Persuasion
Persuasion
Something went tuk and snapped inside me.
But I had to hold it in. She wasn't in her right mind.
When the carriage stopped for a short break, I looked for Elina.
She would usually be sitting in the shade reading a book quietly, but now she was sitting on Jack's lap.
The Dark Elf who used to read magic tomes with a gentle expression was gone.
She took the strong cigarette Jack had been smoking, puffed on it, and blew the acrid smoke right into my face.
"Elina, your bronchial tubes are weak. Smoking is..."
Elina didn't even answer my worried voice.
Instead, she brought Jack's filthy finger to her lips and licked it devotedly. Even while coughing from the cigarette smoke, her eyes were glistening with ecstatic lust.
"Rion, your interference, which you call 'worry'... it makes me want to puke now."
Elina dug deeper into Jack's arms and snapped coldly.
"You were like that when you saved me, too. Wrapping me up in high-minded words like 'Dark Elf pride' or 'freedom,' just to make me your collection piece. But Jack-ssi is different. He sees me just as a woman, a tool to satisfy his desires. Do you even know how comfortable that is, you hypocrite?"
"What are you talking about? I've never thought of you like that even once!!"
Jack bared his yellow teeth and chuckled.
Looking me straight in the eye, he grabbed Elina's slender neck and pulled her toward him.
Far from refusing, Elina opened her lips like a beast waiting for prey and accepted Jack's filthy lips.
Elina pulled away from Jack's lips and looked at me. Her eyes, fixed on me, were filled with intense disgust.
"I once thought it was my duty to serve you with magical knowledge. But that wasn't it. I just wanted to be trampled on without a single thought in the arms of a man like Jack-ssi. Your high-and-mighty advice isn't worth as much as a single rough touch from Jack-ssi."
In her hand was the precious magic tome I had gifted her.
"I don't need these trashy books anymore. There's more to learn from a single sexual act I perform for Jack-nim than from these piles of paper that Jack-nim can't even read."
Jjik- jjiiik.
Elina tore the paper to shreds right in front of Rion's eyes.
It was a valuable document I had stayed up all night transcribing in the past to stabilize her mana.
The scraps of paper flew in the wind and fell at Rion's feet.
Jack chuckled, snatched Elina's slender neck, and pulled her toward him.
Elina rubbed her face against Jack's chest with an ecstatic expression.
"Hey, Rion. The elf bitch wants to play with me more, so why do you keep ruining the mood? Go clean up some horse shit or something."
Along with Jack's vulgar sneer, Elina bit Jack's earlobe as if to show off, letting out a moan.
"Ha-euh, ugh... Jack-ssi... Let's go to the village quickly. I want to finish the training we couldn't finish yesterday at the village inn... Master...♡"
I clenched my fists tightly.
I had to endure this hell because I believed the love they had shown me over the past years was sincere.
Before we departed after the break, I carefully called out to Miu near the luggage compartment.
"Miu, can we talk for a second? I brought the beef jerky you like. Eat this, cheer up, and let's head to the village."
But as soon as Miu saw the jerky I held out, she roughly swatted it away with her front paw.
"Ah, f*ck... You're really persistent. I told you to get that smelly hand away! Just get lost!"
Miu treated my goodwill like filth and burrowed between Old Man Hoji's legs.
Old Man Hoji pulled Miu's tail roughly with a lecherous glint in his eyes.
For beastkin, the tail was the most sensitive and delicate part.
Old Man Hoji was handling it roughly, as if it were the tail of livestock, a place that used to make her blush and act shy whenever I touched it.
"Heh heh, this mutt knows her master well. Rion, she says she doesn't want the meat you gave her? I guess she'd like it better if I gave her something I've been chewing on."
Old Man Hoji actually spat the cigarette butt he had been rolling in his mouth onto the floor.
Then, Miu threw her wolf beastkin pride into the trash can, crawled on all fours, and licked it up preciously.
"Ha-ang!♡ Anything given by Master is delicious... Ugh! Rion! Are you watching?♡ This residue the old man spat out is a hundred times sweeter than the top-quality jerky you give me!♡"
Miu took the leash in her own mouth and placed it in Old Man Hoji's hand, fawning over him.
Old Man Hoji pulled the leash hard, dragging Miu's face near his crotch.
"That's right, Miu. When we arrive in the village today, I'll have to buy you a doghouse first. I'll make you bark all night long in there."
"Ye... Yes!♡ Master! Miu is Master's own bitch!♡ Aang!♡"
The top-quality jerky I used to share with her, the special brush I used to groom her fur, and the hand I held every night so she wouldn't have scary dreams...
All those memories were being trampled underfoot right now.
By the time we arrived at the village of Rug, the sky was already dyed in the colors of the sunset.
Usually, I would have been chatting happily with them as they got off the carriage, but now I was just stumbling along behind the carriage, covered in dust.
The lobby of Moonlight Sanctuary, the largest inn in the village.
I tried to empty my gold coins to book three rooms.
To protect them, and to isolate them from those bastards I wanted to tear to shreds.
"Four rooms, please. The cleanest ones with the best security."
Just as the innkeeper was about to take out the keys, the sound of cold leather boots was heard from behind.
"We only need one room. Oh, Rion, you can get your own room. We're going to share one room with Goro-ssi, Jack, and Old Man Hoji."
It was Serin.
She was already looking at me like I was a bug, with her arm draped over Goro's shoulder.
"Serin! What are you talking about! Sharing a room, with guys like that!"
"Guys like that? Rion, watch your mouth. To me, you're much more disgusting than guys like them."
Serin pushed my chest roughly.
There wasn't even a fragment of the affection that once shone toward me left in her eyes.
"We've already decided. It gives me goosebumps just to sleep with a wall between me and a hypocrite like you. We're going to have a fun time with our companions all night. Right, Goro-ssi?"
"Heh heh, if the Knight says so, the Captain should endure it."
The innkeeper's bewildered gaze was fixed on my face.
It was understandable, given that a Holy Knight renowned for her nobility in the Empire, a Dark Elf who had been devoted to me, and a proud wolf beastkin had just declared they would mix with such trashy men and hold an orgy.
"Serin, please... you can't do this here. What about your honor, and what are you going to do when you come to your senses later!"
I desperately grabbed her arm.
But Serin shook off my hand roughly, as if brushing off filth coated in deadly poison.
I clutched my aching chest and blocked Serin's path.
The smell of blood from my split lips was overwhelming, and my appearance, covered in dust, was nothing short of miserable.
But I couldn't let them go into the room with those pieces of trash like this.
Because I had a premonition that the moment they stepped foot in there, the women I knew would cross a river from which they could never return.
"Serin, listen to me. Please. This isn't your true heart. The curse is twisting your soul. Remember the inscription we saw at the ruins! It said, 'You will come to loathe the one you love.' The fact that you hate me enough to kill me right now is proof of how much you loved me!"
My voice was trembling. My desperation turned into a scream that echoed through the lobby.
Serin's eyes wavered slightly for a moment.
The 10 years of time, the thousands of eye contacts and promises we had shared seemed to be resisting somewhere in the back of her mind.
"Love...? Me, you?"
Serin repeated the word blankly. I found hope and took a step closer.
"Yes! We promised when we were young. That if you became a knight and I became a mage, we would travel the Empire together and save the world. Your sword tip always blocked threats aimed at me, and your divine power always healed my wounds. Serin, please... regain your pride as that noble Holy Knight. That guy Goro is someone you usually despised as a criminal!"
"Despise...? No, why would I despise Goro-ssi? Someone so strong, honest, and who makes my body burn with desire."
Serin's eyes went dull and clouded over with sexual desire again.
She even pulled Goro's arm deep between her breasts right in front of me, as if to show off.
"Rion, you were always like that. 'Nobility,' 'pride,' 'promises'... you tied me up tightly with such hypocritical words. You shoved me into the mold of a Holy Knight and didn't even wonder what I truly wanted. But Goro-ssi is different. He sees me not as a knight, but as a woman. When Goro-ssi stirred my body yesterday, I felt like I was alive for the first time in my life."
"That's just being deceived by pleasure! The curse has paralyzed your brain!"
"No, this is the truth. I felt suffocated when I was with you. Do you know how much I was rotting inside every time you didn't touch a finger on me, claiming you were cherishing me? Do you know how miserable your attitude made me feel!"
Serin's shout was colder than frost. I staggered back in shock.
All the consideration I had shown by respecting and cherishing her had been twisted into oppression and coldness in her memory, filtered through the curse.
I turned my head and looked at Elina.
She was sitting on Jack's lap, watching my desperate cry as if she were watching a funny play.