There Are No Bad Dogs in This World (5)
I couldn't say men were never the same, but women were especially sensitive to atmosphere. Feeling real sexual arousal required a certain amount of buildup. By that measure, this was the worst possible situation for Karen Florence to feel any excitement at all.
Caresses from a woman — not even a man, but another woman. And forced on her by someone she didn't feel a shred of affection for, no less? Excitement, my ass; she'd feel nothing but disgust. If I were in her position, revulsion and resentment would come boiling up in me too.
Even so, I had to carry out the reward Rihardt had decreed — his command. Besides, this was a rare opportunity Karen Florence had sacrificed herself to hand me. I couldn't let even this chance slip away. And if I did? Rihardt would catch me and hang some hideous ornament from my nipples or my clit. Just picturing it sent a chill crawling over my skin.
Slurp, lick.
Like a dog licking its owner's cheek, I devotedly lapped at Karen Florence's pussy.
"Ahh, hah..."
The one mercy was that I knew Karen's weak spots reasonably well. Even if she couldn't feel much pleasure, sustained physical stimulation would coax at least some response out of her body. Should I count myself lucky that, on Rihardt's orders, I'd kept caressing her until she reached her peak? Karen liked it when I pressed firmly around her clit with my tongue before flicking it quickly, and she reacted sharply when the soft flesh around her entrance was rubbed.
"Hahh, there, no, don't—hah..."
The moment I stimulated only the spots she liked, a melting voice and ragged breathing spilled out of her. Karen's bared flesh had grown damp somewhere along the way, my saliva and her own arousal mingling together. It was honestly laughable, how adept I was getting at eating pussy.
"Hii, hah..."
Under my practiced tongue-work, Karen Florence bit her lip and drew her legs in — proof her body was feeling pleasure, whether she willed it or not. Unlike last time, there was no mishap of her clenched thighs squeezing my neck. That much was unexpected, so I lifted my head slightly to look at her. And as it happened, our eyes met.
Her red eyes, which I'd assumed would be full of loathing and jealousy, looked somehow sorrowful instead. What lay in them was unmistakable pity.
Why?
Why are you looking at me like that? It was a gaze I couldn't make sense of at all — and so I wanted to ask. You hate me, don't you? You resent me, don't you? Weren't you hoping to see me suffer horribly? So why are you wearing that sad face?
For no reason at all, my heart grew heavy. When I pulled my tongue from her pussy, a thread of fluid stretched between us before snapping. I could have kept stimulating the panting Karen Florence, but every trace of the will to do so had evaporated.
"Did anyone say you could stop?"
"...Hahh?"
That wasn't Karen's moan. It had come from my own mouth. I turned to look at Rihardt. His red eyes were bitterly cold.
I could take a break, can't I? What's got you dissatisfied this time?
"Lucy, it seems you're forgetting your place, so allow me to remind you."
Rihardt's fingers touched my crotch — and quite deep at that. My back arched at the dizzying sensation.
"Right now, you're a puppy. Not a person."
His index finger tapped lightly against my groin, a gesture that warned he would push inside at any moment if I didn't obey. The excessive tension left every last muscle in my body feeling locked rigid.
"That's what corporal punishment is. Isn't that right?"
My heart wouldn't stop pounding. Naturally, because of Rihardt's fingers rubbing between my legs. His touch was more practiced than I'd expected, and more relentless.
"Ahh."
"If you keep making sounds like that, I'll have no choice but to get rough."
Rihardt was the type to more or less keep his word. At least while I was being tested as his accomplice, he wouldn't treat me as a toy — so even as those fingers toyed with my pussy, he wouldn't go so far as to penetrate me. Still, merely being touched around my groin was more than enough to grate on my nerves. Call it a chill, call it the heat building between my legs. My thoughts were turning coarse and sluggish. Everything felt dim.
"...Woof."
"Lucy, I want to keep my promises whenever I can."
"Woof, woof."
"So why do you keep making human sounds, without any regard for my goodwill?"
Squeeze.
Without warning, his index finger and thumb sank into the flesh, seized my clit, and pressed down, squeezing hard. A woman's clit, compared to a man's body, would be the glans — an extremely sensitive, fragile piece of flesh. And he was crushing it? With Rihardt's strength, no less? This was verging on sexual torture.
It was like being electrocuted. Like a needle driven deep into the skin. The unbearable pain wrenched my mouth open on its own. A scream I couldn't suppress, couldn't control, came clawing up my throat — but I knew I mustn't shriek like a human. So I did my best to mimic a dog's whine.
"Yipe, yelp, whine... hik."
Maybe the searing pain had triggered my tear ducts — my vision went hazy, as if fog had drifted in.
"Am I asking too much of you, Lucy, hmm?"
My thoughts were bleached blank by pain. The only thing I wanted, desperately, was for it to stop.
"If you're going to do something, do it thoroughly, right? You're suffering like this precisely because you were half-hearted about it."
His words were steeped in amusement. Even with my mind scrambled, I could tell he was sneering at everything I'd done until now.
Trickle.
"Hik, hii, hik."
"When on earth did my Lucy become such a bedwetter?"
With Rihardt crushing my clit without mercy, the urine I hadn't managed to hold back spilled out. Rihardt stared at his soaked hand — and his other palm came down hard on my ass.
Smack.
The crack was loud enough to leave a handprint.
"You really are a high-maintenance puppy, aren't you?"
"Hik, yelp, whine."
"You're truly remarkable, Lucy. How do you always manage to pick exactly the things that stir my sadism?"
Suddenly Rihardt's face drew close. He murmured right beside my ear.
"What if I just seized you in my arms right now?"
A chill raced down my spine — because it absolutely did not sound like a joke.
"That'd be fun too, wouldn't it?"
"..."
What could I say to slip free? No — even if I got past this moment, what about the next? Enduring was meaningless anyway. How was it any different from running nonstop toward no destination? Wasn't holding out a foolish thing to do?
"Don't you secretly want it too, Lucy? For me to break you."
Bullshit. You think I'd wish for that, knowing the horrific things you do?
Without answering, I glared at Rihardt. Apparently he quite liked that look in my eyes.
"Pretty eyes, Lucy."
Look at him, spitting out such nauseating words. How long did our eyes stay locked like that? The standoff I'd thought would stretch on forever came to an end — interrupted by someone else.
"S-stop it! Can't you see Lucy's in pain?! Weren't you supposed to be tormenting me?!"
It was Karen Florence who, unable to watch any longer, shouted at Rihardt. Even as deep gratitude surged toward her, my heart dropped — because that reaction was exactly what Rihardt wanted. Sure enough, his whole face was curved in a smile.
"Karen, stay out of this, would you? This is between me and Lucy."
Squeeze.
Rihardt crushed my clit again. Unable even to scream, I crumpled where I knelt, legs clamped together.
"...Rihardt, you really are a disgustingly vile human being."
No, Karen. Don't provoke Rihardt. Please.
"That's right. So? What, are you going to take the pain for Lucy, hmm?"
"You say that as if I wouldn't dare..."
I couldn't just stand by and watch her make that self-destructive move any longer. If she provoked Rihardt while he was this worked up, someone really might die. I got up and clamped a hand over Karen Florence's mouth.
Ah, damn it. Why am I like this? Whatever Karen said, I could have just endured it. It would've been better for me, even — Rihardt's attention would shift to her. I only had to bear this one moment and get past it. Rebelling now would only come back at me worse anyway. Playing along to his tune really is exhausting. Come to think of it, hadn't I ended up receiving 'punishment' precisely because I couldn't hold my tongue? Maybe this was exactly what Rihardt had been aiming for all along.
"...Hnn... hah... Y-Young Master Rihardt... huu... isn't this... my punishment...?"
Hearing that, Rihardt didn't get angry. Far from it — he broke into a radiant smile, so bright and clear it felt discordant with the gloom of this dark basement.
"So?"
I steadied my breath and continued.
"Using my punishment as a pretext to torment Karen Florence is unfair. The one who should be punished... is—"
I never got to finish. Rihardt burst out laughing, loud enough to echo through the basement. By the time his laughter subsided, he spoke in a voice gone noticeably lower.
"Lucy, do you have any idea how brazen your behavior is?"
"...Yes."
"No, you don't. You're paying the price for acting on emotion right now, aren't you? What was it I ordered you to do, Lucy? Are you following my orders at this moment?"
"..."
Ah. I've touched the wrong nerve.
Rihardt stared at me with eyes that betrayed no emotion whatsoever — eyes like someone gazing at a clear glass marble.
"I told you to dispose of Bianca. I wanted you to kill her with your own hands. I know you don't enjoy that sort of thing. I know — but I hoped that by going through something similar to what I went through, you'd come to understand me a little better. And how did you act instead?"
"...I'm sorry."
"I'm not bringing this up to hear an apology. I'm laying out the facts plainly. Yes — you didn't listen to me, did you, Lucy? It left a bad taste in my mouth, but you're Lucy, so I decided to give you another chance. To see just how well you'd conform and submit to my words. And now look at you. Is playing puppy really that hard? As if that weren't enough, now you're talking back to your own master?"
My chest felt tight, as if a boulder had settled on it. Each point he laid out, one by one, seemed to tighten around my throat. Somewhere along the way, part of me had started to accept his warped logic as fair.
"Lucy, my Lucy. Just how much do I have to let slide before you're satisfied, hmm?"
"That's..."
"Or what is it — you want me to just make you my toy? Honestly, such a lewd little maid."
"No."
"That's quite the revolted face you're making. Well, I suppose it would be, watching all your struggling come to nothing. Then shall I make you an offer? A special offer, for Lucy — who, for all her pretending otherwise, has such an enormous heart for others."
At the out-of-nowhere proposal, Karen and I both went silent, staring at Rihardt.
"If Lucy gives everything up right now and becomes my toy, I'll let Karen go — perfectly unharmed."
He'd release Karen? Could I make amends for the betrayal I'd committed through my own choice?
"Well? For a good little Lucy, that's a fairly tempting offer, isn't it? Of course, once you're my toy, I'll break you thoroughly."
Without thinking, I glanced at Karen. She was shaking her head. You could be freed by my choice — why are you reacting like that?
"Don't do it, Lucyfer."
If anything, she'd said the opposite. If she'd told me to go ahead, I might actually have considered it.
I smiled at Karen Florence.
Karen. Do you know? I really, truly hate owing anyone anything.
"...I'll do it. I'll be Young Master Rihardt's toy."
For me, that was a long time to last.