“Lie down. Knees up, legs apart. Your Highness should learn to be more careful with your body. Telling me to thrust into you? How is that different from saying, ‘Since I’m going to die soon, just do it once’?”

His gaze was cold, filled with unmistakable anger. He was clearly very angry. I decided to follow his instructions for the time being. Trying to reason with him in his agitated state seemed impossible. I did as he said, raised my knees and lay face down. Today’s encounter would probably bring nothing but pain. He would see to that. 

As these thoughts crossed my mind, a loud thud echoed through the room. A searing pain spread down the back of both my thighs. 

It was only afterwards that I realised he had struck the back of my thighs with his tendrils. The sudden, sharp pain prevented me from even moaning. Instinctively, my hands clenched the sheets and my trembling thighs reacted reflexively to the blow.

“I told you to spread your legs. It seems my words are being taken lightly.”

Now that I thought about it, that was actually one of his demands. I tried to comply, but the lingering pain from the blow made even the slightest movement agonising. Judging by the force of the blow, it was a relief that the skin hadn’t torn. By tomorrow, the area would probably be bruised and darkened. Still, considering how upset he was, he seemed to have shown a surprising amount of restraint. 

As these thoughts crossed my mind, the tendrils made contact with my entrance. It nudged and rubbed between my cheeks, then suddenly pushed its way in. There was no f*replay, no warning – just sheer force driving it in, and such a thing couldn’t possibly enter smoothly.

I thought I heard a ripping sound, like flesh being torn. The pain was overwhelming, far beyond anything that merely stung. My hands gripped the sheets tightly as I stifled a moan. Looking down from my prone position, I could see blood running down my thighs.

The rapid flow of blood indicated that the rupture was severe. Once the first tear had occurred, the tendrils slid in more easily than before. The entrance had widened and the tendril was now slick with blood – probably why it met with less resistance. But as the penetration became physically smoother, the pain only increased. The tendril, disconnected from any shared sense of pleasure, moved roughly and without hesitation, unhindered by the agony it caused. 

He thrust hard back and forth, a crunching sound echoing with each movement. It was probably the sound of the torn flesh tearing further, blood spurting with each movement. I looked down at my thighs and saw blood splattering everywhere.

Drops of blood fell and spread across the sheets. As I watched the crimson stains slowly seep into the fabric, I couldn’t help but think of the future. The only difference between then and now was that in the future he used his fingers to force open the entrance and tear it apart, whereas now he used sheer force with his tendrils to achieve the same result.

“After sending me to the Demon Realm, how did you plan to live your life?”

There was clearly a tendril inside me, but at the same time there was another tendril wrapped around my neck. It wrapped tightly around my torso, constricting me. Breathing became difficult. A second tendril – I couldn’t see it, but I was sure it was there. The pressure was so intense it felt like it was trying to strangle me to death.

“I understand now. As far as Your Highness is concerned, I’m already a dead man. As soon as you send me to the demon realm… Was that it? Were you going to forget me completely? Just leave me as a fleeting memory – ‘There was once such a servant’ – someone you would only think of occasionally?”

“No… I…”

My voice couldn’t come out properly because of the tendril around my neck. If I were to send him away, it would undoubtedly be painful for me. As he said, I wouldn’t be able to forget him so easily. Even if I don’t fully understand emotions, I’m not so stupid as to be completely unaware of them. I care about Zetak. I’m attached to him, I cling to him. Perhaps what I feel for him is similar to what humans call love. How could I forget him? He’s the only one who’s ever made me feel that way.

“I can imagine what it would have been like. With your personality, you’d probably forget everything and live as if nothing had happened. If a political marriage came your way, you’d accept it without a second thought. If you had a child, you’d discover something new to appreciate. Was I nothing more than a stepping stone for you to learn emotions?”

As he spoke, his emotions seemed to intensify, and at the same time the tendril around my neck tightened further. What if he snapped my neck in his rage? It was at this point that I really began to worry. He was overly agitated, and if he failed to control his power, the vines wrapped around my body could crush me to death.

Would it be better to let him do as he wished to vent his anger? Or, since the situation was becoming dangerous, should I try to persuade him to release me and try to resolve this through conversation?

“What shall I do with Your Highness?”

I heard him mutter softly, a sign that there was still some rationality in him. His hesitation was proof that he was still considering his actions. So I decided to remain silent and wait. He slowly ran the palm of his hand along the inside of my thigh. The warm, wet sensation confirmed that there was a lot of blood. He wiped it away in one long stroke, from my back down to my hips.

“Right. You said the blood was splashing everywhere.”

He muttered something, seemingly out of nowhere.

“You mentioned it, Your Highness. You said you saw the future.”

“…”

“It seems that the future cannot be changed. Do you remember?”

Zetak seemed to think that what I had seen of the future was this. I wanted to tell him it wasn’t, but the tendril constricting my neck prevented me from speaking. In truth, the future had already changed. While the current situation was similar to what I had seen, there was one crucial difference.

In the future I had seen, his every action had been with the intention of killing me. However, the Zetak before me, though angry, suppressed his rage as best he could. Though he was inflicting pain, he hadn’t used enough force to cause any lasting physical damage – at least not yet.

The atmosphere grew strangely quiet. The tendril that had been moving inside me had stopped completely. Turning slightly, I saw him staring at his blood-stained hand with darkened eyes. Perhaps sensing my gaze, he looked at me.

“Tell me. What did I do in the future?”

If he wanted an answer, shouldn’t he release the tendril from my neck?

“You wouldn’t lose your ability to predict the future over something so personal, would you? Did I hurt you here and then… what did I do afterwards?”

He asked the question, but didn’t really seem to want an answer. He looked away almost instantly. The tendril buried within me withdrew, accompanied by the sound of blood dripping onto the sheets. The wound, no longer blocked, began to bleed freely. 

I thought it was done, but in an instant the tendril plunged back in with a vengeance. The sharp pain caused a groan to escape my lips. Or maybe it wasn’t just the pain – a vine suddenly snapped across my back. The unexpected impact caused my elbows to buckle and my hips to lift awkwardly. A third tendril. That’s probably what it was.

I knew it wasn’t as bad as it could have been, a cruel mercy from Zetak. If it had hit me with the same force as it had hit the bedside table, it would have snapped my spine and killed me instantly. No, it wouldn’t have just snapped – I might have been completely torn apart, my body split in two.

“When you said you’d seen the future, I thought to myself: even if I don’t want to treat you like this now, the day will come when I’ll end up trampling you.”

He was deeply angry, and it didn’t seem as if that anger would go away easily. He cared for me – that much was true – but behind that affection lay hatred and anger. Of these conflicting emotions, anger seemed to have taken control for the moment.

“Do you remember? You once said that someone who doesn’t show consideration for his partner, even when he’s angry, isn’t really a lover.”

“Well, I ended up becoming that person.”

He murmured softly as he slowly ran his hand down my back. Judging by the stinging sensation wherever he touched, he seemed to be feeling around the swollen areas.

“If you don’t like the future, change it. That’s what Your Highness said… but it seems that some things don’t change after all.”

“…”

“I understand why you see me as a dead man already. What are the chances that I’ll actually survive and come back?”

“…”

“But as long as there’s a chance, I’ll probably go anyway.”

“Your Highness knows this, and that’s why you’ve already decided to move on.” 

His words, spoken slowly, were devoid of emotion, as if he were reading from a book.

“The chances of dying are high, but it’s not an absolute certainty.”

“…”

“The fact that you do not even consider such a possibility suggests that I have not earned Your Highness’s trust.”

“That is not the point. You think the Demon Realm is easy because you’ve only met it in books.” 

Those words never made it out. Maybe because I wasn’t sure if they were true. Maybe he was right – I had built every scenario around the assumption that he would die. There was no trust in Zetak in my calculations. Somehow, his anger made sense to me.