When I got up to follow him, he smiled weakly. 

“Why are you so curious about that monster?” 

“It’s not concern – more like curiosity. It didn’t seem to resist, although it had the strength to escape.” 

“It? Was it a monster in human form?” 

Had it taken over a human body? Or could it have been a human transformed by experiments, like Zetak? Sensing my unspoken questions, Zetak muttered softly, “Who knows?” 

He didn’t seem to know much either. As he walked towards the Gatekeeper’s office, he began to speak. 

“To be honest, I had completely forgotten about it until recently. I didn’t leave it out of my testimony for the creature’s sake. I just thought if it wasn’t discovered, I’d ask about it later. That’s all it was.” 

“Then why do you remember it now?” 

He was silent for a long time. It was during this time that we arrived at the Gatekeeper’s office. When Zetak said we were going to Karial’s castle, the Gatekeeper activated the gate without much question. Judging by his reaction, it seemed that several nobles had visited the place before out of curiosity. 

As we stepped onto the teleportation platform, Zetak took my hand. 

“I was reminded of this when I saw the butterfly earlier.”

At first I didn’t understand what he meant. Then, belatedly, I realised it was the answer to my earlier question – why he had suddenly thought of it. Lowering his voice, as if in deference to the gatekeeper, he spoke softly. 

“The creature had butterfly wings on its back.” 

It wasn’t by chance that his words reminded me of a past life. I wanted to ask more, but as the gate activated, my vision distorted, cutting off the moment. 

*** 

The teleportation was flawless. The Hartrain Gatekeeper’s office was in better condition than expected, probably regularly maintained by the palace. There were no remnants of collapsed structures or dust accumulating in the corridors.  As we stepped out of the Gatekeeper’s office, a dim corridor stretched before us. Though he had let go of his vengeance, the past had not completely disappeared. From the moment we arrived at Karial’s castle, his expression had visibly darkened. 

“I remember this corridor. Karial smashed my head against the wall here once.”

Zetak murmured, brushing his hand against the corridor wall. 

“There was blood and my vision was so blurred I couldn’t even stand properly.” 

I couldn’t help but frown at his words. But there was no trace of anger in Zetak as he spoke. 

“She told me to know my place. She said, ‘How dare you have feelings for a member of the royal family.'” 

“…” 

“I told her the same thing. To know her place. That no matter how much she raged, Your Highness would never look back at her.” 

He had been a tearful child in the past. And yet he had never bowed to Karial. Even when he knew that his defiance would bring him greater suffering, he hadn’t given in. 

“In a way, you have completed your revenge long ago. Karial must have felt crushed by you all the time.” 

He turned to look at me. When he kept staring at me, as if daring me to continue, I opened my mouth to speak. 

“She could never get past the barrier that was you. In the past she must have felt inferior to you because of the favour you received from me, and later she must have been furious at the rumours that you had become my lover. In that sense, Karial never really defeated you, not even once.” 

His eyes darkened. But it wasn’t revenge I saw in them. Nor was it grudge against his past. 

It was something else, undeniably. 

“Why are you so excited all of a sudden?” 

Yes, it was desire. Why should the memory of his painful past with Karial suddenly excite him? He bit his lip and ran his hand over his face. I thought I heard a faint curse escape his mouth: “Sh*t.” 

Then he walked over to me and grabbed my shoulder. 

“I hate to say this here of all places. But, ha, damn it – can I just… screw you right now?” 

“What…?” 

Hearing such an abrupt statement left me momentarily stunned, my mind unable to process what I had just heard. I wanted to ask what he meant, but before I could, I was pinned against the wall. My shoulder was grabbed and twisted as I was pushed forward. Before my face could hit the wall, his palm slipped in to stop it.

“I’m in a hurry.”

As he spoke I heard a metallic clink, followed by the sound of his belt being unbuckled. I couldn’t tell if the sound was my trousers being pulled down or something happening behind me – maybe it was both. My trousers slid down slightly, leaving my underwear in place, while something thick pressed and rubbed between my b*ttocks.

What I felt at that moment was probably embarrassment. What had I done to make him so aroused? He didn’t even seem his usual self – there were no teasing remarks or playful banter. His rough breath brushed against my ear, making my shoulders jerk. He pressed firmly against my waist and I let out a soft moan as I felt the head of his length parting and thrusting into me.

“It’s so smooth. Is it because we did it so much yesterday?” 

A deep, husky voice whispered in my ear. I wanted to say something, but my legs trembled slightly as he pushed in until his hips were pressed against me, his balls touching my skin. He was right. My body, still tired from being teased into the late hours of the night, offered no resistance as it accepted him. I could even hear the soft, wet sounds, as if my insides were still wet. 

“I’ll make this quick.”

A low, gravelly voice whispered in my ear as he wrapped a hand around my waist. I gasped as he gripped me and lifted my hips. Each time a rhythmic, thumping sound echoed, an indescribable sensation ran down my back. 

It felt inevitable that my nails would scrape the wall. As he grabbed me and moved me, a sudden wave of dizziness clouded my vision. Every so often, his ragged breath brushed against my ear, sending a tingling sensation down my spine. The intervals between our bodies grew shorter and more intense. Zetak held me tightly against the wall. 

It was a relief that he hadn’t used his tentacles since we’d been outside. He gripped me tightly and moved with intensity, making my insides clench reflexively. Zetak let out a low moan and thrust hard. I couldn’t help but climax at that moment. At the same time, my body tightened around him. As uncomfortable as it was to deal with the situation outside, he was still coming inside me.

When I managed to get the words out, he let out a small laugh. Never in my wildest imagination did I think I’d end up doing something like that in Karial’s castle, let alone in the middle of a corridor. Even when he had finished, he didn’t pull out immediately. Instead, he slowly moved his hips and pressed against me, eliciting a soft moan from my lips. From behind, he wrapped his arms around me. 

“Sometimes I wonder.”

He murmured, his voice low.

“If when I wake up all this will turn out to be just a dream.” 

He planted a kiss on the back of my neck. 

“And I’ll still be trapped in this dark basement, starving. There are moments when I can’t help thinking that.” 

It wasn’t something that could be true, was it? I couldn’t say the words out loud because at that moment he pulled his hips back. A soft moan escaped me as his p*nis, brushing against my now sensitive insides, withdrew. The stretched opening began to close and something warm trickled out from inside. He wiped it away with a handkerchief, folding and dabbing several times before finally adjusting my trousers for me. 

As I turned and leaned against the wall, he smiled down at me. Although I felt satisfied and relaxed after just one session, his eyes were still clouded with desire. Without thinking, I reached up and gently stroked his hair. 

I wasn’t angry at his sudden action. I couldn’t be. After all, he’s still young. A monster not yet thirty years old is little more than a fledgling. 

“They say the first one to fall in love is doomed to lose it. Perhaps this saying was meant for me.” 

I said the words sincerely, but why did his face twist like that? 

“That’s not… Your Highness, that’s really not the case.” 

I thought I heard his voice tremble slightly. 

*** 

The northern outpost where Karial had tried to lure me had been cleaned and tidied, as had the main castle. In fact, it looked so barren that it was almost deserted. Everything related to the experiments had already been collected by the Mage Tower, and the furniture had either been thrown away or sold cheaply. 

Entering the annex, Zetak headed straight for the innermost room. It was a rather small room – more of a storeroom than a real room. Judging by the mops and buckets of water scattered across the floor, it was clearly not a place intended for regular use. 

Zetak kicked the objects aside and began to feel the floor with his hands. 

“It seems this place hasn’t been discovered. Well, considering it was just a storage place for junk, it’s likely no one paid much attention to it.” 

“A clever disguise.”

He said as he lifted one of the bricks from the ground. It probably wasn’t something that could just be removed by brute force – there must have been a key or a series of levers that had to be triggered. But Zetak ignored all that. He simply dug his fingers into the brick and lifted it out with sheer force. 

With a grinding sound, the brick came loose and strange noises accompanied the appearance of cracks in the floor. Like a door opening, several bricks shifted of their own accord, revealing a passageway wide enough for a person to step through. 

As the passage opened, lights flickered on below the stairs. It seemed that the magic in place was designed to automatically illuminate the area when the door opened.