Chapter 356: Get well in the relationship...

"..." I wake up. I don't know exactly how long I spent in that ocean of blood, but I return to my body, and of course my first interaction upon coming back is hearing the sound of the chains on me.

'Had almost forgotten I'm imprisoned...' I look around and see Esther sleeping on a chair, which genuinely catches me off guard.

'Sleeping... she must be tired...' Esther never sleeps much. I thought she'd be awake when I returned, but in the end she's still a living being — she needs rest.

"..." I stare at the chains, knowing they wouldn't be hard to break, and now that I have the puppet made from Esther's body, I could even defend myself against her to a certain extent. But I ignore that. I'd rather preserve the small peace we have by staying bound.

"Esther, wake up... I'm back." I call to Esther, who slowly opens her eyes. When she realizes I've returned, her eyes shift to something more animated. She really was sleeping instead of pretending.

"I've never seen you truly sleeping since I came back from the other world... you looked like you were resting so well... why didn't you sleep in the bed? Were you so anxious to punish me that you spent hours, even days, waiting in that chair?" I ask her seriously.

"...I didn't want to bother you. That's all." She says something kind of sweet that leaves me a little embarrassed. I never imagined that would be the reason.

"This is a sweet moment. It would be even sweeter if you didn't punish me!" I try to escape whatever punishment I can by using the moment.

"...I'll do that if you want."

"Really?" Now that is genuinely shocking. Esther, not punishing me? She had made it clear that if I ate that fruit and went "away," she would punish me when I returned.

"Of course. In exchange, we can simply spend the day like this." She speaks in agreement with me. I look at her with pure distrust.

"..." I sense that Kali isn't here, so my initial deduction is that this is the reason she's more peaceful and less sarcastic and contemptible.

'Hmm... things have started moving forward...' Esther sits beside me on the bed while I think of a topic.

"My army has started advancing, Esther. Do you have any orders? Very little remains before they reach the central kingdom. Using magic, it's already possible to see the place, and it's immense! Enormous! Almost four times the size of my kingdom," I tell her.

"...We're not talking about work today. You just got back. I'll give you orders later." She cuts off my attempt with disinterest in the subject, which, in a way, really is work.

"Do you want to go out for a bit? You've never seen this place properly — just this room and the bathroom." She proposes while I think about it for a few seconds. It's not a bad idea. I've really never left this room before.

"Sure. I'd like to get a better look at my prison." When I say that, Esther touches the restraint on my ankle and uses magic to unlock it. She does the same to the restraint on my neck.

But the neck one only releases the chain and keeps the collar. I imagine Esther won't leave me as free as I'd like.

"You know, I thought you'd punish me sexually—"

"Don't be so perverted, Evelyn." When she says that, I blush with embarrassment.

"Usually you either punish me with sex or by devouring my body. You never gave me many different options," I defend myself. She's the one to blame for me thinking punishment automatically means some brutal form of sex.

"...Forget that." She takes my hand, leading me with her while I look at my clothes. I find a few bloodstains. It seems she took advantage of my unconsciousness to feed.

"Are my organs tasty?" I don't quite understand how her palate feels when devouring me. Besides, my body now rebuilds itself automatically, so I didn't even notice it was devoured.

"...Evelyn, your foolish questions honestly sound almost childish."

"Then what do you think of Kali? I—"

"Your body is good. It has a flavor I enjoy, and depending on the organ, the taste changes." She simply answers, not wanting to know anything involving Kali.

"Oh? Well, I suppose it must be good since you like it, but to me it must be quite bad..."

"Why are you asking?" She questions me, leading me through elegant corridors, though still made of some black material. I wonder what kind of material it is.

"No reason." Since Kali is a ghoul, I'll have to be careful with her feeding. Before tasting flesh and blood, Esther didn't need to eat because she was a hybrid, but after eating, she came to need it compulsorily.

Kali probably also won't need blood and flesh until she tries it. The moment she does, she won't be able to stop needing it and might even lose control. Currently, Kali only drinks my milk and tries to bite things I give her with her toothless gums.

"Esther, what do you like most? My flesh, my tail, or my organs?"

"Evelyn, tell me why all these morbid questions?"

"Just curiosity, seriously. After all, if I want to cook for you in the future, I'll use whatever you like most. What's the difference?" I ask her, seeing stairs that lead upward, though not very tall, and I can already see the door.

"...Obviously your organs are the best part. They're the softest parts, with the most intense flavors, and they satisfy me the most." She still answers while I take note of that.

She opens the stairway door, leading into a structure that really reminds me of the normal castle and its corridors, with the only difference being the black, gray, and white furniture. I think she copied parts of it so I wouldn't be forced to adapt one hundred percent. I quickly go to a window and look outside.

'Wow... how beautiful...' There's a "sea" of beautiful colorful flowers, a perfect scene for a child to run and play while having fun. In the distance, there's a forest, and in another area I even see golden apple trees — quite different from the monotonous color palette of the castle.

"The castle is beautiful looking from here. You really put in the effort," I tell her as she hugs me from behind.

"You seem so calm. You've changed a lot." She speaks, pressing me against the glass. I don't sense the presence of servants in the castle, so I think we're alone.

"I didn't change on my own. You made me what I am today, so the blame is entirely yours." She presses me harder against the glass. Her embrace is extremely restrictive, like being caught by a serpent that plans to keep me trapped forever.

"Esther, your hug is really suffocating." It's unpleasant because my milk-filled breasts are pressed against the glass.

"Your breasts have grown." She says something completely irrelevant and unrelated to what I just said.

"That's obvious... after all, they're full. Are you going to get jealous of that too?"

"It's a piece of you that she stole from me." Everything comes back to Kali, because so much of our relationship dynamic now and in the future will involve our daughter.

"She'll never be able to replace you, and you know that." Dragons don't change their "safe cave." I'm biologically incapable of leaving, replacing, or killing Esther, and Esther knows that.

It's precisely because she knows that her jealousy is foolish and unfounded. And I think even she knows that, but her obsession with having me is so strong that reason simply loses against her absurd personal logic.

"I know... but I still have to share you with her, and that alone is something I detest enough. Do you think I'm dramatic for it?"

"A little, but I understand you too... after all, she doesn't enter your closed circle of 'real' people where only you and I exist."

"..." She stays silent, just maintaining this current posture.

"Can I drink your milk?"

"...Esther, you said you didn't want to."

"I changed my mind. I want to. Your milk also belongs to me." She speaks in a possessive tone. I look at my breasts.

"That milk is for our daughter—"

"You can produce more. Don't try to tell me it isn't possible. Your puppet body can produce milk infinitely if you want." She uses that as an argument, and it's a realistic argument — I really can produce more.

"Is playing with your wife's two milk jugs some new interest of yours? It sounds quite perverted."

"Call it whatever you want, but they've grown, and when I look at them, I feel like devouring them."

"..." I swallow hard, because it sounds like she means that literally — which I don't doubt she does.

'Can this be considered cannibalism?' We're not the same type of demon, so I don't know if it counts as cannibalism even though we're both demons.

"Esther, please avoid saying that kind of thing near our daughter, okay? I... don't want her to think that sort of thing is normal, because it isn't."

"I do everything for you, so could you at least do this favor for me? I'd feel terrible if someday our daughter behaves like me or like you with someone else."

"I don't want her to become someone obsessed with another person, or someone who accepts being destroyed for love..."

"You don't like that?" Esther asks, her embrace becoming more suffocating.

"Me? I like it, but I know it isn't good. I'm forced to like it because I love you so much, but I don't want that cursed fate for my daughter."

"Cursed fate? Am I that awful?" She spins me, slamming my back against the window.

"Honestly? Yes, you're terrible, but I love you anyway." I caress her cheek.

"I'll be careful, but I won't hold back my words if something that displeases me happens."

"Fine, just avoid talking about devouring me in front of her and avoid those suspiciously intimate behaviors, and that's enough for me."