Anger, Rising Higher
The portraits all depicted young nobles from prestigious families.
Looks, talent, wealth, lineage—each one was among the empire's finest young men, flawless from any angle you cared to examine. The age range was a perfect match for Odrite's own.
"Your Majesty, though the princess's marriage comes suddenly, it carries the spirit of friendship between our realms. Send your reply at once and open the road to amity with the empire. For a small kingdom such as ours, this is an opportunity."
As a cabinet minister of fifth rank offered his courteous counsel, the King stroked his white beard.
"Hmm."
The King looked down upon his assembled subjects.
"What say you all, my lords, on the matter of the princess's marriage?"
One minister spoke up, glancing about nervously.
"Your Majesty! If we accept this proposal, we may find ourselves hailing Queen Alexandria as Her Imperial Majesty and bowing as her subjects!"
"You snake-hearted fool!"
A curse erupted from among the ministers, out of nowhere.
"Have you no gratitude, wretch? Who was it that rescued our kingdom from ruin while a dragon ran rampant?!"
"A man who knows honor repays his debt when the time comes, rather than weighing his own advantage!"
"Queen Alexandria was called a conquering sovereign up until her husband's passing—she unified every kingdom around us! What could possibly be wrong with joining hands with a great power of such military might?"
So overwhelming was the majority in favor of the princess's marriage that anyone who dared oppose friendship with the empire was instantly surrounded and showered with abuse.
"Your Majesty! The whole world knows the debt our kingdom owes Queen Alexandria. To refuse the hand she extends would be as unfilial as a son turning against his own parents. Your ministers are of one heart, rejoicing at the prospect of this marriage. Look upon those portraits and swiftly choose the princess's betrothed, so we may convey our kingdom's goodwill to Queen Alexandria. This is a chance to gain a great power that will brighten the kingdom's future."
The King sat back at ease, drumming his fingers on the armrest of his chair.
His expression was light, entirely free of worry.
"Is that so. I understand your thinking well. However."
He turned toward the princess with a pleasant smile.
"I intend to hear our daughter's thoughts as well. Surely her opinion matters most of all."
At her father's words, Odrite smiled brightly and shifted her gaze to the portraits lined up in a row.
She said nothing, but stared at the portraits for a long while with an excited look upon her face.
"Your Majesty! The letter's account of the Crown Prince also gives us concern. Whether His Highness the Imperial Crown Prince is staying here in our palace or somewhere else within the kingdom, the letter was too brief to say, and it is a great regret."
"We must find him at once and receive him with the utmost hospitality!"
"Dispatch riders across the whole realm to watch over the Crown Prince's safety!"
When the King raised his hand, the ministers quickly fell silent.
"We shall discuss that matter at our leisure tomorrow. The moon has already risen. You are all dismissed."
As the King yawned and rose with a weary look, the ministers scattered in all directions, chattering among themselves in little clusters.
Most of them were snickering about the Crown Prince.
"If we find the Crown Prince, we simply must bring him into our family."
"Why your family? It's mine that will take him in."
"Don't you only have sons?"
"Oh ho, so that's how it is under that honest face of yours? Hahaha."
Maru stood dumbfounded for a moment amid the crowd of people passing by, trading this idle banter.
He was watching the princess, standing at the seat of honor atop the dais.
Even after the King, the Queen, and then Prince Edward had all taken their leave, she was still studying the portraits closely.
It was a sight that gave Maru plenty to think about.
"Mother got me. She really got me… Whew."
Back in his room, Maru closed the door behind him and let out a long, deep sigh.
"A scheme to separate me from the princess, is it? All that letter did was needlessly broadcast my secrets."
He smiled bitterly as he pulled off his shirt.
His body was exhausted to the bone from dealing with the gargoyle that day, yet his mind was wide awake with thoughts of the princess.
After the shirt came his trousers—half removed before the memory of Odrite surfaced again.
The image of her peering at the portraits with that curious expression was still vivid in his mind.
He didn't like it one bit.
"Are those bastards really that handsome? They used to be beneath me, every last one of them."
Every nobleman in those portraits was a familiar face.
He remembered running into each of them once or twice along the way. He had never once thought himself their inferior—but seeing Odrite take such an interest in them, gazing at them like that, left him feeling as though something had been stolen from him, and jealousy flared up out of nowhere.
"Tomorrow I'm going to give her a piece of my mind. 'Do you lose your mind the moment you see a man? It was quite a spectacle—your eyes practically sprouting hearts. If you're a princess, have some dignity.' I'll tease her a little and then scold her, just enough."
He had made up his mind and was pulling off his trousers when a knock sounded at the door.
He hastily threw on a robe and opened it.
A middle-aged woman he didn't recognize stood in the hallway.
She opened her mouth with a beaming smile.
"Good evening, Lord Guardian. I am Ozmund, wife of Baron Trine. I attend upon Her Highness the Princess."
"Ah, yes. A pleasure to meet you."
"The reason I come at so late an hour is simply to deliver this to you."
She held out a wooden box that she had been carrying in both hands.
It was an elegant box of natural wood, finished with lacquer.
He wanted to ask what was inside, but accepted it first.
"Thank you."
"Then I shall take my leave. Have a good night, my lord."
"A good night to you as well, madam."
She was a plump woman, but kindly and dignified all the same.
He watched her receding back for a moment, then returned to his room and opened the box.
The one-handed axe he had seen that day lay nestled on a plush cushion.
He picked it up and turned it over, examining it this way and that.
"Oh… this is for me?"
He had mentioned how well the axe cut that afternoon—apparently the princess hadn't forgotten.
He never expected a gift. Far from making him happy, though, it only filled him with a strange unease.
"This isn't a parting gift, is it?"
Take this and get lost.
Was that the feeling?
He put the axe back into the box.
"It's all because of Mother. Mother, you're driving your own son out of his mind. Please, just stop~"
Muttering to himself, he undressed and washed up.
Planning to sleep right away, he blew out the candle and stretched out on the bed.
The softness of the mattress wrapped itself snugly around his whole body. Blissful.
"Ahh… this is the life… this is the best part of any day… Ah, hell, I really am turning into an old man. Talking like one too…"
Murmuring lazily, he pulled the blanket up to his chin and rolled onto his side.
Suddenly, he felt the sheet beside him dip.
It felt as if someone were lying there.
Must be some heavy object placed on the bed, he thought, and casually stretched out his arm.
Feeling around with his eyes still closed, his hand met something soft.
It was even springy. Supple and warm to the touch.
"…What is this?"
Puzzled, he slid his hand further down.
This time he felt something like a navel.
"What the—"
Suspicious, he was moving his hand lower still when someone seized his wrist from beneath the blanket and screamed.
"S-stop! Stop it!"
Startled, Maru bolted upright and flung the blanket back.
Lying in the bed was the faint outline of a completely naked woman. When on earth had she gotten in?
It was too dark to tell who she was.
On reflex, Maru grabbed her by the throat and gave her a light chokehold.
"Kghk!"
"Who are you?"
"C-can't… breathe! It's me, Lucy! Let go! Kghk, kghk!"
"Lucy?"
He got out of bed, lit the candle, and looked back at the bed.
Crimson hair. A cat-like face with an insolent cast to it. A petite frame.
It was Lucy, no doubt about it.
"What are you doing here? And who told you to lie here buck naked?"
Lucy hastily wrapped herself in the blanket and stared at him with frightened eyes.
"W-well, you see…"
She fidgeted, recalling the events of several hours earlier.
It had been right after she returned to Luciella, gleefully savoring the mutt abuse Maru had heaped on her.
"I did as you ordered. So no more tormenting me, right?"
"Hehehe."
Luciella smiled coldly.
"Are you a fool? The training starts now."
"Wh-what training?"
"Training to obey our Lord's every word. You still don't understand?"
She continued.
"Here is your second task. This time, you will share our Lord's bed. Naturally, you have no right to refuse. Choose one or the other: be ravaged like a monster by the incubi, or enjoy our Lord as a human being. Those are your only options."
It was an order in a wholly different league from the mutt task.
Humiliating. Demeaning.
But she had to do it.
To survive.
Because she was their slave now.
'Maru's a man too, supposedly. He'll get aroused seeing a woman's bare body. The outcome is obvious. Tonight that bastard's going to have his way with me. Damn it…'
Lucy's face flushed crimson with shame, and her hands trembled.
She wouldn't have cared if he were a complete stranger—but being taken by Kiera's ex-boyfriend, of all people, was more than she could bear.
Sleeping with her friend's former lover.
It struck her as ethically repugnant, and at the same time a perverse thrill ran through her at the thought that she shouldn't want it so badly.
Her instincts recoiled from it.
"Maru… the truth is, I want to do it with you…"
Lucy spoke in a trembling voice as she flung aside the blanket that had covered her.
Her adorable breasts and the V between her thighs were laid bare without a shred of modesty.
"Don't touch me roughly like before. Just… hold me gently, okay?"
"Whoa…"
Maru lost his composure for a heartbeat, then pressed his lips into a hard line.
Then, without warning, he snatched the robe draped over the chair, rolled it into a tight bundle, and slammed it into Lucy's stomach like a 160 km/h fastball.
Not that a bit of cloth could hurt much, but still.
"You're driving me insane. Calling me a mutt was one thing, but what is wrong with you? Get out. Now."
"Please. Please do it."
"I said shut up and get out."
"Mmm, but I want to."
"This is my whole life, you know. Don't make it adult-rated. Get out of my room."
Lucy recalled the erotic torment Luciella had put her through and tried every lascivious pose she knew to seduce him, but nothing landed.
It only made him angrier.
"You're not a mage, you're a harlot. Honestly."
Lucy was staging her nude performance on the bed, while Maru, wary of being seen in a compromising light, didn't dare come anywhere near her.
He kept a two-meter distance and could only pace, chest tight with frustration.
'Why isn't this bastard climbing into bed?'
Lucy had assumed this task, of all things, would be the easiest to complete.
Maru's body had improved by leaps and bounds—she'd expected his lust to overwhelm him, to pounce on her like a beast.
Wasn't that what men were like? Driven half-mad with joy the moment a woman undressed?
But as time wore on, doubt crept in.
Was Maru simply different from other men?
He was unexpectedly patient.
'Don't tell me I've lost my charm?'
Lucy began striking ever more explicit poses, openly taunting him.
Her gestures grew bolder and bolder—she held nothing back.
One obscene display after another, each one enough to strain the limits of any male's endurance.
"Ahhhnn… I want it so badly I'm aching, can't you see…"
Every one of those wanton tricks had been taught to her by the succubi.
Yet not a hair on Maru's expression was out of place.
Standing well clear of the bed, he simply kept repeating that she should get out.
Lucy found herself admiring his uprightness in spite of herself.
How on earth did he resist? She was so curious she wanted to peek inside his head.
'There's no winning today, is there.'
In the end, she declared defeat.
She'd have to put it off until tomorrow.
Her body was needlessly aflame, wound up to the breaking point for nothing.
Exhaling the burning heat inside her through her mouth, she called out to Maru.
"I won't ask you to sleep with me, so just come sit next to me. Let's just talk."
"Then get dressed first."
"Okay."
Lucy obeyed without protest.
She climbed out of bed and began slipping on the clothes she had hidden behind the desk, one piece at a time.
Maru watched her.
'I should ask her why she's been acting like this lately. For someone supposedly sorry about kicking me out of the party, this is going way too far. This isn't the Lucy I knew. Maybe someone's putting her up to it.'
His eyes drifted, almost without thinking, to Lucy's lower abdomen.
A winged heart tattoo was visible there.
'Was that there before?'
He didn't think so.
On their adventures together, he'd occasionally caught his comrades in nothing but their underclothes.
Her skin had been clean back then, as far as he could remember…
"Lucy. What's that tacky tattoo on your belly? When did you get it?"
"D-don't look!"
Lucy hastily covered the mark with her clothes.
If she told Maru everything, the succubus would kill her.
Watching him carefully, she edged away into a corner where the mark couldn't be seen.
But Maru, as if catching on to something, pondered gravely for a moment before furrowing his brow.
"I remember now. It looks like those brands the succubi carve into their male slaves."
He immediately turned toward the window and shouted.
"Luciella!"
"Kyaaah!"
Lucy shrank into herself and screamed.
"I—I didn't say anything!"
"I know everything that goes on in here! Come out, now!"
The curtains billowed, and black smoke rushed together in a hurry.
Taking on a single shape, Luciella revealed herself.
She flattened herself against the floor and bowed her head low.
"F-forgive me, my Lord."
She was trembling.
Maru looked down at her, his face hard with anger.
"The scribbling on Lucy's body. That was your doing?"
"My Lord, that woman was scheming to play you for a fool, and I simply could not bear it. It was all the greed of a creature who wished to hoard your love for herself alone—so I beg you, take pity on me and withdraw your wrath."
"And what exactly was this scheme of hers?"
Up to that moment, Maru had been planning to give Luciella a stern scolding for ruining Lucy's body.
But once he heard the circumstances, he could only stare in disbelief.
"Whenever you left your bedchamber during the day, my Lord, she would sneak in and attempt to install surveillance magic. And not content with that, she ranted that she would report you—her sworn demon—to the kingdom and have the two of us thrown into prison. I found it outrageous, and so…"
"……"
Maru listened in silence, then walked over to the woman shaking like a leaf.
He crouched down in front of her.
He raised her upper body, then wrapped her warmly in both his arms.
"Looks like a demon is the only one I can trust. More loyal than any human I know."
"You… you forgive me, my Lord…?"
"Sorry for shouting earlier. You're the only one who's ever helped me. If there's ever anything you want, just say the word—any time."
"My Lord…"
Luciella nestled into his embrace with an expression of pure happiness.
Then she caught the scent of a powerful male, and before she knew it she grew aroused, her tongue slipping out of its own accord.
A tongue twenty centimeters long glided up from Maru's chest to his neck in one slow lick.
Maru jumped back from her in shock.
"Keep the skinship to a minimum."
"My Lord, just a little. Please, let me lick you just a little."
"No."
Maru said it flatly, rose from his crouch, and turned to look at Lucy.
Lucy stood there, head bowed, fidgeting restlessly.
"You were going to throw me in prison? Lucy. I am truly sick of your rotten character. All that contrite act on the surface—so sorry, so full of regret—every word of it was a lie."
Maru's voice was thick with loathing.
"Then you can live out your life as a succubus's slave. Luciella. Take her to your den."
"I-I'm sorry! I didn't mean it! I swear it wasn't from my heart!"
"Yes, my Lord."
Luciella approached Lucy with evident delight.
Lucy fled to a corner, resisting furiously, but it was a useless struggle.
Within moments she was in Luciella's grasp, dragged away by the scruff of her collar.
"S-save me! I'm reflecting on what I did! I really am! I swear I'm sorry! Sob… please…! I don't want to go back to the demon's den…!"
Lucy's wailing voice cut off in an instant.
Maru was left alone in the spacious room.
He stared fixedly at the bedsheets Lucy had thrown into disarray, and on his face, the disappointment and fury toward his former comrades rose higher than ever.
'I will never forgive them.'
And among them all, it was Kiera who made his blood boil most of all.
"We'll never meet again, I'm sure—but if we ever do, I won't treat you as human."