"Tsk."
Khalid looked down at the unconscious Nox, still appearing unsatisfied. He tapped Nox’s cheek a few times with the back of his hand, but the other man remained motionless. His lust had not yet been fully spent.
He shoved his length back inside and began to move his hips once more. He savored the way the firm body swayed according to his will, and so, Khalid held him throughout the night, refusing to let go until dawn.
*****
The next morning, Nox woke to find himself still skewered by Khalid. The robe sash used as a blindfold was still tied tightly around his eyes. Sticky, dried fluids made any movement an ordeal. As Nox flinched, trying to shift enough to slide the obstruction out of his body, Khalid stirred from his sleep, his eyes heavy.
"Mmm..."
"Hngh...!"
Khalid forced Nox down by the shoulder, beginning to move slowly while still deep inside him. The sound of dried semen tearing away from the skin—stuck, then peeling—was visceral and unmistakable. Nox shuddered at the sensation of being filled and then emptied, his internal walls clenching tight as the pressure returned with a heavy shove. Pleased by the tight morning grip, Khalid pulled out slowly before driving back in with a powerful thud, leisurely enjoying the way the internal walls convulsed.
"Hng, ah-ut...!"
Nox tried to push against the sheet with his toes, but Khalid gripped his pelvis in a vice-like hold and refused to relent. The pace quickened, battering his insides. Nox arched his back, trembling violently as raspy, broken moans spilled from his throat. Only after spilling himself deep inside Nox once more did Khalid finally release him.
As soon as he finished, Khalid stood up as if he no longer had any business with the man on the bed. He immediately ordered the servants to prepare a bath. When the word came that it was ready, he headed into the bathroom alone, cold and indifferent.
Nox gripped the sheets, his body wracked with tremors and a lingering sensation that his opening could no longer close. His entire body throbbed with an ache, and his insides felt damp and wretched. He tore off the robe sash that had blinded him all night and tossed it to the floor. When he touched his eyes, the skin stung at the slightest contact; he didn't need a mirror to know they were red and raw.
Between his legs, the fluids Khalid had left behind trickled out, soaking into the bedding. Nox’s shoulders went rigid at the tickling, crawling sensation. Some time passed before Khalid emerged from the bath, attended by servants as he dressed.
"I will send a carriage at five this afternoon. Be on it."
Nox, still unwashed and sitting dazed on the bed, looked up. He nodded without even asking for the destination.
"You're just going to come without knowing where? Like an idiot."
Ah. Was I supposed to ask?
"Where... cough... where am I going?"
His voice was deeply cracked, ruined from the hours of crying out the night before. Whether Khalid was offended or simply bored of him, he didn't even turn his gaze as he answered.
"We are going to the banquet held by His Majesty the Emperor."
Nox flinched. Khalid let out a mocking huff and continued.
"Seeing a former high noble reduced to the status of a slave will serve as a fine warning to others. They'll look at you and realize what they must do to avoid your fate."
"Ah..."
Nox understood immediately. He was to be a warning to the nobles who had not yet declared their total allegiance—the son of a Ducal House, a man who once sat at the pinnacle of society, now paraded as the plaything of the new Duke.
It was going to be a long, agonizing day. He blinked slowly. He felt despair, yet he felt it was inevitable. All of this was the result of the hatred born in a child he had foolishly cast away. If he hadn't discarded him—if he had been smarter, found a different way—perhaps he would be resting in the peace of death by now.
"Do you understand?"
"...Yes, I understand."
Nox’s voice was a jagged rasp, but Khalid only furrowed his brows slightly before leaving without another word. Head Maid Marlene remained behind, informing Nox that fresh water had been drawn for him to wash.
"Your previous clothes are ruined, so I will bring a new outfit."
"...Thank you."
Nox wrapped himself in the robe Khalid had discarded and headed to the bath. As he moved, the fluids Khalid had spilled inside him suddenly rushed down his inner thighs.
"Ngh..."
He hurried into the filled tub and reached inside himself to scrape out the remnants. Clumps of white fluid mixed with the water, turning it cloudy. Nox stiffened at the sensation but forced his emotions down. This was his reality now.
His dark green eyes clouded with the light of resignation.
After washing and dressing in the clean attendant's attire, Nox shut himself in his room. There was nothing for him to do in this manor. He hadn't been given permission to wander. A slave was like an object—meant to stay quietly in the box where the master placed him. He sat on the edge of the bed, staring into space. He had nothing until evening.
He thought he understood why Khalid hadn't given him any chores, and why he had been given a separate room in the main residence. He was being isolated. He was to have no communication, no purpose, and no agency until he was summoned. Khalid intended to turn him into a creature that did nothing but lie on a bed whenever called upon.
It was cruel, Nox thought. But he couldn't complain.
Khalid’s body had been covered in scars—he had seen them briefly even in the dim light of the room. It meant that even after being beaten and expelled from House Rainerio, Khalid had lived a life of constant violence. I drove him to that. That single fact acted like a heavy weight around his ankles.
"It's almost funny."
Everything had returned to him like a boomerang. He had always thought his father would one day pay for his sins with his life. But he had never included himself in that calculation. The arrogant Nox Rainerio had never once considered the punishment that might be leveled against him. That was his original sin—the sin of the misery that child must have suffered, and the sin of having forgotten it, even for a moment. He spent the hours sitting upright, refusing to lie down.
The sound of his own breathing. The slow blink of his eyes. He could do nothing. The lethargy that had plagued him for years began to stir again.
The sharp, defensive version of himself that used to face his father and the other nobles was no longer needed. He was a slave now. Without the need to maintain a facade, he simply sank. He submerged into the lightless depths. A creature without gills in the deep sea, grateful just for the ability to take a single breath—that was his fate.
One hour passed, then two. He remained submerged in silence until five o'clock. It was the chronic, agonizing depression that had haunted him for a long time.
Knock, knock, knock—
At the appointed time, Marlene arrived to collect him. Since Nox had been ready for hours, he simply stood and opened the door. The woman with light brown hair and a cold expression stood there with her hands folded over her stomach.
"This way."
She led him to the carriage. Nox matched her pace and soon reached the vehicle.
It wasn't a carriage meant for a common slave, but it wasn't quite for a noble either. It was a moderately lavish carriage, suited for a favored bed companion cherished by a great lord.
Nox toyed with the bolo tie that slightly constricted his throat, then dropped his hand. He would have to get used to it. There was no point in being bothered by it; from now on, it would be as much a part of him as his own skin.
As he settled into the carriage, it lurched forward with a jolt. Nox sat with perfect posture, staring down at the floor. He was alone with his thoughts once more.
How did Khalid live all this time? The questions he couldn't bring himself to ask flooded back the moment he was alone. Even knowing he might drown in that tide, he couldn't stop it. He let himself sink.
*****
A long time ago, Nox had actually tried to find Khalid. It was exactly one year after the boy had been expelled. His mother was bedridden and ill, and his father was busy immersing himself in politics. During a time when no one was paying him any attention, Nox had missed the boy so much that he asked the butler to look into his whereabouts.
The servant who had replaced Khalid was around the same age. Their hair and eye colors were nothing alike, yet Nox saw Khalid in him. He treated the new servant as he had treated Khalid. But the more he did, the larger the void in his heart grew. Unable to soothe that emptiness, Nox had finally sought to find the real one.
The butler had nodded to the request as if it were a simple task.
"I understand, Young Master."