BFT | Chapter 1

Tell me.

Just say one word.

At some point, Arthur had begun to be tormented by a voice. When he was drunk enough for his mind to go hazy. Or right before he slipped fully into sleep. Even when his whole body went rigid under his father the king’s icy reprimands.

Each time, that whisper would drift into Arthur’s ear.

"Tell me."

A whisper as clear as a boy soprano’s song. Almost like an angel’s voice...

"Just say yes, one word."

Of course, Arthur knew. That voice was only an auditory hallucination brought on by his frayed nerves. His father the king had grown noticeably unwell lately, and snapped at his only son at the slightest provocation. Unable to withstand the pressure, Arthur had started drinking more and more often. He also regularly took out his frustration by raping palace maids or spitting on the friends he usually associated with.

That morning, the steward spoke worriedly from the start.

"His Majesty has been very concerned about the succession lately. Forgive my boldness, but you know better than anyone how badly the nobles think of Prince Arthur, do you not? There are even rumors that some lady is cursing you with black mass."

"Black mass?"

Arthur snorted.

"Sounds like some woman I had my fun with and tossed aside... Isn't heresy like that, black mass and all, a greater sin than adultery?"

At that, the steward left the dining room without bothering to hide his anger. Arthur deliberately pulled a bottle of liquor from his coat in front of the nearby servant.

"I like this better than bread."

When Arthur calmly went on drinking from early morning, the servant hesitantly said, "Prince, you really should get ready and head out..."

"Shut up. I'm staying alone today."

It was Sunday, so he was supposed to go to the palace chapel, but Arthur headed for his bedroom instead. Whether his father flew into a rage for skipping worship again or not, he no longer cared in the least.

Arthur lay back on the bed and closed his eyes dully. Just when the surroundings seemed to transform into a gloomy wasteland, the voice came again.

"Tell me."

"Just say yes, one word."

That whisper always repeated the same words. What in the world was it asking him to answer?

"Tell me."

"Just say yes, one word."

"Just say..."

Maybe because he was drunk, a bizarre impulse suddenly rose in him. Thinking it was stupid to respond to an auditory hallucination, Arthur still moved his lips.

"Yes..."

His consciousness broke off there.

When Arthur next opened his eyes, he was in cold darkness.

***

Where am I?

Arthur looked around in confusion. It was a room with a dark, unpleasant atmosphere, like an underground ossuary left neglected for years. Firewood was burning in a fireplace set far away, but it was nowhere near enough to drive out the ominous chill seeping through the place.

The room was quite spacious. A wooden bed where Arthur sat. A fireplace on one wall. A hand pump opposite it. A metal table nearby. An iron cage along one wall.

It looked like a prison, or a torture chamber... Why am I here?

Had he been kidnapped? While he was drunk, had someone just...

A shiver crawled up his spine. Arthur, consumed by fear, sprang to his feet and froze in horror. Iron cuffs had been fastened to both his wrists. A chain extended from those cuffs all the way to the middle of the floor.

The chain attached to the cuffs only allowed him to move within a four-meter radius. It fell about a meter short of the iron cage leading outside. He had no idea who had abducted him and locked him up here. Arthur himself knew he had far too many enemies.

More than that, his chest had been hurting terribly since a little while ago. Thinking he might have been injured during the kidnapping, Arthur looked down at his body and nearly screamed. He was wearing a white blouse embroidered with flowers and a black skirt.

What the...

The back of his head throbbed as if struck with a hammer. It looked as though the kidnapper had deliberately dressed him in women’s clothes to humiliate the prince. And not even noblewomen’s clothes, but those of some common girl. The vicious malice in that choice made Arthur wrap his arms around himself in terror. The next moment, an even greater shock struck him. It felt as if lightning had split open his skull.

The shape in his grasp where his chest should be was completely different from his own flat pectorals. Small as they were, the rounded swell was unmistakably... like a woman’s breasts. A scream ripped out of him, the kind a child would let loose if some disgusting insect clung to his face.

"Aaaah! Ah! Aaaah!"

Arthur tore his hands away from his chest and recoiled again. Only then did he notice that the wrists in those iron cuffs had grown thin and delicate. The coarse brown body hair that had covered his arms like a man’s was gone without a trace. His skin was smooth as silk, with a faint cream-colored cast.

He was starting to have trouble breathing. His legs trembled, and dizziness surged through him. Arthur braced both hands on the metal table and bent forward, only to recoil once more.

A person was reflected in the metal surface.

Is that... me?

His mind went blank at this beyond-belief bizarre situation. If he had simply turned into a woman, he probably would not have felt this sharp a terror. The thing wavering in the reflection was not human.

It was a demon.

Though both were broken, the protrusions on its head were clearly goat horns. Shiny golden marigold-colored hair spilled down to the waist. Even the blurred face reflected on the metal top made it obvious at a glance that it possessed an absolute beauty impossible for a human being.

Even with his mind completely empty, Arthur lifted the skirt and checked his groin. Beneath the golden pubic hair hung a fairly large male organ. Goat horns on the head. Female breasts. A proud male organ at the groin.

Arthur slowly sank to the floor. It was unmistakably a demon. The kind he had only ever seen in temple murals and novel illustrations. More specifically, Baphomet, infamous as the most licentious of all the countless demons.

Most demon worshipers were followers of Baphomet. This goat demon, infamous for its particularly grotesque appearance, even appearing on tarot cards, was said to seduce young men and women into holding orgiastic rites in the forest every night. The body Arthur had possessed was still in a half-human, half-demon state, with the head and legs not yet fully turned into a goat, but it was unquestionably that obscene beast.

And yet, by this point, Arthur instead managed to recover his reason at a frightening speed. A prince of a nation turned into a demon overnight.

Ha. This was a dream. No matter how vivid it felt, it was only a dream. When time passed, he would stretch, wake up, and open his eyes.

Suddenly, movement stirred in the darkness outside the iron cage. Footsteps could be heard from a distance. Two people.

Though he kept telling himself it was a dream, Arthur was seized by anxiety and stared fixedly through the bars. Light flickered in the darkness spread beyond the cage. The moment the figures came into view, Arthur went dumbfounded. They were young men, each holding a torch, and both were naked.

What the hell...

The men tapped the cage door with their toes. Apparently the lock had been undone, because the iron door opened at once. Smiling, the men came into the room and hung their torches on the wall brackets. One was bald. The other had brown hair.

The two men approached the trembling Arthur. Their rough features, as they looked him up and down, reeked of cheap vulgarity. The knife scars covering their sturdy bodies made it obvious they were thugs.

The bald one came closer and said, "Baby, you dressed up pretty again today? Cute as a kitten."

The tone was nauseatingly disgusting. No one past infancy could fail to understand their purpose in approaching naked. Arthur’s breathing roughened on its own. N, no, even if this was a dream, I hate it... I want to wake up soon...

The bald man tilted Arthur’s chin up with one finger. His gaze, raking over Arthur, gleamed unpleasantly.

Then he pressed himself firmly against Arthur’s back and sat down. Hot breath brushed Arthur’s nape. Tears gathered at the corners of Arthur’s eyes. He had never imagined he would be the one to be raped, not after raping others himself. To be raped while trapped in a demon’s body, too...

In this nightmare-like situation, Arthur even forgot to fight back and only howled inwardly. No, no! I have to wake up from this dream!

The bald man began kneading Arthur’s breasts lightly with both large hands. Even through the blouse, Arthur could feel the rough palms of the man vividly. The bald one also slapped upward beneath the breasts with his hands, as if lifting a ripe melon. The pain that had already been simmering in his chest surged into something even tighter and more aching.

Just as Arthur was about to shout for him to stop, he froze in horror. His tongue... was gone! This demon not only had goat horns cut off, but its tongue had been sliced away too. Had those men captured the demon and locked it here? Was this demon their sex slave?