A knight's upfall

Not finding an answer to his source’s weird behavior, Seth prepared the report for Hollie and remained by Rebecca’s side until she finally woke up.

Once she opened her eyes, Rebecca quickly spotted Seth cultivating next to her and said shyly: “Good morning.”

Seth opened his eyes, nodding back to her, before saying: “Good morning. If it still hurts, you can visit Caitlin. She’s already used to it.”

Rebecca blushed and nodded, lowering her and asking: “S-Seth, is sex always like that?”

“Like what?”

Rebecca became even more flustered as she whispered: “Godly….”

Seth chuckled proudly and moved to pull the shy Rebecca into her arms, saying merrily: “Only when being done with a God, of course.”

Rebecca giggled and closed her eyes, sticking her body onto his as if trying to steal his warmth.

After spending a few more hours simply cuddling in their bed’s warmth, they finally stood up and got dressed. As much as they wanted to spend more time together in bed, they had their own things to take care of and couldn’t keep lazying around.

After sharing a quick kiss, Seth teleported away. Instead of heading for Caitlin as she told Seth, Rebecca fell back on the bed and started giggling while burying her face in her pillow.

Seth arrived in his room and reviewed the system’s report before sighing.

“No mark, no soul activity, no nothing… it makes no sense.”

<It must be related to Rebecca being a virgin before the intercourse. The other women had all been in a sexual relationship with host for a long time.>

‘Maybe, but it’s still frustrating. The source also didn’t turn me into a lustful animal like it used to... I wonder why that happened?’

‘Whatever, I’ll just keep going.’

Deciding to leave thinking over the issue to the system and Hollie, Seth pulled the list and looked at his next task. Skipping over feeding Katy and the other human task, Seth looked at the fifth one.

His options were once more limited, Pearl being the only real one. For some reason, the thought made Seth have a bad feeling, but he still ended up asking the system: ‘What is Pearl doing?’

<Participating in training the new soldiers and knights at the Knight Quarters.>

“Guess I’ll go take a look…” muttered Seth, teleporting away from his room and right into the training yard of the Knight Quarters.

The knights of the Valdez and Ashley families had gone toward the borders to fulfill Seth’s orders, so only Alexa and Pearl participated in the physical training. Red-faced youths were gathered in front of them, doing physical exercises while listening to Alexa speak.

Since Seth had appeared behind the girls, only the trainees could spot him, and they immediately fell on their knees, surprising the two girls.

Alexa was about to yell at them when she noticed Pearl turn around and fall to one knee as well. Realizing what was happening, she also turned and bowed her head.

“Your Majesty.” She was not an official knight, only helping Pearl with the training, so she was not required to kneel.

“Don’t mind me, Alexa. Continue.” Seth nodded with a smile and created a chair for him to sit down.

Alexa turned around and yelled at the trainees: “You heard His Majesty. To your feet and resume the training. If you embarrass the Knight Order in front of His Majesty, I’ll have you all run naked through the fields outside the capital.”

“Yes, instructor.” Yelled the youths, quickly sitting up and resuming their training.

Seth smiled throughout the exercise, her way of correcting errors in their form reminding him of their days at the academy. Lost in thought, he eventually noticed Pearl was still kneeling towards him, her head lowered.

Not wishing to interrupt the training, Seth created a small note in front of her on which he wrote: “Come here.”

Pearl seemed surprised and looked up, noticing that Seth was smiling at her and had even created a chair beside him. Nodding silently, she stood up and sat next to him.

“Why is Alexa taking the lead in training the new soldiers?” whispered Seth.

“Our parents had decided that before leaving. They said my fighting style matches more to that of an assassin than a knight or a warrior.” Whispered Pearl back.

“Sorry about that. I know you always wanted to become a swordsman like your father and brothers.”

“Don’t apologize, My Lord. The fighting style My Lord taught me matches my creation energy better.”

Seth nodded and continued watching the training. Seeing Seth was not saying anything, Pearl also turned towards the training recruits.

After ten minutes, Seth asked: “Do you know why I came here?”

“To observe the training of the new soldiers?” asked Pearl.

Seth shook his head and created the list Hollie gave him before passing it to Pearl. Pearl took the small piece of paper and started reading it.

Her cheeks turned redder the further she went through the list, but when she reached task number five, she stopped, her hands shaking briefly.

After taking a deep breath to compose herself, she read the entire paper and passed it back to Seth.

“How far has My Lord gotten through the task list?”

“I finished four a while ago.” Seth smiled, destroying the piece of paper and turning to look at her.

Pearl did her best to maintain her composure and nodded: “I understand, My Lord.”

Seth didn’t say anything and continued watching the training while keeping his eyes on Pearl’s aura. Just as he had expected, her emotions were in turmoil, but her face barely showed any of it.

The training finished half an hour later, a time in which Seth and Pearl didn’t say a single word to each other. After dismissing the trainees, Alexa turned towards the two and came towards Seth.

“Teacher, do you need something from me?” asked Alexa, looking suspiciously at Pearl. As much as she tried to hide it, a slight blush still appeared on her cheeks.

“Not yet. I only needed Pearl, but I decided to stay and watch the training. You’re doing a great job, Alexa.”

Alexa nodded thoughtfully and said: “I had a good teacher.”

“That you did.” Replied Seth with a chuckle, finally sitting up. Turning towards Pearl, still rooted to her chair, he asked: “Are you ready, Pearl?”

“Yes, My Lord.” Replied Pearl, standing up and moving closer to Seth.

“Well, we’ll be off. See you, Alexa.”

Alexa looked once more towards Pearl and nodded back. “Good luck, teacher. Bye, Pearl.”

After Pearl nodded toward Alexa, Seth teleported the two to his room.

Once inside the room, Pearl fell to her knees and said with a red face: “I hope My Lord will forgive me, but I’m inexperienced in the task My Lord has for me.”

Seth sat down and chuckled as he said: “If you don’t want to, you can decline, you know?”

Pearl shook her head and said: “My oath is my worth, and my life, body, and soul belong to My Lord to do as My Lord sees fit.”

Hearing the conviction in her words, Seth sighed, his thoughts traveling to how much pain a similar oath had brought to Iris and even the entire Oath Kingdom.

“Are you saying that if I order you to ride me naked in the center of the capital, you will do it?” asked Seth, maintaining a slight smile on his lips.

Pearl’s head was still lowered, and her face was bright red, but the conviction in her voice didn’t disappear as she said: “If that’s My Lord’s wish.”

Seth sighed and stood up, walking past her and moving to sit at the window, supporting his arms on the windowsill.

“Go back to the Knight Quarters. You are now absolved of your oath.”

Pearl’s body shuddered, her composure starting to break as she stuttered. “W-why?”

Seth clenched his fist over the windowsill and said: “I went along with your oath back then because of your stubbornness. I even allowed you to fool around and play knight, but when did I allow you to become a sex slave?”

Turning around, Seth looked at the kneeling Pearl and said in a harsh tone: “Haven’t you learned anything from what happened to your family? They swore an oath just like you did and ended up as nothing more than slaves to the royal family, to use as they see fit and dispose of them just as well.”

“An Oath between a knight and a ruler goes both ways. The knight will strive to act as that ruler’s right hand, but the king is also responsible for sheltering and protecting his knight.”

“A knight is a position of honor and status. How is what I just proposed now any different from what one would ask of a sex slave?”

Seeing Pearl was already crying, Seth turned towards the window again and said: “Leave now. I have no need for a mindless sex slave. From now on, you are no longer my knight but a simple teacher of the academy.”

Pearl lifted her heavy legs and started to slowly walk away, tears silently flowing down her cheeks.

Once she was out of the room, Seth sighed and shook his head.

“Damn, that really put a bad taste in my mouth.” He muttered, deciding to spend the rest of the day just cultivating.

After sitting in bed for a few minutes, Hollie drifted in through the window. Her face was extremely red, and she asked: “Don’t you think you were too harsh?”

Seth turned to look at her and said: “Maybe, but she needed to hear those words. Were you spying on me?”

Hollie shook her head and lifted her shirt, allowing Seth to see her mark that was shining bright pink. Her belly was also wholly flushed, and she was obviously horny.

Frowning, Seth asked: “It activated?”

Hollie nodded and walked towards the bed with slow steps.

“I suddenly felt despondent and angry simultaneously but had no idea where these feelings were coming from. The next moment, I felt my mark heating up, and those sad and angry feelings disappeared, replaced by an uncontrollable horniness.”

“Figuring it must be related to your lust source, I used my energy to search for you and heard the last part of your argument.”

Seth took a closer look at the mark once Hollie sat down. ‘System, what about the others?’

<Affirmative. The phenomenon seems to be repeating itself for every woman host had marked. Maya satisfies herself in the throne room, Aleena is in her room and is now touching herself as well, Henrietta has created a sex toy to please herself, and Tiana is in her training room.>

Hollie saw Seth staring at her mark with a pensive expression and said: “This might be a bit of a stretch since we have no proof of that yet, but the mark might be reacting to your feelings.”

Seth nodded and brought back the results of the experiments he had noted down until now, handing them to Hollie. He also ignored that all of his women were now pleasing themselves somewhere in the palace’s vicinity.

“Ignore the others for now. Look at the one for Leora.” Said Seth while picking up a particular report and handing it to her.

Hollie quickly read the report, barely able to contain herself from jumping onto Seth, and said: “It does appear to support my conclusion, but at the same time, it’s somewhat strange.”

“Let’s say Leora wanted to lose those memories, you wanted to help her, and the lust source responded to your will, bridging your souls to make that possible, but why did it activate with Henrietta?”

Seth pondered for a moment and said: “We were doing some sex play from a memory of her father and mom doing it in the throne room, but that was only a play and not something as powerful as my desire to help Leora or Pearl. It is indeed strange…”

As the two were pondering, a notification appeared in Seth’s vision.

<The activation of the lust source might relate to Henrietta’s desire to remember that moment.>

‘What does that mean?’ asked Seth.

<That memory was somewhat repressed and corrupted by Henrietta’s mind because it was not her father’s voice that accompanied her mother’s.>

‘Wait, are you saying her mother cheated on her father? But didn’t you say it was a memory of her parents… oh..’

<Indeed, Henrietta’s biological father is not the king of Oath but one of the court officials. It was in the report I delivered host back in Oath.>

‘Do you think I read all that? Her biological roots don’t matter anyway. Does she know?’

<Probably not consciously. She must have suspected it, thus her desire to remember that night.>

Seeing the realization on Seth’s face, Hollie asked: “Did you figure something out?”

“I might…” muttered Seth.

‘I get it. The reason I always end up having such rough sex when I allow the lust source to take control is because that is indeed my personal preference. Still, it will also stop before it could hurt the girls… it responds to my will and feeling, but also to the ones around me that it had marked….’

‘The reason it was so tame with Rebecca was that it read through both intentions of a gentle experience for her first time.’

‘It activated for Henrietta because she was marked, even if I had no idea behind the true reason behind that sex play… for Leora, it responded to my feelings to want to help her and not hers… and now, it reached up to its marks to calm down my anger and sadness.’

Smiling brightly, Seth looked toward Hollie with excitement and said: “I think I figured out something, but I need your help to test it.”