Shiver... Clench — Uriel Wayne Daina Alfred
Lizzy squeezed her thighs together tightly, trembling.
Looking down at her, Ferzen sneered.
“You, who can't even muster the slightest resistance and can barely hold back from wetting yourself... what could you possibly do?”
“H-Hic...!”
“Lizzy. You are this powerless.”
Ferzen reached out his hand and stroked her soft cheek. At that chilling sensation, Lizzy whimpered and turned her head away.
“If your legs were fine, you might have been able to run away freely.”
But Ferzen gripped her chin, nullifying her resistance. From an extremely close distance, he stared into her eyes. Her violet pupils, dyed in terror and quivering pitifully, were so pathetic they bordered on pitiable.
“D-Don't...”
His descending hand seized her wrist. Then, he forcibly pulled her to her feet right there.
She could do nothing. Immediately after, in a most cruel manner, Ferzen wrapped one arm around her waist, assuming a dancing pose. Just like that day.
And lowering his head, he whispered softly into her ear...
♪♪♩.
The music from that day.
“No... No...!”
The overlapping memories of that day seized Lizzy by the hair and dragged her toward a horrific abyss beyond.
Even as she struggled desperately to poke her head out, the crashing waves swallowed her in an instant.
Eventually, powerlessly, like a marionette. Lizzy swayed mournfully in time with Ferzen's movements.
And before long, quite naturally...
Squeeze.
Lizzy's foot stepped hard on the top of Ferzen's.
“Ah...”
It acted as a powerful catalyst, and like countless bubbles rising...
The memories from eight years ago, suppressed and locked away, surged to the surface in an instant...
“I'm sorry! I'm sorry...! I was wrong...!”
“It hurts... It hurts...”
From the phantom pain in her ruined left leg, Lizzy shed endless tears, writhing in agony.
“Lizzy.”
In response, Ferzen subtly let her step on his other foot as well, then laid her body down on the desk.
He gently wiped the tears from her eyes, then lowered his head and murmured in a low voice.
“Humans have instincts.”
Among them, fear was the body's red alert, directly tied to survival.
“Don't deny the body that's behaving honestly before me. Obey it.”
From close range, her fresh bodily scent seeped into his nose. Mixed with a faint urine smell, Ferzen lowered his head further.
It wasn't full incontinence, but a bit had leaked, leaving a faint stain on her lower abdomen—clearly visible.
“When you're alone with me, you can't even properly hold your bladder, yet you talk of revenge? Lizzy... The Brutein family and an Apollyon-grade black mage aren't so easy that they'd fall to a child who wets herself at the drop of a hat.”
With a rustle, Ferzen finished his long speech, straightened his clothes, and opened the locked door.
“I'll give you one chance to reconsider.”
“Hic... Sob...”
“Listen to the screams your emotions and body are pleading to your reason.”
With that, as Ferzen left the room, Lizzy, left alone, whimpered for a while before barely managing to sit up.
The trauma had subsided somewhat, but the lingering tremors from its aftermath still tormented her.
Ferzen... von Schweig Brutein Lueerg.
Still the same, terribly arrogant and selfish man.
“You... are truly the worst...”
Gripping the crumpled thesis from the Roswell family that she had purchased, Lizzy sat in her wheelchair and left the room.
2:23 p.m... She was late.
“You're back...?”
“Awake, are you?”
Returning to the carriage, Euphemia, who had just woken up, greeted me.
I ordered the coachman to depart, then leaned back comfortably.
“Um...”
“What is it?”
“C-Could we... buy some bread on the way...?”
“No reason not to. If there's something you crave amid the morning sickness, say it without hesitation—as long as it's not the dead of night, I can procure it.”
“Okay... Got it.”
“Might as well get some rübe too. You liked it before.”
“Ah...”
Euphemia showed a slight flush of color.
“We'll buy plenty.”
“But... your lunch...”
“We can share the bread you buy. I'm not particularly hungry anyway. Don't worry about needless things—focus on your body.”
“...”
Saying nothing, Euphemia looked up at me.
Probably because this kindness felt awkward and unfamiliar.
“Ah... D-Don't... We're outside...”
Her reaction was so cute that I slyly slid the hand around her waist up to her chest and kneaded it softly.
“Ah, ahn...”
Fumbling familiarly, I found her nipple and gently pinched it through her clothes, drawing out a lewd moan.
Without a hint of resistance, she accepted the sexual stimulation, her nipple hardening obscenely—a most satisfying sight.
Smack.
“Eek! D-Don't leave marks on my neck... I c-can't cover it...”
Does she not know that telling me not to makes me want to do it more?
Screech.
But perfectly timed, the carriage stopped in front of the bakery, so I gave her only a light kiss and opened the door.
Stepping inside the bakery, a pleasant aroma of nutty sweetness wafted over me.
“Better too much than too little—fill it up as you like.”
I handed her the basket at the entrance, then approached the clerk, ordered plenty of rübe, and sat in a chair.
And so, time passed.
Are women's natures truly the same across eras? Even something as simple as picking bread took forever.
“This should... be enough.”
After about twenty minutes, Euphemia presented the basket overflowing with bread. I paid neatly and boarded the carriage.
Then, I unwrapped one packaged rübe, spooned some, and offered it to her.
“Eat. Bread crumbs would be a hassle, but rübe is fine. You skipped breakfast, so you must be starving.”
“Ah...”
Hesitating as she glanced at me, Euphemia meekly took it and carefully scooped a spoonful to eat.
“No aversion?”
“No... It's good.”
“Good. That's a relief, but... you're so messy.”
“Mmph...”
I lowered my head slightly and licked the rübe from the corner of her mouth with my tongue.
The soft texture of her lips, topped with the unique sweetness of rübe.
The external stimulus urged me instinctively to thrust my tongue into her mouth and ravage it, but I barely suppressed it and pulled back.
Euphemia, her face slightly flushed, touched her lips with her hand, glanced at me briefly, then subtly increased the distance and silently finished her rübe.
In response, I turned my head to the window and looked up at the sky.
“...”
The weather was a bit cloudy. It looked like rain at night.
Pour...
As expected, rain began pouring by evening.
The raindrops were thick. It didn't seem like it would stop soon.
Euphemia, pregnant and undergoing bodily changes, had already fallen asleep despite it being only just past 7 p.m.
Knock knock.
“Enter.”
The door opened. A maid bowed at the waist.
“A guest has arrived.”
“A guest?”
I had no acquaintances who would visit me as a guest.
“Sir Roer Paul Bistaen Claudia. Shall I send him away?”
“No... Attend to him in the parlor. I'll be down shortly.”
“Understood.”
The Imperial Knights also handled academy security, so he had probably come to see Lizzy and stopped by me afterward. Otherwise, there was no reason for him to seek my face.
“...”
Sure enough, descending to the first floor through the corridor filled with the sound of rain, I entered the parlor to find Roer greeting me with a fierce expression.
“You're still sitting?”
Seeing him start to rise, I responded in a flat tone, then casually pulled back a chair and sat.
“Ferzen...”
“It's Count Lueerg, I believe.”
“...”
“Your siblings all lack manners.”
“Are you... even human...?”
“A pointless primal question. What do I look like to you, then?”
“Worse than a beast! If you had even a shred of conscience... how could you make that child relive that day from eight years ago──!”
“It's precisely because I have that shred of conscience that I gave her a choice.”
“Conscience... Hah, haha!”
Beyond the red candle illuminating the parlor, Roer's ferocious face flickered as he let out a loud laugh.
“If you had any conscience left! You would seek forgiveness──”
“Roer Paul Bistaen Claudia.”
Interrupting him, I opened my mouth.
“If you're asking for forgiveness, should I grant it? If so, I'd sincerely lick your siblings' shoes. If you want a public apology... well, I could do that too.”
Ferzen's ego writhed uncomfortably. But I'd grown accustomed to suppressing it by now.
“...”
“I can't turn back time, but I'll offer material compensation in kind. But you have no intention of accepting it, do you?”
No matter what I did, they'd suspect my true intentions.
“As I told your sister, I have no desire to beg for forgiveness that won't come. Meanwhile, you'll struggle to the end to bring me down somehow.”
“...”
“Heard this before? If you seek revenge, you become no different from that bastard. Or... revenge only begets more revenge.”
A common piece of advice from third parties hearing tales of vengeance.
“Agree?”
“Shut up...”
“Yeah. I think so too.”
“You mad bastard... Don't pretend to show mercy so half-heartedly. Do you think you're even qualified to be in that position? You're trash who crushed a whole family's life at its roots. The world doesn't call that vile, hypocritical mindset 'conscience.' If you truly have even a shred of sincerity left... keep up that disgusting facade to the bitter end.”
Roer stood abruptly and turned away. Then he left the parlor as is.
“Mary.”
I called the maid waiting outside the door.
“Yes.”
“He has no umbrella. Fetch one for him.”
“Understood.”
With that brief exchange, I rose, picked up a glass filled with ice, and poured brandy into it.
‘...’
Dripping rain on the windowpane.
Standing before it, gazing at my own faintly reflected figure, I quietly took a sip of the brandy.
‘Roer Paul Bistaen Claudia...’
From the moment I resolved to kill Ciel Midford, rather than struggle to be a good man, I chose to be a villain and laugh.
‘If it's a knot that can't be untied...’
Just cut it and burn it—that's the end.
Villains don't make deals where they lose.