TPOP 75

Chapter 75

***

"I told you, Diana, if you play it smart, nothing will happen."

Not once since the forest burned had Diana come to him first.

She hadn't even reached out to feel his expression, to check. Turning that fact around meant that until now, she'd thrown herself at him because she wanted something from him. She’d insisted she wasn’t a puppet, and now this? It was absurd.

So, since she hadn’t gotten what she wanted, she’d decided to utterly ignore her master?

Felix lifted her slender limbs to check for new bruises. Diana violently shook off his hand.

“Don’t touch me.”

Her words trailed off. Her voice was unrecognizably hoarse. What on earth made her so insolent?

"You said you wanted water."

The maid quietly placed a glass and withdrew. Felix took a mouthful of water and pressed his lips to Diana's.

He forced the water into the slight gap between her lips, parted as she gasped for breath. Diana flinched in surprise and twisted her body belatedly, but she stood no chance against the man's powerful grip. Several mouthfuls of water finally slid down her throat.

Diana's pupils trembled silently.

The water, lukewarm from passing between their lips, tasted sickeningly sweet.

The water she hadn't swallowed trickled down the corners of her mouth. Diana blinked blankly, then licked the corner of her own mouth with her tongue.

She wanted more.

She could quench her throat by converting the moisture in the air into droplets, but it wasn't enough. Her thirst was so intense she wanted to grab the entire pitcher and pour it down her throat.

But she bit hard on the inside of her lip to endure the parched feeling. Felix, his mouth still wet with water, tried to kiss her again, but she stubbornly refused.

Half the water that moistened her lips dripped down below her chin.

"Swallow."

It was a low, threatening whisper. But Diana no longer feared him.

Whatever he did to her wouldn't surprise her much. Even if he tied her limbs to the bed, even if he struck her, she knew she wouldn't be hurt. Because that was the kind of man he was.

If he didn't respect her as a human being, Diana could do the same. There was no need to listen to the devil's useless whispers. Diana decided she would find her own way out, rather than attaching meaning and hope to his every word or gesture.

It had already been a week since she began desperately searching for a crack in this space. As Felix's patience burned away, Diana's hope saw little light. Desperately, the former's pace was far quicker.

"I spoiled you, didn't I? Always telling you how pretty you were, just looking at you, so you never learned your place."

Felix roughly picked up the crouched Diana. He entered the secret chamber carved into the inner wall of the bedroom and tossed her onto the bed. It was smaller and more cramped than the Crown Prince's bedroom. The window facing outside was already boarded up.

With the window blocked, sunlight was barred. All the lamps illuminating the interior had long been removed, so the secret room was shrouded in darkness. There was no airflow whatsoever. Diana's heart sank.

"Anyway, whether it's the secret room or outside, what you see won't be much different, will it?"

Felix sneered as he grabbed something draped over the bedhead. Diana frantically groped for the sheet but was quickly stopped.

The only way out of this room was the door leading to the bedroom. It was bleak, devoid of the warmth of sunlight or the moisture in the air. Diana instinctively sensed danger and struggled.

"Let go! Let go of this!"

"One more time you talk back like that, and your head will roll."

The man bound something around Diana with brutal hands. Instead of the thick, heavy metal shackles that had bound her ankles before, soft silk cloth was now tightly wrapped around her wrists. But the length was absurdly short. Barely three spans.

No. With such a small radius to move within, even searching for an escape route outside would be impossible. A wave of pale green washed over Diana's eyes.

"I'll increase the number of escort knights. No maid will tolerate your whining. If you exchange even a word with the physician, I'll have his head chopped off first. So obey me."

Diana pretended not to hear and shook her wrist violently. She seemed indifferent if it got twisted.

Felix pressed her slender wrist down onto the sheet. He refined his voice, smoothing it into gentleness.

"Think about who suffers most if you harm yourself, Diana."

"......"

"If you'd just let your foot heal properly, none of this trouble would have happened. Why make things worse? Stop being foolish and get your head straight."

Diana snorted inwardly. Who would suffer most if her body was ruined? Did he think that was all that mattered?

She was sickened by that callous mindset, that preserving only the body would bring a peaceful life. By that logic, Diana, who couldn't preserve her sight, should have died long ago.

Ultimately, that arrogant perspective stemmed from the fact he didn't treat her as an equal human being. Diana was still merely his object. A pretty thing he could casually dissect and modify.

That fact made her teeth grind with disgust.

"Then just cut it off."

"What?"

"Kill me, throw me into Hilde, cut off my ankles, keep me locked up here... It's all the same to me. So if you can't stand looking at me, just get rid of me. That should solve it. Why bother with all this fuss, Master?"

Felix's effort to at least maintain a gentle tone, if not the content of his words, shattered without mercy. A crack appeared in his jaw as he clenched it with all his might.

"Do you think I don't know that, you fool? Is that why you’re acting like this?"

Diana kept throwing out perfectly valid points, each one stinging his pride.

Yes, that's right. Possess or discard. Everything that had ever come into Felix's hands—be it person, beast, or object—had always been classified into one of those two categories. He was, of course, the sole judge of value, and his criteria were clear.

If it possessed aesthetic persuasiveness, sincere loyalty, and brought material gain, he would keep it. By that measure, Diana was utterly worthless.

She showed him not a shred of loyalty, and instead of being beneficial, it was fortunate if she didn't cause harm. Ultimately, the only thing she possessed was this unparalleled beauty.

Yet why did this alone so singularly capture his gaze, stir the urge to paint, make him desire it so intensely...

Why wasn't it even discarded? Why?

An inexplicable, contradictory emotion dominated him. The moment he realized he was being swayed, an indescribable discomfort struck him. Felix had never stood anywhere but the position of dominance, not for a single moment since birth.

Even if such a thing were to happen, he had no intention of kneeling willingly. If anyone dared to climb above his head, he would simply cut them down.

This maid was no exception. Absolutely not.

Felix crushed her with his lips as if to subdue her.

"Making me repeat myself two or three times is quite the talent, I suppose."

Diana wanted to bite down on the tongue thrusting into her mouth, but even that was impossible. Her entire body felt suffocating, as if bound by a dense web of chains. The voice that thundered down from beyond the curtain of darkness was more cruel than ever.

"If you want to die so badly, satisfy me first, Diana."

Diana's fate was sealed by that single sentence. Her eyes instantly grew hot.

The man stormed in like a tempest, plundering Diana's impoverished heart. The fragments he had torn away long ago lay scattered, unable to return to their place, tattered and wretched. Faith and hope, excitement, anticipation...

With nothing left to give, he now demanded even her pain and resentment.

Why was he being so cruel to her?

Felix, clutching Diana's back tightly, growled like a beast. Her shoulder blades jutted sharply from her emaciated frame. The petite woman's frame was slender to the bone.

She must surely be suffocating, yet not a single moan escaped her. Even when his tone sharpened, Diana's lips remained sealed. The sense of disconnection was more acute than ever. Felix reaffirmed his loathing for this shapeless barrier.

"This isn't what you're supposed to give me. Damn it..."

An unknown craving made his throat parched.