The Dialectic of Master and Slave - Chapter 106

Volumes 1-4 + Side Stories of DMS are available uncensored on ko-fi! ※ This work contains depictions of coercive relationships, explicit language, and other graphic content. Reader discretion is advised.

Half out of her mind, she begged blindly. The thought of Cedric dying—of her being the reason for it—made her limbs tremble uncontrollably.

Jaha was an ordinary person with ordinary morals. She couldn’t stand by and watch an innocent man lose his life because of her.

“Please don’t kill him. I’m begging you. The fault is mine—punish me instead.”

The Emperor’s jaw clenched.

This was the first time. The first time she had chosen to touch him, without being forced by circumstance.

And it was to save another man.

Just how far will you go to humiliate me?

A crushing sense of defeat surged through his veins, burning through his entire body.

That mouth—pleading for another man’s life. If her goal was to fray his nerves, she had succeeded. He wanted to rip out the tongue that dared utter those words.

The only reason he didn’t act on that impulse was because he had scraped together the very last dregs of his patience.

“Then will you die in his place?”

At the Emperor’s icy question, Jaha’s words caught in her throat. She couldn’t even bring herself to say “yes” as an empty promise.

The Emperor shook off her hesitation and swung the sword. Without a trace of hesitation—as naturally as one might swat a fly.

There was no weight to the act, no solemnity—so at first, Jaha didn’t fully comprehend what had happened.

How could someone wield a blade against a person so effortlessly? It wasn’t as if he were dusting a window with a rag.

Only when something thudded to the ground, only when her eyes met Cedric’s severed head rolling to a stop beside her, did she understand.

“Ah… Ah…”

Before entering the palace, she had seen a nobleman’s youngest son—a brash but kind boy who had looked out for her—dragged away by knights, his decapitated head discarded carelessly in the hallway.

Back then, she hadn’t screamed. She hadn’t dared draw the knights’ attention. She hadn’t even closed his eyes, fleeing past as quickly as she could.

She had felt guilty, but not overwhelmingly so. His death hadn’t been her fault.

But this time was different.

This was her fault.

Cedric had died because the Emperor had seen them together. Because she had asked him to meet her.

“Ah… Ugh.”

Overwhelmed by the unbearable reality, Jaha scrambled backward on her hands and knees.

Every day here was suffocating. If this continued, she’d either wither away or lose her mind before ever returning to Earth. That was why she had needed Cedric.

To remind herself she wasn’t just a tool—that she was still human.

She had clung to him because he treated her like a person. If Cedric had any sin, it was only that he hadn’t pushed her away.

The Emperor threw the sword aside and strode toward her. His enraged face loomed closer—then a large hand closed around her throat.

So this is how he’ll kill me.

Just as Jaha resigned herself to the unyielding grip around her neck, the Emperor forced her to her knees, trapping her between his legs, and crushed his lips against hers.

A kiss like being devoured by a beast. Not intimacy—predation. A punishment, deliberate in its cruelty.

In that moment, what flooded Jaha wasn’t relief at being spared.

It was revulsion.

This damned existence. This nightmare of a world. This arrogant man.

Everything—everything—was unbearably suffocating.

Every emotion, every thought in her mind shattered under the weight of that single realization. Grief, rage, guilt—even the instinct to survive.

Ah, this is the limit.

I can’t take it anymore.

Jaha let go of the thread she’d been clinging to so desperately. And the walls, already riddled with cracks, collapsed all at once.

The bright, cheerful voice of a friend echoed in her ears—

“If you ever meet someone like this, only one of two things will happen to you. Either you’ll be completely broken, or he’ll be utterly crushed, groveling at your feet. But chances are—it’ll be you who breaks. After all, he’s a tyrant.”

Of course, I’m the one who breaks.

At the crumbling center of her world, Jaha thought quietly, as if she’d been waiting for this all along.

I should’ve let it happen sooner. Stopped forcing myself to hold on and just let things take their course.

The moon can’t outshine the sun—no matter how hard it tries, it’s destined to melt under that light. I was the fool for refusing to bow to the law of the jungle.

Overpowered, Jaha ended up flat on her back.

The Emperor loomed over her, greedily plundering her mouth as if searching for some hidden sweetness, licking and sucking with relentless hunger.