face continued it’s path through new, exciting shades of flushed crimson.

That thought shouldn’t make her heart race the way it was…it was less like her usual anxiety, and more like a growing heat that built within her with every tease and sinister comment. She swallowed

“Oooh… I.. I knew it! I knew y-you were going to be up to s-something!” She bit her lip “If I s-stayed in my room I wouldn’t be in this situation!”

 

“And yet here you are. Shaking like a poor, lost little bunny rabbit,” he purred. He stood from the chair, and grabbed the collar of her silken undershirt tightly. “Now, where best to arrange you?”

 

Bernadetta gasped, swallowing thickly as she tilted her head up to try and meet his eyes “A-arrange me?” She asked in a hushed whisper “So you c-can…r-r-ra…ravish…me?”

 

“So eager to get to the main course?” he chuckled. “Didn’t we just agree that I was going to take you to task with the crop?”

 

To punctuate, he smacked the head of the crop against his own leg with his free hand.

 

The sharp sound of the crop sent a twitch down Bernadetta’s spine and a sharp “EEP” from her lips. She swallowed, hiding her face in her hands.

“You…you.. You…You’re such a villain!” she cried, even though her eyes glanced at one of the low tables.

 

His serpentine gaze followed hers, and his smirk crawled further across his face.

“That, I think, was never up for debate.” With his grip on her collar, he eased her body toward the table.

Her body shook like a leaf as her hesitant steps brought her closer and closer to the table, until her thighs bumped against it and she could get no closer. She bit her lip, hiding her face behind her fingers as she whimpered.

“Oh, I don’t know if I can do this. I… it’s too much!” She said, though the safeword never left her lips.

 

“Nonsense, you’ve got the easy part,” he teased, pushing her, belly down, against the table.

 

“Yeep!” Bernadetta felt her breasts press against the smooth velvet of the table’s surface, brushing tantalizingly against her nipples as Hubert pushed her down against it. She squeezed her eyes shut, taking several deep breaths as her body tensed in nervous anticipation.

“T-t-the easy part?”

“Of course,” Hubert agreed, arranging her bodily on the table, spreading her legs just so as he stood behind her. “You just have to lay there and receive my lash.”

Bernadetta tensed against the black velvet , pressing her face down into the plush surface to try and hide as best she could in such an…open and compromising…position. As she shivered there on the table’s surface , her hardly audible voice answered.

“E-Easy for you to say! You’re p-probably used to this kind of thing! I’d b-bet you do this all the t-time! This isn’t easy for me you know!”

 

“I’m flattered you think so highly of my social standing,” he purred. His long, gloved fingers traced the curve of her buttocks over her underclothes.

 

The trailing touch of his fingertips left goosebumps in their wake, and the noble had to press her face against the soft velvet to smother the soft sigh of pleasure it brought. Despite her nerves, the excited thrill was burning hot inside her.

“Mmffmffr” Her muffled response came.

 

“Indeed,” Hubert chuckled. He raised the crop in his hand and held it in the air, letting her stew for a moment in anticipation.

 

He could see her body tense under her flimsy underclothes. The way her whole body  seemed to scrunch inward as she prepared herself for anything. Her breaths came short and quick as she kept her face rooted to the table’s surface.

The anticipation was killing her.

 

With a sinister grin he brought it down fast– only to stop just above her ass and caress her “ gently with the crop’s leather tongue.

“YEEEEee…eep?” Came the start, and confused end of one of Bernadetta’s trademark screams. Her hips twitched against the crop’s leather tongue, rubbing lightly against it as she caught her breath.

“You… you” she stammered. “You’re teasing me!”

 

“Am I?” he mused. “Surely I would never tease someone.”

As he was speaking, he brought the crop up again, and then snapped it down across her buttock with a SNAP! And a sting of leather so nearly against delicate flesh.

Bernadetta’s scream came out more as a sharp YELP as the sudden sensation of stinging pain bloomed hot against her scarcely covered skin. Her whole body twitched, rocking her forward on the table as her nails dug into the silky fabric.

“G-gg…gah!” She squeaked again. Despite the sharp sting of pain, there was a part of it that felt very good. From the way the initial sting sent a warm, tingling feeling through her body, to the way it lingered and turned into something else…

She squeezed her eyes shut as she took a deep breath trying to compose herself in the wake of what she knew was her blooming arousal.

 

Hubert meanwhile didn’t bother to suppress his shiver of pleasure as he watched her squirm.

“Well, it seems you’re a little loud, Bernadetta. You know I imagine that scream will echo the dungeon for ages.” He struck her again with the crop, a little harder this time.

 

Bernie didn’t have much composure in the best of times, and trying to hold onto it now, in the ‘dungeon’ of her secret lover, was all but a lost cause. She cried out again, even louder than before.

She sought to muffle it by pressing her face back into the soft tabletop, but that only made her arch her back and bring her behind just a little closer to Hubert and his wicked crop.

 

He leaned over her, his body pressing against her back, and his lips beside her ear.

 

“If you go on like that, I’m going to have to gag you.”

Bernadetta’s eyes widened under the purple fringe of her hair. She swallowed, “s-s-should I try to be quieter?”

 

He stroked his fingers down her jawline. “I think I’d better just gag you. We both know your track record with trying not to scream.”

HIs fingers trailed along her slender jawline as she craned her head to look back at him with a sheepish smile.

 

“N-now you really are teasing me!” She huffed “B-Bernie, the girl who c-can’t keep quiet half a minute even  if her life depended on it.”

“Now now, it’s not teasing if it’s true.” He trailed the crop gently over her ass, as he stood again, and moved down the table, snatching up an item that Bernadetta couldn’t see.

Bernadetta squirmed on the table and attempted to sit up and peek behind her to see what Hubert was up to.

 

“S…So you’re really going to gag me?” She wailed “w-why don’t you just truss me up like a proper v-villain then!”

 

“You know, now that you mention it, that’s a very good idea.”

 

Bernadetta gulped, holding her arms over her dainty chest like a frightened rabbit.

 

“I..I..I” she stammered “I was being facetious!! You don’t have to tie me up! If you tie me up I might never get away!!”

“Funny you should say that. I don’t want you to get away.” As he returned close to her, she saw the item in his hands, a black gag, and a length of rope over his shoulder.

“YEEEEEE!!” She screamed, backing as far to the edge of the table as she could without teetering off of it. As she wobbled on the edge she stared at the ropes and gag with widened eyes

“H-Hubert!!” She said “You could do a-a-anything if I was all tied up! Anything!” She bit her nail “like r-r-ravish me, or or… or throw me off a bridge, or sell me to the highest bidder!!”

 

Hubert’s wicked laugh filled the air once more, and he covered his mouth with his gloved hand.

“Why you’re right. I could do any of those things. And I am  a terrible, wicked man. Maybe I’ll do all three.”

 

Bernadetta yelped again “All three!?” She squeaked “i’d fetch a TERRIBLE price after being dropped off a bridge!”

 

“Maybe I’ll forgo that one, then,” he purred. He grabbed her hands, and started to lash them together behind her back.

 

She struggled weakly, attempting in vain to wrench her hands away from the bindings. But if she was being honest with herself…she wasn’t trying very hard.

It took little time at all for him to securely tie her hands together behind her back, and leave her all the more vulnerable

“I…it’s not like I’d fetch much of a high price a-anywhere! It..it’s not like my father would pay much of a ransom!”

 

“Mmm,” he said, seeming not to take her protest into consideration. “Oh dear, I just realized– since I’ve already tied you up, I’m going to have to cut off you underthings.”

That brought another little yelp from her lips as her face went scarlet red once more.

“Cu-Cut off my underthings??” She stammered “D-Do you have any idea how short the uniform skirts are here? I-if you cut them apart I’m one slight breeze away from fl-flashing a Knight of Seiros!”

 

“Well if they’re paying any attention you’ll give them cause for their penance then.” Hubert chuckled wickedly. “Now, about this gag….”

He held it up near her face so she could see it. A black leather strap with a metal ring.

Her protests were cut off by the sight of the metal ring glittering in the dim light. She swallowed and traced it’s lazy sway under his hand with her bright eyes. Another thrill ran it’s way down her spine, rolling over the ever present anxiety and becoming something…exciting.

“…d-do we really need the gag?”

 

“I think it will look fetching on you.” He circled the strap around her face, the metal ring brushing her lips. “Of course, this one by itself won’t stop you from screaming like I initially wanted, but I can always stuff a cloth in there.”

 

The cool brush of metal against her lips sent another shiver down her tightly bound body. She couldn’t do much to resist at this point. Not with her bound and at his mercy.

“O..Of course you t-think it’s fetching…” She stammered , twisting her hands in her bonds “You’ve got that e-e-evil grin on your face again! Like you’re c-coming up with all kinds of schemes now that i’m in your clutches”

 

He stroked his fingers over the metal and her pale pink lips.

“I shall have to try very hard to make sure I live up to the wicked image you have of me.”

Bernadetta’s pale pink lips stood out against the hot flush of her cheeks. Her lips parted as his fingers brushed over them, kissing them gently as they passed.

 

“I d-don’t think you should t-trouble with that Hubert”

 

“Oh it’s truly no trouble,” he purred. “Open your mouth.”

Bernadetta hesitantly complied. Her lips parted as she opened her mouth and closed her eyes tight.

He pressed the ring into her mouth, behind her teeth gently, but firmly, and laced the strap behind her head. “There. Like I thought, quite fetching.”

“M…mmmfffn” Bernadetta’s reply came muffled and distorted as her teeth gently clinked against the cool ring of the gang. In her bindings, her legs pressed firmly together as she shivered once more. By now, her flush had traveled all the way over her shoulders.

“Now now, you’ll have to speak very clearly with that in so I can understand you,” he said, sneering down at her as he stroked his fingers through her hair.

Bernadetta squirmed in her bindings, pressing her head against his stroking fingers as she hesitantly met his eyes.

She brushed her tongue against the cool metal ring, feeling it’s shape and the foreign presence forcing her mouth to stay open and stretching her lips and jaw. She shivered again and pressed against the table with a little whimper.

“Don’t feel like talking just now?” he mused, “well, that’s alright, perhaps the time for idle chatter is past.”

He dragged his fingers over her bound body, back to the table and its little pillows, fingers moving over each of the tools there.

“Ahhn….” her back arched at the touch of his fingers, and she half turned to look at him over her shoulder.

“Ahn…nn” She squeezed her eyes shut. Talking in a gag was difficult, it turned out. Even she had to admit the time for ‘idle chatter’ and protests was passed…especially now that she could feel the damp heat between her legs and the tingling anticipation down her spine.

 

Huberts fingers closed around a new tool, and a moment later Bernedetta could feel cool metal against the small over her back.

“I’m going to cut off the rest of you clothes now.”

“EEEEE” she screamed in surprise as the cold metal pressed against her skin “nnnuhh…” she shook her head.

Still, she managed to still her body , aside from the way it trembled under him. The last thing she wanted was for him to cut her instead of her clothes.

 

Quite carefully and skillfully, Hubert snapped the hem of her undershirt, and in a single motion sliced down and through the delicate fabric, the fibers coming apart with a soft tearing sound. The silken shirt fell away, exposing the flesh of her back.

 

Bernadetta whimpered through the gag, her spine arching away as the blade sliced her shirt apart and left her increasingly bare and vulnerable to her wicked lover. She screamed, which wasn’t unusual for Bernadetta, but it came out distorted by the ring forcing her mouth to stay open.

“Eeeeeee!!” her body tensed under him as the shirt fell to the table below. It was a rare sight, seeing the shy archer bare of her usual layers and layers of clothing.

 

Hubert’s pale gaze inspected every new inch of skin with a ferocious intensity. With his free hand he traced his gloved fingers delicately down her bare spine; the gentle touch enough to make the tiny hairs on her back stand on end.

The touch left a small trail of goosebumps down her spine, and he heard her gasp through the gag. Bernadetta was quite small, with only a narrow curve to her hips and the slightest rise of her breasts pressed under her quivering body. Her skin was smooth, and ghostly pale from all her time shut away indoors and away from the light of the sun.

However there was not a mark on her, save for the small scar she got during training two months ago from a wayward blade strike.

“Mmfffnn” She still hadn’t quite gotten the hang of talking with a gag on, it seemed.

 

“Hardly a mark on you,” he purred, stroking the small scar– barely the size of a fingernail. “Lets go lower, shall we?”

He regarded her under heavy lidded eyes, and dragged the tip of the dagger down the small of her back, careful not to let it break the skin.

 

“Ee….nnnn” She squeaked softly as she rubbed her bound thighs together as much as the ropes would allow. Her body trembled under the touch of the dagger’s tip…but it was having a strange effect on the girl.

 

Hubert hooked the tip of the knife under the hem of her silken underwear, and pulled that apart too. He set the knife down– and ripped the pair of underthings apart with his hands in a sudden jerk.

Her short, surprised scream echoed over the walls of the ‘dungeon’ as the soft curve of her behind was exposed to him. She pressed her legs together, trying to hide the view of her already slickened sex from his eyes as she squeezed her eyes shut.

Her panties were destroyed. She had nothing to wear under her uniform now, even once this was over. The thought somehow only sent another sting of arousal through her body.

 

“There we are,” Hubert purred, running his gloved hands over the curve of her assk cheeks. He gave them a squeeze. “None of that cloth to get in my way.”

“Huu-ert..” came her quivering voice, trying to sound out his name through the gag. His fingers sank slightly into her soft skin and drew a muffled moan from her once more. A small bead of fluid leaked from between her legs, and dripped down her inner thigh, even as she pressed them tighter together. “Ah…”

Her mind spiraled with thoughts of what he could do to her in this state. Slowly but surely, the thoughts like ‘drop her off a bridge’ or ‘finally assassinate her’ were replaced by …other, lewder fantasies.

 

“Mmm, what was that?” Hubert murmured, leaning close to her. “You weren’t calling me by some ridiculous nickname, were you?”

Bernie shook her head vehemently, sending the purple curls of her hair bouncing over her pale shoulders  as she squeezed her eyes tightly shut.

“N…nuh uh”

 

“Make certain to speak clearly if you’re going to say that,” he warned with a smirk.

She narrowed her eyes at him over her shoulder, and impishly stuck out her tongue through the gag. A moment later her nerves got the better of her and she attempted to hide her face against the cushioned table once more.

 

He rubbed his gloved hands together in anticipation. Her face about groin level she could see a staining bulge in his dark uniform pants.

“Now that we’ve gotten you settled, I believe we were in the middle of something.”

Her eyes were drawn to what was right in front of her, and the pink flush deepened over her cheeks as she peeked up from the table. Her eyes traced the bulging fabric, and a shiver of anticipation rolled down her spine as she saw just how excited he really was.

 

Hubert’s fingers trailed down her shoulders and over her back as he moved behind her, to the rise of her ass.The butter-soft hide of them was gentle against her flesh. When his hands left her, she could no longer see what he was doing- and it was a surprise when the first lash of the crop struck her now bare ass.

It was such a surprise that she wasn’t able to smother the muffled yelp in time. Her body jerked forward, brushing her stiffened nipples against the soft table covering. Tears stung the edges of her eyes as the sharp pain faded into a hot pleasure inside her.

 

Hubert watched her with a wicked glint in his eye, relishing the sight of her body as she jerked. He brought another stinging lash down across her soft, pale buttocks, and another, and another in quick succession, watching the red marks bloom.

Each sharp sting on her buttocks brought forth a squeak from the gagged Bernadetta. Each red mark caused another twitch of her thin, pale body and another spike of pleasure through her system.She turned her head, just enough to watch Hubert out of the corner of her eyes.

 

“Well now, Bernadetta, I can see you’re having an…. Interesting reaction to all this abuse. If I didn’t know better I’d almost say you were aroused.”

 

Bernadetta buried her face against the table, trying desperately to hide her flustered expression from her sinister classmate. Any reply she had in her own defense was too muffled by both the gag and the table to be at all understandable, however.

 

He chuckled coolly and she felt his glove, cool on her stinging ass. He traced it down, right to where the cleft of it turned into another cleft- the soft rise of her pussy lips.

“Perhaps I’m not mistaken.”

The fingertips of his soft gloves dampened as he drew them up the lips of her sex. The sting of the lash had made her quite wet indeed, and the gentle touch of his fingers made the skin down her back prickle as he touched her.

She sighed softly, leaning her body back against his hand

 

“How very amusing,” he purred. “I believe another tool is called for.”

Bernadetta arched up, looking over her shoulder at him “aaah….ahnnoth’r thool?!?” she managed to…sort of…enunciate.

 

“Something to put in here, I think,” he said, running his fingers over her slit.

 

Bernadetta moaned as he traced her slit with his fingers once more. Her hips pressed back, pressing his fingers just the slightest bit through the lips of her sex.

Her reply was once again lost in a stuttering incoherence as she pressed her face back down into the table. Gagged as she was, her exclamations lost a bit of their usual frantic chattering.

 

Hubert chuckled at the outburst, and she could hear him behind her making his way down the table, and pick something up off the velvety”I cloth.

“Yes, I think this should do. After all, you are a novice. At least, I assume so.”

Bernadetta whined softly behind her gag, squirming her hips gently from side to side “nnahhace?” She yelped “ah corss ahn a nahhace!”

“As I suspected,” he purred. Then Bernadette felt something hard and smooth brush her moist lower lips, as Hubert again stood behind her bound body.

She tensed on the table, breath once more growing heavy behind her gag as she waited for Hubert’s latest ‘tool’ to do it’s work. She had…some…idea of what was coming, but the more she thought about it the more flustered she became.

 

In the quiet room, she could hear Hubert’s breathing get heavier as he rubbed the slim, firm object (was it made of polished wood perhaps?) slowly deeper between the folds of her sex. She felt the rounded tip of it rub against soft, sensitive nub there, and a pulse of pleasure ran through her like a shock.

“EEEP!” she squeaked, her body tensing as the tip of the firm object rub against the nub of her clit. The warmth that filled her during his spanking session only grow hotter inside her, and she found herself wanting more.

 

“Oh, did I find something?” Hubert leaned over her back and murmured in her ear. She could feel the smooth cloth and the warm brass buttons of his uniform press against her naked body. Skillfully, he caressed that spot with the object, sending another thrill of desire through her.

 

She moaned. She tried to stop it, but the gag kept her lips parted enough that her lustful moan answered his question better than any words could have. She swallowed, and flicked her eyes down to the table as she arched her hips back up and against the smooth object…rubbing her back against the cool buttons of his uniform.

 

“Shall I continue, then?” he mused, rubbing her clit a little longer, enjoying the noises she made. “Lets see how you like this, then.”

He moved the smooth object down slowly to the cleft of her sex, pressing the rounded head of it against her openeing.

Hubert could feel her tense under him, and her breath quicken through her gag as she squirmed against his body. For a moment she looked unsure and nervous, like a rabbit in a trap, before she nodded quickly and began to slowly relax her body.

 

As she relaxed it was easier for the firm  object to enter her, pushing her soft walls open and intruding between them, a firm and strange presence. Hubert moved slowly and with care, watching her as he pressed about an inch of it inside her, his gaze lasciviously fixed on her spread body.

Her hips and spine arched as the object pressed deeper and deeper into her slickened sex. Pleasure grew as the tight feeling continued it’s way inside her, leading to her stifled another moan on the tabletop below.

 

Hubert’s wicked smile grew, lips parted slightly with his heavy breath as he slowly impaled her on the wooden rod. As he pressed it further into her body she began to feel the curve of it, as several inches inside her it pressed up against something that made her knees weak.

Bernadetta groaned, her teeth clicking against the ring in her mouth as the shiver of utter pleasure made her legs twitch under her. She knew she was breathing heavier now, and she knew Hubert could see the way the wooden rod inside her was making her feel. He knew, he had to know.

She could only speculate, and speculate she did, on what Hubert thought of her, all trussed up and fighting a losing battle against her moans and whimpers.

“Enjoying yourself? I know I am,” he murmured, his own breath heavy his voice thick. He slid the implement out a little ways and pushed it back in, butting up against that same little spot inside her. With a gentle motion of the wrist he started pumping it in and out at a slow, aching pace.

Bernadetta’s slim hips slowly began to move along with the movement of the dildo in Hubert’s hands. Rocking back and forth, she shifted herself to make sure it hit that same, wonderful little spot inside her with each thrust.

But she kept her face hidden, buried near her bound arms as she felt it burn with the heat of humiliation. She was enjoying herself. A lot . In a way that she knew was unbecoming of someone as theoretically noble as she was supposed to be.

She didn’t want him to hear her whimpers of lust, so she stifled them with the cloth of the tabletop, hoping he wouldn’t hear… or that he wouldn’t order her to answer more clearly.

 

Unfortunately for Bernadetta’s modesty, Hubert seemed quite interested in all the little sounds that she was making. He leaned in close, his still-clothed body against her naked one as he worked the toy in and out of her. She felt his heavy breath by her ear.

 

“What was that, my dear, I don’t think I heard you properly.”

Bernadetta thought the heat that flushed through her face might very well burn a hole through the table as his warm breath brushed her ear. She stammered, stuttering through the gag in nearly inaudible spurts as she rocked gently against his clothed body.

“I…gehh…I..” she started, the teeth clinking against her teeth as she squirmed on the tabletop. After a few more unintelligible starts and stops, she nodded her head in affirmation… she was enjoying herself.

 

“Mmm. Yes I think it’s obvious.”

 

She felt his teeth nibble the top of her ear as he moved the tool inside her, the pleasing sensation building through her like electricity gathering before a storm.

She whimpered again, each thrust of the wooden toy driving her pleasure higher. Every nibble of his teeth heightened by her senses into a way that made her want more. She couldn’t help herself from rocking back into him, rubbing her nude body against the fabric of his uniform as she pressed herself back to drive the toy deeper inside her.

Part of her couldn’t believe she was actually doing this , though most of her thoughts were…occupied…with the handsome mage above her.

 

He worked the tool in and out of her with clockwork, unhurried insistence for another long moment as her body shivered with increasing pleasure. And then he pressed it a little further, and she felt a soft little ridge of it against her opening causing it to sort of lock into place deep inside her, pressing against her sensitive inner flesh. She felt Hubert shift above her and a moment later he was standing in her view, his hips exactly at the height of her gaze, his uniform pants tented with the obviousness of his own arousal.

 

He looked down at her with a wicked, lascivious gaze.

“G..geeep” She squeaked, looking up at him with her wide, grey eyes. “Hyuuberrr?” She questioned, squirming her hips..only to shiver as the wiggling motion shifted the toy pressed inside her against her g-spot once more

“nnnn…wha…d..donn look!!” she shook her head vehemently, her cheeks flushed a brilliant red.

 

“Oh I’ll look. I’ve been doing so all along after all. I do enjoy the sight of you there, squirming like a pinned butterfly.” He clenched his gloved fingers, and reached one hand down to softly caress her cheek. “In fact, I’m afraid it’s made me rather … excited.”

“Hhhhnnn” Bernadetta’s eyelashes fluttered. Of course he’d seen her the whole time…he obviously liked watching her squirm there, given the strain of his trousers. And she was helpless to stop his piercing gaze.

Her hips twitched as her squirming sent it brushing against her g-spot again, and she stifled a moan by turning her face against his brushing hand, half nuzzling it and half trying to smother the sounds she made on his calfskin gloves.

 

“Trying to hide from me?” he purred. “How amusing.”

 

He tilted her head up to meet his gaze, his thumb hooking into her mouth, over her tongue.

“I hope you’re ready for what I’ve got next for you.”

 

Bernadetta’s tongue brushed the soft fabric of his gloves, her eyes locked with his. She looked like a cornered rabbit, all big eyes and nervous shivers. But her arousal was written on the flush of her cheeks, and the gentle shifting of her hips against the toy inside her.

She flicked her eyes down, away from his ‘wicked’ stare…only to notice the bulge in his pants once more.

 

Hubert eased his fingers away from her mouth– and began to unlace his trousers with a sly smirk.

Bernadetta swallowed, her tongue brushing the edge of the metal ring as she sunk lower on the table, turning her eyes up towards him with an embarrassed stare.

 

Hubert eased the lacing of his trousers apart, and continued onto the lacing of his black silken undergarments. As those came apart she saw her first glimpse of Hubert’s flesh as he withdrew the length of his throbbing member from the sheath of his pants.

That was enough to drive the shy girl back into pressing her face to the table, covering her flush and stammered, muffled exclamations with the plush tabletop. It was too much! She couldn’t possibly look at it !

 

“Now now, don’t be so shy.”

 

Hubert’s fingers slipped under her chin again, and pulled her up to do exactly that. The smooth, member was flushed and engorged with thick head, the length of her hand, and at least one knuckle beyond. It protruded from his pants like the head of a snake, and seemed just as dangerous.

Bernadetta swallowed, staring at it with widening eyes “ah…ah cann’” she shook her head again, her chin brushing his fingers as she tried to close her eyes again “W-what…” She managed to form the stuttering question  “wha ahh hyu gonna d-d-d…do wiff….” she squeaked “ah cannot!!” 

 

“Oh, I very much think that you can.”

 

Holding his cock in one hand, and Bernadetta’s face in another, he eased the one toward the other, his member coming closer and closer to the pink ‘o’ of her held-open lips.

A sting of lustful anticipation rolled through her like the plucked string of a lyre, and she watched the thick head of the cock come closer and closer until she felt it’s tip against her tongue. First, her tongue darted back in her mouth, away from the thing…

But as she squirmed in desire atop the table, she couldn’t deny that she was at least…curious. And her tongue reached out to give the head of Hubert’s member a little lick.

 

He leered down at her with lust written across his severe features.

“That’s better.”

 

He eased his cock slowly into her mouth through the ring that held her teeth away from it. The warm rod brushed her lips and pressed heavily against her tongue where she could feel it throbbing with his desire.

Bernie looked nervously up at him again, meeting his eyes briefly before she flicked them back down to his groin. There…really wasn’t anywhere she could look at the moment that didn’t give her a small sting of lusty excitement. It made it hard to find somewhere to shy away.

Her tongue traced along the underside of his member, getting a feel for it as he eased it between her held-open lips. This must be what the special gag was for….

 

Hubert’s fingers brushed from her chin, up into her hair, grabbing it solidly as he arched his hips, pressing his member deeper into her mouth still.

 

“What a lovely mouth you’ve got, Bernadetta,” he breathed.

 

Bernadetta’s eyes widened still, and she reflexively swallowed as he pushed his member deeper. An intrusive thought flashed through her mind, as they so often did. What if she choked and died . Like this was the world’s kinkiest assasination attempt. Her breath quickened. Could she even take the whole thing?

 

Seeming to sense her anxiety Hubert smirked down at her.

“Don’t worry, Bernadetta, it wouldn’t be half as amusing if I couldn’t see you embarrassed about it at breakfast in the morning.”

 

“Hnnnnn” She whined, slowing her panicked breaths the best she could until she didn’t feel quite so lightheaded. Even if he wasn’t planning on…removing her…  she’d still have to face that… what if someone found out?

It was something that played at the back of her mind, a whole scenario of someone mentioning it offhand at breakfast while she was eating. Of whispers spreading through the monastery walls…

Strangely, the idea wasn’t making her want to run and hide…but it instead stoked the fire of lust the sex toy inside her was still kindling .

She blushed deeper, and licked the head of his cock again.

 

Hubert began easing his member in and out over her tongue, much as he had been with the toy in her nethers. The motion of the thick, fleshy member in her mouth only added to her lust as he leered down at her, clearly pleased with the image of her doubly impaled between his cock and the toy.

 

Bernadetta did her best to ease the member over her tongue and through the ring that held her mouth open. She brushed her tongue over the underside of his cockhead and watched his reaction with a timid glance.

 

Hubert’s lips were parted slightly and gaze was fixed firm on her, his pale eyes intense and entranced as he moved his hips, each motion pressing his cock slightly further. His member throbbed on her tongue, and oozed pearly drops of something salty into her mouth.

 

Her eyes squeezed shut, as she pressed her mouth a little further forward by leaning her bound body. It smeared the salty fluid on her tongue, and she swallowed reflexively as she took him deeper. Her hips squirmed with need as she rubbed into the fabric of the table. She peeked up at him, with her eyes half closed.

 

He made a low, eager noise, one hand bracing himself against the table, the other still entangled in her hair. His hips moved with obvious desperation despite the care he took not to be too rough as he worked his cock in an out of her soft, wet mouth.

Bernadetta slowly moved her mouth over his cock, her tongue tracing the underside with each stroke of her lips. Her eyes were shut tight, hiding the lewd sight from view for the moment. She was already flustered enough as it was.

 

SHe heard him groan and his cock seemed to thicken in her mouth, harder than it had yet been, as he moved it over her tongue repeatedly, pressing toward the back of her throat.

“Mm…. I hope you’re ready, Bernadetta,” he murmured

.
Bernie closed her eyes even tighter as her body quivered against the dildo plugged in her sex, her  tongue brushing over the base of his cock as she tilted her head and somehow managed to ease him deeper down her throat without gagging.

“Mmmff” she said, the vibration of her voice box buzzing against the length of his cock.

 

With that warning it was only a few more strokes until she felt his cock twitch and his fingers tighten hard in her hair. Her mouth was suddenly filled with spurts of the thick, salty fluid that spilled from his member.

Bernadetta’s squeak was stifled by his cock as he pressed it deep in her mouth, her short hair grasped in his gloved fingers to keep her still as he came down her throat. She swallowed reflexively as she managed to open her eyes enough to peek up at Hubert in his moment of pleasure.

His eyes were half lidded, his lips slightly parted in an open mouthed smirk of pleasure.Usually such an intimidating figure, he looked more than a little weak at the knees.

Bernie felt her cheeks burn as she ran her tongue along the length of his member again, swallowing around his cock once more. She couldn’t help but enjoy the sight…he was awfully handsome.

 

Slowly as the flow of his seed eased, so did his grip on her hair, and she heard him sigh.

“Well done, Bernadetta,” he purred with amusement, looking down at her as he slowly pulled his length from her mouth.

Bernadetta licked the edge of her lips, around the gag propping her mouth open as her face burned a deeper red.

Her eyes flicked down as she wiggled her hips so that the dildo deep inside her pressed firmly against the walls of her sex “mmmf..” she looked up at Hubert with large grey eyes.

 

He bent down, and pet her cheek with his gloved hand, eye to eye with her.

 

“I imagine you’re a bit eager for your own pleasure, now aren’t you?” he teased.

“Eeeeeeee” came the weak scream from behind the ring gag. She attempted to look away…but the light pet of his hand kept her head steady and her eyes locked on hers as she swallowed again “m…mayee…”

 

Hubert gave a low chuckle. “I should certainly hope so at any rate.” His hands brushed down her body and he cupped a breast with each of them, rubbing her nipples with his gloved fingers.

 

Bernadetta’s body tensed as his gentle touch on her sensitive breasts sent another wave of pleasure through her. She mewled through the gag, rolling her hips in desire as she looked up at him again, nodding shyly.

 

He pinched and teased her soft nipples with amusement for a moment, looking down at her with a smirk.

 

“Maybe I should just let you stay here all night.”

Her nipples stiffened under his fingers, the small nubs brushing against the calfskin of his gloves as she arched her way back

 

“mmmf..!” She squealed at him, staring with wide eyes “nnnuh!! The..kniths! Kn…knights….” Protesting was hard with a gag in your mouth, that was for sure. There were a million feverish protests she wanted to spill out, but she just couldn’t manage.

 

“Nights?” he smirked. “No, no I was thinking just the one.” His pale eyes glimmered with vicious amusement.

 

She looked up at him with a pleading look, squirming against his wicked touch and the toy still pressed deep inside her. “mm…mmf..Huuber….” she whimpered “ah…ah..’leessh?” she swallowed and tried more clearly “pleesh?”

 

“Well….since you ask so nicely, how can I refuse?” He pinched her nipples again, and stroked her back as he walked behind her. “Now… much as I would enjoy ravishing you myself, perhaps we should save some mysteries for a more ceremonious occasion.”

She blushed, and buried her face against the table. Ceremonious ? … like…

Her mind raced with possibilities, each one more elaborate than the last. “Mm…mmf…”

That meant he wanted to do this again.

 

His fingers slipped down to trace the contours of her sex gently. “Hmm? I don’t think I caught that.”

The light touch sent sparks of arousal through her again. It only added to the intense desire that had already built with every teasing touch of his fingers, and that …experience…with his cock. She swallowed again, just thinking about it.

“Sssheremoniussh…?” She sounded out poorly

 

He stroked her folds again, and rubbed a gloved finger around the nub of her clit over and over, sending tremblings of pleasure through her.

“Ah, ceremonious,” he nodded, speaking as he teased her. “Its traditional to save a young lady’s so-called virginity for the wedding night you see.”

Her eyes widened, and she actually lifted her face from the plush table to stare back at him with wide, bewildered eyes.

He raised his eyebrows, but his expression was otherwise almost mockingly deadpan.

 

“Yes?”

“Weeiinnk niightt?” She squeaked through the gag.

 

“Yes, yes, that’s what I said,” he agreed, still playing teasingly with her sensitive pussy.

 

Bernadetta’s flush crawled down her shoulders,  and she buried her face against her bound arms “mmmfff!!” She cried out, rubbing back against him a little more insistently “nuh….nuh uh” she shook her head “hyu’re t-teasin ‘ernie! That’th it!”

 

“You think so?” he mused, as his fingers grasped the dildo inside her again. “I was positive most people knew about that tradition. Of course– if you’d like to forgo it….”

 

Bernie stammered against the ring gag in her mouth, her teeth clinking against it as she arched her hips for Hubert. She needed release, and she needed it soon. Between Hubert’s verbal teasing, and the dildo pressed inside her, her head was spinning.

“Nn…nuh” She shook her head “muh..mys’eries” she murmured as clear as she could.

 

“You’d like to preserve the mystery?” he confirmed, sliding the dildo gently most of the way out of her slick sex.

Bernie flushed, squirming against the table with a little whimper of lustful indifference. “…” She shook her head, looking shyly over her shoulder at him. “D…diff’nt mys’eries” she said thickly “w..we cn’ find diff’nt mys’eries”

 

He raised an eyebrow, and leaned over her bound body.

“Ooooh?” he purred menacingly. “Does that mean you want me to ravish you, here and now?”

 

Bernadetta nodded slowly, sinking low against the table. She sniffled “y…yesssh”

 

He pressed his still-clothed body warm against her in the cool dungeon, his lips beside her ear.

 

“Why Bernadetta…. How naughty. What if people were to hear?”

“EEEEeeee!” She whined , squeezing her eyes shut . “t…thh…” She clinked her teeth against the gag with a desperate note to her quivering voice  “ah…ah’d be..be…they ..they would ‘hink ‘ernie was…was…”

 

“Open to the public?” he smirked, nipping her ear. “Believe me I would disabuse them of such a notion quite quickly.” She could feel him remove the last of the toy from her, and her soft, wet sex felt empty, and eager.

She squeaked at the feeling of his teeth against the soft flesh of her ear, and it caused her body to twitch just the slightest. A trickle of her arousal dripped down her inner thigh as she rubbed nervously against the tabletop. She wished he’d fill it up again…she was hornier than she’d ever been and she’d yet to come.

It was all just built up inside her like a powderkeg and she didn’t know how much more she could take.

“He…heee” She whimpered “hyu would?”

“Oh, without a doubt,” he nodded, face bushing against hers, while below, his fingers moved to stroke her soft, sensitive clit again, feeling her twitch under him. “Unless you’d prefer I invite them to come and play with you.”

“N-N-NUH uh!” She shook her head, her hair brushing against his cheek “ah…ah…ah c-couldn’t! L…lookin’ ‘hem in ‘he eyesh….at br-breakfassh..” She slurred around the ring gag “i…I cou…couldn’!!”

She twitched as he teased her sensitive clit. Her body eager for his touch even as she continued her loud and vehement refusal of his latest attempt to fluster her. ..

 

“Well then, I suppose I’ll keep you all to myself.” His gloved fingers insistently teased and worked at her tingling, sensitive body. As he played with her, she could feel his moist cock against her thigh beginning to stiffen again.

Bernadetta swallowed and timidly began rubbing her behind against him, rubbing her soft skin against his cock with a soft and desperate noise.

“Nnn… y…yuss” she muttered softly.

 

“Oh, so you like that idea.”

 

He ground his body against her as he toyed with her sex, teasing and playing with her clit, sending waves of pleasure shooting through her as his own recuperated from the earlier effort.

Bernie nodded shyly, burying her head in her arms again as her whole body jerked from the pleasure that his ministrations sent through her. Her breath was growing heavy again as he teased her and added to the desire that had already built inside her.

 

Hubert seemed to have no intention of stopping his pleasurably efficient ministrations, his fingers working against her sensitive body. His own breath was growing heavier again, and his moist cock rubbed against her thigh.

 

Bernie’s legs opened wider and even as she hid her face behind her bound arms, she began to press and rub her slickened sex against his teasing fingers. A small and needful whimper drifted from behind her gagged lips, urging him on without saying the words she was too flustered to speak.

 

Continuing the motions of his fingers, Hubert leaned down, and placed a delicate kiss on the lips of her pussy before she felt a strange sensation, the flick of his tongue against her clit as he moved his fingers away.

She gasped sharply through the gag, her hips tensing as his slick tongue flicked the sensitive nub and sent another spike of pleasure through her body.

“Hnn…nnahh..” She moaned, spreading her legs as fair as her bindings would allow.

 

She felt his face between her legs, his long hair brushing against her inner thighs, his tongue buried deep in the folds of her pussy, a hand on either leg. His tongue had taken up what his fingers had left with abandon, licking and circling her clit sending thrills of growing, tightening pleasure through her body.

 

The touch of his tongue soon eclipsed even the touch of his skilled fingers. The way it brushed and curled around her clit, and brushed between her folds with a tantalizing warmth amplified the pleasurable feelings that built within her…

She moved her hips against his face, feeling the tickle of his hair against her thighs and the warmth of his breath against her skin as she leaned back, peeking through half closed eyes at the handsome man between her legs.

 

Should anyone have come in at the moment they would have been treated to an exceptionally lewd display, Bernadetta, naked and restrained, with Hubert still clothed, bent over, his face between her thighs, working heavily to bring her to a moment of bliss.

 

It was a moment of bliss that was fast approaching, too. Her hips arched as her breath puffed warmly against the shield of her arms hiding her face as her body squirmed upon the table top with a growing need. A desire that was building ever higher towards a fever pitch.

As his clever tongue flicked her clit once more, she jerked, and smothered her squeak against her arms.

It wouldn’t take much more at all to bring pleasure to the timid, violet  haired archer.

 

Seeming to sense her nearing moment, he kept up the intense, quick moments of his tongue at a steady pace, his gloved fingers holding her tightly. Every precise lick of his tongue sent another thrill of pleasure in her, coiling like a spring.

Bernadetta’s hips tensed against the tabletop, her whole body tensing with that building pleasure. The firm flick of his tongue first brought a gasp to her lips, which turned into a sudden cry of pleasure as the dam broke, and the pleasure washed over her like a wave.

Her hips twitched, pressing against his face as she buried her face in her arms to smother the cry of desire as it spilled from her lips, even as she tried to hide it behind the wall of her thin arms.

 

Despite her bucking and twitching, Hubert did his best to keep up his attention throughout, not easing off the motions of his tongue against her throbbing, drooling pussy.

 

When Bernadetta came, all that tension and pleasure that had built up inside her during all the teasing came in a sudden, blissful release. The pleasure sparked through her..sending her hips twitching and fingers clenching at the curly locks of her hair , pressed against her lips  to keep any more of those embarrassing moans from echoing around the dark ‘dungeon’ room.

When it was all over, she loosened up, her body falling back against the table as she caught her breath, looking up at the ceiling with wide eyes and a bound-open mouth.

 

She felt Hubert kiss a trail up her thigh and still-red buttocks, and when he stood behind her, she could again feel the press of his insistent manhood.

 

“Enjoying yourself?” he purred.

Bernie flushed brightly, and hid her face all the more behind her arms. She peeked out just enough to meet his gaze and timidly nod.

“Y…uss.” She admitted quietly

 

“Delightful. And are you still interested in… continuing the festivities?”

She once again nodded, before she ducked back behind her arms with a whimper. Part of her was sure he’d be done with her now… off to leave her tied up alone here with nobody but the walls and waning torchlight waiting there to …to..

She snapped herself from that distressing tangent, and wiggled her behind towards her partner, keeping her face firmly hidden between her arms

“Y..yuss” she squeaked through the gag.

 

“Oh I am very pleased to hear it.”

 

She wiggled her hips again, brushing them against his stiffened member with a little huff of a sound.

“J…jus’ d..do yer w-wik’ed d-deedsh al..alrea’y” she mouthed around her gag

“My wicked deeds. Oh yes, I think I will.”

She felt Hubert guide his cock up to the slick cleft between her legs, her pussy drooling with her pleasure and his attention. The head of his manhood pressed against her hole, feeling at once the same, and nothing like the toy that he had pressed there before.

Bernadetta squeaked through her gag, feeling the warmth of it against her sex. The dildo had been slightly cool, like everything else in this basement hideaway. But his body against hers was flushed with warmth, and she could feel it throb gently as it pressed against her.

She swallowed, and opened her eyes to glance at him over her shoulder.

He braced one hand on the table beside her, and she felt the warm softness of his glove against her hip, as he pressed forward slowly. Her body, already stretched and relaxed, accepted him easily as his cock started to press into slick sex.

Bernadetta squeaked softly, burying her face once more in the plush tabletop. Her hips pressed insistently back against him, helping ease him into the already slickened space. As he eased into her, a shiver went down her spine, accompanied by a muffled little moan.

Hubert’s breath was heavy and laden with eager desire as he arched his hips, pressing the full length of his cock all the way into her body, opening the soft, tight space a bit wider than the toy had before, sending a thrill of pleasurable tension through Bernadetta as he filled her.

“Yeeep!” She said again from the tabletop, squirming her body on the table as she arched her hips to push him deeper inside her. Despite her shy demeanor, the shudder of tense pleasure that built inside her urged her to take him as deep as he could go.

He leaned over her, his soft clothed body pressed against her bare back.

“Not too much for you I do hope.”

Bernadetta shivered, her naked body shivering against his soft clothes. She shook her head wordlessly to him, still muffling the soft noises she made against the table.

“Good.”

She felt his free hand press against the outer curve of her thigh, and he started to arch his hips, moving slowly in and out of her body, each thumping intrusion rocking her gently against the table, and sending another lightening arc of sensation through her.

Bernie’s fingers gripped the tabletop as she began to ease her hips in time with his. She was inexpert, the movement far from smooth at first as she tried to match his movement with her own. But the muffled gasps of desire urged Hubert to continue.

Hubert certainly didn’t stop. In fact his thrusts became shorter, sharper, and harder hammering deep into her again and again with quiet, insistent breaths that hissed with desire.

The shy archer’s body rocked against the tabletop, brushing her stiff nipples against the plush velvet, sending sparks of pleasure through her body as she began once more to build towards release.

Her hips moved, trying to rock back into his cock, feeling his hips slap against hers with every sharp thrust. Hubert’s hips met hers, again and again, his hard member plunging into her depths, sending warm bolts of pleasure through both of them, building as his clothed body rubbed against her naked one.

With each thrust, Bernie was finding it harder and harder to keep quiet. Her moans and cries of pleasure grew louder , echoing through the ‘dungeon’ room as every thrust drove pleasure through her, bringing her closer and closer to her second orgasm of their ‘game’.

She felt Hubert’s fingers close slightly on her buttocks, gripping her harder as he rode her against the table, his breath heavy, and thick, every now and then a low noise of pleasure escaping his pale lips. She felt his cock hard inside her, over and over again, as hard and thick as it had been in her mouth, but now the motions of it, and the rock of his body against hers drove the sensations in her body higher and higher.

Bernie’s body tensed under his, her breath hitching softly in her throat as she rode her partner’s cock. Bound and helpless on the table, she was left with rocking her body against his. Each brush of his clothes on her bare back sent sparks of arousal through her body. Sparks that traveled through her, joining the building sensation inside her.

She could still taste his cum on her tongue, and she swallowed reflexively as she tried not to scream out. But she was getting so close to another orgasm.

Hubert seemed quite intent on driving her all the way to one as he pounded deep inside her, body heavy against hers as he pinned her between his cock and the table. Though Bernie couldn’t see it, his face too was flush with effort and desire, and it was with sharp discipline that he kept himself from finishing before she came.

Bernadetta’s body tightened under his, her breath growing shallow and eager as each pounding thrust brought her closer, and closer to release. Her nails dug into the soft velvet, scratching audibly as her fists tightened around the plush fabric.

It was too much, she couldn’t hold back the feelings growing inside her even if she wanted to. As Hubert began to thrust deeper inside her, her sex twitched around his member, tightening as her whole body shuddered in pleasure.

She cried out, her shrill scream echoing through the dungeon and…potentially beyond.. As her hips slapped back against his thighs, pressing him as deep as he could go as her scream of pleasure slowly died into a whimper of desire.

Pleasure exploded through her in that instant, overwhelming her, and timid hesitation. In that moment, Bernie didn’t even think to stifle the sounds of her obvious pleasure.

That was more than enough for Hubert, who let go of his strict control, his fingers digging into Bernadetta’s flesh as the girl twitched and shook beneath him. He made a low, desperate noise as he came hard inside her, his cock slamming deep in her again and again as their ecstasy entwined along with their bodies.

As the thick of the moment passed into lingering, trembling pleasure, he allowed himself to slump languidly over her, catching his breath.

Bernadetta lay against the plush table, under the weight of Hubert’s body as they both bathed in the afterglow of their shared moment of pleasure. Her face was beet red, and her eyes squeezed shut as she took small, rabbity breaths to try and catch her breath.

Shyly, she leaned her head back, and nuzzled her cheek against his neck as he shadowed her.

Hubert pressed soft kisses against the back of her neck, and her cheeks as she nuzzled him. She felt his fingers slide up, and unhook the back of the gag, slipping it off her gently.

“Well, that didn’t do much good for my original purpose, did it?” he mused teasingly.

Bernadetta licked her lips, testing her jaw for a moment before she huffed softly

“I-if you didn’t w-w-want Bernie making noise,” she protested “you wouldn’t have kept m-my mouth open! I … I think you g-got some kind of th-thrill out of it!”

“I’m insulted,” he purred, running his fingers through her hair and tugging it gently. “You accuse me of being some kind of pervert.”

Bernie squeaked softly, pouting as she curled as much as her bonds would allow on the table against him.

“Y-you’re saying you’re not? A…and…and now that we’ve done that, you’ve made it rub off on me! Now Bernie’s a pervert too!” she wailed.

“So you’re saying I dragged you down to my level?” That got a wicked chuckle out of him as he gently began to untie her.

“I’m ..I’m…” She stammered “oh geeze, if I say that you’ll pro-probably leave me here for the r-rats, won’t you?”

Bernie wiggled free of the bonds as Hubert loosened them, stretching them out for the first time since they really began the ‘game’ .

“I..I uhm…”

She hesitated “…I’m a little w-worried about being s-seen as unmarriageable, though. N..now that Bernie’s b…” she dropped her voice to a whisper, “become a pervert”

Hubert carefully wound up the ropes and put them neatly to the side on the table.

“Well, I suppose that depends on a few factors,” he said thoughtfully.

Bernie stretched out on the table. Her behind was red from the spanking he’d given her, and her arms and legs had marks from where the rope had rubbed against her struggling form.

She flushed, leaning a little bit towards Hubert with a cock of her head

“What kind of factors?” She asked suspiciously.

“Oh, primarily whether your intended spouse knows or cares that you’re a pervert,” he said, matter of factly. “For instance, as the perpetrator, I already know.”

Bernadetta bit her lip “You..do..” She said thoughtfully.

She crawled a little closer to Hubert, until her naked body rested against his. “B-b-but you could tell everyone if you wanted to! And Bernie’s reputation would be in tatters!”

“I certainly could,” he mused with a smirk. “But I think that would reflect poorly on me, wouldn’t it?”

Bernadetta nuzzled up against him with a shrug of her shoulders.

“Maybe…but if people heard about this they might not think you were quite so frightening?”

She had a hint of a smile on her face.

Hubert put one arm around her, and the other stroked his fingers through her hair. He looked down at her with skeptical amusement.

“I’m not entirely certain it would be a good trade to switch my reputation with Sylvain’s.”

“People might start saying you hit on scarecrows” She said with a nod of her head.

She leaned into his touch, turning just a shade redder as she snuggled against him.

“B…But what are you g-going to do about all this, if not tell everyone?”

“I suppose I was hoping that we could make a regular evening habit,” he purred. “You could call it marriage practice.”

Bernadetta’s face went absolutely scarlet as she stammered.

“m…m.m-m-m-MARRIAGE PRACTICE?!”

The poor girl looked almost like she was about to faint as she stared at the tall, dark and handsome mage.

He strengthened his grip around her gently, and gave her a quizzical look.

“Is it that terrifying of a prospect?”

“Y…you would want to…to…to…with..with…” she stammered, meeting his eyes with an almost dazzled look.

“H-Hubert, are you s-saying you want to marry me?? Bernie? Am I d-dreaming? Did I die??”

“Do you not think it would be a good match?” He cocked his head, his arm still around her.

Bernadetta flushed even deeper

“No!! I mean Yes! I mean, I …I mean..”

She wrapped her arms around Hubert and gave him a big hug, her face buried in his side

“D..do you think we’d be a good match?” she asked, muffled by his cloak.

“If I didn’t, don’t you think this all would have been a bit of a waste of time?” he said, running his fingers through her hair as she clung to him. “After all, if I wasn’t interested in you company there’s no point in stringing you along.”

Bernadetta brushed her cheek against his side absentmindedly as she puzzled over the startling turn of events.

“Y…you could be doing it as a mean joke” She said “To play games with me, o…or get me to provide a service to the Empire…”

She hesitated another moment before she worked up the courage to continue on

“But that’s not w-what this is, right? W..We’ve been seeing one another in private for so long…t-that maybe it’s possible that you r-really do like me as much as I…”

She swallowed thickly, nerves rising up to try and stop her from confessing feelings she’d been holding onto for moons now.

“….as much as I like you?”

Hubert hooked his finger under her chin and pulled her gaze up to meet his.

“I should certainly hope so,” he said. “Otherwise I’ve been reading the situation very wrong this whole time. Admittedly, I’m not very skilled in matters of the heart.”

Bernadetta’s heart nearly stopped, but she met his eyes with a shy smile.

“N-neither am I” she admitted to Hubert, looking deep into his eyes “b…but uhm.””

She leaned up and planted a shaky kiss on his lips.

“You h…haven’t read the situation w-wrong. I…I just didn’t think you’d t-think I was…you know..”

She bit her lip

“Ah ‘W-wife to the Empire’s g-greatest mage’ material…” the archer said, as if she wasn’t one of the finest soldiers in the Black Eagle house…as if her archery wasn’t talked about in hushed whispers on the training ground as rivaling Knight Shamir’s own.

Hubert answered her low self esteem with a long stare.

Bernadetta stared back, like a rabbit face to face with a skilled hunter’s arrow.

“….Huuuuuberttt” She whined “w-w-we t-talked about your terrifying stares , didn’t we?? You promised you wouldn’t glare like a demon made flesh!!”

Hubert smiled, with a small chuckle, under his breath that was almost a sigh, and his expression softened.

“Of course. I simply couldn’t find any suitable answer for your unawareness at your own ability and prestige I could merely gape, astounded.”

Bernadetta bit her knuckle.

“I…It was that dumb, huh?”

“It certainly demonstrated a lack of personal awareness. Oftentimes I find it charming. But its a shame you think so little of yourself.”

Bernadetta flushed, and curled up against Hubert

“Can you pet my wrists? I got a little rope burn on them.” She held her hand up with a timid smile. “…i think it’s kind of amazing that you think so highly of me..”

Hubert took her wrist gently in his hand and softly kissed around it, before petting it as she desired.

“I’ll have to adjust my knots next time.”

“Please” she giggled softly “N-Not to say they weren’t good!”

She shook her head, before smiling timidly his way.

“…..Hubert, I…If you asked me to marry you, I’d absolutely say..uhm…”

She stammered awkwardly for a long moment before she buried her face against his side.

“Yes” her voice was muffled and almost inaudible…but it was there.

“Well. This is hardly the setting for a formal proposal, even for me,” he said, flushing a little again, and adjusting his collar. “But I will certainly remember that you said so when a more appropriate opportunity presents itself.”

He pet his fingers through her hand and down her back, resting on her butt gently.

She shifted until she sat upon his lap, his gloved fingers cool on the still warm flesh of her spanked behind.

“And I’ll re-remember not to scream and run away,” she joked, leaning against him with a nod.

“I should hope that you will,” he chuckled. “I might not be able to stop myself from feeling a bit rejected otherwise.”

Bernie looked up at him with a shake of her head

“That’s just how Bernie is sometimes,” She said definitively. “… b-but I’ll try my best not to.”

She hesitated.

“Maybe you should do it in my room, w-where nobody has to see. Where it’s safe”

“Maybe that would be for the best,” he agreed. “Speaking of which, I’d say the appeal of this particular room is wearing a bit thin. Would you like to retire elsewhere?”

“I think so” Bernie said with a nod of her head before her eyes suddenly went wide.

“KYAAAA!!!!” She screamed “HUGBERT!!! You cut my clothes to ribbons!! I can’t go back up to the Monastery NAKED!!! What if someone SAW ME!!”

He coughed slightly at the nickname, the same flush returning to his cheeks.

“Now, Bernadetta, I only cut your underwear if you do recall. The rest of your clothes should be perfectly suitable.”

“I can’t go walking around without underwear Hubert!!!” She whined emphatically “what if I ran into the professor! I’d DIE.”

The irritated ‘AHEM’ that came from the hall was like the sudden sound of the reaper’s scythe. Of the cathedral bells tolling for a funeral.

Bernadetta looked over her bare shoulder, her whole body quaking as she met the eyes of Professor Eisner. Their professor’s blank stare bored into her panicked gaze, before glancing over to meet Hubert’s.

The severe woman crossed her arms for an uncomfortably silent moment before she sighed and muttered the only two words the two would hear from her that night.

The death knell of “Detention. Monday.”

As bad as that detention had been, it was nothing compared to the years that passed since. War had ravaged Fodlan, with Bernadetta and Hubert fighting side by side through deadly campaign after deadly campaign. Their teachers went missing…and were found. Edelgard set her eyes upon a new dawn for Fodlan, in an era unbound by the church’s corruption and nobility, and Hubert followed.

Despite her fear, Bernadetta followed too. She fought long and hard through too many battles to count…something the timid girl never believed would have ever happened to her. But somehow she managed, becoming the foremost archer in the Emperor’s strike team.

…and then the war came to an end. The church was defeated, Archbishop Rhea’s draconic form slain by the combined might of their professors and the Emperor. Their new dawn became a reality, and someday soon peace was within their grasp.

As the world changed, and Edelgard’s advisors and diplomats worked to establish systems and smooth over the transition to her vision…Hubert and Bernadetta began a campaign of their own.

Making true on his promise in that velvet-clad dungeon, Hubert formally proposed to Bernadetta shortly after the war’s end. Bernadetta screamed, as they both expected to happen, and promptly fainted on the spot.

But when she awoke in the worried arms of her beloved dark mage, she quelled his own growing fears with a passionate ‘yes’. From that moment on, they were together. No more hiding in the shadows or sneaking about in damp monasteries to secret dungeons of passion.

Bernadetta trusted Hubert with her lands as she traveled about the newly united Fodlan, working as a scout to map what would one day become the ‘Illustrated Atlas of Fodlan’ , a widely praised academic treasure.

And together, the two began a shadowy war upon Those Who Slither.

000000000000000

Bernadetta had been gone for a few months now, traveling the outskirts of Fodlan on a ‘routine mission’ to update her atlas and report any changes in the land back to Emperor Edelgard. At least…that’s what the paperwork that moved through the palace claimed.

She was due back a few days prior, but still…her horse’s spot in the stable was still empty, and her travelers shoes did not yet rest beside the door.

 

Hubert was in his office, taking care of that same sort of paperwork. He had been growing more irritable as each day passed, and most knew to stay as far away as they could get. It was as if there was a black cloud over the the dark mage wherever he went. More so than usual.

 

Many whispered about what it might be that had him so on edge. The truth was, it was worry.

He was about halfway through the last report from the Almyran border. It was a long, dry document detailing the reports of the merchants and the import and export of goods between nations. Something dry enough that he found his attention drawn to the cheerful knock upon his door.

 

“Come in,” he snapped, with wary apprehension that came out as a terse bark.

The door swung open not to a young courier or minor official… but to the grinning face of the Prime Minister himself, Ferdinand von Aegir.

“Seems you’ve gotten yourself well and truly buried in facts and figures, Hubert,” He said with a hearty laugh.

“I hope you’re not too busy for a spot of good news”

 

Hubert snorted derisively. If he’d hoped the knock came from his wife, he had had his hopes dashed.

“What kind of nonsense do you have for me now, Ferdinand? Teach some squirrels how to read?”

The advisor to the Emperor laughed, flipping his hair over his shoulder with a sparkling smile.

“Now that is a thought. Maybe the levity of it will finally pull you out of that foul mood you have fallen into.”

He tapped his finger upon his chin with a wink.

“Or I could simply tell you that you have a visitor waiting for you out by the Palace garden. One who asked for you specifically.”

He fussed in his pouch for a moment, rustling until he came out with a red and black embroidered flower.

“She wanted me to pass this along as well, in case you were weren’t quite free.”

 

The cloud lifted. Hubert rose quickly from his desk with none of his usual languid grace, instead the speed of a striking snake as he’d often had in battle.

 

“I should throw you to the squirrels for not getting to the point sooner,” he said, with what passed for joviality from him.

Ferdinand, to his credit, didn’t flinch or falter in his smile when Hubert leapt his desk. He only waved the flower his way with another cheerful laugh.

“I would simply calm the rabid beasts with my heavenly voice. And I doubt the emperor would like such a ridiculous waste of everyone’s time.”

 

Hubert took the flower from him, and tucked it momentarily beside the matching one on his lapel.

 

“Only now are you concerned with wasting everyone’s time?” Hubert smirked. He headed for the door. “Do you have somewhere to be, or must I put up with you as my shadow?”

“It simply would not be befitting of the Prime Minister to play at being a fly on the wall during a man’s private rendezvous!” Ferdinand put his hand to his chest.

“Besides, I promised Dorothea I would not be missing her performance at the opera tonight, and I cannot go in this.”

He gestured to his ornate and formal palace attire as if it would be a massive scandal to be seen at the opera in such clothes.

 

“Yes, I expect you’ll need a bib.” Hubert smirked as he sashayed quickly past Ferdinand. “Do give Dorothea my regards.”

Ferdinand shook his head as he walked past him.

“Oh, I will. I certainly will”, He tutted his tongue “All these years later, and your tongue is as barbed as ever”

He chuckled to himself before turning on his heels and sauntering away, leaving Hubert with the sound of his hurried footsteps.

 

Hubert paid his exit no mind as he hurried for the palace garden as quickly as decorum would allow.

 

The palace garden was well cared for, tended by the careful and loving hands of old friends and gardeners alike. Over the years many people claimed a little spot of it for their own, planting flowers that reminded them of home or of fond memories. Or plants for their favorite dish…or to visit the full sized and fully stocked fishing pond that a certain pair of professorial twins requested to the Emperor personally.

The result was a lush and beautiful garden filled with all the colors of a rainbow. From the dew-speckled flowers to the vivid blue lake, it was breathtaking.

And in a quiet corner, upon a bench beside the strangest plants the garden had to offer, was a familiar face.

Bernadetta sat slowly pushing a needle through a small floral embroidery pattern laid out upon her lap. Her violet hair fell over her eyes, as a small smile played across her delicate features. She pulled the needle from the pattern, sewing another line of green into the slowly forming shape of a venus flytrap.

Her traveling clothes, purple dyed leathers strapped with various tools and supplies, were muddied and worn. But she seemed whole and healthy.

 

Hubert strode up to her like a black cloud floating through the colorful garden, and stood in front of her, hand on his hip.

He plucked the embroidered flower from beside his own, and offered it to her.

Bernadetta looked up, meeting his gaze with her own as she took the flower, and pinned it back upon her chest.

The smile on her face was nothing short of radiant as she stood in an instant and wrapped her arms around him tightly in a desperate hug.

“Oh Hugbert,” she cried “I missed you so much!”

 

Hubert was long since past the embarrassment of the nickname, but it did make him chuckle as he swept her into his arms, practically picking her up as he did so.

 

“I admit I was impatient for you to return,” he agreed, leaning down, and pressing a kiss onto her mouth.

Bernadetta kissed him for a long moment. It was something that , had there been anyone else in the garden, she would have turned into a blushing, stammering mess…but here, with just the two of them and her carnivorous plants, she kissed him as passionately as she dared.

When the kiss broke she bit her lip.

“You must have been sick with worry…furious with it!” She sniffed. “I can just PICTURE your frown as you stomped around the castle.”

She squirmed in his arms, resting her head against him.

“I got attacked by some bandits who thought I was carrying Imperial gold,” she sighed, “and I…ah…got a little lost in the forest after I ran away.”

 

Hubert breathed a long, answering sigh through his nose, and ran his fingers through her hair.

 

“Oh, my dear, darling Bernadetta,” he chided. “Is there any mess you can’t get yourself into and then out of again? As for me storming around the castle, you do know me too well.”

 

Bernadetta flushed, and hid her face.

“You must think Bernie’s ridiculous,” she wailed. “It’s not like I wanted those guys to attack me! And after all that running I had to fight them anyway!”

She kicked her feet gently, rocking herself in his arms.

“I’m just lucky I had my shortbow ready.”

 

“A little ridiculous,” he chuckled. “But you’re certainly a fearsome warrior.”

She pursed her lips, and poked him on the nose.

“You…you’d better believe Bernie’s a fierce warrior,” She said “…but you. You must have been a terror. I can only wonder how worried you made Emperor Edelgard with your skulking about.”

 

“Not half as worried as your delay made me, I’ll wager,” he purred, kissing her on the finger that poked him.

Bernadetta giggled softly as his lips brushed along her fingertips. Her face had turned a bright pink.

“Well I’ll just have to make it up to you, then,” she said firmly.

 

“I certainly expect you to,” he agreed. “Maybe I’ll have to give you a spanking.”

 

Bernadetta pressed her hands over his mouth in a hurry, her eyes darting around the clearly empty garden.

“H-h-HUBERT!!” she squeaked, “you couldn’t! You wouldn’t! You c-can’t just s-s-say that out loud! H-here!!”

 

Hubert made a show of looking around.

“Why, do we have company?”

“T-that isn’t the point!” She wailed, lightly thwacking his chest with her hands “w-what if someone’s sneaking around?”

 

“Then I shall simply have them flayed alive, of course,” he said, quite straight-facedly.

 

“y…You’d do that for Bernie?” She asked, blinking up at him with an equally straight face.

“Ulp,” Said Linhardt, falling out of a makeshift hammock hidden in the shade of an apple tree.

“Guess I had a good, long run,” he bemoaned. “At least I’ll die well rested.”

 

Hubert slowly turned to face the offender, his eyes half lidded and his gaze dark.

 

“I doubt even the grave would be enough sleep for you, miscreant.”

“And I doubt burying me would give you much satisfaction” Linhardt yawned, “oh well. Life’s full of little disappointments, isn’t it?”

“B-b-b-b….bu…buh” Bernadetta stammered “b…but…but..”

She gripped Hubert tight, and screamed.

“My reputation is RUINED!! Bernie’s a laughingstock! Even after so much work! I can’t f-face anyone ever again! I… I have to go lock myself in my room! FOREVER!”

 

“Now there, Lindhardt, you see what you’ve done?” he gestured to Bernadetta.

Linhardt stared at Bernadetta for a long moment before he held up his hands.

“Dear me,” the sleepy scholar drawled, “how terrible. I’ll go tie myself to the rack, and get ready for my flaying then.”

He turned, walking away with slumped shoulders and another yawn, “no need to trouble yourself by rushing. I’ll simply nap while I wait for the bitter end.”

 

Hubert gave Bernadetta a very serious look.

 

“Would you like me to have him flayed? Or… horsewhipped at the very least?”

 

“D-don’t flay him, ” she said with a pout “we need him, I think. But…” she kicked her feet, “I gueeess it’s alright if he’s horsewhipped. Just a little.”

 

“Your will be done, my darling,” he purred with a solemn nod.

Bernadetta’s face was still warm from her flush when she leaned in to kiss her husband’s lips.

“B-but be done with it in time for dinner. I’ve got a couple of very interesting reports for you before…uhm…any….sort of spanking…happens.”

 

“I’ll make certain to keep it short then,” he said with a wicked smile. “Of course, if you’d prefer I forgo his punishment for the moment and entertain your reports immediately…”

Bernadetta grinned shyly , wrapping her arms around him once more.

“If you forgo his punishment, I….I could even see fit to postpone the reports until after we’ve m-made up for lost time”.

 

Hubert made a show of considering the proposal.

 

“I suppose, if you’re comfortable rearranging your schedule for such trivialities,” he teased.

“Well, as always,” Bernadetta put her hand to her heart, “the will of the Emperor comes first. And Imperial business is to be primary.”

She stuck out her tongue at him.

“But if her majesty can sneak off to steal some teatime with the Ms. Eisner, then I think we can sneak off to enjoy a little relaxation before I foul the night with serious business.”

 

“I shall have to write an official memo chiding us for the delay,” he warned. “After the fact, of course.”

“And I…I’ll just have to send back the new edition of my atlas, which the empire will find very interesting. Especially to those who know how to read between the lines,” she said, alluding to the code she and Hubert had crafted together. A complex and secret language used to convey details on Those Who Slither’s movements and possible outposts, she often used it on her ‘official maps’ of the territory.

 

“That should exonerate me of any amount of tardiness”

 

“Oh I quite agree,” he nodded. “With that in mind, lets not tarry in the garden any longer. Unless you want me to spank you here.”

Bernadetta’s eyes widened “N-noooooo!!!”

She pressed close to him with a shiver.

“With my rotten luck, both of our professors will show up! And THEN what would we do?”

 

“I’d say invite them to join, but I doubt it would be to their taste.”

 

Bernadetta’s eyes went wide, and she started sputtering once more.

“Hu…huhuh…Hugbert!!!” she wailed “I wouldn’t be able to look them in the eyes EVER again!”

 

“Well then, with that in mind, I’d say that we’d better retire to our room. Shall we?”

Bernadetta nodded , her face once more brightening up with a radiant smile.

She nodded with a shy little giggle, “Y-You should carry your captive to your d-dark and terrible dungeon, Hubert Von Vestra.”

 

And with that, he scooped her up, and carried her off.