Chapter 44

Julian wiped the tip of his cock off on the young man's ass, smearing semen across his ass cheek while I finished enjoying the show as well, reaching another satisfactory climax of my own. Before the boy could make any response to Julian's comments, there was a sudden interruption.

"What are you doing?" An incredulous voice asked a few feet from me.

Devon's voice caused me to nearly leap out of the bushes, immediately pulling my hand from up my skirt, but fortunately, the voice was not directed at me. Devon immerged from the path, barely missing me concealed a few feet away as he stepped out into the garden clearing while giving a dark glare at Julian.

"Mm… brother, it's good to see you." Julian gave a smile, acting like he wasn't standing in front of a bent over a man with his cock hanging out.

Devon's eyes turned to the boy who did react to Devon. He quickly grabbed his pants and pulled them on without wiping up, immediately looking down as embarrassment flushed over his face. He looked absolutely flustered.

"You… you're the Kree Ambassador's son, right?"

The boy looked chastised, he was even more embarrassed that his identity had been found out. Even I could understand the potential for a horrible scandal the boy could face.

"Ah, yes… I was merely opening the boy up." Julian chuckled. "That is… to new possibilities."

Devon ignored Julian's jabs, concentrating on the boy. "What you have done here… boy… is perfectly fine."

Both the boy and me looked up at Devon in surprise.

"You have nothing to be guilty about. Go to your father now. You simply tried something out, an experiment. It need not be any more than that. You can let your life be up to you on what you want to do in the future." He said. "I… have seen nothing."

The boy relaxed a bit, giving a relieved smile before running off, not even sparing a backward glance to his former sexual partner.

"Oh… you're no fun." Julian whined, finally putting his softening cock away in his pants. "You're supposed to make him feel terrible for it. Chastise him. Tell him he's been a bad boy. Make him feel like he has no other choice… and then he'll rush into my arms, the only man who supports his depravity."

"I know how you operate, Julian, to try to corrupt them one after another. You've already destroyed our brother. When will it be enough?"

"Gregory is fine. He practically worships me." Julian waved his hand.

"He does worship you. And that's all he does. You scooped him out, removed his identity, and only left yourself inside."

Julian laughed, walking over to pick up his drink. "Well, I must admit, I did put something inside our dear brother. But I'd offer you the same."

Devon grimaced. "We… aren't children anymore. You're days of… taking advantage of me… are long gone."

"Of course, I remember." Julian grimaced. "You ran to daddy, and he beat me for a month straight with a belt. It was a shame with you two. I was never able to entice Richard either. He had that little harlot spreading her legs for him almost as soon as he was able to get hard. She was letting him put his hands up her skirt by the age of 8, I never had a chance."

Devon frowned. "I've put our past behind us, brother… but we are speaking of the now. One day, you will be king. Using your special skill to rape the children of our dignitaries could cause an incident."

Julian gave another chuckle. "Oh, I forgot, you're still convinced that I'm using special skills. Did you never consider that most people are sexual deviants, and I only bring to the surface what already exists?"

Devon shook his head. "I believe people are inherently good. You must be using some skill…"

"Oh, I don't argue it takes skill, but even you have a certain darkness in you. I've seen it at our special parties."

Devon stiffened at that. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Julian leaned closer with a grin on his face. "Oh come on, you may wear a mask, but you and I both know you frequent our monthly underground parties… with the king, and all your brothers. So why is that?"

Devon turned his head away. "You're family, I feel duty-bound to- "

"Ha! Duty? Honor? So, it is honor having you stick it in half the nobles in this kingdom. Is it honorable when you cum on the Duchess of Soven's face? Is it Duty as you plow the visiting princess from Renmere?"

"Stop it!" Devon growled. "The people at those things are supposed to be anonymous. I don't want to know their identity!"

"Don't play dumb, brother. Deep down, you're just as bad as the rest of us. Get off your high horse once in a while, it's fun down here."

Devon had a scowl on his face, but he didn't say anything more as Julian glided past him. As Devon looked away, Julian's eyes suddenly centered on the bush I was hiding in. He gave a wink, and I practically fell back in surprise.

"Oh… by the way, I've invited our new sibling, Princess Cornelia. When she comes, and she'll come, I hope you provide her some extra attention. Eat her pussy? Give her a good ride? You can count on your brothers doing the same."

He walked from the courtyard with a big smile on his face while Devon continued to stare vacantly in the other direction. Meanwhile, I was trying to recover from the blow. He had known I was there in the bush, but I wondered how long he had known. Was it right away? Did he know I was watching him and the boy the whole time?

Suddenly, my thoughts were broken as Devon stiffened and reached down towards his belt. He pulled his sword from his scabbard, immediately drawing my attention to him. A second later, another man, his face obscured in shadow, took a step out from behind a tree. Just how many people were watching this scene tonight? However, before I could think about it too much, I realized that the other man had a sword too. Was this an assassination attempt? Fear suddenly wracked through me.

Devon bellowed with an extreme degree of anger, lunging forward at the other man. The other man was calm and silent, taking his sword with ease and side stepping. Devon stumbled forward, right past him. He surged forward a second time, swinging his sword wildly at the newcomer who seemed to casually discard his thrusts with ease.

As he went, Devon seemed to reel in his anger, his sword strikes becoming less wasteful and finer. He seemed to remember his sword training and took a deep breath before rushing forward and attacking the new man with steady movement unlike before. The man met every attack stroke for stroke. It was clear that he was as good as Devon, if not better, and he also seemed to be able to fight without letting emotion cloud his judgment.

What was I doing watching this? I should be running to the palace guards. Someone was trying to murder the prince in the garden. However, just as these thoughts fell into my mind, Devon jumped back for a second.

"Flash strike!" He yelled.

A second later, his body almost seemed to vanish in a flash of light. The flash was blinding in the poor lit night, and I had to cover my eyes. When I looked back up, it looked like the invader had been blinded too. Devon was standing on the other side of him, his word being held to the side, and the assassin was standing with his back facing him. Suddenly, his body separated, falling in two halves.

However, his body did not spurt a single drop of blood. Instead, it simply fell apart and as soon as it hit the floor, it exploded in shadows that faded away. It was something similar to a monster disappearing in an RPG. However, the Pigman didn't disappear when I killed them, so why would this assassin?

"Still can't beat them without using that…" he muttered to himself.

A moment later, another similar looking assassin rose up behind Devon with a knife raised. "Devon, look out!"

I shouted without a thought. Instead of spinning to stop the assassin, he spun to look at me, who was now standing out from a bush, having completely exposed my location. Before I could worry about the assassin, he suddenly exploded into black smoke, the shadows quickly falling to the ground before they dissipated.

"Cornelia? What are you doing here?" He asked with a confused look on his face.

"There was… you were being attacked?"

He looked around in confusion, but then suddenly, a panicked look crossed his face. "You didn't see earlier, did you?"

"Ear- ah… I saw Julian walking away and then I heard swords…" I quickly worked my Deception.

After getting that out, he turned his head now and started to look sheepish. "Ah… that's what happened… I-I'm sorry, I was just letting off some steam."

"Eh? What happened? There were assassins!"

He shook his head, still looking embarrassed. "No… um… I have darkness magic. Those are just… illusions, I made up."

I gave a surprised look. "Illusions? Th-that felt so real!"

"Ah.. heh… that's… um… I guess it's fine if you know, everyone else does. It's a special skill of mine. I can, sort of… program illusions to follow a certain routine and have mass. So, they can act without me needing to do anything.

My eyes brightened. "So, that's why you went to save me from those Pigman alone? Cause you can like, create an army of ninjas in a second?"

"Ah… wait, what's a ninja? No, Nevermind… It's not that good. Only 3-4… but they all seem to be at my level of ability, so yes, if I had run into a half dozen Pigman, if push came to shove I could summon illusions and overwhelm them or escape if I had to."

I nodded, thinking about what a cheat ability that was. Then again, if everyone had their own sets of cheat abilities, and no one wanted to reveal their abilities unless they absolutely had to, then I could easily see how so many abilities can exist that no one ever notices. However, fights to the death might be a horrific thing to behold as everyone pulls out their trump cards.

"Well, if you don't mind, I think I need to be getting back to the party." I tried to prevent the awkward silence that was starting to occur between the two of us.

"Wait… Cornelia." Devon held out his hand although I hadn't turned to leave yet. "Are you… that is… Julian mentioned he invited you… somewhere…"

"Yes, he did. Why?"

"That place… it's not good. The things they do there. I… don't want you to become part of that society."

"Don't you go?" I asked.

A flash of irritation crossed his face. "That is… I have to go. I don't have a choice. But you, you don't… Cornelia, you can't go!"

"Can't?" My eyes darkened a little at those words. "Doesn't my husband-to-be go? I need to see what he's up to, after all…"

"Th-this isn't about him!" He protested.

"Then what is it about?" I snapped back.

"Just don't… please… listen to me." He reached out to grab my hand.

"Why should I?" I pulled my hand away and drew back.

I didn't know why I was so angry. Something about the fact that the prince was going to these things really bugged me. The fact that he wanted to keep me from going to these things too just added icing to the cake. All the princes were messed up in one way or another. Devon was just a giant hypocrite.

"If you… care about me at all, you won't-"

"I'm not your wife-to-be…"

He lowered his head. "I know that. But if you go, I can't protect you."

"Who asked you to? I'm not some innocent princess you think I am. I am a woman, with needs, and desires, and feelings!" I yelled at Devon's surprised face. "What are you surprised about? That I'm not some untouched virgin? Well, here's another newsflash for you, those Pigman fucked me."

He turned green, and it looked like he had been punched in the gut.

"You came too late, obviously, some knight you are." I knew the words coming out of my mouth weren't fair; he didn't even know me at the time, but they kept coming, "So I'll tell you what. I'll do what I want. I'll go to that event. I'll have as much dick as I want. And if you're so determined to "protect me", then you'll just have to claim me for yourself and keep me from any other men."

I turned around in a huff, storming from the garden. Devon watched me in silence, his eyes held a hurt look. He was such a hypocrite; why did he have to look at me with eyes that held such care? Worst, why did it hurt my heart so much?

I ditched the party and was already almost back to the room when I realized how much I'd given away. I might as well have just stamped a note on my forehead that said "Aria the Gang Banger!". No, it was alright. All the nobles were like this. I mean, I was even straddling the king's knee and calling him papa. I was the normal one in this group. Devon was the outcast.

Then… why did I hurt so bad? Sexual Fortitude should be functioning, so why was there so much guilt now? That night, I told Min everything, and she listened with the same expressionless face she always did. When I finally broke down crying, she held me to her chest while stroking my hair. I ended up falling asleep like that, my arms wrapped around the woman who called me her wife.