Rabia vividly remembered her first meeting with Shan Cirxus.
It was a rainy day. The sky was dark with dark clouds, and the sound of rain filled the air. The weather was humid all day, so Rabia felt bad. She was nitpicking the maids like rats, making excuses for petty things.
When she heard that a distant relative of her husband, whom she barely knew, had arrived, Rabia went out to greet the guest with a frown on her face.
And then she met Shan for the first time.
Had he walked all the way here alone without an umbrella? The little boy was soaking wet. As he shook off the moisture and pulled back his wet hood, his bright purple eyes were revealed.
The moment she met those eyes, Rabia gasped. Those were truly enchanting eyes. The moment she saw them, she felt as if her heart had been grabbed with her hand. However, unlike the bewitching color, the eyes were infinitely innocent. That indescribable gap became a sharp stimulus.
"This is Shan Cirxus."
Rabia shivered at the sight of him bowing in greeting. The free day had already been shattered. Her lower abdomen was burning with unbearable lust.
She wanted that child. She wanted to have him completely. She felt like she didn't need anything else if she could just have that boy by her side.
But she couldn't put it into action right away. Her husband was at home. He was a merchant and often traveled far abroad to do business. While waiting for the house to be empty, Rabia treated the child kindly.
The child was naive. He thought that the favors directed at him were gratuitous. He followed Rabia around happily, even giving her a round white loaf of wheat. One day, he blushed and said to Rabia.
"I don't remember my parents' faces... but if they were alive, I think they would have been as gentle as Rabia."
The child eagerly stepped forward to help with various tasks around the mansion. When Rabia patted his head to tell him he had done well, he jumped for joy. It was cute how he reacted to every little thing.
But Rabia wanted something else. She waited and waited for the moment when her husband would go abroad. And when her husband finally left and Rabia became the Queen of the house, Rabia immediately called the child.
The child who was dragged into Rabia's room noticed something ominous and tried to run away. She laughed out loud behind the child who was desperately pulling on the doorknob to open the locked door.
A thrilling pleasure welled up from deep within her. Nothing could be more satisfying than seeing the beautiful boy writhing in her grasp.
The child belonged to no one else. It was Rabia's.
"Please save me, ma'am... I was wrong, please let me go..."
The little child knelt down and begged. How could even his pleading voice be so beautiful? Rabia exhaled hot breath and licked her lips with her tongue. She commanded with eyes sparkling with desire.
"If you want to eat even a crumb of bread... take it off."
The day she took the child's pity was the happiest day of Rabia's life.
She never really thought of herself as a pedophile, but he was special. His unripe body was beautiful. She was happy to hear his delicate voice cry sadly.
After their first love affair, the boy cried quietly. But Rabia thought to herself that since he had slept with such a beautiful woman, he would like it later too.
From then on, she would explore his body every single day without fail. The child tried to rebel, but Rabia would whip him if he did not listen.
Boys of that age were naturally temperamental and bossy. Under the pretext of education, if he talked back even a little, he was severely beaten and starved.
The innocent eyes gradually darkened. The bright light disappeared and darkness filled them. Just like the cloudy, rainy day when they first met, the child changed. It was amazing to see him change because of her. She loved the fact that she, of all people, had tainted him.
But Rabia's joy did not last long. Her husband, who had returned home, found out about her relationship with the child. Her husband became furious. Rabia, suddenly frightened, blamed everything on the child.
"That kid, that kid... forced himself on me!"
It was true. He had seduced her. He had stimulated her lust with his seductive purple eyes and enticed her with his sweet voice.
Naturally, the husband believed his beloved wife's words more than those of a distant relative he didn't even know. He beat the child and poured salt on the wound. It was a pain that the little boy could not bear.
"..."
But the child did not groan even once. He just clenched his teeth and endured it. Even though she was offended by the sight of him not blinking, and was beaten even more viciously, the child did not break down.
Rabia looked at the child being beaten as if possessed. The child's eyes were burning with anger. The sight of him losing his innocence was dizzyingly seductive. She wanted to knock him to the floor right away and have a messy relationship with him.
The moment those eyes filled with anger... the boy became a man, and became ‘Shan Cirxus’.
Rabia nursed and comforted the wounded Shan, dreaming of having sex with him as soon as her husband left the country again. However, the day after the beating, the child was kicked out naked at dawn.
"Shan? Where did Shan go?"
"He was kicked out at dawn, madam."
This happened while Rabia was waking up from a deep sleep. Rabia desperately searched for the child, but it had already disappeared without a trace.
After that, Rabia had to suffer from an unbearable sense of emptiness. It was an emptiness that could not be filled even after having relationships with numerous men. Her husband, exhausted by her repeated infidelities, abandoned her, and she ended up selling her body in a brothel. Even though she accepted tens or hundreds of men, Rabia still felt empty.
Already, Rabia's life was tailored to just one person... Shan Cirxus.
He was heaven to Rabia. No matter what man she had been in a relationship with, Rabia never felt as fulfilled as when she slept with Shan.
But he was also the one who dragged Rabia into hell. Because of his relationship with Shan, Rabia fell into the prostitution business. However, he was still Rabia's unchanging love and her only lover.
Wouldn't he also one day come looking for Rabia, unable to forget her? Wouldn't he come and rescue her from this hell, like a Prince on a white horse in a fairy tale?
After years of not forgetting him, thinking about him, and missing him, Shan finally came to see Rabia.
It was the appearance of the long-awaited Prince. Rabia could not control her overwhelming emotions. It was the moment when she was about to share a touching reunion hug with him.
Rabia was kicked in the stomach by a sharp kick. Instead of being hugged, she had to roll onto the floor. Rabia was about to scream in anger at having her desired moment interrupted, but she had to immediately look down.
Of all the tricks she learned while working in the red-light district, the most useful one was how to distinguish between good and bad customers.
Rabia was always quick to learn that she had to be rude to some customers and obsequious to others. And today's customer was a dangerous one.
“Let’s see, let’s see...”
However, Rabia was shocked by what she heard next, despite her decision to bow her head.
“What are you doing to someone else’s husband right now?”
***
Is this the kind of situation where the saying, "a match made in heaven" is used?
Elze, who usually tried to stay still, couldn't stand Rabia's attitude. Rabia was acting as if she and Shan were lovers who had broken up against their will and then met dramatically.
To Rabia, Shan's feelings were not important at all. Even when she saw Shan's unpleasant appearance, she only put her own feelings first. The way she ran madly to share a tearful reunion was definitely not normal. Elze knew she had a different way of thinking, but she didn't know it would be this bad.
Rabia muttered, holding her stomach where she had been kicked and lowering her head.
"...Husband?"
She raised her head with a start. Her mad eyes gleamed brightly through her disheveled hair.
“Husband? Shan got married...?”
Rabia trembled all over. Then she suddenly sat up and shouted in a hoarse voice.
“Lies!! Don’t lie! Where did this dirty bitch come from to talk such nonsense...!”
She rolled her eyes and screamed, then suddenly stopped talking and muttered as if possessed.
“No, no. You forced him into marriage, right? There’s no way he’d be happy without me. Right, Shan?”
Blind obsession poured down like a wave. Rabia said, shaking her body madly.
“Quickly answer me and tell me the truth! Answer me!!”
She rolled her eyes and muttered.
“If you don’t, I’ll beat you.... I’ll starve you for three days without giving you a single piece of bread or a single sip of water... That’s why, that’s why..."
Rabia reached out her trembling hand to Shan and whispered in a weary voice.
“Good, my Shan... Will you please tell me that you love me...?”
Haaah. Elze let out a sigh as if the ground was falling apart and took a big step toward Rabia. Elze said, releasing her hand lightly.
“There’s something I’ve realized while dealing with crazy perverts these days.”
Elze grabbed Rabia's collar with a light hand. Rabia looked at Elze with trembling eyes in embarrassment. Elze smiled brightly at her and said,
“For crazy people, the medicine is a hawk.”
And then he slapped Rabia on the cheek. Clap, a loud noise echoed throughout the area.
“Uh... Uh uh...”
Rabia clutched her slapped cheek and looked at Elze with a blank expression. Her eyes were filled with confusion. It was a look that asked how she could hit herself.
In Rabia's mind, she was the main character in a fairy tale, and Elze was the evil witch. At this moment, when the Prince appeared after suffering and adversity, it was naturally Elze who should be scolded.
Of course, it was only Rabia's delusion, and Elze was more than willing to wake her up to reality. Elze then slapped Rabia's other cheek.
“Whoa!”
The sound of the slap echoed loudly again. Rabia’s cheeks turned red. Rabia was at a loss due to the pain beyond her imagination. However, it was not the end. Elze grabbed Rabia’s collar and struck her several times in succession. Blood flowed from Rabia’s mouth.
“Ugh...Ugh..."
Rabia glared at Elze with tears streaming down her face. Elze laughed and asked.
“It’s okay to hit a child, but you don’t like getting hit yourself?”
“Discipline! Discipline... It was discipline filled with love!!”
"Ha!"
Before she could say anything else, Elze threw her to the floor. Rabia rolled around on the floor. Elze looked down at Rabia and then back at Shan. And for a moment, she was surprised.
“...”
Shan was smiling. He looked very happy. Elze paused for a moment and then called Shan's name.
“Shan.”
"...Ah."
Shan reacted belatedly. He also seemed to know that it was abnormal to laugh in this situation. Shan shook his head slightly to erase his smile and said.
“I just... I’m happy that you’re doing this for me.”
Anyway, everything was fun. But if you think about it, Shan had never shown any interest in Rabia from the beginning. He was just happy that Elze was going to step forward. Elze was the only thing that mattered to Shan.
“Shan...”
Rabia called out to Shan with a trembling voice. But Shan did not look back at Rabia. Rabia, who was completely ignored, distorted her face and shouted.
“Shan Cirxus!”
Rabia crawled to Shan's feet, panting in pain. She spoke in a voice filled with betrayal.
“You, you can’t do that to me... I, my relationship with you...”
Shan was expressionless even in the face of such a desperate sight. He just looked down and asked briefly.
"Relationship?"
When Shan showed a reaction, Rabia's face filled with hope. It seemed clear that she was expecting Shan to return to his old self, to be a young and fragile boy who could be manipulated as she pleased. Shan looked at her and smiled.
“You’re still stuck in the past, intoxicated with a false sense of superiority.”
“...?”
Rabia gaped. The purple eyes she had loved so much were shining cruelly.
“How funny.”
Shan brought his face close to the dazed woman and whispered in her ear.
“I don’t care if you get torn to pieces or if you live and roll around the red-light district... either way.”
The cruel whisper flowed through the sweet voice.
“You mean nothing to me.”
It was the moment when the stigma of meaninglessness was branded red. Rabia's heart was torn to pieces with a crunching sound.
"...Ah."
He was the man she had waited for her entire life. What could be more hellish than hearing him say that he was meaningless? Rabia staggered with a pale face.
“Ahhh.. Aaaahhh...”
Then he covered his head with both hands and screamed.
“Ahhhhhhh!! Ouch, ahhhh!!”
She shook her whole body as if she was having a seizure and bumped into a shelf. The things on the shelf came crashing down. Handcuffs, whips, candles, and other things hit Rabia’s body and rolled on the floor. Rabia screamed as she rolled over those things.
But no one looked at Rabia or reached out a hand. Shan gently pulled Elxe’s waist.
“Elze.”
It was a completely different voice from the one that had spoken to Rabia. The sight of overflowing love and affection dripping down was what Rabia had dreamed of.
But Shan's eyes were only focused on Elze, and not a single piece fell on Rabia. Rabia could only watch her dream crumble in vain before her eyes.
“You don’t have to get your hands dirty. This is enough for me.”
Shan didn't want Elze to get her hands dirty over such a trivial matter. Elze was a little dissatisfied, but she did as Shan said.
“...Yes. But I’ll take care of the rest.”
“Don’t go! I told you not to go!!”
Rabia screamed. Elze glared at her. Rabia, momentarily overwhelmed, shut her mouth.
“...”
She was angry. She wanted to twist Rabia's neck right now. If Shan hadn't come with her, Elze might have really killed her. The sincere murderous intent slowly overwhelmed Rabia. Shan called Elze's name softly.
“Elze.”
"...All right."
Elze took a deep breath. Then she looked down at Rabia and said.
“The evil deeds you committed won’t end here.”
Elze coldly rebuked Rabia, who was looking up at her from afar.
“Pay for the remaining sins in hell.”
And Elze turned around without any hesitation. Shan grabbed Elze’s hand. Rabia shouted something behind her, but Elze and Shan didn’t listen to her anymore.
After leaving the room, she walked down the long hallway. When they reached the counter, there was a man with an anxious look on his face, shaking his legs. Sensing the presence of someone, the man turned around in surprise. Then he stammered and asked.
“Are you coming out already?”
It seemed like she had heard a scream. Elze spoke to the pimp who was looking around anxiously.
“No matter what you hear, don’t go near that room. Come in when the sun rises tomorrow.”
“Yes, yes!”
"And."
Something popped out from Elze's fingers with a tingling sound. The pimp quickly caught it in the flash of yellow light.
“No, what is this again...!”
The pimp, who had already taken two gold coins from the one he had just received, laughed so hard that his mouth was split. Elze spoke coldly to the pimp.
“It’s the price of removing a corpse.”
Leaving the pimp's face wrinkled with tears, Elze and Shan went outside. As they stepped out through the old cloth that had been placed in place of a door in the entrance, the cool night air enveloped their bodies.
“Phew...”
As the cold air enveloped her body, a sigh escaped her lips. It seemed that she had unconsciously become excited and her body had become hot.
"Captain."
Rapine walked out of the darkness. He came straight in front of Elze and bowed his head. Behind Rapine, Tarkun and Ivanna bowed their heads together and waited calmly. Their usual playfulness was gone, and they looked serious. Rapine asked Elze a question.
“How do you want to handle it?”
He asked this question knowing that he had not killed them since there was no smell of blood. Elze gave a short order to Elijah and his men.
“I will return home with Shan first, so you can deal with Kalia and the others. Until daybreak. And...”
Elze slowly closed her eyes, opened them, and added a word.
“As painfully as possible.”
"All right."
As the Elijahs disappeared, several movements began to move. Elze and Shan stood blankly in the darkness of the street for a moment, looking at the store.
“...”
The wind blew. The cloth hanging at the entrance of the store moved slowly as the wind blew, and the hanging bells made a faint sound. The two people stared at it blankly. Then, when the wind stopped, without saying a word, one of them turned around and started walking.
***
Elze, who had returned home, changed into her pajamas and headed to the bedroom. Shan was already there. He was looking out the window.
“Shan.”
When Elze called him, Shan said.
“It’s raining.”
"Ah..."
As Shan said, it was raining outside the window. She thought it would be cloudy all day, and then it started raining like this.
The small sound of rain soon grew louder. Shan closed the window as the raindrops began to pour down like long poles. The heavy raindrops pounded on the window. Shan looked out the window and said.
“It rained the first day I went to that woman’s house.”
The only light in the bedroom was a small lamp. His face was dark and shadowy, so she couldn't see it clearly.
“And it’s raining again today... It’s funny.”
It was an unusually sentimental tone. Elze suddenly became worried about him and approached him.
“Shan... Are you okay?”
As she got closer, she could see his face. Shan smiled and asked back.
“Were you worried?”
“Of course I’m worried!”
Fortunately, his face looked fine. Elze was wiping his chest, and Shan said calmly.
“Then worry a little more.”
“No... You look really fine now?”
Shan pretended not to hear Elze's incredulous words and hugged her tightly. Elze pretended not to be able to resist and hugged him back. Shan, who had been hugging Elze for a while, muttered softly.
“...I feel strange.”
The voice was quiet. Shan buried his face in Elze's hair and spoke.
“This is the first time someone has dug this deep into my life.”
Elze just blinked while holding him in her arms.
“If someone else had done this, I would have coldly cut them off and told them not to interfere.”
It certainly seemed that way. Who would dare to meddle in Shan Cirxus's affairs?
Even Marle and Liv, who were closest to him, only followed him from below. No one could stand on equal footing with Shan. Elze was slowly regretting her actions, but Shan said.
“But you are different.”
“...”
“It was so... to see you stand up for me.”
Shan thought long and hard. After careful consideration, he finally came up with a satisfying expression that really suited his heart.
“I felt happy.”
Elze looked at Shan with an expression asking what he was talking about. Shan gently caressed Elze's cheek with his hand and said.
“There was no emotion in Rabia. There was no rising anger, no joy in revenge.”
Elze twisted her body slightly. The way he looked at her was so affectionate that it tickled her insides. Shan gave Elze a gentle kiss on the forehead and continued speaking.
“I just liked seeing you do what you do for me today.”
And then he added in a voice full of sincerity:
“When you told her what she was doing to another man’s husband... I can say you were very loving.”
"Ah!"
Elze quickly pushed Shan away and escaped from his arms. Then she slapped Shan on the arm to tell him not to say such harsh words. Shan laughed and hugged Elze tightly again. He kissed her ear deeply and whispered.
"Thank you."
“...”
Elze couldn't face him because of her unnecessary embarrassment and just looked out the window. The rain was still pouring down. However, the fierceness of the downpour had subsided and was gradually subsiding.
Instead of a scary torrential downpour, a calm and peaceful autumn rain is coming.
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