You Brought This on Yourself
"Oh, y-you're here, Master...?"
I stammered. My eyes darted this way and that, avoiding her gaze. I greeted Viviana neither too eagerly nor too timidly.
"..."
Viviana looked down at me for a long moment. Her strange gaze left me faintly puzzled inside, but fortunately she soon stroked my head with a faint smile.
"Did you write the letter properly?"
"Uh... yes. Haven't you read it?"
"Why would I read it? It's someone else's letter."
Had she really not read it? Viviana possessed an extremely meticulous nature. She never let even the smallest detail slide easily, and once she set her mind to something she would accomplish it by any means necessary.
Given that she had declared she would make me her exclusive pet, I couldn't help wondering whether she truly would have shown no interest in me writing to another young lady.
But then again, on the other hand, I didn't think she had any particular reason to lie to me about it. I had written the letter assuming she would see it anyway, so there wasn't much to catch me out on.
Viviana stroked my head and perched on the edge of the bed. She picked up the book lying beside the pillow, read a little of its contents, and furrowed one eyebrow.
"Isn't this... quite different from your usual tastes?"
"That's exactly why it's fun."
Truth be told, I rather enjoyed watching other people get tortured. The more vicious and inhumane the methods, the more I thought of the person who invented them and felt a quiet relief that I wasn't the only piece of trash in the world.
I knew I was twisted, but well—that was simply the kind of person I was.
"Tina Irion."
Before long Viviana lost interest in the book. She crossed her legs on the bed and beckoned me with a languid, seductive gesture. I approached slowly, with timid little steps, knelt at the foot of the bed, and gently rested my head on her thigh.
"..."
Viviana looked down at me in silence. I gazed up at her with trembling eyelids and carefully spoke.
"A-are you uncomfortable? I just wanted to act a little more spoiled with Master... I'm sorry..."
My voice came out soft and hesitant, as if I couldn't quite settle myself. A voice that seemed to possess not a shred of confidence. I spoke to Viviana in that gentle, coaxing tone.
Actions meant solely for Viviana. I considered this level of treatment rather special.
"No. I'm not uncomfortable."
See? Viviana herself said she didn't mind. That was her blunt way of expressing approval. Feeling a fresh surge of confidence, I nuzzled my face vigorously against her thigh.
At first, when she had spoken of confinement, I had fretted over all sorts of things. I knew Viviana wasn't a bad person, yet the lingering trauma of being assaulted by Mardian left me less than entirely at ease.
If I had known it would be this easy, I never would have worried. Honestly, if things continued like this I could have settled in for a year or more, never mind a single month.
Just keep playing the timid little thing, match Viviana's mood just enough, and ride out the month. The reward would be the complete erasure of my family's debts, plus the solid backing of the Merdelia Ducal House from then on.
I couldn't help wondering what on earth Viviana had been thinking when she staked even her house's name on this.
To be frank, though it felt a little rude to say so, Viviana didn't seem to possess quite the towering intellect the game had described.
The setting painted her as thorough and a prodigy in every ability, yet the fact that she couldn't even calculate gains and losses like this was a mild disappointment.
Well, it worked out nicely for me, at least.
Tina, there's no such thing as free in this world.
While I was still cooing and fawning on Viviana's lap, the words Mother had once spoken floated back to me.
There's no free, but there are suckers, Mother.
I smiled wryly to myself and felt a quiet longing for her. It had been a long time since I last nestled in her warm embrace, and a hollow ache remained, but a month was nothing I couldn't endure.
"Tina, is there something you're hiding from me?"
At Viviana's voice I slowly lifted my head. There was no great change of expression on her face, yet somehow an unreadable emotion stirred in her violet eyes.
"Something I'm hiding?"
"Mm."
Viviana waited for my answer with that single syllable. I looked up at her with a smile that was neither too bright nor too sad.
"There couldn't be anything like that. I don't want to hide anything from you, Lady Viviana...?"
"...If that's true, then good."
Viviana stared at me for a moment, then stroked my head again with a faint smile.
A strange sense of déjà vu settled over me. After that Viviana said nothing more, yet an inexplicable unease lingered and fretted at the back of my mind.
I turned the matter over inside, wondering if I had overlooked something.
Come to think of it, wasn't Viviana being oddly gentle? I had never known her to have such a kindly nature.
Viviana's personality could be summed up in a single word.
Sociopath.
A narcissist who loved herself above all else in this world, a woman who would sever the neck of anyone who stood in her path without the slightest hesitation.
She was not a villain, yet she was endlessly cold toward those who offered her no benefit, and her only true interests were her own success and renown.
In the game Viviana never smiled kindly at anyone. There was even a running joke that, though it was the same game, Lillian's route was an otome while Viviana's turned into a munchkin action story.
Of course a romance route existed for Viviana as well, but it was a path that simply did not suit her temperament.
A cold-blooded person—yet lately that same Viviana had been smiling at me with surprising gentleness... In the game, the times she smiled that often could be counted on one hand.
Must be my imagination.
I decided to take it as proof that my coquetry was working that well. And this place was reality, not a game. Small discrepancies like that could always exist.
Perhaps later Viviana would fall for me completely and start showering me with gifts of every kind.
"Tina. You're really not hiding anything?"
Those eyes were needlessly serious.
Viviana rested a hand lightly on my shoulder and asked once more. She was not the sort who normally repeated herself; I couldn't understand what she was so determined to confirm.
"Of course not...!"
Don't lose heart.
My childhood friend said it, after all.
Being cute is absolute truth.
A full week had passed since then. In her office, Viviana lit a cigarette for the first time in a long while.
"..."
Recalling Tina's clumsy voice, Viviana put the cigarette to her lips. Through the thick smoke her faintly gleaming eyes looked almost eerie.
"...Haa."
Her mood was worse than bad—it was filthy.
Just when had it begun?
When had that mischievous Pet Young Lady started hiding her true self and deceiving her?
Perhaps she had intended to deceive her from the very beginning.
Even though Viviana had told her more than once that she hated lies, that Pet Young Lady had chosen the path of deception.
And if Viviana had never noticed, she would no doubt have continued whispering those sweet lies forever.
Still clinging to hope, Viviana had kept asking until the very end, wishing the girl would confess of her own accord. The answers she received had been nothing but disappointing.
Perhaps, to the Pet Young Lady, Viviana had looked like nothing more than another noble young lady to be used as a wallet. If she had never once seen Tina with the mask off, she would have firmly believed that this passive demeanor was the girl's true nature.
But anyone who had even once glimpsed the hidden side of Tina could feel the difference.
The masked Tina lacked that something that made the heart race.
Of course she was pretty and adorable. There was an innate, harmless loveliness that made one want to lock her up at home and raise her. That was how she had drawn the love and popularity of so many young ladies.
But that was as far as it went.
The personality Tina kept tightly hidden carried an entirely different atmosphere.
She was still lovely, yet the texture was different. That fragile face, so weak it looked ready to shatter at any moment, stirred the innate violence and primal desire buried deep inside a human being.
After the aftermath of Mardian's assault, when Tina had clung to her on the bed, even Viviana—who considered herself cold-hearted—had felt her heart begin to pound madly. Her face had flushed scarlet at an emotion she was experiencing for the first time in her life.
And that, without a doubt, had been lust.
Something dangerous enough to tear down the towering wall of homosexuality.
She hated using such a crude word, yet...
The only word that could express it was "hot."
In short, Tina's true self was insanely hot.
And dangerously so.
The girl herself seemed unaware of it.
Viviana wanted to pin her to the bed right that instant and make her cry until she called her name. No doubt Young Lady Mardian had also been enchanted by that true face and committed such a bold crime.
Clearly, unable to endure the pain that villainess had inflicted, Tina must have occasionally shown Mardian her original personality.
"..."
It was irritating.
During the kidnapping incident, Tina's true self had only emerged because Mardian had driven her to the absolute limit. In the end, both then and before, the one who had stripped away Tina's mask had always been Mardian.
The fact that she had been outdone by that Countship young lady—who harbored desires far beyond her own abilities—made Viviana furious beyond words.
"You show it to that bitch... and hide it so thoroughly from me."
You brought this on yourself, Tina.
She had tried to treat her as gently as possible.
There had been the promise with Tina's mother, and for some reason she simply could not bring herself to be harsh with Tina, so she had done her best to look after the cute little pet's circumstances.
What she received in return was nothing but vicious lies.
"I'm sorry, Mother."
It seemed she would have to do a few things Mother would not like.
Perhaps it was fortunate she had realized it even now.
Tina had a habit of looking down on people the kinder they were to her. That was why she was trying to play her like this.
In the end, treating her gently had never been an option.
If she wanted to see the true self Tina was so desperately trying to hide...
She would have to thoroughly break her once.
"This way is closer to the Merdelia method, after all."
Viviana's crimson lips bloomed into a seductive flower.