[Episode 149] - Experiment to Break the Curse (3)
In an instant, the atmosphere in the room turned icy. Titania looked at me and Veronica with a calm expression, but her narrowed eyes and chilling smile showed just how furious she was.
I trembled and turned my head away, avoiding Titania’s gaze, which was so cold it felt like it could freeze me solid. No, I had no choice but to turn away. Right now, I was too terrified to meet her eyes.
As I trembled and burrowed into Veronica’s embrace—
A sudden thought occurred to me.
*Wait, come to think of it, do I really need to be afraid of Titania?*
Right now, Titania and I aren’t even dating. Why should I be scared just because I kissed Veronica a little? As her mother, can’t I even share a peck with my daughter-like Veronica?
Rather, I had to be confident here. I am Titania’s mother, not her lover. If I cowered and avoided her gaze now, it would mean I was admitting that I danced to Titania’s tune.
As if I had nothing whatsoever to feel guilty about, I widened my eyes and glared boldly at Titania. That’s right, I’ve done nothing wrong. A mother and daughter just shared a little kiss, so I’ve done nothing wrong.
“Titania, this is—”
“......”
“Th-this is...”
The moment I tried to say that a kiss was no big deal, Titania placed her hand under my chin and looked down at me intently, leaving me speechless. A gaze that seemed to say, *If you have something to say, go ahead.*
Under that cold, heavy gaze, I ultimately couldn’t get a single word out and just opened and closed my mouth uselessly.
I raised my head and shot Veronica a look that said, *Say something!* but Veronica simply avoided my gaze. *You were the one who provoked her...!*
“Mother, come here.”
At that moment, Titania called me with a flick of her finger. As I was agonizing over whether to obey that gesture, Veronica lifted me up and placed me right down on the floor.
Left standing on my own, I looked up at Veronica with a betrayed expression, but Veronica simply ignored my desperate gaze. *How could you do this to me...!*
“Mother.”
Again, that cold voice fell against my ear.
In the end, I let out a groan and cautiously approached Titania. I felt like a child who had committed a wrongdoing and was going to receive punishment. Surely she wouldn’t put shackles on me again just because I pecked someone else, right?
“Titania... you’re not angry, right...?”
When I called out to Titania as affectionately as possible, my eyes slightly welling up, Titania let out a soft laugh, slipped her hands under both my armpits, and lifted me. Then, as if it were the most natural thing, she held me in her arms and smiled brightly.
“I’m not angry.”
“R-really...?”
At the gentle smile she gave me, my shoulders, which had been tense with fear, slumped down. As my tension released, a sigh of relief burst out unbidden.
I smiled bashfully and patted Titania’s head proudly. Then, Titania made a puzzled expression and asked me.
“I’m rather curious. Why did Mother think I was angry?”
“Your gaze and the atmosphere when you looked at me and Veronica... and because I kissed Veronica...?”
“......What? You kissed Veronica?”
“...Huh?”
At Titania’s voice, which dropped coldly, I couldn’t help but open my eyes wide in surprise. Titania narrowed her eyes and looked at me as if she truly hadn’t known.
Seeing that gaze, I finally realized that I had made a terrible slip of the tongue. At the atmosphere turning heavy again, my shoulders hunched up unconsciously.
“The reason I was in a bad mood... was because Mother was playing on Sister’s lap.”
Titania let out a small groan and pressed my lips with her thumb as if crushing them. She was clearly furious, but because she continued speaking so calmly, it felt even more frightening.
“It’s true that I was jealous seeing Mother sitting on Sister’s lap, facing her and smiling the moment I entered the room. But if I were to be jealous of every little thing like this, there would be no end to it...”
“T-Titania... so this is...”
“But to think you even shared a kiss...”
Ah, this was that pattern where no matter what I said, she wouldn’t listen.
I turned my head and looked at Veronica with a gaze pleading for help, but the moment Veronica met my eyes, she turned her head away. *Ungrateful child!!*
“I-it was just an experiment! Since you and Veronica are the same person... s-so, I wondered if kissing Veronica might break the curse...”
I flusteredly explained that it was just an experiment, but to Titania, such things didn’t matter. It seemed she simply didn’t like the fact that I had kissed someone other than her.
As if to stop my chattering mouth, Titania wrapped her hand around my small chin. Titania’s calmly settling eyes seemed to foretell exactly what she was about to do next.
“Refuse me. It will be troublesome if you grow now and your clothes tear.”
“Ah, w-wait, mmmph...!!!”
Titania fixed my chin and lowered her head to kiss me.
At Titania’s sudden action, I squirmed and refused, but every time I did, Titania would twist her grip on my chin and roughly devour my lips.
It was truly a one-sided kiss that made the word ‘coercive’ come to mind instinctively. I tried to endure as much as possible by pressing my lips tightly shut, but Titania put strength into the hand gripping my jaw and forced my mouth open.
“Mph!! Mmmph!!!!”
Titania’s tongue pushed through my forcibly parted lips and began intertwining deeply, intensely, stickily, and persistently. A large tongue entering my small mouth as it was made it so I could barely breathe.
I beat on Titania’s shoulder with tears streaming down, but the more I did, the more strongly and persistently she shoved her tongue in. The sensation of my mouth filling with Titania’s tongue made me feel like I would suffocate to death.
Every time Titania’s tongue moved inside my mouth, my whole body felt like it was being churned wetly, as if it would melt and blend together at any moment. In this state, the only thing I could do was grab onto Titania’s clothes and tremble.
When I peeked open my eyes to look at Titania, Titania—who usually looked at me every time we kissed—was not looking at me today. She rolled her pupils and was staring at Veronica sitting beside us, as if glaring.
In Titania’s eyes as she looked at Veronica, there was a terrible obsession that seemed to declare I was hers.
I also rolled my eyes slightly to look at Veronica, and Veronica was resting her chin on her hand, the corners of her mouth raised as she watched Titania’s obsessive kiss.
*What kind of reaction is that...*
Our joined lips only parted just before my breathing stopped. Because I was so short of breath, I was busy gasping with the tip of my tongue poking out like a puppy.
“I told you... hah, not to put your tongue... hah, in while I’m like this...! I can’t... hah, breathe...!”
“...Think of it as punishment.”
...I no longer had the strength to argue.
Fortunately, thanks to the rule that being forced to kiss doesn’t break the curse, I was able to maintain my child’s body. I eventually became utterly exhausted and let my head rest on Titania’s shoulder, going limp.
“Really... please go easy on me...”
“I did go easy on you.”
She never let a single retort slide...
Titania placed me down on a chair. As I sat back against the chair, utterly exhausted and limp, Titania approached Veronica and took out a certain ‘document,’ holding it out to her.
“I came to ask about this... but I forgot.”
“...What is this?”
“A research journal found in Katarina’s room.”
The two of them began talking as if what had just happened hadn’t happened at all. Was it my imagination that I somehow felt irritation welling up at that sight?
One of Veronica’s eyebrows twitched as she received the research journal from Titania. Then she let out a deep sigh and smiled at me.
“I’d like to talk with Titania alone for a moment.”
“...Is it a conversation I shouldn’t hear?”
“Yes. I wish you wouldn’t hear it. I really wish you didn’t know.”
...What kind of story was it that she would say that much?
I let out a small sigh, hopped down from the chair, and headed toward the door. I jumped in place and opened the doorknob with difficulty, then turned my head to look at Veronica and Titania.
“I’ll wait outside, so call me when you’re done.”
“...Okay.”
*
After Vivian went outside, Veronica let out a deep sigh and alternated looking between Titania and the research journal, furrowing her brows irritably.
She had thought she’d hidden it well until now. She didn’t know why Titania had gone into Katarina’s room, but being found out was unavoidable.
Rather, it might be fortunate that only Titania had found out. Veronica let out an annoyed sigh and inwardly scolded Katarina. She’d told her to keep things like research journals organized.
After a brief silence passed, Titania dragged over a chair and sat in front of Veronica, asking.
“...I know that Sister doesn’t have those kinds of feelings for Mother.”
“You know, yet you kissed her like that in front of me?”
“I told you. It was punishment. Well... it was an excuse, but. It was an opportunity to kiss Mother. I didn’t want to miss it.”
Veronica let out a snort at Titania’s confident manner. Since she couldn’t meddle in their relationship, Veronica had no choice but to just laugh.
“Rather, it’s because my opponent was Sister that I ended it at this level. Because you’re my sister who is the same as me, not someone else.”
“...I see.”
“...So, I can more or less understand Sister’s feelings. Even what frame of mind you wrote this research journal in.”
Titania smiled calmly, took the document from Veronica’s hand, and began reading it again. Though the research journal contained absurd contents, Titania could understand the feelings Veronica had while conducting this research.
A method to become human without using a fairy’s egg. That method is—
“...Sister, you were trying to—”
“Titania.”
Veronica, cutting off Titania’s words, smiled brightly.
“That research has been discarded.”
“...But.”
“I have no intention of realizing the contents written in that research journal. Rather, another method is more certain and safe.”
Veronica took back the research journal from Titania’s hand and began tearing it to pieces. Tearing it so badly that not a single letter was legible.
“...The experiment to break my curse will proceed as soon as preparations are complete. Once the experiment is over, I’ll leave your side just like that.”
“...Sister.”
“I’d planned to do so from the beginning. From the moment you became Queen, there was no reason for me to remain here. I should find my own life soon too, shouldn’t I? So...”
The torn paper was scattered across the floor. As if representing Veronica’s heart. As if saying it was already a finished story, that she didn’t want to recall it anymore.
“Don’t worry too much either. If you’re someone who understands me, I believe you’ll understand my current feelings too.”
Titania tried to say something, but couldn’t get a single word out and simply nodded. She could understand her sister’s feelings, but she couldn’t understand the reason she had given up.
If it’s Mother, surely...