Please Kiss Me
Please kiss me.
It was hot.
My heart hammered wildly, and my skin burned. It felt as if my entire body had caught fire. The frantic pounding of my heart rang sharply in my ears. I drew in a deep breath and tried to let it out slowly, but the heat refused to subside. My clothes clung uncomfortably to my skin, yet stripping them off would have done nothing. I was simply too hot.
My mind was a whirl of confusion. I desperately craved a single sip of cold water, yet even water seemed doubtful of its power to cool this fever. My lips grew parched. I dragged a hand across my sweat-slick face. Even the brush of my own fingertips against my skin felt unpleasant. I could feel the sweat trickling down, and that alone tormented me.
"Hahk?! Hahk...! Nngh...!"
"Good girl, Tina. Stay still."
What.
Mardian, you.
What the hell did you put in me...!
I thrashed against the surging heat. But the harder I fought, the rougher Mardian's hands became as she pinned me down against the bed.
Knock-knock—
Mardian rapped her knuckles against the window frame. Before long the carriage's large, heavy door swung open and a man appeared. Without so much as glancing at him, Mardian kept her gaze locked solely on me and issued her command with her voice alone.
"Somewhere no one will set foot."
"Yes, my lady."
"The escort is behind us?"
"Five elite knights stand ready."
Mardian gave a single nod without ever looking his way. The man withdrew in silence and shut the carriage door. The red sunlight that had spilled through the gap vanished, and soft shadow once more filled the interior.
Soon the carriage began to move. Mardian drew the curtains closed, then looked down at me with a great smile curved like a crescent moon.
"You've waited a long time, haven't you, Tina? It's just the two of us now, so don't worry."
Her voice was kindly enough, yet I could not answer. Watching me writhe on the bed, she wore a lewd little smile, then slowly climbed atop me and pinned both my arms down hard.
"Hahk! Hngh, hnn?! Nngh...!"
What left my mouth was not a voice. Only feverish moans as I tried to drag oxygen down a burning throat. My mind grew hazy; the lower part of my belly felt as if it had been seared by fire.
W-what is this....
What did you put in me?
What the hell did you put in me...!
"It will only be like this at first. Wait a little and it will start to feel good."
"Hahk! Hngh, h-hot... it's hot...!"
The excessive heat blanketing my whole body felt as though it were melting even my brain. Reason slowly blurred; my vision narrowed. I looked up at Mardian with eyes that begged for rescue, yet she merely brushed my bangs aside with gentle care.
"Looking up at me with that flushed face and those moist eyes... Tina, is this your way of begging me to devour you right this second? Honestly, what a mischievous little thing you are."
Disgusting words I never wanted to hear spilled from her lips. What kind of twisted mind could produce such speech? I wanted to slap her cheek then and there.
But with neither power nor strength to match hers, all I could do was clutch the hands that pinned me and plead desperately.
"M-Mardian... please... my body is... too hot... w-water..."
Had there ever been a moment I needed water so desperately? The agony of my throat burning continued to torment me. Even forming words was nearly beyond me.
Mardian stared blankly at my desperate cry for a while, then her face twisted into something ugly.
"Hah, you fucking bitch, getting me hard again."
She took a water bottle from the window ledge. The sight of the liquid sloshing inside only made my throat ache for it more fiercely.
"My pet wants a drink, so of course I should give her one."
Yet she did not hand the water over. She opened the bottle and, right before my eyes, took a large mouthful herself. Holding the water in her mouth, she looked down at me—then suddenly seized my arms.
"Mmph?!"
In an instant she lunged and crushed her lips against mine. The sudden press of another's mouth sent a wave of rejection surging through me.
Revulsion and rising nausea made me want to shove her away at once, yet ever since that strange pink liquid had entered me I could not even gather my limbs properly; resistance was impossible.
Mardian mashed her lips against mine, then slowly moved her mouth, prying open my tightly shut lips and letting the water she held flow into me.
Water mixed with Mardian's saliva entered my mouth. That fact alone nearly made me vomit, yet the survival instinct that had been craving water moved first.
Gulp—
Against the screams of reason telling me to spit it out, my throat swallowed the water she had given. I was furious enough to die, yet the moment that longed-for water slid down my throat the burning pain eased, and for a brief instant I even felt a flicker of bliss.
"Hngh... hnn..."
But the bliss was fleeting. Not long after the water passed, the searing pain in my throat began to creep back.
N-no....
I don't want to hurt again.
I want more water....
Perhaps she sensed my unease. Mardian wore a teasing smile at the corner of her mouth and looked down at me with glittering blood-red eyes.
"Want more water? If you beg your master earnestly enough, I might give you another."
A voice thick with mischievous playfulness. I wanted to sink my teeth into her throat out of sheer resentment. Yet contrary to that wish, all I—who could not even control my own body—could manage was to furrow my brow and turn my face away.
"Oh? Are you holding out?"
"Haa... haa..."
I avoided her gaze and ignored her words.
"Fine. I respect your will, Tina, so I'll wait."
With that, Mardian left me alone without further interference. It should have been a chance to catch my breath, yet why was my body growing more and more miserable? Infuriatingly, my flesh itself seemed displeased with the present situation.
Ten minutes, or perhaps twenty.
How much time had passed?
"Hik?! Hahk...! Nngh?!"
As time wore on, the throat that had burned ever hotter ironically stopped hurting. Pain receded, and a different kind of sensation took its place. An unknown feeling I had never experienced in either my previous life or this one—something utterly beyond words—swept over my body.
The blazing heat gradually flowed downward, slowly tickling my chest and the undersides of my arms. It did not stop there. The heat that had ridden my waist soon scorched my hips, then began to spread into the secret place between my legs.
"Hik?! Nngh? M-my body feels strange? Strange..."
Strange.
My whole body is hot.
But different.
It doesn't hurt.
Strange, why—it's clearly hot.
Why doesn't it hurt.
Strange, strange. Strange strange...!
I hate this.
I hate it I hate it I hate it.
What is this feeling.
I hate it.
I hate it...!
The more the heat invaded every part of me, the narrower my vision became and the more my thoughts blurred. In the steadily fraying consciousness, I felt as though one final thread of reason still remained inside my brain.
I knew it by instinct.
If that last scrap of reason vanished, I would reach a state from which there was no return. The fear that I might become a lifelong fool or a cripple sank deep into my chest.
"Hik? N-no, let go, let go of me, let go...!"
Fear closed in. The fact that I did not know what would become of me was terrifying. Yet for all my thrashing, Mardian merely looked down at me with quiet crimson eyes and offered no help at all.
In that hopeless situation I finally had no choice but to set my pride aside. Tears of sorrow spilled over as I looked up at her and spoke in a pleading voice.
"W-water... please..."
Even though I had given her the answer she so clearly wanted, Mardian only continued to watch me, not offering so much as a single sip.
"M-Mardian... I was wrong... water..."
"How do you ask? Say it properly with your own mouth."
A cruel demand.
I knew perfectly well what she was waiting for. I also knew that no matter how I begged for water, she would never simply give it to me out of kindness.
It was humiliating.
I wanted to bite my tongue then and there.
But my will was weak.
Had it ever been strong to begin with?
In my previous life and in this one alike, my will had always been weak and worthless. Changing bodies was never going to change that.
Utterly powerless.
Utterly frail.
Tears welling, I spoke to her.
"Nngh, M-Mardian... please... kiss me..."
"That's right. Good girl, Tina."
Mardian left a small kiss on my forehead. She opened the water bottle again, took a large mouthful, and slowly brought her lips to mine.
Our mouths met, and just as before she gently parted my lips. A mouthful of water sweeter than honey flowed in.
I closed my tear-filled eyes weakly and accepted the water she gave me through her mouth.
Just what kind of situation is this?
"...Baroness. Please try to calm yourself a little."
"Ti-Tina... Tina, Tina...!"
Artasha Bland.
Wife of Boni Bland, a woman who had always worn a cold, expressionless face. Her sharp air had never earned her favorable rumors outside the family. Yet her beauty alone shone with a loveliness unmatched in the world—fitting for the mother of that pet young lady.
People called her a cold woman who had not shed a single tear even at her husband's death, and rumors painted her as an emotionless machine.
That same woman was now trembling with anxiety that had gone beyond mere restlessness, desperately searching only for her daughter.
"Y-Your Highness... I know it is shameless of me to ask, but please help me... I cannot go on without that child. I will repay the favor somehow, so I beg you..."
"...Haa."
Just what kind of situation is this?
I had come to take revenge on that cunning little fox, after all. I had intended to give her a sharp lesson on her most splendid birthday, yet suddenly this absurd kidnapping.
Well, whatever had happened, there was no real need to care. She had been the one who toyed with me first. She had coaxed me with sweet words, then turned her back coldly at a single harsh remark, had she not?
Truly an insolent young lady.
So there was no need to concern myself. Whether she was kidnapped and beaten, or even raped—it was none of my business.
Yes.
A cheeky young lady like that.
I certainly had no reason to care.
That should have been the case....
"I'm always cheering for you, Your Highness."
"...Tsk."
Why does this irritate me so much?
I clicked my tongue once and swept my hair back. I wanted a cigarette between my lips this instant, yet that would have been rude to the baroness trembling with anxiety.
I, who possessed the authority to refuse even the Emperor's summons, was being swayed like this by a powerless barony's young lady.
It was not even funny.
If I was going to waste energy fretting over her, better to confront her directly and put an end to it.
I finished the short thought and looked at the baroness.
"Where was she last seen?"
Prepare yourself, young lady.
For the price of toying with me—
and for this favor as well—I will make you repay it twofold.