“Having no parents or friends to remember is truly sad, but in a way it’s fortunate. Better than weeping over vague memories. This doesn’t mean one of us is more unfortunate than the other. It’s just different kinds of sadness.”

The evening breeze felt colder now that my sweat had dried. I couldn’t tell if it was my heart that felt cold or my body temperature dropping.

“When do you plan to leave the palace?”

“Well, with apologies to Brother Rictusa and Princess Kesera, I’d like to leave the palace within two years. I’m tired of the dazzling palace nights where you can’t even see the stars. Oh, paying your ransom might double the time it takes.”

Narcissus silently took my hand that lay carelessly on the grass. Perhaps ‘touched’ would be a more accurate description than ‘took.’ I flinched in surprise but didn’t pull my hand away. He had only mentioned that my hands were cold.

“I’m telling you, you can stay at my place. Just pay rent regularly once you find a job. What do you think? It’s a good offer, right?”

“Sure.”

It would probably be better than living alone. If Princess Kesera had heard this conversation, would she have playfully tapped my head for being so naive?

* * *

Another week passed—two weeks since I’d parted with Lucifer, and exactly two weeks since the Helcamber delegation had arrived. Nothing special happened. I became incredibly busy, decorating the altar in the morning, returning to the palace in the late afternoon to help in the kitchen, and when there were night visitors, standing guard by the bedroom until dawn before collapsing on the cot.

When that visitor was Bel, the same thing happened as before, and even with other visitors, I often had relations with Bel in the adjacent room.

How did I, with my tiny courage, end up in this situation? It was because of the strange spell Bel whispered into my ear.

A spell that made my consciousness dreamy and my limbs go limp as though I’d received a full-body massage.

When neither Bel nor night visitors were present, I could return to Eros Mansion to rest. On those occasions, Brother Rictusa would diligently massage my swollen feet, helping me sleep well that night.

The parties continued grandly until midnight without missing a single day. After such weeks, I would spend weekends drinking tea with my brother or catching up on missed lessons.

A bit of economics, some physical training, horseback riding skipped due to fatigue. s*x education and yoga classes in small doses. I worried this might lead nowhere, but with such excellent teachers, that concern seemed unfounded. Once the delegation’s visit ended, I was supposed to start proper horseback riding along with bride lessons.

Ugh, the schedule was too rigid considering I wasn’t even planning to enter high society. Brother Rictusa’s burning passion for private education showed no signs of diminishing. It was impressive how he steadfastly filled the weekend schedule despite being more exhausted than I was.

No wonder he had received the position of Commander-in-Chief and the empire’s only Grand Duke title. My brother truly was remarkable.

If there was one minor incident that diverged from my routine, it happened around Sunday in the imperial rear garden with Bel.

The reason I had to visit the palace when I’d planned to rest at the mansion was that I’d left behind an outfit I needed to wear for the next banquet. And that’s where the incident began.

As I was trying to leave the palace through the rear garden, I was unfortunately caught by Bel.

“Oh, what are you doing here?”

When I wondered what he was doing at the boring palace on this golden holiday, he said he was assisting the Helcamber delegation during their meeting. If he was so dedicated to his duties, why was he wandering outside the meeting hall?

“The weather is nice.”

Seeming to read my thoughts, he laughed softly, bent down, and embraced me. Feeling his lips press moistly against my forehead, I naturally followed his lead along the garden path—the weather truly was perfect for a picnic.

Following a deep forest path, we reached a secluded spot where people from the garden were no longer visible. Though it was broad daylight, the dense foliage made it dim.

“Are you feeling better?”

Bel, who had been tormenting me for hours every night these past few days, had the audacity to ask.

“No.”

He sat me down on a bench and briefly kissed my neck.

“Bel, I’m curious about something.”

“Ask me anything.”

“You’re a demon, aren’t you?”

“What?”

His lips, which had been tracing my collarbone after unbuttoning my collar, paused momentarily.

“You’re definitely a demon. A demon who fell to the mortal world after being defeated by celestial beings during the Hundred-Year War. Did you think I wouldn’t know?”

He stared down at me intently, then nodded without objection. He explained that he wasn’t exactly pure-blooded, but a being with mixed demon and other racial blood.

As I’d seen in the forbidden book, he was likely a hybrid born between a demon and an “unknown race.” He didn’t seem particularly moved by discussions of his birth, but his thick eyebrows raised slightly, suggesting the topic bothered him.

“Ha, so you really are a demon’s offspring. The temple would be turned upside down if this became known.”

Bel merely curled the corner of his mouth in response to my threat, seemingly unaffected.

“Then you must be at least several thousand years old? And you lied about being twenty-one?”

“If I had confessed then, it would only have frightened you, so I had no choice.”

Ha, this was ridiculous. It was laughable to expect honesty from a demon, but how much had he deceived me?

His hand extended forward and gently gripped the back of my head. The next moment, my protests were smothered by lips that swallowed mine in an instant, but sadly, it had little effect. 

Bel, true to his role as a demon who corrupts humans, began with small, everyday skinship and gradually expanded his territory. The same applied to our physical relationship.

After several tumbles on the hard bench, I found myself lying on my back in the grass, looking up at Bel’s face, which was bent close to mine.

“Did you lie about everything from the beginning?”

“I meant no harm.”

Damn it. Who would have thought I’d hear such words from a demon’s mouth? Bel seemed to notice the busy thoughts spinning in my head. He opened my collar and cupped my protruding white br*ast while studying my expression.

“You’re not refusing.”

“Hmm.”

I contemplated while half-undressed in the quiet forest path without a soul in sight.

His consistent love for thrilling acts was maddening. It was commonplace for him to put the Princess to sleep with sleep fragrance and continue explicit s*xual acts right beside her. 

Leaning me against the balcony windowsill at dawn, or constantly calling me outside to undress me—though I politely refused the latter and safely avoided it, he demanded more almost daily!

Moreover, there was something… strange about Bel’s member. While Shahan’s or Lucifer’s g*nitals were visually shocking, Bel’s looked normal on the outside, but everything changed once it was inside.

It continued to swell internally until it reached a certain point where the size stabilized. Rather than a deep, heavy feeling, it gave the strong impression of endlessly expanding, tearing at the cervix and threatening to fill the womb. It felt similar to Lucifer’s way of firmly rooting himself so he could never be pulled out. Still, it did shrink slightly immediately after ej*culation.

Additionally, his bodily fluids seemed to have hallucinogenic or aphrodisiac effects, making the experience thoroughly miserable for the recipient.

Since I invariably fainted during every s*xual encounter, Bel usually couldn’t fully release before finishing. He only penetrated until I lost consciousness, and I had no way of knowing how he removed his p*nis and cleaned up afterward.

When asked, he would just smile annoyingly, silently telling me not to be too curious.

“Vivian, I have something I want to ask you too.”

He seriously contemplated whether to pull my skirt down below my b*ttocks or lift it above my waistline, eventually deciding to pull it down while pressing his lips to the hollow of my navel.

* * *

“Mmm, hmm, ah…”

By the time Bel ej*culated once without a single footstep being heard, my body, which had been tense with anxiety, was now flailing freely in pleasure.

Though I hadn’t experienced many men, Bel truly loved and enjoyed s*x to the point where I suspected he might be a demon of lust. It was almost an addiction. Like Lucifer, these demons all seemed to have s*xual energy that not only overflowed but threatened to explode.

When another deep stimulation penetrated below, my waist reflexively bent with a gasp.

“This is still too much for you.”

A cold hand explored between my b*ttocks, then traced the slick, wet opening. Startled by the cool sensation that made the hair on my body stand on end, I reflexively tightened. I felt a thin finger being sucked in along with the inner flesh of my anus.

“Hmm, ngh.”

Bel was asking for my consent. I had anticipated this day would come eventually in our s*xual relationship, but now that it had arrived, fear outweighed curiosity. This wasn’t meant for insertion, and I’d heard it was incredibly painful.

The thought of his p*nis, already swollen from one ej*culation, penetrating my rear was dizzying.

“It will hurt.”

“Don’t worry about that. I’m asking if you feel aversion.”

I didn’t particularly feel aversion, but I disliked pain. If he planned to whisper another strange spell and blow in anesthetic fragrance, it wouldn’t be so bad. But wasn’t this too soon? It would be dirty, and once stretched, it might not return to normal. What if I bled? Above all, I didn’t want to lie down in a meadow and try new challenges so abruptly.

When I remained silent, Bel didn’t press further and continued moving his hips, which had momentarily paused.

He buried his face in my chest and sensitively licked my n*pples, which protruded like small buds. Tugging at the saliva-coated pink n*pples with his lips while slowly rotating his hips, he elicited spasmodic moans from my mouth.

I raised my pelvis, sucking in the flesh that filled my narrow, sticky interior. Having reached climax three times with each encounter, I was once again breathing heavily in exhaustion, waiting for him to ej*culate.

“Bel, earlier, mmm, ha…”

“Yes?”

He asked if I had the capacity to think about anything else. I immediately regretted throwing out a question during intercourse. It was my mistake for barely managing to speak with slurred pronunciation between gasps.

“Hmm, ah, ahhhhh!”

My body flipped around and easily rose up. I desperately accepted the penetrating p*nis while gripping a tree along the forest path with both hands.

With tears welling in my eyes, I devoured his tongue and gently swayed my hips with each forward and backward movement of his deeply inserted member.

I struggled to brace against the tree trunk with one leg hooked around his supporting arm. My arm, bearing most of my weight, trembled with pleasure, making it difficult to maintain balance. My face blanched at the sight of fluid dripping onto the light green grass below.

He held me tightly and cupped my br*asts that swayed gently in the air with one hand. My lips, which had barely separated from his since being dragged to this secluded spot, were swollen and red. At first, Bel had affectionately licked away the saliva that flowed between them, but now he left it alone, allowing drool to drip abundantly from my chin to my chest.

“Vivian.”

As he whispered with his lips pressed tightly against my earlobe, the shape of his moving mouth and its vibrations were transmitted so clearly that my body contracted tightly.

“Are you a hybrid of human and beastkin?”

“Uh… yes, why?”

I felt his hand tracing my tailbone along the groove of my b*ttocks. There wouldn’t be anything there anyway. Why did both this one and that one seem so obsessed with my tail? Remembering Shahan, I gently pushed away the hand that had reached my lower back.

“Human blood. Do you know about your birth?”

Bel occasionally said strange things during intercourse, like my n*pples were like jewels, or that I would look pretty without pubic hair and sexy with it, but this time the topic seemed severely off-track.

“Are we playing twenty questions? I have mountains of questions too.”

“For me?”

“Yes. They say demons are particularly captivated by a certain race—what is it?”

“That’s why I asked you.”

“What?”