Night Prayer
"Uhh… Your Highness, can you help me with my night prayer?" Chiya came to me with a weak smile carved on her lips.
"Prayer? Sure I guess…" I'm actually quite curious how the Survya prays, residents of this world didn't really pray to anyone until the start of the fifth era, which is when my generation was born.
"Sweet!" The lady then knocked the air with the back of her whip, and a portal as tall as I am show itself before us, right in this hotel room. "Come, Your Highness!"
Chiya walked into it, and I followed behind her.
The dance class was just over a few moments ago, and right now Hazana was asleep on the comfort of her bed, while Anna was busy cleaning herself. She actually invited both me and Chiya to join her, but the lady declined, saying she wanted to do some stuff with me first.
This is probably the first time I rejected Anna to our bathing session, but Chiya's word got me wondered why someone as perverted as her would miss this opportunity to see both me and Anna in our full flesh.
Yet now, my question finally has its answer.
"Why are we on the roof, Chiya?" The night in the desert was really cold, especially during wintertime like this. It actually amazes me how not a single crystal of snow was seen falling from the sky. Well, there's no cloud either in the starry sky.
"Coz its easier for my prayer to travel to His Holiness (Verslinder)~" That's sounded weirdly logical for something this spiritual. "Besides, it's more private like this."
Upon this flat rooftop of the hotel which towered over most civilians building, Chiya opened a portal to her personal dimension pulled something out of it.
"Here, Your Highness. Take this." She gave me a whip, an ordinary one at that, not her spiked weapon.
"Why am I not surprised…" Although to be honest, at that point, I'm actually starting to question the nature of this prayer. I don't recall ever hearing the God of Death ever have any interest in perverted stuff.
"Now, strike me, Your Highness. As hard as you can." She sat on her knee and faced her exposed back at me. The outfit she's wearing always left her smooth and beautiful skinny back to the world though, so it's not such a rare sight for me.
"Alright alright…" I moved closer to her and stretched the whip to its full length.
"Don't hold back okay? Seven times, no more, no less."
"Got it."
I'm somewhat disappointed. I expected something more religious when she say the word prayer. But I already agreed to help her, so I should at least keep my promise to her.
However, the moment I raised the whip high, I witness something I totally didn't expect. She's trembling, and a hard one at that.
"Are you… scared?" I asked and hesitated.
"Just do it, Your Highness!" Her voice snapped, yet I could hear her fear in every bit of it.
"… roger."
I threw away all the questions I have for now and cleared my mind from any doubt. I firmed my grip and whip her as hard I possibly could.
*!!!*
I could hear a scuffed grunt, every time I unleashed it at her back. She was biting her hand to keep herself quiet, although it's just helping the pain to hurt even further.
7 times, I do it exactly as she asked me to. The sounds of splatting drops of water could be heard after every whip, and it's not blood or saliva that's splashing. It was her tears.
"Are you alright, Chiya?" I felt bad and guilty after doing it. But, she didn't seem to answer me, in fact, she's ignoring me. She muttered all kinds of words in unity, which I suspect were her words of prayer.
Seeing how solemn she was at that moment, I decided to go back into the portal and left her alone. I don't want to disturb her, especially when I have this burden in my chest.
I sat on the edge of my, waiting for her to finish and head back to our hotel room.
Anna came out of the bathroom, already done with her cleaning. I'm a bit surprised by it, cause it was a lot faster than what we usually do.
"Finish already?" I asked her as she approached me wearing her nightgown, with a towel wrapped around her head.
"It's not fun to be there alone." What a sad response. It only enhanced my feeling of guilt further. "Share me your bathtime story with Chiya later, okay My Prince? I'm heading in first." The girl put her towel in the towel bars then quickly tuck in herself to bed.
"Ahh… sure."
A moment later, Chiya finally went down through her portal. She then immediately closed it after she was out of it.
"Want to hop in with me, Your Highness?" The lady asked. Normally I would think she was leading me to something perverse, yet the awkward expression she made told me she wanted to have a nice talk.
"Gladly." I stood from my bed and walked her into the bathroom.
Inside, both of us helped each other take off our clothing and hung them neatly on the hanger. Then soon after, we hopped into the bathtub which was already nicely prepared by Anna. She probably used the shower instead.
No action happened that night, we both stayed silent for a while as her body was on top of me, surrounded by soap and water.
"I'm sure you have some question for me, Your Highness." The lady calmly said as she laid her back onto my chest.
"Yeah…" I stared at the ceiling of this room. "Why are you scared? I thought you are—"
"A masochist? Only when I'm drowning in lust." She cut me off with an answer. "However, even though lust makes a scientist stronger, it is still a sin. And we can't afford to bring such deadly sins during our prayer."
Wait, that changes everything! Then what's the point of me whipping her hard like that?
"Even as a deity, His Holiness is still a Dramu (Dark Musician) nonetheless. A being that consumes the fear of others and uses it to feed his power." The lady began telling her story.
"So we Survya prayed to him by offering him our fear. What method we use differs from each person, what matters is we got scared during it." She went on.
"You're saying…"
"I'm afraid of pain."
I lost for words. It's seriously the last thing I would've thought when it comes to her. She seemed to always enjoy herself when she was bathed in pain. I didn't expect it to be only because of her lust.
"I might be the eldest child amongst my siblings, but I'm still a delicate daughter nonetheless." She continued with her story.
"I don't associate myself with physical labors or any work that risked me harm. As the result, the first time I got injured from tripping on some of my toys, the pain struck me harder than it should've been."
"Having such unpleasant feeling of the unknown, seeing red liquid coming out of my body, scared the living shit out of me. I remember crying for hours, then scared to do anything for weeks, while hiding tightly around my dad's arms."
"I'm afraid, I don't wanna feel it again."
"Yet as time goes, puberty finally struck in. I finally get myself in touch with the feeling of lust. And as I get older, that sin just gets stronger and stronger, as Your Highness expected, I came from the mainline of the Survya. And mainline will always possess the highest amount of deadly sins."
"Being considered as an adult, my father taught me that I should not be praying to the God of Death free of charge."
"He's not God, nor he will ever be. That's why we need to give back to Him for giving us His blessing."
"I might be delicate, but I'm not spoiled. If it was my responsibility to give back, then I'll do it, even if I have to feel dreadful every time I pray."
"You might be wondering, Your Highness. If I get exposed to the fear, won't I get used to it eventually?"
"Under the normal logical condition, the answer would be yes. But we're praying under His influence, thus it kept us from having even the slightest immunity to it."
"How did you end up liking pain then?" I asked her. I know it's because of her lust, but I'm interested to know how she went down there.
"I never liked them, pain always scared me." She answered. "At first, I also have the same thought. When I'm having my training as Sur Laavak, the pain they put on me got me thinking that lust got me learning to turn it into pleasure."
"But I was wrong. I'm not a masochist because I like pain. I'm a masochist, cause I like being scared."