“Are you telling me… to sleep with this on?”
I sighed in disbelief as I picked up the restraints neatly placed on the bed and examined them.
Fur-lined handcuffs and shackles with soft fur leather attached inside to prevent chafing.
The way the chains were intertwined meant that if I tried to break free, the chains would tighten around my neck and dig in, making it impossible to resist without risking suffocation or a broken neck.
Hmm… It might actually prevent sleep-talking if I slept with these on…
“Are you crazy?”
I’m not a female knight captured by some perverted pig. What kind of lunatic would voluntarily wear these and sleep? Right?
I shook my head and dropped the handcuffs like trash, deciding to dismiss this chain as Freide’s sick joke and toss it into the storage room.
But.
“Sis… um, wouldn’t it be okay to at least try it…?”
Rana, who had been staring at the chains with a strange look, suddenly grabbed my right arm and looked up at me, pleading like she was trying to be cute.
“…What are you saying, Rana?”
Are you telling me to sleep with these chains on?
Even if my body can be defiled, my soul cannot! I wanted to shout, but before long, I imagined myself with heart-shaped pupils like those lewd manga female knights.
I didn’t raise you to be like this, Rana…
As I looked down at Rana with trembling, confused eyes, she met my gaze and hesitantly opened her mouth, wearing an expression like an abandoned orphan.
“Is… it not okay? My wish was to sleep together like ‘real sisters’… It’s too cold sleeping alone here…”
“Uh……”
“But if you’re uncomfortable, I guess I should stop… I can’t inconvenience you because of my selfishness…”
Rana let go of my arm, took half a step back, and bowed her head, looking genuinely apologetic.
She looked like a child who had just been told, “You should never have been born,” as a birthday gift.
“I’m sorry, I was being too childish…”
“……”
Uh… well, I mean… um…
…Whatever, forget it.
“Just… as a test, maybe once… would be okay…?”
I sighed, looked up at the ceiling, and nodded.
I really didn’t want to do it, but seeing Rana like this was equally unbearable.
[Are you insane? No, I knew you were crazy, but I didn’t think it was this bad…! Do you have no self-respect?]
Hersela was horrified, but…
“Really, sis?! Thank you! I love you the most in the world!”
Seeing Rana jumping around with a bright smile made Hersela’s objections seem irrelevant.
“Unbelievable. You’re really going to do it…”
Of course, Freide, who prepared the chains and was muttering such nonsense, needed to be punished.
—
After finishing the mansion tour, we entered the bathroom to wash ourselves with hot water. Of course, it was just me, Rana, and Freide.
Damien? He said he’d borrow the servants’ bathtub to wash.
Since this area, unlike Pailoon, didn’t have hot spring water, we had to go through the hassle of drawing water from the lake and heating it with firewood…
“Kenaz.”
By dipping my right hand into the water and awakening the Rune of Fire, I could easily create hot water without the need for firewood.
While I was away, the servants would have to help with the hot baths, but that’s what they were paid for, so it wasn’t a problem.
“So, how many people are there?”
I asked Freide about the number of servants managing the mansion while enjoying the steamy heat in the bath, loosening my muscles.
“It’s warm…”
Rana sat on my lap, leaning her back against me, her wet pink hair dampening my thighs.
“Six. Four guards and two maids. Only the maids stay in the mansion.”
Freide, pouring hot water over herself, answered without turning to look at me.
The guards dispatched from Pailoon Castle stayed in outposts on the outskirts, handling patrols and mansion security, while the two maids lived in the servants’ quarters on the first floor, taking care of cooking, cleaning, and laundry.
Personally, it seemed a bit understaffed, but since the mansion wasn’t that large for a lord’s residence, two maids were apparently enough.
“They work well here. Isn’t the interior scary?”
The first-floor hallway was like a monster’s house. I wondered how ordinary maids could endure working here.
It wouldn’t be surprising if they ran away crying, saying they couldn’t work in such a place.
“They’re not live beastmen. What northerner would be scared of taxidermy?”
“Is that so…?”
“Besides, they’re paid nearly three times the salary of ordinary maids. A spooky atmosphere wouldn’t even register.”
I see. The money was too good to refuse.
There’s a saying that money can even make ghosts work. With that kind of pay, a creepy interior wouldn’t even be worth worrying about.
—
After the bath, we changed into indoor clothes and went to sleep.
Damien and Freide each took a guest room on this floor, while Rana lay down on the small bed in my bedroom.
Me?
I…
[This is disgraceful, disgraceful! This shameless girl is tarnishing my reputation!]
With the feeling of drinking poison, I fastened the handcuffs and shackles to my wrists and ankles, while Hersela lamented like a patriot mourning the fall of a nation.
‘What does it matter? No one’s watching. Just bear with it.’
Stop whining like a child. It’s not like I’m doing this because I want to.
[The heavens are watching, the earth is watching, I’m watching, and that girl is watching too! Stop this now. This is madness!]
‘Give up. Just accept it.’
I tightly gripped the control of the Life Force Technique to keep Hersela from thrashing and lay down on the bed with the fur-lined sleeping bag.
Freide assured me that these chains alone could stop my sleep-talking, but I couldn’t trust her word when Rana’s safety was at stake.
So, I planned to test the chains’ effectiveness by sleeping with the sleeping bag instead of Rana.
“Is it uncomfortable, sis? If it’s too much because of me…”
“It’s fine, don’t worry. You must be tired from all the camping.”
Rana, feeling guilty again at the sight of me in chains, hesitantly asked, but I reassured her gently and closed my eyes to sleep.
– Clink.
…Honestly, it was disgustingly uncomfortable.
—
As expected, that night I had the most bizarre dream.
“Kuh… Kill me! I’d rather die than endure this humiliation!”
A female warrior draped in white fur leather, bound in chains, growled with a red face.
She twisted her body, trying to break free from the chains constricting her, but each movement only made the chains tighten, accentuating her chest.
“Huhu…”
The jailer, arms crossed, looked down at the female warrior, lifted her chin with a finger, and smirked.
“Your bravado is impressive… but your eyes are trembling like a scared puppy. Do you know what’s about to happen to you? How lewd…”
The jailer’s sinister gaze and sly smile made the female warrior shiver.
“H-How dare you treat me like a scared dog! Do you know who I am! I am…!”
“Ahahaha… Of course I know. Who doesn’t know who you are? Right, our queen?”
The jailer burst into laughter, mocking the female warrior, who was clearly terrified despite her anger.
“You wench…! How dare you humiliate me like this, knowing who I am…!”
The female warrior bared her fangs, her face twisted in rage.
The jailer placed a hand on her chest, squeezed, and licked his lips with a satisfied expression.
“Humiliation? You say that, but your body is being quite honest. Already heating up like this. What a bitch…”
“Kuh…! Kill me! Kill me, I said!”
“I can’t do that. You’ve killed so many, so you must give birth to make up for it. This is your karma, so just accept it.”
The jailer’s black hair cascaded down like ebony. His blue eyes, filled with contempt, gleamed as he looked down at the female warrior.
In utter satisfaction, the jailer—no, I—opened my mouth and whispered the captive’s name mockingly.
“Queen Ryu-rik.”
The white-furred female warrior bound in chains. The wolf-headed female beastman Ryu-rik trembled in anger and shame, struggling helplessly.
—
“Ahhhhh!”
The next morning, I woke up screaming, drenched in cold sweat, and trembling.
A dream about a female Ryu-rik with breasts being captured and tortured in a castle, and it was me!
In my entire life, there had never been a more spine-chilling nightmare.
