Side Story 1.1 – Empress Diana and Lenok

[Diana struggled to open her eyes.

It was dark.

So dark that she couldn’t tell if her eyes were open or closed. Her body, hardened by pain, now felt nothing.

“Your Majesty the Queen, are you awake?”

A man’s thin voice, tinged with tears, reached her. But her mind was so hazy that she couldn’t tell if the sound was real or a hallucination.

“This is a recovery potion. Drink this, and you’ll feel a bit better.”

She only had enough strength to slowly blink her eyelids, unable even to answer.

“Excuse me.”

The man spoke as he carefully parted Diana’s lips to feed her the potion.

How ridiculous. A man treating her ruined body with such courtesy.

The potion’s liquid slowly entered her lips. Diana barely managed to swallow it with her breath. The freshness spread from her mouth to her throat.

Its effect was quite good. In an instant, her vision cleared, and she could see the outline of a person in the darkness.

But at the same time, as her senses returned, pain surged through her entire body. Diana groaned.

“Are you alright?”

The man seemed at a loss at Diana’s groan.

“Who are you?”

Diana turned her head to ask the man beside her.

“Your Majesty, you probably don’t know who I am.”

“The king’s consort, then?”

There were three types of people who knew she was the Queen: the knights who, by the King’s order, violated her; the attendants serving the King; and the young men who were the King’s consorts.

Judging by his delicate body, he wasn’t a knight, and his fine hands meant he wasn’t an attendant.

“Yes.”

When she was abused by the knights, there were many consorts beside the King, but she couldn’t tell which one this was. She hadn’t been in a state to see clearly.

“Your Majesty, I will put poison in the King’s cup. In return, if the King dies, please save my life.”

The man declared his resolve in a trembling voice.

The old King was as suspicious as he was greedy. He killed his grown sons himself and sold his daughters off to other countries.

Now, only the youngest son, born to a concubine and five years old, remained. If the King died, all decision-making would go to the Queen.

The man knew this and begged Diana to save his life.

“That’s only if you succeed. Are you confident you’ll succeed?”

“……”

Even in the darkness, Diana could see the man biting his lip.

A weakling, she thought. Yet he harbors the intent to assassinate the King.

“What grudge do you hold against the King?”

“I was a prince held hostage from a vassal state. But the King broke his promise and destroyed my country.”

“Yet he kept you alive, so he must have cared for you.”

“Sob… no. The king is cruel. He is keeping me alive only to let me wither and die slowly.”

The man whimpered and panted.

This frail man would never be able to assassinate the King. His nervousness would show before he could even put poison in the King’s cup, and he’d be killed.

“When will I be summoned to the King’s bedroom again?”

Diana was the seventh queen formally wed to the King of Listal Kingdom. The previous six queens had met gruesome ends at the hands of the perverse King.

The Listal King, wanting to tame a wife more than thirty years younger, bound Diana’s limbs on their wedding night and threw her to his personal knights.

Diana had now suffered cruel ab*se from the knights for ten days.

The King would feed her a little food every few days to keep her alive, restore her strength, and summon her back to his bedroom.

“It will be evening, after sunrise.”

“Prepare a sword under the bed where I’ll be tied.”

“What?”

“I’ll take the King’s head myself.”

Diana’s voice was chilling.

If she hadn’t been chained and drugged, she wouldn’t have suffered like this with her eyes wide open.

Knowing Diana’s skill, they had resorted to these measures, but since her body weakened a few days ago, they stopped using mind-numbing drugs.

They wanted her to be violated with a clear mind, to break her spirit completely.

“What?”

The man spoke in a startled voice.

“Can you do it?”

Diana found the man’s eyes in the darkness and met his gaze.

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“Make no mistakes.”

“Yes.”

“Absolutely.”

“Absolutely.”

The man’s voice was resolute.]

“Your Majesty, Your Majesty.”

At the man’s voice, Diana awoke with a gasp.

“Did you have another nightmare?”

She saw familiar golden eyes.

Lenok, looking at her with worried eyes, gently wiped the cold sweat from Diana’s forehead with a towel.

“Yes.”

In her dream just now, Diana had sliced off the head of her former husband, King Listal, a man less than a beast.

It was the beginning of satisfying revenge, yet Diana always wondered why it felt like a nightmare.

“You were doing well for a while, but lately the nightmares have become frequent.”

After wiping away all the sweat, Lenok took water into his mouth and let it flow gently into the mouth of the lying Diana.

The water tasted sweet.

She drank a glass of water like that.

After drinking, Diana gazed at Lenok’s face, growing clearer in the dawn light coming through the window.

Lenok, with long blond hair and a beautiful pale face. His body bore scars that even healing magic couldn’t erase, proof of long ab*se.

After k*lling the King, Diana sought out the man who had helped her first. She was shocked when she saw his face.

That night, she had only seen his silhouette in the darkness, but his face and body were covered with bruises and whip marks. Truly, King Listal was less than a worm.

Lenok begged to stay by Diana’s side.

A man who bore invisible scars in his heart and visible ones on his body—he was another Diana. So she took him in. He became her consort.

They had spent twelve years together.

Lenok, four years younger than Diana, still looked like a boy, unchanged from the beginning. He always lay beside her in bed, rescuing Diana from her nightmares.

‘If it weren’t for you, could I have survived like this until now?’

“You never seem to age.”

Diana caressed his fair cheek with her hand. No, if anything, he seemed to become more beautiful with age.

“Your Majesty, you haven’t changed either.”

He purred like a cat showing affection, rubbing his cheek against Diana’s palm.

“Your Majesty, shall I help you forget your nightmare?”

Lenok flirted as he rubbed his er*ect p*nis against her.

Despite his delicate appearance, his member was fierce and thick, with bulging veins.

To forget her nightmares, Diana had passionate affairs with him several times a day. They tangled like beasts, drowning in pleasure that felt almost like a drug, living each day as if they might die.

“Yes, let’s do that.”

Diana spread her legs. Between them, the s*men he had filled her with the previous night flowed out. Soon, the bed was filled with the sticky sounds of their lovemaking.

***

Diana met Braden, who had returned after two years, and Adela, whom he had brought, in the drawing room.

“Though it’s late, congratulations on your marriage.”

Diana spoke to Adela.

“I apologize. I should have come to greet you much sooner, but I was unable to.”

Adela’s face was sincere.

She had a good face.

Adela was graceful and elegant. Unlike Diana’s own turbulent self, Adela radiated a clear energy. Just being near her felt purifying.

It was an unfamiliar comfort, so Diana felt strangely unsettled.

Did Braden feel the same?

Is that why he chose life with her over the life of a prince without hesitation?

Braden, perhaps because he had spent so much time at the monster hunting grounds, had a rough aura, but now, with Adela, he appeared soft and relaxed. He seemed stable.

“It’s not your fault, Princess.”

Diana glanced at Braden as she spoke.

“I should be the one thanking you now. The specialties you sent from each country brought me small joys each time I traveled.”

It was true. She thought it would stop after a few times, but Adela continued to send gifts.

Unlike the official tributes brought by diplomatic envoys, Adela’s gifts were simple and charming.

It was fun to receive them. If there was a lull, Diana would find herself waiting, thinking, ‘It’s about time for another gift.’

“You praise my small gifts so generously; I am deeply grateful for your kindness, Your Majesty.”

How beautifully she spoke. No wonder Braden was smitten.

A gentle smile appeared on Diana’s lips.

“You wish to receive the Blanc region as your estate?”

This was mentioned in a letter Braden sent a few days ago, saying he would visit.

“If you grant it, Your Majesty.”

Braden replied.