RGS Vol 6 Part 23

“Ah… no.”

Although it was a word that barely came out due to difficulty speaking, Truyde asked in a sweet voice without loosening his grip.

“What do you mean no?”

“I don’t think that way.”

“No? Then what exactly did you think when you came to find me?”

Crash!

Abel, pushed by Truyde’s hand, rolled on the floor with a loud noise. Truyde looked down at Abel, seemingly enjoying the way he suppressed his groans this time.

When Abel was pushed, some of his hair was pulled out and remained in Truyde’s hand. Confirming that the ends of the torn hair were blond, Truyde brushed it off his hands.

“It’s best not to lie in front of me. The curse is true, but my love is entirely different from what you think.”

As Abel raised his upper body and lifted his head, Truyde smiled broadly.

“Indeed, you excite me.”

Truyde turned around and walked towards the cabinet. He opened a drawer as if he was familiar with the layout of the room and took something out.

“I already ache below, wanting to enter you. My mind is filled with nothing but that thought.”

Although his voice flowed leisurely, his eyes overflowed with desire, proving his words. Unable to take his eyes off Abel’s white skin who had not fully risen yet, Truyde started walking again. Abel, too, briefly glanced at the object in Truyde’s hand. As fear seeped into his slightly widened green eyes, Truyde’s mouth twisted further in pleasure.

“Do you know? Those who enter the Regas Palace are held by someone else before the king for educational reasons. That someone is the King’s Heart. And this room is exclusively mine. It’s a room passed down through generations in our family that no king can ever use. I’ve embraced countless Regas’ here. However, those I’ve embraced never went to the king. Do you know why?”

As soon as he finished his question, a sharp sound pierced the air, echoing inside.

Whish― Crack!

The whip in Truyde’s hand lashed out and brushed past Abel’s body, striking the marble floor. Although the whip did not hit him, Abel flinched, startled by the sight of it passing in front of him. Truyde chuckled, seeing Abel’s tense appearance, and raised the hand holding the whip once more.

“After spending a night with me, they were all so broken that they couldn’t be used.”

Whish―

As Truyde’s whip flew towards him this time, Abel instinctively turned his head to avoid it. However, the whip was faster.

“Ugh.”

The whip struck Abel’s shoulder like a snake and then fell away. The spot where the whip had hit quickly swelled up, leaving a red mark. When Abel tried to reach and touch the wound with his hand, the whip struck his hand this time.

Abel bit his lip to suppress a groan, but his trembling hand was more wounded than his shoulder. The red mark did not stop at being just a scratch; the skin was torn, and blood trickled down. Still, he merely frowned, not wanting to show his pain.

The sight of Truyde’s gaze, which touched Abel’s face, was more chilling than the wounds from the whip. Truyde’s eyes grew increasingly lustful as he observed Abel’s wounds and pain. As evidence, his already erect pen1s was already making its presence known beneath his pants.

“Yes, endure it as long as you can. I like it even more when you bite your lip and hold out until the end. It’s fascinating. Even in such things, you match my taste perfectly. It makes me even more excited to embrace you.”

Truyde took a big step forward and swung his whip towards Abel, who tried to run backward. As the whip continuously wrapped around his body, Abel gave up moving and bent his upper body. Truyde’s mocking laughter followed as he cowered.

“If it hurts, scream. Perhaps your cries will move my heart, and I’ll grant your request?”

Whish― Crack!

The whip struck the same spot again eventually tearing his clothes and wrapping around his bare skin. Truyde let out a gasp in excitement at the sight of the wound that was revealed through his torn clothes.

“Haa, now’s your only chance. Soon, you’ll be able to do nothing but scream, so say what you want now. Try to seduce me like you did with the emperor.”

As if genuinely giving him a chance, Truyde stopped whipping him and spoke leisurely, but his hands still held the whip tightly. However, even without hearing the sound of the leather whip cutting through the air, the wounds inflicted by it brought relentless pain. Abel lifted his eyes squinting in pain, and barely managed to open his mouth.

“It seems you misunderstand. The reason I could come to you of my own will is because I have a weapon.”

“A weapon?”

As Truyde’s smile faded as he asked again, Abel frowned and corrected his words.

“No, let’s call it negotiation.”

Abel briefly lowered his head, perhaps finding it difficult to speak due to the pain, and then forced himself to look up at Truyde.

“I found the wooden pendant that His Majesty had hidden in the forest.”

Truyde then completely erased the smile from his lips as if he had just remembered something important.

“Did you bring the wooden pendant?”

“No.”

“Then how can I believe you found it?”

“The place where I found the wooden pendant was the Spring of Prayer. Everything was burned, but the stone-lined traces of the Spring of Prayer remained. It was inside there. So, if you confirm with the person who hid it, you will know that I am not lying.”

Truyde looked down at Abel with narrowed eyes and then lifted his chin.

“You’re quite clever. If you know that the emperor, who can confirm it, will never wake up, it’s a good start.”

Abel’s eyes wavered at the mention of the emperor never waking up. Truyde observed his reaction carefully and coldly asked.

“So, did you look into the past with the wooden pendant? Are you trying to threaten me with it?”

As he asked coldly, Abel supported himself with his hand on the floor and raised his upper body. He looked into the space as if pondering and then answered.

“At first, that was my intention. I wanted to find the wooden pendant, look into the past, and uncover the secret of the black potion. But.”

“But?”

When Truyde asked with narrowed eyes, Abel looked up at him again.

“But no magic happened with the method I learned at Marquis Yan’s mansion.”

“……”

“He said it would work if I called the dragon’s name twice, but it didn’t. I thought about what the problem could be, and it seemed like the name was the problem. The names of the dragons we commonly know are those given by later generations. So, wouldn’t there be a real name of the dragon? One that was used at that time. If I knew that…”

Abel muttered, seemingly forgetting that Truyde was his enemy. However, unlike Abel, who had let his guard down, Truyde looked at him with eyes full of suspicion.

“Why are you telling me this? If the wooden pendant is useless, shouldn’t you be hiding it?”

“As I said, it’s for negotiation. Find the real name of the dragon so I can use the wooden pendant. And let all the people in the library safely leave the palace.”

Truyde could hardly believe his ears at such an absurd request. Despite occasionally grimacing in pain from his wounds, Abel continued to talk nonsense. Truyde held back the laughter that was about to burst out in disbelief and opened his mouth.

“Why should I do such a thing? I’m someone who wants to get rid of that wooden pendant the most. I want to prevent the secrets of our family from being exposed through the past. Because of that, I could kill you right now. However, you are offering this as a negotiation condition? For what reason?”

“If I say it’s for the sake of the past that can be seen through the wooden pendant, would that be a sufficient answer?”

Abel paused for a moment, hesitating before looking up.

“The answer you need might be in the past, Duke. I’ll show it to you. As you said, I’m someone you can kill at any time, so shouldn’t you use me to find what you need?”

It sounded plausible, however, there was no compelling reason for Truyde to be swayed. The past. It was not something he needed to know anew.

“I don’t need it. I’m not curious about anything.”

“Not even about the forest?”

The Dragon’s Forest?

Truyde raised his eyebrows, and Abel nodded.

“Aren’t you curious as to why the hundreds of people who entered the Dragon’s Forest never came out, and what happened inside?”

“That’s because of the fog.”

However, Abel immediately shook his head.

“At first, I thought it was because of the fog as well. But when I saw the place turn into blackened land, I realized something. If they were trapped by the fog, I should have met them wandering around in there. However, I didn’t see a single person. Not even a corpse.”

⊹˚. ♡.𖥔 ݁ ˖ ⊹˚. ♡.𖥔 ݁ ˖

After Abel walked out of the forest on his own, guarding the entrance of the forest became less important. However, the chaotic night was not yet over as they had to capture Nani and the butler. As a result, the order to withdraw the soldiers, who had practically set up a camp outside the forest entrance, was given around midnight.

Although dawn would break in an hour or two, everyone was glad to know they could close their eyes even now. Thus, the soldier who was sent to deliver the order was eager to deliver the news quickly and got to bed. It was just a simple matter of passing on the order, after all, so it wouldn’t be difficult.

In fact, there were no issues until he informed those guarding the forest path and headed straight towards the entrance of the forest. However, when he saw the line of torches illuminating the entrance like daylight, the situation changed. There were no people where the torches, which should have been illuminating the entrance, were standing guard.

It was as if the soldiers had disappeared without a trace, swallowed by the ground. The only sound was that of the burning torches, not even the wind could be heard, and a profound silence dominated the surroundings. The person who had come to deliver the orders was startled and hurriedly walked forward to find the others.

However, as he moved forward, his steps halted as he noticed something strange around him that he hadn’t seen while looking for the others. The position of the torches was odd. They were lined up in a row, but there was nothing in the places where they stood. No trees, no grass, no dirt, no coarse gravel ground that marked the entrance to the forest. The torches stood within an area of the blackened ground.

Why?

Who moved those torches?

Shocked, he looked around again and held his breath as an unintentional thought struck him.

What if the torches weren’t moved?

What if the blackened ground had expanded and swallowed the soldiers?

The soldier forced his stiff frozen head down and looked below. The ground beneath his feet was covered in black ash.

⊹˚. ♡.𖥔 ݁ ˖ ⊹˚. ♡.𖥔 ݁ ˖

Truyde showed no reaction for a while. His expressionless face looking down at Abel revealed neither surprise nor suspicion.

“It’s not because of the fog.”

Abel repeated the same words, barely holding back his pain.

“If the fog was the reason why those people couldn’t come out of the forest as before, there should be traces. The fog only trapped people. It doesn’t make them disappear. But the fact that hundreds of people vanished without a trace in a ruined place with no obstacles is definitely strange. There must have been some change in the forest after it burned down. It must have started twelve years ago when it burned down.”

“…”

“Weren’t you the one who burned the forest back then, Duke?”

The last question was merely to pique Truyde’s interest further. But suddenly, Truyde felt a chill down his spine as someone else’s voice overlapped with Abel’s. It was Karas’ words, spoken under the influence of the poison, spilling out the truth.

‘You. You are the forest’s greatest secret.’

It was the answer he got when he asked what the magic of the forest was. At the time, he had dismissed his words as nonsense, no matter how much Karas had drunk the black potion. However, he couldn’t understand why those words had suddenly came to mind now. Meanwhile, Abel continued to speak in a serious tone, but Truyde couldn’t hear him properly.

“At first, I thought I was seeing things. That I was mistaken. But as I stepped back and looked,”

“Shut up.”

Truyde no longer wanted to hear Abel’s words.

Changes in the forest?

A secret?

There’s no such thing. It’s all just Abel’s tricks to unsettle him. Truyde’s eyes flashed sharply as he gripped the whip tightly and took a step forward.

“No matter how much you try to deceive me with such lies, I won’t be fooled like the foolish emperor. You think I need to know the forest’s secret? Let me guess your plan. You never found the wooden pendant in the first place. So, you concocted this story to shake me up.”

“No, I’m only telling the truth. Ugh!”

With a sharp sound, the whip lashed Abel’s body again. Only after making Abel bleed several times did Truyde lower his hand. Abel curled up like a ball, had long streaks of blood flowing down his back through his torn clothes. Approaching his blood-covered back, Truyde’s eyes, filled with anger and desire, looked down at him. His small shoulders trembled slightly as he barely managed to breathe, trying to endure the pain.

“You said you wanted to buy time? I’ll grant you that wish.”

Truyde’s hand roughly grabbed Abel’s blood-soaked shoulder. As Abel tried to lift his upper body as his injured back was pressed against the floor, Truyde’s weight pressed him back down. Then, with his other hand, Truyde grabbed Abel’s shirt and tore it off, smiling.

“I’ll hold you until the morning sun rises and the final banquet with the emperor. That is, if you can endure that long.”

Shocked by Truyde’s words, Abel twisted his body, trying to escape. However, he could only groan and close his eyes under the pressure of the hand pressing down on his shoulder.

“Open your eyes.”

Truyde grabbed Abel’s hair and commanded.

“Open your eyes and face the reality where no one will help you. A reality where even you cannot save yourself.”

As soon as he finished speaking, Truyde’s lips pressed against Abel’s. It wasn’t a kiss but a painful act as his white teeth bit into Abel’s tender flesh. The act, filled with nothing but pain, added to Abel’s suffocation, crushing him. The painful time was so hard to endure that it made him even forget the pain of being whipped.

Abel knew he shouldn’t be swayed by the other person’s actions, however, Truyde’s tongue and rough breathing entering his mouth worsened his feelings. Despair spread within him, thinking that, as Truyde had said, he really couldn’t do anything.

The touch of Truyde’s aroused gen1tals against his stomach made Abel shiver. On top of that, Truyde’s scent filled his nose every time he breathed. It made him not want to take a breath anymore.

Suddenly, Abel’s body, which had been resisting, lost its strength. His movements stopped, and his body stiffened as if everything had frozen. Truyde also noticed his change and slowly lifted his head. His eyes were mixed with heat and greed, satisfied by the taste of Abel’s blood in his mouth.

“Why? Have you given up already? Do you think staying still like a doll will…”

The words he had intended to mock him didn’t come out. Abel, who was the target of his ridicule, was making a strange expression even after hearing Truyde’s words. His large green eyes were filled with confusion, completely inappropriate for the situation.

Why is he making such eyes when he should be crying and begging?

Feeling dirty by Abel’s unexpected reaction, Truyde straightened his upper body completely and tried to reach for the whip. However, Abel’s question came out first. His voice was still dazed as if he was still surprised.

“Hawks do not get sick even if they eat rotten meat. Do you know why?”

“What are you talking about all of a sudden…?”

“It’s because of a special herb. The scent of that herb is what I’m smelling from you right now, Duke.”

⊹˚. ♡.𖥔 ݁ ˖Continues in Regas Volume 7⊹˚. ♡.𖥔 ݁ ˖