The Poison Named Antidote
The warm morning sunlight, permitted under the name of Antidote, filtered through the ornate chandelier and illuminated the spacious dining hall of the Blake County Estate. Though it should have been a peaceful breakfast, the air hovering over the table was thick, sticky, and grotesque.
Edric elegantly sipped his tea, wearing the face of a devoted son, and asked the Count seated at the head of the table, “Father. You look quite well this morning. Did you enjoy the ‘gift’ I sent to your room yesterday?”
At the question, a deep, greedy smile spread across the Count’s lips as he held his fork. Instead of leaning back against his chair, he buried the back of his head deep between the ample breasts of Emily, who stood behind him attending to his needs. Emily bore the Count’s weight without complaint, her usual languid and seductive smile playing on her lips.
“It was splendid. Truly… a wondrous gift, Edric.” The Count closed his eyes, savoring the lingering sensations of the previous night in a low, hoarse voice. “It was the torment of a man that neither the Church’s so-called holy miracles, nor the depraved pleasure of watching one’s own cousin’s sister writhe beneath him, nor even the magic I devoted my entire life to could ever cure. I thought it had ended forever, like a withered, dead tree.”
The Count’s remaining hand naturally reached behind him. His wrinkled, aged fingers seized Emily’s heavily swollen breasts over her maid uniform apron and began to knead them greedily.
“Hnn…… Master……” A faint moan escaped Emily’s lips, but the Count paid it no mind, wrapping the horrific truth in aristocratic metaphor. “Though I could not raise this withered branch fully erect to the end… this child performed the miracle of drawing out my essence from this body. Ejaculating while being a eunuch whose member refuses to rise… It was a truly grotesque and ecstatic experience I had never known in my life.”
The Count’s hand movements grew increasingly explicit. His rough fingers found Emily’s already stiffly protruding nipples through the fabric and twisted and flicked them persistently. In response to his vulgar touch, Emily’s massive breasts swayed, and her heated breaths poured down onto the crown of the Count’s head.
“With this child… I feel a thrilling certainty that she will one day perfectly restore even the lost functions of my manhood.” It was the arrogant declaration of an old man who seemed to possess the entire world. Karin, seated across from him and forced to witness the nauseating scene, finally slammed her fork down with a loud clatter, overwhelmed by rising disgust.
A beast would be better than this old enemy. Not content with turning his own wife into a doll to violate her, he now sat at the head of the table, groping the breasts of the maid his son had offered while proudly boasting about last night’s ejaculation. Karin’s gaze naturally drifted away from the Count and toward Edric seated beside her.
In stark contrast to the Count’s repulsive behavior, Edric was sending Karin a gentle, affectionate look, as if to say “I’m sorry.” A violent and ugly father, and a devoted son willing to sacrifice himself to protect them from such a father. The moment the stark contrast before her eyes solidified the terrible cognitive dissonance she had experienced in Camilla’s room the previous night into something as solid as concrete.
Meanwhile, the Count, seated at the head, swallowed a sly smile as he observed Karin, who had seemingly become his son’s woman completely of her own will thanks to Edric’s training results. The Count, who had begun to anticipate how this arrogant and ignorant woman would crumble before the truth his son was hiding, savored that thrill before turning his gaze away with a pitiful expression.
His eyes landed on Carna, who now sat quietly beside Camilla as if forcibly wedged in, no longer at her master’s side but at her son Edric’s. The Count spoke in an arrogant tone, as though addressing a worn-out heirloom he had passed down to his son because it no longer held value to him.
“So, Edric. What about the ‘gift’ I sent you yesterday? Did you enjoy it?”
Without the slightest hesitation, Edric responded with a bright, cheerful smile. “Hahaha. Thanks to you, Mother and I spent a truly meaningful and warm time together as mother and son, Father.”
“Tsk tsk.” The Count clicked his tongue in displeasure. “Since I already gave her to you, you should have used her without restraint at least once. With the skills you’ve honed while living as a scoundrel and devouring countless women, you should have comforted a mother who hasn’t taken a man in years.”
It was truly absurd. The Count had completely forgotten how he had once radiated killing intent and tested his son whenever Edric had looked at the dollified Carna with desire. Blinded by his new toy, Emily, the old monster now genuinely scolded his son’s inexperience, and the air at the table grew even colder.
At that moment, Carna—who had been eating with her head bowed like an inorganic doll—raised her blue eyes. They emitted a terrifyingly sharp killing intent. Her gaze pierced straight toward her former master, who had discarded her like a worn-out shoe, and the commoner maid Emily, the root of it all, who was now embracing the Count’s head against her chest.
“Hic, hiccup……!!!” Crushed by that spine-chilling killing intent, Emily let out a deflating sound and trembled. Through the breasts he was groping, the Count could clearly feel Emily’s heart pounding wildly. Realizing that his newly favored doll Emily had fallen into terror at Carna’s gaze, the Count clicked his tongue in irritation.
“Tsk. I thought I had completely castrated her ego as a doll. It seems she has partially overcome it with jealousy toward her new toy’s owner.”
The Count dismissed Carna’s desperate rage and killing intent as nothing more than a malfunction of an old doll abandoned by her master. “When the President visits next, I’ll have to request a routine inspection after so long. Dolls that awaken their egos like that have a history of causing major incidents. I’ll either have to dispose of her or spend more money to recalibrate her from scratch…… Either way, it’s a waste of money.”
The Count sighed, lamenting the budget waste while looking at the now-worthless meat doll. Everyone seated at the table—Edric, Camilla, Karin, even Emily and Carna—each harbored different motives and thoughts, yet in this moment they all shared a single common emotion: the old man seated at the head was the very embodiment of the most nauseating evil in the world.
“Keep Carna with you until the next calibration, Edric. For the time being, I’ll entrust you with the estate’s affairs and seclude myself in the workshop to receive this child’s service while reviving my dead lower body.”
With that one-sided announcement, the unpleasant breakfast came to an end. Immediately after the meal, Karin watched with a heavy gaze as Carna and Camilla entered their room together, then returned to their own room with Edric.
“That insane old man. A bastard worse than any beast!!!” The moment the door closed, a vicious curse burst from Karin’s mouth. She threw herself onto the bed, discarding even the dignity of a knight, as if she had no desire to report for duty at the order today.
“Haa……” A deep melancholy clouded her eyes as she stared at the ceiling. Their own horrific future was already a problem, but the fear that her mother—who had barely awakened her ego—might be taken by the President and recalibrated back into an eternal idiot pressed down on her chest.
At that moment, the bed sank softly as Edric approached and sat beside her. His large, firm hand gently stroked Karin’s golden hair with utmost tenderness.
“Don’t worry, Karin. The preparations to strike Father down…… are almost complete now.”
At that secretive whisper, Karin shot upright. “What do you mean? Edric, what kind of plan are you making?”
Edric smiled softly and began quietly confiding his plan into Karin’s ear. “As Father mentioned this morning, according to my secret investigation, there are occasional cases where the dolls created by the President go out of control and ‘rampage.’ There is one common cause. It is the extreme ‘jealousy’ felt when a doll that has blindly served only one master for years sees that master pouring unilateral affection onto a new doll.”
“Jealousy…?”
“Yes. I judged it to be the desperate ‘revenge’ of a doll that has awakened its ego. The moment the blind jealousy imprinted as a doll surpasses the President’s mental domination, the body gains temporary freedom through the vengeance and hatred engraved in the soul—neither body nor mind. But fools like Father simply believe it to be a breakdown or malfunction of an old doll.”
Edric’s eyes gleamed coldly. “And Mother and I…… last night, before Mother fell asleep, we promised to make use of exactly this point.”
“A promise?”
“That I would give Mother, who has regained freedom of her body through the deepest jealousy, the perfect moment to take revenge on Father with her own hands. Father is currently completely blinded by Emily, claiming he will fix his lower body, and has let his guard down. He is digging his own grave.”
Karin’s red eyes widened with shock and wonder. This man’s plan to turn the horrific hypnosis rules that bound them against the Count and strike at his neck was flawless and lethal. Edric gently cupped Karin’s cheeks and delivered his final, sweet proposal.
“For Mother’s perfect revenge, we must avoid getting caught up in the incident and evade Father’s suspicion. So, Karin…… for the time being, let us leave this hellish house. Just the two of us, along with Mother-in-law…… using the excuse of a pre-marriage courtship, we’ll go to the Forest Villa.”
At that sweet yet meticulous suggestion, Karin wore a dazed expression for a moment before pouting her lips with a slightly sulky face. “Hmph. The excuse is quite plausible. In the end, you just want to take my virginity there! Using such an explicit method straight out of a third-rate romance novel……”
Though she grumbled bluntly, Karin’s mind was already sinking uncontrollably into a swamp of misunderstanding. The belief that he was preparing the perfect stage for her mother’s revenge while also creating a romantic atmosphere at the villa to accept her as his true wife swelled her chest to the point of bursting. She bit her lower lip as if deeply contemplating something, then asked in a voice that barely escaped her throat.
“When we go there…… will you do it by force? Forcefully?”
But right after uttering the question, Karin let out a short, self-deprecating laugh, as if she herself found it pathetic to voice such weak, girlish words. Then she collapsed limply onto the bed once more. Her red eyes stared blankly at the ceiling before slowly turning to look at Edric.
“Edric. What exactly do you want to do with me? Is this just a temporary escape to buy time until you strike Father down? Or…… do you want to know my true feelings?”
He drew close to her side on the bed and answered in the most benevolent yet greedy voice in the world. “I want to become family. Without being dominated by anyone, faithful only to each other’s desires…… I want to accept you as my perfect wife.”
When the word “wife” echoed through the room, Karin’s breath caught. It was like a devil’s temptation, touching the deepest deficiency of a man who had spent his life wanting to escape the Count’s horrific yoke and possess his own complete world and family. Karin remained in suffocating silence for a long while before finally biting her lip hard and opening herself to Edric, as if she had made up her mind.
“Fine…… Then first, detoxify this damned hypnosis for me.”
With that provocative declaration, Karin wrapped her arms around Edric’s neck—the one who had suggested going to the Forest Villa—and pulled him onto the bed, into her embrace.