…The eagle.

While drowning in the pleasure Triton gave her, her mind wandered to the man with large spread wings. The man who reached out his hand to her with a shadowed face against the sun.

“Everyone you miss is there, Livia. Come with me. We can think about everything else later.”

When a living soul enters the underworld, they must only look forward and advance. While rushing mindlessly toward the distant destination ahead, beloved voices try to grab the soul from behind.

“Livia! Where are you going! Look over here!”

“Livia, I’ve been waiting for you.”

“Livia, don’t go. Livia…!”

If one turns around, enchanted by those longed-for voices that persist even after death, they become eternally trapped in the underworld.

Zagreus’s voice whispering to her as he reached out his hand was similar to that. She didn’t realize it then, caught up in longing, but upon waking, she was certain he had tried to seduce her.

If she had taken his outstretched hand in that dream, then… would she not be here now? Would her soul have truly been dragged to the underworld?

Livia’s blank gaze turned to Triton.

What would have happened to him then? My revenge, our wager, the contract with the witch…?

Zagreus had spoken as if none of that mattered. Said they could think about everything else later.

Her weary heart seemed to secretly welcome those words. To put down all her burdens, to think of nothing… but would running away like that really make all the things she had done, all her worries and problems that needed solving, disappear?

No. My life and my choices are still here. The results and process of those choices are right before my eyes.

Triton. The sea god who had become entangled in a mess with the human she had despised.

“Tell me his name, Livia.”

Triton whispered as he kissed her cheek. The cool temperature against her cheek was no longer unfamiliar.

“…Triton.”

“I won’t hold you responsible for anything. So just tell me who that filthy underworld eagle is, Livia.”

Light kisses showered her eyelids. The cool skin that soothed her fever-hot body was welcome. As her unusually hot body met Triton’s unusually cold one, they mixed together into a lukewarm warmth that was neither too cold nor too hot.

Instead of answering, Livia weakly nestled into his embrace. As she rested her forehead against his bare chest, the red beating heart was reflected in those green eyes.

When she gently rubbed that red mark visible on his skin with her fingertips, a languid sigh escaped Triton’s lips.

She felt his lips touch her forehead once more. The arm tightly holding her waist, the large hand gently cradling her nape. That excessively intimate contact tenderly rubbed something deep in her chest.

Why were his touches always so tearfully gentle? Why did he always hold her so passionately as if he might die?

Livia had vaguely noticed something at some point.

That while Triton drove her wild, he always checked her flushed face. That he persistently sought out the spots she felt pleasure from, the places she liked, and prioritized stimulating those areas.

As if her pleasure was his own pleasure…

As if what she felt was more important than what he felt…

In that moment, Livia impulsively pressed her lips against his reddened heart.

“……”

The man held his breath. His already firm chest seemed to swell even larger.

She could see his heart, which had been red like her hair color, grow even darker. The temperature that brushed against her lips was also hot. His immediate reaction made Livia smile briefly. But the emotion quickly faded.

“I’m sleepy, Triton.”

Livia whispered with her cheek against his chest. The man who had been fiercely pressing her stayed silent, just expanding and contracting his chest deeply. Quietly, as if not wanting to disturb her.

“For now… let’s sleep a little more, us.”

Whispering softly, she closed her eyes as if to prove her words. Her breathing became steady. Triton, who had pulled her close as she instantly fell back asleep, let out a long, low sigh like a lament.

“…Us.”

What a truly cunning woman. With just two words, she so easily unlocked the bolt on his heart.

Us, not superior god and worthless human, but us… He liked that word. Us who had become one, not strangers.

He shouldn’t have sent Livia to the underworld in the first place…. Yes, what fault could this woman have? It’s just that death god who latched onto her in that short time being troublesome.

I don’t know what you are, but I will definitely find out.

Triton gently kissed the red hair scattered across his arm and glared into the empty air with cold eyes.

With the eyes of a fierce predator tracking the traces of a hunter who had come and gone silently, very secretly and quietly…

***

Livia, who had dozed off just like that, didn’t wake from Triton’s embrace for quite a while.

Though she used to sleep just fine on the ground, she had been very tired from tossing and turning, unable to sleep well during the times he was absent.

When she finally woke up groggily, a feast was laid out. Various cooked meats, fragrant steamed rice, soft and sweet bread. The table was filled with things she never thought she’d see under the sea. Even the feasts she saw long ago as an adopted daughter in a wealthy household seemed less extravagant than this.

“You want me to eat all of this?”

When she looked at Triton with a somewhat dumbfounded expression, he raised his eyebrows as if he didn’t see anything strange about it.

“Is this amount difficult?”

“It’s too much.”

“…This is too much? Is that why you’re so withered away, because your stomach is too small to eat even this much?”

Livia frowned at his words as he muttered in genuine puzzlement. Though she might not have much meat on her bones, she wasn’t withered away enough to say that. She had lost some weight from all the hardships since coming under the sea, but still.

“I guess my body isn’t to your taste? You seemed to bite and suck on it quite a lot though.”

At her provocative words, Triton’s eyes sparkled as he smiled.

“Because it’s delicious.”

Livia quickly retorted at his lewd response with disgust.

“I’m not food, Triton.”

“I know. That’s why I don’t chew. I only suck.”

He whispered in a low voice as he tilted his head toward her body and sucked hard on her neck.

As his tongue tip traced up along her slender neckline, Livia, whose neck had reddened, shuddered and pushed him away.

“It hurts, Triton.”

“Lies. Your skin isn’t sensitive enough to hurt from that.”

As Triton bit her neck demonstratively, Livia hastily added, embarrassed.

“…I just don’t want to be dragged back to bed right after waking up.”

Chuckling, Triton bit her heated earlobe and whispered.

“Hmm… I wasn’t planning to, but should we?”

The voice seeping into her earlobe was so sweet and intimate that goosebumps rose along her spine as if she had been seduced.

His lips traveled down her neck with wet sounds and rubbed against her slender shoulder. At the same time, feeling his large, thick hand stroke up her tightly closed thighs, Livia urgently pushed him away with a reddened face.

“You’re not an animal in mating season. How do your thoughts always go in that direction?”

“Maybe I am an animal in mating season. So just accept it. Eat well and build up your strength.”

He let out a playful laugh as he picked up a knife and fork. After cutting the well-cooked meat into bite-sized pieces, he stacked them neatly on Livia’s plate.

Livia felt he seemed to be in a good mood, but didn’t ask why. If she unnecessarily brought up his mood and the topic of Zagreus came up again. Then the excuse of being tired and wanting to sleep wouldn’t work this time.

‘To think I have to be careful even with my dreams….’

She got chills thinking about his influence over her anew. It didn’t seem like it would be easy to escape from this man’s grasp.

Could anything be hidden from this man? The matter of Zagreus would be exposed soon too. Of course, she had no intention of opening her mouth about it until the banquet.

‘Does he not know about Echidna’s visit yet?’

Livia carefully stole glances at him while diligently eating the meat piling up on her plate.

The cunning Echidna had chosen a moment when Triton was absent to visit. When the barrier of the Golden Palace was at its weakest, she had come in the form of a nymph and disappeared without being detected by anyone.

While trying not to think about the necklace hidden behind Triton’s bed, Livia side-eyed Triton who was focused only on putting food on her plate.

‘If he had noticed, he wouldn’t be this quiet, right?’

Just as she was feeling relieved thinking it might pass like this, Triton’s tightly closed lips opened.

“I discovered Echidna’s cave a few days ago.”

Livia almost dropped her fork in shock. As she looked at him, pale-faced, Triton calmly spoke while continuing to cut the remaining meat.

“She was casting an old spell. Some nonsense spell about merpeople and humans turning to sea foam when they meet.”

“Ah….”

Her heart beat violently. So much that she worried whether he could hear her heartbeat.

Triton put down his knife and fork after finishing cutting all the meat and asked while staring at Livia.

“Livia, has that woman appeared around you recently?”