Chapter 250: Sweetly Poisonous
"...Lady Esther, Her Majesty has permitted you to go to her." A shadow speaks as I get out of bed, looking at my healed body.
"...Is Evelyn the queen?"
"Yes. She has officially claimed the title." As the shadow says this, I hear the grinding of my teeth.
’Queen...’ Since we’re married, I still hold the greater power in the relationship, but the castle is a possession of the King or Queen, so it falls outside the rules of marriage, just like the servants. In other words, it’s beyond my control.
Besides, unlike other races that have both a King and a Queen, among demons we only have one or the other. Me being married to Evelyn doesn’t grant me any title or special status. Evelyn is the sole Queen, and there will never be another.
But none of that matters. What matters is that she tried to kill me for this title. I can’t even bring myself to care about the power I lost by not gaining the title when all I can think about is this betrayal.
I quickly race down the hall, running until I reach where I feel her magic. The shadow is left behind as I reach the door to the room and push down on the open handle.
"..." I see Evelyn sitting on the bed, and the change is obvious. Her magic has become denser. The Hikishin around her is acting strangely, and she seems more ’authoritative,’ even just sitting still.
"Esther..." she says, seeing me enter. I quickly go to her. Seeing no shadows here to interrupt me, I grab Evelyn by the throat and shove her down onto the bed.
"How dare you betray me like that!" I squeeze her throat until she chokes. She doesn’t even fight back, just stares at me.
"I... didn’t betray you..."
"How can you say that!! After you planned my assassination!!" I speak furiously at her as she denies it. Some tears form on my face.
"Esther, you used to be more composed in the past. What happened to your manners? I am your queen, you know?"
"!!!"
"And if I tried to kill you, what does it matter? Is that why you don’t love me anymore? If I tried to kill you, it’s your fault. I wouldn’t have tried to kill you if you hadn’t done something to provoke that reaction." She makes this pathetic appeal, which makes me look at her coldly.
"You’re right... I lost my composure over useless sentimentality... and it really is all my fault... Did the throne satisfy you?" When I ask this, she looks away.
"Was it worth it, Queen?"
"..."
"The crown is heavy, isn’t it? Now that you are the queen, we’ve arrived at the situation I mentioned in the past. What will you do now, my queen? Can you carry millions of lives in your hand? They aren’t toys for you. To you, they are ’real’ people, unlike my view of them." I say, regaining my composure and wiping away the tears. She’s right; after all, it’s always my fault.
’Why am I being so sentimental?’ I don’t know. It’s strange. I’ve never been sentimental like this. I don’t know what Evelyn did to me, but she’s right about how I’m losing my composure far too easily.
"..." I look at Evelyn’s face, analyzing her with a cold calm that emerged after I truly stopped to think.
"You were crying," I say, seeing the marks on her cheeks.
"...Could you let go of my throat?" she says, ignoring what I said.
"Of course, ’my Queen,’ whatever you wish." I say with sarcasm, looking at her. Then I smile, seeing that she hasn’t changed at all. She’s still the same weak, pathetic Evelyn as always. She just blocked the path to easy power for herself, but she didn’t stop me from doing what I want.
"Putting a wall in my way was clever, but the difference between creating a wall and creating a hole is that I can climb the wall, but I can’t jump over the hole." If she had become powerful, she could stop me whenever she wanted. That would be the hole. But she remained the same weakling as always, so she became a wall.
"I know, Esther... Do you feel better now?"
"Yes... thank you for your words. You are right. You’ve always been like this... I underestimated you. I didn’t think you’d have the courage to kill me, even though I encouraged it. I apologize for my lapse in judgment."
"You’re not a traitor in that sense, because you always made it clear you weren’t on my side. I was the foolish one in this." She always made it clear that I would never be her priority unless I forced it. She also always expressed her desires in ways that went against mine.
But I treated her feelings like a game, and I failed in that. It’s not a game between us two. It’s reality, and it can’t be ignored.
"..." I take the knife from my pocket. The shadows had left it on the table along with my torn, bloodied clothes. I show Evelyn the chipped blade.
"My queen, would you let me tear out your heart, just as you tried to tear out mine?" Our relationship, always sick, toxic, and codependent, becomes clearer than ever. And I will no longer ignore it.
"Why?" she asks, staring at the knife.
"Because I am full of jealousy and rage that you made a choice in which I had no part. You chose the possibility of a world without me. You accepted the risks of my death."
"The cost of your victory was to sacrifice everything. You sacrificed puppets, Eve, me, and even yourself in exchange for a chance to be queen. And you won that risky bet."
"So, Evelyn, I want a consolation prize. I want your heart served to me on a platter!" I press the tip of the knife against her chest, moving it gently to cut her dress.
"And you, as the wife who nearly threw both my life and your own life away, should give me my second-place prize, shouldn’t you?"
"You know, I know a very romantic story," I say as I tear a large piece of her dress, exposing her bra. I begin to run the knife deliberately slowly through the bra to cut it.
"Once upon a time, there was a vampire woman and a human. They were mortal enemies, locked in a conflict that spawned a war lasting years."
"In the beginning, they both deeply hated each other. But after years of bloody battles, each seeking the other’s life, the vampire woman, a bloody monster, began to love the human who showed her the most enchanting scenes."
"However, a noble vampire like her could never be with a mere human. She was supposed to secure victory for the honor of her race against that human..." I finish tearing her bra, exposing her chest.
"The human, tired of the battles, proposed something. He, who did not like the vampire, decided to end it all not with a final war, but with a duel against her."
"The vampire, for the sake of honor, agreed to end it once and for all. The battle takes place under a full moon. By the light of the moon, they fought an intense battle for hours, where the human lost."
"But, as the human awaited his honorable death in defeat, the vampire gave him the final proof of her love for him, and a sign of the end of that battle."
"She tore out her own heart. Knowing she could never have that human for herself, she gave him a mark that would make him never forget her for all eternity, believing that her heart could grant him healing, regeneration, and a long life."
"Thanks to her heart, the ’consolation’ prize she left behind, the human, by eating it, was able to recover. However, unlike what the vampire expected, the now-healed human killed her because she was exhausted and had a severe wound in her chest."
"Because love was always one-sided, and the loser, who accepted his reward after being ordered to eat, used the gift he received as he saw fit, achieving victory in the duel."
"So, Evelyn, you who stole my position as Demon Queen, should give me my consolation prize."
"Just like the vampire in the story who won the duel but lost to her love, you, who defeated me in a strategic battle, have also lost to love. You didn’t finish killing me. You had the chance, didn’t you?" I say, running the knife gently across her chest.
I carve an X with her blood. She lets out a little whimper as the blade breaks the skin, leaving a faint mark above her heart.
"Do... what you want..." When she accepts, I give a huge smile, gaining the proof I wanted. Evelyn is like the weak vampire who succumbs to love. She can kill me. Her mind can plan my death, and she can execute the plan. But in the end, her heart will betray her.
That’s why she didn’t kill me. She lost even before the fight began, because her perfect plan had one single, uncontrollable variable: her own love for me.
"Urrghh..." She groans in pain as I plunge the knife into her chest, sinking it slowly into the flesh. She gasps, tears on her face, as the knife slowly hits the core.
I apply force, moving the knife as blood flows and the wound expands. But all I look at is Evelyn’s tearful face, crying even more now than when I stabbed her repeatedly before.
"Evelyn, I think this knife has seen too much of our lives." I pull the knife out after creating a huge gash in her chest and break the knife in my hands. This knife, which once threatened my life, is no longer useful to either of us. We don’t need this knife anymore, because we’ve already found the answer to the question that revolved around it.
"I’m grateful for my gift, Evelyn," I say, thrusting my hand through the wound as she writhes beneath me, trying to contain the sounds of pain. My fingers spread apart through her warm, soft flesh like an intimate act, feeling the heat of her body as I gently grasp the core that mimics her heart.
I begin to pull it out slowly as Evelyn grips the bed, looking at me with a certain fear in her eyes, along with obvious discomfort. But I also see the delirious love of someone who can’t refuse a request from their beloved. Her tail thrashes against the wooden frame of the bed in pain as the core is pulled from her open chest.
"..." I hold the blood-dripping core. It’s a vibrant, dark red color, and the smell is so pleasantly sweet. Evelyn looks at the blood-drenched core. It’s literally her heart. The look of disgust she has for something that is part of her own body is almost comical.
"I thank you for the meal." I put the core completely into my mouth, even though it’s a bit large. Drops of blood run down my chin and neck as I bite down with all my strength, hearing a pop, as if a glass sphere had shattered.
Following the sound comes a faint hiss, the Hikishin dispersing, escaping from the core. Evelyn’s magic level has increased so much that the room fills with the magic escaping the core, cracks spiderwebbing across the windows.
I swallow, tasting her blood on my lips. I lick my fingers, staring at Evelyn beneath me. A pathetic queen who can’t overcome her own feelings, but who can destroy anything in her path with strategy and cowardice.
"Hmmm..." I moan in pleasure at the divine taste of it. Much better than the taste of her tail. For a moment, I stare at the wound on her body, and I feel no remorse for hurting her like this. After all, she hurt me first, and I’m just repaying in the only way I know how.
"You look so enchanting covered in blood like this." I run my hand gently along the side of her chest, collecting some of the blood. I then gently smear it across Evelyn’s face, wiping away her tears as I stain her face with this vibrant red.
"I love you, Evelyn. More than I can bear, and more than you could ever imagine." I lean down, grabbing her hands, which become stained with blood in my own, and I end up kissing her deeply, forgiving her for what she did. The taste is sweet, with a metallic mix from the blood on my lips.
She struggles a little from discomfort, but I just press her against the bed, not letting her escape my love. And despite the resistance of her hands, her tail curls around my thigh as if seeking support from me.
And her legs wrap around my waist as if she doesn’t want to let me go. Just as she returns the kiss, even if her hands want to push me away, her eyes hold no denial. She looks at me like a girl too much in love to choose anything other than love.