Chapter 11 – Cage Devotion
Translator: MadHatter Editor: MadHatter
A heavy door was heard opening. The man lying on the bunk remained staring at the ceiling. The sound of footsteps approaching, the bed creaking, and the sensation of someone sitting on his side and sinking into the mattress were all heard eventually.
In his vision, the figure’s ears were pure white, the hair was white, and the skin was white. The eyes on either side of the figure were also different colors—one was golden and the other silver. The woman, in contrast to his absolutely emaciated look, still possessed the youthful attractiveness that showed no signs of fading. In fact, she even looked more refined.
Bastito II sat on the bunk in her secret room, relishing the feel of the bunk springs like a child, and addressed the emaciated man.
“You still won’t give up, Milord?”
The man obstinately refused to look at her. However, when she leaned forward to take a closer peek, she was startled and her body shook violently. His dread of her, his flirting with her, and a glimmer of something more were all reflected in his clouded dark brown eyes.
Invoking the same voice of beauty that has captivated everyone, Bastito II placed both hands around her beloved lord’s face and stroked them with her fingers.
“We even have a child together, but Milord, you still do not love me. I truly detest you. But I cannot help loving your obstinacy.”
The man’s eyes then lit up and shone.
“You love me―you love me? I don’t acknowledge it. I won’t acknowledge that this is love.”
The words he uttered were no longer as vibrant as they had been in the past. But his feelings for the woman, which had hitherto been hidden, now throbbed and tingled with peculiar darkness.
“One day I’m going to leave here. I will leave this―”
“Will you be loved by someone who is not me?”
The woman’s voice suddenly dropped to a low pitch. The man’s body reacted instantaneously, trembling. But strangely enough, the light in his eyes was even more intense than before.
“Right. Like you said, I used to want anyone to love me. Anyone who would accept me, take me in, and listen to me.”
“This cage represents your world, and I will fulfill anything that you wish to achieve within it. I’ll take care of everything, including your unsightly portions. You don’t have to deceive yourself in any manner like the outside world. I am the only one who can understand you.”
“Do not be absurd. I belong to myself, not to you, and I don’t intend to be yours. I will not approve of it. This is not who I am!”
“No. You should admit it already and be at ease. This is who you are.”
“You’re wrong. I would have been something more brilliant. If only you had not existed, I could have been that―”
The black, the gold, and the silver intersected. The man glared at the woman.
“So now I can tell you this. It is true that I am greedy, I desire everything, but you are the only person in my world that I do not need. Nothing about you is acceptable to me. I will deny all of you.”
“Are you seeking vengeance on me for depriving you of your world?”
“I am. I will keep on living, and no matter who else acknowledges you or praises you, I will keep on denying you eternally. I shall outlive you and eventually depart from this place. You may believe you have everything in the world the way you want it, but I am the only one who does not agree with your ideas – the world you are in is wrong. Everything in this cage is wrong.”
With a snap, the man’s body jerked up at the sound of the beast’s tail striking the floor. Bastito II removed her hands from the man’s face, a terrific smile on her face and a glint in her eyes.
“Certainly. The fact remains that you have become the unique one among the many others. Things have come a long way from the past. I suppose you could say that all the tormenting has been worth it. From now on, I will continue to serve you wholeheartedly as your cage even if my greatest desire is not fulfilled for the rest of my life. This is the way I love you.”
She rose once from the bed, retrieved a piece of fruit and a small knife from the basket on the table, and peeled it while humming a tune. The man who, in his younger days, would have leaped on her and sought to grab the knife from her if something like this had happened, no longer had the strength left in him. From his bunk, he merely continued to look at her with his dark gaze.
He eventually heaved a deep breath against her seemingly happy profile, turned his gaze to the ceiling again, and murmured.
“Kitty. What is it about me that makes you so obsessed with me?”
The beast shook her long, beautiful tail and perked her white ears.
“Naturally, I love everything about you, Milord.”
Elias laughed snidely and then closed his eyes.
Kitty was still peeling fruit for him.
In the olden days, when humans were not yet humans, Bastito, the cat’s child, was concerned about the state of the earth and wished to the heavens to descend and shower down blessings upon them. Bastito was the Goddess of Fertility, the Goddess of Mercy, the Goddess of Love, and the Goddess of War, who vanquished the savage tribe.
Bastito II was indeed the very Goddess of the Marius-Alessandro Kingdom. The pinnacle of the kingdom came under her rule. In addition to enlarging her kingdom and bringing prosperity to her whole populace, the queen overthrew the barbarians who had been in control of the beasts.
Bastito II, on the other hand, had a reputation for being severe and vicious. She showed no tolerance for her adversaries and punished everyone who disobeyed her, including family members and subsequent generations. It was claimed that when she burned down the capital of a human kingdom, she did so in three days and three nights, burning the entire city, barbarian and all, and sprinkling salt on the scorched land.
It was also rumored that Bastito II constructed a room within the palace where she could access divine power from the heavens and that she never failed to visit it, periodically disappearing. All individuals who came into contact with the Queen through prying eyes perished horribly, and the Queen never revealed any information regarding this situation. One of her children even reportedly had one eye gouged out in her rage for following in her mother’s ways, according to a well-known story.
The Queen bore four children on record but never married during her lifetime. It has been conjectured that the Queen herself once made the erroneous claim that she had obtained a divine child, but for whatever reason, she was unable to wed or may have been in a situation where she could not disclose her relationship with the man.
After her abdication, the crown was passed to her eldest son, Elias I.
Wait, too fast time skipping