The Price of Betrayal Unfolds Step by Step
Silvina didn't get pregnant easily.
As one might expect from someone who'd honed her body beyond human limits through her time as a hero's foe.
Even after we'd made love more than ten times a day.
"It's probably because you're inadequate."
"It's not that I'm inadequate—it's that you're outsized."
Three months had passed since we'd been trapped in this sealed world.
We hadn't skipped a single day.
Yet Silvina's belly showed no sign of swelling.
That said, her body had changed in other ways.
"Copulation is truly a wonderful act. To think I've gone this long without knowing— it makes my entire dragon life feel like a waste."
Her skin was even more plump and supple than when we'd first met.
And me?
I glanced at the full-length mirror she'd pulled from her subspace pocket.
I looked like a zombie.
"Silvina. This can't go on. We need a plan."
"Hm. True enough. We've been too lost in pleasure these past months. After centuries of boredom under the Demon King's thumb, I suppose I forgot my purpose and got carried away."
I swept back my sweat-dampened bangs and asked,
"Any good ideas?"
"Two methods come to mind. First: drink my blood and be reborn as a dragonkin."
"How long does that rebirth take?"
"Fully assimilating a dragon's blood? Probably over a century."
That would vaporize my primary goal—revenge on my betrayers.
By the time I got out, centuries would have passed. They'd all be long dead.
"I'll hear the second option before deciding."
"The second is for me to weaken temporarily."
"Wait. If you weaken, won't you lack the power to break the seal?"
"That's no issue. We just have more offspring to make up for it. The real problem... comes after we break free."
Silvina sidled up beside me on the bed's edge.
She crossed one leg seductively as she explained.
"Remember my True Name is bound to that Demon King bastard?"
"Yeah. So?"
"When my power was whole, I could resist to some degree. The best commands he could force were simple ones, like 'kill the hero's party.'"
But if she emerged weakened, even that resistance would crumble, she explained.
"Waiting here until we've had enough children for you to regain full strength..."
"...is what you don't want, right? Could you wait centuries? And to live that long, you'd have to become dragonkin anyway."
She knew.
I wanted out to take revenge on my comrades.
And it wasn't just them.
The Demon King who'd twisted everything—and the Goddess, if the chance arose.
"About that True Name binding. Can't we fix it?"
"Kill the Demon King. Then I'd finally be free."
"How'd it get bound in the first place?"
Silvina tilted her head, flashing a bewitching smile.
"Curiosity unrelated to our goals, no?"
"..."
"Did our romps create some affection? I can understand that. But remember—I'm no righteous soul like you."
No smoke without fire.
Silvina hadn't earned her title of Evil Dragon for nothing.
"Fine. I'll corrupt myself once I'm out anyway."
"Corrupt... intriguing word. Planning to kill your ex-comrades?"
I closed my eyes tightly.
Recalling the betrayal stirred the rage dormant in my heart.
"Why kill them? I won't let them off easy. They suffer alive. I'll repay every hardship they caused me, and more."
A brief silence fell.
The heavy mood made me sigh loudly and continue.
"...Anyway! Say we go with you weakening. We break the seal—what then? What'll you do?"
"I'll enter hibernation just before it shatters. The moment we escape this severed world, I'll fall under the Demon King's thrall again. Wouldn't want me hindering you, would we?"
Weakened, she'd become his puppet completely.
In truth, it was just a difference in prep time.
Once out, she had only one path.
"Sucks you won't get to avenge the Demon King exploiting you personally."
"In exchange, take any children born later when you slay him. If they join the revenge, it'll ease my grudge somewhat."
With our path set,
Silvina spent weeks weakening herself.
Curious, I watched.
She pulled rings and necklaces from her subspace, infusing them with mana.
"Artifacts?"
"Yes. Better to store it this way than waste it. Useful for our future children... and you someday."
As her body weakened, so did her appearance.
Her glossy head-horns lost their luster.
Her back-wings grew brittle and dry.
Embarrassed by her horns, she wrapped them in hair.
Her once-proud wings, now ragged, she folded tight against her back, hidden.
"Humans have odd tastes, yes? My current state is what you call a 'sickly beauty' archetype."
"Beauty? I'll grant that. But 'girl'? Not quite. Draining your mana also drained your conscience?"
"Unfair! By human years, I'm firmly in 'girl' territory."
By the time we bantered like that,
We'd fastened the first button toward our goal.
"Ah. My love—the child just kicked my belly."
"Feisty one. Must be a boy."
Silvina stared at her belly.
Even the Evil Dragon felt maternal warmth?
As I watched fondly,
Her eyes turned displeased.
"Arrogant already. Needs early discipline. Darling, will you kick my belly?"
"...What the hell?"
I thought it a joke, but her face was dead serious.
"No miscarriage worries. Dragons are sturdy. If it's male, it'll challenge our hierarchy. Try to dominate us. We must establish discipline now."
"Be serious. It hasn't even been born—will it remember?"
"Instinct will. If you won't, I will."
She raised her fist high.
I grabbed her arm in panic.
"Stop! You crazy lizard! I'll handle discipline after birth! Just take care of yourself!"
The Demon King appeared brazenly in the heart of enemy territory.
Timing his arrival for the peak of human celebration, he moved without hesitation.
He shattered the Holy Sword for all to see.
Even under fierce assault from the hero's party and Altania Kingdom's elite knights, not a hair was harmed.
Alone, he could have razed the kingdom.
Yet suddenly, he held back his power.
"Ending this so anticlimactically feels wrong. Considering the eons I hid in the shadows... you humans must suffer more."
With arrogant mercy—to torment them slowly—he withdrew unhindered.
No one could stop him.
No one even thought to chase.
Humans had too many to protect.
Hooray!
Fortunately, the Demon King's forces' assault failed.
They retreated without breaching the walls.
Soldiers cheered the victory.
But the capital's citizens couldn't rejoice fully.
It was a pyrrhic win, scarred by wounds.
Once the kingdom's chaos settled, King Altania summoned the entire hero's party to the audience chamber.
"I don't hold you responsible for this incident."
The king spoke gravely.
The gathered heroes wore grim expressions.
"Word is, even the Goddess—who watches over the human realm—didn't foresee this."
"Um, that's—"
As Belnusha tried to protest, the king cut her off sharply.
"The throne hasn't permitted speech yet."
"Forgive me, Your Majesty..."
"Your saintess status spares you reprimand this time. Repeat it, and I'll formally protest to the church."
"I'll remember."
The king sighed deeply.
"My first question: that barrier you sealed, thinking it the Demon King. Can you unseal it?"
One reason only.
To check if the supposedly co-sealed hero might have survived.
Coco reacted first.
Her limp ears perked at "unseal."
"Your Majesty! The Demon King aside—that fake inside is mighty too!"
Clepin followed with her view.
The king narrowed his eyes.
"So?"
"It risks escalating things."
"Not curious about the hero's fate?"
"If we unseal and only the fake escapes—hero dead—it wastes his noble sacrifice. I won't nullify it."
Logical.
Perfectly logical—yet utterly unconvincing.
The king's brow furrowed deeper.
Feels like when scheming ministers spout 'honest' advice for gain...
Why from the hero's party, of all people?
Mere suspicion, though.
They were the kingdom's heroes, whatever qualms.
He shoved the unease aside.
Instead,
"Belnusha."
"Y-yes... Your Majesty..."
"Every crisis, the Goddess gave oracles guiding your party. What of this?"
"Well... She respects our choices, so not always..."
At those words,
Coco's downcast eyes widened slowly.
"Then summon a new hero? Or at least a sword to replace the Holy Sword?"
The king asked without hope.
The previous hero's absence loomed too large.
"Neither easy to replace... I'm discussing with the church, doing my best."
"Effort alone won't do—show results. We pour massive taxes into Tarantiel yearly."
Afterward, the king discussed future Demon King wars—what roles he expected from them.
No choice for the party.
They'd promised—and received—support, benefits, rights.
To enjoy them, they must perform.
Pointless if the kingdom fell.
The Demon King's advance wouldn't stop here—soon the whole continent.
Thud. Thud.
Audience over,
The party left the castle, scattering.
The family-like bond from hero days? Gone.
Strangers now, each to their path.
Amid them,
Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.
One paced anxiously.
Belnusha.
Tarantiel's saintess, church's puppet figurehead—its true power.
Heading back, hands clasped in prayer,
She muttered endlessly, like a madwoman.
"Goddess, please answer my prayers...! You've always helped in crises. Right? Why silent now? You said true peace comes without the hero—this doesn't match! I hear you, I know! I betrayed myself for you—how can you abandon your lamb...!"