17.
Thanks to the teleportation scroll Adel had given us, we were able to teleport comfortably into the royal palace.
The moment we materialized in the palace's designated teleportation zone, countless royal guards snapped to attention and saluted us.
"To Lord Louis and Lady Lina, all present, salute!"
"Ha... yes, hello..."
For the heavily secured royal palace, movement was only possible by specifying randomly generated coordinates each time, but...
It really was convenient.
Unfortunately, Lina was a magic swordsman focused on offensive magic, so she couldn't handle these convenient teleportation spells.
Just then, Lina clicked her tongue and said,
"Tch... money really is nice, isn't it."
As she looked at me—the one who had given away an immense fortune, enough to found an entire nation and still have plenty left—a subtle resentment lingered in Lina's expression.
"Seriously, Louis, do you have to give away absolutely everything before you feel satisfied...!!"
"Lina, you agreed to it too!"
"I told you so many times to at least keep a tenth of it!!"
"Such a huge sum of money, we don't even have a use for it. Whatever."
"This is when you use it! You idiot!"
Though we'd only been officially married for a year, I'd spent nearly my entire life being tormented by Lina.
When it came to Lina, it seemed I'd even developed a certain degree of foresight now.
The miserable future of a bump rising on my head soon flashed vividly before my eyes.
"Eeeek...!"
I hurriedly started dashing toward the room where the Queen would be waiting.
"Louis, where do you think you're running off to! Hmph, you're getting sharper by the day! If I catch you, you're really getting it!"
Thoroughly provoked, Lina chased after me, her face flushed red.
A married couple tearing through the palace corridors that ought to have been solemn.
We were the only people in this world who ran around the palace like this.
Sadly, Queen Irene and Mister Alen had no children, after all.
"You're not stopping? Fine, if you stop now, I won't hit you!"
"D-don't lie!"
"Then I'll only hit you once. If I catch you, know that you're getting five hits!"
"Y-your Majesty!!"
Making a ruckus in the palace that should have been quiet, I ran for my life.
If only I could reach the Queen's side, whom Lina was afraid of, this might end without me getting hit.
"Uwaaaah!!"
Like that, I ran desperately toward the only safe zone.
But right in front of the Queen's chamber door, by a hair's breadth, Lina caught me by the scruff of the neck.
That sneaky Lina, using her body strengthened by the Goddess's blessing for something like this.
Panting furiously, Lina was about to smack me over the head.
"You, I warned you, didn't I? If I catch you, it's five hits!"
Just then, the door slid open and a man walked out.
A white-haired man.
He looked quite old, well past middle age, but the eyes gleaming behind his glasses were by no means dull.
Those eyes, brimming with more lively intelligence than most young people, felt somehow familiar.
The moment he confirmed my face, he grabbed my hand and spoke with a deeply moved expression.
"Ha... truly, I'd been meaning to come pay my respects someday, but that boy Adel absolutely forbade me from coming, so..."
"Ah... Adel's father?... Then the Finance Minister? Then... To... n... Ow!!"
Smacking me on the head as I cluelessly tried to say Tony's name, Lina whispered low,
"You clueless idiot Louis. How can you say that! No matter how much of a pervert he is, it's rude to call him a pervert to his face!!"
Unaware that we knew his secret, the Finance Minister, with a bright face, politely greeted Lina as well.
"Ha... truly, I've heard that you teach our Adel a great deal.
Thanks to you, the boy seems to have grown noticeably stronger.
In the past, his heart was softer than a girl's, so I worried quite a lot...
I am truly grateful to you, Lady Lina."
"Hahaha. Oh, it's, it's nothing..."
Perhaps because she had a guilty conscience, Lina accepted the Finance Minister's greeting with an awkward smile.
Despite making Adel cry almost every day, Lina was shamelessly accepting his gratitude.
Well, to be fair, the number of times Adel cried was definitely decreasing.
It was true that the boy's inner self was gradually being tempered by Lina.
Though, the more that happened, the fiercer Lina's torment became as well.
Ha...
When I thought of Adel, maybe it was right for him to be put through even harsher treatment by Lina.
The lewd secret of his mother that he would one day learn.
To withstand that shock, Adel needed to become far, far stronger.
Until he fell head over heels for Liz, the woman the boy had revered most was none other than his own mother.
From her beautiful appearance to her elegant and noble character.
Adel had always said that the most perfect woman in the world was his own mother, but...
To relieve the desires that had built up enormously over a month of abstinence, Tony had originally planned to visit Adel's house yesterday.
That place he couldn't go to because he ended up becoming our invited guest—I suspected he might visit there tonight.
'Ha... Adel... stay strong...'
Just then, Queen Irene came out.
And she embraced us tenderly in her arms.
"You've worked so hard. Our little ones."
The warm sincerity that came through was soothing our hearts.
In the past, during the pilgrimage journey,
After finishing grueling battles,
We would always forget the pain of the day in the Queen's warm embrace...
Lost in the bittersweet memories of those days, I was nestled pleasantly in the Queen's arms.
Lina and I, clinging affectionately in the Queen's embrace for a long while.
But at some point,
I felt the grip tightening, stronger and stronger.
Oh no, I'd let my guard down.
I'd been caught.
The moment of comfort had passed, and the moment of discipline seemed to be approaching.
"You two, how many times have I told you not to run inside the palace?
I could hear every bit of you tearing through the corridors, all the way into the room!"
The Queen's nagging had begun once again.
Blah blah blah...
Blah blah blah......
Blah blah blah........
After an endless sermon that went on for a long while, Lina and I, completely drained of energy, sat slumped quietly in our chairs.
At that heartwarming yet suffocating sight, Mister Alen, his eyes glistening with moisture, let out a hearty laugh and said,
"Hahaha, High Priest. When I think back on the pilgrimage journey, though it was certainly arduous, I find myself missing it anew."
"Yes... for back then, His Majesty Alen and the Queen, and those children, were truly like a close-knit family bound by blood."
Just then, Queen Irene spoke to Mister Alen as if scolding him.
"That's why I said we should take the kids and live together in the palace. They're still immature children. I'm telling you, it's not time for them to be independent yet!!"
"Irene, really. Their own parents are very much present... how could we..."
"Well... that is true, but..."
Having poured out a full, refreshing round of nagging, the Queen hugged us tightly once more and said,
"Just come live with Mom in the palace. Hmm?"
As she pulled us into her arms again like that, I felt the Queen's body trembling faintly.
Today, the Queen's behavior was a little strange somehow.
Mister Alen and the High Priest quietly... without a word, slipped out of the room.
Today's conversation was probably...
Something that only the Queen and the two of us were meant to share quietly.
The Queen warmly took Lina's hand and calmly continued speaking.
"Lina, it's been so hard for you, hasn't it?"
"........."
"It feels like your body isn't your own, doesn't it?... And that's why you're so upset?"
At those words from the Queen, Lina's eyes burst with tears.
At the Queen's words, which had eerily pinpointed Lina's sorrowful inner feelings, Lina finally began to sob loudly.
"It's just... even though Louis has returned to normal, my body... it won't go back to the way it was... Huwaaang."
"Lina, it's not that your body changed like that because you're lewd, not at all.
It's that, due to the aftermath of the demonic energy, the pleasure you once tasted has been deeply engraved into every single one of your nerve cells."
"Your Majesty, I'm scared..."
"Yes, our little one.
Ha... our poor little one."
"If, the next time Louis's desires manifest, if we do the same thing as yesterday... wouldn't my body not get ruined any further?"
The Queen looked at Lina with sorrowful eyes and slowly shook her head.
"Probably... Louis's twisted desires will demand far more intense stimulation.
If you keep being forced into more and more extreme play like that, it'll reach a point where our Lina simply cannot handle it alone..."
Gently patting Lina, the Queen continued.
"So, that's why. I've thought of one possibility...
There is a way to share that heavy burden you're carrying."
Lina, who had been sobbing, sniffled and looked at the Queen.
"What... is it?"
"It's throwing another desire as prey to the demonic energy inside Louis."
"Huwaaang. There's no way that idiot Louis has anything like greed!"
The Queen gazed at me steadily and continued in a low voice.
"Yes, Louis has nothing like greed. To a degree that's hard to believe he's human.
But, you see.
Louis has a desire to share what is precious to him.
If, in Louis's heart, we create something new that is precious enough for the demonic energy to covet..."
Catching on to the Queen's intention, Lina cried out in horror.
"Th-that's...!!! Huwaaang. You're telling him to cheat on me!"
"But, if that happens, the burden you have to bear will become that much lighter."
"No, I said no..!!!"
"............."
The Queen no longer tried to persuade Lina, but simply rose from her seat without a word.
And quietly, she lowered the zipper of her dress.
The Queen's splendid dress, sliding down and falling to the floor.
"...........!!??"
As the dress came off, the Queen's naked body, revealed beneath, was flaunting curves so perfect they were dazzling.
Skin like white jade, a slender waist, long, gracefully stretched legs, and breasts so alluring you couldn't tear your eyes away.
It was truly a figure like a work of art.
But that rapturously beautiful thing had been hideously defiled.
Her nipples, abnormally enlarged to the size of a child's penis, were utterly not normal.
In that hideously modified place, a heavy ring-shaped piercing of the sort you'd put on livestock was threaded through.
And on her clitoris, the most sensitive part of a woman, a large piercing also hung, weighing it down and making it droop.
Her dazzlingly beautiful breasts, with their mammary gland tissue abnormally developed, hung down heavily like a cow's udder.
As if she were a breeding slave who had done nothing but give birth for many long years.
From the Queen's breasts, who had no child, thick, rich mother's milk was streaming down.
And her lower abdomen.
On that spot where her womb would be located, a cruel womb tattoo was engraved.
Though not easily visible, on the Queen's areolae, her stomach, and all over her body, there were tattoos inscribed with all sorts of lewd words.
To persuade Lina,
She had revealed her own shame, which she would never have wanted to show us, whom she cherished like her own children.
"Ha-huk..."
At her own appearance, so utterly humiliating,
The Queen, covering her face with both hands, was trembling and sobbing.
Thick tears dripped down the back of the Queen's hands.
But pitifully, from the Queen's pussy, which had been lewdly trained, a white, sticky liquid was dripping—drip—down.
Gasping roughly, the Queen, who had been steadying her breathing, slowly lowered the hands that had covered her face.
"Haa, haa... hoo, haa."
Though her expression looked as if she might collapse from shame at any moment, she mustered every ounce of strength she had and tried to persuade Lina with her own body that had become so lewd.
"L-Lina. Haa, heup... open your eyes and look carefully.
I, hundreds of years ago,
was the plaything of a fallen Previous Hero.
The desires demanded by the demonic energy are endless.
If you try to take on all those desires by yourself...
Your lovely, beautiful body will, in the end, be ruined as terribly as mine, just like this."
"...............!!"
Seized by shock, we couldn't say a single word.