Catherine was still straddling his lap.
She looked at Jace as his eyes turned slightly hazy as her hand stroked his excited state.
But she wasn't done; her hand slid down lower to his balls. She grasped them gently and gave them a soft squeeze.
Jace's reaction was visible to her as she was intently looking at him while his breath turned heavy and his heart beat faster.
After a few more gentle squeezes, she looked at Jace, whose eyes were in a trance of pleasure.
She smiled darkly.
Her grip around his balls tightened, and she squeezed harder; Jace's reaction of pain was instant.
His eyes shot wide open as he gasped, "Ha—Catherine!?... Wh—"
But Catherine's grip turned tighter. Jace winced in pain with a confused expression.
"Shhh..." Catherine interrupted. "Quiet," she whispered as she looked at him with interest, following his confused eyes.
By now Jace held Catherine's right hand with his left, trying to remove her hand from his pants; his right hand held her waist to push her back.
But it was useless, as his strength was only slightly stronger than ordinary humans, and Catherine was a Sequence 5 with extraordinary strength.
Even with all his efforts, she didn't even budge.
"Don't resist, Jace," Catherine said softly, maintaining the pressure on 'him.'
"What!? Why??"
——
Jace was not a fool.
As an experienced Seer, he had made multiple divinations before coming to meet Catherine, and since he was now a Sequence 7, his divinations were stronger than before.
Just because he had slept with Catherine once didn't mean they were fully trusting friends and lovers.
And this was only their second meeting, for God's sake!
So he was obviously still cautious.
While the surface emotions and reactions he showed to her were real, he still maintained a calculative state in his inner mind; he wouldn't be a Seer if he at least couldn't do this.
He had, of course, felt her 'action'—of her hand—through his Clown Premonition, but he let her do what she wanted as his divinations didn't show much danger, or he wouldn't have come here at all.
He was still confused as to why she was doing this.
'She isn't a sadist, is she!?' he thought in horror. 'Perhaps she is showing her dominance...' he mused.
"What!? Why??" he asked with genuine curiosity, as it really did hurt down there.
"Because I have questions, Jace. So think of this as a little interrogation," she said with a serious expression and a firm voice.
But noticing his discomfort, she said, "Ah, don't mind my hand down there. You should know the ways Beyonders of my pathway have to make people spill the truth. Compared to that, this is just a tickle."
Jace knew exactly what she was talking about; a Sequence 7 Interrogator from the Judge pathway has the ability to summon illusory instruments that are used to make people talk.
And while what she was doing to him was better than all that, that did not mean it didn't hurt.
Her grip tightened. Jace hummed in pain as he closed his eyes. "Catherine, please!" he said with a low voice.
Hearing his plea, Catherine's grip loosened.
She pulled him into her embrace, stroking the back of his neck. "Then answer my questions, and I don't have to tell you what'll happen if you lie, do I?" she said, giving a thin squeeze that made Jace squirm in pain.
"Ok," Jace said softly, his voice muffled in her breasts.
Catherine stroked his hair and asked with a serious voice, "What did you mean when you asked me, 'Do you want to be a demigod'?"
Jace backed off a little from her embrace and looked up at her. "I meant what I asked," he said as he looked her in the eyes.
Her grip tightened; she raised her eyebrow. "So I suppose you have the formula for Sequence 4 Imperative Mage?" she asked.
His grip on her waist tightened. Jace shook his head. "I know where to find the formula for Sequence 4 of the lawyer pathway!" he said, his voice low.
Catherine kept looking at him without response, so Jace said, "The Arbiter and Lawyer pathways can be interchanged at high sequences. It won't accumulate madness or lose control due to switching pathways."
——
Catherine thought for a moment, then she looked at Jace, who was kind of teary-eyed, and the pain was visible on his pretty face.
Catherine was kind of turned on, enough that she was wet down there, but Jace didn't seem as excited as she was, as she could feel his excited state of the previous exchange had almost diminished.
She felt a pang of disappointment, as she felt bad for hurting him, but she continued regardless.
This was only her second meeting with Jace, so she was more than cautious.
She didn't interrogate him in their first meeting because... her mind was clouded by desire and lust.
And while she could control herself just fine, she decided otherwise and indulged herself, and surprisingly, Jace was to her liking.
She thought that after using Jace to satisfy herself she would revert to being her conservative self, but since that day her desires only increased.
Ever since her first time with Jace, something dark had awakened within her—dark enough that she took pleasure in hurting him, but seeing that he really was in pain, her own excitement faded, leaving only guilt.
Her grip on 'him' loosened.
As for the Sequence 4 thing, she was surprised that he has such knowledge, but as an Interrogator she felt that even if she asked, he wouldn't tell her.
She could also feel that deep down he was wary and cautious, but his surface emotions and pain were true—but this was expected by her.
Keeping her contemplation aside, she looked at Jace and asked, "And why do you want me to be a demigod?"
Jace was still looking up at her; he turned his face sideways. "My pathway is unusual and complicated. For me to become a demigod, it would take lots of time, effort, and difficulty—and that too at an extreme risk of many things," he said in a thoughtful tone.
Then he turned his head to Catherine and looked at her. "But having a demigod by my side would be a significant help," he said, looking in her eyes.