Pherenike - Chapter 57

In truth, Pherenike found a few overly intimate words crossing the line more uncomfortable than watching the man indulging himself in front of her. As she silently lowered her gaze, he spoke with a faintly mocking yet affectionate tone.

“I’ll be leaving at dawn anyway. So even if you dislike it, just bear with it a little longer.”

His hand, cooled by the water, gently touched her ear as if he knew that the news of his departure was music to her ears.

“…This is your palace. It’s suffocating with your guards everywhere, and my chamber is even safer than that of the king’s. Who could possibly harm me?”

“Anyone.”

“…….”

“Anyone here could harm you and the baby, Pherenike.”

His blue gray eyes seemed almost black. Actor was backlit by the hearth’s fire.

“The guards who stay up all night to protect the queen, the queen’s handmaids sleeping a few rooms away, my nanny, those claiming to be loyal outside…”

“…….”

“Even I could.”

Pherenike scoffed lightly.

“You’d harm me?”

“Of course, it would be supremely foolish.”

“…….”

“But humans can, at times, eagerly do foolish things, Pherenike.”

Eagerly. She pondered that brief word. Eagerly, foolishly, she had imagined him harming her someday.

The feeling wasn’t bad. If that day ever came, she’d mockingly say to him, ‘I knew you couldn’t bear it till the end.’

“What about the Thasos family’s spies in this palace?”

“But.”

“The blade, of course, won’t pierce your stomach. No weapon could be useful.”

Actor whispered softly.

“You simply won’t die that way.”

“…….”

“Let’s say, hypothetically, if I were an enemy who must kill you and your child, I’d first confine your body.”

“That’s not much different from now.”

She poked fun at his overprotectiveness, and he slightly twisted his lips.

“Think again. Then, I would be the only visitor you’d have.”

Pherenike slightly furrowed her brows.

Actor seemed lost in a leisurely thought, casually resting his chin on his forearm, his gaze fixed on Pherenike.

His black hair fell disheveled over his arm like a boy lying in a field. Despite his well-crafted facial features, the slight tilt of his head made him appear somewhat skewed.

A smile slowly spread across his lips.

“…And then I’d wait until the mortal child you had with some mortal man comes out of here.”

The way Actor casually emphasized ‘with some mortal man’ carried a childish playfulness, but Pherenike couldn’t reciprocate with a sneer.

Actor’s hand lightly touched her lower abdomen as he spoke, ‘until it comes out of here.’

“At least this child, ‘unlike you,’ will know the pain and death inflicted by others.”

Pherenike stiffened quietly.

“Until then, I’ll leisurely keep this ‘unkillable’ body tied to one spot. Unable to take even a single step, unable to perform even the simplest task on its own.”

“……”

“Killing people is easy. It’s fast. It’s the simplest way to eliminate a problem. That’s why breaking a person down seems so difficult. It takes time, it’s tedious… But with enough time, there’s nothing difficult about it.”

“……”

“I may not be able to strangle you with my own hands, but misery can.”

She slowly pushed his hand away from her lower abdomen. Actor retracted his hand without any regret. However, he grasped her lower back instead.

“Once the basic things you’ve been naturally doing as a human become the most difficult and valuable tasks in your world, you begin to fall, Pherenike.”

“……”

“Blinking your eyes, eating, drinking, and expelling, your hands sweeping your hair or pulling your clothes to cover your body.”

“……”

“Things so simple that they’ve never needed to be asked for or waited upon by anyone, even for such a precious body.”

“……”

“I’ll tame you to that extent. Make you beg for even the smallest things, make you grateful like a dog. If you decide it’s better to die than to endure all this, then I will achieve my plan sooner.”

“……”

“But it’s certain you won’t even be able to try. Your wrists and ankles will be bound with Althea restraints.”

He said it as if he knew she occasionally physically transformed her Althea to exploit it. He was aware and would prevent it in advance.

“If I knew you were going to try to die, I would have let you. Right?”

“……”

“But since you’re bound, you’ve started to want to die.”

His eyes, deep and dark like a bottomless lake, stared at Pherenike.

“Next, it becomes important how much value your child holds for you, the broken one. Maybe it doesn’t matter at all, or maybe being bound like a dog in a small room, with nothing of your own, you’ll come to feel your child is everything in the world.”

“……”

“Will your child be precious enough to make you pick up a blade yourself?”