BFT | Chapter 13

"You’re rough with violent criminals, but courteous with women. You even put up well with noisy children. So the communal latrine... no, that fellow is pitiful, so let’s call her calf among ourselves. Goat or cow, a horned beast is still a horned beast, after all. In any case, think of it as raising a calf and take charge."

The superintendent stopped talking and hesitated.

"Why no answer? Is it because, after all, it’s a devil and you don’t like it?"

Rlyel only awkwardly looked at a macabre[[3]] hanging on the wall behind the superintendent’s shoulder. The middle-aged man, rotten and crawling with insects all over his body, was staring into a mirror held in both hands. At the bottom of the painting was a Latin phrase.

vanitas vanitatum omnia vanitas.

Perhaps because he felt bad in every possible way, the eerie macabre held Rlyel’s attention today. After a moment of silence, he said, "I’ll be going now."

"So you’re saying you’ll take care of the calf?"

Knowing that Rlyel was blunt but always clear when refusing something, the superintendent’s face brightened. He handed over the solitary cell key and advised him, "You’ve probably noticed this too. The court is involved in this matter. I don’t know who the mastermind is, but it’s definitely some high official. Even if you don’t like it, be thorough in your duties. That’s the way to protect the calf."

If they offended the senior priest’s side, it meant the beast would be moved to another prison. In that case, the beast might face mass sexual assault twenty-four hours a day. It was unlikely that the prison superintendent there would have as kindly a personality as the one at Abaddon.

If the senior priest’s side had even a little sense... they would grab any guard, stuff a little money in his hand, and have him watch them. There’s no room for error.

Rlyel took the solitary cell key and left the superintendent behind. That afternoon he rode out of Abaddon Prison. On the hour-long trip to a nearby small city, he turned the matter over and over in his head. It felt as if sudden turbulent waves had broken out in a life that had always run on simple, regular order. One thing was clear. He had made a choice he would regret until the day he died.

When he arrived in the small city, Rlyel bought several towels, sheets, blankets, and combs at the market. He wondered whether men’s or women’s clothes would suit the beast better, then asked the merchant, "Which is more expensive?"

"Women’s clothes, of course."

Rlyel chose several sets of women’s clothes. He thought that if the beast wore even expensive clothes, the heavy feeling in his chest might ease a little. The merchant said excitedly, "How about this fragrant lavender soap?"

At Abaddon Prison, soap was not provided to prisoners. That was because if soap were carved sharp enough, it could easily be used to stab the carotid artery or the eye.

"Thank you! I’ll even throw in another bar of soap for free."

Leaving the merchant behind and walking out of the market, Rlyel kept his eyes on the ground. He felt like an idiot for having come all this way to buy clothes, towels, and expensive soap for the beast.

No. Once I see how things go tomorrow, I’ll run from Abaddon right away anyway. I can just give the clothes, towels, and soap to the poor calf as a gift.

Suddenly he caught a pungent smell. Black smoke was rising constantly from the direction of the square. It looked as if heretics were being burned at the stake. At that sight, a strange thought suddenly popped into his head.

Could there be devil worshippers among them too?

Heretics being burned often included devil worshippers. If this had happened in the past, he would have passed it off indifferently, thinking that some brothel whores had been unlucky enough to be denounced again. But now it was different. Just last night, Rlyel had personally confirmed the existence of the devil from old stories. Therefore devil worshippers must also certainly exist.

Devil worshippers would know where devils were too. They spent their nights in the forest, worshipping devils and holding orgiastic rites. As Rlyel thought of learning the devil’s whereabouts from them... he abruptly cursed under his breath and gripped the reins tightly.

Go ask the devil to save the calf? What kind of insane idea was that?

And yet Rlyel came to a definite truth. There was nowhere in the human world where the beast could stand. Behind the mass sexual assaults that would begin at Abaddon tomorrow was the court, and Rlyel and the superintendent were mere lowly commoners. God Himself would turn His eyes from the beast.

The only being who could save the beast now was the devil.

***

Rlyel locked the iron bars and entered the solitary cell.

Today too, the beast was sprawled on the floor, soiled with bodily fluids. Rlyel looked down at her for a moment, then turned his gaze away at once. He set the clothes, towels, and soap he had brought on the table with mechanical motions.

The beast was lying on her side, not moving at all. With his back to her, Rlyel slowly removed his clothes. Once fully naked, he turned and approached her. Exposed in the glow of the hearth, Rlyel’s nude body was more than simply solid. Covered in ash-colored body hair the same shade as his own hair, it carried an almost grotesquely primal aura. If heretics saw him, they would surely think he was a devil who had transformed to seduce people.

The beast’s lower belly was swollen like that of a pregnant woman well along in months. Rlyel slipped one arm under her chest and lifted her up at once.

"Ah...!"

Because of their height difference, the beast was lifted off the floor and hugged from behind in Rlyel’s arms. Even with one arm holding her up, Rlyel did not look strained at all. The beast gripped the forearm that hugged her and kicked her legs uselessly.

Her swollen breasts, thickened by repeated births, pressed hard against Rlyel’s forearm. Instinctively, Rlyel’s cock sprang to life in response. With a slight frown, he immediately brought his other hand to the upper part of the beast’s swollen lower belly and pressed down with terrifying force.

"Aah!"

The beast cried out once, leaning her head against Rlyel’s shoulder. Under the strong pressure from Rlyel’s hand, the semen in her lower belly was shoved all at once from top to bottom. It burst out through the opening in a single spurt. Fluids gushed out in waves as if a bucket full of white soup had been overturned. Even the lower half of the body that Rlyel was holding became a filthy mess.

The beast clung desperately to the forearm that hugged her, crying so hard she could barely breathe. The floor beneath the beast’s legs spread wet and slick. Gradually, the semen leaking out of the opening lessened, and only after the beast’s lower belly had fully gone flat did Rlyel take his hand away.

When Rlyel released his forearm, the beast collapsed back down. After glaring at her for a while, Rlyel looked down at his own filthy lower body.

"Damn it."

Suppressing his anger, Rlyel scooped the beast up and carried her. He washed her clean with water pumped from the well, dressed her, and laid her on the bed. Only then did he begin cleaning the solitary cell in the nude. After once having cleaned while dressed and getting his pants dirty, he had insisted on remaining naked whenever working in the cell.

Shit, damn, fuck, all the coarse curses came nonstop from Rlyel’s mouth. If the prisoners, who were used to the warden chief speaking no more than two or three words a day and never cursing no matter how angry he was, saw this scene, they would wet themselves in fear.

From the first day the calf was dirtied by the prisoners until now, every night Rlyel dreamed that the demon king would smash Abaddon Prison to pieces. Three monster heads. Three pairs of ruby-red eyes. Huge bat wings. An upper body that was a monstrous muscular male, a lower body with a snake’s tail and hairy beast legs. It was Asmodeus, infamous among the seven great demon kings for his ferocity, worthy of the nickname Destroyer.

With the demon king’s fist, Abaddon Prison was shattered like a biscuit. After beating every prisoner to death without leaving one alive, the demon king scooped the calf up and set her on one shoulder before flying off into the sky. As satisfying as the dream was, Rlyel always woke up feeling deeply empty.

Cursing under his breath, Rlyel finished the work and splashed well water over himself too. Sitting nude on the table with water dripping from his body, he quietly glared at the beast. On the bed, the beast stared back at him blankly. There was no thought visible in those cornflower-blue eyes.

Does she even think?

Even so, in this reality, the calf’s low intelligence was a blessing. She would not be able to perceive her own miserable condition.

Yes, live stupidly forever.

In his dreams, the demon king rescued the pitiful calf, but reality was like this. Just as the superintendent had said, the regulations were not properly observed. No, there was one rule that was obeyed with absolute precision. Those insane prisoners, despite the freezing weather, did not mind standing naked in line for hours and still carried out that filthy act.

Tomorrow I’m definitely leaving this fucking hellhole, tomorrow for sure... Before he knew it, more than two months had passed. The only thing that had changed in that time was the calf’s breast size, and every night Rlyel still had to clean up the disgusting scenes of sexual violence. What was even more disgusting was removing the traces left by men from the calf’s body. The method of hugging the calf upright and pressing on her belly to squeeze it out had also been something Rlyel came up with after much thought.

The existence of devils proves the existence of God. Therefore, helping a devil means being judged by God. Even knowing that, Rlyel lately found himself falling into frightening thoughts. Thoughts of seeking out a witch and performing black masses....

He would not be able to summon the demon king from his dream, but perhaps he could summon a devil? Not a half-human, half-demon like the calf, but a complete devil with intelligence and power. If he asked that devil to save the calf....