Chapter 82: The Price of Providence

“…Ah!”

The sound of the door closing was the only thing Ethan registered. The next moment, as Bliss’s arms encircled his waist, his vision spun, and he found himself lying on a couch a short distance from the door.

Bliss mounted him, seizing his collar.

“I feel disgusted.”

“…Bliss.”

Ethan’s eyes widened for a moment before he let his body go slack. Seeing him so yielding only seemed to fuel Bliss’s fury, his grip tightening.

“You used an Esper’s imprinting as a bargaining chip.”

“Ugh…! If I hadn’t… you would have just killed Enoch, wouldn’t you, Bliss?”

“That’s what he deserved!”

As Ethan choked in distress, Bliss eased his grip slightly, allowing him to breathe, yet his anger burned like wildfire. This contradictory behavior drew a faint smile from Ethan.

“Are you truly prepared to abandon everything you’ve endured until now, all the people who care for you, and even your future—all because of me?”

****

The higher an Esper’s rank, the stronger their obsession with their Guide. Such individuals causing catastrophic incidents due to momentary misunderstandings and jealousy remained a pervasive concern across every nation on the continent.

These phenomena were particularly exacerbated when Espers, having long lived without a Guide, finally met one late in life. Consequently, systems evolved to match Guides as quickly as possible after an Esper’s awakening, and Esper and Guide research centers in each country inevitably held crucial positions.

Bliss, having been an Esper who endured the longest period without a Guide within the Empire, was in a situation where he merely hoped for a quiet death. Encountering a Guide like Ethan, then hearing reports of Enoch approaching and pressuring his Guide, caused his anxieties to erupt in an instant, manifesting in an outburst of rage beyond all reason.

As Ethan gently placed his hand over Bliss’s taped one, the Esper’s formidable grip noticeably weakened. It now felt no heavier than a mere touch.

“You’re cruelly cold.”

Ethan delicately stroked the back of Bliss’s hand with his thumb. Feigning ignorance of the slight flinch he elicited, he traced the inside of Bliss’s wrist, speaking softly.

“That’s hardly a comment I’d expect from the man known as Aitoolia’s coldest noble.”

‘No, that’s wrong.’ Bliss refuted Ethan’s words in his mind. His coldness was merely a habit, forged by countless suppressions and endurements in his struggle to survive without a Guide.

Since becoming an adult, even after meeting a Guide, this ingrained habit only occasionally vanished in front of that very Guide. Each time it did, he found himself overwhelmed by the overlapping categories of his emotions.

Sometimes, he simply couldn’t hold back.

Like now.

“…Mmph!”

Bliss’s urgent lips descended, stealing Ethan’s breath. He plunged his tongue inside, plundering the saliva within.

In a single pass, the thick, fleshy membranes of the Guide’s cheeks seemed smooth, but when scraped firmly with the tip of his tongue, they revealed a textured landscape of natural veins and tendons.

As Bliss traced each gum from the inside out, Ethan tried to pull away, a flush of shame coloring his face.

*Tuk-tuk—*

Without breaking the kiss, Bliss’s hand, still clutching Ethan’s shirt, began to work. As the shirt tore open and a button clattered to the floor, he seized the distraction to ensnare Ethan’s tongue with his own, twisting and sucking hard.

“…Mmm… Hmph!”

He continued to entwine and twist Ethan’s tongue, sucking until his cheeks hollowed, while his large hand roamed wildly over Ethan’s still-clothed torso.

His greedy caress paid no mind to the fabric, and as his palm brushed against the exposed skin revealed by the torn shirt, a small gasp of appreciation escaped Bliss’s lips.

“Ethan Prescott, are you trying to drive me mad? To exploit the fact that you are the one I desperately desire as the subject of my imprinting…”

Ethan gasped, glaring at Bliss’s lips, which had finally released him. He needed to deny it, but his body, prioritizing the desperate need for air, refused to cooperate.

Fortunately, Bliss’s lips moved down to his neck instead of silencing him again. Even so, Ethan was in no condition to respond.

“Ugh, ahh!”

The sensation of his neck being sucked was chilling. Ethan arched his head back, groaning.

As goosebumps rose on Ethan’s neck, a fiery intensity ignited in Bliss’s eyes. His hand, already rummaging through the now useless clothes, moved purposefully to cover Ethan’s chest.

He stroked the flat, goosebump-covered chest, ascending to cup the shoulders before slowly descending again. While his hand made several passes back and forth, his lips relentlessly sucked at Ethan’s neck, leaving vivid marks.

As his palm swept down, brushing against Ethan’s aroused nipples, Bliss let out a ragged breath. A sense of triumph swelled within him at Ethan’s undeniable arousal from his ministrations.

This feeling transmuted into pure pleasure, and though he had only lightly touched Ethan’s upper body, his own lower regions swelled to the point of bursting.

He pressed his and Ethan’s lower bodies together, grinding them slowly. Through their clothes, their hardened genitals rubbed against each other, confined by underwear and trousers, subtly escalating their arousal.

*Hah—*

Lowering his arms to brace himself against the couch, he continued to press their lower bodies together, rubbing with increased pressure. His eyes fell upon the nipple that had just been caressed beneath his palm, now boldly asserting its presence.

Without hesitation, Bliss lowered his head, yielding to impulse, and took it between his lips, sucking hard.

“Augh, ah, ahh! Bliss!”

Ethan, his breathing ragged, gripped Bliss’s head with both hands and arched his neck back again, a sharp cry escaping him. His voice, calling out to Bliss, was undeniably laced with pleasure.

Ethan floundered in the face of such intense, unfamiliar sensations. The pseudo-s*x he’d shared with Bliss recently had been gentle and kind.

Now, with Bliss approaching him with a ravenous possessiveness, desperate and rough, as if to devour him, Ethan, unaccustomed to such pleasure, couldn’t even dream of trying to soothe him with conversation.

“Hngh… Ah…!”

His nipple was sucked between Bliss’s teeth. Normally, it was just a part of his body, but now the sensation of it being drawn into Bliss’s mouth was incredibly vivid.

As the hot tongue tantalizingly brushed past the peak, held captive between Bliss’s teeth, a shiver ran down Ethan’s spine.

Ethan’s hands, gripping Bliss’s hair, tightened as his body writhed, but Bliss continued to torment the rounded flesh caught between his teeth with his tongue.

The sensation from the hot flesh brushing his peak was an indistinguishable blend of pleasure and pain. Only after his moans turned into whimpers did Bliss’s lips finally detach from relentlessly sucking and licking his right breast.

The strength drained from Ethan’s hands, which had been clutching Bliss’s platinum hair. *Haa-haa.* Gasping for breath, Ethan raised an arm to cover his flushed, burning eyes.

“They’ve changed size.”

Bliss traced the rounded peak he had just been sucking with his finger.

“Ahh!”

The swollen nipple was exquisitely sensitive. This tiny piece of flesh, simultaneously aching and stinging with various sensations, like countless needles of pleasure, made Ethan flinch.

Bliss continued to pinch and twist the swollen nipple between his thumb and forefinger, while simultaneously sucking hard on the area around Ethan’s ribs, which rose and fell erratically with his gasps.

Though still clothed, their bodies pressed tightly, rubbing together. At the same moment, his other hand descended to Ethan’s lower regions, already slickly dampening his underwear.

His fumbling hand moved past Ethan’s stomach, rising over his trousers, and intentionally pressed hard against the hardened, moist core.

Ethan’s penis, already intensely aroused, pulsed beneath the fabric as Bliss’s hand closed around it. After kneading it for a moment, Bliss then scraped his fingernails down the length of the shaft, which was clearly outlined beneath the cloth in his palm.

“Ugh…!”

While his arousal steadily mounted, Bliss’s lips, providing direct stimulation, moved between Ethan’s ribs, collarbone, and chest, hotly sucking at his sensitive skin. Simultaneously, his hand gently pressed or scratched at Ethan’s penis, his primary erogenous zone, provocatively inciting Ethan’s responsiveness.

Instinctively, Ethan arched his hips, groaning, allowing Bliss’s hand to press harder when it squeezed, and his fingers to scratch more deeply as they raked across his cock.

The sensation was utterly wicked.

“Why are you a multi-Guide?”

Meeting Ethan’s panting gaze, Bliss unbuttoned his own shirt, one by one. It was a simple gesture, yet the sight of his chiseled face, faintly furrowed as he spoke indifferently, revealing his taut muscles, struck Ethan with fierce intensity, even through his pleasure-addled mind.

So absorbed was he in watching Bliss that he didn’t even notice Bliss’s hand unbuckling his trousers.

“If we were just an ordinary Esper and Guide, I wouldn’t have to think of my Guide’s guiding as a means to an end, but why… why are you… and why am I…”

‘Why do you naturally see it as a means, and why am I in a position where I have no choice?’ Bliss mused, a self-deprecating smile gracing his lips as he tightened his grip on Ethan’s trousers.

“Ahh!”

In an instant, his trousers were stripped away, revealing his smooth legs. Bliss’s eyes, gleaming with fierce light, roamed over Ethan’s unusually hairless legs, starting from his already-darkened, wet underwear.

Ethan swallowed hard, met Bliss’s gaze, and managed to reply.

“But I will be your only partner, Bliss.”

At Ethan’s provocative gaze, Bliss froze, every movement ceasing. Ethan lifted a long leg and deliberately pressed his bare foot against Bliss’s erection, which was straining against his trousers, grinding it slowly.

“Kuh-eut!”

Bliss groaned at the sudden sensation. Ethan slowly crushed the heavy mass that was rubbing against the sole of his foot, then tilted his chin up arrogantly and spoke.

“So don’t even think about bringing in any other bastards.”

*Hah—*

Bliss, letting out an exclamation, seized Ethan’s ankle, which had been so pleasurably grinding against his penis.

A wave of useless indignation at being the only one gasping for breath had prompted Ethan’s provocation, and now goosebumps instantly prickled his back. Bliss’s heterochromatic eyes gleamed with a slick, bestial light.

Dongja, who had somehow appeared and was now gagged by Sawol and Mangnyang, shook their head frantically in the distance, mouthing “Mmph, mmph.” The crow, whose beak was tied with Samwol’s hair, even lifted a wing as if wiping away sweat.

‘Oh. Am I really about to be devoured?’

The thought had barely formed when his vision spun once more.

*Thud—* The sensation against his back was the plush softness of a sheet.

“Ah, ahhh!”

Before his boxers could even be fully removed, his most sensitive organ was sucked into a beast’s mouth.