A Secret Operation with the Butler (10)
A Secret Operation with the Butler (10)
#
There were moments like that.
Times when you rationally knew exactly whether you should or shouldn't do something, but ultimately acted on emotion anyway.
Going to the gym, for instance.
The truth was, the hardest part of working out wasn't the exercise itself.
It was those few steps out the door after getting dressed. Those few steps were the hardest.
I knew rationally that if I could endure those first few steps, the rest was comparatively easy. Yet in the end, I failed to take them, failed my diet, and set a new personal record for how many hamburgers I could eat.
Why was I bringing up this pointless rambling?
Because I wanted to give myself an excuse.
An excuse for doing something at a time when I shouldn't.
The slightly slender pretty girl lying face-down beneath me, breathing in ragged huffs.
Rebecca stood on the razor-thin line between possible and impossible, with one foot barely planted on the possible side.
And me, who hadn't had sex for days—no, for a whole two days.
Of course, I knew this was the wrong time and place. My head was spinning with arousal, but I also knew that using Post-Nut Clarity would let me escape the situation.
But still...
The sight of Rebecca with the back buttons of her maid dress all unfastened, her back fully exposed. Even from behind I could clearly see how flushed her cheeks were. Her ragged breathing, her upper body heaving. And her thighs, rubbing together and twisting.
Come to think of it, last night, when I renewed her Polymorph, she'd been awake and merely pretended to be asleep. Anyone could see that this was an opening for sex.
"...Hey. Rebecca."
"..."
"Gonna put it—"
-Knock, knock.
"?!"
"It's me-e!"
Shit! Mary had barged in again! If she was going to open the door immediately, what was the point of knocking?! Was she too young to understand even that?!
I quickly covered Rebecca's back with my body, hooked the blanket with my foot, and pulled it over us.
Fortunately, I managed to finish every action just before the door opened. Even I had to admit those were some impressive reflexes.
Mary threw the door open, came inside, and began surveying us.
"Hwaaahm... are you sleepin'?"
"..."
Damn it. She had to walk in right before we started, and now we had to lie here pretending to be asleep. But what she said next made my whole body go rigid.
"Master! They're asleep! Come on in!"
Shit! Why was that bastard here?!
#
Rebecca must have realized how urgent the situation was, because her whole body stiffened. I felt something rustle and looked down at my hand. A small piece of metal was underneath it... Th-this girl. When had she drawn a dagger? No, when and where had she hidden it?!
'Stay still! There are too many eyes on us! Do you plan to ruin everything when we've come this far?'
At those words, Rebecca made a low, seething sound deep in her throat, then grabbed the blanket tight instead of the knife.
"This way... hwaaahm..."
"Good. You may go sleep now."
"'Kay!"
Mary left, apparently having finished her role as guide to our room. Anyway, why the hell had this pig bastard come here? Had we been caught?
"Ho-ohhh... this is..."
But the bastard just stared at us and let out an odd murmur of admiration.
So that was their relationship... In that case... both of them at once...
The bastard muttered a few more vile remarks like that, then pulled something from his coat, dropped it near us, and left. This was... perfume?
"..."
"..."
"How long are you going to..."
Rebecca grumbled quietly. The bastard had left the room, but I was still lying on top of her. Of course, it wasn't because I had any ulterior motives.
"Stay still. He hasn't left the building yet."
The separate staff annex—or, at this point, what might as well have been a dormitory for minors. In any case, the bastard was going from room to room. Why?
"...Okay. I think he's out now."
"That's a relief. But what on earth..."
-Ding!
[「Sex Warrior's Performance (SS)」 activates.]
[The following effects of 「Fragrance of Luman」 have been removed: 「Heightened Sensitivity (Faint)」, 「Heat (Faint)」.]
Something like that had been on us? The sensation had been so faint I never would have noticed without the auto-counter. Going around spraying this stuff...
"...!"
I understood. This bastard had been sneaking around every night spraying aphrodisiac so he could make his fuck-list a reality. His creepiness knew no bounds.
"Are you okay?"
"...I don't feel anything particularly strange."
"...I see."
The one fortunate thing, I supposed, was that the effect was so minor.
At any rate, that bastard had killed any chance of sex. There was no longer any reason to remain in this horrible place.
"Let's move. Let's try to handle everything and get out of here by tonight."
"Understood."
# # #
This time, Rebecca and I returned to the main building while I watched the minimap carefully.
Rebecca walked without hesitation despite the complete lack of light. Did beastfolk have especially good night vision? Her dilated pupils glinted in the darkness like a wild animal's, which was a little unsettling.
"This way."
According to Rebecca, the typical layout of a mansion this large was generally: the first floor for entertaining, the second floor for the master and family, and the third floor for guests.
Hearing that, a question crossed my mind. Was she sure about this?
"...That bastard's room was on the third floor. And family? I was next to him all day today, I didn't see any sign of one."
I knew because I'd been stuck to his side the whole day. There wasn't a single object in this mansion that could be considered a trace of family. That damn bastard had filled every room, barring a few, with artworks that couldn't be classified as art, only as obscenity. The first-floor reception room that had so horrified me was nothing.
Anyway, at my question about where the family was, Rebecca answered without much concern.
"I believe he drove out his household long ago. I made contact with them, but they weren't much help. Just as vulgar and full of greed as the man himself..."
Rebecca went on for a bit after that, muttering a few well-enunciated, refined curses on his parentage.
"...In any case, we need to go to the second floor. To the bedroom that man originally used."
...
The bedroom was empty, but it was kept tidy, as if ready for use at any time.
Rebecca went over to the head of the bed and examined something, and then...
"?!"
Good god. A secret door had appeared!
"You can do stuff like that?!"
"...Let's head down first."
I followed Rebecca through the secret door and found a spiral staircase leading downward. But I was more impressed by her than by the door itself.
"No, how do you even know about this kind of thing?!"
"...A mansion of this caliber normally has several of these hidden rooms for emergency evacuation."
Rebecca glanced at me expressionlessly, yet somehow she looked smug. Seeing her act so cocky made me desperately want to pinch her. With those inverted nipples of hers.
Rebecca continued her explanation.
"This mansion has quite a long history. Normally, such things would never be revealed to outsiders... but if that man hadn't become the head of the household, secrets like this would never have leaked outside."
"Yeah?"
"At some point, he carried out renovations on the interior. Even though it was clearly work that needed to be done in complete secrecy, he was so careless... The sheer foolishness defies belief."
"That's good for us, is it not?"
"It is, I suppose."
...Chatting idly like that, we descended the spiral staircase.
Before long, a single long corridor stretched out before us.
Rebecca walked forward carefully, one step at a time.
"The item you are searching for, Yoo-jin, should be in here."
"Right."
And when we opened the door at the end of that corridor, what we found there was...
#
As soon as we stepped inside, a deeply ominous red light switched on. I flinched, thinking we might have been caught, but Rebecca didn't seem to care.
The inner room was too large to be considered a panic room. It was less a room and more the size of two or three living rooms put together. And inside...
"A bed?"
Inside was a bed of enormous size. A bed that looked like five people could comfortably lie in it together. When I turned my gaze from the bed, one entire wall was packed with adult toys of every imaginable size. From dildos no bigger than a little finger to anal beads, tails, clips. I'll omit any further description.
But the problem was the other wall. That one was filled with all manner of bizarre objets d'art.
"This is..."
First came a row of statues shaped like children. Since I already knew the bastard was a genuine pedophile, a room full of that kind of sculpture did not particularly surprise me. The real problem lay elsewhere.
Bird eggs. The taxidermy mounts of baby animals, clearly so young, were arranged almost reverently.
The most grotesque thing was the tree branch placed in the center. It had no leaves at all, only flower buds that hadn't yet opened, like cherry blossoms just before they bloomed in spring. When I touched it lightly, an eerie chill ran through me.
...Something about this felt incredibly ominous.
"Yoo-jin? The item you're looking for is over here..."
I caught hold of Rebecca and asked.
"Do you know what this is?"
Rebecca examined the branch briefly, then frowned.
"I'm not sure what it is, but... a preservation spell has been placed on it."
"A preservation spell?"
"Yes."
Several magic stones were embedded in the base Rebecca pointed to.
"It's normally used only for preserving food, but to use it in such an exposed space. The extravagance is beyond words."
...A thoroughly practical perspective.
I touched the branch here and there, but there was no sign of anything popping up in my Status Window. Did it serve no purpose other than as decoration?
Rebecca hurried me along, so I never got the chance to resolve my questions.
"Yoo-jin. Look at this."
Rebecca pointed to an enormous full-length mirror with a troubled look. No wonder she'd said she could not move it alone when it was this large. But size wasn't her only concern.
"This is the Polymorph Artifact you mentioned, but..."
"What? What about it."
Following Rebecca's finger, I saw that the back of the mirror was connected to a giant case and several cables. The mirror itself was even bolted firmly to the floor.
"That man has added something more to it."
"Sure looks like it."
The size itself was a problem, but I couldn't know what that bastard had done to it. Would it even work properly if we took it as-is?
A system message popped up the moment I touched the mirror to figure out what was going on. The contents sent a shudder through me.
"...Hey. Rebecca."
"Go ahead."
"You said this was your family heirloom, right? And that it was the first thing he took from you?"
"That's correct."
"Does this Polymorph thing affect the mind too? Uh... for example, if it turns you into a baby, do you forget how to talk and lose control of your bladder?"
Rebecca stared at me as if I were speaking nonsense.
"I have no idea what you mean. It is not so different from what you yourself use. Even in a young form like you are now, it cannot affect the mind."
"I see."
I half-listened to Rebecca's answer. That no longer mattered.
[Mirror of Mutatio (Improved)]
[Effect: Changes the target's appearance. Changes in appearance may also alter their personality. Long-term use may cause the Morph to become fixed as a side effect. Consumes magic stones.]
[Current: On / ▶Off]
No wonder. I had thought Ariel's look didn't quite match that bastard's tastes.
This pedo pig bastard had been planning to make Ariel younger than she was now—and then fuck her.