Declaring Defeat Before My Best Friend (2)
"But Master, it looks like you're still not satisfied? Did Lia refuse to talk right up to the end?"
Mona said that, eyeing Emilia's desperate, aching expression and the Melrn Count's cock, still rigidly erect and throbbing as if utterly unsatisfied. The whipping punishment just moments ago was one thing, but the Count wasn't indulging in their usual sweet lovemaking—he was simply tormenting Emilia to the fullest.
It had to be because Emilia was still holding out, refusing to answer the question he'd demanded. The information about the intruder, Chris...
"Yeah, exactly. Should I call her a true hero? She stubbornly refused to betray her friend to the end... That upright spirit of hers is so lovable, though."
The Melrn Count murmured as much, then began rubbing her sensitive little clit even harder. Forced to spread her thighs wide in his embrace, Emilia let out louder moans at his touch, her teeth chattering.
It was just his fingers teasing that tiny nub. Yet Emilia wailed as if the end of the world had come.
"Aaah♥ Aaaaaah♥♥ Eeeek♥♥ Hnngh, ohh, oaaah! Kyaaaah♥♥!!"
The unbearable pleasure surged straight to her brain, piercing through the crown of her head like a drill. Whether she wanted it or not, her labia quivered uncontrollably, her hips bucking back and forth on their own. The clit toyed with by his fingers was swollen with blood, lewdly erect.
"Lia...!!"
Under Mona's control, Chris could only gaze at Emilia with heartbroken eyes. Mona stroked Chris's cheek and offered a little explanation.
"You know, our Master is usually much gentler and kinder? But Lia's being so rebellious today. That's why she has no choice but to endure that~."
"Rebellious...? What...!"
"Well, he asked her to explain about you, and she kept her mouth shut the whole time. Right, Master?"
"That's right. Even when you brought that bitch here, Mona, she wouldn't say a word."
That was why, up to now, the Melrn Count hadn't inserted his cock—just kept tormenting her. Thanks to Mona's spell, Emilia must have been in agony, her mind fraying without his cock and cum to fill her. But since she refused to answer to the end, he had no intention of rewarding her with it.
So everything so far had been nothing but caresses and whippings meant to torture her. And yet she'd endured, endured, endured... endured so much.
But the result that came to her was nothing but misery.
"Ch-Chris... Chriiiis..."
"...! Lia! Hold on, I'll save... Ngh?!"
"Save her? You should worry about your own sorry ass first~."
Chris's body tilted unsteadily and collapsed to the floor. Mona had yanked her collar. It was barely any force, but Chris couldn't muster the strength to resist and crumpled.
Yet the light hadn't faded from Chris's eyes.
"【Shadow Assassin. Fangs of the Hound. Silver Remnant Beneath the Moonlight.】"
"Hm?"
Gathering her last scraps of strength, she chanted the incantation. Resisting the freshly inscribed spell from Mona, Chris licked the shadow pooling beneath her with her tongue.
"【Mara Attica】!!"
The shadow beneath her surged upward. It first took the shape of an arm, then a human face, neck, torso, and legs—forming a perfect doppelganger of Chris that lunged at the Melrn Count like a predator. In its hands gleamed the oddly shaped daggers she'd thrown in the hallway earlier.
'Oh, so she was gathering power.'
'That dagger too—I thought she'd just ditched it in the hall.'
As a quarter-demon, Chris wasn't fully subjugated by her true name alone. Even with the slave collar's domination spell, it hadn't fully taken root yet—her immense innate magic was resisting. In this single instant, nothing bound Chris.
She'd played possum through all the humiliation, letting Mona guide her to the Count, just for this moment.
While Mona hesitated, the shadow clone reached the Count. With deft, fluid motion, it bypassed Emilia entirely, aiming solely for his throat with those beastly fangs—and then stopped dead right before him.
"Ngh...?!"
Chris was the one thrown into panic. It had been perfect timing, perfect angle. It should have sliced the Count's throat clean open.
But at the last second, the clone halted on its own.
"Chris...?"
Emilia called out to the frozen Chris in bewilderment at the sudden turn. Chris lay trampled under Mona's foot, glaring at the Count with baffled fury.
"...That was close. Mona, did you know?"
"Nooo~ This was totally unexpected~?"
"You're getting disciplined later. Look forward to it."
"Eeeek... Scaryyy...♡"
At the word "discipline," Mona flushed with masochistic delight, trembling like a pervert.
And beneath her, Chris muttered in utter incomprehension.
"Wh-Why...?"
"Why? You think I'd just welcome a bitch like you with open arms, no prep?"
With that, the Melrn Count displayed the bracelet on his wrist. It looked like thin cords woven together—but up close, it was clearly made from someone's hair. And Chris instinctively knew whose.
"Y-You... You bastard...!"
"What did you do to my mother?!?!"
――That hair belonged to the woman who bore Chris.
――The half-demon mother who gave her demon blood.
She'd lived in secluded isolation since losing her husband long ago. How had her hair ended up here?
"Don't get so heated. It's vulgar. That vulgar sow who birthed a vulgar thing like you is alive and well, so don't worry."
"...!"
"Though I won't say where she is or what she's going through right now."
Chris gnashed her teeth as if to shatter them. Blood trickled from her lips. But with her mana and stamina utterly depleted, she couldn't resist Mona anymore. Even the clone, forged from her final dregs of power, melted away like frost.
Not that it could have harmed the Count anyway. Perhaps because of that bracelet. Right now, Chris's soul—some instinct she couldn't control—faintly recognized the Count as her mother.
Demons often bound parent-child contracts by instinct. Chris could never harm her parent because of it. No matter her quarter-demon heritage, such vows and promises she herself had sworn were absolute.
"And that's not all I got from your mother. I've stocked this room and manor with all sorts of talismans and spells to rein you in, Chris. ...You never had a chance to rebel in the first place. Get it now?"
From Chris's reclusive mother, he'd obtained tools to suppress her—including her true name. That was how Mona knew it, even though Emilia had kept silent.
And with a smug expression, the Count continued his explanation. All while freely groping and tormenting Emilia's luscious body.
"That sow Mine Hwangnyeo hid everything about you to the end. She made me believe Emilia's only close friend was her. For a mere sow, she's got a sharp mind."
But as an imperial princess, Mine always had attendants shadowing her. They were surely her handpicked loyalists, but they couldn't resist a succubus's gender-blind seduction and hypnosis.
Through them, the Count learned of Emilia's other close friend, Chris. After thorough investigation, he knew nearly everything about her—her demon hybrid nature, her single mother who raised her, and even her plan to infiltrate here today, spied on by his agents.
In other words, interrogating Emilia had been mere amusement.
He seemed plenty satisfied with her noble resolve to protect her friend.
"Th-That can't... Ahii♥"
"Hush now, my love. Your effort to shield your friend has me even more smitten."
Emilia tried to speak, but swallowed her words as his fingers teased her clit again. To the stunned Chris, whose reality had shattered, the Count pressed on.
Mocking her, his voice dripping with contempt and scorn.
"Your dear mother was a sight too. A widow, starving for a man. Must've been lonely."
"She went into heat and clung to me, putting on such a slutty display—she wanted me to see it all."
"Shaking that ass while eyeing my cock, ready to sell out her daughter or anything—"
"Stop."
Chris cried out in anguish. A single tear traced her cheek. Her gaze nailed the Count, brimming with rage and hatred.
Meeting it, he fell silent for a moment, then narrowed his eyes and added softly.
"I'll say it again—she's alive. You might meet her someday. ...If you can escape here, that is."
Chris let out a wretched scream at his words, but Mona's command quickly silenced her. With all mana and energy spent, she could resist no longer...