Chapter 158

Claire woke up five days later.

“Am I… alive?”

The first emotion she felt was doubt.

When she unleashed the bugs she had planted in her family members as a last resort, she was certain she would die along with them.

She thought she would either die from exhaustion of magic and injuries or be killed by Ophelia after confirming the fall of the Sigmillus family.

“…So, I didn’t die.”

A bitter smile escaped her.

Surviving didn’t bring her any relief.

She had already lost everything.

The power she had gained by sacrificing herself to Isabella, the Sigmillus family—it was all gone now.

Imagining the bleak future awaiting her, Claire looked around.

A dark room with no light.

She didn’t even know where she was.

If she had any magic left, she might have tried to escape…

But she couldn’t feel even a trace of magical energy, likely due to whatever Ophelia had done.

“Of course, she wouldn’t leave me with the ability to use magic…”

Eventually, Claire gave up trying to summon her magic and sat up from the bed.

The injuries she had sustained from Ophelia seemed to have been treated, though there was still a faint pain in her lower abdomen—nothing unbearable, though.

*Clang*, a sound echoed through the room.

Claire, who had tried to stand, stumbled and fell back onto the bed.

She hadn’t noticed earlier because she couldn’t see anything.

Her wrists and ankles felt strangely empty, and something was wrapped around her neck.

“No way…”

With trembling arms, Claire forced herself to reach up and touch her neck.

The sensation was unfamiliar.

A dull, fleshy stump met cold metal.

The chill of the chain wrapped around her neck was felt—not from her fingertips, but from her wrists.

Claire’s face turned pale.

Her hands… were gone.

They were blunt, as if they had been severed and stitched up.

Her feet were likely the same.

“Ha… haha…”

Claire let out a hollow laugh as she realized her condition.

A chain around her neck, tying her to the bed. Her arms and legs gone, leaving her body like a stuffed doll.

Now she noticed she wasn’t even wearing clothes.

She looked no different from a slave for men.

She had thought it was Ophelia who had tied her up here, but for a moment, she wondered if it might have been Isabella.

The expression Ophelia had worn before Claire collapsed flashed through her mind.

It was a familiar face, like looking at herself in a mirror.

She had made that same expression whenever she found a woman she wanted to toy with.

“…No way, right…?”

Claire forced herself to suppress the cold sweat running down her spine and the rising sense of dread.

No matter what, that couldn’t be it.

Surely, Ophelia wouldn’t harbor such dark desires toward her own sister…

“Oh my, you’re awake? Sister Claire.”

A voice dripping with sugary sweetness, like melted sugar, filled with warmth.

Ophelia entered the room, pushing the door open.

In her hands, she held a lantern and a metal toy.

“OPHELIA!”

Claire screamed with hatred, lunging toward Ophelia.

At least, in her mind.

*Clank!*

“Ugh…!”

Claire, yanked back by the taut chain, tumbled to the floor.

Her ample chest and stumpy limbs flailed awkwardly.

“You’re full of energy, sister. Did something good happen? You’ve caused me quite a bit of trouble, you know.”

“Trouble…?”

“Yes. I had no idea you’d planted bugs in all the family members. The bugs burst out of their heads and went wild. It was chaos. They all ended up dead.”

Ophelia spoke calmly.

Claire smiled fiercely, radiating defiance.

Good. At least her final act of revenge had succeeded.

The monsters Isabella had given her.

Disgusting bugs that parasitized the spine, ate the brain, and controlled the host. They were her last insurance.

At first, she had only planted them in the family elders, including her father…

But eventually, she had implanted them in most of the family members. It was easier to control them that way.

Once the brain was eaten, they couldn’t do anything without her commands, so she couldn’t use them on useful subordinates. Most of the family members with bugs had to be kept in seclusion.

The Sigmillus mansion must have turned into a living hell.

The bugs, following her command, would have burst out of their hosts’ heads, controlling their bodies and wreaking havoc.

Not a single survivor—everyone would have died, eaten by the bugs.

After that… the knights who came would have burned down the mansion, now a nest of bug monsters.

“Thanks to you, I’m left with nowhere to go. With all the family members dead in such a horrific way, and my whereabouts unknown… I was instantly labeled the culprit.”

“Probably the queen’s doing. They called me a witch, you know?”

“Yeah, I told you, didn’t I? You can’t have the Sigmillus family. No, now that you’re branded a witch, you can’t even maintain your noble status…!”

Claire mocked Ophelia.

Ophelia also mocked Claire.

“Your high-and-mighty attitude is amusing, but I never needed that kind of thing in the first place. It’s petty people like you who cling to such meaningless vanity. All I ever wanted was one thing.”

“…I should have planted a bug in you too.”

Claire gritted her teeth and muttered.

There were plenty of opportunities to plant a bug. Why didn’t she do it?

Every time she thought about planting a bug, her mother’s face, who had entrusted her younger sister to her, came to mind?

Or was it because she remembered her two-year-old sister, who used to grab her finger and laugh?

‘If we were going to part ways anyway… I should have been thorough. It’s your own fault, Claire.’

She couldn’t help but laugh at herself for the defeat brought on by her last shred of conscience.

“A bug? Why didn’t you try it when you had the chance? Did you value me a little? How touching.”

Ophelia, with a thin smile on her lips, hung the lantern she was holding on the ceiling.

The orange light illuminated the room.

A space like a prison, sealed on all sides.

In the center, only a bed stood alone, and the shelves on the walls were filled with various tools.

Surgical knives.

Numerous glass bottles filled with healing potions.

Wooden carvings modeled after male parts, riding crops.

Even torture devices designed to crush bones.

In one corner, a triangular horse and a rack were placed.

Claire was speechless.

Staring blankly at Ophelia, she gaped at the unimaginable surroundings.

“Why so surprised? Haven’t you used these often yourself?”

Claire shook her head, trembling.

She had seen them before.

Once, when she visited the interrogation room of a church order that tortured heretics.

Ophelia seemed to think that Claire had used these tools to torture and violate women, but from Claire’s perspective, it was unfair.

She had never used such torture tools.

After all, the women were meant for Isabella, so while their minds might break, their bodies had to remain intact.

“What… what are you trying to do…?”

“What you did every day. I told you, didn’t I? You’re mine now.”

Ophelia licked her lips and approached Claire, loosening the shoulder straps of her dress.

As she stepped forward, the hem of her dress flowed to the floor, revealing her flawless, pure white body.

For Claire, it was a terrifying sight.

Though she had greedily touched women herself… she had never imagined that she would be the target, especially with her own younger sister.

Sitting on the floor, Claire desperately flailed her stubby limbs, trying to back away.

But soon, her back hit the bed, stopping her.

Claire looked back with a despairing expression.

At the high bed that her severed limbs could never climb over.

“Your struggling is cute. Like a puppy.”

Ophelia, now right in front of Claire, grabbed her sister’s knees.

Startled, Claire looked at her now-naked younger sister.

The eyes that met hers were soaked with a mad desire, to the point where they could hardly be called human anymore.

Staring at the secret area between her sister’s knees, Ophelia exhaled a hot breath.

A strange scent wafted out.

The sensation of the heated breath brushing against her inner thigh made Claire shudder.

“O-Ophelia, are you crazy…? I’m your sister…!”

“We were trying to kill each other anyway, and now you say that? Stop talking nonsense and spread your legs wider, sister.”

Ophelia grabbed Claire’s knees and spread them wide open.

Her legs fell open helplessly, revealing the hidden, secret inside.

Claire tried to close her legs with all her might, but her weakened body couldn’t overcome her sister’s strength.

…What followed was humiliating.

Five minutes later, Claire lay on the floor, gasping for breath.