An Answer That Never Comes
The child had always been lonely.
Her mother locked her inside the house to hide the marks of abuse, and the child who loved that mother never even knew that resistance was a choice.
In a space without a single ray of sunlight—a world filled only with the reek of alcohol and the faint glow of a lamp—the child grew up looking at nothing but a mirror.
The face in the mirror resembled her mother, the most beautiful woman in the world. Every time she saw that reflection, the child fell into the illusion that she was looking at her mother herself.
Whenever the face in the mirror smiled, she was seized by the hallucination that her mother was smiling gently back at her. At some point, the child began to talk to the mirror.
"Today... Mom hit me with a golf club... I wish she'd hit me with her hands instead... Then I could feel her touch more..."
In a reality where no answer would ever come, the child went on talking to herself.
But one day, a sound broke that silence.
"Hello?"
In the dark dawn, in that gloomy hour before sunlight had yet touched the earth—
the child gained her first friend.
I lay in bed staring at the ceiling. A darkness even thicker than yesterday's pressed down on my heart. It had been hard enough to kill me—but this time, I could endure it. Because I was no longer alone.
I slowly sat up and called for a maid. Today's morning attendant would be Luna. She was a simple, naive girl; ordinarily her denseness grated on me, but today I found myself almost glad of it.
"Luna, I was hoping I might have some meat... would that be possible...?"
I spoke to her as I always did, giving her a soft, pleading look. At my earnest expression Luna flinched, then immediately nodded. Her innocent reaction felt all the more endearing today.
The meat she brought was quite appetizing. The generous portion on the large plate gleamed with juices, and the soup beside it looked warm and inviting.
I took up knife and fork and cut into the meat. The thick, juice-laden grain parted smoothly, and a rich aroma rose to my nose. The first bite—crisp on the outside, tender within—drew a natural smile to my lips.
I speared a piece on my fork and held it out to Luna.
"You have a bite too, Luna. Aaah~"
Luna visibly panicked and took a step back. She had probably never eaten meat of this quality before. In the end, between my persistent coaxing and the fragrant smell of the meat, she couldn't hold out—she leaned her head forward.
I bent toward her to feed her the bite. In that instant my knee struck the table; the table tipped forward, and the steaming soup spilled all over Luna.
"Kyaaak!"
A sharp scream tore from her throat. The maid's uniform was thick enough that burns weren't a real concern, but the sudden shock sent her sprawling backward.
"I—I'm so sorry, Luna!"
I hurriedly pulled out a handkerchief and held it out to her. Luna, fretting over whether she'd been scalded, frantically wiped the soup from her clothes.
While she was still thoroughly flustered by the whole situation—
I quietly slipped the knife I was holding under my pillow.
"Fuck. No."
The curse spat from Iris's thoroughly contorted face. Hatred, contempt, and a deep shame burned in her black eyes.
"...Is that how you speak to a superior?"
At Viviana's icy voice Iris flinched—but she didn't back down. If anything, she raised her voice even louder in protest.
"My Lord, give me orders that make sense. Do I look like someone who says nice things?"
"No."
"I absolutely will not. It goes against my nature. Kill me instead, My Lord."
"Then die once and decide after."
"..."
The killing intent threaded through Viviana's voice left Iris speechless. She remembered the last time she had, by mistake, called the pet young lady a whore—how the duchess had summoned her and beaten her until it was hard to find a spot without a bruise.
She had never seen Viviana that furious before.
In the end, Iris let out a sigh and accepted her lot.
When a superior said jump, you jumped. She wanted nothing more than to quit on the spot—but the pay she was currently receiving was far too good for that.
And besides, the contract she had signed meant she couldn't leave even if she wanted to...
"Remember this. The moment Tina sheds a tear, from that point on you make her the happiest person in the world."
"...Ugh. This is tyranny. Pure tyranny."
Iris clutched her head, looking as if she were dying.
"Just do it. In exchange, I'll excuse you from training."
"...Yes."
Having finally accepted reality, Iris glanced at the clock. It was already her turn to attend the pet young lady. But perhaps because of the harsh words she had spat last time, her heart was far from easy.
"...It's my shift. I'll be going."
"Go. And if you see anything strange about Tina, report it at once."
Viviana looked away from the retreating Iris and summoned the image of her pet in her mind.
That lovely face. The flush of embarrassment coloring her cheeks. That shy little smile—more feminine than any woman Viviana had ever seen.
And she was supposed to have grown tired of that girl's ass?
"As if."
Did that even make sense?
Viviana clenched and unclenched her hand, recalling that addictive, drug-like sensation. She could knead that plump, snow-white backside a million times—tens of millions of times—and never grow sick of the feeling.
That luscious ass she had touched every single night. The way it filled her palm just right. She had gone only one day without touching it, and already she felt the first twinges of withdrawal.
The reason she had claimed to be tired of it was simply to force cracks into the mask Tina wore.
Asking to touch her chest had been for the same purpose—to wound Tina with words that made it sound as if she wanted nothing but her body, and so peel away the mask she wore.
...Of course, a little personal greed had been mixed in as well.
"Just a little more."
The end was truly drawing near. She could feel it instinctively—Tina's mask was on the verge of shattering. And when it did, just as it had when Mardian kidnapped her, the true self hidden beneath that thick mask would be revealed.
From that moment on, she intended to pour every drop of her love into Tina.
Tina was thrashing desperately not to show her true self, for whatever reason. So Viviana had decided to make her confront that truth directly.
She would show her that she had no need to wear a mask at all. That her natural self was far more fuckab—no. Far more lovable.
She didn't want to torment Tina either.
But for Tina to live in this world as her true self, Viviana had to thoroughly break her heart—just once.
"It's all for you... Just once, leave everything to me, Tina."
Imagining her pet young lady's backside, Viviana kept kneading the empty air with both hands.
"Hello, Iris."
The girl perched on the edge of the bed offered a greeting.
Even to the person who had called her a whore yesterday, she still gave that warm smile.
But perhaps it was only her imagination—the smile looked somehow drained of strength. Her skin had always been snow-white, but today it seemed even paler. Looking at that smile, an unnameable unease brushed past Iris.
Was it because of what I said?
Hurting her had been her lord's order—but calling her a whore had been entirely Iris's own decision.
It was true that the girl sold smiles and coquetry to others for gain, but saying it like that had clearly been wrong.
Still, words once spoken could not be swallowed again. Iris decided to look on the bright side.
I can apologize later.
She only needed the girl to cry bitterly once. After that, all Iris had to do was treat her well. Iris was not a generous person by nature—and yet, for some reason, she found herself wanting to make this young lady smile.
"Would you draw me a bath?"
While Iris had been lost in her own thoughts, the girl asked with a bright little smile.
This was the same girl who used to flash her naked body as a joke. Just remembering it made Iris's heart leap hard in her chest.
Going around carelessly showing that sensual, provocative body to others—perhaps her lord was right, and the girl's habits needed correcting.
With a faint smile, Iris nodded.
A bath was one of her rights.
Iris left the pet young lady and headed for the bathroom. She filled the large tub with warm water and floated scented candles and flower petals good for the skin on the surface.
Ordinarily she would have done it halfheartedly, but the guilt over her harsh words last time made her take extra care today.
Once the bath was ready, Iris returned to the young lady.
Without a word, the girl rose and walked with her down the long corridor.
An awkward silence hung between them today. Iris wondered whether she ought to say something—but it was the pet young lady who spoke first.
"I've been thinking about what you said, Iris..."
"..."
"Maybe... I really am a whore."
The young lady said it with a light smile.
Seeing that lifeless smile, Iris's heart lurched.
She wanted to tell her that yesterday's words had been a slip of the tongue—but it was still time to be cruel to her, so Iris kept her lips sealed.
"Thank you for preparing the bath."
They had arrived at the bathroom door.
The young lady stepped inside and moved to close the door. But Iris instinctively reached out and stopped it from shutting.
Something told her she had to hold the girl back. Her eyes looked so faint that it seemed she might sink into the dark at any moment.
The young lady looked at Iris in surprise—then broke into a playful smile.
"Oh? Do you want to see me naked again?"
Caught off guard, Iris stepped back in fluster. In that gap the young lady smiled sweetly and closed the door.
Iris stood blinking blankly in front of it, then shook her head and took a step back.
...Well. She should be fine.
If she still had the energy for jokes, she still had some fight left in her. There was no need for major concern.
Iris kept her post a few paces from the door. Guarding the pet young lady was one of her duties—even during a bath, she had to watch the surroundings.
Ten minutes passed. Twenty.
And when thirty minutes had somehow slipped by, Iris felt a strange sense of wrongness.
It wasn't that the time was unusually long. The young lady normally bathed for about an hour, and Iris herself often took a good thirty minutes.
But the bathroom was unnaturally quiet. The sound of water splashing had come only at the very beginning; after that, there had been no noise at all.
Ordinarily the young lady would have spoken up by now—yet for some reason, there wasn't so much as a sound.
Driven by an unnameable dread, Iris knocked twice on the door.
No answer came.
Thinking she might not have heard, Iris knocked harder—but still the only reply was an ominous silence.
A sudden chill began to wrap her entire body.
"Young lady, are you all right?"
This time she called out directly—but what came back was still that same foreboding quiet.
Her heart began to race.
Without even time to think, Iris tried to open the bathroom door at once—but it was locked from the inside.
"...I'm coming in."
Iris made her decision and forced the door.
She smashed the handle and kicked the door hard. With a tremendous crash the tightly shut door burst open, and a cloud of hot steam billowed out from the bathroom.
Through the haze, the interior gradually took shape. Several scented candles flickered, giving off a soft fragrance—but through that sweet scent, a thick, metallic smell of blood brushed her nose.
Iris's gaze locked instantly on the bathtub.
And then—
"Ah—aah..."
Her eyes flew wide and began to tremble as if in an earthquake.
Inside the tub, the pet young lady lay quietly with her eyes closed. From the outside she looked as peaceful as if she were merely asleep. With that lovely face at rest, she might have been a painting.
But Iris could only scream in pure terror.
"N-no!!!!!"
The water in the tub was dyed a horrifying red.
With eyes full of despair and shock, Iris stared at the scene—then, with a cry of agony, she ran to the young lady, carrying a terror that sank into her very bones.
Thump— thump—
Her heart pounded as if it would burst.