Ch.276Chapter 276: Imprisonment (1)

#

Just as quickly as the little incident(?) occurred, it was resolved in an instant.

While wiping away the cold sweat from my forehead, I was briefly admiring the sword that had delivered such a fierce strike against me.

Clap-!!

Desire’s hands met with a crisp sound.

Even considering that there was barely any light source and that this was originally a quiet place, the silence in the separate room had been excessive. With the sound of air flowing slowly breaking the stillness…

Clap-!!

No sooner had her palms met again than she ordered Adorator, who had carefully entered the room, to take the sword and imprison it in the dungeon (牢獄) below.

She wasn’t taking it to prepare for a private audience, and since she had no desire to recreate the strange situation from earlier, she retrieved the dragon sword that was lying on the floor just like Cal.

It wasn’t a difficult task.

Adorator, following her orders, didn’t touch Cal’s body but made him float up with a few gestures and carried him away.

In fact, even when he was conscious, she could have handled him in a similar way if she wanted.

Those who entered this palace, crafted like a work of art from obsidian, could be moved anywhere with just her will and a gesture if she desired. Likewise, it goes without saying that she could prevent anyone from setting foot here according to her will.

She could freely suppress the free will of all intelligent beings here and control them as she pleased.

It was a convenient ability that allowed her to manipulate the minds of intelligent beings, even making those who pointed swords at her with intense hostility show unwavering loyalty.

However, despite having such an easy method available, the proud goddess refused to take the easy path.

For Desire, who wanted to persuade(?) with words if possible and reach her desired conclusion, that was a last resort.

Though valuable time needed for persuasion was wasted because of the ‘vessel’ who fell for her provocation and pointed a sword at her before the conversation was even finished.

She doesn’t intend to use that as an excuse to control him as she did before.

This might seem like an unusual approach for a goddess who appears willing to use any means necessary to fulfill the desires befitting her name.

But for her, who respects free will—which all intelligent beings invariably possess—even more than desire itself…

She instinctively knew that subduing a man who, even after repeating time several times, might outwardly submit to her but inwardly still think of stabbing her in the back, required something other than force.

Something that would make him kneel before her of his own accord.

Just before knocking him unconscious, she had injected the seed of pain that would normally cause anyone to scream in agony, yet his face didn’t even twitch as he merely lost consciousness. As her thoughts on this were deepening…

“While I move this insolent fellow to the dungeon, would my lord prefer to return to the throne room?”

Adorator’s voice reached Desire’s ears as her thoughts continued, asking if she would return to the main hall.

“I shall return shortly, so don’t worry and carry on with your task.”

She commanded Adorator to do his job while turning her back to his gaze.

Adorator bowed respectfully and was about to take steps to move Cal when…

“Ah.”

Desire, remembering something she had forgotten, gestured for Adorator to stop.

As Adorator naturally halted his steps, she addressed the floating Cal:

“I’ve seen enough of this, so I should return it.”

Saying this, Desire levitated the ruby pendant in her right hand—which had lost much of its original color—and returned it to its original place around Cal’s neck.

“That’s done. You may go now.”

Adorator bowed to Desire, who had finished her task, and disappeared, leaving silence to return to the separate room once more.

And in this silence, enjoyed alone by the demon goddess, she held a cup of slightly cooled tea that she had briefly set aside.

“…”

After gazing at the teacup with somewhat indifferent eyes for a moment…

Sip-

After taking a sip of the adequately cooled tea, Desire’s expression showed disappointment.

“…It tastes bad.”

She immediately expressed her dissatisfaction with the tea she had drunk.

It was regret about her self-made tea that had failed because the water temperature was too high, making the bitterness of the tea leaves impossible to mask even with sugar.

“Honestly, this alone would be more than enough reason to keep that fellow under me…”

She subtly revealed her greed for a certain man who had served tea that satisfied her demanding palate throughout numerous repeated timelines.

“How considerate of you. What kind of greed makes you keep resetting for results that obviously won’t change?”

Just then, a calm voice with a clearly teasing tone reached Desire’s ears.

It signaled that someone had entered the separate room without announcement just as she had been left alone.

Upon hearing the voice, Desire’s ears—no different in size from a human’s—perked up slightly as she quickly turned her head toward the sound.

“Welcome! I thought my neck would break from waiting for you.”

She greeted with a voice full of delight.

As if she had known all along who would be coming here.

#

Crash-!!

The loud noise and moderate pain as my body was thrown onto the cold floor awakened my subsiding consciousness.

“Ugh…”

As I let out a faint groan and slowly opened my closed eyes…

“The disrespect you showed before my lord deserves to have your pathetic body torn apart hundreds, thousands of times over.”

I was faced with Adorator growling in a very low, husky voice from the other side of the iron bars.

Though he was showing fierceness, presumably to demand payment for the disrespect shown to his lord…

“Isn’t that why you brought me here? Because you can’t hold me accountable?”

“You…!!”

Adorator’s reaction to my probing words suggested I had hit close to the truth.

My back, which had been thrown down quite forcefully, felt heavier pain than expected.

There was also a strange cold pain in my forehead where Desire’s finger had touched.

While my physical condition was certainly not good by any measure…

For some reason, I felt a strange mischievous urge to tease Adorator, who was busy controlling his emotions while suppressing the urge to rage wildly at my casually thrown words.

“I don’t mind if you look down on me, but if you continue to insult my lord, I won’t forgive you even if you are necessary for my lord’s plans.”

Realizing that continuing to tease Adorator, who was howling like a fierce beast, might not guarantee my safety even with these iron bars between us…

“If you say so.”

I gave a very brief, halfhearted response.

“…Hmph.”

Only then did Adorator withdraw his anger toward me, turning his body sharply.

“Fine. Stay put.”

With these final words, he left the dungeon where I was imprisoned.

His footsteps as he left the dungeon showed no trace of regret at not being able to do anything to me, as if he sensed he would lose in a war of words.

Boom-!!

The entrance door to the dungeon closed with such force that I thought it might break, and as it shook…

“Mmmngh…”

I stretched while sitting, trying to manage my stiff body.

Not to mention surveying my surroundings to calmly assess the current situation.

The dragon sword, which had been with me in almost every situation except when sleeping since I obtained it, had fallen into Desire’s hands.

The situation was not good at all.

Thanks to my super-regenerative ability that healed most wounds the moment they were inflicted, there were no traces of external injuries on my body.

The heavy pain I felt in my back when I first opened my eyes had disappeared without a trace.

However, the cold sensation accompanied by pain in my forehead showed no signs of subsiding.

Compared to the back pain that disappeared shortly after I became aware of it, this pain that persisted despite my super-regenerative ability felt quite unfamiliar.

But the unfamiliarity was brief; I could quickly recall the punishment Desire had inflicted on me when I resisted violently in the time before my regression.

It was nothing more than placing a finger on a specific part of the body without any physical threat.

But as time passed, it alternately delivered cruel pain like burning or a cold agony as if flesh was being torn off.

The nature of the pain still manifesting in my forehead, though much weaker, was exactly the same, so I could easily recognize it.

Whether Desire was serious with this strike or had held back, I couldn’t tell.

But it was quite pleasing to feel that this power, which could easily make me scream, now felt so weak.

…Though I also engaged in some self-reflection, recalling that both then and now, I invariably lost consciousness when subjected to this.

“…Indeed. Without using your divinity (神性), it would have been difficult to subdue me, right?”

Recalling that the demon goddess, who believed she couldn’t subdue me without doing this, had pressed her finger to my forehead to knock me out, even though I was no longer an agent who had inherited part of her divinity…

“…It feels good.”

The corners of my mouth rose unconsciously, and even as I muttered to myself, I calmly controlled my improving mood.

After a long, winding journey, I had set foot in this dark obsidian palace a little earlier than expected.

Although my preparations for the final confrontation, including training, were still insufficient…

The fact that the journey to restore the natural flow of this world—where my life and everything else had stopped—was not going wrong provided more than enough motivation to remind me of what needed to be done.

As I slowly raised my body from its seated position, I felt something foreign and reached out my hand.

“…Hmm?”

I discovered that my mother’s keepsake, which had fallen into Desire’s hands, had been returned to me.

Despite having been subjected to her impure gaze for quite some time, the ruby pendant was in better condition than I expected.

I was about to let out a faint sigh as my feelings became complicated at the thought that she had returned it despite taking it without permission.

[…Can you hear me.]

Fafnir, speaking in an extremely tired tone, interrupted my sigh.