Every time that seething desire of his rose in his eyes, Iberis could not hide the expression of revulsion and nausea she wore now.

He understood. Theodore could not suppress his l*st. The others were not so different from him, and that was probably why she found him particularly repugnant.

He had killed her father, killed her people, been the witch’s instrument, and then suddenly fixed his gaze on her with his member *rect, declaring love.

But he did not want to retreat.

Nothing else mattered.

It was fine even if it was nothing more than s*x to break the curse.

She could use him however she liked.

“Please, don’t send me back to the tower.”

“Do you think you are in a position to make demands?”

Killing intent deeper than before stirred in those narrowing eyes. Even a Black Mage with a body and abilities as powerful as his felt the threat of death and trembled.

Yet the greater the pleasure, the more he dripped, leaking pre-release. He used every ounce of his will to hold back from touching his member, which had begun to dampen in a spreading stain.

Ah, Iberis.

Beautiful Emperor.

“P, please, keep me, keep me at your side. Be fond of me, please. Use me, hng, as a tool for your sake. Don’t lock me in the tower and leave me there. If you do that, if you do that, I will help with breaking the curse whenever you need. I promise.”

He was crying as he spoke, but it was a threat.

It was also a declaration that if she cast him aside again, he would never help with breaking the curse.

Reading that meaning, Iberis smiled pleasantly.

“Right, this is what you are.”

He knew that was the expression she wore when she was furious beyond measure. And immediately, crack.

“Ngh!”

“You.”

Her hand seized his hair.

“Do you still think yourself the witch’s mage? Do I look to you like the princess who only trembled with rage at the sight of you? I left that mouth of yours open and you repay me by babbling the most absurd things.”

“Your, Your Majesty.”

“Or has it made you arrogant, knowing you are a tool the Oracle requires? You think I cannot kill you? You are gravely mistaken.”

Theodore held back the urge to smile. He hunched his body, feigning as much weakness as he could, and met her eyes.

He appealed with everything he had that he had no intention of harming her.

“Hnn, hh. Your Majesty cannot k, kill me. But you cannot trust me either. So if we constrain each other through a deal…… you can feel at ease, can’t you.”

Intoxicated by that beautiful face contorting with rage, he scratched the back of her cruel white hand with a cat rubbing against its owner, as though he dared not touch it.

By Theodore’s reckoning, she, being eaten away by the curse, would be feeling quite a sweet effect from this skin contact alone.

‘The pain must be fading.’

The cunning, crafty young demon bloodline with those guileless eyes watched the process sharply and slipped his fingertips between the fingers of the hand gripping his hair.

“Please, trust me. That I have always, always been watching you. You know that.”

“……”

“I, I am obedient. Your Majesty, if you only wish it, I can do anything.”

“……”

“I can get hard like a beast and, th, thr*st until you cannot close up. I can stretch you wide enough that nothing else will satisfy you.”

He rubbed slowly against her skin, grazing it.

“I can do it well. Please, give me a chance.”

“……”

“Yes?”

He observed the narrowing eyes, the heaving shoulders, and then the moment the tension left the jaw that had been clenched tight.

“Filthy creature. Know your place.”

“You need me.”

If he said he enjoyed that storm of emotions, Iberis might not be able to hold back and would cut Theodore’s head off.

“Hnn, please, take me in.”

The tip of his member twitched. Unable to hold back the fl*id seeping out, he sobbed in earnest.

Disgust and hatred were both welcome. Iberis, who carried inhuman blood by birth and was as dull to emotion as Theodore, had that kind of fury for no one else.

It was directed at him alone.

Ah, good. Good. Hate me like that. Look only at me. Think only of me. It doesn’t have to be love. He wanted to swallow that hatred whole.

And soon.

The emotion Iberis had been barely holding down exploded in her eyes. He felt that change clearly.

The grip that had been crushing his hair shifted. The strength left her hand. It traveled down his cheek and seized his throat as though to strangle him. Force drove down hard. But not enough to break bones.

“Your, Majesty.”

Iberis.

“Do you need me?”

* * *

This cunning, crafty creature.

She had known those gentle eyes were decoration, and yet he was still so grotesquely different inside from out that she almost found it remarkable.

Setting aside the rage and hatred that rose in her, Iberis chose to look at the present.

That had been her purpose in summoning him to begin with, but for a moment, facing him after so long, she had lost her composure.

She watched the red handprint on his neck and slowly withdrew her hand.

Thoroughly disheveled, looking to anyone’s eyes like someone who had been beaten, he gazed up at her pitifully.

Exactly like a wretch who had been handled by Iberis.

The contemptible sight of a creature that could viciously crush any prey with its bared sharp teeth, yet rolled over and wagged its tail as though it had no such ferocity in it.

She would not be fooled. That one could betray at any moment. She would not trust him or leave anything in his hands.

Even if she had to engage in s*xual contact with him, he needed thorough training to keep him from crossing the line and lunging at her.

Was he not the traitor who had stabbed even the witch with those greedy eyes? Iberis did not trust Theodore’s sincerity in the slightest.

“Fine. Let us make a deal.”

“……!”

No matter how innocent the face of the man who snapped his eyes wide open looked, struck as though by lightning. No matter how desperate his longing gaze and guileless voice seemed.

He was an enemy and a benefactor, a hateful past and an untrustworthy future.

“Theodore.”

If there was no other way, she would keep him close. She would wash and feed him properly, give him a decent standing, and offer something sweet to the creature that wished to be cherished.

“From this point forward, you will reside in the imperial palace.”

“Your Majesty!”

Sirak, who had been watching all of it, cut in with a look of shock.

That reaction was understandable. The witch’s Black Mage was notorious. Theodore also had physical traits that made him difficult to conceal anywhere.

Those broad shoulders, muscles that looked ready to burst, those gentle eyes and great height were things that could not be disguised no matter the attempt.

Then there was no need to hide him. She would simply keep him in plain sight.

“A title, well, he can take his orders from Maria. You are an attendant of the imperial household. You will not become a mage of honor, but I can have the status of criminal stripped from you.”

Sirak’s face twisted.

With the emperor’s command, no one would be able to say a word, even if he had been the witch’s instrument.

“Of course.”

Iberis curved her eyes.

Looking at that rather handsome and guileless face swallowing in anticipation, she took hold of the short silver hair she had been yanking at moments ago.

Crack. She pulled it with considerable force.

“You are not a legitimate party to a deal. You are someone who must cooperate or die. And yet you dared threaten the emperor.”

“Ngh, ugh!”

“Remember this pain.”

She watched his face go bright red and removed her shoe. Thud. The leather shoe she kicked off rolled at her feet.

Her bare white foot, unshod, came down on the large member of the mage who had been twitching obscenely this whole time, pressing onto his swollen *rection.

“Ha, hng!”

She pressed her heel down on what had been straining up through his clothing and ground against it, and the large body folded sharply downward, unable to hold back.

Because she still had hold of his hair and he could not bow his head, he shook with muffled, strangled sounds.

“You are different from the other subjects of the Oracle, Theodore. Do not forget that.”

“Hh, hng, ngh!”

“You are a criminal. We will deal, but do not cross the line. Know your place. Prostrate yourself at my feet and be my loyal dog. Submit and bow down. Can you do that?”

“Hnn, yes, yes!”

Watching those shoulders tremble beyond control, Iberis became aware that her foot had grown hot and wet.

She lifted her foot from the member she had been pressing down on and saw the man, his trousers soaked through, having spent himself.

“Haa, Your Majesty, hh.”

“Yes, like that. You must conduct yourself like a slave bowed at my feet. Only then can I bear you, revolting as you are, even a little.”

The sight of him panting with his face flushed quite red was not unpleasant.

The filthy state of him, which once would have been nothing but repugnant, looked the same, but perhaps because of the release that had made contact, the pain cleaving through her back was rapidly fading.

If she had to roll in the mud regardless, what was the use of complaining?

Looking at Theodore, his eyes glazed after his release, she decided to pull things up by the root from the very start.

‘Out.’

Iberis gave the order with a hand signal. The knight of wolf bloodline, his eyes full of worry and unease, bowed his head with an air of resignation and withdrew outside.