Twisted Ego, Blooming False Hope
The devilish whisper clung to her ear like viscous slime. “From now on, I look forward to your service, my wife.”
The moment those words became the fuse, Karin’s sanity snapped with a clean crack behind the pitch-black blindfold.
Don’t make me laugh! Don’t make me laugh! Don’t you dare make me laugh! Who the hell would ever be the wife of a piece of garbage like you?!
Staring up at Edric’s arrogant golden eyes faintly visible through the fabric, Karin’s ego screamed as if vomiting blood. It felt like something that had been forcibly submerged in the deep, dark abyss beneath the surface of her mind was now boiling up like molten iron and violently breaking through to the surface. Her original personality had awakened completely, shrieking in fury.
Damn it! From this morning onward, I stopped being myself! What the hell is this?! Until yesterday I was certain I still had my full ego intact, unlike Mother!
The memory right before she regained awareness flooded back. The revolting sight of herself, in front of countless nobles, kneeling at Edric’s feet like a bitch in heat, dripping with arousal as she begged for her master’s praise. The instant her ego fully awakened, Karin felt such overwhelming shame and despair that she wanted to bite her own tongue and die.
Though her eyes were covered by the blindfold, it was a special fabric that only prevented others from seeing her pupils; from the inside, the outside world filtered through in a hazy blur. Beyond that dim vision, she could clearly see the horrifying state of her lower body, soaked through with her own fluids.
Her originally deep and noble blue dress, once the color of an abyss, was now drenched in obscene liquid and stained pitch black. It looked exactly like a visualization of the bleak future that lay before her—one where she could see nothing ahead.
The President bastard who did this to me… and Edric, the son of a bitch who commissioned it all…! I swear I will rip both your throats out with my own teeth!
Karin shed tears of blood in her heart as she hurled ferocious curses. The more she did, the more the cruel memories of the past week crashed over her mind with vivid clarity. The nightmare fragments of being toyed with by a man after falling under the terrible curse of hypnosis. The humiliating hours she had spent panting like a beast in the swamp of hellish pleasure injected by the devil disguised as a flower shop owner.
That very morning, inside a body pretending at false peace, she had made a firm resolution. She would tear apart and kill both the client who had bought them like toys and that President. Yet the horrifying mastermind behind it all turned out to be none other than Edric—the disgrace of her bloodline, a beast worse than an animal, absolute trash. It was an identity she had never expected. But paradoxically, it was also one that made perfect, sickening sense.
Yes… if it’s Edric, of course he would do something like this.
A pathetic creature who couldn’t even take care of himself, yet constantly groped the innocent maids of the mansion. A beast in heat who lusted after any woman who caught his eye, without restraint or shame. Since he lacked the power to claim them on his own, he had used the family’s vast fortune to hire a hypnotist and satisfy his petty, twisted lust. The ugly logic of that beast fit together like perfectly meshed gears.
But there was one thing Karin simply could not understand.
Wait… that pathetic trash was lying in bed with his entire body broken from fractures. How could he have hired such a vicious organization by himself?
Her brilliant mind cooled rapidly, assembling a chilling puzzle. There was only one answer. He had a powerful backer supporting him with enormous financial resources. And that backer could only be his father, who doted on his son above all else—Count Blake.
Damn it…
In that instant, the terrorist incident that had been the foundation of this very banquet flashed through her mind. The grudge play of an aspiring knight who had planted a magic bomb against the Count for touching his fiancée. She had believed it was nothing but baseless rumor. And after seeing the enviably affectionate married couple at the banquet hall, she had been certain it was nonsense.
But…
…It wasn’t a rumor.
As if to prove her horrifying suspicion, a spine-chilling scene was unfolding in the center of the party hall. Count Blake, seated in a wheelchair pushed by his wife Carna, was laughing heartily while proudly displaying his supposedly reformed son and the trophies the boy had claimed—Karin and the others—to the other nobles.
I can’t believe it… Is this truly the same kind and benevolent Count who spent his entire life performing good deeds while caring only for his helpless wife?
It was the moment Karin’s common sense shattered into pieces. The most repulsive true face of the mentor she had respected with all her heart. With her consciousness fully restored, she was forced to witness every unbelievable sight in perfect clarity.
And then—
Every time she moved while held in Edric’s arms, a torrent of mocking praise mixed with vulgar taunts from the terrible humans attending the party poured into her ears. Disgusting lips chattering as if she had already been confirmed as Edric’s wife. Voices openly fantasizing about violating her mother. The empire’s leadership and noble society—which she had believed to be noble—were nothing but a rotten den of garbage.
In that miserable state, Karin was dragged around between countless nobles like a prized new thoroughbred being shown off by its owner.
The Blake family… no, the entire noble society was a corrupt organization that kidnapped people behind the scenes, brainwashed them, and turned them into dolls…!
Watching the nobles evaluate and mock her as nothing more than a meat doll less than human, Karin felt bone-deep despair. Above all, the fact that among the dolls was a noblewoman she had known personally sent a cold horror crawling up her spine.
Even Aunt Carna… She didn’t spend twenty years as an imbecile. From the very beginning, she was a perfect doll controlled at will by this family’s commissions!
The Countess who had put on such a touching act earlier at the party, claiming she had miraculously awakened after twenty years. Carna’s image overlapped with the noblewomen before her and her own situation. A plaything that would spend her entire life reacting only to her master’s commands, without an ego of her own. The premonition that she and her mother would soon walk that same miserable path tightened around Karin’s throat like a noose.
A short while later.
Amid boiling rage and despair that seeped into her very bones, Karin found herself walking behind the men of the Blake family and the President after the party had ended. It was a horrifying procession in which she was dragged along like a beast, completely against her will.
How long had they walked? In the chilly night air, the Count returned to the main house with his wife, and as Edric headed toward the annex, the President’s low voice reached them.
Edric’s sneering laugh echoed through the darkness.
“Hmph. I simply wanted to confirm one last time just how much that arrogant bitch—who still believes she possesses a complete ego before becoming a doll—despises me. Only then can I compare how much deeper her despair will be once she learns the truth.”
Yet as if he could see straight through the murderous intent flickering behind her blindfold, Edric continued with a languid, thick smirk.
“Besides, it was also a verification process to decide which of the two—predictable Camilla or this insolent little tomboy—I would take as my legal wife and which I would keep as a concubine or plaything. Heh heh heh. Camilla might feel better to embrace, but I think tormenting Karin will be far more entertaining.”
“Once the false personality is stripped away and she learns the truth, Karin will purely hate me from now on. But that corrupted expression of hers—confused as her body instinctively reacts to her master… I wanted to savor it to my heart’s content right beside her.”
The moment she heard those words, the disgust coiled in Karin’s chest erupted into ferocious hatred. To be treated worse than beasts by these devils who discussed her and her mother like objects, weighing who would be the legal wife and who would be used as a concubine or toy—Karin’s teeth ground together audibly.
At the same time, the term False Personality made her heart pound wildly.
Ah… so that was it.
The one who had soaked her lower abdomen at Edric’s voice during the party and dropped to her knees at the snap of his fingers had not been the real Karin. It had only been the shallow false personality the President had implanted controlling her body. Her essential nobility had not yet been defiled!
Hope bloomed within her. Then what about Mother?
But the President’s next words were merciless.
Karin felt as if her heart had been torn apart. The revelation that both her aunt and her mother were nothing more than puppets performing fake personalities on their master’s command shredded her chest. Yet the President’s following ‘warning’ became a new spark of hope for her.
“And?”
“What happens if she awakens?”
“Heh heh heh… Now that sounds like an interesting game.”
The two devils’ laughter faded away.
But inside the blindfold, Karin’s red eyes swallowed despair and flashed with terrifying murderous intent.
My ego is still intact. Those pieces of trash couldn’t break my mind!
She screamed as if vomiting blood.
Just you wait, Edric. I will definitely shatter this cursed hypnosis and tear every last one of you apart!
Yet regardless of her will, her body remained pathetic. With every step, the fluids she had released at the party slid stickily down her thighs, stimulating her with shame. Worst of all, every time she heard Edric’s languid footsteps, her lower abdomen throbbed and twitched violently.
Damn it… My body is still stained with the remnants of that damned suggestion. But it doesn’t matter. If the true mastermind is the Blake family itself, then the moment I regain control of my body, I’ll just kill them all!
The most precarious murderous intent awakened inside the girl who had reclaimed her ego. If she could cleverly deceive that incompetent trash and make him let his guard down, an opening would surely appear. Although one corner of her mind keenly sensed that regaining full bodily control in this horrific situation would be a miracle bordering on impossible, Karin could not let go of that meager, desperate thread of hope.
At last their footsteps stopped and the door to the annex opened. A rough hand shoved her back.
—Thud!
The blindfold that had covered Karin’s eyes as she tumbled across the cold floor slipped gently away. As her vision brightened, she saw the massive, firmly shut oak door and the bizarrely enormous mirrors that covered the walls.
Karin turned her gaze to her own miserable figure sprawled on the floor, then glared at Edric as he spoke to the masked man leaning against the door.
“!!!!!....”
She wanted to scream something, but no words would come out. All she could do was hurl a silent howl at Edric, who didn’t even glance at her while holding her mother in his arms.
“Good work, President. I’ve taken possession of the goods, so our transaction ends here. My father should have already wired the balance.”
The President clicked his tongue as if disappointed, but Edric’s answer was arrogant.
“I have no interest in the shallow tastes of other men. I don’t have a hobby of sharing my spoils. I intend to lick these bitches to the bone and enjoy them thoroughly in my own secret chamber, in my own way.”
He approached the red-eyed Karin, who burned with fury, gripped her chin, and added in a chilling voice.
“So come back in a week for the regular inspection. By then, I will have remodeled this murderous little wench into a perfect toy for me, just like her mother.”
The President’s footsteps receded, and the heavy iron door slammed shut with a sound that struck her eardrums. At that metallic noise signaling complete isolation from the outside world, Karin’s heart sank in despair.
Now, in this hellish annex, only she, her mother, and the beast called Edric remained.
……Or so she believed.