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I stared at Lucia with a dumbfounded look.

Just in case, I focused on my sense of smell, but I couldn’t detect any alcohol.

Unlike the day I went out to search for her, Lucia was sober.

Then why was this happening again?

If she was simply swept up in sexual urges, I should kick her out right away, but seeing her trembling at the tips of her slender fingers, yet slowly reaching out to me as if desperately seeking salvation, I couldn’t easily turn her away.

As if to drive a wedge into my hesitation, Lucia cried out in a mournful voice.

“Priest… please… touch me… I feel like I’m going… crazy…”

“…Lucia.”

I slowly reached out my hand towards her head.

Lucia closed her eyes tightly and accepted my touch, but slowly shook her head.

“Not… there… here… here…”

And then, she slowly began to lift the hem of her skirt with both hands.

I grabbed her wrist tightly, stopping her movement.

Lucia bit her lip and looked at me with tear-filled eyes.

“I’m sorry… but, I… can’t anymore…”

“Lucia, snap out of it. This isn’t right.”

“But… I can’t bear it anymore.”

I covered her eyes with the hand that had been stroking her head.

It was more like calming an excited beast than treating a person, but I couldn’t think of a better way at the moment.

I glared at Kunat in that state.

Kunat was slowly wagging his tail, wearing an expression as if he were watching an interesting spectacle.

“Why, are you looking at me?”

“…Explain.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Explain before I kill you.”

Kunat sighed and said,

“I didn’t do anything. Do you always suspect me first whenever something happens? That’s too much! Really.”

“…I’ll kill you.”

I began to surround my entire body with divine power as a warning.

“Billy, you’d better stop.”

“What?”

“Look at Lucia.”

I slowly turned my gaze towards Lucia.

Lucia, with her wrist grabbed by me and her eyes covered, was twisting her body with a painful expression.

Clear saliva was dripping from between her clenched teeth, to the point where tendons were standing out on her jaw.

Startled, I released her wrist.

“Lucia?”

“Kuh…”

A jet-black burn mark had risen on the wrist I had been holding just a moment ago.

I immediately recognized that it was the phenomenon of a demon’s body burning when it came into contact with divine power.

“Ah… damn it.”

I withdrew my divine power and slowly removed the hand covering her eyes, examining Lucia.

Lucia’s bloodshot pupils rolled powerlessly towards me, shedding large tears.

“Priest…”

“…Lucia.”

“It’s too… painful.”

“Ah…”

“I kept trying to endure it… but I don’t think I can anymore. I’m sorry… I’m sorry, Priest.”

“…”

I squeezed my eyes shut.

It was because I wanted to avoid Lucia’s painful expression.

That day from over ten years ago flashed through my mind.

The day I first met Lucia as a child.

The day I crippled her body.

That day’s scene, and Lucia suffering like that day,

The same tears I saw that day made me close my eyes.

I clenched my fist and slowly opened my mouth.

In that one moment, a voice so cracked that it sounded pathetic flowed from my throat.

“…Explain. Why is Lucia’s body like this?”

“Well, I think it’s just malingering,”

“…!”

I spun around and snatched Kunat, who was perched on the desk, as if grabbing him.

Kunat let out a “Kwak” sound and struggled in my hand.

“No time to joke around.”

“Kuek,”

“Explain.”

“I told you, it’s just malingering. Why don’t you believe me?”

“You bastard.”

Kunat chuckled while being held by the neck by me and said,

“Then what, do you want an explanation like, ‘As a price for using too much Devil’s power, her body and soul are gradually getting closer to a Devil. So, the desires she harbored have reached their limit, and now she’s in so much pain that she has to resolve them’? Is that the explanation you want?”

“…”

Kunat rattled off the words and ridiculed me.

As a price for using Devil’s power, she would be in pain unless she satisfied her desires?

Did something like that exist?

“I even fixed her legs and gave her the power to fight monsters, but there would be no price to pay?”

“…”

“Does the Devil have good intentions?”

“…”

I dropped Kunat to the floor.

Kunat rotated his body in the air and landed on the floor on all fours.

“Lucia…”

“You only see what you want to see, and only hear what you want to hear.”

“…What?”

“I presented two hypotheses.”

Kunat said, shining his eyes, which were curved like a crescent moon, in the darkness.

“One is that Lucia is simply malingering, and the other is that she is paying the price for misusing Devil’s power.”

“…”

“Which story is sweeter to you? Which one do you want to hear?”

Well, if it were just malingering, nothing could be better.

But when I turned my head and looked at Lucia’s expression, I couldn’t think that way at all.

Lucia was writhing her body with a painful expression, and then slowly began to caress her own body with both hands.

There was a plaintive lewdness in those caresses.

There was no way Lucia was putting on an act.

“…What should I do?”

“Why are you asking me? You should ask Lucia. It’s not my body.”

“…You, get out.”

“Hmm?”

“Get out!”

“Okay, okay. Geez, really. So scary.”

Kunat slowly threw himself out the window and left the room.

“You really only see what you want to see. You’re just human after all. So foolish.”

The Devil’s mockery was heard, but it bounced off my eardrums and didn’t properly register.

I slowly grabbed Lucia’s hands and said,

“Lucia… are you okay?”

“…”

Lucia shook her head slowly instead of answering.

Her tearful face looked so fragile.

“Lucia… I,”

“I… know.”

“…”

“That Priest… has no feelings… for me… I know that well… Who would like… a sinner like me?”

“Lucia, that’s not true…”

“There’s no need… to be kind to me… against your will… Priest…”

Her hand, which was clasped with mine, fumbled and gently fidgeted on my wrist.

“I have desires… but I don’t have greed… Priest…”

“…”

“Because I don’t have… foolish expectations that you’ll love me…”

“…Lucia. Stop the self-pity,”

“But…”

Lucia slowly raised her other hand, which was not clasped with mine, and slowly grabbed the collar of her clothes that covered her neck.

Then, she tore off the collar in one breath.

In an instant, four or five buttons shot up into the air, and her fair skin was exposed to the world in a defenseless state.

I was so surprised that I couldn’t say anything.

Only after the sound of the buttons falling and rolling on the floor had ended did Lucia slowly begin to continue speaking.

“I… I’m foolish… and I don’t know… what to do…”

“…”

“I like… Priest, I like you… When I think of Priest… my whole body… gets stranger…”

Lucia had only lived on this island since she was a child, so it was understandable that she lacked sexual knowledge.

In fact, Sola had no sexual knowledge at all for a fifteen-year-old, so Lucia probably wasn’t much different.

Even so, why would she so boldly expose her bare skin like this?

Was it the human animal instinct towards reproduction,

Or rather, was it because the years she had lived isolated from society had not taught her the social atmosphere that forbade the exposure of women?

Lucia slowly pulled on her top, pulling out one shoulder.

Even though it was clearly a slow movement, it was an impressive, instinctive appearance that felt somewhat urgent.

I squeezed my eyes shut.

Lucia slowly caressed my face like that and continued to speak.

“To quench this thirst, what should I do… How should I cool this hot body… I really don’t know.”

“Lucia… that’s…”

“Tell me…”

Lucia slowly pulled on my hand that was clasped with hers and slowly moved it onto her exposed upper chest.

“I don’t dare to think of becoming Priest’s lover… I don’t have such presumptuous expectations that Priest will feel lust for me… absolutely…”

“Stop it.”

When I tried to pull my hand away, Lucia made a painful expression and bit her lip.

That pitiful face had a magic that pulled my hand more strongly than any powerful force.

“Do you not even want to touch… this dirty body that was offered to the Devil?”

“Don’t say that.”

Lucia spewed out words of sad self-pity.

Even if I tried to hurriedly cover her mouth, the sad conclusion engraved deep in her mind would not change.

Of course, I had no intention of embracing Lucia.

It was also very reluctant to caress her precious place and cool her heat as she wanted.

But if so, what could I do?

In this situation where divine power was actually poisonous to her, what could I do?

I could only hang my head and bite my lip at the feeling of powerlessness that enveloped my entire body.

“…It’s not Priest’s fault.”

“…”

“Touch… me.”

“…”

“I don’t think you’ll enjoy it… Just, for me… To relieve my pain… please…”

“…”

I don’t know.

I don’t know what to do, and I don’t know what to say.

Lucia was demanding an answer, but my lips wouldn’t open easily, as if they were sealed with wax.

A situation where I couldn’t affirm or deny.

What should I do about this?

‘To Anna… no, no.’

For a moment, the thought that Anna might be able to resolve Lucia’s heat instead of me crossed my mind, but I soon stopped it.

Anna was also a woman who had shown me affection, and I wasn’t shameless enough to entrust Lucia’s sexual treatment to her.

I couldn’t do that at all.

I slowly sighed.

“Priest…”

Lucia’s trembling voice.

That voice sounded like the last number in a countdown.

It was time to decide.

Even so, my lips wouldn’t open, so I slowly moved my hand.

“Ah…”

I slowly lowered my fingers below her collarbone.

Tap tap tap.

“…!”

Just the touch of three fingers on the bare skin under her clothes made Lucia’s back arch greatly and spasm.

Lucia’s hand, which had been caressing my face, slid straight down and grabbed my collar.

“Haa… haa,”

Lucia took a rough breath and hurriedly lifted her skirt.

I squeezed my eyes shut and turned my gaze away.

“H-here, too…”

When I slowly took my hand away from near her collarbone, Lucia shook her head and grabbed my departing hand.

In the end, I put one hand on her chest and the other on her leg.

I closed my eyes so I didn’t know exactly where I touched, but I slowly brought my hand to the inside of her thigh.

I felt her body jump greatly once again.

Pain and powerlessness.

In the midst of that, a damn honest excitement.

The guilt and immorality that followed.

Lucia’s painful life, and her face with a shy smile.

When I thought of that, strangely, the excitement and immorality grew even more.

Lucia’s moans, which were close to crying, and Lucia’s painful expression, which was close to happiness.

Affection, and at the same time, sadism.

All those thoughts and emotions were intricately mixed, swelling up as if they would burst my head.

Whether she knew my heart or not.

Lucia was scattering breaths that seemed to release the breath she had been holding back, as if popping them into the air.

Between those rough breaths, a voice like the cry of a small bird flowed out very small.

“I like… it’s too, good…”

.