LM Chapter 8.2

At that moment. Cedric was brutally spreading the legs of the son of the fallen count who had begged for his body, forcing his cock inside.

“Ha, ugh! Hwa, Crown Prince! S-slowly!”

Cain, the son of the ruined count, trembled violently, his eyes brimming with tears, wearing a pitiful expression.

“Ha.”

Truly, it was a splendid expression. Tears welled up, but they absolutely refused to fall. 

Sadly drooping eyebrows. A snow-white face. A trembling body. Even as he protested, his legs clamped tightly around Cedric’s hips.

It was, in fact, perfect. He must have studied his preferred tastes beforehand.

From what he’d heard, this Cain from the fallen count’s house beneath Cedric was a very clever fellow. A guy who graduated from Empire University with top honors, right? To save his family name, he’d come straight to Cedric. Offering to give up his virginity in exchange for funds to save the count’s house.

Cedric himself acknowledged that spirit and sharp mind. True to his sharp nature, he was also exceptionally skilled at nighttime services. Though clearly a virgin, he had mastered everything Cedric could possibly enjoy.

But perhaps that was precisely the problem? No matter how naturally he acted, the current situation felt slightly off-putting to Cedric. It felt like tedious, boring sex. Cedric stopped moving his legs and called out to Cain.

“Hey.”
“… Yes?”

Cain had heard that Cedric never abruptly stopped mid-act. Cain, the fallen nobleman, was flustered.

He sprang up from beneath Cedric, kneeling and bowing his head.

“Your Highness, is something wrong?”

Cain’s handsome, beautiful face turned deathly pale. Cedric, who had been looking down at the back of his head with disgust, continued, “Hey, you bastard. Do it with more passion.”

“Y-yes, yes?”
“Is that all you can do? Huh? There’s no soul in it, no soul.”
“I’m sorry…“
”Do it right. Huh? Cry out louder.“
”Yes!“

Cedric spat somewhere on the floor and commanded, ”Lie down again.“

”…”

Cain lay back down on the bed. He immediately wiped the deathly pallor from his face, replacing it with a sorrowful expression tinged with red. He gazed at Cedric with pitiful eyes, tears threatening to spill, and whispered plaintively, “No, please don’t! I, I beg you!”

Though still not entirely satisfied, Cedric frowned at Cain, sighed, spread his legs, and thrust his cock inside. But something felt off.

“Hey, fuck. Why aren’t you squeezing tighter?”
“…”

Cain grimaced hard, tensing as if doing Kegel exercises. Honestly, just looking at the pressure inside his rectum, it far surpassed Lyndon’s. Lyndon was a man who’d been fucked by Hayley countless times, while Cain, despite his acting, was truly a born-and-bred virgin.

Yet Cedric ordered him to tighten even more. His expression was genuinely bored.

Cain strained with all his might. He wanted to bite off Cedric’s cock. His already sore anus was swollen to its limit.

“Not crying?”
“Sniff…”

Tears flowed easily without him even squeezing them out. Because it was truly miserable and horrific.

However, the next demand was something even Cain couldn’t possibly do.

“Fuck. Why are your eyes that color?”
“… What?
“Change them to blue.”
“…”
“I said, swap them from brown to blue.”
“…”

He knew the guy was crazy… but was he seriously this insane?

Cain couldn’t hide his panic.

Cedric withdrew his cock from Cain’s rear. It was over. He was ruined. The count’s house, the count’s fate…

“Ah, fuck, this is shitty…” Cedric stared at Cain’s hole with a cold expression. He pulled a blank check from a drawer, scribbled an amount sufficient to rebuild the count’s family, and flung it at Cain.

He had intended to pay Cain anyway. Cain’s fallen family was a pro-Emperor house that could be quite useful to Cedric. He had planned to use that as leverage to enjoy Cain thoroughly… but he had failed.

Cain grabbed the check, scrambled to his feet, and hastily gathered his clothes. He bowed his head in a hurried salute and fled quickly out the door.

‘One wrong move and I’m dead!’ That thought flashed through Cain’s mind, and it was also an absolute truth. Cedric, unable to properly vent his desires, was in a state of considerable rage.

After Cain left, Cedric, his irritation boiling over, pulled a Cuban cigar from his pocket. He cut the end with the cutter on the table and lit it. He slowly drew it in, savoring the smoke before exhaling. Then he poured whiskey straight from the bottle into his mouth.

His heightened sensitivity from unresolved sexual tension was shattered when the door suddenly opened.

“Ah! Your Highness, I’m sorry…”

The servant, who had come in to clean the room thinking Cain had left and the Crown Prince had departed as well, froze in panic. 

The servant’s hair wasn’t as shiny as Lyndon’s, but it was a pale ash gray, and their eyes weren’t as clear blue as Lyndon’s, but they were a murky blue.

Cedric chuckled, crushed out his cigar on the table, and beckoned the servant with a finger.

“Hey, you there. Come here.”

The frightened servant shuffled nervously toward Cedric.

“Is there something you need?”

Cedric silently studied the servant’s face. Not an ugly face, but… well, this would do. As long as there’s a hole, they’re all the same, aren’t they?

Without a word, Cedric grabbed the servant and shoved him onto the bed. The fallen servant screamed in alarm.

“Your Highness? What!”
“Fuck. You’re a virgin, right? Huh?“
”Wh-what? Aaah!“

The servant struggled in panic. Cedric forcibly stripped the servant’s pants off and immediately shoved his cock into the hole.

”Ugh, uwaaaaah!“

The servant screamed in pain. Tears streamed down his cheeks.

”Hm…”

No hives appeared, and he didn’t feel disgusted. 

The reaction was fantastic too. Even though he was a virgin like Cain, he was several times better than that bastard who was just acting.

But… something felt off.

As if to prove that vague feeling, no matter how hard Cedric thrust his hips, he couldn’t cum. It felt good, but he didn’t feel enough pleasure to ejaculate.

“Fuck…”

Cedric finally shoved the servant away. Blood trickled from the servant’s anus as he lay face-down on the floor, sobbing. Only then did Cedric remember Lyndon.

“Ah! Come to think of it, I have the real thing… and I was about to use a fake. Damn.”

He let out a sneering laugh and left the bedroom. Then he started heading toward the room where Lyndon lay. 

A hum escaped his lips.

“Hey there, hey there!”
“Mmm.”
“Um, over there…”

Lyndon, struggling to wake from sleep, gazed at the coachman with bleary eyes.

“We’re here, so get out. Goodness, what a long way. We barely made it.”
“Ah, we’re here? Thank you.”

Lyndon hurriedly jumped out of the carriage. Then, the pain returned to his completely blistered soles.

“Ugh, hmm…”
“I told you, going barefoot and rushing like that…”

Having said that much, the coachman now seemed to notice something odd, looking at Lyndon with a serious expression.

“Are you perhaps a criminal…”
“It’s nothing like that. Don’t worry about it, just go.“
”… Oh, come on.”

The driver clicked his tongue in disapproval, then drove the carriage away.

Lyndon walked for a moment along the quiet street left behind by the carriage and approached the main gate of the Duke’s residence. 

Unlike the Imperial Palace, the guards here weren’t dozing off. They stood with chests out, posture straight, gazing ahead as if watching for something. Lyndon approached the guard, whose face he’d seen several times but never actually spoken to, and addressed him.

“We’ve met before, right?“
”…”

Lyndon chuckled lightly, delivering a line that could easily be mistaken for a cheap pick-up line on the street. But the guard only stared back at Lyndon coldly, his expression icy.

“Could you open the gate?”
“I haven’t heard of anyone needing entry. I’ve been ordered to maintain strict security until dawn. Just because you once worked here doesn’t mean I can let you in!”

“Once? But I still work here…”
“Everyone already knows you’ve run away!”
“Run away? No! Please, let me see His Grace the Duke!”
“Go away!”

The commotion between Lyndon and the guard made the Duke’s main gate noisy. Hearing the disturbance, the steward Edmund rushed over holding a candlestick.

“What’s all this noise… No, Lyndon!”

A look of bewilderment flashed across his usually composed face. He never expected Lyndon to show up at the duke’s residence looking like this, especially at dawn.

“M-Master Steward!”

Lyndon approached the steward slowly, his voice thick with tears. His feet hurt so badly he couldn’t walk straight, limping as he moved. 

Edmund began to examine Lyndon’s condition more closely as he drew nearer.

His face had grown even more gaunt in just a few days. His palms were covered in bloody scabs, red and raw from some unknown injury. His bare feet, without shoes, were cracked and bleeding, blackened and mangled.

“Wh-what on earth happened…”

He had once thought of him as a truly despicable creature. Yet, it seemed he had grown attached, having provided him with meals every single day. Seeing him appear so badly injured and emaciated weighed heavily on Edmund’s heart. The thought that he had been captured in his place made him feel even more sorry for him.

“Ah, nothing… Nothing happened. I just… I just came back.”
“…”
“I… I came back, to His Grace, the Duke.”

As Lyndon spoke, his face began to tremble. Soon, tears streamed pitifully from his clear eyes.

It was an utterly absurd and bewildering situation.

Suddenly, a dull knock pierced the quiet air. Hayley muttered as he looked toward the doorway, “A knock this late at night? What on earth could it be…”

He slowly walked toward the door and opened it. Standing there before him was…

Lyndon, whom Hayley had longed for so intensely in recent days, stood there plainly.

“… Ly, Lyndon…”

His heart felt like it was screaming. The moment he saw Lyndon, his previously calm heart began to pound wildly. It felt like he had finally, barely, met the one he had desperately longed for and desired.

But the instant Hayley uttered Lyndon’s name, his racing pulse stopped as if doused with cold ice water. His heart plummeted beneath his heels, and his heart sank into utter despair.

The sight of Lyndon after so long was devastating.

His once-glowing, milky-white skin had become dry and flaky. The eyes that used to sparkle under the casino lights were now dim and unfocused, like those of someone who had lost their way.

Whether from dirt or injury, his palms and pristine white shirt were splattered with bright red blood.

But his feet were even worse. Even in the dimly lit hallway, where most lights were off, the blood-soaked soles were impossible to miss.

Seeing him like this made Hayley’s heart ache. Why did he have to appear like this, tearing at his heartstrings… He felt inexplicably cruel.

“He, Hayley… I, I’m here. I’m really late, aren’t I?” Lyndon barely held back his tears.

Before they were apart, he’d never considered Hayley to be such an important person. He’d actually thought of him as a pervert. But now, to Lyndon, Hayley had become the most important and precious person in the world.

Anyway, all of this stemmed from being forcibly separated.

Had they just clung together and acted like fools, Hayley would likely have grown tired of Lyndon soon enough, and Lyndon would never have realized his deep affection for him.

Ultimately, the massive obstacle of ‘Cedric’ appeared before them, giving birth to this achingly tender, pure white foam-like feeling. A fleeting, bubble-like emotion destined to vanish someday.

It was a delusional state of mind, perhaps even a kind of ‘hypnosis’.

Caught up in the seemingly poignant present moment, they gazed at each other with expressions like tragic protagonists, as if they were experiencing the love of the century.

“…”

But unlike Lyndon, Hayley’s face, which had crumbled at the sight of his pitiful state, gradually began to contort.

The reason wasn’t that he disliked Lindon… but because all his efforts to break away from him seemed to be in vain.

Moreover, Hayley was probably a bit more sane than Lyndon.

Furthermore, unlike Lyndon who possessed nothing, Hayley was a man who held much in his hands. Just look at his numerous dependents and this dukedom.

Yes. Hayley was a duke. He represented the Whitaker family. He would soon have to marry and produce an heir.

Frankly, for Hayley, who had such duties, Lyndon was an obstacle. Nothing but a troublesome hindrance. 

And there were Father’s words too.

So why, after working so hard to steel his resolve, did he come back looking like this, weakening his resolve?

Hayley’s heart was torn. He knew his duty, yet he couldn’t bring himself to cut Lyndon off cleanly, and it pained him.

Lyndon, who had returned to him in the dead of night, was endearing. The sight of his swollen cheek tore at his heart. Yet, at the same time, it felt burdensome. Even though he had longed for Lyndon so intensely just moments before.

“How… how did you… “
”I ran away! I… I don’t know if you know, but… Cedric… he… he kidnapped me. While you were gone, Hayley…”

“…”
“So I took advantage of Cedric being gone and used a rope from the second-floor window…” “
”Why?“

Hayley cut off Lyndon, who was excitedly explaining how he’d escaped, and asked back. Why? Why?

“… Huh?”
“Why did you run away from there?”
“Why? Why, you ask….”
“…”
“B-because I missed you, Hayley…”
“Me? Why?”

Hayley’s gaze, which had been questioning, gradually began to cool. His warm golden eyes instantly hardened into coldness. They no longer burned with intense emotion. They had shifted, becoming hard and cold, like inorganic matter.

“Heh, didn’t Hayley want to see me?”

Lyndon, with a scab on his delicate lips, looked pitifully sad.

Hayley bit her lip and turned his gaze away. To hide his trembling, he answered in a slightly low voice, almost a murmur, “… Me? Why would I want to see you? You belong to another man now.”

“…”

“Lyndon… I’m quite a possessive person. But, but… You went and did that disgraceful thing with Cedric… I… I can’t like someone so unchaste.”

No, that wasn’t true. Cedric, that scoundrel, might be like that, but Hayley wasn’t such a libertine. Hayley had never once judged someone based on their chastity.

That said, someone who rolls around with anyone and everyone is naturally a bit off-putting…. But anyway, Hayley wasn’t the kind of person to hate Lyndon just because he’d done something with Cedric, especially if it was semi-forced.

“Is it because I’ve become… more… dirty that you dislike me?”
“…”

Hayley’s eyes, which had grown cold, suddenly sparkled. Moisture gathered as he looked at Lyndon.

“Yes. I dislike you now. I don’t love you anymore, Lyndon.”