Chapter 5
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 5
Chapter Title: Carrot and Stick (2)
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"Whoa..."
The brief moment I spent pondering the meaning of the carrot was interrupted.
A soft exclamation escaped Kaen's lips inside the room.
As I looped a rubber band around the broken door latch, I glanced toward the source of the sound.
The space was so cramped that even living alone felt tight.
What they called a "room" was really just three steps from the entryway.
Thanks to that, I could clearly see Kaen's back even from the front door.
Her jet-black ponytail swayed innocently, just like her playful personality.
Behind it, I caught sight of her clothes.
To sum it up in one word: revealing. Extremely so.
That made sense—Kaen usually wore outfits close to uniforms.
A baggy black hoodie with some indecipherable foreign script slashed diagonally across it.
And short shorts that had been all the rage among the empire's young men lately, barely covering her thighs.
Kaen, who had gone from queen to little girl.
She spread her arms wide, as if measuring the room's size.
"Why is everything so small here?"
Kaen muttered, adding that she couldn't believe anyone lived in a place like this.
Of course, to her, this room was probably smaller than her bathroom.
She seemed to feel a tiny bit of pity for commoner life.
I finished securing the flimsy lock and rummaged through the cupboard for something to offer her.
As expected, there was nothing fit to serve the Northern Archduchess of a nation.
I didn't have the luxury to prepare anything expensive anyway.
I couldn't very well give her leftover snacks from dinner the other night, so I gave up the search and cautiously approached her side.
In front of the bed. Kaen stood still, lost in thought.
She crossed her arms, her gaze sliding from the headboard down to where her feet would reach, then tilted her head quizzically before letting out a loud sigh I could clearly hear.
Why was she staring at my bed like that?
I had no idea what was going through her mind.
If she was just going to stand there, I wished she'd let me get some sleep and leave.
Timing my interruption, I spoke up just as her cheeks puffed out slightly with her lips pressed tight.
"Lady Kaen."
"Yeah."
Her voice was a bit lower than usual.
But her reply came quick.
"So, um... could I ask what you meant by that carrot?"
"Hold on. I need to... mentally prepare myself a bit."
Mentally prepare?
This was getting harder to understand by the second.
Kaen took deep breaths—whoosh, whoosh—after saying that.
Did handing out a simple reward really require all that?
Her exaggerated gestures actually suited her, though they might ruin the breathing exercise instead.
Feeling like I'd be in the way if I stayed close, I stepped back and watched her from afar.
If I had to guess what her prepared "carrot" was, given how she was warming up, maybe a "free massage coupon" or something.
After all the pounding she'd given me, it could be her way of offering to loosen me up personally.
Sure, it was a kid's gift to their parents, but it seemed plausible enough.
Kaen often acted younger than her twenty years, so my mind naturally went there.
A moment later.
The dramatic breathing ended.
"Pervert. No, wait, one sec."
Turning to call me, Kaen shook her head vigorously and pulled her hood down over it.
The fist-sized wolf ears on top folded neatly inside.
Her unpredictable personality was a hassle, but those beastkin mannerisms were undeniably cute sometimes.
If I had a younger sister close in age who refused to listen no matter what, she'd probably feel like Kaen.
Not that I had siblings to compare with—it was just a guess.
"Luke."
"Yes, Lady Kaen."
Kaen called me again and stared straight into my eyes.
Her pale purple gaze pursued mine with burdensome intensity.
She hadn't come to my room just for some childish staring contest.
I wished she'd finally say whatever it was.
Just as my forced smile started to falter.
"......Strip."
Kaen's squeezed-out command left me missing my chance to respond.
*
Three seconds to stumble back.
Three seconds to be dragged by Kaen's hand and thrown onto the bed.
Total: six seconds.
Situation over.
"Lady Kaen. Strip what exactly...?"
My clothes.
Obviously my clothes.
But I had to ask.
Especially after that incident earlier today.
And now she was telling me to undress.
Only one reason sprang to mind.
—How dare you have such thoughts about a noble?
—You need to be taught a lesson.
And the greatest punishment a man could face was...
No.
I couldn't lose that if I wanted to live as a man.
Clinging to it desperately was far manlier than giving it up casually like it was just an arm.
"Your clothes. Take them off."
"W-Wait, just a moment!"
You said it was a carrot.
A carrot instead of the whip.
Before I knew it, I'd instinctively covered myself with both arms.
I wasn't some village girl captured by a depraved noble brat.
Even I had to admit it looked ridiculous.
"Why? Isn't this what you like?"
"Me? You think I like this?"
Was there a part in that novel where the protagonist begged to be dominated?
I didn't know.
I'd skimmed it to death at dawn and hadn't seen anything like that.
It wasn't even the type of erotic tale for such content.
Kaen said it with genuine puzzlement.
"It was all in the novel. You know, that part, anyway."
"Of course I don't know. I've told you over and over it's not mine...!"
"Still on about that? Embarrassed? I promised not to tell anyone else. Time to be honest."
"It was never mine to begin with..."
"Enough. I'll handle it. You just stay quiet."
Handle it? Handle what?
The more I pieced it together, the colder sweat trickled down my spine.
"I even practiced a little earlier, so don't worry."
"......"
Crazy bitch.
Could I protect my precious dick from this lunatic?
I strained my fatigue-addled brain like it was on fire, but nothing came.
Checkmate.
Kaen's hand reached my waistband.
"...Hold still. It's awkward undoing it from this side."
Naturally, the distance between us shrank.
The soft touch of her skin filtered through my clothes.
Her sweet, candy-like scent wrapped around my nose, but sadly, I had no leisure to savor it now.
Click, click. Tiny fingers unbuckled my belt from below.
I wanted to grab that wrist and pin her down right then.
But the fear that she'd revoke our deal and drag me to trial held me back.
Besides, overpowering her with my strength was a long shot anyway.
Resist?
Give in?
Either way, I was at a disadvantage.
"Lady Kaen... please..."
"...Huh? What's wrong? This is what you like, right?"
Kaen mumbled ambiguously as her hands kept moving.
The belt around my waist slid free following her pull, tickling my skin.
The tight pressure vanished in an instant, and her warm fingers fumbled at my pants waist.
Unbuttoning them didn't take long.
Soon, the room's cold air brushed my most private spot.
"......Ngh."
Kaen swallowed hard.
At the same time, her folded wolf ears twitched visibly inside the hoodie.
I set aside the instinctive "cute" thought for now and followed her gaze down to what I'd been avoiding.
Pants undone.
Two fingers of Kaen's right hand hooked into my underwear.
And.
The cock hidden beneath those two layers of fabric now monopolized Kaen's pale purple stare.
"......"
"......"
If there was any silver lining, it wasn't throbbing hard on top of everything else.
Just a slight tension at most.
If her scent and touch had made it fully erect, there'd be no turning back.
There might still be a chance.
Maybe I could persuade her now.
As I opened my mouth to try, her hooked fingers brushed my cock without warning.
"Like this...?"
Kaen fumbled around uncertainly, not sure what to do.
Now she was really going to get it up and deliver punishment.
I had to endure.
Absolutely could not get erect.
But the faint heat from my lower belly wasn't easy to ignore.
"Hey. Pervert. Say something. Is this right?"
Kaen's small, cool hand.
That simple sensation layered with all sorts of thoughts.
The hand of the Kaen who always wagged her tail and smiled.
The hand of the Kaen who toyed with a plebeian like me as her plaything, craving queenly treatment.
The hand I could never dare touch.
That hand was now servicing my cock.
"G-Guess so. It's getting harder."
Hot haze scrambled my mind.
As I tried to shake off the wicked imaginings, tension built in my lower belly without thinking.
"Hic...?"
"......"
I'm screwed.
Of all times.
I want to die.
I want to live.
Contradictory emotions.
Amid the confusion, one thing was clear.
With beauty like Kaen's in front of me, I couldn't control the blood starting to flow.
And that blood was swelling my cock without my say-so.
Kaen stared blankly down at it, lost in thought.
I swept both hands over my face as I watched her.
As time passed, my cock twitched and grew in her tiny hand.
Startled by the movement, her body jerked too.
Kaen and I watched each moment in bated breath, as if by agreement.
9 PM.
A space alone with no visitors.
If the one before me wasn't Kaen, maybe I'd think differently.
About three minutes passed like that.
"I-It got properly hard. You said you hated it... all lies after all."
Kaen, who'd kept her lips pressed, fiddled with the now fully erect cock as she spoke.
I barely registered her saying it matched the novel's description... my ears were tuned to survival.
Each brush of her fingers felt like her appraising cuts—here, there—chilling me.
What do I do?
How do I survive this madwoman?
Options were few.
Cornered, I chose.
"...I was wrong."
An apology.
Empty words without a shred of sincerity.
If explanations could fix it, we wouldn't be here.
They say refuting one line takes dozens more plus proof.
With her convinced I was the erotic author, a few apologies seemed more effective than lengthy defenses right now.
"Wrong? Yeah, everyone slips up. Just don't do it again."
Surprisingly reasonable response from Kaen.
But her hand stayed on my cock.
At least it wasn't worsening—a good sign.
As I tried to keep talking, her next words shut my mouth.
"Putting up with your vulgar reading without getting mad. Where else would you find an owner as good as me?"
"...Haha..."
I swallowed the urge to tell her to cut the bullshit.
To play along, I nodded vigorously.
"So as your excellent owner, you need to learn how I alternate carrot and stick properly."
Carrot and stick.
For Kaen, wasn't the carrot just another whip?
Or maybe she didn't grasp the idiom.
Still, no worsening was good.
Apology was the right call.
Now, how to send her back to her dorm.
The classic Eastern apology rite.
Dogeza naked might change her mind.
Let's do it.
"Hey. Pervert."
Just before prostrating myself, swallowing my shame.
Kaen gripped my cock with both hands and spoke.
"If it feels weird, tell me? I only read it in writing today, so I'm not sure how."
"......?"
"I'm starting?"
Her voice trembled slightly.
With those words, her face slowly descended toward my crotch.
No time to stop it.
Or rather, the thought never crossed my mind.
Why was Kaen's face nearing my cock?
Maybe to bite it off? But she'd avoid that messy hassle.
Instead, what she'd "read" in the novel popped into my head.
Irammachio.
Or
Fellatio.
Proof in hand.
And the carrot she'd promised.
Did that carrot mean...
"...Gh...?"
Something wet grazed the tip once.
Second time. Not a flick, but a slow, thorough wipe.
Finally, the jumbled puzzle pieces clicked into place.