Yes. He came to catch me…!

‘Livia.’

A chilling voice whispering her name came through the water bubbles.

Livia frantically escaped through the exploding streams of water and got out.

She had to get away from the water. She ran to the shallow water’s edge where it only reached around her calves, but the water chains mercilessly caught her ankles.

“No, I don’t want to…!”

Even as she fell with a splash, she clawed at the ground with her fingertips to move forward. She was so desperate she didn’t even notice her nails being torn off. Mumu, who had been guarding the waterfront, rushed over urgently and pulled her out while holding her wrist in its mouth.

Grrrr!

“Mumu, Mumu!”

Livia barely moved forward with Mumu’s help. But at that moment, a sharply honed water spear stretched out toward the Cerberus, and Livia, who was shocked, ended up letting go of its grip.

Yelp! Yip yip!

The formed water was fiercer than any weapon. Livia watched with a pale face as the water spear completely pierced through the huge Cerberus’s body.

“Mumu!”

Livia, who screamed in shock, urgently crawled toward Mumu.

Meanwhile, dozens of water droplets rose into the air. It didn’t take long to realize what they meant.

He was going to shoot them like arrows. Livia’s face turned pale.

The transparent water droplets containing moonlight looked beautiful at first glance, but they surely possessed terrifying power.

If those hundreds of water droplets floating in the air pierced Mumu’s body, even a hell hound wouldn’t survive unscathed. The frightened Livia shouted urgently.

“Don’t! Please!!! Stop!!!”

Before the water droplets could descend on Mumu, Livia’s body first covered the fallen Mumu. She trembled weakly while tightly hugging the beast’s body that her small frame couldn’t even fully cover.

However, making her tightly closed eyes meaningless, she felt no pain.

Whine-

Mumu licked Livia’s hand as if to say it was okay. Only then did Livia slowly open her eyes. Though pierced by the spear, Mumu looked better than expected.

The spear that had lost its form by now thoroughly soaked the ground beneath Livia and Mumu. Though mixed with the wounded beast’s blood, perhaps because it was a fire-using beast, it burned away and purified its own wounds.

…Still, it’s fortunate to be safe from this level of attack.

Livia, who breathed a sigh of relief, slowly turned around with a hardened face. Then she saw that man standing on the river with numerous water streams raised like a barrier.

The beautiful sea god, Triton…

“So that hell pup was the source of the burning smell I’ve been sensing.”

A voice as cold and damp as if containing moisture resonated softly under the waterfall’s noise. In contrast, his bone-dry eyes were directed at the Cerberus fallen behind Livia. At the eerie feeling, Livia spread her arms protectively in front of Mumu.

A chill ran down her spine as all those water droplets floating around him felt like weapons. Unlike Sympho who couldn’t leave the water, he was a man who could be plenty strong without necessarily dragging enemies into the water.

Come to think of it, though called the king of the sea, wasn’t it said he could control all water…

Though rivers and lakes weren’t his domain, it seemed he could use his power and control water wherever water existed. When she thought about how the world’s water area was much larger than land, his power suddenly felt quite frightening.

However, Livia hid her fear and met his gaze with eyes as calm as possible. Misty water vapor rose behind the man floating on the river with the moonlight at his back.

The man glowing with a soft light indeed looked divine enough to be called and revered as a god. His overwhelming power along with his mesmerizing beauty took Livia’s breath away.

His presence, so vastly different from her own, weighed down on Livia.

“Come here, Livia.”

“……”

“If you come quietly, I’ll spare that beast.”

Water droplets circled around Livia. Certainly, if Triton wished it, those arrow-like water droplets would pierce Mumu with perfect accuracy.

Though defiance welled up at his intimidation, that was only possible when one could resist to some degree. Livia glanced down at the water streams wrapped around her ankles and Mumu’s ankles.

Though he could drag her away forcefully anytime, he was disgustingly pretending to be generous by giving her a choice.

It wasn’t hard to notice that this was his small show of mercy toward her. What mattered here wasn’t pride. Sending the injured Mumu back was far more important.

After all, Mumu was now her only remaining family.

“…Mumu, go back.”

Whine-

“Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine… But you’re different. I can’t lose you again, Mumu.”

Livia met each of the three pairs of worried eyes and hugged all three heads at once while patting them. Mumu whimpered and licked Livia’s cheek, then fearlessly bared its teeth at the presence behind her shoulder. As if making a declaration that it wouldn’t stay still if she was harmed.

As if mocking it, a water droplet shot toward the foolish puppy. Though it seemed meant only as a threat as the droplet burrowed into the ground, Livia became urgent.

“Go! Hurry!”

When she shouted harshly, Mumu disappeared with faint gray smoke. After forcefully sending back the puppy that had refused to leave, a heavy silence fell.

The waterfall’s noise remained, but all other sounds were erased at once. No, they seemed to have been forcibly erased by someone’s presence.

…It’s okay.

She took a small deep breath and slowly got up, dusting herself off. It had been just half a day since she woke up in Triton’s arms, after having her throat choked while sucking his manhood.

It was torturous having to face him again before the pain in her throat and tongue from being violated by him had even faded.

She wanted to run away.

Her breath caught at the thought of facing that nasty, fierce man less than a day later. The desire to escape from this moment boiled up.

Triton had rendered Livia, who was struggling for her goal, powerless.

As if her desire for revenge meant nothing, he had shaken Livia’s soul and mocked her purpose while toying with her.

Everything she was desperately holding together seemed to break so easily in his grasp.

Was this also punishment for deceiving a god? Was this her due for her presumptuous audacity?

Livia steadied her faltering steps and approached him. As she took a step toward the water she had so desperately tried to escape from, the water didn’t absorb her but lifted her up. As if leading her to Triton.

Livia walked slowly toward Triton while stepping on the river water as if it were ground.

One step, two steps.

As if unable to bear her slow steps toward him, Triton reached out. The water stream that roughly climbed up Livia’s body pulled her tightly into Triton’s arms.

While firmly embracing her roughly resisting body with one hand, he grabbed her wrist that was pushing him away and whispered harshly.

“Foolish woman. You seem clever yet you’re so stupid.”

At the sudden criticism, Livia distorted her eyes and glared at him as if dumbfounded.

“Well, have you found other gods to beg to?”

“…That’s none of your business. Don’t interfere.”

At her venomous muttering, Triton let out a chilling laugh. His parted lips brushed against Livia’s ear. Goosebumps rose on her back as her breathing started to quicken.

Though she had only received him a few times, her body remembering the pleasure Triton gave unconsciously trembled in anticipation of the coming stimulation.

“None of my business? When you’re my human…”

There was that phrase again. The words declaring so confidently that she belonged to him.

While treating her like a mere toy… While only thinking of using her…

But was he the only one trying to use others?

In truth, she was no different from that man. That’s why her lips remained tightly sealed like a clam, unable to say it was unfair, only biting her trembling tongue.

“Stupid Livia.”

His sigh wet Livia’s nape.

While holding her, much smaller than him, tightly against him, he was busy insulting her while biting her earlobe, grabbing her nape, and gently stroking down with his fingertips.

“Frustrating, stupid, lazy…”

His lips that traced up her cheek hovered right above Livia’s lips.

Each time he spoke, his lips almost-but-not-quite touched hers. Every time his sweet breath seeped into Livia’s lips like waves wetting the sand before disappearing, she felt burning inside.

Her mind kept going blank, wanting to demand answers about him insulting her and hurting her dog, only to be replaced by thoughts of just wanting to bury her lips against his.

Was he a god of seduction rather than the sea? Or was his word “stupid” making her head dull like a spell?

Livia bit her trembling lips. She felt like she might fall for this evil and lustful spell that Triton was whispering.

She had to push him away.

This man was the target she had to kill,

“Why do you seek other gods at all?”

A god who treated her as mere entertainment and tried to toy with her, and who tempted her,

“The god you should beg to is right here.”

…he was a man.

Some emotion that shouldn’t be acknowledged welled up suddenly.

It should have been a relationship between a god and human meant to kill and be killed. She had been telling herself that’s how it must be until now.

But her emotions that had ended up recognizing this being as a man shocked her.

“I, I did! I did that but you…!”

“No, you’ve never begged me, Livia.”

Triton, drawing a firm line, whispered to Livia.

“You only dared try to use me.”

…Only tried to use you? Weren’t you the same?

Livia’s eyes trembled with shock.

You wanted my body, I wanted your heart… Weren’t we trying to use each other to possess what we wanted?

Triton’s hand cupped Livia’s cheek as she was in confusion.

The cold, cool touch that had become familiar somehow held Livia’s small face as he whispered roughly like a roar.

“Beg me, Livia. Cling to me saying you need me and plead for my help. Pray that I’m all you have.”

In a voice that seemed like he would grant anything if only she would beg…