14. Ventorino Kingdom - Collapse or Fall (16)
Something was wrong.
And he wasn't an idiot. He was not foolish enough to swallow this glaringly absurd situation and force himself to accept it for some ridiculous reason. That was precisely why it felt even more outrageous, even harder to understand. It was so blatant that, if anything, he almost wondered whether he was the one who had misread it.
And yet Lloyd could hear it clearly.
Slurp, slurp, chuup, churrrrrp... ah-up, hngh, hnn! Uu, hvee...♥
The obscene sound of something being sucked, echoing pornographically from beneath the dining table.
"......"
"Lord Lloyd? Why have you suddenly stood up from your seat?"
"......Do you take me for a fool?"
"Pardon? I'm not sure what you mean..."
"I asked if you think I'm a fool!! You too!! And Clara, toooo!!"
Lloyd shouted that with bloodshot eyes.
He could not endure it any longer.
He had desperately averted his eyes until now, but it was time to face the truth.
Then Valdes suddenly burst out laughing.
"Puhahahaha!"
"...You're laughing?"
Lloyd's face twisted at the absurdity of it all.
Of course, he had never expected Valdes or Clara to apologize or admit fault. But at the very least, he had thought they might make an excuse, or deny it. Lloyd realized almost at once that was a mistake.
Come to think of it, if they had planned to do any of that, they would never have gone and committed something this insane in the first place.
"How could I not laugh? This whole situation is hilarious."
"W-what? You... how dare you speak to me so casually—"
"Pfft. See? It's funny even now. In a situation like this, is that really what's important?"
"......"
Lloyd was left speechless.
He wasn't wrong. But hearing the man himself say it only made Lloyd want to scream. What's more, Clara still hadn't come out from under the table. If anything, the only thing reaching his ears was the blatant, shameless sound of her sucking, as though she were making sure he heard every second of it.
"Grrr! ...I'll make sure the royal family and Ulstro hear about this."
"That's it?"
"...What?"
"They stole your woman... and you're just going to complain about it?"
"Y-you, you insane bastard..."
His head was starting to swim. He was angry enough to go mad himself. He wanted to swing a fist straight into that demon-blooded bastard's face. No—he wanted to draw the knife the way he had in the basement before coming here and carve it into that thing's gut.
But he couldn't.
All he could do was vent his rage inward and tremble all over. The fiancée he had loved so dearly was cheating on him with a lowborn half-demon he had never even considered human, and now she was flaunting it right in front of him.
And still Lloyd did not move.
For better or worse, he was a noble through and through: calculating, and forever trying to secure practical gain through a proper pretext.
"......"
"Worthless bastard. No wonder you can't do anything right."
"What? You fucking—"
"Does it feel like shit? Having your fiancée stolen by someone you never even treated as a person?"
"......"
"That look in your eyes says it all. Deep hatred for the two of us. Loathing. Rage."
Valdes broke off in the middle of speaking and snickered. He looked like a truly vile villain. To Lloyd, he might as well have been one. Right now, that half-demon looked more like a thing than a person. Just like the countless demons that had once waged war against the kingdom more than twenty years ago.
Lloyd ground his teeth. He couldn't afford to listen to a single word that creature said. He wasn't about to do anything here and now. He could never beat him in a simple contest of emotion. So if he wasn't going to leave this place immediately, he would have to choose another approach.
"Clara...."
Chuup, churrrp, slup...
"Can you hear me?"
For the first time, he addressed his fiancée without honorifics. Lloyd was older than Clara, who was only twenty. And yet he had never once spoken to her that way before. It wasn't only because of rank; it had also been his way of showing how much he respected her.
But now he spoke to her plainly. Not because he meant to show disrespect, but because he wanted to come at her more familiarly, earn her sympathy, and stir up some other emotion in her.
"I-I... believe in you..."
"Smooch, mwah, yes, hahh... hngh♥"
"You would never betray me. Yes, never. There must be a reason."
"Sluuurp-slurp, yes, huff, ah, fuhaaang...!"
"You must have been caught by some huge weakness, or else... right. That piece of trash probably used some strange magic! Filthy demon magic! Maybe a drug!"
"Hnn, hnn, heh-urp, hnn, churrrrrp..."
"So, so please! Please just tell me..."
"Haaah, mm, chuup..."
"......"
"Ugh, khh! I'm cumming, Clara!"
Lloyd stopped speaking.
In his ears came the unmistakable, throaty sound of a large volume of liquid being gulped down. He couldn't believe that thing was swallowing semen with that pretty mouth of hers, much less that such a ridiculous amount could come out of him.
"Hngh! Mm, nghh... gulp, gulp."
"......"
"Phaaah... heh, hehehe...♥"
"You, you fucking—!!"
Bang!!
The enraged man's fist slammed into the tabletop. The tablecloth flew askew, and the many dishes and utensils laid out upon it scattered in all directions, crashing to the floor below.
Listen to me!! I'm telling you to listen to me, you bitch!!
"......"
Lloyd poured the rage that had been piling up inside his chest out of his mouth without a shred of restraint.
Did it work? The space beneath the table went quiet.
For a moment he thought, Wait. This was the first time he had ever exposed his true feelings so openly. More than that, he worried Clara might have been hurt. Not because he was worried about his fiancée, but because if she had been injured, it could become a political problem.
But his concern was pointless.
Soon, a silhouette appeared from beneath the table.
"Haaa... you're really loud, Lloyd."
"You, you, you!!"
"Didn't I tell you that you're loud?"
"Ugh...!"
Her expression was cold to the bone.
It was the same look he had seen far too often lately.
Clara had always had sharp, chilly features to begin with. But when a woman like that deliberately wrinkled her brow, the effect was terrifying. Though he had been betrayed, Lloyd still carried feelings for her in his heart, and so he reflexively clamped his mouth shut before her words.
"Honestly, how rude. You come into the dining room and start bellowing. Then you slam the table and make a mess of everything."
"W-what? Y-you insane...! T-there's no way that's what you should be saying!"
"Of course it's what I should be saying. This is my mansion. That makes me the owner, doesn't it?"
"Ha...! Ha...!"
He was so dumbfounded that the back of his neck began to ache. What the hell kind of shamelessness was this?
"Oh, I see... Right. Magic, drugs—that kind of thing couldn't be it. There was no way it could be something that easy. So... you really did betray me."
"That's right. I did. And honestly... you're just so unbelievably lousy."
"...What?"
"My, pretending not to hear me. Shall I say it again? You. Are. Just. So. Very. Lousy."
"W-what is that supposed to...?"
His head was spinning.
Clara's tone, as if she were the one who had been wronged, felt utterly foreign. Why should he be the one hearing this?
Lloyd squeezed the back of his neck to steady the throbbing in his head, closed his eyes, and tried to calm himself. If he had to listen, then so be it, but if he kept looking at the two of them, his anger would only get worse.
"Well, I know I did something wrong."
"......"
"But there's nothing I can do about it, is there?"
"...?"
"When such an overwhelmingly superior male comes all the way here wanting a shameless little female like me... how could I possibly refuse? Ah, hngh..."
Then her next words left him so stunned he opened his eyes again.
"Fuck, what the hell are you—?!"
And he was horrified.
"Haaah, mm... Ah, M-Master. R-right here...♥"
"Don't act like you hate it. You're soaked down there."
"Hahngh, well... I don't want to show myself to some guy like that..."
"......"
Even though he could see it with his own eyes, he still couldn't believe what he was looking at. The two of them seemed to be saying something back and forth, but he couldn't hear a word of it. All his nerves had narrowed to the staring lenses in front of him.
Clara had always dressed in ornate, stylish gowns that showed very little skin. And the kiss they had shared had been her first. He remembered it clearly—the fresh, almost innocent look she had worn at the time, as though she were overflowing with pure maidenly beauty.
That was why this was so impossible to believe.
His beloved fiancée had lowered the strap of the dress on her right shoulder, exposing her plump, alluring breast, then hoisted the skirt of her dress all the way up to her waist so that her panties were on full display, leaving that private place in the care of that thing.
"Hngh, lo-look at him.... That filthy gaze of his. He can't do anything at all, and he's still staring all over my body with bloodshot eyes."
"......"
"Isn't he disgusting? And look at him, straining to get it up with that tiny little thing... pfft."
"A body like mine, which he'll never get to touch for the rest of his life... I might as well let him enjoy the view."
"Haaah...♥ You're too much, Master..."
"M-Master?"
Clara had already said that word before, but only now did it truly pierce Lloyd's ears.
Master.
It was not a word that should ever have come out of the mouth of a princess of a nation. And yet it fit. It suited perfectly that filthy, obscene woman's mouth. At the same time, one memory flashed through his mind.
"M-Master... c-could it be that yesterday..."
Without realizing it, Lloyd pointed at the two of them.
"Hm? What is it? You still hadn't figured that out?"
"Ugh...! Mm, hhhhaaangh♥ I, I already t-told you.... That he was a truly, hngh! stupid and foolish man..."
"N-no way... then that... that was... t-there were two of you...?"
The scene burned itself into his mind: the image that had made his own member swell harder than ever before. Filthy, yet so indecently arousing that it had filled him with self-disgust. It had been the two of them together—his most beloved woman and the man he didn't even regard as human.
His consciousness began to blur.
"A-ah..."
He lost his balance, staggered, and braced himself against the table with one arm.
Now that he thought about it, there had been plenty of reasons to doubt it. Even if he had gotten lost inside the mansion, it made no sense for it to take him that long. It was strange that he had never encountered a servant until then, and the place that had been sweating and reeking so obscenely of lust had not been his imagination either.
"......"
That was it.
Lloyd grabbed the knife from the table. And in one swift motion, he drove it toward Valdes's throat.
Thud.
"Ugh...! W-what are you...!"
But he could only manage a single step. His body would not move any farther than that. Not just his legs, but his arms, his head, his whole body. Nothing moved at all. Only his pupils shook as they remained fixed on those two.
"How foolish. Did you really think I would bring you here without a plan? You can't do anything."
"Khh! Grrk!!"
He strained with all his might to move, but his damn body refused to budge.
"And I'm not just talking about here. Even after you leave this place, there won't be a thing you can do."
"D-don't make me laugh!! No matter what strange trick you use, once I get out of here—"
"Yes, you'll try everything you can."
A hideously malicious smile spread across Valdes's face.
Even Lloyd, consumed by rage, flinched and fell silent at the sight of it. He had never seen such an expression before. It was terrifying enough that he wondered if the Demon King who intended to destroy the world would wear a face like that.
"But that thought won't last long. Because I'll... break your mind completely."
"W-what...?"
"Since things have come to this, I want to test just how far I can push you."
"......?"
"If I keep stimulating your head with mental magic while you keep suffering the pain of having your woman and your family taken away... how insane will you become?"
"A... a... ah..."
Despair began to seep slowly across Lloyd's face.
That wasn't a joke.
It wasn't a threat, either.
The man really had the power to do it.
The power to shatter a person's mind.
That thing was a demon. A demon.
"N-no... please... save me..."
Valdes smirked.
"Save you from what? I'm not planning to kill you."
"Y-you bastard!! What the hell did I do that was so wrong?! I've lived my life honestly this whole time!!"
"Well, maybe half of it isn't your fault... but you don't feel even a little guilty?"
"I don't know!! I don't care about any of that!!"
"The basement, too?"
"What does that have to do with anything!! I can't understand it at all!! Those damn demons!! Those damn half-breeds!! Those damned mixed-race freaks!! They're no different from mere monsters, are they?! They're not human!! They're just living objects, that's all!!"
"Hah..."
"Everyone else feels the same anyway!! It's just a matter of handling objects well, that's all!! Even if dozens or hundreds of them get broken, it's no different from shattering a vase!!"
"You're really... beyond saving, aren't you?"
Valdes shook his head while running his hands endlessly over Clara's breasts and mound. He was worse than Lloyd had expected. Especially the part where he said everyone else felt the same—that sounded sincere. If so, then there was only one thing left for him to do.
"Look forward to it. Clara will decide whether the engagement gets broken or not... but I'll keep showing you from time to time."
"A-a-aaaaah!!"
The dining room was sealed shut.
Before long, it was filled with the horrible screams of one young man and the lewd sounds of a man and woman entangled together in filth. And after not much time at all, the screams faded, leaving only the sticky, wet sounds ringing out again and again.