Episode 86
"Already finished washing?"
"Eep!"
As Lulu emerged from the bathwater infused with potions, Frey, who was passing through the corridor, tilted his head and asked.
"Your wounds don't seem fully healed yet. Stay in a bit longer."
"W-well... that is..."
Lulu, who had only a towel wrapped around her body from bathing, began to flush deeply as Frey approached right in front of her.
"Come here. I'll wrap your arm with bandages again."
"M-my clothes..."
"Hm?"
"N-never mind."
Whether he knew of Lulu's embarrassment or not, Frey maintained a composed expression and suddenly pulled out bandages from his clothes, reaching out his hand toward her arm.
"Perhaps because there are so many wounds, even high-grade potions aren't showing much improvement on your arm."
Saying so, Frey began to gently stroke Lulu's arm, which was still covered in wounds, with careful hands as if afraid to cause her pain.
It was an incredibly out-of-character sight for Frey, who would shout at servants daily and even resort to violence against the butler Cania.
"Ow."
"What is it, does it hurt?"
As Frey had been stroking Lulu's arm for a while, and she let out a groan when he touched an unhealed wound, he asked with a worried voice.
"N-no. This kind of wound is..."
"Cania, bring some medicine."
Of course, Lulu wanted to change into clothes quickly since she only had a towel wrapped around her body, so she tried to make a casual excuse, but Frey held her arm and gave orders to Cania.
"I knew you would say that, so I prepared it in advance..."
Then Cania, who had been waiting in the corridor, appeared holding a medicine bottle, but upon seeing Lulu who was nearly undressed, she froze.
"Cania, the medicine."
"Ah, understood."
After a moment of confused eyes, when Frey urged her with a cold expression, Cania quickly handed him the medicine bottle and went downstairs.
"Lord Frey. I appreciate your concern, but I'd like to put on some clothes first... Heup!"
As Lulu spoke with a trembling voice, when Frey began applying medicine to her arm, she stopped speaking and shivered from the peculiar sensation.
"From now on, I'll apply medicine to your arm."
After applying medicine evenly to Lulu's arm for a while, Frey said so with a bright smile.
"...Yes."
Seeing that smile, Lulu decided to obey Frey's words for now. After all, healing her wounds was to her benefit.
"So don't do self-harm anymore. Understand?"
Frey, who gave this instruction with a worried expression to Lulu, began carefully wrapping bandages around her slender arm where the medicine had been evenly applied.
"Mmm..."
"Ah, sorry. Are you cold? I'll take you to your room quickly."
As Lulu shivered from the cold yet peculiar sensation created by the combination of the medicine's healing effect and the bandages' healing effect, Frey said so and began walking down the corridor holding her hand.
"Lord Frey, this isn't the way to my room?"
However, the place Frey was heading was in the completely opposite direction from where Lulu's room was located.
"That was true until just now, but now it's wrong."
"What?"
When Frey spoke incomprehensible words to Lulu who felt something strange and asked, she began tilting her head in confusion.
"Because this is where you'll stay from now on."
"Ah..."
And when Frey stopped walking and opened a door, Lulu finally understood the meaning of those words.
"How is it? Do you like it?"
The room he opened was several times larger than the quarters she originally stayed in, and was decorated luxuriously.
"Then... will I be staying with the other servants from now on?"
Lulu, who had been watching the scene with a dazed expression, asked Frey upon seeing all her belongings and clothes moved into the room.
"No, this is a room just for you."
"What!?"
However, when Frey answered with a calm expression, Lulu was startled and opened her eyes wide.
"Well then, I'll be going now."
"W-wait a moment..."
Before Lulu could say anything, Frey went outside the room, and soon silence began to flow through the large room.
"What... what is this..."
Except for Lulu's muttered words of utter bewilderment.
.
Time passed and passed, and before long, it was around sunset.
"Hooah..."
Lulu was lying on the large bed, recalling today's events.
"...Dinner was really delicious too."
The lunch and dinner she had with Frey today was the most intense experience of Lulu's life, who had been eating white gruel at the free food distribution center or getting by with hard bread.
Instead of white gruel, there was warm soup with crab, and instead of bread so hard it could break teeth, there was soft and fluffy cream bread.
Not only that, but the dining table lined with various delicacies from land and sea that she thought she would never taste in her lifetime came as a fresh shock to Lulu.
"And also, Frey's attitude..."
Of course, what came as a fresh shock wasn't only the diverse foods.
That Frey, who had verbally abused and assaulted people dozens of times today alone, was looking at someone with gentle eyes and a smile while taking care of them was quite hard to believe.
Moreover, the one being taken care of was Lulu herself.
He applied medicine directly to her wounds and even wrapped bandages.
Even though he would get angry and assault people over Cania or Irina's minor mistakes, when Lulu appeared, he would immediately smile gently and stroke her head.
For Lulu, who had rarely experienced gentle touches or warm eyes from anyone in her life, it was an unforgettable experience even if the subject was Frey.
'No, Frey is still a villain.'
However, Lulu, who was lying on the bed, shook her head and began recalling the conversation between Cania and Irina earlier.
"Cania, is it your turn tonight?"
"...It seems so. Horribly enough."
"When will we be able to escape this hell..."
Cania and Irina were hugging each other with pale faces.
"You cannot enter here."
"Yes, yes?"
That wasn't all. When Lulu was looking around the mansion with Frey's permission after dinner, Cania had blocked access to the basement.
"...It's where the master enjoys his entertainment."
Cania, who said that, was trembling just thinking about it.
'As expected, the rumors were right.'
Even Lulu was well aware of the rumors circulating in the empire about Frey's lewd nightlife.
'Since I've been having a happy time continuously... the time for misfortune to come must be soon.'
The curse Lulu possessed never left her happy for even a single day. That meant there was still great misfortune awaiting Lulu, who had been happy throughout today.
And, if Lulu's thoughts were correct, that would be...
- Creaak...
"...Hup."
Lulu, who was thinking such thoughts while seized with fear, sat up in bed with a pale face when the door suddenly opened.
"Hello, Lulu."
"Ah... ahah..."
When Frey, wearing only a white gown, entered the room with a smile, Lulu began to tremble with a terrified expression.
'Right, in the end... being a pet meant this.'
The terrible things happening in the Starlight family basement that the children at the academy talked about, the torture chamber Frey was said to possess, and Frey's usual behavior all pointed to one thing.
From now on, she would be thoroughly violated by Frey.
"P-please..."
However, there was no helping it.
If she resisted, she would be abandoned by Frey, and if that happened, everything she had endured so far would become meaningless.
So, no matter how terribly Frey violated her... she would somehow maintain her sanity.
"...please be gentle."
Having made that resolution, Lulu knelt demurely, squeezed her eyes shut.
- Thud, thud.
The sound of Frey's loose gown brushing together and his footsteps grew closer and closer.
"...Heup."
When the sound finally stopped right in front of her, Lulu gulped and began quietly waiting for Frey's touch.
"Right, how is the room? Is there anything uncomfortable?"
However, what she expected did not happen.
Frey was only gently stroking Lulu's head and asking that.
"Huh... huh?"
"What's wrong, Lulu?"
Lulu, who had been looking at Frey with an incomprehensible expression, carefully asked a question.
"Why... why are you only stroking my head?"
"Hm? Didn't you ask me to stroke you gently?"
When Frey asked back with an equally puzzled expression, Lulu, who was confused, unconsciously asked a sensitive question.
"Aren't you going to... throw yourself at me?"
"...Pfft!"
Frey, who burst into laughter at those words, soon spoke with a smile.
"Why would I do that?"
"What? B-but..."
"You're my pet. Where in the world is there an owner who throws themselves at their pet?"
When Lulu looked at him with a question mark on her face, Frey gently stroked her head and continued speaking.
"I made you my pet to cherish you like raising a dog or a cat, Lulu."
"A dog or... a cat?"
"Yes, what I did earlier was to check whether you would resist or not."
Saying so, Frey raised the corner of his mouth and added.
"And those kinds of roles are sufficiently covered by Cania and Irina, and the children in the basement."
Lulu made a terrified expression at those words, while Frey, who was looking at her with an admiring gaze, spoke in a gentle voice.
"Anyway, the attitude you just showed was quite admirable. I'll praise you."
"Yes..."
"Lulu, what should you do when you receive praise?"
"Th-thank... you?"
When Lulu, who was watching Frey's expression, answered so, he looked at her with satisfied eyes and said.
"Good job. From now on, even if I don't tell you to do this or that, you'll naturally be obedient like this, right?"
"...Yes."
"That's right. Good girl."
When Frey smiled once more, Lulu, who had been staring blankly at him, asked in a quiet voice.
"By the way... why did you come here?"
"Well, I came to say goodnight before going to sleep."
Answering so, Frey carefully laid Lulu on the bed and whispered, kissing her lips.
"Goodnight, Lulu."
After saying those words and giving Lulu a smile with his eyes, Frey turned around and began to leave the room.
'Wait... then, what is the misfortune that will come soon?'
And from that moment, Lulu began to be seized with fear again.
She had expected being sadistically and cruelly violated by Frey as the misfortune, but since that didn't happen, it meant that misfortune she couldn't predict would soon strike.
'What on earth... what is it... what...'
Thanks to that, despite being in the happiest situation of her life, Lulu began to fall into panic again.
- Click, click.
She tried to pull out a knife from her clothes out of habit, but remembering that Frey had removed all sharp objects, she began biting her fingernails.
"Cough! Cough!! Ugh..."
"...Ah?"
However, when Frey, who had left her room, suddenly stopped and started coughing violently, she stopped biting her nails and began looking at him blankly.
"...Tch."
While coughing, Frey flinched slightly when he looked at his hand, clicked his tongue, and quietly began pulling out a handkerchief from his pocket.
- Creaak...
After quietly wiping his hand with the handkerchief, Frey opened his own room door and slipped out, and Lulu, who had been maintaining a dazed expression, soon muttered with a deathly pale face.
"...It couldn't be, right?"
Her eyes were trembling as she spoke those words.
.
"Hoo..."
I'm completely drained from acting all day.
Coordinating the act with Cania and Irina, bribing a hired chef to act as well, and showing affection to Lulu all the while...
It's very difficult thanks to all that, but if I can save that poor child, it's something I must do.
- Creaak...
"I should start thinking about what to do for my birthday..."
Dragging my tired body, I opened my room door, intending to organize my thoughts in bed and fall asleep.
"Guuuu!!"
"Haah!!"
"...What is this."
I discovered my room had become a battlefield and blanked out for a moment.
"Meow...! Meooow...!"
The cat doll, which had been getting its head pecked continuously by Serena's white owl, was whimpering and grabbing my leg.
"Hey, you can't do that... oh?"
I, who was about to warn the owl that was eyeing that doll at every opportunity, discovered a letter placed on my desk and hurried my steps with eyes wide open.
'What's written inside? New information? A perfect plan? Or perhaps...'
I grabbed the letter and tore open the envelope with various thoughts.
"...Huh?"
However, discovering that there was only one very small note inside the torn envelope, I made a disappointed expression.
'Well, Serena is very busy these days too.'
But I know very well how busy a time this is for Serena.
She has to track down the location of the temporary family head who fled, do groundwork to completely take over the Moonlight family, and there's also the letter from Klana.
So I should naturally accept this much.
"Oh...?"
Trying to calm my mind and checking the contents of the note, I ended up frozen with my mouth wide open.
- My parents aren't home today.
It seems I'll have to go out tonight.