Chapter 20

Grondil stared at the massive iron cages stretching endlessly down both sides of the corridor and pondered.

Should I call them bold?

Or do they simply have an incredibly sticky, corrupt alliance with the authorities?

It’s probably both.

The Baron Merchant Guild. Because they were so notoriously infamous, snippets of intelligence frequently reached Grondil’s ears despite his profound apathy toward worldly affairs. It was a guild surrounded by an extreme, disproportionate amount of horrific rumors compared to positive ones.

He had briefly wondered exactly what kind of degenerate, psychotic atrocities they were committing for the rumors to travel all the way to the Principality, but he had quickly lost interest. He was far too busy indulging in beautiful, pleasant things to rot his ears with the filthy exploits of some pathetic merchant guild.

And his brief curiosity had been instantly satisfied anyway. “Malicious rumors” regarding a merchant guild invariably translated to violating basic business ethics and executing highly illegal transactions.

And the nature of those illegal transactions was glaringly obvious. Human trafficking, smuggling endangered species, and the like.

Therefore, Grondil’s footsteps as he strolled down the backstage corridor were remarkably light. No, they had been light.

“What the hell is this?”

Grondil had been peering into the cages lining the walls one by one, mildly anticipating exactly what pathetic, trembling state he would find his foolish, soft little escort knight in. However, as he continued his inspection, fine cracks of genuine disgust began to fracture his composed expression.

That counterfeit beastkin they paraded on stage earlier… was actually the most well-treated merchandise they had.

Realizing exactly why the pathways between the participant seating and the backstage holding area were so meticulously and aggressively segregated, Grondil clicked his tongue in profound disgust.

The iron cages were barely a meter high. Unless the occupant was a small child, standing upright was physically impossible. Consequently, every single living creature trapped inside the cages was either forced to crawl on its stomach or lie completely flat. Occasionally, he spotted cages slightly taller than a meter, designed exclusively for massive monsters that couldn’t possibly be contained in the standard cages, even when forced to lie down.

He scoffed in disbelief at the sheer variety of abominations they were selling. Every single creation of the Supreme God, Aquila, inherently possessed duality. Since God Himself encompassed both absolute light and absolute darkness, it was an inevitable truth that the lifeforms sculpted by His hands mirrored that duality.

However, one specific species exhibited this duality to a horrifying, extreme degree. The second creation of God: Humans. While exceptions existed, the overwhelming majority leaned heavily toward the darkness. And it seemed the Baron Merchant Guild had aggressively concentrated the absolute worst, most extreme dregs of humanity into one organization, casually perpetrating atrocities so vile they defied comprehension.

Trapped inside the oppressively dark cages, a centaur, a mermaid, and a unicorn let out grotesque, agonizing moans. To normal human eyes, one might wonder what mythical forest these legendary creatures had been captured from, but they couldn’t deceive Grondil’s absolute vision.

The centaur was a horrific chimera, created by brutally suturing the upper torso of a human onto the lower body of a massive draft horse. The mermaid was a human whose legs had been horrifically burned and fused together, the gruesome scarring concealed beneath layers of dense, heavy tattoos. The unicorn was simply a normal horse with the severed horn of a narwhal expertly grafted onto its forehead.

It was a despicable, unspeakable atrocity committed against both humans and animals alike. Merely looking at them induced profound nausea. The chimera collapsed on the floor was barely breathing, and the water in the mermaid’s tank was sickeningly murky, fouled by the blood and pus weeping from the fused burn wounds. The unicorn was violently slamming its head against the iron bars, desperately trying to snap the parasitic horn off its own skull.

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call this place the Devil’s personal collection. Even if Grondil were to release them right now, their probability of surviving in the outside world converged absolutely on 0%. Therefore, granting them a swift, painless death would be the ultimate salvation.

Grondil tapped his fingertips together rhythmically and continued scanning the remaining cages. First and foremost, he needed to locate his chick.

“His name was… Lino Cliff, correct?”

Grondil absolutely never made a habit of memorizing the names of things he didn’t care about. Even phrased as a question, the fact that he actually spoke his escort knight’s name aloud was absolute proof that he harbored a significant interest in Lino.

“Lino Cliff.”

Grondil’s voice echoed down the long, suffocating corridor, cutting through the bizarre, agonizing moans. Though he murmured it softly, almost like a passing thought, his voice miraculously penetrated every single corner of the deep corridor, slipping into every iron cage as clearly as if he had whispered it directly into their ears.

And from far away, in a cage shoved into the absolute deepest corner of the corridor, a faint, choked gasp echoed back. Hngh—

“There he is.”

Despite the horrific cacophony of agonizing moans bleeding from dozens of cages, Grondil supernaturally isolated and identified Lino’s short, hazy whimper with terrifying precision. Abandoning his leisurely stroll, he rapidly closed the distance, heading straight for the cage where Lino’s voice had originated. Though his pace had accelerated, his footsteps remained entirely silent. In a flash, he stood before the cage.

“Sir Lino Cliff?”

The whimpering definitely belonged to his escort knight, but Lino only managed to produce faint, pained groans. A coherent reply like Yes? or Who is it? never came.

“Are you injured? Did they beat you?”

Grondil bent at the waist, peering deeply into the dark iron cage. It was partially because this cage, like the others, was only a meter high, but he would have had to lean down regardless to properly inspect Lino, who was collapsed weakly on the floor.

Because Grondil was overwhelmingly tall, merely bending at the waist proved entirely insufficient to achieve a satisfactory view. Ultimately, he dropped down to one knee. This lower vantage point finally allowed him to properly assess Lino’s condition.

“My, I fully expected them to have shattered a few of your bones… Sir Disson must have truly despised you. To think he would orchestrate something this cute.”

“Ugh, hnn…”

While he couldn’t formulate a proper response, Lino had clearly heard Grondil’s voice, as his body began to react weakly. His eyelids, which had been squeezed tightly shut, fluttered frantically and pried themselves halfway open. His clouded, entirely unfocused green eyes sluggishly tracked toward the source of Grondil’s voice.

“Your… H-Highness… hnn…”

“Shh. I can deduce exactly what they did to you, so there is no need to force yourself to speak.”

“……”

Barely able to breathe, let alone speak, Lino simply blinked his eyes slowly in agreement.

“You want to get out, correct?”

Blink.

Yes.

“You want to get out, wash yourself clean, and collapse into bed, don’t you?”

Blink, blink.

Ah, absolutely.

“How about we get you out, wash you clean, lay you in bed, and then you have sex with me?”

Blink, bli…?

Ex… cuse me…?

Desperate to escape, scrub himself clean, and sleep for a week, Lino had been fully prepared to blink frantically in agreement to Grondil’s incredibly obvious questions.

However, his eyes—which he had barely managed to keep half-open due to the myriad of unspeakable agonies wracking his body—instantly blew wide open in sheer horror. Did I mishear him? Why did ‘sex’ suddenly pop up after ‘lying in bed’? And with this man?!

Shocked to his core, Lino actually managed to lift his heavy head to stare incredulously at Grondil. As he did, a thick bead of cold sweat rolled down his forehead. Hanging precariously from his eyelashes for a millisecond, the heavy droplet plunged directly into Lino’s eye. The salt-laden sweat viciously stung his eyeball, causing Lino to blink frantically and repeatedly in agony.

It was a completely involuntary physical reflex. His entire body was already hypersensitive due to the potent drugs. If a single drop of sweat felt like actual battery acid burning his cornea, his eyes were undoubtedly hyper-sensitized as well.

Smirk.

The subtle curve of Grondil’s lips widened into a brilliant, silent smile, exposing his pristine white teeth. Despite Lino’s vision being severely blurred by the raging fever and the burning pain in his eye, Grondil’s smile was terrifyingly crisp and clear. The elongated, unnaturally sharp canines—which looked distinctly non-human—seemed to glint with a bizarre, predatory light.

“If you desire me this intensely, I suppose I have no choice but to rescue you immediately.”

No, I absolutely do not. I wasn’t blinking because I want to have sex with Your Highness; I blinked because sweat got in my fucking eye—

He desperately wanted to firmly and unequivocally clarify the massive misunderstanding. Tragically, due to the severe fever from the flu aggressively compounding with the skyrocketing heat induced by the unidentified drug, Lino’s throat was utterly incapable of squeezing out a single coherent syllable. Whatever potent chemical they had soaked into the gag had completely paralyzed his tongue. In truth, before the Duke arrived, Lino had been lying there with his mouth hanging wide open, drooling pathetically onto the floor. Right now, he was utilizing every ounce of his remaining willpower just to keep his jaw clamped shut.

“It must have been incredibly difficult being trapped in such an unsanitary environment. Hmm, shall we get you off once while washing up before we move to the bed?”

Get what off? What exactly are we getting off? I absolutely refuse.

“Ah, ngnh…!”

Desperately trying to scream I refuse with all his might, Lino failed to produce even a single syllable. Instead, the saliva he had been desperately hoarding in his mouth spilled out in a thick, pathetic string. The sheer volume of saliva that had accumulated in that short time was massive, pooling heavily on his chin before dripping down and staining the floor of the iron cage.

“Does looking at me truly make your mouth water that much? Why are you drooling so heavily?”

“……”

Forced to channel all his energy back into clamping his jaw shut, Lino couldn’t make a sound and was forced to endure Grondil’s absolute bullshit in silence. Seeing Lino fall silent again, Grondil practically vibrated with predatory excitement, pressing his massive body flush against the iron cage like a male dog in rut spotting a bitch. He gripped two of the thick iron bars, one in each hand, and effortlessly pulled them apart.

Screeeech.

The heavy iron bars, easily as thick as a grown man’s forearm, bent and warped in Grondil’s grip as easily as plastic straws. Lino stared in absolute, unadulterated horror, his gaze snapping frantically between Grondil’s hands and the iron bars that were twisting, warping, and ultimately snapping entirely off with a loud crack.

Smiling brightly, Grondil casually tossed the shattered iron bars behind him.

“Why do you look so terrified? Ah, this? Do not worry. I promise I will not do this to your precious equipment, Sir Cliff.”

Is my brain hallucinating this? Completely forgetting that he wasn’t supposed to blink, Lino’s eyelashes fluttered frantically in sheer terror.

“As long as you obey me perfectly, nothing like this will ever happen to you.”

So, if I don’t obey perfectly, you’re going to snap my dick off like that iron bar…?

A horrifying chill violently raked down Lino’s spine. The intense erection that had been throbbing painfully due to the aphrodisiac instantly shriveled, and his broad shoulders trembled violently. Earlier, he had been trembling from pain; now, he was trembling because he genuinely believed his cock was about to be snapped in half and tossed onto the floor like a broken pipe.

“Are you truly this ecstatic just hearing me say it? I assure you, the real thing will feel infinitely better. Now, let us return.”

Willfully misinterpreting Lino’s violent, terror-induced shivering as overwhelming anticipation, Grondil effortlessly ripped away the remaining iron bars obstructing his path. CLANG, CLANG— The heavy thuds of the shattered bars hitting the floor echoed down the corridor, and a moment later, Lino was lifted effortlessly from the cage, cradled securely in Grondil’s massive arms.

“Hah, ugh…”

“Hmm? Why are you leaking so much everywhere? On the first day, you leaked a laugh and earned Sir Disson’s undying hatred, and today you’re leaking sweat, leaking drool…”

Lino had desperately tried to gather enough strength to assert that he could walk on his own, but as Grondil suddenly tilted his head down to stare directly into Lino’s eyes, Lino immediately clamped his mouth shut. The smile hanging on the Duke’s lips hadn’t changed at all. Yet, somehow, it felt unspeakably terrifying, raising a fresh wave of goosebumps across Lino’s skin.

“While it is incredibly pathetic that my escort knight is so utterly clumsy and prone to leaking, if you prove capable of beautifully leaking other things for me, I am more than willing to view it as endearing.”

Other things? What other things?

Lino’s terrified, anxious gaze darted frantically between Grondil’s lips and jaw, waiting in sheer dread for the continuation. His green eyes trembled violently because his instincts screamed that whatever words left the Duke’s mouth next were going to be absolutely horrific.

Finding Lino’s terrified, shaking gaze immensely adorable, Grondil let out a low, rumbling chuckle and lowered his head further. He leaned in, pressing his lips practically flush against Lino’s ear, and whispered as if imparting highly classified state secrets.

“It means that if you leak semen for me until your balls are completely hollow, I will cherish you far more beautifully than I ever did Sir Disson.”

“……”

Was… was the Duke always this kind of person?

Lino stared blankly at the Duke’s long, silver-gray hair currently obstructing his entire field of vision. He desperately wanted to check the Duke’s expression, but because the man’s face was buried so deeply into his neck, all Lino could see was that glorious hair that looked exactly like storm clouds heavy with snow.

The Duke pressed his lips against the corner of Lino’s eye. Because Lino’s skin was absolutely drenched in a mixture of sweat and unshed tears, the contact was sickeningly wet.

Yet, despite the dampness, Lino felt as though the exact spot where the Duke’s lips touched had been branded with a branding iron. It was scientifically impossible for human lips to be hot enough to inflict actual burns, but in that agonizingly prolonged second, it felt exactly like being scorched. Perhaps, in that exact moment, Lino subconsciously realized that this single kiss marked the precise point where his life was violently derailed into an unimaginable, terrifying trajectory.

Ah, I have absolutely no idea what the hell is happening… but I am one hundred percent certain my life is now completely, irrevocably fucked.

Staring blankly ahead, Lino blinked slowly. A single drop of moisture—whether sweat or a tear, he couldn’t tell—that had pooled in the corner of his eye broke free and rolled slowly down his cheek. Grondil, whose lips were still pressed firmly against Lino’s eye, let out a soft, breathy chuckle before extending his tongue. He slowly, deliberately licked the transparent trail of moisture all the way up Lino’s cheek. Once again, the touch of the Duke’s tongue felt as though it were scorching Lino’s skin down to the bone.