Hell – 4

“……”

I stood frozen in place, pondering for a moment what the true meaning of those words could be. But nothing came to mind. I couldn’t even grasp the slightest hint of what intention lay behind them.

Surely, it wasn’t something romantic like Kaikilia wanting to become my lover. From the start, Kaikilia’s personality was far from that.

“Perhaps, were you offended?”

When I cautiously asked back, Kaikilia’s expression became subtle.

“Did I look as if I was offended by those words?”

“……No, Your Majesty.”

Her expression was certainly quite subtle, but just seeing that she didn’t flare up on the spot showed that she was definitely not angry.

If she had been, Margarita wouldn’t have been safe for a moment.

“If you knew my mood, for what reason did you say such words? You should choose your answer carefully.”

I subtly observed Kaikilia’s face.

Her eyes were still blunt, but the corners of her lips were slightly turned up. This meant that she wasn’t offended by my question. Rather, it seemed she wished for this conversation to continue.

If so, wouldn’t it be alright to take one more step forward here?

“What if I were to answer, ‘To grasp Your Majesty’s intention in asking me such a question’?”

“As a subject, do you dare to probe the intentions of the one you serve? Truly, you are utterly impertinent.”

The words themselves were chilling, but Kaikilia’s expression as she spoke them was far from chilling. Not only were the corners of her lips slightly turned up, but her eyes had also softened a little.

This meant that her purpose in throwing out such words from the beginning was either to continue the conversation with me, or that I had unintentionally given Kaikilia the answer she wanted.

A sense of profound change came over me.

When I first met Kaikilia in Aurora’s territory, and even when I was first summoned to the Imperial Palace, I was at a loss as to how to deal with that self-indulgent hedonist.

I felt like I could handle Kaikilia in this state without much trouble.

Right now, she was probably a bit relaxed due to the exhilaration of having just massacred a horde of demons, and she might revert to her self-indulgent personality once she returned to the Empire.

“Good. I am not one to beat around the bush, so I shall speak directly.”

A peculiar light entered her golden pupils.

Our eyes met. Staring directly into the Emperor’s eyes was an act for which one would have no excuse even if their head were to be instantly severed, yet Kaikilia did not scold me or tell me to avert my gaze.

Kaikilia, who had been standing there, our eyes locked for a while, suddenly opened her mouth.

“I like you, Knight Commander of the Jet-Black Holy Night. No, for now, I shall call you Delta.”

“That is……”

For a moment, I wondered if it was a confession, but Kaikilia’s subsequent words negated that thought.

“However, do not be mistaken. This is by no means the feeling of a woman liking a man. I speak of liking you from the perspective of a craftsman who sees your usefulness and values a well-performing tool. Have I not told you countless times? You are mine.”

Kaikilia’s expression was exceedingly confident. Her demeanor suggested that there wasn’t an ounce of falsehood in the words she had uttered.

Seeing that expression, a slight curiosity was piqued within me.

It was an action I wouldn’t have dared to attempt if my relationship with Kaikilia were as it used to be, unless I had dozens of lives, but now it seemed possible. Having made up my mind, I opened my mouth.

“If that is the case, then what was the meaning behind the kiss Your Majesty bestowed upon me in the Imperial Palace?”

“……What did you say?”

Kaikilia’s lips, which had been curled up with arrogance, trembled slightly.

“Your Majesty overlapped your lips with mine, saying you could handle me even alone. I asked what meaning that action held. Was it merely to show His Holiness the Pope?”

“Such impertinence……”

Kaikilia’s eyes twitched as she looked up at me. If it had been the old me, I would have been anxious, thinking things had gone awry the moment Kaikilia made such an expression.

But now it was different. Not a single such thought crossed my mind. I was so calm that even I found it strange.

“Your Majesty. Do you not recall? What we did before being dragged to this hell.”

I took a step forward. Kaikilia faced me, her back straight, but as the distance narrowed, I felt her subtly flinch.

“Do not babble as you please just because you have a mouth, Knight Commander of the Jet-Black Holy Night. Even my patience has its limits.”

“May this disloyal subject dare to test the limits of that patience?”

To utter such words while meeting the Emperor’s gaze-I wouldn’t have dared to even imagine it in the past. But thinking that she had implicitly allowed such an act, I couldn’t stop myself.

If my actions had truly been displeasing, if they had truly crossed a line, Kaikilia could have genuinely stopped me immediately, whether by drawing her Holy Sword or by scolding me.

However, Kaikilia did not do so.

Even as she glared, uttering words of impertinence, she honestly and quietly awaited my next move.

“You……”

Kaikilia mumbled something, but it was too soft to hear. I took another step closer. Kaikilia still showed no change in expression.

However, it was different once my right hand, which had slightly lifted her suit coat, rested on her side, covered by a white dress shirt.

-Twitch!

Kaikilia trembled violently at just that. I heard a rustling sound as my fingers touched the flesh of her side through the dress shirt.

*Grind*, Kaikilia glared at me, gritting her teeth.

That was all. Her expression greatly distorted, and she gnashed her teeth.

She didn’t swat my hand away, genuinely get angry, or try to directly do anything to me. Even though she could have done so easily if she wanted to.

She merely twitched and convulsed her body whenever my fingers touched her side, allowing my touch.

“……Do not run wild with arrogance, Knight Commander of the Jet-Black Holy Night. How dare you lay your hands on my body-!”

“Can you not subdue someone like me with just one hand? If you truly dislike my touch, then you may do so.”

I slowly began to caress her slender waist. Only the rough texture of the dress shirt was felt at my fingertips, but that was enough. My purpose wasn’t my own enjoyment.

At first, Kaikilia seemed to try her best to maintain a chilling expression, but she couldn’t stop her body from reflexively twitching whenever my fingers caressed her side.

As my index fingernail gently traced from her side down to her lower ribs, a moan escaped through her tightly clenched lips.

“You, impertinent…… Hngh……”

Her words were breaking off little by little. I couldn’t confirm her expression because she had bowed her head deeply, but I could roughly guess what kind of face she was making.

‘……Is her entire body really an erogenous zone?’

Among the women I had been with so far, Rije’s sensitivity was on the higher side. Just a kiss would make her eyes glaze over, or just caressing her breasts would make her dolphin shorts wet.

But even Rije wasn’t as sensitive as Kaikilia. The Pope’s sister or Aurora were out of the question.

Even though I had clearly told her to resist if she disliked it, she remained silent, and my hand moved even more boldly. I fully placed my palm on Kaikilia’s iliac crest.

“Ugh…… Haat, Keuk……”

Heated breaths escaped Kaikilia’s lips, slightly warming the chest of her uniform. Her lost hands clenched into fists and trembled.

I pressed my palm against her iliac crest and massaged her side as if giving a massage. Her side, wrapped in a single stiff piece of fabric, fit perfectly in my palm. It was a waist with quite firm muscles.

*Thud*, Kaikilia’s forehead touched my chest. It was virtually an expression that she had no intention of resisting. Just as I, realizing the hidden meaning, was about to extend my other hand as well.

“I pulled out all the eyes…… you know.”

From the side, I heard the voice of a third party I had forgotten about.

I turned my head. Margarita, holding a demon’s eye dripping with dark red blood in one hand and a knife smeared with dark red blood in the other, was looking at us with bewildered eyes.

“Oh, sorry. Should I wait a little longer? I just wanted to let you know I finished the job. I really had no intention of interrupting. Seriously.”

Margarita showed us the eyeball resting on her left hand, then cautiously observed our reactions. She was especially much more mindful of Kaikilia’s reaction than mine.

I removed my hand from her side. Kaikilia gasped, *haah, haah*, and caught her breath. She seemed to pay no mind to Margarita.

‘……She’ll be fine, right?’

I carefully took Kaikilia’s shoulder and helped her stand upright. Even when her shoulder was held, Kaikilia twitched her body and let out a faint moan, *hieuk*.

I felt a steady gaze from the side.

“What happened to the demon?”

“It’s still alive. Those things are originally disgustingly tenacious, aren’t they? It’s you guys who are strange for easily killing them off.”

Indeed, what Margarita was holding was just an ordinary sword without a blessing enchantment, so she wouldn’t have been able to finish off the demon with it. I wondered how she had managed to extract the eye so skillfully.

“I will finish it off.”

I approached the creature and plunged the Wingless Nightmare deep into its head. The four-winged demon twisted its body violently one last time, then slowly lowered its head. That was its end.

“Now, next is……”

“Ah, just a moment. It’ll be night soon. So, how about we rest for now and depart in the morning?”

“Even if it’s night, won’t we be able to see well enough anyway? It shouldn’t matter if we depart right now.”

Day and night were indeed implemented even in hell.

The time period commonly referred to as night here was simply when the blood-red object floating in the sky became much redder, making everything you looked at appear only red.

“I’m sorry for the delay, but I’m anxious. I can’t keep carrying this eyeball around, can I?”

“Ah, that’s true.”

I easily conceded. It would indeed be a bit much to keep carrying around an eyeball that seemed fragile enough to burst if squeezed even slightly, yet was the size of a human palm.

There was also the option of just going and coming back ourselves, but demons might smell the blood and come looking for Margarita.

“Then, let’s depart once the blood-red color subsides a bit.”

“Hngh…… Hngh……”

Late at night. In a world bathed entirely in red, Kaikilia sat perched on a nearby rock, trembling and letting out strange moans.

She couldn’t keep her body still because the events of the day kept replaying in her mind.

It was merely overshadowed by the unprecedented event of a living human falling into hell, but the events before and after it could by no means be ignored.

Things like reaching climax with just a kiss, or having to use all her strength to suppress the moans that erupted from merely having her side touched, or being subjected to such acts without being able to resist even once.

Kaikilia simply could not accept the fact that her own body was so sensitive. What woman in the world would, at most, just exchange a few tongues and then-

“Ah……?”

Suddenly, an old memory resurfaced in her mind.

She recalled the scent of the male that filled her nasal cavity when their lips met, the clear saliva that pushed its way down her throat, and the rough hands that kneaded her buttocks.

“Eut, Keuk?!”

And, as soon as she recalled that moment, her body twitched and she had a small climax. As the convulsions subsided slightly, Kaikilia gasped for breath and subtly brought her fingers between her legs.

A faint dampness was felt.

Just by imagining, just by recalling that moment, she was in this state. Even to herself, it was a body with a problem serious enough to be alarming.

Kaikilia gently ran her fingers over the crevice beyond her suit. She felt nothing. Far from pleasure, there was almost no sensation of touching her private parts, hidden by the suit. Something was strange.

Clearly, when that man touched her, it was just her side, let alone a woman’s intimate parts-

“Kkeueuk?!”

Instantly, stars exploded in Kaikilia’s mind.

Her waist arched uncontrollably, and her pelvis twisted this way and that. She tried to endure it by gritting her teeth, but that only made her press her fingers harder into her private parts, forcing her to twist her body once more.

The sensation of her mind going blank continued for a long time. Kaikilia was only barely able to remove her fingers after the faint dampness between her legs was on the verge of turning into liquid.

She gasped, wheezing for breath, and wiped her fingertips on her clothes. Her entire body felt like jelly. Kaikilia, having barely suppressed her arousal, stood up.

No, rather than suppressed, it would be more accurate to say she had repressed it. Even now, if she made a single wrong move, she felt she would climax right then and there.

Kaikilia, her legs tingling, returned to the house made of gnarled wood. Inside, thanks to several layers of curtains, the red color was considerably less intense.

Her golden pupils scanned the interior. Margarita was likely sleeping on the bed beyond the triple-layered curtains placed in the innermost part.

The man in the jet-black uniform was on a chair. Delta quietly closed his eyes, leaning his body diagonally and resting his head against a bookshelf.

“Heup……”

The moment Kaikilia saw him, her gaze reflexively went to the man’s lips, and recalling the sensation of their lips meeting, she arched her back.

With one hand, she covered her mouth, bending her waist as much as possible, clenching her thighs, and supporting her body by gripping the desk with her other hand, barely suppressing the moans that threatened to erupt.

She was crazy. She must be crazy. Was a woman’s body ever this sensitive? Absolutely not.

The books Kaikilia had read stated that consistent stimulation was essential for a woman to reach climax. But what about Kaikilia? She was in this state just from a mere thought.

‘That can’t be.’

Kaikilia, gritting her teeth and denying her body’s condition, approached Delta one step at a time, emitting a strong peach scent. Breaths filled with ecstasy subtly escaped through her tightly clenched lips.

Kaikilia soon arrived at her desired spot. Delta’s body was right in front of her. She gazed down at the man before her. Her vision felt like it was spinning.

As if possessed by something, she straddled his thighs. Her gaze had long since been fixed on Delta’s face. And, on his lips-

“What are you doing on top of me?”

At the two black eyes that were somehow staring at her, Kaikilia’s body stiffened abruptly, as if struck by lightning.