How a Villainous Sub-Bottom Survives 22

“Ah!”

I panicked and pulled my hand out. It was strange to put my hand inside my own body, and the sensation of my inner walls felt unfamiliar. But I couldn’t give up just because it felt foreign.

I tried inserting my finger again. But this time, as soon as I felt it going in, I pulled it out.

“Haa, aang. Haaat. What do I do….”

While I was stuck in this dilemma, the painful excitement grew even stronger. With no solution in sight, tears welled up in my eyes when I heard Hereis’s voice.

“Shall I help you?”

“N-no. I’m fi—. Aaang!”

The rotor gradually burrowed deeper inside, stimulating something on my inner walls. At that moment, my vision went white and my body stiffened with a tingling sensation, as if struck by lightning.

“It seems to be a small device, and as time passes, it will embed itself deeper, making it difficult for you to remove it yourself. Moreover, if you keep releasing pheromones and making those sounds like that… Honestly, it’s stimulating.”

Color seeped into his voice at the end of his dry delivery. He let out a low sigh before continuing.

“For both our sakes, it would be best to quickly resolve this situation, don’t you think?”

“Th-then pl-please, aaat…. Help me.”

I was struggling like this too. Moreover, the device that kept burrowing deeper inside felt frightening. Hereis approached me again and had me lie face down.

“Aaaaugh!”

“It’s alright. This will be over soon.”

He gently stroked my lower back. As soon as Hereis’s hand touched me, the fear and pain disappeared, and only pure, hazy pleasure consumed my body.

“Aa, uut, aang, aang. Uu, ha, haaang.”

The moment his cold fingers entered my inner walls, I felt good. My entire body became hazy and melted languidly, and my head, which had been stiffly raised in tension, slowly lowered to the floor.

“It’s done.”

At the low voice, my mind snapped to attention. Before I knew it, the object that had been vibrating against my inner walls and driving me to artificial excitement had disappeared, and I was even perfectly dressed in my pants.

As I recalled how, the moment his fingers entered me, I had abandoned any thought of restraint and scattered moans freely while surrendering my body to excitement, belated embarrassment rushed over me and my face burst into flames.

I was so embarrassed I wanted to disappear on the spot. I clasped my hands together and bowed my head deeply, covering my face, when Hereis gently grasped my body and lifted me up.

In his hand was a piece of wood about the size of a thumb. It was an object that looked almost identical to a rotor, and though the vibration had stopped, I could tell this was what had been inside me.

“What would you like to do with this?”

Hearing his polite tone as if nothing had happened made me even more embarrassed, and my neck and ears flushed red.

“I-I’ll throw it away.”

“Understood.”

With his response, the rotor vanished without a trace. It was truly befitting of Hereis the mage, said to compete for first place in skill with Silang.

“Th-thank you.”

I bowed my head deeply in greeting. I had shown him every embarrassing sight possible. I was too mortified to even face him.

“Now will you tell me? How did you know my name?”

He asked in a low voice.

It was a statement confirming that the disgraceful behavior I had just shown was outside his interest, that he was only curious about how I knew his name, that finding that out was his purpose, and that he had only helped me for that reason.

I desperately wanted to tell him everything right away and send him off. I wanted to part ways like this and bury it as dark history, never to meet again. But I couldn’t do that.

How could I say that this place was actually the world inside a BL novel called <Three Crowns>, and that I knew his name because I had read the novel? The moment I did, I’d be branded as crazy. If I was lucky, I’d just get cursed at, but I might end up marked by the Lord of Darkness.

As I kept my mouth shut and pondered a plausible reason, Hereis let out a quiet sigh.

“Fine. It doesn’t matter if you don’t tell me. I’ll find out myself. In any case, since my true name has been called, I will perform the rite.”

“…Rite?”

A ‘rite’? The eerie connotation of the word ‘rite’ made my blood run cold, when Hereis knelt on one knee before me.

“I, Hereis, take Rosenthal Chendewden as my companion and swear to devote my life to protecting them until one of our lives ends.”

“C-companion?!”

What kind of nonsense is this after being so gentlemanly! I looked at him in shock when he approached me.

“Excuse me.”

“What?”

His lips overlapped mine, which had fallen open in confusion. His lips were so cold that I flinched in surprise. The tongue that invaded my mouth was also cool like ice cream. As Hereis’s breath came over, my body, which had briefly calmed down, began to heat up and boil again. My consciousness blurred in the heat that was both chilling and hot and hazy.

***

My body was hot and my throat was parched and burning.

“Raki, some water please….”

“Here you are.”

The moment I heard the low, polite voice, my eyes flew open.

“Hereis….”

“Please drink.”

Hereis lifted me up and handed me a glass. I looked around in shock. This was the bedroom in the detached palace. But why was Hereis in my room? Come to think of it, he had called me his companion. We had kissed too….

I covered my mouth and stepped back.

“H-how are you here?!”

Hereis looked down at me and let out a quiet sigh.

“Don’t worry. I won’t lay a finger on you.”

“But you, you, you did that!”

As I covered my mouth and shouted, his face suddenly drew close. His odd eyes of blue and red felt both mystical and frightening.

“Don’t misunderstand. I didn’t do it because I wanted to either. It’s because you called my true name, so I had no choice but to perform the rite.”

His voice, low as if angry, and his brilliantly shining eyes created a strange atmosphere. I couldn’t look at him any longer and averted my gaze.

“What kind of rite is it? I think you said ‘companion,’ but I must have heard wrong, right? I was a bit out of it then.”

His body moved away again. Hereis crossed his arms and asked in a low voice.

“…Young Master Chendewden. How much do you know about me?”

“You’re called the Lord of Darkness.”

“And?”

“That’s all.”

After Rosenthal’s crimes were exposed by Hereis, Rosenthal framed Raki. It was an episode where Rosenthal’s character hit rock bottom. And Hereis was merely a supporting character who didn’t appear after that incident.

I knew no other information except that his eyes turned into odd eyes when he used a large amount of mana.

Hereis stared intently into my eyes as if gauging the truth, then sighed again.

“My mother is a succubus.”

“What?”

“Don’t you know what a succubus is?”

“Ah, I do.”

A succubus is a demon that seduces men and steals their energy. I had heard they mainly enter dreams and perform acts.

“I’m male, so I’m an incubus. My father is human, so I’m half. But I chose to live as a human, and I’ve lived an ordinary life until now.”

‘Ordinary’ and ‘Lord of Darkness’ don’t match at all though….

“But last night, because you called my true name, I ended up awakening as an incubus.”

He pointed to his left eye, which was glowing red. Come to think of it, the eye that had been described as only changing when using powerful magic had remained red throughout.

“You awaken just from having your name called? That easily…?”

“Incubi and succubi are promiscuous, but when they find their true mate, they reveal their true name and marry. In other words, just knowing the true name becomes proof of marriage, and one must take the person who knows their name as their companion.”

Did I really make him awaken as an incubus just by calling his name? And on top of that, force him to perform a marriage rite? I’ve completely ruined someone’s life!

I immediately knelt and bowed my head.

“I-I’m sorry! I didn’t know. If I had known, I wouldn’t have called it!”

“You already did, and it’s too late to reverse it.”

“I-I have a fiancé!”

Even as I said it, I thought I was being cowardly. While I was just waiting for the day of breaking off the engagement, I was bringing up my status as the prospective Crown Princess only when I needed it.

But I had no choice. I truly felt sorry for Hereis, and I thought I should do my best to compensate him, but I didn’t want to marry a man I was meeting for the first time just because I mistakenly called his name once.

“Don’t worry. I have no real intention of marrying either.”

Hereis’s brow furrowed with displeasure. It was an attitude of ‘stop drinking kimchi soup when the person giving the rice cake isn’t even thinking about it.’ Even though I was in a situation where I should age ten years, this was the first time I’d received this kind of cold treatment since possessing Rosenthal, so I felt strangely odd about it.

“After performing the companion rite, you can divorce after ten years have passed.”

Ten years? For something spoken so grandly about true mates and rites and whatnot, isn’t that period a bit short? It might be one thing for humans, but demons have much longer lifespans, don’t they?

“Since I’m half, I can probably make a deal for five years, maybe even three years if it goes well.”

Where and with whom are you making that deal? Could it be the Demon King? But I didn’t want to dig deeper, so I just nodded. What if he really says it’s the Demon King….

“Then does that mean we just perform some kind of divorce rite in three or five years? There’s no price for the divorce or anything like that, right?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Like taking my soul….”

Hereis chuckled.

“Since you’re my companion, I won’t take your soul. Now that you’ve become my companion, other demons won’t be able to touch your soul either. Even after we divorce.”

Thank goodness. There are no side effects. Just as I was about to breathe a sigh of relief, Hereis continued.

“However, until the divorce, you’ll need to provide me with meals.”

“Meals…?”

“Didn’t I tell you? I’ve awakened as an incubus. From now on, I need to survive by consuming human energy. And a married incubus can only take the energy of their companion.”

“What?!”

As much as I had done wrong, I could only apologize profusely, and I didn’t want to argue with what he was saying. But energy? Energy!

“Y-you’re joking, right?”

“Do I look like I’m joking?”