Chapter 59
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 59
Chapter Title: Aslan Kingdom's Hero Sage (6)
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The priestess brought water and soup today, just like always.
There was even some food with soft chunks of meat sliced into it.
"Won't you eat today either?"
"I'm not eating filth made by demons."
"That's a shame. I made today's food myself..."
"You're no different."
"Got it. See you then."
She didn't seem at all hung up on getting her to eat.
If refused, she'd simply leave the food right there in front of her.
Even though she knew full well that with all four limbs bound, she couldn't eat on her own without bringing her face straight to the bowl.
And at the next mealtime, she'd come back, pick up the untouched bowl, and leave.
Once the priestess was gone, there was only one way left to eat.
Like an animal shoving her face straight into the plate.
No matter how starving she was, Sage had no desire to abandon her human dignity.
Grrrrr...
It had already been three days.
Her mouth was parched; she hadn't had so much as a sip of water.
Sage's eyes drifted toward the cup of water sitting on the floor.
Clear, transparent water sloshed gently inside it.
Gulp.
She swallowed her dry saliva.
Don't give up.
Eating their food means everything goes exactly as they want.
Sage forced herself to look away.
If she didn't see it, the craving wouldn't take root.
"You didn't eat again this time."
Time passed, and the priestess returned to collect the bowl.
New food was laid out before Sage.
Sage looked up at the priestess.
Something was off.
Why was it always just her coming?
The Demon King she'd staked her life against in battle.
The succubus who'd stuck by his side.
The dark priestess who'd corrupted the shrine maidens.
Not a single one had come to see her.
Why on earth?
"Why doesn't anyone else come?"
"What do you mean? I come every single day. That's hurtful, Hero."
"No, that's not..."
She couldn't finish her sentence.
"It's okay. Even without them, I'll take good care of you."
The priestess picked up the spoon.
This time, too, Sage refused.
"Got it. See you tomorrow morning."
The priestess left the cell.
Three more days passed like that.
She realized that droplets formed on the damp prison walls from the moisture.
She learned that a drop fell from the ceiling every hour.
To survive, she drank the water beading there.
She'd preserved her human dignity by refusing the Demon King's meals, but what she was doing now to stay alive was anything but dignified.
No matter how much she licked at the moisture on the prison walls, it was nowhere near enough to quench her bone-dry throat.
Two more days passed.
Or was it three?
She'd lost track.
She spent more than half of each day lying there, unable to do anything.
To survive, she'd minimized her movements.
Dehydration.
It felt like she'd reached her absolute limit.
Without water, her vision was darkening.
Dry, cracked lips.
Not even enough saliva to wet them.
"Haa... haa."
She could hear her own ragged, wheezing breaths.
To think not drinking water could hurt this much...
A drop fell from the ceiling.
The water that fell once an hour.
If she couldn't drink even that, she might dry up and die right here.
Aaah.
She writhed and crawled toward where the droplet had fallen.
One single droplet felt ice-cold.
But her thirst raged on.
Not enough. Not enough. Not enough.
She began licking desperately.
Her mind grew hazy.
Even breathing was a struggle.
It felt like she'd been dropped into a desert, completely desiccated.
Like the sensation of meat turning into jerky.
Was this how she'd die?
With the Demon King completely indifferent?
The Demon King who'd beaten her hadn't come to see her even once.
Not even in over a week.
A faint, hopeful thought crossed her mind: maybe it was proof the kingdom's soldiers were fighting fiercely.
But so what?
I'm drying up and dying here.
Should I have just drunk the water?
Even a hero was the same in the face of death.
Regret after regret.
I should have stopped Lord Vergio back then.
As she regretted the choices she'd made...
"Oh my! Hero!"
An urgent voice echoed from afar.
Someone lifted her head.
Not the cold prison floor, but a warm sensation.
It was soft.
Someone forced her mouth open.
Water?
No.
Absolutely not.
Better to die.
But what touched her lips wasn't a cold cup of water.
'So soft.'
Something pudding-soft brushed her lips.
A small nub at the center of the pudding.
A familiar sensation.
Sage reflexively drew the pudding covering her mouth inside and chewed.
And warm liquid flowed from the nub.
'Ah, it's water.'
It was sweet.
The moment it touched her tongue, her taste buds went numb.
The water she'd denied herself.
The thought to stop lasted only a moment.
Her mouth reflexively sucked at the nub.
Warm, soft, sweet liquid slid down her throat.
Gulp. Gulp.
Like someone starved for days, she sucked desperately at the nub.
Each time, more liquid flowed.
Sweet.
Delicious.
Want to keep drinking.
Aaah, so warm.
A pulsing power stirred deep in her chest.
The power she hadn't felt since the Demon King shackled her.
She could feel it.
Her consciousness gradually returned.
Life returned to her body, which had been dying of thirst.
Sage's eyes snapped open.
The priestess entered her vision.
With her swollen belly and enlarged breasts, she'd sat Sage on her lap and pressed her bare breast to Sage's face.
"Gasp!"
Back in her right mind, she belatedly realized what she'd been sucking was the priestess's breast.
"That means what I drank was..."
"Feeling better now?"
"...What the hell was that?"
"You refused water until you were on death's door. I figured a hero could hold out longer."
The priestess smiled softly.
Sage leaped away like she'd been burned, putting distance between them.
The scent of the priestess's milk still lingered in her mouth.
"If I'd left you like that, you really would've died. I had no choice but to give you my milk. It'd be a disaster if the hero passed away."
"You did whatever you wanted..."
"You don't trust demon cooking, right? But my milk is fine. It's not made by demons or from ingredients they brought."
"Why are you lactating in the first place?"
"Ah, ever since I held our babies close, a certain amount of milk keeps leaking from my breasts. Guess that means I'm a mom now."
The priestess stroked her belly lovingly.
It was packed full of eggs from that giant spider.
Sage stared at her in horror.
By her common sense, it was utterly incomprehensible.
If that spider hatched, it'd be no different from her dying. How could she look so blissfully happy?
'I have to snap her out of it.'
It was a pseudo-pregnancy.
Not a real child, but a monster using her as a host.
She believed it was pregnancy, a sacrifice.
Right now, she was under the Demon King's hypnosis, mistaking her warped reality for truth.
A life that would end with her being devoured by a spider.
Absurd.
'If she'd died, maybe, but...'
She couldn't let that happen.
In the end, she'd survived thanks to the milk from this nameless priestess.
'I'm regaining my strength little by little.'
Was it the life force in the milk?
Or just because she'd finally consumed something?
She felt her depleted mana starting to refill, just a bit.
"If you want more, I can give it to you."
"What?"
"You don't trust anyone right now—not the Demon King, not anybody. Not even me."
"......"
"But surely you can trust human breast milk that comes straight from my body, untouched by anyone."
"Why go this far to keep me alive?"
"Because I need you alive to fulfill my duty. If you die here, I won't be able to give birth to these babies, and I'll die too."
The priestess stroked her belly lovingly again.
Something was wrong.
This woman was insane.
But that's exactly why she had to be saved.
"...Fine."
Just until she regained her strength.
Just until she could break these shackles and move freely again.
She'd rely on this woman for that long.
And before the month was up...
She'd smash every last one of those spider eggs parasitizing her belly.
That would more than repay the debt.
"Come here."
Sage nodded warily, and the priestess beamed, patting her thigh.
"I'll give you some milk."
Suppressing her shame, Sage climbed onto the priestess's lap and drank.
Her milk was soft and sweet.
It felt like the mother's love she'd long forgotten.
She even thought she wanted to stay in her embrace forever.
Smack smack.
"Nngh!"
But Sage's eyes burned with fierce determination even as she suckled the milk.
"She drank it after all."
I was watching the hero in real time through the crystal orb.
"Why go through all this trouble, my lord? With your power as Demon King, you could corrupt that hero easily without any of this."
"You're right, Yulia. Shove my cock in and force-feed her my demonic semen, and even a hero would turn into a demon. But..."
I smiled as I watched the hero drink from the priestess's breast while steeling her resolve.
"Then she couldn't wield the holy sword."
"......"
Amy, Rebecca, Frederike, Ariana.
All those who'd mingled with me, accepted my semen, and fallen—they'd all become non-human.
Would a hero be any different?
If I set my mind to corrupting her, it wasn't impossible.
Bind her for days on end, rape her relentlessly, drown her in my semen— no hero body could withstand that.
"If she demonizes, she'll reject the holy sword. It'll recall itself and find a new hero. Then I'd have to repeat that fight all over again."
"Would the holy sword really recall?"
Yulia looked at me, her eyes trembling.
She stared with a gaze that said she hadn't expected this at all.
"Consider this."
In the crystal orb, the hero pulled away from the priestess and began berating herself.
She hadn't overcome her survival instincts after all.
The priestess quietly left with the food bowl.
"What if the hero falls not as a demon, but as a human?"
Break her mentally.
If she fully corrupts while minimizing rape and power absorption?
Her body would remain human, only her mind tainted.
No demonization, so no rejection of the holy sword.
"...She'd still be able to use the holy sword."
"Exactly. And she'd turn it against her own kingdom."
What happened after that, I had no idea.
What would become of a hero who destroyed her kingdom with its holy sword?
Would guilt drive her to suicide?
Or would she fall alongside the sword and become my subordinate?
That'd be a novel kind of entertainment.
"Every step of this is to corrupt her while keeping her human. No need to worry."
"As expected of my Demon King... I'm in awe."
Yulia dropped to her knees and bowed deeply.
I could see her pure white panties peeking out, soaked with her love juices.
Her body trembled lightly, shivers running through her.
Had she cum just from hearing this?
"Anyway, don't worry about the hero. Yulia, you focus everything on exterminating the human soldiers who retreated beyond Lorangleble Village."
"Yes, understood."
The routed kingdom forces had scattered wildly, fleeing toward Mirr.
Out of over 5,000 in the expedition, 3,000 dead.
Of the remaining 2,000, half had fled to Mirr, but hundreds more were still wandering lost throughout the forest.
I could almost hear the soldiers wailing in the distance.
"This'll be fun."
How would the kingdom's subjects react when they saw their hero holding the holy sword to her own throat?
My cock stiffened rock-hard.
I wanted to rush to Sage's prison right now and ravage her.
I suppressed the urge and took a deep breath.
"Gotta wait till she's ripe."
Just one month.
Then she'd come to me perfectly aged and delicious.
"Demon King."
Hearing the voice, I looked up to see the priestess who'd just fed the hero her milk entering the throne room and bowing her head.
"You're back?"
"Yes. I fed her my milk, as commanded."
"Well done. Come closer."
I beckoned her with a finger.
The priestess approached, her face a mix of reverence and fear.
I stroked the red mark I'd imprinted on her forehead.
"Nngh!"
"You did splendidly. You've fulfilled your role perfectly."
"I-I'm honored."
"This is my gift to you."
I kissed the priestess.
"Mmph!"
Her eyes flashed wide. But soon, feeling my tongue, she closed them.
Shiver.
Just the kiss alone sent yellow liquid trickling down her thighs.
Her eyes glazed over in climax.
"Feed your milk to the hero every day from now on. Then come here to the throne room like this. I'll personally reward you each time."
"Th-thank you, Demon King..."
The priestess gazed at me in a trance.
A tiny, imperceptible trace of demonic qi had carefully taken root in her breasts.
That demonic qi would accelerate Sage's corruption even further.
"Go on, return."
"Yes."
She staggered out unsteadily on trembling legs.