The Room You Can't Leave Without Submitting (2)
My brain locked up completely. It felt like a mind running at a thousandfold acceleration had slammed on the brakes, tumbled over four full times, and gone sailing off a cliff.
Right now, Princess Aylin was—huh? What? What in the world was that?
A blindfold covered her blue eyes. Her cherry-red lips were forced open by a gag, drool trailing from the corners. Her wrists were cuffed behind her back, her body wrapped tight in black bondage rope. The ropes around her legs had clearly rubbed raw overnight; angry red marks stood out against her pure white skin.
Had someone invaded the grimoire space? No—outside, only a few seconds could have passed. How was this even possible? And to leave Aylin like this… This was clearly…
…
I snuck a glance.
SLAP!
I slapped my own face as hard as I could for staring at the way the ropes emphasized Aylin’s chest.
What the hell were you thinking, Frey?! Are you an idiot? A complete moron? A body that belongs to the young lady has no business taking interest in another woman’s body! Kyaaaaah!
I wanted nothing more than to ram my head into one of the bizarre tools hanging on the wall and knock myself out cold. Then Aylin wriggled.
“Mmmpph!”
“Ah—crap. I’ll untie you right away!”
I should have freed her first. What kind of useless bastard was I?
I started with the blindfold and the gag. Aylin looked up at me with faintly teary eyes.
“Aylin! Who did this to you?!”
“……”
“Did an intruder get in? Damn it, I need to find a way out of here right now!”
“……”
“Are you hurt? I’ll get the cuffs off too—”
“You.”
“Huh?”
Aylin’s face was flushed as she repeated herself.
“The one who tied me up… is you, Frey.”
Silence crashed down. Aylin was breathing hard for some reason, and I felt cold sweat slide down my chin.
What did she just say?
I tied Aylin up like this? In this… perverted way?
Aha. This had to be another one of Aylin’s pranks. I was about to tell her I really didn’t appreciate jokes like that when she spoke again.
“See the crystal orb by the bed? It should have recorded everything from last night.”
“C-crystal orb?”
I looked again. Sure enough, a crystal orb sat on the nightstand. Aylin pointed at it with her chin.
“Watch that before you untie me.”
“No, first—”
“Hurry.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
I obediently activated the crystal orb. Light sprayed out and painted the wall.
Miraculously, the orb seemed to have captured only the exact moment of the incident.
[…Is he really asleep? Wow. I never saw this coming.]
Aylin poked my sleeping cheek. After staring at me for a moment, she spotted the crystal orb.
[What’s this? Oh, this is perfect. Heh heh. Nice. Frey, this is payback for just falling asleep and leaving me hanging.]
She adjusted the orb to a good angle, then vanished from the frame. A moment later she returned carrying several items—the same blindfold, cuffs, bondage rope, and gag that had been binding her until just now.
[Looks like he’s out cold, so I’ll play a little prank. Frey, feel the dignity of your master.]
Humming cheerfully, she started to tie me up. The instant she tried to force the gag into my mouth—
Whoosh!
[Kyaah?!]
Even though I had been sound asleep, my hand shot out, knocked hers away, and clamped over her mouth. Clatter! Every bondage tool she was holding spilled onto the floor.
[F-Frey?]
[……]
She called my name, but I didn’t answer. Shockingly, my eyes were still closed.
[D-don’t tell me… sleepwalking? Is that it?]
[……]
Sleeping me gave no reply. Instead I calmly picked up the gag she had dropped. Aylin’s eyes flicked between the gag and my face.
[W-what am I supposed to say here? Sleeping Frey? What are you planning to do with that?]
Without a word I pressed the gag against her face. The high-quality magic gag sealed her mouth the moment it touched her lips.
[Mmph?! Mmmpph?!]
Aylin screamed through the gag. I didn’t stop. I twisted her resisting arms behind her back, forced the cuffs on, and bound her body with ruthless efficiency.
Finally I slipped the blindfold over Aylin’s blinking eyes. For some reason my sleeping face wore an extremely satisfied expression—the look of a man drunk on the achievement of a job well done.
Once everything was finished, I collapsed onto the bed and fell into a death-like sleep… or rather, the sleepwalking episode ended.
When the recording finished, Aylin gave a crooked little smile. After being bound all night she looked exhausted; her eyes were unfocused.
“I really had no idea you had tastes like this.”
“I don’t.”
“To be able to bind someone with this level of perverted perfection while sleepwalking… Have you been fantasizing about this kind of thing all along?”
“I said no.”
“Have you ever lost sleep at night imagining yourself tying up the higher-ranked Katram ducal princess like this?”
“N-no, I haven’t!”
“Hmmm? Then why exactly am I in this state right now?”
“Urgh…”
No matter what I said, it was useless. The fact remained that I had been the one who tied Aylin up like that. It was a truth even I hadn’t known. I hadn’t even known I had sleepwalking!
No—wait. This place was completely foreign to me. I had spent half my life sleeping only in the Katram Estate. Maybe the stress of sleeping in this bizarre space had triggered the sleepwalking?
I opened my mouth to say exactly that, but Aylin landed the finishing blow first.
“You looked like you were having the time of your life while you tied me up.”
“Gyaaaaaaah!”
Even if they sentenced me to death for lese-majesty I would have nothing to say in my defense. To bind the Empire’s Third Princess in such a perverted manner!
“I understand. I get it.”
“Heh heh. If you just submit to me, I’ll take this secret to the gra—”
“I’ll die.”
“I’ll keep it hid—wait, what?”
I grabbed the dog collar hanging on the wall, then used magic to hang a rope from the ceiling a short distance from the bed. The height was perfect.
“It’s been a good life so far. But going out like this could almost be called an achievement. The crime of harassing a princess, after all.”
“Hey, wait a second!”
“I’ll go on ahead. Aylin, live a long and healthy life.”
“I said stop! What do you think you’re doing?! At least untie these ropes first!”
I ignored her and buckled the dog collar around my own neck. Haa… I had always thought of myself as a lifelong servant, and now I was even going to die wearing a dog collar.
Maybe this was the most fitting suicide method for a butler. Loyal to the very end, like a faithful hound.
The only regret was that I would never get to serve the young lady again. Young lady, I’m sorry. But I caused this absurd incident while carrying the name of House Katram. To keep from bringing shame on the ducal house, this is how it has to end.
Just as I prepared to throw myself off the bed—
“F-friend! Friends can play pranks like this on each other, right?!”
“F…riend?”
“Yes! You said we were friends! Does it make any sense for a friend to try to kill himself over a little mistake?”
“W-well…”
True, I had never heard of anyone committing suicide just because friends made a small mistake with each other.
“But normal friends don’t play pranks like this, do they?”
“Close friends might! Frey, aren’t you close with me?”
“We… are, I guess?”
At the Academy, the only person who could act more freely around Aylin than me was Department Head Alketo. So yes, we were close, right?
“See! We are close! So a little prank like this is fine! Now take that dog collar off right now!”
“So I… don’t have to die for the crime of insulting the imperial family?”
“I’m the only one who can press charges for that! I promise—I won’t hold House Katram responsible for any of this.”
“Really?”
“Of course! So take the collar off and untie me first, okay?”
“Haa… All right.”
I removed the dog collar. I had fastened it a little too tight; my neck still stung.
Next I moved to untie the ropes binding Aylin. Uh… but…
“Mmm…”
“Frey? What’s wrong?”
“Well… it’s a little hard to… touch.”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“The way you’re tied…”
How on earth had sleepwalking me managed to bind her like this? The ropes didn’t just cross her large chest horizontally—they ran vertically as well. The line that left her chest passed between her legs, climbed up her back, looped once around her neck, and returned to her chest.
Bizarrely, the ropes both began and ended at her chest. In other words, to untie her I would inevitably have to put my hands on Aylin’s chest.
“I don’t mind. Just hurry up and free me!”
“I mind, okay? Even when we were trapped in the grimoire last time, I never touched any sexual areas, remember?”
“This is a rescue! It’s fine! Are you the type who calls CPR sexual assault?!”
“I’m not, but…”
“Then untie me already! It’s okay if it’s you.”
“Excuse me?”
“Argh! If you didn’t hear me then shut up and just do it! Uuugh… It hurts, damn it.”
Aylin tossed the last words out and looked up at me. The pain must have been real—tears were welling in her eyes.
It struck me again how sharp Aylin’s gaze usually was. Some students actually trembled just from meeting her eyes.
And yet those same eyes were glistening with tears like this… Wait, what am I thinking? My head feels dizzy. Must be my imagination.
No—hold on.
A brilliant idea suddenly flashed through my mind.
“Aylin. Do you really want me to untie you?”
“Yes. Isn’t that obvious?”
“Then let’s run a little experiment.”
“Experiment?”
“You’ve been saying I have to submit to you, but we still don’t know if that’s the exact condition, right?”
“S-so?”
“You’re in that state right now. If you pour every bit of desire for help into it and declare that you submit to me, maybe the grimoire will accept it?”
“W-what did you just say?”
Until now Aylin had always held the overwhelming upper hand, but the current situation was different.
Right now, under the pretext of escaping this place, I could make her do all sorts of things. And she was already tied up, conveniently enough.
“Of course, it would be a little difficult for Princess Aylin to declare submission to a mere cadet branch member of House Katram like me. So…”
I picked up the dog collar I had just taken off.
“How about putting this on and saying ‘Woof’ for me?”