64. For Treatment Purposes
64. For Treatment Purposes
Sensation returned before consciousness did.
'Huh?'
The first thing she felt amidst the grogginess was the sensation of something large and hard pressing firmly against her body.
From her abdomen to her forearm. From her forearm to below her collarbone. From her collarbone to the area around her neck.
A steady rhythm. Repetitive pressure.
It felt like a medical movement intended to clear blocked pressure points or perhaps soothe knotted muscles.
However, expecting such high-level reasoning from Eris was asking too much.
'No! Someone is massaging Eris-nim's precious body all over!'
Her blurry vision slowly began to find its focus.
Black hair.
Well-defined features.
Sharp eyes looking down from above.
He wasn't wearing his armor.
That's why his face, his face...
'......A super top-tier handsome man?'
His nose was high, his jawline was sharp as if carved, and though his gaze was cold, his long eyelashes were strangely captivating.
Moving further down, his neckline was distinct, his collarbone cast shadows, and below that, his shoulders were broad.
Eris's brain reached a conclusion.
'I... I'm dead.'
She had been hit by Snow White-ajumma's frost ray and kicked the bucket.
How pathetic to die like this.
If so, where was this place?
Heaven? Hell?
'Heaven, obviously! There's no way a cute, kind, beautiful girl witch who made a noble sacrifice like Eris-nim would go to hell!'
Yes, of course.
Right, this made sense.
Since the world's kindest, most precious, and cutest girl, Eris-nim, threw away her life for someone else, it was only natural she'd head for paradise.
An extremely rational law of the universe.
'Then this touch currently feeling up my body is...... right, a dedicated angel! An angel-oppa is carefully thawing out Eris-nim's body after it was frozen by that beam!'
It seemed a VIP soul of Eris-nim's caliber came with personal care services.
Servant interview: Start.
On the surface, his specs weren't bad.
Face? Pass.
His eyes were a bit fierce for an angel, but whatever. He had that "gap moe" charm.
Physique? Pass.
Maybe it was because he was wearing a comfortable shirt, but he exuded a strange sexiness.
Hands? Large and warm. Pass.
His massage skills were also quite something.
'Overall evaluation: Employable as Eris-nim's attendant.'
Of course, touching Eris-nim's body without permission despite being a mere angel was a point deduction, but well, she could overlook it for that face.
'...Uhehe.'
Because Eris-nim was generous. Especially generous toward handsome men.
"Fufufu, you there. Consider this an honor. I, the great Thorn Witch Eris-nim, shall specially appoint you as my exclusive attendant. Your first task is...... hmm, pudding. Bring me pudding. The kind with lots of chocolate on top."
The man's hand stopped.
The palm that had been resting on Eris's body pulled away quietly.
"You're awake."
A bass tone.
Low, heavy, and echoing as if from a cave.
Eris's brain immediately began searching its voice database.
'This voice. This tone. This accent. Don't tell me......'
Her blurry vision cleared completely.
The face of the man before her eyes was seared into her mind in high resolution.
He had simply taken off his black armor.
He was just wearing the mask of a handsome man.
That, that human is......!
"It's the Black Knight!! This is hell!!"
Eris's scream rang loudly through the room.
Her body moved reflexively. She ignored the pain. Survival instinct was the top priority.
She pulled the blanket with both hands to wrap her entire body and retreated until she was huddled against the wall. Only her pink hair poked out from under the covers.
"Wh-what! Why are you here! Why are you touching my body! You pervert armor!! You pitch-black bastard!! No, since you've shed your shell now, you perverted pitch-black bastard!"
Eris's signature rapid-fire insults poured out.
"You've finally shown your true colors, haven't you?! You weren't satisfied with Lucia-eonni, so now you're stretching your evil clutches toward this small and cute Eris-nim!"
"I was in the middle of treatment."
"Liar! Eris-nim is a super-genius witch, so I can tell just by looking! What you were doing just now wasn't treatment; it was clearly perverted, sexually harassing, and full of impure intentions...... Ugh!?"
Eris's words, which she had been shouting with such momentum, were cut short.
Pain surged from deep within her chest.
A horrible sensation, as if shards of ice were scraping the inside of her lungs.
"Uuugh...... A-achoo!"
A cough burst out. It didn't end with just one.
"Achoo! Khek, khel......!"
Her throat felt cold, as if it were frozen.
Every time she inhaled, the inside of her lungs throbbed. Every time she exhaled, she couldn't stop coughing.
"It hurts. It hurts so much!"
Snow White's frost ray.
The frost that had seeped into every corner of her mana circuits had not yet melted and was eating away at Eris's body from the inside.
"See. The chill of the Abyss hasn't fully left you yet."
The Black Knight delivered his diagnosis in an emotionless voice.
"It's at a depth that general healing magic cannot reach. I must directly inject my aura to push the frost out and then suck it out with Abyss Predation."
"......What?"
The Black Knight held out his palm.
Uwoong—!
A thick, dark mana of the Abyss began to pour out from the Black Knight's body.
"I will put my aura into your mana circuits, scrape out the frost embedded inside, and suck it out."
"Wait. Waitwaitwait!! That treatment method sounds incredibly dangerous just from the description!?"
The Black Knight's hand pulled back Eris's blanket.
"You're going to shove that ignorantly large and pitch-black aura of yours into my body?! Are you crazy?! Eris-nim's mana circuits are small, delicate, and precious!!"
"Be quiet."
A Thorn Witch's mana circuits were sophisticated and delicate works of art.
And he was going to shove that dark bastard's ignorant aura into them?
"L-liar......! You're really going to do it?! No! Impossible-impossible-impossible!! Something like that won't fit! I absolutely can't take it!"
"Don't be a crybaby."
"Wait, I'm not mentally prepared yet——"
There was no mercy.
The Black Knight's aura forcibly entered Eris's mana circuits.
"Aaaah——!"
Eris's back arched like a bow.
The hands that had been tightly clutching the blanket flailed in the air.
A hot, rough, and coercive power squeezed into the narrow passages of her circuits.
Step 1. Crushing.
The Black Knight's dense aura, which had surged into her body, charged toward the frost crystals embedded throughout her mana circuits.
Cold mana and hot aura collided, pushed, and ground against each other.
The problem was that the battlefield was Eris's mana circuits.
"Hngh...... Haah......"
She couldn't tell if it tickled, hurt, or felt hot. Everything rushed in at once.
"Haat......! It's, it's hot......!"
"Stay still. I haven't reached the end yet."
"It's too rough......! Do it gently, gently......! Don't you know anything about pacing yourself...!"
Every time the Black Knight's aura crushed an ice crystal, a sensation like her nerves were burning traveled up her spine.
"Slowlyyy......! Haat...... Wait, wait a second!"
The aura reached the intersection of the mana circuits in her lower abdomen.
"Wait, not there......!"
Ppajijik——!
The core shattered. Eris twisted her body.
Crushing complete.
Eris writhed. The blanket was soaked with sweat.
Step 2. Absorption.
"Endure it. We're almost done."
"It's not something I can just endure because you tell me to!"
The Black Knight's aura changed its flow.
Now it was time to suck out the shattered ice crystals.
The mana that had been pushed in began to flow backward, carrying a wealth of Snow White's frost residue.
The sensation of what had been filled being drained away.
At the same time, the frozen senses were liberated in an instant, and a terrible lethargy washed over her.
"Aaaaaah......!"
Eris's body went limp helplessly.
Her eyes rolled back slightly, and transparent saliva pooled at the corner of her mouth.
"Eris-nim is being completely broken......! I've been turned into a mess......!!"
It was unpleasant.
It tickled.
It was hot.
And it felt a little bit good.
Eris bit the blanket and endured.
'I'll kill him. I'll kill him when this is over. I'm definitely going to kill this dark bastard......!'
The last shard of frost was pulled out.
The Black Knight's palm turned cold.
The frost mana sucked out from Eris evaporated, blooming into frost flowers upon his skin.
"It's over."
The Black Knight pulled his hand away.
Strength left Eris's body.
Lying limp on the blanket, she tried to steady her ragged breathing.
She looked up at the ceiling.
"Haah...... Haah......"
The ceiling spun. Her vision hadn't fully stabilized yet.
Sweat-soaked blankets. Disheveled twin-tails. Vacant eyes.
She didn't even have the energy to care that her pajamas had slipped down her shoulder.
Dignity of a super-genius witch or whatever, right now Eris was just a frail, beautiful girl who found even breathing to be a struggle.
"Next time, dodge instead of getting hit."
"Who do you think got hit because they wanted to!?"
Her lungs felt light.
The stinging pain she felt every time she inhaled had vanished. The sensation of being scraped by ice shards was gone too.
"Lucia-eonni...... that stupid eonni...... was just standing there blankly, so Eris-nim had no choice but to throw her body! Instead of saying thank you...... is 'dodge next time' all you have to say?"
"Right. You were useful."
"What?"
Huh?
Eris's momentum faltered.
To think praise would come out of this man's mouth.
"......Hmph. Obviously. If it weren't for Eris-nim, Lucia-eonni would have become an ice cream."
The coughing stopped.
Her body was still lethargic, but the freezing sensation was no longer there.
She hated to admit it, but the Black Knight really had treated her.
'......I lived.'
She survived. Amidst that terrible cold, and even through this horrific, perverted treatment.
"Uuuu...... From now on, I'm never throwing my body to save someone else...... Eris-nim is just too kind for her own good, seriously......."
Eris huddled up, pulling the blanket up to her chin.
Her face was probably red.
Naturally, that was because of the fever. Because of the aftereffects of the treatment. There was absolutely no other reason.
Since Eris-nim was a super-genius witch, her self-diagnosis was perfect.
Lucia was good at waiting.
She had endured ten years in the Imperial Palace, and even after being kidnapped by the Black Knight, she had withstood dozens of threats and hundreds of moments of terror.
So, Lucia was pacing in front of Eris's room.
It had been three days since Eris lost consciousness.
Lucia visited this room every day.
Each time, Eris had not woken up.
A pale face. Cold hands. A chest that rose and fell minutely.
The only evidence she was alive was her faint breathing.
The moment the frost ray pierced Eris's back was still vivid in her mind.
A blue light. Pink hair. A small back jumping in front of her.
Eris had collapsed while shielding Lucia.
'Because eonni is...... Eris-nim's precious sacrifice......'
The words Eris spoke right before she collapsed.
'It's my fault.'
Lucia's hands tightly gripped her skirt.
She had just stood there blankly. Even though she saw the frost ray flying toward her, her body wouldn't move.
A coward. A useless princess. A human who always survived only through someone else's sacrifice.
The same thing had happened again.
If Eris didn't wake up like this──
'No.'
Lucia shook her head.
She shouldn't think like that.
The Black Knight was treating her.
He said it was dangerous and told her not to come in. So, she just had to wait.
'If it's the Knight-nim, he'll manage somehow.'
Lately, Lucia had been realizing a strange change within herself.
When she thought of the Black Knight, a different emotion than before would visit her.
It wasn't that her fear had vanished. He was still scary.
Threats came out whenever he opened his mouth, his gaze was terrifying, and his very existence was close to a disaster.
But.
That monster-like man always, without fail, got things done.
So, in a corner of her heart, there was a groundless belief that he would manage somehow this time as well.
'......It's strange. Since when did it become like this.'
To trust a monster.
At first, he was someone to be used.
After that, he was someone to be wary of.
But now──
For some reason, she was no longer afraid of him.
Lucia shook her head while standing before the door.
Right now, Eris was what mattered.
She waited anxiously.
1 minute.
2 minutes.
3 minutes.
'She'll be okay, right? I'm sure he's treating her well.'
She didn't doubt it for a second.
At least, not until strange sounds began to leak out from inside the room.
"Aaaah──!"
"......?"
Lucia's shoulders flinched.
"Hngh...... Haah...... It hurts!"
Eris's moans continued.
'It's because she's being treated. It must be painful. The process of removing frost mana is agonizing.'
Moans of pain. Right. They were moans of pain.
"It's too rough......! Do it gently, gently......!"
"Stay still. I haven't reached the end yet."
"Slowlyyy......! Haat...... Wait, wait a second! Not there......!"
Lucia's eyes trembled.
Her imagination was running wild.
Just what on earth was happening inside that room?
No.
No matter how much of a monster the Black Knight was. No matter how much of an existence beyond common sense he was.
Surely he wouldn't do that to a patient who had just barely woken up from the brink of death.
And it was Eris, of all people. Small and cute Eris.
The reckless remarks the Black Knight had poured out until now flashed through her mind.
'Become mine. Pay with your body.'
'You look delicious. As long as the taste is good, that's all that matters.'
'A body once tamed can never go back to how it was.'
Every statement pointed in the same direction.
'He's exactly the kind of person who would do that!'
What kind of treatment are you doing!
Was this the reason you told me not to come in!?
"Hngh... Haah... Haat... Eris-nim is being completely broken......! I've been turned into a mess......!!"
Lucia's hand grabbed the doorknob.
"No!"
Beolkeok!
Lucia twisted the handle violently and threw the door wide open.
"......Huh?"
The first thing that caught her eye was the man standing by the bed.
The Black Knight in a shirt, having removed his armor.
It was a face she couldn't get used to no matter how many times she saw it. A face too upright and too handsome to contain such an evil soul. An appearance that proved the irrationality of the world.
No, what was important right now wasn't that face, but──
The Black Knight looked toward the door with a slightly surprised expression, then soon curled his lips into a smile.
"You've come at a good time. It's finished."
He was smiling.
That man was smiling.
'What do you mean it's finished?!'
Lucia's gaze turned toward the bed.
Eris was there.
She was sprawled out on the bed.
Disheveled pink hair clung to her forehead and cheeks. A face smeared with tears. Cheeks flushed red. A chest heaving raggedly. Her pajamas had slipped off her shoulder, revealing her collarbone, and the blanket was halfway on the floor.
"Haah...... Haah......"
Her vacant eyes couldn't find their focus.
Anyone could see that this was!
Lucia's brain imagined the things that had happened in the room.
"Eris!"
"Lucia-eonni?"
Lucia rushed over and pulled Eris into a tight embrace.
"Eris. It's okay. Eonni is here."
"Eonni-iiii......!"
'How scared she must have been.'
Lucia's hand stroked Eris's hair.
A small, light, and trembling body.
"Knight-nim...... how...... how could you do this......!"
"What exactly did I do?"
"What on earth did you do to Eris?"
"Treatment."
"You can say that after seeing the state Eris is in!?"
Lucia hugged Eris even tighter in her arms.
Eris wiggled her head up from Lucia's embrace.
A face that was a mess of tears and snot.
At that moment, Eris's blurred focus locked onto Lucia. And a slight, wicked witch's smile bloomed.
"Eonni...... that dark bastard...... that perverted jerk to me...... hic......."
Eris continued her words, sobbing sorrowfully.
"He, he just kept touching my body......."
Lucia's pupils dilated.
"He touched you......?"
"Yeah...... and he just kept forcing his big, ignorant thing inside me......!"
Lucia's face turned pale.
"Eris-nim said it was impossible, that it wouldn't work! Even though I said it hurt, he didn't stop and kept shoving it in until the end!"
"Heek!"
Lucia gasped.
"And then he kept scraping my insides...... and sucked it all out...... Eris-nim is completely worn out...... Huaaaaang!"
The super-genius witch's vocabulary displayed a strange level of expressiveness in certain areas.
Lucia stroked Eris's hair with trembling hands.
Her head was in a state of confusion.
No, there was no need to be confused. The situation was clear.
That beast-like man had forced himself upon the innocent and fragile Eris......!
Lucia's gaze turned back toward the Black Knight.
"You...... you really...... are you a demon? To a child who hasn't even fully recovered yet...... how could you do such a thing......!"
"She's exaggerating quite a bit."
The Black Knight said calmly.
"She endured it quite well for a first time."
"......What did you say?"
"It will be much easier from next time. Her body will remember it."
"KNIGHT-NIM!!!"