Chapter 64 – Don’t Worry About That

Don't think.

That was Noxx's plan.

Don't think about anything.

Don't turn anything over.

Don't analyze anything.

Because every time she started to think, to calculate, to wonder what to do and what to say and how to act, the panic came back, and with the panic came the trembling, and with the trembling came the risk that the queen would notice something was off.

A plan that didn't work out at all.

Noxx was in the bathtub.

An enormous bathtub, sunken into the marble floor, large enough for several people to sit in comfortably.

The water was warm, full of steam and white foam that smelled of something sweet. The bathroom walls had white tiles with gold trim, and the light was soft, low, amber-toned.

And beside Noxx, inside the same bathtub, was the queen.

Both of them without clothes.

Noxx had tried to refuse. She had tried to say she preferred to bathe alone, that it wasn't necessary, that she could manage.

But the queen, with that same calm smile of hers, had simply said that a mother bathes her son when the son is still weak, and that she wouldn't take no for an answer.

And since arguing with her was giving her exactly what she wanted, Noxx had given in.

So there she was: in a bathtub with the queen, doing everything in her power not to think about a single thing — because if she kept overthinking, that woman was going to drive her out of her mind.

Noxx put her hand into the water, slowly, down to the bottom.

Then she raised it, cupped, and let the water drain between her fingers, dragging foam along with it. Small bubbles formed on the back of her hand.

Noxx stared at them and popped them with one finger. Then she sank her hand back in and raised it again.

It was a silly action. But a calming one.

It was exactly what she needed.

Noxx was so focused on the bubbles that it took her a while to realize the queen was washing her hair.

She noticed it from the touch. Two soft hands, sliding through the short white strands, massaging her scalp with slow, careful movements.

The queen had been doing it in silence, without warning, with complete ease.

"I like this style," the queen said.

Noxx went still.

"The short hair," the queen went on, running her fingers along the back of Noxx's neck. "It's new. Before, it was longer. But short suits you. It brings out your face more."

The queen paused softly.

"I like it."

Noxx didn't answer.

She just let out a breath, sank her hand back into the water, and went back to playing with the bubbles.

'Don't think. Don't answer her. Bubbles. Just bubbles.'

The queen laughed quietly, as though Noxx's silence struck her as endearing, and kept washing her hair without rushing.

For a moment, nothing else happened.

Just the water, the steam, the hands moving through her hair, and the bubbles bursting between her fingers.

And then the queen spoke again.

"When are you planning to do it?"

"Hm?"

"The contract."

The queen rested her chin near Noxx's shoulder, still massaging.

"With those two ego-weapons. The pistols you left on the nightstand. You told me you haven't made a soul contract with either of them. But you could. And if you did, you'd grow stronger. It would help with your recovery. You'd recover faster."

The queen stroked her hair again.

"When are you planning to do it?"

Noxx felt the body tighten.

"That…"

Noxx swallowed. Her voice came out slightly stuck at first, but she steadied it.

"That's none of your business."

The queen laughed a little.

And before Noxx could react, the queen wrapped her arms around her from behind and pulled her close, into a tight embrace, with the warm water sloshing around both of them.

"So cold," the queen said, her cheek resting on Noxx's wet hair. "But that's alright. You don't have to tell me yet."

The queen's voice dropped, almost tender.

"You know? It'll be a week soon since you woke up. A week here with me, recovering."

The queen tightened the embrace slightly.

"And if you wanted to stay longer… if you wanted to spend more days here, in this room, with me, while you recover… I wouldn't mind at all. Not in the slightest. We could stay like this for as long as you want."

Noxx felt a chill that had nothing to do with the warm water.

And, without entirely thinking it through, she let out the question that had been circling her since she woke up in that body.

"Did you do something to my body?"

The queen went still for an instant.

And right then, the pain arrived.

It wasn't gradual. It hit all at once. A stab that cut across her head from side to side, as though something inside her skull had ignited without warning.

Noxx clenched her teeth and pressed a hand to her temple.

'What—?'

"Noxx."

Matt's voice appeared in her head, low and quick.

"Hold on."

'What's happening? What is this pain?'

"It's the bow-lance," said Matt. "I've had it working from underneath. It's undoing what the queen put inside you. The blood she gave you over those weeks left things behind — patterns, locks. The block that keeps you from being able to think about killing her is one of them. There are more. The bow-lance is clearing them out, one by one. It's slow, and it'll hurt. Please, hold on."

'And isn't it dangerous to do this now? The queen is right here! She can feel it!'

"She can," Matt admitted. "But she can feel it when you're sleeping too, or when you're alone — at any moment. There's no fully safe time. And the sooner the bow-lance breaks those locks, the sooner you'll stop having the block and we can recover faster. It's worth the risk."

Matt coughed briefly.

"Just cover it. Act like you have a headache and leave it at that."

'It hurts a lot!'

"I know. Breathe. Don't let the queen notice. Hold on a little longer."

But the pain climbed. Got sharper. It squeezed her temples, ran down the back of her neck, made her eyes burn from behind. And no matter how hard Noxx pressed her lips together, a sound slipped out. Low, muffled — but a sound.

The queen heard it.

"Are you alright?"

Her tone changed. Some of the amusement left it. She loosened the embrace and turned Noxx to look at her face.

"No," said Noxx, too quickly. Then she corrected herself, clenching her teeth. "I mean… yes. It's nothing."

The queen didn't believe her.

She raised one hand and pressed her palm to Noxx's forehead, frowning.

"I feel something," she murmured. "Inside you. Something is… doing something."

The red eyes narrowed, fixed on Noxx's.

"I'm going to ask you again, dear son. And this time I want you to look me in the eyes when you answer."

The queen paused.

"Did you really not make a contract with either of those two pistols?"

"Did you really not keep quiet for a single second?"

Noxx's voice came out tight, cutting — her face twisting into an expression of pure annoyance.

"You dragged me into a bathtub with you without asking. You walked into my bath like the busybody you are. And on top of that you can't close your mouth? Leave me alone."

The bathroom went silent.

The queen's hand was still on Noxx's forehead.

And then the queen's eyes opened slightly.

She was surprised.

Then, slowly, her surprise became a smile. A wide, amused, delighted smile.

"My," she said. "That sounded very endearing."

The queen tilted her head.

"And very bold."

The queen grabbed Noxx's arm.

Not gently. The queen's fingers closed around Noxx's forearm with force — calm force, steady force, the kind that made it clear without needing to say it which of the two of them was more powerful.

"You know what?" the queen went on, bringing her face close to Noxx's, red eyes shining through the steam. "I would love to fight you. Right now. Here. I'm curious. I want to see how strong you've become since you came out of that cave."

The queen tightened her grip slightly.

"What do you say?"

Noxx let out a pained sound.

The headache, the pressure on her arm, the bow-lance working inside her — shifting things, burning, clearing.

All at once.

All on top of her at the same time.

Noxx tried to pull free.

She yanked her arm back, trying to break the queen's hold.

The queen didn't give an inch.

Her hand stayed closed around Noxx's arm as though it were nothing, effortless, motionless, while she watched her with that curious smile and waited to see what she would do.

So Noxx pushed harder.

She clenched her teeth, gathered every bit of strength that body had — strength built from the queen's blood — and shoved against the grip.

And as she did, Noxx's eyes changed. The red grew more intense. Brighter. It shifted from that dull red to a vivid, blazing red that the queen noticed, and her smile grew wider.

"There it is," the queen murmured, almost to herself, something close to excitement in her voice.

The grip began to give.

Barely.

But it gave.

And then the queen did something else.

She moved closer.

She lowered her face toward Noxx's neck, opened her mouth, and sank her fangs into the skin.

Noxx felt the prick — sharp, cold.

But in the same instant the queen's teeth went in, something else reacted.

From inside Noxx's body, from deep within, a golden energy surged upward and hit the skin of her neck — right where the queen had bitten — and pushed outward in a flash of warm light that lit the entire bathroom for one second.

The queen jerked back, retreated through the water, releasing Noxx's arm, blinking, one hand raised in front of her as though she could still feel the heat of that energy on her lips.

Noxx pressed both hands to her neck, covering it, breathing hard.

"What on earth are you doing?" she gasped. "Why did you try to bite me?!"

The queen didn't answer right away. She stared at her own hand — her fingers — where the golden light had grazed her.

And inside, her mind was moving at full speed.

'Golden energy,' the queen thought. 'That signature. The same one I felt before — faint, fleeting — when I fed him while he slept. But that wasn't faint. It reacted.'

Her red eyes narrowed.

'She has a fused ego-weapon inside her.'

And that, far from unsettling her, lit something in her chest.

Because it meant the numbers added up.

Two pistols on the outside, on the nightstand, and a third on the inside — hidden, fused to the body.

Three ego-weapons from a single cave. Plus the second soul she had been sensing for weeks.

Her beloved son was, with every passing day, a more extraordinary creature than she had imagined.

But the queen knew when to press and when to wait.

And this was not the moment to press.

"It's nothing, my son," she said, lowering her hand. "I was only playing with you."

Noxx looked at her, not believing a single word, hands still on her neck.

And before she could say anything more, both of them felt it.

An energy.

Enormous. Distant, but enormous. It arrived all at once, from somewhere outside the room, outside the bathroom, and raised the hair on both of them at the same time.

Noxx went rigid and the queen turned her head upward.

And then the entire bathroom shook.

The water in the bathtub shuddered. The tiles vibrated. The bottles on the shelves clinked against each other.

The tremor lasted only a few seconds, but it was strong — and from somewhere far off, muffled by the castle's walls, came the sound of an explosion.

Noxx shot to her feet.

The water poured off her body as she stood up in the tub, alert, heart hammering, eyes searching by instinct for something to defend herself with.

Her weapons.

The pistols.

Where were they?

In the bedroom.

On the nightstand.

She had to get to them, she had to—

"Easy."

The queen's hand closed around her wrist, gently this time.

"Everything's fine," the queen said, looking at her calmly. "You can relax."

"Relax?!"

Noxx stared at her, unable to understand.

"There was an explosion! The castle shook! Something is clearly happening out there!"

"Something is happening, yes," the queen admitted, unbothered. "But nothing that needs to concern you."

The queen pulled Noxx's wrist gently, inviting her to sit back down, and with her other hand stroked her head — slow, running her fingers through the short wet hair, the way someone calms a frightened animal.

"I have guards outside," the queen went on, in that low, steady voice. "Many people. Capable people. Strong people. All of them watching this room, watching over both of us. Nothing is getting in. Nothing is going to happen to you. Nothing is going to happen to either one of us."

She stroked her hair again.

"So sit down. Get back in the water. It's not our problem."

Noxx didn't sit.

She stayed standing, tense, listening.

But the sound of the explosion didn't come again.

The tremor didn't return.

Slowly, the castle went quiet once more, as though nothing had happened.

And at the same time, inside Noxx's head, the pain began to ease too.

The stabbing faded. The hammering loosened. The bow-lance finished what it was doing, or set it aside for now, and the burning behind her eyes dimmed until it was gone entirely.

Noxx let out a frustrated breath. Then, still standing, still with water dripping from the body, she looked at the queen.

"What the hell was happening out there?"

The queen laughed — calm, without a drop of concern in it.

"It's nothing that deserves your attention yet."

The queen rested her arm on the edge of the tub and looked up at her, red eyes glowing softly in the steam.

"The only thing that matters right now is that you recover completely. When you do, you'll go outside. And then yes — you'll learn about a great many things."

The queen bit one of her own fingers.

"But not yet. One thing at a time, dear son."

Noxx swallowed.

And for the first time, she thought seriously about the two pistols resting on the nightstand.

'If I made a contract with one of them… could it change anything?'

THE 4-CHAPTER PATREON MARATHON STARTS TODAY!

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Yesss! Starting today, I’ll be posting a 4-chapter marathon on Patreon, and I’ll be doing it for 4 days straight~!

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As for here, I’ll also be posting 1 to 2 chapters a day to make up for my absence.

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Seriously, thank you so much for your patience and for continuing to support me despite everything~~

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I hope you all really enjoy the upcoming chapters!

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