The Tyrant's Happy Ending - Chapter 4.5

But Yernen couldn’t bring himself to burn the blanket. It was the only thing that might keep him alive during the bitter winter.

Tears welled up in his eyes, filled with frustration.

The clothes he had been wearing were the warmest he had, and now all that was left were thinner garments that left his wrists and ankles exposed to the cold. But even so, he refused to wear what Rigi had brought. He knew it was a foolish pride.

He understood how utterly impractical it was to reject those clothes. With the harsh winter ahead, and his impulsive act, this winter would undoubtedly be even more brutal than the ones before. But he couldn’t bear the thought of wearing something given to him after such a violation.

Yernen clutched the blanket tightly and sat by the fire. It was the warmest spot in the cabin, yet his lips were still blue. As the anger and rage subsided, only questions remained.

‘Why did she come?’

What was happening beyond this wretched island? He had no way of knowing.

But Yernen couldn’t shake the feeling that something had changed. After six years of the same monotonous, unchanging life, he sensed that some violent shift was coming, something that would leave him completely exposed and powerless.

“My dear prince,” Rigi’s voice oozed with excitement.

“I’ve told you so many times, yet you never seem to learn, do you? You’re such a smart prince, so it’s not like you lack the ability to understand,” she teased as she stepped closer to Yernen.

“When you act like you’re going to ignore me, it just makes me shiver all the more,” she added with a chilling smile.

Yernen glared at her, his eyes filled with venom.

As expected, Rigi’s deranged behavior continued. Every two months, she would visit the island, sometimes forcing Yernen to drink that strange potion, and sometimes not. With her knights in tow, she would repeatedly abuse him.

Since discovering that Rigi had been watching him all along, the island had become a living nightmare for Yernen. Even stepping outside the cabin had become unbearable, and whenever it neared the time for Rigi’s visits, he would become increasingly anxious.

But there was nothing he could do. During the first few visits, Yernen had fought back wildly, rejecting both Rigi and the knights, but it had been futile. Now, he simply lay still like a corpse, hoping it would all end quickly.

Rigi had visited the island five times in total, and this was her sixth. But this time, something felt different. It wasn’t just Rigi and her knights who had come by boat. There were also high-ranking nobles, including Duke Albert, and more soldiers than usual.

Though Yernen pretended to ignore their presence outside the cabin, he was deeply on edge. He couldn’t begin to imagine what new horrors they were planning.

“…How is Harriet doing?” Yernen asked cautiously, unable to suppress his suspicion.

“His Majesty?” Rigi responded.

“Yes.”

Yernen, despite his wariness, voiced a small doubt. He wondered if perhaps Harriet had died or fallen ill, and that was why they needed an heir from him now.

“His Majesty is perfectly well,” Rigi answered casually.

“…”

“He continues to manage the empire’s heavy responsibilities. After all, it is the duty of royalty to look after nobles like us. But, Your Highness, what have you been doing?”

“…What?”

Yernen shot Rigi a sharp look, as if she had just spoken complete nonsense.

“If you were born into the royal family, shouldn’t you be contributing something?”

“Rigi Merion, what are you talking about?”

Yernen’s gaze was fierce, enough to make anyone cower, but Rigi merely smiled, unphased by his deadly stare.

Then, as if her smile had been a signal, the knights began to close in on Yernen. Backed against the wall, he tried to retreat, but the knights pounced on him, brutally pinning his limbs once more.

“Ugh…!”

“What else, but that since you can’t impregnate a woman, you should at least offer yourself to the vassals.”

“Rigi Merion!”

Yernen twisted his body and screamed, but no matter how much he struggled, the well-trained knights didn’t budge.

“Let go of me…!”

Footsteps drew closer, and from his position, Yernen could see several pairs of shoes in his line of sight as he was pinned to the floor.

There were more than a few.

His breathing grew faster, spurred by mounting dread. He had a sickening sense of what was about to happen.

‘Rigi Merion…!’

Yernen gritted his teeth, glaring at the woman he wanted to tear apart.

“The prince, after all these years, we’ve finally found where you’ve been hiding. But to think it was in such a place,” a laugh followed. It was Duke Albert.

“Ah, but you know, Duke, we all know this brat isn’t royalty.”

“Is that so?”

Yernen glared at them as if he could rip them apart with his stare. In his heart, he wanted to slap them and send them off to the northern mines for hard labor, but there was nothing he could do.

“I won’t let anyone insult my mother…!”

A mocking laugh echoed from somewhere.

“And what will you do about it? You can’t leave this place, anyway.”

“What did you say?!”

Yernen’s anger flared, but before he could fully react—
“Then, let’s begin.”

“Begin what?!” Yernen’s voice cracked with panic despite his attempt to stay composed. And just then, something cold touched his waist.

“Stop, don’t!”

Yernen shuddered in shock. A sharp pair of scissors began cutting through his clothes. His pants were shredded in moments, and soon his pale backside was exposed and grabbed by someone.
“There’s not much meat on him.”

It was the voice of someone appraising livestock.

“Get your hands off me!” Yernen lashed out with a kick, knocking the person back. But in retaliation, the man kicked Yernen’s bare rear with his boot.

“Agh…!”

The pain shot through him, promising a bruise later, but even worse than the pain was the overwhelming shame.

Being stripped and kicked like that—it was a humiliation Yernen had never experienced. His body shook with rage and tears threatened to spill from his eyes, now red and swollen.

“He’s no longer a prince, yet it seems he hasn’t lost his lofty pride. Looks like we’ll need to break him.”

A sneering voice cut through the tension.

Break him? Yernen’s eyes burned with fury as he glared in the direction of the voice.

But he didn’t have a chance to react. Someone grabbed the side of his face and slammed it into the floor.

“…!”

Yernen soon found himself in a shameful position, with only his bare bum in the air. He turned round and caught sight of some strange devices. They were strange, unfamiliar objects of unknown use.

“What, what are you doing!”

Yernen tried to shout, but his voice was terrified enough to be instantly recognizable to anyone who could hear it.

“What are you doing, Beta, you can’t hold a man’s hole because it’s dirty, so you want to clean it up first.”

“Nam… Chang…?”

The insulting name, which I had never heard before, jolted me awake like a blow to the head.

“Ugh…!”

Before he had a chance to retort, something was stuck between his bum cheeks, and a stream of icy cold water began to flow from it.

‘Argh…! Let go! Let go! Argh!’

Yernen’s frantic struggles only grew more desperate as the realization dawned on him about what they meant by “cleaning up.”

The brutal “backbiting” procedure was something inflicted on male Omegas when they were about to manifest, involving the carving of a magic circle into their rectum to allow for sexual use. The procedure was notoriously painful, typically performed only after administering sedatives or drugs to dull the agony.

The act was so depraved that it was typically reserved for the lowest ranks of male betas, the back-alley prostitutes, or the most degraded of male omegas.

“Ah!”

“Stop!”

Unable to endure such humiliation in front of so many onlookers, Yernen finally managed to summon all the strength he could muster, thrashing with enough force to knock two knights off balance.

“Ugh!”

“Argh!”

However, it didn’t take long for his victory to be undone. He was quickly grabbed by the hair and yanked back down, the pain of his scalp being pulled almost unbearable. One of the knights pressed down on him, further immobilizing him.

“Ugh…!”

As his stomach was forced down, some of the water he’d ingested began to leak out. His body trembled, and he clenched desperately, trying to prevent anyone from noticing the mortifying situation.