Reid had already made up his mind to go to the manor to find out what was going on.
His Majesty had given an ultimatum, no matter whether he could find evidence or not, he had to bring down the old count in the next six months.
Even if it was by false accusation.
Thinking of all the benefits promised by His Majesty, Reid’s expression became a bit more determined.
The Augustus family was supposed to be inherited by him, so everything he did was justified.
Just to get things back on track.
Originally he only wanted to wait until the old count died of old age, and then go back to inherit the family property, he didn’t want to do more other things.
After all, he was still a little guilty for betraying the old count and cheating with Julie.
But Reid so far didn’t regret what he did, he and Julie truly loved each other.
And the old count obviously didn’t love Julie, but still wanted to keep her, it was unfair to Julie.
Therefore, Reid didn’t care about the old count driving Julie to a remote corner of the estate and ignored it, nor did he take the shame of being stripped of his inheritance status to heart.
He knew the old couldn’t acerbic nature, and didn’t bother with him, only waiting for his death to inherit the family headship.
He was the purest Augustus family heir after the death of the old count, those so-called candidates were not worth mentioning, there was no competition.
But things didn’t go as planned, hee didn’t know why, the old count’s life expectancy seemed to be longer than the other members of the direct line.
He was thirty-two years old and had yet to die.
Reid didn’t show it on his face, but inside he was a bit agitated.
His parents had begun to complain about why he wanted to go against the old count for the sake of a woman, and he had gradually become remorseful.
But in the face of the beautiful Julie, Reid didn’t show this remorse, after all, he still loved Julie.
The good thing was that things finally turned around half a year ago.
His Majesty Henry I, the emperor of the empire, found him and promised him that if he could publicize the old count’s crimes, he would become the true successor of the Augustus family.
And the old Count deserved it.
The evil old count deserved what he got, he wasn’t wrong, he and His Majesty were on the right side.
Reid tempered the coldness in his eyes and continued to soothe Julie in his arms.
Theyy just had to wait a little longer, until the old count was brought to justice, they would be able to live a happy life, they wouldn’t live a life of embarrassment like now.
“It’s horrible …… the old Count ……” Julie murmured, and she looked at her lover, whose face was full of affection, before her, and kept repeating it.
But Reid did not take it to heart in the least.
He believed the so-called monster talk.
But he felt that it was Julie who exaggerated that horror, after all, the occult was all the rage throughout the empire, but who had actually seen the devil and the gods.
Probably it was the old count’s ugly face that scared Julie, or the old count looked more and more inhuman.
Despite this thought, just in case, Reid still applied to His Majesty to send an expert with knowledge of the occult.
When the time came, they would go with him to the manor to search for clues, clues that the old count had made a deal with the devil.
In less than a week’s time, those people would arrive at the most extensive territory of the empire to reveal the old count’s ugly true colors.
Reid couldn’t wait.
Inside the manor.
The butler was looking at the fog outside the window slightly mesmerized.
The manor seemed to have become a bit colder recently, the sea smell in the humid air was getting heavier and heavier, along with the heavy fog.
The old count was still nowhere to be seen.
At least that was how it seemed to the others in the manor, who all thought that the old count had something to do and had gone on a business trip.
There were even quite a few maids who began to fantasize about a chance encounter with Angus and then spend a beautiful night.
After all, before the old count had been wrapped around Angus, so that they didn’t dare to get a little close, now finally getting the opportunity, they all naturally couldn’t wait.
Their eyes were all hungry, and there was no fear of the old count.
But only the butler knew that the old count was always there.
Tick-
The water droplets on the wall dripped down on the floor, and the butler shivered in fear, his face turning white.
He looked around like a scared bird, and only relaxed a little after realizing that it was just water droplets.
His mind was on the verge of collapse.
Even he didn’t know how he managed to get up and go to work every day without falling into madness.
Perhaps it was the desire for life that let him know that he couldn’t rest, couldn’t fall into madness, and that once he did, there would be no escape.
“Angus seems to like to stay in the storeroom these days, let’s take our chances in the neighborhood! Maybe we can find him in the stash room ……”
“Hee hee! How shameless are you!”
“Aren’t you too! Talking like you don’t want to!”
“Walk! Come on, Angus won’t come out if we’re late!”
The maids passing by the butler all smiled wryly.
Their cheeks were flushed and they didn’t know what unseemly things they were thinking about.
The butler looked numbly at the direction that these unaware maids were heading to the library, and his gaze suddenly stalled, seeing Angus at the end of the corridor slowly walking towards the library.
The tall Angus was carrying a ramp of heavy books in his arms, his face was beautiful and calm, seemingly not caring at all about the increasingly humid air at his side.
After seeing Angus, the maids all looked at him with fascination for a long time before they remembered what they had to do, and hurriedly organized their appearance.
All of them walked towards Angus in a flamboyant manner, ready to have a chance encounter.
But when they were about to get close to Angus, they all stiffened, as if they felt a cold chill, piercing their bones and scraping their marrow, making them involuntarily stop their steps and shrink into a ball.
Until Angus brushed past the maids, they were not able to come back to their senses from the icy cold perception.
Even if they did come back to their senses, they just assumed that they were underdressed and frozen by the damp, icy temperatures of the manor.
Only the butler knew the truth.
He looked at the behemoth that followed Angus and swam through the walls.
Though only a few vague shadows could be seen, the bloated, grotesque shape was like his worst nightmare.
It was this monster-like being that stretched out its dense and horrifying tentacles, filling the walls of the entire corridor on all sides, and then hovering beside the maids with malice.
And Angus, he didn’t even seem to notice what was going on around him, still walking quietly towards the storeroom.
No, he probably knew.
The butler watched in awe as Angus’s blood-colored lips curled up and his fingers traced the walls as if to placate the monster in them.
The monster was appeased.
He withdrew those hideous tentacles and stopped focusing on the maids, instead placing them all on the wall beside Angus.
Looking, it was as if Angus was surrounded by a black mass of tentacles and was about to be devoured into its stomach.
But Angus’s face still held a smile.
The corners of his eyes, which were flushed, were even brighter than ever.
It was as if this horrible monster was his most beloved lover who was just being a little jealous.
Suddenly, Angus raised his head and looked over, meeting the butler’s line of sight.
The butler didn’t dare to look again.
He was so frightened by those calm blue eyes that he could only hang his head down warily and bow respectfully.
It was only after a long time that he dared to raise his eyes and saw that Angus had already entered the storeroom, and the maids that were frozen left in a hurry.
He was left alone in the corridor, along with what remained of the tentacles on the walls.
The tentacles that had spilled out of the store room densely entwined the door, refusing to allow anyone to approach.
He watched those slender shadows that wriggled contentedly, tangled together next to each other.
It was as if countless vines were entwined together, greedily guarding the monster’s most precious treasure, and would tear anyone into pieces of minced meat as soon as they approached.
The butler winced and raised his steps to hurry away as well, his eyes looking towards the manor outside the hallway’s floor-to-ceiling windows, the fog seemed to be even thicker, heavier than ever.
Heavy enough to make the butler more and more uneasy, he felt as if something more horrible was going to happen, but what could be more horrible than the old count turning into a monster?
The butler could not imagine.
He shuddered and withdrew his gaze, not daring to look at the eerie mist or think anymore, just numbly continuing his work.
Inside the store room.
Jiu Shu also looked out of the window into the mist and reached out to touch Norman’s wet and cold body.
Ever since entering the storeroom, Jiu Shu placatingly kissed him to soothe the jealous Him, Norman had been looking at Jiu Shu in a daze.
The color of his body was getting pinker and pinker, and even his tentacles were unknowingly wrapped around him.
Resulting in him now having many of Norman’s tentacles wrapped around his body.
The corners of Jiu Shu’s eyes brimmed with a smile as he withdrew the fingers that were stroking the punishment target.
The surface of the punishment target’s body didn’t seem to secrete mist.
It seemed that the mist in the original story wasn’t secreted by the god’s heir himself, but was merely a companion that appeared as his abilities grew, just as it was now.
Jiu Shu wrote down the experimental record on his notes.
After thinking about it, he looked up at the pink bloated monster in front of him again and began to ask Him what He had been feeling physically lately.
Currently those spells had become popular up and down the empire, and he had pitched in several times to add more psychic rituals to curb Norman’s process of becoming a heir of god.
Norman, who had been looking at Jiu Shu in fascination, seemed to pause for a while before remembering to answer the question.
Somewhat embarrassed, He used his tentacles to write out a reply on the paper.
[It’s good, I’ve stopped getting bigger.]
Before, Norman had been getting bigger uncontrollably, but recently it had gotten much better.
“That’s good …… Give me some more samples of your tentacles.”
Jiu Shu pondered for a moment before deciding to do some more experiments in detail.
But, the matter of cutting off the tentacles of the punishment target inexplicably made him feel a bit uncomfortable.
Obviously, he had done many similar biological experiments in the past when he was back home.
All non-human creatures wouldn’t look different to the experimenter, but this time there was a change.
He had tried anesthesia, but the target didn’t seem to be able to feel the effects of the anesthesia.
It was a good thing He had learned to divert the pain nerves elsewhere, which made Jiu Shu feel less guilty.
Snap – a piece of the tentacle that was littered with pain nerves was torn off by Norman without hesitation.
Jiu Shu moved to kiss Norman tenderly, and Norman turned even redder.
No matter what his lover wanted to do, even if it meant splitting himself up, Norman didn’t care.
He just wanted to see His Beloved happy.
So He tricked His Beloved that He wouldn’t be in pain.
It actually hurt.
But compared to the kiss of his lover, the pain was nothing.
Thinking this way, Norman looked more and more tenderly at his lover who was bent on being busy for him, and the fulfillment in his heart almost overflowed.
Perhaps it was because Jiu Shu’s pacifying offense had worked, Norman rarely felt inferior these days.
Whenever He had the desire to feel inferior, Jiu Shu would immediately and gently soothe him, repeating his words of love over and over again.
In this environment, Norman was immersed in an ocean full of love, almost intoxicated, and every day he only knew how to wrap himself around his beloved, unwilling to leave in the slightest.
Of course part of the reason was the nightmares that he had been having every night for the last while.
Norman couldn’t remember the specifics, but there always seemed to be an unbreakable fog in the dreams, as well as a damp, slippery patch of black moss that was getting closer and closer.
And the wails of pain and resentment that came from beneath those mosses.
Happiness …… Why did you get happiness?
Why have you not fallen into madness?
The wails were piercing in the extreme, growing more and more frantic as the dream progressed, seemingly filled with hatred for everything in the world, including his other self.
But each time he woke up, Norman would forget the dreams.
He would only feel an inexplicable sense of crisis, as if something was coming to snatch his beloved from Him.
This made Him more and more unwilling to leave Jiu Shu in the slightest, only thinking about the future with longing.
He wished to live happily with his beloved after regaining his human form, never to be separated.
Inside the room, the monster’s figure became even more swollen, and its tentacles slowly wrapped around its lover’s white ankles and wrists without any trace.
The color gradually darkened from shyness.
Jiu Shu merely glanced at it and indulged the tentacle limbs of the object of discipline that were trying to burrow into his clothes, and continued to observe Norman’s tentacle under his own modified high-powered microscope.
It seemed that tentacles in different moods would have subtly different organizational compositions.
But for the most part, the tentacles repelled, or rather, devoured each other.
The semi-solid tissues after leaving the body seemed to better reflect the qualities of the body, and had the instinct to devour and fuse with another part of their own body tissues.
And after fusion, they become one and rejoined the body.
This was the trait of a heir of god.
Jiu Shu let go of a part of the tissue in his hand and watched it gradually wriggle and merge into the other tentacles on his body, his face showing thought.
He inexplicably had a conjecture.
If all these semi-solid tissues would eventually choose to integrate into the body with the largest volume.
Then, if two equally structurally complete and massive bodies appeared at the same time, what would these tiny tissues choose?
Or would the two equally voluminous ontologies, like these tiny tissues, develop the instinct to devour each other in order to replenish themselves?
Then which instinct’s consciousness would become dominant, or would it, along with the consciousness, merge completely into a whole.
“……”
Jiu Shu continued to take notes, his desire to research coming up, he was completely engrossed for a moment.
From time to time, he rubbed his fingertips against his lips, lost in thought.
Occasionally he would take the tentacle on his neck into his mouth if he wasn’t paying attention.
Only when the object of punishment trembled slightly and its temperature rose did he spit out the semi-solid tissue with a sheepish, flickering laughter.
[Time to eat.]
After an unknown amount of time, Norman held the note up in front of Jiu Shu’s eyes, who then woke up as if from a dream.
He smiled and kissed the translucent object of discipline beside him, saying thank you.
“Thanks, just in time to get hungry.”
The color on Norman’s body became darker.
Norman watched his beloved Jiu Shu dine carefully, looking contented as he ate the lunch He had served himself.
The rosy lips hid white teeth underneath, gently biting so adorably that Norman was tempted to wrap his lover completely in his tentacles and never let go.
But the restraint of an older man allowed Him to just tighten the tentacles wrapped around His beloved’s waist slightly for fear of disturbing His lover’s meal.
The insatiable bliss made Him not notice that outside the manor at that moment, the fog had reached the point where it was impossible to reach out and see.
The fog that had been permeating the area for some time now seemed to have finally reached a qualitative change today.
And as if he had sensed something, Jiu Shu, who was in the middle of his meal, raised his head and looked thoughtfully at the fog outside the window.
As well as the window pane that was gradually decaying not far away.
Running his fingertips over the edge of the window pane, Jiu Shu looked at the residue on his hand and frowned slightly.
The window was aging, very quickly, as if it had spent decades all at once.
The table under the window pane, on the other hand, was still intact.
He set his eyes on the object of Discipline, suspecting that it was His powers that had awakened, but they didn’t seem to have.
The object of Discipline still stared at him stupidly, as if he hadn’t yet awakened from his indulgence in the intimacy with his lover.
Since turning into another form, the punishment target had become more love-brained, more and more simple and understandable, even his emotions were no longer as internalized as before.
Perhaps it was a side effect of becoming a god’s heir; after all, there didn’t seem to be a brain in this translucent body, at least not yet.
It was kinda cute.
Jiu Shu held his forehead and lost his smile, pondering for a moment before deciding to go out and take a look anyway.
Something wasn’t quite right right now.
Rustling-
At this moment, in the underground of the manor, behind a tightly closed, thick door panel….
There seemed to be a wailing sound of pain coming from someone.
Damp moldy spots seemed to be spread all over the ground like moss, and countless pairs of eyes made up of semi-solid liquids opened up, dark and empty, terrifying to the extreme.
Found–
Found Him–
Eating, devouring, making everything hurt – He wailed in the darkness of the underground.
He would devour His other self, the other self that conveyed blissful emotions at all times.
And then devour that beautiful lover as well, chewing up every piece of flesh and tissue, chewing and sucking every inch of the lover’s marrow.
In this way, He could have everything that He never had.
In His chaotic and crazy thoughts, He thought so.
And as the thoughts continued to spread, the black semi-solid body grew larger, bloated and swollen, until it came to a stop behind a thick door panel.
He let out a more resentful sound.
Rustling-
Hatred and anger caused His body to expand and grow larger, but how could He not escape this underground cavern that had once trapped Him for eighty years?
The fog was becoming thicker and thicker, so thick that it filled the air with the uncomfortable smell of salty seawater.
“Does this place really lead to the interior of the manor?”
Outside the manor, Reid looked at an underground passageway entrance revealed in the thick fog, his face questioning.
How come he never knew there was an underground passage here, but he had been staying in the manor since he was a teenager.
“It’s from the journal the butler kept, the journal Miss Julie gave us helped a lot.”
Beside Reid, a tall man, Jack, said so, holding the diary Julie had given him in his hand.
He obviously had a soft spot for Julie.
Reid’s brow furrowed, but out of respect for this emissary of His Majesty, he said nothing and held his tongue.
When he inherited the Augustus family, these jumping clowns would never appear in front of him, and coveting Julie now was nothing more than overrating a tree.
Reid’s mood finally improved as he thought this way. There were five other people following behind him, all seven of whom were sent by Henry I to investigate the evidence of the old count’s crime.
“Now get in there then.”
Reid said with a serious look, as if he were the leader of the group.
And Jack just gave Reid a look that didn’t contradict him.
They carefully entered the not-so-spacious underground passage that could only fit one person to pass through, and the seven of them could only walk forward slowly in a line.
“It looks like it leads to the basement of the castle inside the manor, we’ll just keep going.”
Jack said so as he held a carrying lamp to illuminate the path ahead and looked at the diary in his hand.
And just at the moment they entered the underground passage, the huge figure deep in the manor’s ground seemed to have sensed something.
His hollow, cold gaze looked in the direction where the humans were.
Fog gradually poured into the passageway, distorting reality and illusion.
“Strange, there shouldn’t be a door here ah …… “Jack looked at the diary entry and wrinkled his eyebrows at the tall door panel in front of him that he couldn’t see.
The stone gate blocked their progress.
Luckily, it was a bit more spacious and they could push the gate together with force.
Bang-
The sound of the stone gate being opened was dull, but it reached all the way from the ground to the surface.
Norman, who was following behind Jiu Shu and also moving behind him, suddenly paused in his stance.
His bloated body loomed in the fog that kept pouring into the castle, as if it was going to be swallowed by the fog at any moment.
“…… The space and time here seems to be misplaced.”
Ahead, Jiu Shu was carefully observing a broken floor in the corridor, half solid but half decayed into scum.
He guessed that the ability of the punishment object had gone out of control.
But it shouldn’t be, his spells should have curbed the ability’s rapid development.
Just as Jiu Shu was lost in thought, he failed to notice the continuous black mold that was spreading in the corridor behind him.
It was even more moist and dark than before, and under the refraction of the light, it seemed as if there was a single dark and horrifying eye flickering.
There was no sanity in them, full of endless madness and bloodlust.
Eat–
Devour–
Devour all of it…
Under the cover of the fog, the black moldy spots bulged with a semi-solid soft body, the hideous and horrible shape seemed like a big torn mouth, which was covered with shark-like sharp teeth.
The tide surged towards the blonde youth standing alone at the end of the corridor.
He was going to eat and chew up every inch-
“Norman, give me some more of your tentacle tissue, I need to verify it.” Jiu Shu looked at the marks on the floor and reached out towards his side.
The slender fingertips were just a hair’s breadth away from the razor-sharp teeth.
“…… Norman?”
Jiu Shu didn’t hear any movement for a long time and was about to turn his head when a large chunk of tentacle suddenly appeared on his palm.
It was a little too much, and it almost missed his grip.
The black, slippery liquid that oozed from the tentacle seemed to be blood, sliding down his pale wrist and being wiped away again by the semi-solid tissue that hid sharp teeth.
The movement seemed to qualify as careful.
TN:
See ya tomorrow ✌️
Thank you for the update~
I wish I could dip into the world, beat Reid up, and then dip back out