The whistling sound of a whip sliced through the cold dungeon air.

There was a sharp resounding crack as it struck.

A silver-haired woman screamed, and her body contorted while she pulled helplessly at the chains that kept her stretched open in the center of a gloomy stone prison. Numerous implements of torture hung from the poorly illuminated walls, and the only source of light were several candles that flickered unsteadily in the darkness.

She was naked, panting, and soaked with glimmering beads of sweat.

Her skin was riddled with dozens of bright red marks.

The man was fucking her, yanking on her hair, and pulling on the chain that connected to the metal clamps that tormented her abused nipples. Tears streamed down her face while she incessantly begged him to stop. Periodically, he would whip her again, eliciting a miserable wail from her dry lips.

"...Hector... Please stop... this is too much..." The chained woman pleaded weakly.

The man had a fistful of her hair in his hands.

"Marie — my wife — you agreed to this." He whispered with a dark glimmer in his eyes.

"I... T-That was only in the beginning. You said we would only try a blindfold, but lately you've been getting crueler and crueler. I don't like this anymore... it hurts..."

He suddenly resumed his merciless thrusting into her without the slightest warning, and Marie yelped with hot tears spilling from her eyes. Her words weren't getting across to her husband, and he showed no indication of wanting to stop. Hector was probably going to continue until he grew tired, which wasn't likely to be anytime soon since his ungodly cheat stamina was nearly endless. 

Hector was the overpowered hero who had slain the Demon King.

Marie was the heroine who had been the party's healer.

It felt like ages ago, but once upon a time they had gone on a journey together and saved the world. Afterwards, they had gotten happily married, and Marie felt like she was living the most blissful dream of her life. Sir Hector was perfect, and he was flawless by almost every objective metric. Anyone might have swooned underneath the affectionate attention of the Kingdom's fourth prince, even more so since Marie was a commoner that was ostracized at the Royal Academy. They had known each other since they were fifteen, and they were intimately familiar with each other's habits after many nights adventuring on the dangerous roads underneath the open stars.

They stood by each other's side when they braved the overwhelming might of the Dark Lord.

But recently, something had gone strange. It was all wrong.

"Hector... You've changed..."

There was a sadistic and shadowy glare in the hero's amethyst eyes.

His fingers went to Marie's neck in a gentle caress, he stroked a mysterious black choker around her neck.

"I'm a lucky man..." He whispered. "If it weren't for this cursed choker, you might run away from me. But now I can rest assured that you're mine. You cannot disobey me. Isn't that wonderful, Marie, my lovely wife?"

The silver-haired woman shivered horribly, and she looked down at the ground.

She had been naive and stupid.

Months ago, they had been rummaging around the ruins of the Demon King's castle, and Hector had found this cursed black garment. Back then, he was still mostly normal, and she had agreed to let him put it on for fun when they were doing mild kinky stuff in the bedroom. It was basically the same as a magical slave collar, and she couldn't disobey Hector while she was wearing it.

At first, it had been fun to roleplay a little, and they had several enjoyable evenings toying around with its silly effects, but one day Hector refused to take it off. Now it was stuck, and she couldn't remove it through normal means. Fortunately, it looked just like an ordinary choker, so Marie didn't get too many intrusive or embarrassing questions about it when she walked around in aristocratic society.

More importantly, she couldn't believe that her own husband betrayed her.

She never imagined that he'd ever do such a horrible thing...

Hector stroked her face her fondly with a lustful look in his eyes, and he fondled her breasts while his sadistic fingers danced around the clover clamps that pinched her aching nipples. The silver-haired woman winced as more tears welled up, but she tried to show no reaction. If she stopped responding, perhaps her husband would get bored of this sooner.

"How many more lashes do you think I should give you, Marie? Ten? Twenty?"

"......"

She could feel his hard member pressing up against her rear entrance, and she reflexively shuddered.

"..."

"Ah, that's right. It doesn't matter what you say. I can whip you however many times I want."

The former hero grinned maliciously.

He stepped back and raised his hand with the coiled flogger.

Candles flickered in the darkness.

∎

minacia

Hiyo, congrats for making it through the chapter.

Although the prologue is all smut, I didn't add a smut genre to this story because I don't intend to do these types of explicit scenes on a regular basis. For the rest of the story, all of this nighttime stuff will happen off screen, so the reader can just be aware (or use their imagination) that this is happening to the protagonist with her husband on a nightly basis even though it'll be entirely skipped for the rest of the story.

The story will focus on Marie's daytime activities (which generally won't be sex), although sometimes you will see the aftermath the morning after and her attempts to emotionally process the abuse.

This work has an isekai genre because starting from the next chapter, Marie will slowly start regaining memories from a past life. It will come back slowly, so it isn't exactly a typical reincarnation story, and Marie will remain the dominant personality. Finally, please note that this story is tagged tragedy. Although I haven't decided whether the ending will be good or bad, please expect to see plenty of suffering and twisted stuff along the way! Thanks!