Chapter 97

“Ah...!”

To be perfectly honest, none of this was Erabelle’s fault. The problem was that the moment she opened the eyes she had squeezed shut, Dezeb was right in front of her. In other words, it had been beyond her control.

“Aaaaaaah—!”

Erabelle screamed.

“You looked at me.”

A disbelieving laugh escaped Dezeb at the sight.

“You said seeing James makes you feel all calm inside, but when you see me, you just want to scream?”

He seemed to be growing angrier with every word.

“Why did you scream?”

“Th-That’s....”

“Looking at me makes you want to scream? Huh?!”

He was the one shouting. Black threadlike snakes crawled over his glistening eyes, while scales repeatedly bulged from his cheeks and sank back beneath the skin.

Erabelle hunched her shoulders and desperately tried to explain.

“M-My consciousness was suddenly cut off, so I-I was startled.”

“That’s not true. You looked at me and screamed.”

“Th-That’s....”

“Why did you scream? Seeing James brings you peace, but seeing me makes you feel like shit?”

“N-No, that isn’t....”

Erabelle desperately searched for an excuse. She was so preoccupied that she hadn’t even noticed anyone else in the room.

“Everyone out.”

Only after Dezeb spoke did she realize there were other people present. The Dogs, all wearing curiously solemn expressions, streamed out of the room at his single command. Erabelle sincerely wished she could blend in among them and escape as well.

“What I meant was....”

Now that they were alone, Erabelle desperately continued searching for an excuse. But the sight of him beginning to unbutton his shirt wiped her mind blank again.

“Um....”

His pitch-black hair brushed the corner of his eye as he tilted his head. Erabelle held her breath beneath his lowered gaze. Shadows fell across skin as smooth as sculpted plaster.

“Looking at me like that won’t make me fuck you.”

Dezeb sneered.

“Excuse me?”

Erabelle flinched, only then realizing she had been staring at him in a daze.

“Open your mouth.”

He gripped her chin as he spoke. Before she could do anything, he pressed against her jaw and forced her mouth open. He extended his tongue, wrapping it around her small one, rubbing against it and sucking it into his mouth.

“Mmph—”

At the same time, he bore down on her with his weight and slowly rolled his hips in shallow thrusts against her beneath him.

Erabelle moaned and struggled. When she grew breathless and panted, her face flushed scarlet, he caught her head and jaw in his large hands, moved away from her lips, and sucked on the shell of her ear.

“Ah....”

After allowing her only a few breaths, he covered her lips again.

Scorching heat surged through her body. She couldn’t help it. This, too, was beyond her control. Just as something inevitably became sweet when sugar was poured into it, Erabelle possessed no supernatural power that would allow her to resist this physical phenomenon.

All she could do was clutch the sheets and endure, trying not to grind her pussy against the penis rubbing slowly over her through his trousers.

His pitch-black tongue burrowed into her mouth again.

The papillae of their tongues slid and rubbed together, their saliva turning thick and slick like lubricant.

“Mm....”

“No.”

“Ah.”

Denied even the chance to beg, tears sprang to Erabelle’s eyes. He swept his fingertips beneath them while continuing to suck deeply on her tongue. His hard body, layered over hers with their clothes still between them, merely rubbed against her slowly. He showed no sign of undressing or penetrating her.

“...Ah.”

He pressed her jaw a little farther down, licked her swollen lips, and extended his tongue.

Saliva gathered at the tip, where black threadlike snakes writhed, before dripping down. Her mouth forced open, Erabelle shuddered when his saliva landed on her tongue. As though venom had fallen into her mouth, the sensation set her nerves ablaze in a way entirely different from the heat below.

His tongue touched the rounded tip of hers again as she whimpered with her mouth open.

Their tongues pressed together, pushing deeper. Then he withdrew all the way past her teeth, only to plunge deeper still.

The wet sounds filled her ears.

The only part of their clothing Dezeb had touched was the few buttons of his shirt. His hands never ventured below Erabelle’s face. Neither did his lips.

The only thing that continued was a kiss that felt like penetrative sex.

At last, Erabelle understood what he had meant when he said he wouldn’t fuck her.

Realizing the urgency of the situation, she attempted to communicate with him.

“Sp-Spare....”

“Go ahead. Ask me to spare you again. I’ll keep this up all night.”

Communication failed.

“...Sob.”

Erabelle squeezed her eyes shut again.

The gaze looking coldly down at her was unmistakably frigid, yet unbearably hot. She felt as though her body were burning away. Unable to endure it any longer, she twisted beneath him. A tangled mass of tentacles rose and seized her increasingly restless body.

“Stay still.”

He languidly stroked the shell of her ear, now slick with fluid, with both hands while scraping the roof of her mouth with the tip of his tongue.

Erabelle’s body jolted violently.

“I told you to stay still.”

I’m dying. I think I’m going to die.

Erabelle panted in short, desperate gasps as she stared longingly at the mass of tentacles holding her. If he would at least put one of these inside her....

“No.”

Why? Why not...? You let me last time....

“Not this time. You hurt my feelings. You screamed when you saw me.”

That really wasn’t why....

Erabelle whimpered.

He kissed her again.

Deeper.

Deep.

With her ears and jaw pinned and her head bent backward... his tongue thrust into her throat, and Erabelle trembled uncontrollably. Her toes shoved frantically at the sheets, then her body stiffened and began quivering all over again.

He cradled her small head between both arms, grinding upward with his tongue as he used his weight to pin down her convulsing body. Erabelle’s legs spasmodically pushed against the sheets again and again.

“...Hic, hic....”

Spare me....

“Do you really want me to keep this up all night?”

Whimpering in surrender, Erabelle caught his tongue—far too long to belong to a human—between her small lips and sucked diligently. If you couldn’t have the pheasant, you settled for chicken. Perhaps swallowing enough of his saliva would calm her down a little.

It was a chicken-brained idea.

Her body burned even hotter, but it did have an entirely different effect.

“.......”

Watching her sweat profusely as she sucked on his flesh, which had already slipped a quarter of the way out of human form, Dezeb’s eyes curved in a silent smile.

“Keep going.”

The amusement in his voice sent a shock all the way to her tailbone.

“Show me more affection.”

Erabelle truly wanted to cry.

“I still won’t fuck you, though.”

She truly wanted to cry.

Erabelle did not know the correct biological answer to whether a human could orgasm from kissing alone, but she could now confidently say that she, at least, could do it as many times as necessary. The next morning, she pushed herself upright, trembling all over.

That was not all she had learned.

She had also discovered that it was possible to orgasm and still remain sexually frustrated, and that unresolved sexual frustration could cause severe damage to one’s vocabulary. It had been a truly educational night.

“P-Please... more, more....”

Dezeb was sleeping peacefully.

“More... thrust more... there, right there....”

“Go, go....”

Yes, go.

Go straight to hell and never come back. Erabelle clutched her waist and continued to tremble violently.

‘Ugh.’

Every time the memories of last night flashed through her mind, she wondered if this was her life passing before her eyes.

To be perfectly honest, being subjected to nothing but kisses for hours was no different from sexual torture. To escape that situation, Erabelle had been forced to give up one of her twelve favorites.

She had managed to protect James, but she had failed to protect Alec.

Last night, she had finally promised Dezeb that she would abandon everything related to Alec—including disposing of every piece of merchandise she owned.

She had never imagined they would part this way.... It was sad, but she had decided to accept that their bond had simply been destined to end here.

She truly could not have endured any longer....

‘Ah, my back....’

As she lay facedown, trembling and rustling beneath the covers, Dezeb, a light sleeper, slowly opened his eyes.

Erabelle stared at him in a slight daze. Submerged in the bluish light of dawn, he looked like an inhuman being.

“...You’re awake?”

The unnaturally beautiful creature reached out and wrapped a hand around the back of her neck. Her breath caught. When he naturally pulled her closer for a kiss, she flinched without meaning to, and his eyes sharpened.

“I-I haven’t brushed my teeth yet.”

Erabelle hurriedly offered the excuse.

“Honestly.”

He complained in a sleep-roughened voice.

“What nonsense.”

He pulled her the rest of the way toward him and kissed her rounded forehead. Judging by the abrupt change in course, her comment could not have been entirely nonsensical.

“Brush your teeth and come outside.”

He rose from the bed first as he spoke.

The faint blue light cast shadows across the sculpted muscles of his back. He casually pulled clothes over his naked body and slipped into a pair of backless loafers.

“It’s cold, so dress warmly before you come out.”

“Yes....”

Right. Well... it would be cold outside.

Extremely cold....

Her eyes slightly unfocused, Erabelle turned blankly toward the window, where the light of dawn was pouring in.

‘...It’s blue.’

Blue.

The glacier was brilliantly blue....

Between the snow-covered mountains, enormous, razor-edged glaciers gleamed a vivid blue. She might have mistaken it for a dream, but her eyes stung far too badly for that....