Chapter 135 – Pure Madness

"Oh my. Already over?"

Both Anesthesia and Isolde felt their bodies quiver at the slurred, coquettish voice. Taking immediate distance from each other and trying to act as if nothing had happened, the two sisters snapped their heads toward the source at the same time.

Their hearts froze inside their chests.

Isolde, in particular, felt a deep and sudden sensation of doom settle over her head.

Standing in front of the closed door of the hall was Esmeray Hood. She was barely wearing anything: just a towel that barely covered her body. One wrong step and everything would be visible.

But that was not what left the sisters dazed and shocked, even if the sight contributed to it considerably.

No — it was the woman standing behind the Princess. Clearly around thirty years old, plain-faced but with a body worthy of a succubus, wearing an air of pure, unholy devotion.

The woman was naked, her legs parted, showing her private area dripping as she gazed at Esmeray with the look of someone desperately seeking something from her.

"Please, don’t mind my current appearance or my guest." Esmeray spoke again, making both Isolde and Anesthesia recover some semblance of composure. "I woke up quite hungry after such an intense night. So I decided to come and grab a small bite before continuing my little activities."

She walked slowly toward the shattered table and the food scattered across the floor. She was barefooted, yet her steps were oddly loud. Behind her, the woman followed closely; like a tail attached to Esmeray.

"But who would have thought I would walk in on two sisters arguing, seemingly on the verge of fighting each other?" She mused, crouching down and picking up a piece of bacon from the floor.

She ate it without care, licking her lips slowly. Behind her, the woman trembled in concealed ecstasy.

Esmeray then turned her head toward the speechless sisters, and they finally noticed the full extent of her state. Her pupils were dilated. Her cheeks were flushed red. Her breathing was laboured and heavy.

Isolde didn’t waste a single second. Secretly, her heart pounding out of her chest, she pulled out her phone and sent an emergency message to Cassius.

"Are you feeling alright, Princess?" She stepped forward, positioning herself in front of Anesthesia as if shielding her from the sight. But everything she was doing was to keep her sister from understanding the true nature of Esmeray’s condition for as long as possible.

"Oh my, dear Isolde, I am feeling more than alright. Thank you for asking. You are such a wonderful woman. Far better than that lowly hypocrite standing behind you."

Then the Princess turned to the naked woman standing silently and faithfully at her back. "You see, my little whore." She said to her, pointing at Anesthesia. "This is the girl I was telling you about when you were licking me all over. Look at how her face is twisting into one of pure disgust at the sight of your beautiful naked body."

"I do, master." The woman answered, her voice soft and nearly frail.

"Now you know I was not lying." Esmeray laughed. and Isolde felt cold dread rising through her gut. "She is a true bitch who cares for no one but herself. But perhaps we can do something about it. Go toward that spiteful woman and give her a show with that stunning body of yours."

Both Anesthesia and Isolde’s eyes widened.

"What did you just say?" Anesthesia scowled, now understanding exactly what was happening without needing it explained. And to say she was shocked would be an understatement.

But regardless, she would not let an insult pass.

"Do you think I am one of your fucking whores?"

"Oh, please." Esmeray slurred lazily. "I wouldn’t touch a single hair of yours even if you were the sole being left in this world. You disgust me, Anesthesia. You disgust me for everything you are putting my brother through. I hate you, but I can neither touch you nor kill you. My brother would never forgive me. However, I can irk you. And I can stain that holy image you have built of yourself."

She grinned and rose from her crouch.

Esmeray turned the nameless woman so that she faced Anesthesia, then openly grabbed and squeezed her breasts, making the woman moan, her eyes closing in bliss.

The woman’s legs parted slightly further in the process, revealing a sight that made both Anesthesia and Isolde immediately snap their heads to the other side.

"Princess!" Isolde nearly shouted, unable to look. "What are you doing? What if the King and Queen saw this?"

Anesthesia’s mind appeared to have halted entirely at this level of depravity.

Esmeray, meanwhile, cackled. "Oh, I am sorry, dear Isolde! This was never meant for you! All I wanted was to taint the eyes and soul of this wretched woman who so enjoys looking down on everyone, even her own sister. I wanted to show her the sinful body of this woman and make her realise that, just like this pitiful creature whose name I can’t even be bothered to recall..."

She gripped harder and pinched, making the woman nearly buckle to her knees in ecstasy.

"...she too can be reduced to such a state. So tell me, Anesthesia, what does your pride amount to if you can moan just like all of us?"

’She has completely lost it!’ Isolde screamed inwardly, utterly at a loss for what to do.

She looked at her sister, and saw Anesthesia dangerously losing patience, on the verge of doing something she would deeply regret.

Isolde moved instantly to stop her — then halted mid-step as a new presence appeared in the hall.

All four women turned their heads at the same moment, and found the Head Maid of Hood standing in the entrance. Child-like in appearance, golden hair, cold pink eyes fixed entirely on Esmeray.

At the contact of that gaze, it felt as though an electrical current had been sent directly into Esmeray’s mind. Her hazy state returned to something slightly more coherent. She blinked rapidly, her hands releasing the nameless woman’s chest.

She took a couple of steps back, looked around herself, then smiled wryly. "Oh, fuck..." She cursed under her breath, finally registering what she had done.

"Because of you, Princess," Persephone said in her usual flat tone, though this time a current of anger ran beneath it, "I have already killed the maid who informed me of what she witnessed, and any other servants or maids who glimpsed you in that towel with a naked woman behind you."

Esmeray blinked a few times. "Oh..." She whispered, then smiled slowly. "Thank you for your hard work. Then..."

Esmeray turned her eyes to the nameless woman and suddenly seized her by the throat, pulling her close to her face.

The woman’s green eyes went wide with surprise at the sudden motion, but the shock dissolved almost immediately, leaving behind only joy, obsession and complete surrender.

"You know what I have to do, don’t you?" Esmeray whispered, her mind still burning in lust despite having partially regained her senses.

"Yes, master." The woman replied.

"Tell me what I am going to do."

"You are going to kill me." She answered. "You are going to kill me just like you killed the others."

"Bingo, my little whore." Esmeray grinned. "Do you resent me?"

"Never, master. I love you. I love you with everything I am."

The Princess laughed, then pressed her lips onto the woman’s, kissing her with passion and fervour, making the woman’s eyes close in absolute bliss, her body shaking with consuming desire.

But then Esmeray’s hand tightened around her throat, crushing the bones and the neck, killing her so quickly that the last sensation the woman ever felt was the pleasure of that kiss.

The Princess did not pull her lips away immediately, letting them linger — licking and kissing the cooling lips a moment longer. Feeling the coldness of death spread through the body beneath her hands, she finally let go, and the woman’s corpse dropped limply to the floor at her feet.

Esmeray licked her lips, raised her head toward the three women watching her with varying expressions, and smiled sweetly.

"Ah! Now everything is resolved. I am sorry if I showed something unsightly." She said, with not a trace of remorse in her voice.

The Head Maid’s body blurred, and she reappeared behind Anesthesia. Before the Chosen Heiress could react, she lost consciousness entirely as Persephone struck the back of her neck with precision.

She caught her before she fell.

"What... why?" Isolde asked, completely shaken by everything she had been witnessing.

’Madness!’ She cried inwardly. ’This family is pure madness!’

"I apologise, Lady Isolde," Persephone said respectfully — not toward her personally, Isolde understood, but toward her station as the wife of the Last Born. "But we cannot allow the Princess’s condition to remain in her memory."

"Rest assured," Persephone continued. "Only the memories pertaining to the Princess’s state will be removed, nothing else. As for you, as the wife of the Last Born, we will not apply the same method."

Isolde didn’t answer. She couldn’t. She felt she needed time to gather herself, or at least—!

BANG!

The door of the hall exploded inward, and Cassius burst inside alongside Raven.

The first thing they came across was Esmeray — towel around her body, pupils dilated, cheeks flushed — with a naked dead woman lying at her feet.

Understanding arrived instantly, and both Cassius and Raven cursed under their breath, their hearts going cold with dread.

"Queen above..."

"Vorn’s breath..."

—End of Chapter 135—