Chapter 94. Nightmare Time (1)
Chapter 94. Nightmare Time (1)
Pata Garbonia. Queen of the Dream Demons.
I'd waited and prayed for a chance to tear this fucking bitch apart.
Hunted by humanity simply for inheriting the Witch's Blood, she had overrun every sanctuary where I might have laid my head without fear. Sooner or later, she was going to obstruct my path forward.
I couldn't convince myself that the opportunity had truly arrived—but even so, just a little...
...just a little, I'd grown stronger thanks to Yumir's aid. I lunged at her hoping I might, at the very least, pry open a crack in her defenses.
"Just what do you think you're doing?"
Instead, the Whore crushed that hope without mercy and, in the same breath, reached straight for my mind—trying to seize it for herself.
I tried to resist the influence spreading from her, but in the end the best I could manage was to hold on to my sense of self.
It felt as though the gravity pressing down on my body had multiplied tenfold. My limbs lay sprawled against the floor, utterly unwilling to move.
"......Gabe."
Having pinned me in place, the Whore slowly closed the distance, then lowered her head and began murmuring to me.
"Don't tell me... you actually thought you could catch me off guard and do something to me?"
It was as though she had only just now figured out what I'd intended.
But the emotion that followed wasn't disappointment. It was closer to mockery.
"Ufufu~ Gabe really is such a pervert~"
Her vulgar body quivered.
Wrapping her arms around herself and hugging tight, the Whore let out a voice dripping with coquettish charm.
"You were trying to restrain my mind and do naughty things to me, weren't you? So mean~ We meet after all this time, and that's the only way you look at me. Then again, you are a man—so I suppose you couldn't help thinking all sorts of things while looking at me..."
"Shut your stinking whore-mouth, you slut."
I found the display so nauseating that I shouted the words, and the smirk painted on her lips snuffed out in an instant.
As if my words had genuinely struck a nerve.
"......Strange, isn't it. My name isn't 'whore,' it's Garbonia. Why does everyone call me that?"
"You're seriously asking? The number of men who've been through your body has got to be in the tens of thou—keuheok!!"
By then I was past caring and let my true thoughts pour out unchecked, but even that was cut short when my throat clamped shut and refused to obey.
Fucking bitch. A whore who absolutely cannot stand being called a whore.
"My, aren't we insolent. I could have sworn your disposition used to be different...."
No, it wasn't just that she hated hearing it. Was that word a raw nerve?
A heaviness settled into her voice, which until now had brimmed with nothing but composure, and as if swept along by that weight, her gaze slowly lowered.
"Then again, you've got strength that's far beyond your station. I suppose that would breed confidence."
Keu-deuk!
Garbonia seized my face with a hand from which sharp nails now jutted.
The things were practically weapons. They gouged my face without mercy, scattering blood, and before long my head was wrenched upward, her visage filling my field of vision.
"Still, you know. You are human, aren't you?"
Her smile held none of the leisure it had always carried. None of the playfulness.
She smiled coldly. Terribly coldly.
"Before demonkind, humans are nothing more than short-lived insects. Weak little things who rely on numbers alone and swagger about with no real power. A species that, despite bearing intelligence, deludes itself into thinking it stands above all others—a history rife with exploitation—and yet, now that the Demon King's Army exists and they can do nothing about it, they bleat about morality and compassion and cobble together pathetic little alliances..."
A dense killing intent radiated from her.
It pierced deeper into my skin than the nails digging into my face.
"A lowly race that doesn't know its place. Can an insect like you even begin to imagine how contemptible it looks when you start climbing up, just because you've scraped together a little power?"
Trickling lines of blood. Cold sweat beading together, tumbling down in clotted streaks.
No matter how hard I tried to suppress it, I could not hide all the psychological pressure. I realized that my actions—born of fury I could no longer endure—amounted to throwing an egg against a rock. Sheer recklessness.
"...Of course, it's that very wretchedness that makes you cute."
And yet the only reason I still breathed was sheer mercy.
Pathetic though it was.
She'd decided that even this particular irritation was endearing.
"You see, even if I worked you like a slave, it's no fun if you're just a puppet, is it? Controlling every little movement would be such a bother too... Mm, all right."
The nails withdrew from my flesh, and the Whore took hold of my chin with that same hand, forcing our eyes to meet.
The moment her irises—swirling with an uncanny colour—turned toward me, a chill swept over my entire body.
"Gabe, how about it? Why don't you become my personal pet while we're at it?"
In the sweetness of her voice, I felt the immensity of her benevolence.
Ah, yes. In this moment, she was bestowing mercy upon me. Her heart was as vast as the sea, and I perceived a saintly dignity radiating from the figure before me.
"One word is all it takes. Just one word—swear eternal loyalty..."
A woman like this—I felt I could crawl between her legs and lick her feet, and that would be acceptable.
But I understood that even this impulse was the effect of the Charm she was exerting. I wrenched my mind upright, biting down on my tongue as I held on.
"......Not a pet. A living dildo. You goddamn harlot."
Yes. No matter how many times she tried to coax me, my answer would always be the same.
As long as she intended to subjugate me without turning my mind into a vegetable—while leaving my ego intact—my response would never change.
I will never.
Whatever happens, I will never submit to her of my own will. Not to this Whore who treats humans as lower than dogs. No matter what—never.
-Smack!
The slap struck me hard, shoving my body aside. I crumpled to the floor.
Still, it was merely a physical blow.
As befitted a race that specialized in mental domination, the physical force felt no heavier than a club stuffed with cotton.
"Ah, so this was your true heart all along, was it? Here I thought you'd been quietly obeying."
But the mana radiating from her was genuine.
No matter how superhuman my strength might be, before the power she wielded it became meaningless.
She possessed the authority to render all strength impotent, and she could make even the most trivial force feel lethal.
"...Part of me would love to condition you personally."
The sting on my skin swelled into searing agony in a single moment.
As every nerve in my body convulsed madly, the Whore's gaze gradually withdrew from me.
"But as it happens, it's time for me to savor the main course."
Her interest in me dwindled.
Her attention turned once more to the three figures collapsed on the floor.
"Get your filthy hands off them—now!!"
A reflexive shout tore free, momentarily numbing even the pain—
—and in that instant, a force slammed me from behind, crushing my body back against the floor.
It wasn't Garbonia.
The attendants who had entered the mansion alongside her. Dream Demons like their mistress had subdued me for threatening their queen, and now they perched atop me, giggling.
"My, my~ Looks like our handsome oppa got quite attached to these girls while he was staying with them~ I'm almost jealous, honestly."
"......Morgana."
The moment I recognized one of the faces, a bright smile spread across her features.
"Oh my~ Dave-oppa, you remembered me? Morgana is so touched~♥"
Making a show of flirtation, Fata Morgana cupped my face in her hands.
Her aura might not match Garbonia's, but there was something unmistakably present in the way she looked at me. Interest.
Unlike Garbonia, who turned her back the instant her interest waned, Morgana's gaze told me she had business with me.
"Dave-oppa, did you know? I'd had my eye on you ever since our headquarters days. So when Lady Garbonia had you demoted and sent away, I was really disappointed. If they were going to ship you off, I wished they'd just given you to me~"
"Shut your disgusting mouth, you filthy bitch...."
"Ahh, right~ Now that the chance is right in front of me, I might as well just ask~"
Ignoring my curses, Morgana turned her attention away from me.
Then, clutching Serika's body close, she addressed Garbonia, who stood preparing her schemes.
"Lady Garbonia, may I take this one for myself?"
"Sure, do as you like~ I couldn't care less what happens to him now."
Garbonia glanced back at me, a smooth, indifferent glance.
The utter disinterest in her eyes told me she meant every word she'd just spoken.
"...Everyone but Morgana, help me here, will you?"
"Yes, Lady Garbonia~♥"
At that, the dream demons aside from Morgana—who still held me tightly—moved away.
As the power radiating from their bodies no longer saturated the space around me, strength slowly began to surge back into my limbs—still pinned beneath Morgana.
"Now—get your hands off...."
Even in this moment, I had to resist the force that was mercilessly pressing down on my mind.
"Don't touch them...."
Yes. Their journey was not meant to end in a place like this.
Neither mine—nor theirs.
We should not be made to dance in anyone's palm. We were meant to remain faithful to our mission.
So please—move.
Just a little. Enough to sink my teeth into those bastards' ankles—please...!
"Don't you worry, Dave~"
But my will was powerless against the drowsiness that flooded over me.
"I'll love you from now on, forever and ever~ You'll see—after a short nap, you'll be just fine when you wake up~"
Fata Morgana.
The potent Sleep Fragrance she exuded smothered every desperate scrap of resistance, and before long my consciousness began sinking into the darkness beyond.
Along with a honey-sweet voice and a warm embrace.
Even so, I could not shake the dread that what was about to begin would be a horrific nightmare.
***
"Ahht, ah-ahng~♥"
Yes—this is a vicious nightmare.
When I finally regained my senses and faced the scene before me, that thought took root in my head, and I could not bring myself to banish it.
"Harder, pound me harder. Everyone, ravage this vulgar body as much as you please~♥"
A woman amidst a pack of men, swinging her hips like a madwoman.
She could hardly be called young next to Serika or Yumir, but her years lent her an even more potent allure.
A woman with the same hair colour as mine, the same skin tone as mine...
"......Uh...."
Yes. It was someone...
...someone I had never once forgotten.
Hidden inside a wardrobe while she met a wretched end, she had whispered love to me and sacrificed herself.
"Mom...."
The sight of her now, swinging her hips so lewdly before my eyes—that was surely what one would call a nightmare.