* * *
No curse was vile enough for him.
The agony radiated up his leg, cold sweat drenching his forehead.
His mind wavered, but passing out wasn’t an option.
“Stay awake, Eren.”
Helid flipped him onto his stomach, then brought his hand down hard on Eren’s ass.
“Agh—!”
The pain echoed from his hips to his shattered ankle.
Finally hearing a moan, Helid smirked, picking up one of the toys—thick, obscenely shaped, vibrating to life with a mechanical whirr.
“Arch your back.”
“Go… to hell…”
“You’ve done this plenty, haven’t you? Or are you used to having things shoved inside you instead?”
The filth in his voice made Eren’s skin crawl.
When he still refused to obey, Helid struck again.
“Hah—!”
His soft flesh quivered under the assault.
Eren panted harshly, glaring up at him.
“I’d love to hear those pretty moans, but I’d rather see your face right now.”
Without hesitation, Helid forced a gag-like object between Eren’s teeth, silencing him.
“Nngh—!”
The vibrations kicked in, filling the room with their mechanical hum.
Helid’s eyes burned with perverse hunger as he tore Eren’s pants down, exposing pale skin—
CRASH—!
The sound of something shattering cut through the air.
Elyrion frowned.
No explanation was needed.
“My little brother still has a long way to go. Should’ve put a leash on that rabid dog.”
It was a face he’d never seen before, but he wasn’t so dull as to not recognize him.
That striking resemblance to Emperor Cidrein of Trovien—once he realized the man was a prince, Eren hastily pulled his pants back up.
Whether the necktie binding his wrists had loosened from his struggling or from the shock of the prince’s sudden appearance, it wasn’t too hard to slip free.
“I sensed my magic here and came to check—what the hell is this situation?”
“…The fuck is this guy?”
Helid was far from pleased at being interrupted just when things were about to get good.
He didn’t know who the intruder was, but his instincts screamed that this wasn’t someone to mess with lightly.
A suffocating aura wrapped around him, evoking a strange sense of déjà vu.
It wasn’t just Helid.
The oppressive energy was so overwhelming it felt like the very air was crushing them.
It was on an entirely different level from the power Eren had once sensed from Melody.
“Hhhhk…!”
A soft, involuntary gasp slipped out.
It felt like something invisible was strangling him mercilessly, as if blades were slicing across his whole body.
The pain was far worse than the one in his injured ankle.
‘Ah… it hurts…’
His vision blurred.
His fragile grasp on consciousness began to fade.
Eren’s face went beyond pale—he looked almost bluish. He had no idea what was going on.
His wide blue eyes, frozen in place, met Elyrion’s gaze in the air with uncanny precision.
‘What the hell is with this guy…?’
For a moment, Elyrion couldn’t hide his shock.
Someone had artificially stripped all magic from Eren’s body.
While some people are born without magic, for someone who once had it to lose it completely was exceedingly rare.
And being suddenly exposed to pure magic in that state could be incredibly dangerous.
As Elyrion swiftly absorbed the ambient magic, Eren’s face visibly brightened—but that was all.
He didn’t look fully recovered.
Then Elyrion caught sight of the explicit artifact in Helid’s hand and narrowed his eyes.
“Were you planning to kill him or something?”
“…What?”
“If not, drop that thing. Now.”
Elyrion’s words, spoken without preamble or explanation, left Helid dumbfounded.
Kill him? It’s not like the guy wasn’t into it—he was moaning with pleasure just moments ago.
Helid stood there, unsure how to respond, so Elyrion stormed over, yanked the artifact away, and tossed it into the corner.
“Real classy. What, did you break his ankle for fun?”
As Elyrion examined Eren’s condition and saw the injured ankle, he clicked his tongue and muttered.
The curses coming from his beautiful face startled Eren, who looked up at him in shock.
He had never met Elyrion before, but knowing he was Melody’s twin, Eren had expected someone refined and noble.
Clearly, he’d been very wrong.
Not just mistaken—completely off the mark.
Perhaps they both had a commanding presence, but in terms of speech, demeanor, and even looks, they hardly seemed like twins at all.
“Hey. Can you stand?”
“…I don’t think so.”
“Figures. I’ll help you up—try to move.”
Eren hesitated as he carefully rose with Elyrion’s support.
He debated whether or not to say something.
He had momentarily forgotten that those with Fridit blood tended to have massive builds.
Despite only being sixteen, Eren was large for his age, and the result was him awkwardly dangling off Elyrion’s neck like a giant ragdoll.
Elyrion made sure Eren didn’t put pressure on his injured foot, but even his good leg couldn’t quite reach the ground.
It was… a very lacking kind of support.
Then, Elyrion simply lifted him with one arm around his waist, feet dangling in midair.
“Hey. You.”
With Eren hanging from his shoulder, Elyrion turned sharply to Helid.
The motion made Eren’s legs swing in the air.
“If your master gives you a treat instead of a whip, you should at least be grateful.”
As soon as he said that, Helid’s sword clattered to the ground at Elyrion’s feet.
There wasn’t even the slightest flicker in Elyrion’s expression, but the air around him was thick with rage.
“I’m not as nice as my sister, you know.”
Elyrion’s voice was ice cold.
With a snap of his fingers, a collar-like object materialized in the air and clamped around Helid’s neck.
Elyrion had been treating him like a dog from the start, but Eren hadn’t expected him to literally put a leash on the man.
‘…Seriously? He actually put a leash on him. This prince is nuts.’
Whether Eren was shocked or not, Elyrion didn’t care.
He carried Eren out of the room without another word.
That was the last moment Eren had any shred of concern for Elyrion—because he would soon realize this man was just as deranged as Julius and Helid.
Helid ground his teeth as he stared at the door they’d exited through.
Julius had said if he came to the Trovien Empire, he’d be able to have Eren all to himself.
But instead, interference kept coming out of nowhere, and his frustration was boiling over.
“Fuck this, I’m done.”
He slammed his fist against the wall.
A thin crack spread across it.
His carefully restrained self, tamed by power, was starting to break free again.
Thanks to Elyrion’s… unconventional assistance, Eren barely managed to escape and soon arrived at the Princess Palace.
Elyrion brought him all the way to Melody’s room and sat him in a chair.
Melody was absent—perhaps busy with other matters.
“Thank you, Your Highness.”
“Why didn’t you fight back? If you didn’t want it, you could’ve just kicked him away.”
‘If I could’ve, don’t you think I would’ve?’
Eren cast his eyes downward, lashes trembling.
If he could’ve done that, he would’ve.
But this weak, fragile body of his couldn’t even properly hold a sword.
The only thing he was good at was using his head.
That’s why he’d come to the Trovien Empire in the first place.
If he had just a little strength—if he knew how to do something—he might have been able to run away from those lunatics on his own.
Eren let out a small sigh.
No matter how dangerous the situation, he could never escape it alone.
That was the harsh reality of his life.
“But… how did you know to come?”
He quickly changed the subject, not wanting to end up resenting Elyrion despite his help.
It was something he was genuinely curious about.
How had Elyrion known to show up at that exact moment?
“I sensed my magic.”
“…Your magic?”
Nothing had seemed magical enough to trigger that… wait—could it have been the artifact?
* * *
