The Mist and the Lightning. Part 18

“Sorry,” Kors nodded knowingly. “Your father was very unrestrained. I will say more: Chester was just a pompous turkey, confident that only he was always right and only his opinion and point of view were the only true ones. He managed to quarrel with everyone! Even with Leonardo, who was initially very loyal and sympathetic to him. Yes, your father was a rare kind of shit…”

“I killed him,” Arel said calmly.

At these words, Valentine froze and shrank even tighter.

“Yes, now the owner will kill me too. Exactly.”

“You killed him?” Kors was surprised. “After all, it was an accident, a fatal coincidence: Chester burned down in a fire in your ancestral chapel, when he offered prayers to the Gods.”

“It was already afterwards,” said Arel, “first I killed him, and then he burned down in the chapel, because I set it on fire.”

“But! Arel! How did you deal with him? After all, you were at that time… mmm… no more than sixteen years old, and he was such a healthy and tall, experienced warrior.”

“He was on his knees and prayed, kept whining and complaining to the Gods about injustice and his unhappy fate, as usual. I just quietly approached from behind and cut his throat, then stuck a knife in his back, up to the handle, and then again and again… He didn’t expect this: he wheezed, grabbed his neck with his hands, tried to stop the blood. He considered me a weakling and didn’t take me into account,” Arel smiled bitterly. “He didn’t have time to do anything. And I hit him from the back. It wasn’t fair.”

“I don’t blame you,” Kors stretched out his hand and gently stroked Arel’s head, slightly burying his fingers in thick, parted strands, admiring how the gold rings on his hand glittered beautifully in the prince’s dark hair. “Your father really was the true shit and deserved to die like that. I am sorry for you, sorry that you were forced to do this, to take on this burden, to do this wrong act in order to save your life. He is to blame, he forced you to get dirty in this filth, dragged you along with him into hatred.”

Arel smiled sadly and unconsciously tilted his head a little tighter, pressing it to Kors’ stroking hand. He looked at him with sincere love and fatherly tenderness.

“I felt such relief then,” continued Arel, “it was one of the best moments of my life: happiness, and a little fear that I was the owner of a huge Castle and would not be able to cope with all matters. But everything turned out to be not as difficult as I feared. I could live without flinching at his voice, without jumping into a corner at the sound of his footsteps along the corridor; I could talk loudly and say whatever came into my head, laugh, sleep as much as I wanted, order the servants to set the table at the time I wanted, and eat and drink what I wanted. Actually, I was finally able to have my time! And invite my friends to visit. I didn’t need to hide everything from that freak all the time…”

Kors, in a fit of feelings, pressed Arel’s head to his chest, pressing on the back of his head in the same way as he often did with Nik, and said with the same passion:

“My poor boy, you didn’t tell me anything during the interrogation, you didn’t confess.”

“You weren’t particularly interested in him.”

“Yes. Everyone believed that he burned down in this chapel. Nobody thought of you. But what about Valentine, Arel?” Kors returned to the beginning of their conversation. “Let me see, maybe he doesn’t look so much like Chester?”

Arel, and Kors noticed this with pleasure, with some regret pulled away from his hand and, taking out the key from his pocket, looked at his frozen slave.

“On your knees! Crawl over here!” He ordered, and Valentine immediately collapsed to the floor.

The helmet completely covered his head and wrapped around his neck, it was tightly laced up and additionally closed at the back with a lock so that Valentine could under no circumstances take it off on his own. However, Valentine would never have dared to do this even without these tricks. Moreover, on his throat an iron slave collar was put, very similar to the one that Nik once wore. Wide and heavy, tied tightly, it covered his neck, resting the upper edge against the chin, not allowing Valentine to fully turn his head.

To remove the helmet from Valentine’s head, Arel first had to loosen the lacing a little. After unbuttoning the lock, he finally pulled the edges of the helmet out from under the collar with some effort.

“Lift your face and look at sir Kors,” he ordered, opening his slave.

Valentine’s face was dirty, because on the campaign Verniy had no time to take care of the boy properly. And Arel rarely gave him the key. But despite the dirt, deep streaks of scars on his cheeks and the absence of one eye, poor Valentine’s clear resemblance to Chester was evident, and no injury could hide it.

Kors shook his head in disappointment.

“Yeah… Arel, it looks like you were right. Damn it! He is practically his copy!”

Arel was silent.

“Maybe we should dye his face with black paint?” Kors suggested thoughtfully, meticulously examining Valentine, who was grimy and pale with fear. “Rub in the dye the way Nurhg does with her slaves? You can ask the unclean ones for paint, for sure they have not only blue, but also black one. Rub it with black paint and hmmm… cut off his nose,” Kors smiled cheerfully at his idea, imagining disfigured Valentine. “With a black face and no nose, he will cease to be like Chester. No, nevertheless an artist died in me, I have this talent, and I passed it on to my son, not Iness,” he laughed smugly.

Arel said nothing, just rolling his eyes slightly. He had heard these endless self-praises of Kors so many times in his life that he had long been accustomed to letting them pass by.

“I’m just kidding, just kidding,” Kors continued as if nothing had happened. “What’s the point in cutting off his nose? You can’t hide his height, but he will be taller than you, and maybe then me. Arel, he has absorbed the best features of true blacks! You look like a mother, you are all like her. And he… This is unacceptable! Wouldn’t it have been easier to get rid of him immediately and quickly and painlessly, since Chester didn’t have time to do this?”

“Yes, he didn’t have time, and I… I just didn’t know about it. When I arrived at the Estate, Valentine was small, sweet and smart. I became fond to him, and then in the Limit, Verniy began to feed him, heal him, and now…”

“In the Limit, he became what he always was,” said Kors thoughtfully. “That which slept in him, in the Demon’s Limit woke up, came to life and actively developed.”

“Yes,” Arel agreed, “this cursed blood immediately manifested in him.

“Do it now. Get rid of him.”

“No, I can’t, I love him.”

“What?! You knocked out his eyes!” Kors didn’t seem to believe his ears.

“So what? I still love him very much,” Arel pulled Valentine to him. “Do you hear, you moron? I cannot kill you.”

“M-master, I’m n… not worthy of your love, I upset y-you and look like the d-damned, kill me!” As always, from being worried, Valentine began to stutter badly.

“No!”

Kors was stunned.

“Arel, this is so unlike you. I thought it was easy for you to kill slaves.” There was overt surprise in his voice. “How many of them did you kill in your Castle, Arel? My slave, the white half-blood that I gave you, did you kill her?”

“No,” Arel shook his head. “I really loved your gift – Mina – and took care of her. I didn’t give it to anyone. She saved Nik’s life.”

“How?”

“Nik needed Black Water, he lost consciousness and fell into a coma. The doctor transfused him with the blood of the white half-breed Mina, and Nik didn’t die. And Mina also survived, I took care of her. I didn’t let anyone touch her, neither Lis nor Enriki.”

“Arel!” Kors was touched. “I love you, Arel, I love you very much!”

He hugged him again.

“You are like a son to me too. Do you know why I stopped loving you then?”

“Because I became dirty.”

“No, I thought so. But with Nik, I realized that I love dirt. Yes, unfortunately, I love dirt. I stopped loving you because you did not obey me!”

“No, I always listened to you!”

“You didn’t listen well. You don't understand what it means to obey properly. Nik more or less understands… not completely, of course, he also needs to be educated much more, but at least he is trying to obey me as needed. Maybe you will try too?” Kors gently ran his fingers over the tightly closed lips of his prince, slightly pressing his not-cropped nails on his lower lip.

“No!” Arel said, dodging.

“Arel! That’s why, that’s why I stopped loving you! I love obedience. And you infuriate me with your obstinacy! You just piss me off!”

Arel turned away in frustration, but Kors, moving closer, tried to turn him around and kissed him on the temple.

“You will try, Arel, try, and you will succeed.”

But Prince Arel was stubbornly silent, and Kors, knowing his character, decided to change the subject for a while.

“Do you want me to help you? I will make it as painless as possible for Valentine.”

Arel shuddered and turned sharply to Kors:

“No! Don’t dare! It will be over between us forever if you dare to touch him without my permission. Don’t you dare harm Valentine!”

“Okay, okay,” Kors shrugged his shoulders, offended, “I wanted to help you, but since you don’t want… but no problem, Arel! Let your slave be taller than you, this is very… hmm… original! But you have always been not like everyone else, it is not for nothing that you were nicknamed “stupid handsome prince.”

Valentine, all this time kneeling in front of them, sobbed, unable to restrain himself any longer, and tears flowed from his eyes; and from a thorn covered, and from an implanted unclean eye. Arel, oddly enough, didn’t get angry.

“Valentine, I will bring you to the Black City and give you to my half-brother Vil. There are three of us.”

“Father had three sons,” Kors whispered softly and grinned.

“Vil will take care of you, he is very kind, and I will go with Nik and Vitor to the Demon World.”

“No, please, Master, don’t leave me! Take me to the Demon World too! I will serve you there, sir, when you become a Demon! Please!”

“No, Valentine, you will be fine in my Castle. You have nothing to do in the Demon World.”

Valentine continued to cry, smearing tears on his dirty, scarred cheeks. Kors looked condescendingly at what was happening, he was clearly bored; both this situation and crying Valentine at least a little entertained him and distracted him from the endless worries about his son, who went for a walk. Kors now could not control him and therefore was very worried.

“No, he’s pretty cute,” Kors remarked, finally returning to discussing Valentine. “Chester was far from ugly, and that little slave must have been pretty too. Pleasant appearance. Only you, Arel, don’t know how to handle your slaves. Valentine is dressed too expensively, you allow him to have long hair, you don’t really limit anything, you don’t follow him. He walks where he wants, does what he wants…”

“He never leaves our cart,” Arel objected.

“Are you sure about that? Have you seen how well-bred slaves behave in my house? The cook is in the kitchen, the groom is in the stable. And the slave in the entertainment room. Everyone is in his place and does not hang around anywhere.”

“Yes. All are distributed as in the cells in a prison.”

“Arel!”

And Kors already out of habit, not at all restraining himself, just as he spanked Nik, gave Arel a box on the ear; and he, like Nik, only shrank slightly and swallowed it without answering.

“You need to put a chastity belt on him. Otherwise, he will make children and continue the spoiled family.”

“Who needs him!”

“Are you kidding? His expensive clothes, long hair and tall stature will perfectly attract peasants and slaves, this is quite enough for them. Valentine, can you hear thoughts?” Suddenly asked Kors, abruptly changing the subject from an unexpected guess.

And Valentine trembled again and timidly answered:

“Yes, sir. Quite a bit, only sir Arel’s, sir Nik’s and sir Verniy’s.”

Kors shook his head.

“Yeah… Arel, and all your fault is your carelessness and stupidity! Gods, what am I to do with you all? How to fix this mess?”

“Put it back on,” Arel ordered Valentin, nodding at the helmet, and the boy immediately began to pull it over his disheveled head, slipping a hard leather collar under the collar. He couldn’t himself tighten the lacing on the back of his head, and Arel helped him and closed the back with a lock again.

Kors watched as Valentine himself put on a slavish attribute, as it seemed to Kors, he did it even with some kind of joy or relief he humbly bowed his head when Arel laced him up.

“But his character is not at all the same as that of Chester,” remarked Kors, “or is it you, Arel, who knocked all the crap out of him?”

“Valentine, get out, get out!” Arel ordered, and Valentine rushed to the exit.

“We should have sent him to Verniy to at least wash his face, he’s grimy as a pig,” said Kors.

Arel didn’t answer, he was clearly tired of being busy with a slave. He held out his hand to Kors.

“Go here.”

Kors responded, and Arel threw him onto his skins, holding him to himself.

“Arel, do you love me?”

“Yes,” Arel whispered, leaning on Kors with his whole body and pulling off his pants.

Chapter 5

“Why have you got drunk? I let you go play your fucking cards! I gave you permission! I fulfilled your wish, because I know how much you love it! And you got drunk!”

Kors shouted at his Nik, who returned to their tent in the morning and was pretty drunk.

“All clear! Dull silence! A ram’s look!”

Kors kicked in annoyance at their camp bed, on which Nik was sitting, and Nik quickly moved aside.

“I drank quite a little…”

“Have you seen yourself from the side?”

“Forgive me…”

“Yes, for you to say “I'm sorry” is as easy as to go have a piss!”

“You said one can’t say that … express himself in this way.”

“Why have you got drunk again? I don’t understand, explain to me!”

Nik thought for a while:

“Because it’s… it’s very pleasant.”

“Pleasant?! Is it pleasant to drink and hang around with all sorts of obscure personalities?”

“Personalities?”

“With all sorts of garbage!”

“It’s fun…”

Kors literally gasped with indignation:

“Fun?! Well, for goodness’ sake! I have no words! Your drunken friends will break your head sooner or later! Mador will split your stupid head, this will be also fun!”

“No.”

“Yes! This is usually the end of such adventures, believe me, I know. And you choose your friends the right way – only crap!”

Nik slid off the trestle bed and knelt in front of his father, bending down to him and kissing his boots. He knew that Kors really liked this demonstration of humility and obedience: at the very beginning of their relationship, Kors forced Nik to do it, angering and humiliating him, but now, as time passed, he taught his son to such an expression of love and gratitude. Nik was used to this and often, without orders, crawled at Kors’ feet, licking his boots like a faithful dog. Kors was always happy to let him do it, but now he brutally threw him away.

Having slightly lost his balance (both from Kors’ kick and from the fact that he was very drunk), Nik fell on his side, but quickly pulled himself together and sat down. He didn’t rise from his knees and was silent, allowing his father to scold him. No matter how hard he tried, Kors didn’t feel a stream of suffering or any kind of experience from Nik. Deciding that it was alcohol to blame, which blocked his son’s consciousness and prevented him from being sad and fully feeling the burden of guilt, Kors stopped scolding him:

“Put on the mask! I can’t see your drunken face! Oh, demonic nature, why should I be so punished – to have such a son!”

Nik, upset, but obediently reached for his mask and put it on. He finally got up from his knees and lay down on their trestle bed on his side, facing the wall, clearly trying not to “stick out like a sore thumb” and not provoke Kors. Frustrated, Kors left him alone and lay down on the skins next to him, defiantly embracing Arel.

They slept almost all day and only woke up in the evening.

“Can I take off my mask?” Nik asked cautiously. “I’ll wash and brush my teeth.”

“What for are you asking me?! When you get drunk, you don’t ask me!” Kors snapped sharply and irritably.

Nik sat in front of him with his head down, and Kors saw that he had not touched the mask, didn’t take it off without permission.

“You can take it off!”

“Thank you, daddy, please forgive me.”

“Oh!”

Nik took off his mask and looked at his father apologetically. He looked sad. Unable to remain serious at the sight of his cute face, Kors involuntarily smiled.

“Well, enough to flutter your eyelashes!”

“I don’t do it on purpose! Why are you making fun of me? You made me this way yourself, and now you laugh!”

“I made it beautifully!”

“Yes, you just went too far! And now it amuses you that I look so!”

“I’m not laughing…”

“No, you’re laughing.”

“No!”

“Vitor, I want to spend time with you, I'm yours. But please don’t laugh at me. I am not a toy!”

“I’m not laughing or playing with you, my doll, my porcelain figurine. Yes, I can scold you a little, but with love and for your own good. Can I do it this way?”

“This way yes.”

“Yes, honey, yes.”

“Please, Vitor, l am open to you, do you understand? Don’t break my heart!”

“I am also open,” Kors strongly supported him, “and it is you who break my heart with your behavior! How can I trust you if you only care about drinking and partying?”

“No, I don’t care about it! I love you!”

“I love you too!” Shouted Kors. “And it makes me vulnerable to your antics! One wave of your eyelashes, and I succumb to you for everything!

“No, I yield myself to you! When you scold and beat me, and I don’t dare to answer you, because I am afraid of losing your love.”

“And it is right. I fell out of love with Arel precisely because he didn’t listen to me well. If you don’t contradict me and obey me, I won’t stop loving you, I will never stop loving you! We’ll be happy. I will make you happy,” Kors reached out to his face and gently ran his fingers over the scar. “I would rather do your treatment! I will remove this scar from you, I will heal it.”

“Are you ashamed of me because of it? It spoils everything, doesn’t it?”

“I haven’t said that.”

“Even when you fuck my mouth, you always try to shove you cock into a healthy cheek and never into a scarred one.”

“Damn it, Nik! Sometimes you really need to be dicked to keep you quiet!” Unable to restrain himself, Kors raised his voice again.

And Nik’s face immediately reflected tension, he shied aside and quickly said:

“Don’t… please, Vitor!”

“Don't read my mind! Can you see me doing something to you?”

“But you want to… all the time you want to hit me. I said I love you, and that’s why you are going to beat me now? Yes?”

Kors saw Nik turn pale, his lips trembling with excitement and frustration, and his voice was filled with resentment; he literally stumbled in mid-sentence, fell silent, swallowing nervously. His face was so sad that it was impossible to look at Nik so as not to feel your heart contracting with pity.

“Stop pouting capriciously, it’s just vulgar!” Kors tried not to give in, so as not to start feeling sorry for him.

“I’m not pouting anything,” Nik objected resentfully. “You never beat Karina, but you constantly kick me! You slap me on the eyes and lips that you like so much. There are endless slaps from you for everything that is “wrong”, in your opinion. For a “wrong look”, for every “wrong word” – you immediately hit me. Yes, maybe not at full strength, but it’s humiliating.”

Kors saw now that the constant wearing of a mask still affected his Nik. He, like most slaves and commoners, when his face was open, poorly controlled facial expressions and emotions. If he was upset, this was fully reflected on his face. He didn’t even try or somehow didn’t know how to restrain himself, because he was not used to receiving feedback from the interlocutor, depending on the expression of his face. He didn’t understand that this was important, and didn’t care about it. It was unbearable for Kors to see this inferiority.

“Forgive me! Forgive me!” He grabbed his head. “You evoke in me some trashy feelings! And Karina is a complete fool, of course, but she is my only girl. I took care of her, although in an amicable way she should have been punished very harshly. But this idiot in the end at least found herself the same fool. And you’re completely crazy, do you understand? You are wild, neglected. Why are you looking at me with your eyes and keep silence? My little white, little white boy! Oh, oh, my doll… Come here, crawl to me, immediately! Like this… You feel good with me, aren't you? I love you so much, my beloved darling, I love your doll’s eyes and lips.”

“You keep on beating me!”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, my doll! I’m doing this for your own good. If you weren’t so stupid, you would thank me for that. Thank me…”

“Thank you.”

“My boy. My stupid boy…”

“It hurts me, don’t… don’t touch me…”

“Be patient, you got drunk yesterday, and no matter how I love you, you will be punished for it…”

“Ah, ah … Enough, let me go!”

Kors still let go of his cock and balls, ceasing to squeeze them so hard and dig into them with his nails.

“Only obedience will lead us to success, my love. I love it so much when your bright eyes are filled with tears…”

Nik clenched his fists and stubbornly wiped his eyes with them.

“It’s not my fault that I have such eyes and eyelashes, and that they turn you on so much. Ask yourself why you like white half-bloods so much that you are drawn to them all your life!”

Keep silence! Be silent. Open your mouth, show me your shameful, leaky tongue.”

Nik immediately opened his mouth and pulled his piercing with his teeth slightly upward, so that the thick steel bar that pierced his tongue vertically and onto which the balls were screwed along the edges was now clearly visible.

“Oh-oh-oh… a complete whore, I really will beat you right now!” Kors jerked him closer.

“No, no!”

“Obey me, you fool who fucked up your life and became a whore!”

“I told you stories from my life so that you would reproach me later?!”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry… Lie on your back, lie down,” Kors sat down on his chest, pressing his hands trembling with excitement into the fluffy skins, hastily pulling out his long erect and sweetly aching cock.

“Let… let me cum on your beautiful eyes…”

They continued, and Kors didn’t hit him and no longer hurt him or made him feel bad, because he was madly in love with him.

However, the next day he saw that his Nik was sad and indifferent to everything. Kors understood that he wanted to go to his unclean ones, but didn’t understand how to stop him.

“Nik, are you offended by me?” He asked finally.

“No,” Nik muttered. Still, he sounded very displeased, and, as Kors felt, not respectful enough.

“Talk to me normally! When will it reach your head that I am doing everything only for your good? If it happens that you cannot use the Demon’s power, what will you do?”

“I managed to cope without power too…”

“Why are you snarling now? There is no doubt that as a person you are weak and not smart, to my great regret. I saw how you “managed”. You couldn’t handle it, Nik! And they put you so that it was more convenient to walk on you. Only your appearance helped you, and even then – others played with you and wore you out, made you a slut. I understand it sounds unfortunate, and I still love you very much, even such one, but you need to develop your human mind, it can save you at a critical moment, and for this you must learn to listen to me.”

“I obey you.”

“You must learn to obey the right way, without any offense or discontent, but with gratitude.”

“Thank you, dad, I’m sorry…”

“Gods, you utter this phrase without any understanding! You just say the same thing thoughtlessly. It’s not that… it’s not that…” Kors paused in frustration, and Nik lay down on his face, his face buried in the skins.