Pleasure
Breast milk.
At Mari's completely unexpected request, not a single word would leave my mouth. My mind went utterly blank.
I forced down the swirling confusion and managed to tell her no.
"Why… can't I…?"
"H-huh? Uh…?"
"I want… Mommy's milk too…"
Mari's face crumpled into a look of pure desolation, as if she had just lost the entire world. Guilt flooded through me at the sight of her pitiful expression.
"I-it's just… Mommy's still too young…"
"……"
"So milk… won't…"
"….."
The moment Mari's eyes reddened, panic seized me like a fire had broken out in my chest.
"Th-then how about regular milk? That'll taste way better…!"
"No… I want Mommy's…"
"O-or maybe we could ask someone else…?"
"Don't want anyone else… Mommy's…"
She clung to me, pleading over and over. I simply could not bring myself to push her away.
U-uuh… what do I do?
What on earth was I supposed to do in a situation like this? Faced with something I had never experienced even once, I could only fidget helplessly.
Breast milk only came after pregnancy. There was no way any would come from my body right now. But Mari absolutely refused to drink anything that hadn't come from me.
"Ma… Mari…"
After that, Mari sulked hard over the fact that she couldn't have any breast milk. In the end, only after I carefully explained for a long while why I simply couldn't give her any did I finally manage to get her to accept it.
Night had fallen before I knew it.
I looked at Mari sleeping beside me and let out a quiet sigh.
"Promise… you have to keep it, Mommy."
"You have to… you have to!! Me first!!"
The promise she and I had made.
If the day ever came when breast milk started coming from me, I would definitely let Mari drink it first.
Sorry, Mari… that day probably isn't coming…
There was no chance I would ever get pregnant, after all.
Still, I figured that once a little more time passed, Mari's obsession with breast milk would fade. Dragons grew incredibly fast. In just a few years she might even find the whole idea embarrassing and refuse it herself.
It felt a little like I had told a white lie, but I told myself it couldn't be helped. Mari's pleading had been so desperately earnest that only making a promise like this seemed able to calm her down.
"Mari… are you asleep…?"
"….."
Once I confirmed she was deeply under, I quietly sat up in bed.
It was time to go find Athena. As her faithful slave.
Hoping she would be pleased with me again tonight, I slipped out the door without a sound so Mari wouldn't wake.
Without noticing the faint stir of something shifting on the bed behind me.
"Welcome, Hera."
"Mm…"
Just like yesterday, Athena was waiting for me on the sofa with a book in her hands. She seemed to enjoy reading quite a bit.
I glanced at the cover, but oddly enough nothing was written on it at all.
She closed the book with a soft thump and simply stared at me. Under that piercing gaze, tension slowly climbed through my body.
"Pfft… Sit on the bed, Hera."
Apparently my nervousness showed on my face; Athena gave a quiet little laugh as she spoke.
I perched on the edge of the bed as ordered. Athena immediately sat beside me and began caressing my face.
"Ah…"
"Your lips are pretty chapped."
The moment her finger brushed my lips, a faint sting pulled a soft whimper from me.
"E-even so… if you want to, I can still…"
Afraid she might be upset if we couldn't kiss, I hurriedly offered myself.
"I like that attitude. But tonight you don't have to do a thing."
She stroked my hair as she said it.
Stay still tonight. At those words my body gave a small, involuntary shudder.
I had to satisfy Athena. If she ever grew tired of me… if those terrible words about discarding me ever left her mouth again…
"N-no… I can do it…"
My voice trembled. But Athena pressed a finger to my lips, silencing me completely.
"Don't worry. This is a reward for the hardworking slave who served me so well yesterday."
"A reward…?"
"Mm. Lie down on the bed for me?"
I didn't fully understand what she meant by a reward, but I didn't talk back. I simply lay flat on the bed just as she told me.
Athena looked down at me with something like fond pride, stroked my hair once more, then took both of my wrists and lifted them above my head.
Click—
"…Huh?"
The sound of metal locking came from above my head. Twisting my neck, I saw my arms crossed and bound tightly upward.
Click—click—
No matter how hard I strained, the metal restraints showed not the slightest sign of giving.
"A-Athena…?"
I called her name in a flustered voice, but she only gently stroked my cheek.
"Yesterday you made me feel good. So today I'm going to make you feel good."
"N-no… it's fine, really…"
"Shh, Hera."
Her commanding tone sealed my lips shut. When I timidly nodded, she looked pleased and pressed a light kiss to my forehead.
Why did Athena feel so much more frightening lately?
She used to be nothing but gentle…
Athena licked her lips once, then caught the hem of my black dress and yanked it straight up.
"A-Athena?!"
The sudden pull exposed my underwear and the pale expanse of my stomach all at once. I reflexively tried to clamp my legs shut, but Athena would have none of it. She gave my thigh a sharp little slap.
"Hahk!"
"Keep your legs straight, Hera."
"A… Athena…"
She was being especially overbearing tonight.
I… shouldn't refuse, right…?
I didn't want to cross her. In the end I decided to obey. Squeezing my eyes shut against the shame, I stretched my legs out straight again. My white thighs and black underwear were fully on display once more.
We had already seen each other naked, but that had been in the bath. Showing my underwear like this in the bedroom in the dead of night felt completely different.
Athena didn't stop. She kept lifting the dress until even the upper swell of my chest was bare. Cool air kissed my exposed skin, bringing a faint chill and a hollow, vulnerable feeling.
"Hera. That's an order."
Still holding the bunched fabric, Athena suddenly stuffed the dress into my mouth.
"Mmph?!"
"Keep it there for one hour. If you spit it out, I'll punish you."
I had no idea what she was thinking. But it didn't matter. As long as Athena was happy, that was enough.
Unable to speak around the cloth filling my mouth, I simply nodded my acceptance.
"Heh… Good girl. My slave."
She praised me with a light kiss on the cheek.
"Do you know what I'm about to do?"
I shook my head.
"I told you I'd make you feel good."
As she spoke, Athena's hand began gently stroking across my stomach. A ticklish sensation traveled over my skin. When I looked up at her in confusion, she gave a soft snort of laughter—
—and pressed down firmly.
"Mmphh?!"
A jolt of electric sensation exploded through my entire body in an instant.
I had felt it several times before, yet I could never get used to how alien it was. It was like someone was pouring raw current straight through the inside of my body.
"The Master-Slave Brand forms where the master's mana gathers most densely."
She traced a teasing finger over the brand itself.
"Which means a great deal of my mana is concentrated right here."
She pressed again.
"Mmphh?!"
Athena glanced at my gagged, helpless state and continued calmly.
"So when I press down like this, even if only for a brief moment, my mana floods through your whole body before flowing back to its place."
Another firm press.
"According to other slaves, the feeling of someone else's mana moving inside you brings a sharp, tingling kind of pleasure."
Press.
"And the place where your brand is carved, Hera… sits extremely close to a woman's most sensitive spot."
Press.
"I'm sure every bit of that sensation will reach there."
"Mmph…!! Hyahp!? Nnghmmph?!"
Every time she pressed my lower abdomen, my back arched and my body jerked hard against the restraints. I looked up at her with pleading eyes, begging her to stop, but Athena only shook her head.
"Focus and really feel it, Hera. You'll be able to accept it as pleasure soon enough."
Press.
"Hooomph?!"
Once more that searing current raced from my lower belly through every nerve. My body thrashed in time with it. No matter how many times I experienced it, the sensation was spine-chilling.
Th-this is… pleasure…?
It was far too intense a shock to simply call "good." It felt more like someone was stabbing a needle straight into my brain. I couldn't possibly call it pleasure.
For a second I almost spat the cloth out to speak—but the quiet, smoldering look in Athena's eyes made the thought die instantly. Talking back right now did not seem wise.
J-just one hour…
She had told me to keep the cloth in my mouth for exactly one hour. Whether this was pleasure or not, the most important thing was keeping Athena happy.
In the end I squeezed my eyes shut and resolved to endure the overwhelming sensations she was giving me.
What I had no way of knowing then was just how desperately I would end up gasping and writhing under this incomprehensible, unknown feeling.
And that, through the slightly open crack of the door, a pair of blue eyes had been watching me the entire time.
I had no idea at all.