3
0. Interspecies Breeding
Daphne flinched and looked up at Asherad. How did he know that? Did Olga tell him? But what did taking the contraceptive potion have to do with anything?
Yet Asherad smiled brightly. Even so, his gleaming eyes carried an unmistakable glint of madness.
"Sweet Daphne. You were thinking of me, weren't you?"
"……"
"Worried that I might engage in interspecies breeding? Worried that you might bear my child?"
Surely it wouldn't be a good thing for her to carry that precious imperial bloodline in her womb? Shouldn't she be glad about it instead? Or was he saying that the child she carried and bore would mean nothing, like the pups of a dog raised in the imperial palace?
Seeing the confusion on Daphne's face, wondering what she'd done wrong, Asherad's expression darkened insidiously.
"You no longer say you hate me with that mouth of yours, and you accept me—yet……"
"……"
"You have no right to refuse, and still you pull these adorable little stunts."
He withdrew the thumb that had been stirring in her mouth, looked at it coated with Daphne's saliva, and licked it clean with his tongue, as if savoring it.
"I love you, Daphne."
"……"
"There's no way I wouldn't want you to carry my child."
"……"
Asherad smiled and pressed his lips to Daphne's neck. Daphne was bewildered by it.
The thing pressing against her belly grew even more menacing in its aura. It felt darker and more oppressive than anything she had seen so far—a faint trace of madness.
Startled by that aura, Daphne flinched and tried to pull herself out of his embrace, but he still held her body pressed tight against his.
"Your Highness."
When Daphne opened her mouth, Asherad smiled brightly. He slipped off her robe. Gazing at the woman's beautiful naked form gleaming white, he placed a sweet kiss upon her.
It was an exceedingly courteous, lingering kiss. So unlike his menacing aura. He led Daphne to the bed and laid her down. Climbing over her, he looked down at Daphne trapped within his arms.
She looked utterly confused.
Spreading her legs, he let his gaze drift a little lower. He lifted Daphne's ankles onto his shoulders, and holding one foot in his hand, he spread her apart with forceful strength.
"Your High……—ah, hng!"
Something she could never have imagined touched a place she had never been touched before. Daphne's eyes flew wide open as she gasped for breath.
Daphne's suppressed moans, as she tried to keep herself from falling apart, along with the slick, wet sounds, filled the room. Why, why? Why is this man doing this to me? She was beyond bewildered.
Someone with such noble blood—why would he go this far for someone like her……
"Hnnnngh!"
When her hips arched up without her meaning to and she trembled all over, Asherad lifted his face from between her legs. The moment she looked at him with eyes brimming with tears, he entered her. The lingering aftershocks of her climax had not yet even faded. She bit her lip and held her breath as she took him in.
That gaze looking down at her. Under that gaze, Daphne felt like she was going mad. In the moment their bodies joined, the circumstances surrounding her, the anguish—all of it vanished, leaving only instinct behind.
Daphne looked at Asherad and thought. The man whose flesh collided with hers was still dazzlingly, painfully beautiful.
And seeing the way this man's eyes gleamed as he held her only excited her more. When Asherad's gentle movements stopped, Daphne closed her eyes.
Panting for breath, she tried to calm her heated body. But Asherad kept pressing his lips to her breasts, which had grown sensitive.
She could still feel him, not yet spent, against her thigh. Daphne looked up at Asherad with a hazy expression. The eyes looking down at her curved into a bewitchingly beautiful smile. He whispered sweet nothings into Daphne's ear.
"So, which will win—that contraceptive potion you took, or me?"
"……"
"I intend to find out."
"Haaah!"
Daphne's face contorted in anguish. The still-hard flesh thrust deep inside her.
Her body had already learned pleasure. Before she could even catch her breath, he took her in his arms again.
Having stripped off his suppressed mask of madness, he was utterly merciless. Like a beast in heat, he moved fast, hammering into her body.
The loud sound of wet flesh slapping against flesh rang through the room.
"Ah, ah! Aaahh!"
She cried out with screams mixed into her voice. Even through it all, her body matched the rhythm of Asherad's, exhaling hot breath as Daphne clutched the bedsheet. The bed creaked under the violent motions, her body swaying along with it.
That night, Daphne was taken roughly by Asherad.
* * *
Calista hurled the cup at the maid who had delivered the news. Crash—the teacup shattered against the wall. The maid cowered.
Calista panted with rage.
"Asherad—with a woman, in the night?!"
She let out a sharp shriek. It couldn't be, it couldn't be!
Even tears welled up in Calista's eyes. She sank down where she stood and wept, tears dripping down. She was, truly, the heroine of a tragedy.
How, how could this be possible? Did Asherad not love her?
Of course, Asherad had never confessed his love to her. But had Asherad not been so very tender toward Calista?
Whenever she asked to see him, he would push aside his work and come to her. When she said her head ached from nursing that wretched Emperor and she'd taken to her bed, how worried he had been.
He sought out the finest physicians and had her treated. He even gave her a puppy as a gift, worried that she might be lonely!
"I must see Asherad, I must see Asherad!"
When she arrived at the Crown Prince's palace, she found Olga. She was giving the maids some instructions, and seemed somehow unsteady on her feet.
"What is the matter, Your Majesty the Empress!"
Olga bowed her waist with impeccable courtesy as she received the Empress. Olga was one of the people who flattered Calista, ever considerate of her.
"Who was the one who shared His Highness's bed last night?"
"That is…… why would you ask—"
Unable to contain her fury, Calista struck Olga across the cheek.
"Ow!"
Olga lost her balance and toppled straight over. Calista laughed in disbelief. Having hit people so many times, she knew exactly how strong a blow had to be to bring someone down like that.
Calista had struck Olga with just enough force that it wouldn't be lethal. It was a consideration for her position as the head maid managing the Crown Prince's palace.
"Don't play the drama queen…… what's this?"
Spotting the bruises on Olga's legs, Calista looked at her with a puzzled expression. Olga hastily hid them under her skirt.
"F-forgive me. I failed to keep discipline and was punished……"
"Never mind that. Who was the woman who slept with Asherad? Don't tell me it's that witch's daughter?"
That filthy woman the Emperor had spoken of targeting. Olga would surely tell her the truth. At Calista's sharp question, Olga feigned composure and shook her head.
"No, Your Majesty. That woman will be doing laundry at the washhouse right now."
"Hmm……"
"If His Highness the Crown Prince had lain with that woman, surely he wouldn't have left her working at the washhouse."
"Is…… that so?"
Calista fell deep into thought. Her father—that wretch—what had it been like when he had seduced her mother? He had always given her gifts, and worked hard to protect her, as if she might fly away otherwise.
And yet she works at the washhouse?
Even he would never have left her like that.
"Would His Highness the Crown Prince ever lay his body with a lowborn woman?"
Calista frowned with a hmph. The words rang true. It was understandable that Asherad, of such noble imperial blood, would keep that woman close in order to torment her. He might even find amusement in her wretched state.
The twisted, sinister hobbies of nobles and royals were so endlessly varied that Asherad's eccentricities fell well within Calista's range of understanding.
The rage Asherad vented was justified. She had come here and heard the details of the situation. How precarious Asherad's position and her late sister's had been, how much of a piece of trash the Emperor, her own husband, truly was.
Right—of course Asherad would never have shared a bed with a woman like that.
"Then who was it?"
"We don't know either. They came wearing a hood, so we truly don't know."
Olga said politely. Calista frowned. Fearing another slap was coming, Olga bowed and continued.
"It's the truth. Even if he did lie with someone, it would have to be a woman he could do so with and face no consequences. Please rest assured."
Perhaps she had misread Calista's feelings, Olga added. Calista berated Olga and tried to pry further, but her breath caught in her throat. However much she held the position of 'mother,' it was obvious that digging any deeper would make the picture look strange.
"Where is Asherad right now?"
"He is attending to his duties in his office. He instructed that if Your Majesty the Empress should come to visit, he is to be told he is waiting for you."
She withdrew the hand that had been poised to strike Olga. Because the words waiting for you had sounded so sweet. Of course. A man in the prime of his vigor…… he might well have needed to relieve his urges.
No, wait. Could that not be exactly it?
Given how Asherad was always waiting for her like this, he clearly liked her. But Asherad cherished her far too much. Unable to unleash his burning desire, he must have suffered and swallowed it down, time and again.
In the end, Asherad must have finally succumbed to that desire.
"Disappearing for a whole week like that too…… and he won't tell me a thing, honestly."
That Asherad had slept with a woman stung her personally. But Calista could understand. Wasn't that simply the nature of men?
She walked toward the man who was waiting for her.
Olga let out a sigh. She had barely survived, begging for her life when she had nearly had her wrist severed for giving Daphne the contraceptive potion.
If she leaked any more secrets here, it would be her neck next. She trembled all over. Even Olga, who had cared for the Crown Prince since he was young, had no desire to become his enemy.