Chapter 4 — Sleep Conditioning
"Attendant, today's the day you go market shopping, isn't it?"
"Yes, my lady."
"Then buy several chickens on your way back."
With that, the knight pressed a single silver coin into my hand.
"Anything else you require of me...?"
"No."
I usually hated how short she was with me, but today the knight's clipped answer rang sweet in my ears.
Because it meant she hadn't noticed what happened last night.
"Then, I shall take my leave."
"Mm."
Silver coin in hand, I stepped out of the knight's residence.
And so I arrived at the second-tier market.
"Chickens here! One chicken for the low, low price of 25 copper!"
"Fresh egg soup, get it while it's hot! Only 10 copper!"
The moment I left the knight's house and reached the market, the cries of merchants filled the air.
"Twenty-five copper for one chicken, huh..."
Roughly speaking, one chicken cost about five bowls of potato soup. Mushroom soup, twelve bowls...
Truly, there was no denying it — expensive ingredients indeed.
"I'll take four chickens, please."
"Right you are — that comes to 100 copper."
"Here you go."
I pressed the silver coin into the merchant's hand.
"Received with thanks. I'll wrap them up nicely for you."
And so I bought four chickens.
"Let's see... what else do I need to buy..."
A bundle of potatoes, a bundle of mushrooms, three bars of soap...
The walk home was going to be a bit heavy today.
"Jorus~ Got anything fun going on?"
The pint-sized one before me was apprentice knight Elise.
She was currently taking knight lessons under Lady Liana.
Which positionally made her my superior.
Why I call my own superior a pint-sized brat is simple enough.
Elise is four years younger than me — barely twenty — and even by knight standards, she's remarkably small.
About 155 centimeters, I'd guess?
Quite the contrast with Lady Liana, who's tall and slender.
But still — can someone that small even be a knight?
"Ah, not really... just the usual, my lady."
Of course, small stature aside, that little brat is from a prestigious house.
The illustrious house of the Ministry of Education, House Rosenwald — direct bloodline, third daughter.
Back when I was in the attendant training academy, even the academy's director had been a Rosenwald.
And that little brat, no less, is direct blood of that very house.
Elise hasn't yet received the Knight Ceremony and is still an apprentice knight — but seen from another angle, she's a more dangerous woman than Lady Liana herself.
The best course of action is to answer just enough to satisfy her and make my escape.
"Hee~?"
Up until now, the little brat had always been lukewarm toward me.
No particular interest shown, no particular handsiness either.
Which, honestly, had made things easier.
Serving two mistresses was burden enough — if both of them were demanding, it would've been far more exhausting.
"Hmhm... I hear you've been attending to Lady Liana's baths lately? Does seeing Lady Liana naked get you all worked up or something?"
The brat's golden eyes, brimming with mischief and curiosity, bore straight through me.
"Certainly not. I was merely... performing my duties as an attendant."
"Your duties as an attendant? And what, pray tell, would those be~?"
The brat snickered, tapping the table lightly with her fingertip.
"By the way, it's been ages since I saw Lady Liana drink that much. What did you do to her?"
"Nothing at all, I assure you..."
I really hadn't done anything while she was drinking.
She got drunk on her own past, drank herself under, and fell asleep. That was all.
...Come to think of it, that's rather insulting, isn't it?
Shouldn't something like this be the disciple's job?
"Then shouldn't Lady Liana's drinking companion be Lady Elise herself?"
"Huh?"
A look of utter bewilderment, as if to say: why would that be my job?
"Traditionally, it is the disciple who soothes the master's solitude and loneliness."
"What even is that. I'm bad at that kind of stuff. And why should I have to do it? That's the attendant's job. Yours."
First I'd ever heard of it.
"I was under the impression other knights don't drink with their attendants either..."
"Dunno."
Then what exactly is it you do?
You don't train properly, you can't even give your master spiritual support—
Ah, of course, she doesn't offload her work onto me, I'll grant her that.
That alone makes her an exemplary apprentice knight. Yep.
"Anyway, understood. See you next time~"
And with that, Elise departed — to be replaced by the knight's voice.
"Attendant. Prepare my bath service."
—Shaaah.
The knight seemed lost deep in thought about something.
In this state, surely I could afford to push things a little further today?
"Nn..."
But the moment my hand touched her back, the knight let out a strange, breathy moan.
"That's a lie..."
The knight murmured to herself, having let out the moan.
As if even she were denying the sound she herself had made.
Had last night's amplification carried over, then?
If ever there was a time to keep my composure, it was now.
And so, steeling my resolve, I washed the knight's back as I always did.
—Shaaah.
Half worried about how she'd react next, half driven by curiosity, I finished washing her back — and then,
"Attendant. Do my lower belly as well."
"Ah! Yes... of course!"
The knight had issued a rather unusual order.
The lower belly, of all places.
It's a part one can easily wash by oneself.
Could she have found out about what I did to her lower belly yesterday?
But then why would she leave me at it, just like this?
"Then, I shall place my hands on your lower belly."
Ordered work was work that had to be done, so I rubbed the lather against the knight's lower belly.
Since it was her front side, the position ended up looking as though I were embracing her from behind.
"Nngh...!"
And there it was — that strange, breathy moan again.
The knight, somehow even more sensual than yesterday, felt inexplicably endearing to me.
And so the bath service, tinged with a slightly suggestive atmosphere, came to an end —
"Ah, and you'll have a drink with me later."
The knight proposed a drinking session.
"As you wish."
—Shaaah.
And so, listening to the sound of the knight dousing herself in water, I stepped out of the bathroom.
"Aaahh."
The sweet aroma blooming across my tongue, the crisp coolness sliding down my throat.
To drink this costly fruit wine two nights in a row...
Could it be that I'm simply a lucky man?
No other attendant would ever get to enjoy such luxury.
"You do so love your fruit wine, attendant."
"I do. Thank you for letting me drink something this fine."
"Mm."
I caught it — the faintest upturn at the corner of the knight's otherwise expressionless mouth.
Apparently, gratitude was music to her ears.
"And how do you find attending my baths, attendant?"
"It is a joy to serve you at such close quarters, my lady."
"You do have a way with words."
The knight's expression brightened by another degree.
Ah — a woman weak to flattery.
"I do not dislike having you attend my baths."
"Thank you very much."
"That isn't strange, is it?"
The knight's values never wavered.
Whether what she did looked normal to other people.
I used to think it peculiar, but now that I've heard about the knight's past... I believe it stems from that unhappy history.
She is, after all, a person starved for her family's recognition.
"Not at all. I hear many attendants perform bath service regularly. It's rather difficult to wash one's own back, after all."
"I see. Then I'm glad."
—Sip.
The knight drank again.
She downed cup after cup, and then,
"Well..."
"I'm listening."
"Hear me out, but don't take it the wrong way."
"Of course."
"A shiver running through me at your touch, strange sounds escaping me without my meaning to — these things are... normal. Aren't they?"
They were obviously not normal.
I'd never heard of anything like it.
But the knight was the sort who clung obsessively to normalcy, so I decided to give her an answer tailored to that.
"I'd say that's exactly why the other knights have their attendants do it as well."
"I see."
—Glu-glug.
And then she poured me another drink.
"How should I put it... it feels as though the world I've known all this time is changing, right before my eyes, far too quickly."
"That would be because you have always walked so straight a path, my lady."
"Do you think so."
—Clack.
The knight set down her cup.
Unlike the forlorn look in her eyes yesterday, today her expression was gentle, touched with the faintest smile.
Eric would have dropped dead of shock.
"Attendant."
"Yes."
"When Eric left — what did he say?"
Liana's expression wasn't angry so much as simply curious.
— "Man, what a frigid bitch. Rot in hell."
Eric's voice played back in my head as if on cue.
Needless to say, repeating that verbatim was not an option.
"...Nothing in particular, my lady."
"You lie badly."
"...My apologies."
"It's fine. I knew anyway."
Liana drained her cup.
"Did you think I wouldn't know you all curse me behind my back?"
"..."
I kept my mouth shut, unable to decide what answer she wanted.
"Cold. Rigid. Those, I was prepared for."
But despite her words, Liana's voice trembled, just slightly.
'The lady actually cares about that?'
Unexpected.
Ah. I suppose I should see it as an extension of her endless need to confirm that she is normal.
"Attendant."
"Yes."
"Are you, too, going to leave one day — like Eric did?"
'...'
A question I never saw coming. From the mouth of the knight who always spoke in nothing but commands came an unfamiliar kind of query.
"I have no intention of leaving at present."
"At present, you say."
I'd misspoken without meaning to.
The knight's expression soured.
"..."
"Well. It doesn't matter. That's what they all said before they left anyway."
The knight smiled bitterly, then began drinking again, cup after cup.
—Gulp.
And once more, the knight had passed out cold.
Should I mention this drinking habit of hers to her eventually?
Get her laid down first, then worry about it.
"Mmmh—."
—Thump.
Freshly reminded, once again: the knight truly was built like a doll.
'Tonight, sleep conditioning shall commence.'
What I'd read in the Tower of Babel comes back to me.
2. Whisper, at fixed intervals, sentences blending the words below into the android's ear.
- Key words: the android's name, sex slave, climax, lewd, pervert, submission, possession, pleasure, surrender, hole
And so, the sentences I'd agonized over and crafted yesterday, I whispered into the knight's ear.
"Lady Liana is a person born to serve as a sex slave."
The knight seemed to flinch, ever so slightly — must be my imagination.
'It said stimulation applied at the same time works best...'
I stroke Lady Liana's lower belly.
The tattoo on her lower belly beginning to glow, just as before.
"Lady Liana is a lewd pervert who feels pleasure with every thrust into her hole, climaxing again and again."
Words of my own devising, and yet — what an embarrassing combination.
Deeply, mortifyingly embarrassing. But if it means dragging Lady Liana down into corruption as a sex slave, then it must be done.
"Lady Liana is a person born to serve as a sex slave."
—Flinch.
Carefully, so as not to wake her, I keep whispering.
"Lady Liana is a lewd pervert who feels pleasure with every thrust into her hole, climaxing again and again."
"..."
[Behind-the-scenes illustration]
