Chapter 31
Pain throbbed in my thigh. A stabbing agony pulsed in time with my heartbeat.
The searing pain from when the arrow struck came flooding back.
When the pain roused me, I saw a familiar ceiling.
My naked body lay on the bed.
Kaelan’s familiar room.
When I turned my gaze toward the pain continuing in my thigh, I saw that it was wrapped in a bandage.
Blood had seeped into the bandage.
Unlike my eyes and ankle, which he had ruined on the first day, he had not treated me.
Was this the punishment he had mentioned in the forest?
Each time I moved, metal clanked.
A collar was fastened around my neck as before.
The same thin cloth collar as before.
A thin metal chain.
And a window left unlocked.
But I had learned firsthand that all of those things were meaningless.
The estate was full of Kaelan’s people.
Though they did not harm me, every action I took would be reported to Kaelan.
Even if I escaped the watchers, the hounds would chase me.
Kaelan had shot arrows as though he were hunting me.
Escaping was meaningless.
Even if I escaped by another means, the inevitable ending was that he would catch me.
Even so, staying still was not the answer.
It had only been a few days, but as time passed, I could feel myself becoming less and less like myself.
For a moment, I couldn’t even respond to the name Ella.
I was getting used to crawling on all fours.
When I saw food, my neck stretched toward it before my hands did.
My reluctance to wear the plug was gradually fading as well.
If this continued, I would become entirely his.
A pet dog clinging to him in his arms.
If that happened, meeting Father—and revenge—would become impossible.
That, at least, I could never allow.
If so, there was only one way.
Kaelan had to die first.
Not escape, but elimination.
Kaelan’s people merely watched me; they did not harm me.
The only one who harmed me was Kaelan.
If I killed Kaelan…
And if I left the estate and shook off the watchers as I had in the forest…
I could meet Father.
I could avenge Noah.
Kaelan’s death was the highest-priority objective.
Any escape before that had been pointless.
I sat on the bed and sorted through my thoughts.
The paper knife was still on the table.
Besides that, there were mirror shards, a fork, a knife, and scissors.
There were plenty of possible weapons.
The opportunity would come.
At that moment, the door opened.
Kaelan entered.
“Ah. Aria, you’re awake. Did you sleep well?”
He spoke as though he had forgotten everything that had happened yesterday.
And he was holding something in his hand.
Noticing my gaze, he picked up the object and held it out in front of me.
“This is the mark an unfinished work needs. Of course, it also carries the meaning of correction for the little dog who ran out of my studio on her own. This navy-blue rose will be my symbol, proving that you are my work.”
What Kaelan held looked like nothing more than a glinting piece of metal.
But up close, it was different.
A slender rose-gold rod.
Small metal balls were attached to both ends.
And hanging beneath the rod was an ornament crafted with a delicacy beyond anything I had ever seen.
Navy-blue gems, deep and dark as a night sky, were set along a U-shaped curve.
Each tiny gem had been intricately carved in the shape of a rose.
The deep, cool blue glow filtering between the rose petals in the morning sunlight was beautiful, but ominous at the same time.
It looked similar to the earrings some women had worn in my previous life.
“Is that…something worn on the ear?”
“No, Aria. That would be far too obvious.”
He rejected my suggestion.
A brand, a plug, and now this?
A piece of jewelry worn by piercing some part of the body.
Then what part would it pierce?
The beautifully crafted object in his hand looked like a terrible instrument heralding the next torture.
Just imagining where those navy-blue roses would bloom on my body made goosebumps rise all over me.
Perhaps he saw my wavering gaze, because he slowly approached me.
His two fingers pinched one of my nipples, and he whispered to me.
“Here, Aria. True art must bloom in a place befitting it. Isn’t this a beautiful place for these roses to bloom?”
My body trembled at the future that had been decided for me.
His mark would be etched into my collarbone, my urethra, and my anus—and now even my nipples.
I was afraid that my body was gradually becoming something not my own.
Even so, I could not resist.
If resisting made the punishment even worse…
If that left me unable to move properly and caused something to go wrong when I killed him, it would be disastrous.
I obediently followed his hand as it guided my body to the edge of the bed.
Kaelan opened a small box and checked its contents.
Inside were several sharply honed needles and pieces of clean cloth.
He set the things in his hands on the bed, then went to the table and brought back a pen.
The sensation of the pen marking a dot on my nipple made every hair on my body stand on end.
As though gauging the perfect position, he tilted his head several times and adjusted the dot.
I could do nothing but watch and wait for the pain to come.
“Hold your breath, Aria. There can be no margin for error in art.”
He took a sharp needle in one hand and supported my left breast with the other.
The needle’s tip gleamed.
“I’ll begin.”
No sooner had he said that than the needle pierced through the dot on my nipple.
“Ngh…!”
Instead of a scream, a strangled sound burst out.
It was a new kind of pain, though not as severe as what I had felt before.
An unbearable pain boring in a little deeper and a little more sharply.
The needle did not stop; it pierced through and emerged from the skin on the other side.
The horrifying sensation of a sensitive part being pierced through.
A single tear fell from my eye.
Kaelan exhaled as though satisfied and pulled out the needle.
Then he immediately pushed the metal rod into the hole, from which blood was beginning to seep.
The foreign sensation and pain of cold, hard metal forcing its way through raw flesh made me hold my breath once again.
The sound of the bead at the end of the rod locking into place seemed unnaturally loud.
A navy-blue rose now bloomed on my left breast.
Its blue light gleamed with a beauty bordering on cruelty.
He repeated the same procedure on the other breast.
He marked a dot, pierced it with a needle, and inserted the metal rod.
The second pain was duller than the first, but the humiliation was not.
I lowered my head and looked at my breasts.
Now navy-blue roses proving his ownership bloomed from both my nipples.
Rose-gold rods.
Navy-blue gems.
The roses swayed whenever I moved.
“Ugh…”
Even the slightest movement stimulated those sensitive areas.
The cold weight of metal and the foreign sensation I felt without pause.
Even with clothes on, they would be hidden beneath the fabric, but every breath I took and every movement of my arms would make them scrape against the cloth, constantly reminding me of their presence.
If I wore the dresses Kaelan gave me, they would show clearly through the fabric from outside as well.
The sensation of cold metal digging into my flesh.
A foreign sensation that would never be erased for the rest of my life.
A token that would constantly remind me that I belonged to him.
Kaelan was looking at me with satisfaction in his eyes.
He gently wiped my tear-streaked face with a cloth.
His gentleness made me nauseous with disgust.
“Aria. You’re truly perfect. You grow more beautiful each time one of my marks is added.”
His fingers lightly touched the ring hanging from my nipple.
“Ngh…”
“What mark should I give you next?”
His navy-blue eyes gleamed.
“Your tongue? Your stomach? Or your legs?”
The finger brushing my lips sent goosebumps all over my body.
“Aren’t you looking forward to your next punishment, Aria?”
Then he paused for a moment.
“Oh, right. I forgot about the plug. This is the final plug, Aria. Aren’t you happy too?”
Although it had only been a few hours, my abdomen had felt wonderfully comfortable without the plug.
But now I would have to endure the foreign sensation in my abdomen once again.
Kaelan brought over a box from the shelf beneath the table.
Inside was a plug the same size as the one I had used before.
Only the back of the plug was different.
The heart-shaped plug now had a gem set into its back, intricately carved with a navy-blue rose.
The bead-shaped one had small navy-blue gems set one by one into its ring.
His touch guided my back down onto the bed.
My legs spread, and the familiar slick, unpleasant liquid flowed along my vulva.
The pressure and foreign sensation in my bladder and rectum returned.
Navy-blue marks were blooming all over my body.
Staring at the ceiling, I dwelled on the reality that I had to endure everything.
Revenge. And reuniting with Father.
Every one of these pains was for the sake of those things.
I looked forward to the day when I would repay him for all of this.
Until that day, I would endure and endure.
All this humiliation.
And at the final moment, I would sink my fangs into his neck.