“Given the rumors currently going on about you, I’m expressing some concern over the continuation of my son’s arranged marriage.”

The following morning, two days after the event with my mask breaking, I had received a morning summons to stand before the King. He sat on his throne now, a stern look on his face as he stared down at me. Richard was in the room as well, but he held the same disinterested look her always had. When his eyes met mine, there was absolutely nothing that indicated his acceptance of the fact we had sex a few nights prior.

As the King spoke, I recalled having straddled his lap on that throne at least once before. It wasn’t typical since the throne room didn’t offer the same privacy as his study, but once sitting in the king’s lap while he fondled your breasts and bounced you up and down on his knee was enough to diffuse any intimidation that throne gave. That wasn’t to say I was free of fear. Even after spending the previous day with the girls, I still feared what would come of this.

“I am sorry, father.” I didn’t shoot him a smile like I might of once, my role play skill telling me that this wasn’t the time.

“Ahem,” The King cleared his throat like he had swallowed something distasteful. “That’ll be King Hyburn, for the moment.”

I winced at the words. It certainly felt like a step backward. All the goodwill I had earned with the royal family seemed to dissipate in a puff of smoke. I certainly couldn’t expect Richard to step up and defend me, and of course, Devon was nowhere to be found.

“What would my lord have me do?” I asked, lowering my head in mock atonement.

The King gave a long sigh. “I owe your father my life. Therefore, I am not ready to annul the engagement based on simple rumors.  However, you will be watched very closely. I suggest you spend some time becoming the perfect wife for your husband-to-be. In a month, we will consider setting the final date.”

I tried to look chastised while also looking grateful to the King. Naturally, I didn’t feel grateful at all. He had hit me, breaking my mask, and now he wanted to act like it was my fault. The audacity of that old man. Of course, had I actually been Cornelia, his statement would have been a huge relief. I’d still have a chance to not embarrass my entire family and nation.

However, I was not Cornelia. I didn’t care about that engagement, and I didn’t care anything about the majority of the people in this castle. After a little less than two weeks. I would be out of there. It looked like the King was pulling his lap privileges. Well, that was just fine. I couldn’t level up sitting on his lap, anyway. I had less than two weeks to gain as many levels as I could, and simply put, Richard, the King, Devon, or even Julian weren’t needed. I had wasted tons of time with them, and they hadn’t given me much experience.

I let role play run on autopilot, saying all the formalities of a polite, boring, and stupid princess while the King nodded like he had successfully chastised a child. When I finally left the throne room, I was ready to punch a wall. However, at the very least, the wait and see approach meant I had enough time to finish up what I came here to do. I had let the glamor and excitement of the noble life rule me for the last few weeks. Until the harvest, I simply needed to work on myself. That’s what brought me back to Reinhart’s tower.

“You want what from me?” Reinhart asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I need you to teach me as much as you can. I plan to flee the castle on the night of the Harvest.”

Reinhart winced. “I wish you hadn’t told me that.”

“It doesn’t matter.” I shrugged,” I trust you, and right now I need people I can trust.”

After a moment of thought, Reinhart gave a shrug. “Fine, I’ll teach you everything I know, but work as I talk, if you can listen you can move your hands.”

That’s how I ended up working on experiments as I listened to Reinhart lecture about magic. Previously, he had always been more of an active teacher, demanding that I find books and only ask questions when I didn’t understand something. However, I didn’t have the time to work my way through the half-dozen tomes he wanted me to read. Instead, I needed to focus on what was important, and that was something I could only get from an experienced mentor.

On top of making several of the recipe’s Reinhart had pushed me to make, I also continued to run experiments on the animal semen I had accumulated. Thus far, I had absolutely no luck in coming up with any other potions, when suddenly a certain batch came back positive with my Examine.

Potion Making has increased to level 5.

Examine has increased to level 9.

Vial of Moderate Sexual Arousal, Grade B, Maker: Aria – Increases the sexual arousal of target considerably for fifteen minutes.

“Oh, a grade B potion, and another recipe. Absolutely incredible. Many alchemists will go their whole lives only discovering or improving upon one or two recipes. For you to have created four never before used recipes, it is simply amazing.

“Ah, well, I just lucked out.” I shrugged.

“No, no, it’s your skills as an alchemist. You’re clean, methodical, and think of changing conditions in ways I’d never had guessed. Speaking of which, what is the recipe for this? It seemed to be a nontopical version of the Pigman lubricant.”

“Ah, that is…” I started looking through the notes and then realized that while listening to Reinhart I had forgotten to take any. “I, um… didn’t take the notes.

Reinhart sighed, shaking his head. “Well, my ability can tell it was made with the troll semen.”

“Uh!” I winced. “That’s right. I used the last of it today.”

Reinhart shrugged. “You’ve mentioned it is harder to get. That seems to hold true in all of life. The harder something is to get, the more powerful it is magically. That’s probably why this is moderate. Well, until you can get back down there to gain more sample, this is the only vial. Do you want it?”

I shook my head,” Just sell it. Maybe someone at the Harvest can make use of it.”

“Right, you mentioned that a lot of the stuff I sold was showing up at these underground sex parties. I was invited to one of those once. Never went, but I still have the mask sitting around somewhere.”

“You have a mask?” I asked. “Ah, would you mind if I had it?”

“For entry? They say the masks allow entry. Don’t lose it, don’t show anyone you have it. However, would it work if you just showed up with someone else’s mask on?”

“Well, I don’t know about that,” I shrugged. “By the time of the next meeting, it’ll already be too late. The mask might help me escape, is what I was thinking…”

Reinhart thought about it for another moment before letting out another sigh. “I think it might be a good idea if I fled around the same time, too. So, by all means, have the mask.”

“You’re going too? Ah, not because of me?”

Reinhart gave a wry smile. “No, this one has more to do with me. I suppose there is no risk in telling you. I received a letter yesterday from Julian. It was odd to receive it, but it hinted at some things, and made it abundantly clear that Julian might overlook those things if I attended his little sex party.”

“Blackmail?”

Reinhart gave a single nod, and I let out a sigh. I suspected that Julian had fallen back on these kinds of methods many times. I wasn’t convinced he had any kind of special skills, but he wasn’t above manipulation, trickery, blackmail, Seduction, or flat out lying when it helped him obtain his goals. The problem was that his goals weren’t particularly clear. To me, it seemed like Julian just wanted to force the entire world to act as perverted as him.

“C-can you tell me what you need to hide?” I asked coyishly.

Reinhart chuckled, and then turned away, not providing me with any clear answer. Well, I hadn’t expected him to talk, anyway. I continued to listen to lessons from Reinhart while making more potions. I made potions none stop, using every resource he had available to create one potion after another. This was the conclusion I had come to early that today. I had to get my potions maxed as quickly as possible.

However, there was a reason to my madness. After you finished the first tier of potion making, you’d unlock the next tier, poison making. My class had given me advantages when it came to sex, but chemistry would be my second strength. If I could just create a deadly enough poison, I could create another way to kill Denova. Black Widow was simply too slow, and I didn’t think Jenai could wait that long. Plus, there was always the worst possibility, that Denova detected and healed the curse before it took effect. Of course, even if he didn’t heal the curse, he could still murder me and Jenai if he found out I had cursed him to death.

The problem with simply buying a poison is that this world mainly depended on two types of poisons. The first was the kind you coated on your blades. For that, I’d need to get close enough to stab Denova. That didn’t seem likely, even in the middle of sex he was always on edge, ready to burst into action. The second poison was the kind you drink. The possibility of getting Denova to drink a bottle without analyzing it seemed near impossible.

That meant that I needed to do the same thing for poisons that I did for potions. I needed to create one that was topical. Something that I could rub on his skin, or my own. I could drink the antidote and insert the poison in my snatch. As he stuck it in, he’d become poisoned by me. Perhaps I could make a poisoned lipstick and provide him a kiss of death. However, before I could do any of that, I had to max potion making.

So, I made potion after potion after potion all while listening to Reinhart drone on about every trick he could think of. The sun was already starting to set, signaling one day closer to the Harvest, possibly my last chance to murder Denova. When my skill suddenly went up another level, I gave a sigh of relief.

Potion Making has increased to level 6.

I left Reinhart’s tower sore and stiff. However, now that the day was up. I managed to make it to my bed and collapse asleep once again wearing the clothing from the day without changing. That was when the nightmares began.

The nightmares were relentless and dogged, but they all had a thread of commonality, that was the fact they were about Denova. Denova would be fucking me hard, his satisfying dick thrusting into me. Except, I wasn’t sexually aroused by Denova anymore, so I was uncharacteristically dry and thus it was rough and uncomfortable.

His face hovered over me, laughing maniacally, practically dripping drool on my face. He’d bite me, often hard enough to draw blood, but my body seemed frozen and unable to resist his sadistic whims. He’d hit me, punch me, slap me, and all I did was lie there and take it. He was stronger than me, bigger than me. I didn’t have any choice. The thoughts of using my skills were completely beyond me in these moments.

Tears fell down my cheeks as I made whimpering sounds. The worst part was that despite the brutality of it all, I was still being ravaged by a man, and that meant it sexually felt good. However, everything was wrong with it, and the fact that I enjoyed it, even at a fundamental level, caused me to hate myself even more.

That was when I woke with a start. Min was holding me and wiping the tears from my cheeks. I was breathing hard and covered in sweat. I wasn’t at my most attractive, but Min still held me close, despite my unflattering appearance.

My body ached all over as if all the abuse I had received had been real. I hurt, yet felt sexually excited as well. With Min next to, and my turmoiled heart needing comfort, it seemed like a no-brainer. My hands went up Min’s shirt as I felt her body. Her work with the guards had actually caused her body to grow fit. She was considerably more muscular now, and her hands had grown callouses on them where they had once been soft. They were still soft, but they were different. Manlier.

It was when my hand slipped into her pants when I found something surprising. She was a he. Instead of the expected vagina, my hand ran into a pair of balls and cock. As if responding to my touch that cock started to harden in my hands. I was still half asleep, so as I played with Min’s cock, my mind tried to make sense of the situation.

I finally remembered that the previous day, Min had acquired the synthetic cock from Pratter and Sandor. That’s right. Min was wearing the device, even in the middle of the night.

“You’re wearing it even when you go to sleep?” I asked.

“Mm…” Min nodded. “Whenever Vessë needs it, I’ll be ready.”

I gave a smile, and for a brief second, I felt like crying again. However, this time it was oddly not from fear, but a surge of love and happiness.

“Min?” I asked.

“Hm?”

“I need it right now.”

As I started straddling Min’s cock, which was around seven inches, a perfect size for her body. Any larger and she’d start to look disproportioned. The pain in my chest and back hurt, causing me to realize I must have thrashed pretty badly in my nightmare. As I ignored the pain and enjoyed my lover, an idea popped in my head.

“Min, we’ll need to start seriously training tomorrow,” I said, and then grimaced. “But I don’t know if you’re going to like it.”