He really was awake… Just as she realized this, his hand roamed over Rowen’s bare upper body.

He took both of her small br*asts in his hands and kneaded them, then pinched her n*pples between his nails, over and over. His torment sent blood rushing to them until they hardened quickly. Rowen tried to hold back, but a small m*an slipped through her clenched teeth.

“Hnn…”

“Did you sleep well, Rowen?”

Even knowing Rowen was a woman, Michael’s voice remained just as gentle as always. But he probably wore that same smiling face while poisoning the other princes too. Rowen didn’t let herself be fooled by his sweet tone.

Michael finally let her go. He withdrew the arm wrapped around her waist and climbed on top of her. His c*ck, still hard, dragged across her cl*t in the process, forcing another m*an out of her.

Once he turned her onto her back to face the ceiling, something hard caught against her neck. She never noticed it before, too consumed by fear of Michael, but now she felt the cold sensation of metal near her throat. Watching him carefully, Rowen reached up and felt around her neck with her hand.

“…”

It was hard and cold. What clung to her neck had the shape of a round ring, curving snugly around her long throat.

In other words, this was like… a dog collar.

She didn’t need to wonder who put such a thing on her. The answer sat right in front of her, in the shape of that composed, handsome face. Since the man who knew her secret was the one who put it there, she couldn’t even demand to know why he did such a thing.

“Did Tehern teach you how to s*ck a man’s c*ck too?”

Michael asked the question just then. With every bit of her attention fixed on him, Rowen nodded right away.

“Yeah? Good.”

He rose from where he sat on top of her. He settled onto the bed and tilted his head.

“I need to head out soon today.”

“…”

“So before I go, I’d like you to s*ck me off.”

Michael spoke very softly, very politely, almost like he was extending an invitation. But Rowen knew perfectly well it was a command.

If he had simply ordered her outright, the way Tehern did, it would have felt at least a little less unpleasant. Being spoken to as though she had a choice, when she had no way to refuse, felt deeply uncomfortable.

But the discomfort lasted only a moment. Rowen turned his words over in her mind again.

I need to head out soon today.

Today. Did he bother saying that word because he intended to come again tomorrow? If that was the case, then a tomorrow existed, both for Rowen and for her mother.

Before he could change his mind, Rowen scrambled toward him on all fours in a hurry. Michael burst out laughing at the sight of her groveling.

The collar around her neck connected to the bed frame with a metal chain. Because of it, the chain was heavy, and its length wasn’t very long. Just enough for her to move around on the bed, nothing more.

She unconsciously braced a hand against Michael’s thigh, then flinched and lifted her head. He tilted his head to signal it was fine. Rowen relaxed and set her hand back on his thigh.

His c*ck, just like Tehern’s, looked like something that belonged on the lower half of a monster.

Dark all over, with a reddish tinge. On top of that, the long shaft jutting upward seemed to curve strangely to one side. Aside from the veins standing out sharply enough to make anyone wince, the whole thing was otherwise smooth.

Rowen was about to take his c*ck straight into her mouth when she paused. His member was soaked thoroughly in a sticky fl*id. She couldn’t tell whether that slick liquid was her own arousal, his release, or both.

Whichever it was, the thought of putting it in her mouth turned her stomach.

“What are you doing? Not gonna do it?”

“Ah, no. I’m sorry.”

At his prompting, Rowen shut her eyes tight and took the thick c*ck into her mouth. It was so large that her cheek bulged from holding it.

Rowen sucked him with real effort. To survive, she absolutely needed to satisfy him. She swallowed his c*ck as deep as she could manage and traced her tongue carefully along every ridge between his veins.

“Ha, look at you eating like a starving animal. My c*ck tastes that good?”

“Mmph, mmh.”

“You’ve got a strong stomach… It probably still tastes like your own hole in there too. Still, good thing it seems to suit your mouth.”

Insults rained down on her, but Rowen tried not to let them get to her. She focused only on the c*ck in front of her. Soon enough, Michael lost interest in mocking her too.

“Haah…”

Michael tipped his head back languidly and stroked the back of Rowen’s neck. His hand traveled slowly down along her spine, then moved as though to grip something.

To Rowen, it looked like the motion of someone grabbing a fistful of hair. Except her hair was short from posing as a man. It seemed less like something aimed at her specifically and more like a habit.

She once thought Tehern alone was uniquely obsessed with women, but it seemed the princes of the Crystal Palace were all more or less the same in that regard.

She opened her throat as wide as she could to take his massive length, and at some point, Michael suddenly grabbed a fistful of her hair and yanked her head back. S*men shot from the tip and sprayed across her face.

“Ngh…”

Rowen tried to turn her head away, but Michael held it firmly in place. In the end, she couldn’t dodge the release splattering her face, and pale fl*id clung to her eyebrows.

With s*men covering her eyes, Rowen couldn’t open them properly.

She soon remembered a handkerchief lying on the nightstand beside the bed. She fumbled around, groping her way toward it, when Michael suddenly caught her by the body. He pulled a handkerchief from somewhere on himself and wiped her face with a gentle hand.

He was the one who sprayed his release across her face in the first place. And now he was carefully wiping it away, pretending to be kind.

Cruel one moment, tender the next. Rowen found his contradictory behavior almost frightening now. She almost thought Tehern’s consistency was preferable.

Of course, that didn’t mean she missed his vicious, filthy temper.

He wiped every last one of her eyelashes clean. Then he used the same handkerchief he wiped her face with to clean off his own damp c*ck.

He rose from the bed and straightened his disheveled clothes.

Rowen looked up at him blankly the whole time. When their eyes met, she quickly lowered her head. From above her bowed head, Michael’s mocking laugh drifted down.

“Open your mouth.”

A moment later, after finishing with his clothes, he approached Rowen again. She had no idea what he intended to do and felt afraid, but she obediently opened her mouth anyway. Michael pulled a small vial from his pocket and poured the liquid inside into her mouth.

The liquid he made her drink tasted intensely bitter. Rowen instinctively tried to spit it back out, but Michael clamped a large hand over her mouth. She struggled for a moment before finally swallowing what was in her mouth.

“See you later, then.”

After making her drink the medicine, Michael left the room. He left behind only the promise that he would come again.

Left alone in the room, Rowen soon noticed food and water set on the nightstand beside the bed. Michael must have brought them for her, unable to move as she was, chained by the collar. Having slept nearly a full day, she felt hungry and picked up a piece of bread from the basket to eat.

“…”

The iron collar around her neck was cold enough to send chills through her. With the chain hanging from it, it carried real weight too.

A sturdy collar around her neck, eating food that Michael brought for her. For a moment, she thought that living like this made her no different from an animal. But soon the thought took over that this was still better than dying.

The bread Michael brought was soft and clearly of good quality. It seemed to be made generously with expensive ingredients.

Rowen chewed through the bread diligently and decided to be grateful that she was still alive. This was far better than being dragged to the execution block alongside Erin.

* * *

From then on, Michael visited Rowen’s room once a day, either receiving her service or joining bodies with her. And once their intimacy ended, he wiped her body clean with a damp towel. He also brought a day’s worth of food for Rowen with him each time.

Something about her feelings turned strange whenever she sat confined in the small room all day, eating whatever food he gave her. She felt like she might lose her mind at this rate. It wasn’t as though she were some animal being raised in captivity…

That wasn’t the only reason her sanity felt close to slipping.

The medicine Michael brought last time. After drinking it, Rowen no longer needed to relieve herself. On top of that, she began to feel sensation through her rear as well.

From that day on, her anus transformed into something as soft and pliant as her front opening.

Whenever a finger slid inside and pressed around, tingling sensations spread through her entire body and lewd m*ans spilled from her mouth. When his c*ck filled her there, she reacted with pleasure, leaking some strange fl*id she couldn’t identify. Whenever his c*ck slipped free and left her feeling empty, the opening even fluttered as if reluctant to let go.