Cattle Registration (9) - Reality
Yuriathenes opened her eyes.
The soft bed, the warm air, and the familiar ceiling of her bedchamber came into view.
Yet her body still burned hot, and her breathing had not fully settled.
She slowly pushed herself upright.
Her platinum hair cascaded over her shoulders.
At once, she thought of Karsen.
“……You bastard.”
Her low voice echoed through the bedchamber.
The empress’s crimson eyes burned with pure rage.
She ground her teeth.
If he had simply finished with the declaration, that should have been enough. Instead, he had forced her to climax simply because it wasn’t sincere.
That fact sliced through her pride like a razor.
“If you made the declaration, that should have been the end of it. But…… because it wasn’t sincere, you forced……”
She raised a hand and pressed it lightly against her breast.
The moment her palm made contact, a faint shiver raced up her spine.
Her body was still reacting with painful sensitivity.
The empress clenched her jaw and rose from the bed.
Only then did she realize she had returned to reality.
She summoned her status window.
Erosion Rate: 12.1%
The empress’s eyes darkened as she read the number.
She recalled the aphrodisiac she had been given in the cattle dimension.
The drug that amplified sexual sensitivity up to forty times.
If her current erosion rate was 12.1%, a simple calculation suggested her body was roughly five times more sensitive than normal.
Already, even the slightest stimulation made her react far too easily.
A flicker of anxiety stirred in the empress’s chest.
If this state continued, maintaining her role as emperor in the real world would grow increasingly difficult.
She sat on the edge of the bed for a long time, steadying her breath.
Then, through gritted teeth, she muttered,
“……I cannot allow this to continue.”
The next morning at dawn, the empress opened her eyes in her bedchamber.
She immediately checked her status window.
Just as she had expected, a new erosion control quest had appeared.
Erosion Control Quest
Condition: During the morning court session, cross and uncross your legs at least three times in a slow, deliberate manner.
Success: Erosion Rate decreases by 1%
Failure: None
The empress frowned the instant she read the details.
Cross and uncross her legs during the court session?
It was an utterly humiliating quest.
Yet at the same time, she felt a strange sense of relief.
The fact that it would happen in front of her vassals, and that she could mask it behind the act of an arrogant empress, gave her some small comfort.
She rose from the bed and gazed out the window.
The morning court session would begin soon.
She clenched her jaw and prepared the haughty expression of an iron-blooded ruler.
The morning court session began.
Although she had declared only the day before that all state affairs reports would be centralized through the Minister of State, she attended in person on the first day under the pretext of it being the inaugural session.
The ministers showed faint surprise at her appearance, but soon continued their reports with careful deference.
The empress sat upon the throne and slowly crossed her legs.
The motion was deliberately slow and fluid.
Her thighs brushed together, and the line of her legs was faintly revealed beneath the thin silk of her skirt.
She rested one leg over the other and lightly swung her ankle.
The sight was both arrogant and strangely sensual.
A subtle ripple of unrest spread among the ministers.
Some averted their eyes by pretending to study their reports, while others cleared their throats and lowered their heads.
Yet the majority of their gazes remained fixed on the empress’s legs.
They tried desperately not to notice her long, slender limbs or the soft curve of her inner thighs that peeked out whenever she uncrossed them.
The empress felt every one of their reactions, yet her expression never wavered.
She played the role of the arrogant empress to perfection.
Slowly, she uncrossed her legs.
This time even more languidly. Even more deliberately.
The way her skirt hem brushed against her thighs as it slid down created a faint tension that filled the entire audience chamber.
Several ministers swallowed unconsciously even as they continued their reports.
Inside, the empress ground her teeth.
To think I’m reduced to doing something like this……
She tried to console herself.
This was merely an act.
Nothing more than a role she had to play in order to survive as emperor.
Yet every time she crossed and uncrossed her legs, the knowledge that her body was being exposed bit by bit weighed heavily on her chest.
Once more, she slowly crossed her legs.
This time she swung her ankle lightly, revealing the space between her thighs in an even more precarious way.
Multiple soft coughs broke out among the ministers.
Some turned their heads to stare out the window, while others gripped their documents so tightly their knuckles turned white.
The empress took in every reaction, yet she maintained her icy expression until the very end.
The moment she completed the third motion, a status window appeared before her eyes.
Erosion Rate decreased by 1%
The empress let out a silent sigh of relief.
Yet outwardly, she remained the very picture of an arrogant sovereign.
After the session ended and the ministers had withdrawn, the empress remained alone on the throne.
She slowly crossed and uncrossed her legs once more.
Then she murmured in a low voice,
“……How long can I endure…… doing something like this.”
Her voice carried a faint trace of exhaustion and self-loathing that had nothing to do with the haughty empress she pretended to be.
A sense of helplessness flooded her chest.
The real-world quests showed her no mercy whatsoever.
Simply crossing and uncrossing her legs in front of her vassals was already humiliating enough, yet the system demanded it without the slightest hesitation.
The empress pressed a hand to her forehead.
If things continued like this, the throne she had fought tooth and nail to claim could be in jeopardy within a week. That grim realization weighed heavily on her mind.
She clenched her jaw.
If this state persisted, she would eventually be unable to properly fulfill her duties as emperor.
And at that moment, a scene flashed through her mind.
The Imperial Guard Loyalty Oath Ceremony.
Thousands of imperial guards and high-ranking generals standing in formation within the grand audience hall, while the empress sat upon the throne receiving their allegiance.
She had tried to begin her speech with a cold expression.
But because her body had grown so sensitive, her voice trembled faintly.
She had gritted her teeth and held on.
Yet she could not stop the climax from coming.
Her waist trembled slightly. Her legs went numb.
Seated upon the throne, she struggled to keep her expression composed.
But her body began to shake uncontrollably, and in the end a small but unmistakable moan slipped from between her lips.
“……Hah……!”
The grand hall froze in an instant.
Thousands of soldiers and generals turned to stare at her as one.
She had clenched her teeth and curled in on herself, but the climax had already crashed over her.
Her waist convulsed. Her legs trembled violently.
Leaning back against the throne, her face flushed crimson as her body shook.
Imperial Guard Commander Teos stared at her with a look of utter shock.
The high-ranking generals exchanged glances and began to whisper among themselves.
The moment she witnessed that scene, the empress felt her entire political foundation crumbling in the blink of an eye.
The military and the Imperial Guard.
They were the forces she had trusted and relied upon more than any other.
The terror of them no longer seeing her as the Iron-Blooded Empress, but as a woman who could not even control her own body, crushed her heart.
The empress remained slumped against the throne for a long time, struggling to steady her breathing.
She swore to herself that she would complete the quests as quickly as possible.
The moment she located the slave training center, she intended to destroy it completely.
She had already placed repeated pressure on Chilheok.
That was why she had extracted a shortened promise from them: within three days, they would report back on the whereabouts of the platinum-haired, crimson-eyed slave and the slave trainer named Karsen.
Once those three days passed, she clung to the hope that she could annihilate them all.
When afternoon came, the empress entered her private study.
She sat at her desk and began working through the mountain of state documents one by one.
Her hands moved busily, but her mind kept drifting elsewhere.
In her rise to the throne, she had performed countless acts.
Before political enemies, before traitors, even before her own siblings, she had always maintained the image of a cold and powerful emperor.
She tried to console herself.
This, too, was simply another performance.
The shame and fear she felt in this moment were ultimately nothing more than a role.
She struggled to convince herself of that.
Yet she could not stop the faint trembling in her fingertips.
It was then that the space began to distort.
The empress’s eyes widened.
She planted her hands on the desk and tried to stand, but it was already too late.
The world twisted, and cold air brushed across her skin.
In an instant, her body was transported to the cold stone floor of the prison.
“……!”
The empress clenched her teeth.
She had grown familiar with this sensation.
The unpleasant yet now-familiar feeling of being dragged from reality into the cattle dimension.
She slowly pushed herself upright.
The chastity belt and nipple clamps were already fastened to her body.
A collar tightened around her throat.
The empress lifted her head.
Karsen stood before the iron bars, looking down at her.