Chapter 3
Chapter 3
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 3
Chapter Title: Aira, the Flower of Evil #3
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Queen Aira didn’t trust anyone unless she absolutely had to.
In her mind, “trust” was an expression unfit for humans.
That was why I, Taeo, was the only one who had ever caught her eye and received a personal reward from her.
—Come heat up the water.
That was the code she used for the reward she gave me.
She seemed to take great satisfaction in bestowing it, but to be honest, I wasn’t all that fond of the reward she offered.
Sometimes the soap tasted too bitter.
Still, I had no right to refuse a reward from the queen herself.
As I’d mentioned earlier, Taeo’s end was execution.
And the one carrying it out could very well be the capricious Queen Aira.
Damn it. I’d lived so diligently—how could I not have a single ally?
Pushing down my complaints, I headed to the queen’s spacious private chamber.
There were no armed guards where they should have been, no strict security or barriers.
The only thing present was a single maid standing watch at the door to her private chamber.
“Lady Aira is already inside, waiting.”
The nameless blonde maid said it in a curt, emotionless voice.
She looked like an ordinary maid, but I knew full well she was an assassin who could easily slit a throat with a dagger.
This one girl was stronger than a handful of guards.
Her eyes looked at me with contempt. Was it just my imagination?
“Now then, Sir Taeo. Stand right here in front of me.”
Whoosh—.
As always, I spread my arms in front of the maid and submitted to a light search.
Just to check if I was carrying anything that might harm the queen. It was purely formality, of course.
After all, I could never hurt her. The other way around? That was another story.
“You may enter now.”
Only then did the maid step aside. I gave a slight nod and stepped through the door. The first thing that greeted me was a vast garden bathed in moonlight.
Swans and unfamiliar birds frolicked beautifully amid flowers and colorful fruits—the royal garden in full splendor.
And at its center was an open-air bath, hot bubbles churning vigorously.
“Your Majesty, if I may be so bold.”
“Oh, you’re here.”
There was already someone in the open-air bath. This was the king’s private quarters. The prior occupant could only be Queen Aira.
Aira was soaking in the warm water amid the rising steam. But only for a moment—she emerged with splashes, plop, plop.
Her flawless, pristine nude body was thus revealed right before my eyes.
“…Don’t stare so blatantly. Even I, in all my nobility, feel a touch of shame.”
“Understood.”
I bowed my head appropriately, but my eyes moved quickly.
Legs long enough to make her worthy of the title queen, a body free of even a single stray hair, and breasts larger than any I’d seen on other women.
Aira exposed everything to me without reserve: her pale pink nipples, her smooth groin, even her pussy.
She claimed to feel shame, yet trusted me this much?
“Anyway, perfect timing. Now, lather up this beautiful body with soap.”
As always, she said it as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
During Aira’s bath time, I was to soap her body.
That was her reward to me.
She truly believed granting a lowly man like me an audience with her peerless beauty—a woman called the kingdom’s greatest treasure—and letting me wash her was a grand honor.
But I couldn’t argue.
As much as it chafed, Aira really was stunning.
The most beautiful of anyone I’d ever laid eyes on.
Why did a girl like this have to be the villainess?
If only she were a bit kinder, if she relied on me like that, I’d have nothing to envy.
Swish, swish—.
My body moved mechanically, despite my regrets.
From her toes, up her fingers, breasts, slender waist, smooth firm thighs, knees, to every last inch, I meticulously worked up a lather of white foam.
“Good, you’ve soaped me up so cleanly. Now then—”
Queen Aira admired her body with satisfaction before saying,
“—you may lick.”
“……”
No matter how many times, I could never get used to this.
“Hurry up. Taeo, prove your loyalty to your queen.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
I knelt before her and began licking slowly from her toes.
Lick, lick—.
“Pfft, that tickles—.”
Yeah, it would for you.
But my mouth just tasted like soap.
Bitter. Was there no tasty soap?
Why did I keep forgetting to order the palace to stock some? I had to remember to instruct them later.
“Yes, you lick so well. Taeo, just like that, every nook and cranny—. Hnng, ahh…. Haah, unlike those other idiots, you have to stay by my side, ngh….”
The queen’s soft voice sent a lewd tingle through my ears.
I was a man too, after all, so in this situation, there was no helping it.
An erection.
But I had no time to worry about my painfully hard cock.
Lick, lick—.
“Haa…. Hnng….”
My tongue glided over her ankles, calves, and knees.
“Ngh—.”
Continuing upward, it finally reached the deep crevice between her smooth, firm thighs.
“…….”
This was hallowed ground. Was it okay? I glanced up, but the queen said nothing.
Her face flushed red from the recent hot bath, she gazed down at me dreamily.
Taking that as permission, I parted her clean, smooth pussy lips wide with my hands and extended my tongue.
“Lick, lick. Slurp, slurrp—.”
“Nngh, ha, it tickles…. Hnng…. Ngh!”
To lick the kingdom’s most beautiful woman’s pussy.
It was a reward in its own right, but knowing this capricious woman might have my head on a whim made it a little terrifying.
Even now, it was hard to believe.
Me, licking Aira’s pussy?
Truth be told, Aira was surprisingly conservative about sexual matters.
It hadn’t been long since our relationship turned like this.
About a month ago, after I nearly got poisoned by a maid.
The queen started boldly summoning me to her private space and making me wipe and lick her body.
It began with just fingertips and toes, but as it happened more often, it gradually escalated. Maybe something changed in her during my poisoning recovery.
Anyway, Taeo secretly meeting the queen—
Word had spread through the palace, wittingly or not, and those with sharp ears in the court now scorned me as “that lecherous monk seducing and mooching off the queen.”
Unfair.
I wasn’t mooching.
But no one would believe it. I wouldn’t either, in their shoes.
Swish—.
To vent my frustration, I pressed my face even tighter against her crotch. Should I lick her clit today?
“Slurrp, slurrrp, lick—.”
“Hnng. Wh-what? The feeling—. Haa.”
She seemed flustered by the unfamiliar sensation. It was the first time I’d licked her clit so directly.
“Slurrrp—.”
As I gently rubbed and licked her clit with my tongue—“Hnnng—.”—a melting moan escaped the tyrant queen’s lips nonstop.
“Taeo—. Only you—. Haa, hnng, only you think of me, only you’re here for me—. Hnng, aaah, haa….”
“Lick, lick—. Slurp, slurrrp, slurp—.”
“But this feels so strange…, ha, my hips…. Ngh, no—. Hnng….”
My face was already drenched in her juices.
The soap was bitter, but her nectar was surprisingly sweet—delicious to lick.
Was this the queen’s elegance?
I could see Aira’s breathing quickening.
“Ngh, nnk, hnng—. Something’s wrong. Ngh, haa—. Up to there—. Good. Taeo, that spot…, that’s enough.”
After writhing for a while, Queen Aira pushed my head away.
I’d felt like something might happen if we kept going, but she always stopped me around here.
Leaving me with blue balls every time.
Licking her pussy just enough to tease, then nothing.
What a wicked bitch.
A bad girl.
If she was going to reward me, do it properly.
Otherwise, it was just torture.
She could at least suck me off.
Of course, saying “Your Majesty, please suck my cock” to Aira was impossible.
She’d have my head.
My neck.
Recalling the sight of a beheaded prisoner, my raging hard-on from moments ago wilted. Poor little guy.
“That’s enough. I can wash the rest myself today.”
Aira sent me away, then poured a basin of water over herself.
Splash—.
She rinsed off the soap and suds, then draped a luxurious bathrobe embroidered with gold and purple silk over her body.
I dried her hair, then brushed it.
Brushing a woman’s hair had felt awkward at first, but after a few times, it became routine.
“There, all brushed.”
“Is that so?”
Aira shook out her silky black locks.
Even a tyrant like her smelled wonderful after a bath.
Actually, Aira always smelled good.
“You look like you have something to say. Taeo, that’s not like you. I permit you to speak.”
As I wiped my hands and mouth with a towel, Aira asked me sidelong. She had a knack for noticing at times like this. How did she know I had something to say?
Today—no, lately—I decided to voice the thought I’d been harboring.
“It’s about what happened with the Finance Minister earlier today.”
“What about the Finance Minister?”
“His insolence warranted immediate beheading. But upon reflection, there were some salvageable points amid his drivel.”
“Go on.”
Aira was always generous after rewarding me.
That’s why I often whispered to her in this state—things I couldn’t say normally.
Call it Taeo’s version of pillow talk.
Now was the perfect moment.
Gathering my courage, I spoke.
“Your wisdom has surely grasped it all already, but a wise ruler can make bricks even from the mud at the bottom.”
“Even vermin have their uses? I know the saying.”
“Exactly. In that vein, we might glean something useful from Sir Belmott’s proposals and those of his many subordinates.”
“Hmm—.”
“Let me select the people, and keeping capable underlings besides myself by your side would—”
Boom—.
Something slammed into the floor. Crashing sounds followed as the stone pavement crumbled, shattering the garden’s beautiful statues.
A hole formed in the open-air bath, water leaking out, startling the birds into fleeing skyward like they’d been struck by lightning.
Dust trickled down from Aira’s fist. My vision spun.
“Taeo—!”
Her roar was thunderous.
“Put someone else by my side? Never say that again. I only need you. Or what—is that it? Taeo, do you want to place someone else beside me and leave?”
“No, never.”
Rumble—.
The bath’s moisture evaporated entirely into steam—utterly surreal. But Aira could do it.
She was a 7th Circle mage.
One of the kingdom’s rare sword masters too.
Just insanely strong.
That’s why the court ministers and people hesitated to rebel or purge her.
Why I groveled before her.
Aira said,
“The others are all betrayers, wearing masks. They smile to my face but plot to stab me in the back like rats.”
“…….”
“My brother and sisters died. One by one, for flimsy reasons, like dogs. My parents, siblings—they were killed by someone in this court, this kingdom—”
“That’s…”
“Next is me. To survive, I can trust no one.”
Aira was almost pathological.
And this mania was one reason she became a tyrant.
She firmly believed a conspiracy had killed her over ten siblings.
That it was coming for her next.
Hence her bizarre antics?
I could somewhat understand, desperately avoiding my own “execution” ending.
But did she know?
Rumors swirled that she’d slaughtered her siblings out of ambition for the throne.
Even I thought it looked that way.
“Around me were only sycophants and foxes riding my coattails. Masks, masks—hypocritical bastards wearing masks—”
Her hair bristled like a beast’s, then drooped.
“Don’t tell me to keep those by my side, Taeo. I let that slide once because it’s you.”
“Forgive my ignorance.”
“Fine. You’re forgiven.”
Only then did Aira’s rage subside. Rain-like water poured from the evaporated steam, soaking us.
Aira laughed innocently, “Now I have to dry off again,” but I couldn’t smile.
Aira didn’t know I wasn’t the real Taeo.
That I wore not just a hypocrite’s mask, but that of a bizarre impostor.
But if my true identity were revealed.
What fate would await me?
I didn’t want to find out.
“Oh, and Taeo. The expeditionary force returns tomorrow.”
“The expeditionary force…?”
“Yes, reports say they’re returning after subduing the southern barbarians.”
I hadn’t heard the report.
The one who could shake my command structure—aside from Aira—was just one person.
Suddenly, a chill ran down my spine.