Luka wished he didn’t know where this incessant rage boiling within his veins came from, but he wasn’t retarded.

’This foul harlot...!’

There was no way he wouldn’t notice.

Notice the fact that she retained some of her knowledge from their past lives.

Though the system said it wasn’t a large amount.

He could just feel it in her eyes, staring at him with such dense emotion.

[You have Absorbed Mildred’s Lust]

[Sinful Energy Increased!]

’I’m not happy!’

The woman who gouged his heart dropped to her knees, without so much as a complaint. Her eyes spread wide open like an obedient little puppy, watching him with their dark, mysterious aura.

Thanks to carving a part of her soul to become bound to his, Luka knew she couldn’t lie to him even if she didn’t know the answer.

"What do you know about yourself, about me?"

He watched the sudden flash of confusion.

There was a moment where her lashes fluttered, and her face twisted, her lips parting as if about to speak, before her entire face paled and she shook on the spot.

Her throat moved as if she swallowed the words lodged inside her throat, sealing them in her chest and yet unable to resist due to their cursed bond, it was impossible.

Luka watched her carefully, observing even the faintest reaction she showed.

She couldn’t lie.

If she tried, he would know before the sound left her mouth.

"I.... this.... it will sound strange, like a crazy woman’s prattling thoughts..."

"Go on, I will not judge you until everything is over. Mildred."

Though his guts churned and boiled, he couldn’t help but forget Mildred before she betrayed him, always hidden at the edge of sight. Silently leaving a towel after training, replacing his water... he’d noticed many actions that confused him.

’Why would she betray me...?’

She gripped the inside of her thighs and squeezed the soft meat between her fingers.

"I remember... two lives..."

’Oh?’

Luka didn’t know to what extent her changes and soul would be warped; at worst, she could’ve become a complete vegetable, raving about things that didn’t happen.

"Phew, that’s alright, please go on. What exactly can you remember about the two different lives...?"

Mildred opened her mouth.

Nothing came out.

Her brows furrowed, squeezing tightly as if trying to drag something out of the darkness inside her mind. Luka watched with narrowed eyes, ready to dismiss it as another act, but the change in her face came too quickly.

Her lips trembled.

Then her eyes widened.

"N-No..."

A tear slipped down her cheek.

Then another.

They just wouldn’t stop.

Mildred stared at her own hands, struggling to breathe as a dark pink haze overflowed from her entire body, creating small cracks in the cheap, unfinished stone flooring and cheap wooden debris.

When she glanced up at Luka, her muddy pink irises shook like muddy water being stirred from beneath.

"I... I remember..."

Luka wasn’t heartless, but to this woman, he could seal those emotions and concerns, retaining a cold, emotionless face.

"Go on, what did you remember, Mildred?"

She looked at him strangely, as if... as if he were a ghost.

"How can you be here... I remember... You dying.... the lady... everything is different! I remember Amol... not like now. Not like this life. You... you died. You weren’t there, and nobody came to our aid!"

The pink miasma billowed, growing into a dense mist the more she spoke and stirred her emotions.

Her tone was almost like a crazed crone.

"I was so weak... so useless.... why couldn’t I fight.... their hands.... their disgusting.... everything.... dirty....dirty....dirty!!!" Her voice became like a scream, her hands rubbing her arms and body violently as she curled into a ball. "Again....and again and again.... Ah..... Iris... I can hear her wailing..... why is there nothing but suffering?"

Her voice collapsed into a sob.

His hand shook as he listened because he knew what memories likely remained.

’Though you are my enemy... why does this pain grow in my chest?’

"I want to die.... please.... let me die.... I prayed.... every single moment that they.... left us.... but there was no answer... nobody came...."

Luka stood still.

The rage inside him did not vanish, but something joined it.

A twisted and abhorrent emotion.

Mildred lifted her messy, tear-soaked face and gazed into his eyes. There was a subtle glint in the depths as she continued speaking.

"Until he came.... and waged a battle.... an angel struck them down... he wrapped us in his divine arms... those beautiful white wings granting us salvation and purification... but even he left after destroying the goblins... so I took a lock of his golden hair like divine silk and swore to find him again one day..."

Her fingers dug into her dress.

"Everything after is a blur... yet this life, why? Why didn’t you die... no... why are you in a human form?"

Her eyes shook with a crazed jolt as she looked at him.

’She knows!?’

Luka should’ve been overjoyed, yet the fact she knew so little frustrated him... it seemed her memories from the other life ended just after his first battle as the defender of humankind, where he broke the divine law to save the human captives.

Shortly after, his brothers chased him down and almost fatally wounded him.

His expression didn’t change, but the miasma around his fingers flickered violently for a single moment, causing Mildred’s body to shake.

"Ngh...!"

Mildred clutched her chest, her body curling forward as if something invisible had struck her heart.

Luka watched it happen without moving.

’So even my anger affects her.’

The bond carved into her soul was more useful than he expected. She couldn’t harm him. She couldn’t flee from him. If she tried to wound him, that wound would return to her many times over.

A suitable leash for a traitor.

Yet seeing her gasp and tremble on the floor did not bring him the satisfaction he wanted.

"What else?"

Mildred lifted her face with difficulty.

"H-Huh...?"

"What else do you remember after that angel saved you?"

Her muddy pink eyes shook.

"I... I don’t know. The memories are like broken shards of glass. I remember following his trail. I remember wanting to become strong.... and training until my hands bled because I never wanted to be weak again."

Her fingers dug into the floor.

There was a sudden burst of pressure as her pink miasma spread like a cloud, covering the entire room.

’It seems this is as far as she knows...’

He couldn’t deny his irritation, wanting to put the traitor down was the main reason he kept her alive and awoke the power of lust within her.

Yet the woman before him was not that same woman.

That truth annoyed him far more than any lie she could’ve told. If Mildred remembered the betrayal, he could condemn her. If she mocked him, denied everything, or showed even a trace of the same cursed resolve, he could cut her down without hesitation.

Instead, she knelt there like a broken thing, trembling beneath memories that ended before the sin he wanted her to confess.

’How disgusting.’

He hated that he felt pity for this woman.

He loathed his own feelings of charity towards humanity that still extended to her.

Luka crouched in front of her, his fingers catching her chin before she could lower her face again. Mildred’s eyes shook, wet and clouded, yet they didn’t resist him.

"Listen carefully."

"Y-Yes..."

"Even if you cannot remember now, I do not doubt the day will come that you understand just why I will not forgive you."

Mildred looked completely flabbergasted.

"I do not care what you remember, what you don’t remember, or whether the woman before me is truly the one who stained my past. I will not trust you."

His thumb pressed lightly against her chin.

"If I let you roam freely, you may become a problem. If I kill you now, I might only be venting hatred on a woman who has not yet committed the crime I remember."

Mildred’s lips trembled.

"Then... what should I do?"

Luka’s eyes cooled.

"You will become my dog."

The words sank into the room like a blade.

Mildred stared at him.

"My... Lord?"

"You will eat when I allow it. Walk where I allow it. Speak when I allow it. If I tell you to crawl, you crawl. If I tell you to tear your throat, you do it without asking why."

Her eyes widened as if to scream, "WHY!?"

Yet her lips gently parted with, "Is that... my punishment?"

"Serve me faithfully. Prove that the woman kneeling before me is not the one who betrayed me. Perhaps then, one day, I might just forget such a dog existed and let you go free, who knows... I might even put you out of your misery gently."

Tears slipped down her cheeks again.

Yet this time, she bowed her head until it touched the cracked stone.

"Yes, Master."

He couldn’t be convinced or completely satisfied with those empty words, but they were enough for now.

Luka stood slowly, glancing at the kneeling woman before he turned away.

’Get dressed, and quickly follow me."