Chapter 18
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 18
Chapter Title: Please Spare Me
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She straightened her back and approached me. Click-clack, click-clack. Even barefoot, her steps were haughty, as if she were wearing high heels.
Standing before Cheonwi, she lifted his chin with her slender fingers. Her cool gaze curved seductively.
"Hmmm."
She let out a soft hum from her nose.
"You're quite to my liking. That lecherous glint in your eyes... Have all thoughts of those young girls from earlier vanished?"
"I don't even remember who those girls were. Right now, all I see before me is a goddess... no, a sleek black panther."
"Oh? A black panther, you say..."
Yeonhwa licked her lips with her tongue. That simple gesture lit the fuse.
"Tonight, I'm not the one serving you. I'm the one who'll be hunted."
Cheonwi raised both hands in surrender. This was the perfect start to their role-play.
Yeonhwa flashed a bewitching smile.
"Very well. Tonight, I'm the hunter, and you're my prey."
She suddenly shoved Cheonwi's shoulder.
"Ugh!"
He offered no resistance and toppled onto the bed. His body sank into the soft bedding. Before his vision could even spin, leopard-print filled his sight. Yeonhwa had straddled his waist.
Her knees pinned his thighs, and her leopard-print-clad upper body loomed over him, threatening to pour down.
"Stay still. Tonight, I'm taking the lead."
The usual passive, prim empress was gone. She placed her hand on his chest and lightly raked her nails across his skin. A thrilling shiver raced up his spine.
"Haha, what an honor."
Cheonwi let out a blissful cry and spread his arms wide. Yeonhwa snatched his hands as he reached for the bedpost and pinned them above his head.
"I said, don't move."
Her eyes gleamed like those of a predator.
'Ah, this is driving me insane.'
Dopamine flooded his brain. This was why he loved training her. Jealousy was the ultimate spice, and leopard print was the perfect seasoning.
"Please go easy on me, my queen."
"We'll see. Depends on how delicious your moans are."
Yeonhwa leaned down and breathed hot air into Cheonwi's ear. Then she nibbled on his earlobe.
"Eek!"
"Yes, sounds like that."
She chuckled lowly. Her laughter was hot and thick enough to banish the Cold Palace's chill in an instant.
"Now, shall we begin the hunt?"
Yeonhwa's hand roughly yanked at the ties of Cheonwi's robe.
Snap.
With the sound of fabric tearing, the Cold Palace's night began to burn hot.
It was well past midnight.
The night in the Cold Palace was far deeper and darker than the day. This long-abandoned place, untouched by human feet, echoed with wind whistling over the walls like the cries of beasts. It was truly the haunted house of the Imperial Palace.
Whoooosh—.
Dry branches clashed, producing eerie sounds.
"Ugh... Senior. I really think something's here."
Rookie Eunuch A trembled as he held the torch, his eyes darting nervously to the pitch-black walls of the Cold Palace.
"Quiet! How can a eunuch have such weak nerves?"
Senior Eunuch B blustered loudly, but even his voice cracked faintly at the end. Truth be told, he found the place just as unsettling.
"But... the rumors are terrifying. They say a woman's cries echo every night, that the vengeful spirits of deposed consorts wander..."
"Shh! Shut it, you fool! Loose lips summon ghosts!"
As Eunuch B raised his hand to smack the back of A's head—
"Kyaaah!! Stay right there! I won't let you escape if I catch you!"
A shrill scream—no, a shout—tore through the night air from inside the wall. It was unmistakably a woman's voice, but laced not with resentment, but with an oddly vigorous, venomous tone.
"Eek! Did you hear that? Th-that's the Empress, isn't it?"
"H-her Majesty harbors grudges and wails every night... It's true!"
The two eunuchs paled and clutched each other's robes. They had no idea the events inside were far from 'vengeance'—a primal, heated 'love battle' instead.
The same time, inside the empress's bedroom in the Cold Palace.
Unlike the gloomy atmosphere outside, the room brimmed with sweltering heat and a lascivious fragrance. Flickering candlelight cast massive shadows on the walls.
"Don't you dare stop! You did this to me and now you're running away?"
The bed was a battlefield. More precisely, a savanna where predator chased prey.
Yeonhwa, in her leopard-print lingerie, whipped silk ribbons like lashes as she bounded across the bed. Her usual grace and poise were nowhere to be seen. Her eyes blazed like a beast locked on its quarry.
"Your Majesty! No, my queen! Please spare me! I was wrong!"
Cheonwi rolled dramatically across the bed, pretending to flee. Of course, he could subdue her in an instant if he wanted, but now was the time to stay in character.
Yeonhwa was fully immersed. The alienation and jealousy from earlier had fused with the liberating thrill of leopard print, exploding into a dominant urge to conquer.
"Where do you think you're going!"
Yeonhwa seized Cheonwi's ankle. Her grip was hot and fierce.
"Aaaah! Got me!"
As he collapsed with exaggerated screams, she pounced onto his back without missing a beat. A heavy yet soft weight pressed down.
"Caught you, you naughty bunny."
Yeonhwa panted roughly, whispering into his ear. Her sweat-damp hair tickled his nape.
"Daring to run? Time for punishment. A truly terrifying penalty."
"Punishment? What kind?"
Cheonwi turned his head, feigning terror. Yeonhwa curled her lips wickedly. Her breasts heaved provocatively over the daring leopard-print bra.
"The penalty of locking you inside me!"
"Eek! That's too harsh!"
He shuddered dramatically, but his lips betrayed him with an irrepressible grin.
"If that's the prison... I demand a life sentence, warden."
Cheonwi's cheeky retort flushed Yeonhwa's face. But she didn't back down. Instead, she smacked his rear with renewed vigor.
Smack!
"Too much talk! A criminal pays with his body, not words!"
Outside the wall again.
The bizarre thuds and groans mingling with the wind had the eunuchs on the verge of fainting.
Smack!
"Ugh!"
Thud!
"Grrr..."
The sounds from inside defied common sense.
The sharp smacks sounded like canings, the thuds like heads banging against walls. And the occasional beastly growls (really my sound effects to amp up the mood) maximized their terror.
Eunuch A collapsed, sniffling.
"Eek! A beast! Her Majesty is surely being devoured by a monster! Listen to those screams!"
"Y-you idiot! Does that sound like being eaten?"
Eunuch B shouted, hands clamped over his ears, trembling.
"Then what? Isn't it a tiger chewing on a person?"
"No! Her Majesty's possessed by a 'tiger ghost'! Didn't you hear the Cold Palace grounds were once a shrine to the Mountain Lord?"
"A t-tiger ghost?"
"Yes! Every night, the tiger ghost borrows her body to hunt! Someone inside—probably that Vice Chief Cheonwi—is being torn apart alive!"
Eunuch B's imagination flourished on fear.
"Th-then shouldn't we save her?"
"Crazy? We'd be shredded too! Tiger ghosts steal your soul with a glance!"
Stuck to the wall, unable to advance or retreat, the eunuchs endured the live broadcast of the 'death symphony' from within.
Back inside the bedroom.
The situation raced toward climax.
Yeonhwa was now a goddess donned in the hunter's guise. Her sweat-soaked leopard-print underwear clung tighter to her skin, her disheveled hair and flushed face epitomizing decadent beauty.
"Haa... haa... Cheonwi, you... you're quite resilient."
"I've got cockroach-level vitality, Your Majesty."
Cheonwi gripped her waist firmly and switched positions. Defense was over. Time for counterattack.
"Wh-what are you—!"
Yeonhwa tried to push his shoulders in panic, but she couldn't halt ignited instinct. Cheonwi gently laid her down and mounted her.
Leopard print filled his vision. Under the swaying candlelight, her eyes sparkled like jewels.
"Time for hunter and prey to switch."
"Wait, my punishment isn't over ye— Nngh!"
Cheonwi's relentless advance turned Yeonhwa's words to moans. Her back arched like a bow. Pent-up breaths burst forth, filling the room with scorching heat.
The air grew sticky. The bed creaked and groaned under fierce motion, but we heard nothing. Only each other's ragged breaths and slapping flesh filled the world.
"Cheonwi... Nngh, Cheonwi..."
Yeonhwa clawed his back, desperately calling his name. Her expression—mingled pain, pleasure, and conquest—was more provocative than any masterpiece.
Cheonwi devoured her lips, plunging deeper.
Finally, the limit arrived.
Yeonhwa's body tensed taut. She gripped his shoulders crushingly and threw her head back.
"Haaaaah—!!"
A long, piercing scream threatened to shatter the Cold Palace ceiling. It was the soul's wail, purging all suppressed emotions—a hymn of ecstasy.
"Aaaah!!"
Hearing it outside, the eunuchs freaked and hurled their torches.
"Sh-she's dead! She's gone!"
Eunuch A crawled on the ground, screaming.
"That's a death rattle! No human could make that sound! The tiger ghost finally severed her throat!"
Eunuch B's face went sheet-white. To them, Yeonhwa's high note was utterly agonized and sharp. Their inexperience forbade interpreting it as pleasure amid the horror.
"R-run! We'll be next if we stay!"
"Please spare us! The tiger ghost's coming!"
The eunuchs fled without looking back. Torches rolled and extinguished on the ground, plunging the Cold Palace entrance into pitch-black silence once more.
Only the wind whistled mockingly at their abandoned terror.