Please, Devour Me [05]
The maid's steps came to a halt in front of a door.
They had walked barely five minutes, and yet here they were. The distance was far shorter than she had imagined.
The moment this door opened, she would be facing Chloe.
Gulp. Her throat had gone bone-dry. She would have to steel herself.
"I will escort you this far."
The woman bowed respectfully at the waist, and the fingertips of her clasped hands trembled ever so slightly.
"The young lady will be waiting for you inside."
There was a strange tension threaded through her voice, like that of someone afraid even to linger at this door for too long. Afraid of what, exactly? Cecilia found herself curious.
Having said her piece, the maid fled down the corridor without so much as a backward glance, as though lingering in this place a moment longer were something she could not bear.
The footsteps faded, and Cecilia was left standing alone and abandoned before the door. She pinched the hem of her short skirt between her fingers. She simply could not get used to it.
…Honestly, this thing. It's so uncomfortable.
A sigh escaped her of its own accord.
With every step, the thin skirt swayed across her thighs. Even the air brushing against her bare skin felt foreign. Her attention kept drifting downward, and she couldn't focus on the door in front of her.
Each time she moved, the fabric grazed her flesh — and each time, the sensations of last night stirred back to life. Cecilia's brow creased.
Now she finally understood the intent.
To make her conscious of her own body with every passing moment. To leave her too disheveled to keep her composure.
So this was what Chloe had prepared behind that calm, unbothered face.
Should I call it so like her? Or just plain perverse?
Cecilia gave up trying to fathom the reasoning behind it. There was nothing more exhausting than guessing at Chloe's tastes. Even if she knew the answer, nothing would change. She would simply have to endure.
So she gathered her scattered wits and laid her hand on the door handle.
Cold metal met her palm.
Whatever's on the other side, the only way through is straight at it.
Cecilia drew a short breath. Whatever was waiting beyond this door, there was no turning back now.
The door swung open, soft and soundless.
One step. Then another.
Cecilia stepped inside.
The room was strangely bare.
Not a single ornament was in sight. What on earth is this place? Nothing on the walls, nothing on the floor, nothing at all to catch the eye. The only thing that could be called furniture was a single bed in the center of the room.
As Cecilia's gaze swept the room, it snagged on one corner. Her breath stopped. Her expression froze over bit by bit, her whole body locking up as if she had discovered something that could not possibly exist here.
In the corner of the room sat a single backless chair.
And bound to it was a woman.
Her eyes were stretched wide with terror. She twisted against her restraints, desperately trying to shout something, but the gag swallowed her voice without mercy.
And beside her stood Chloe.
Arms crossed, looking down at the bound maid as if she were nothing more than an object placed in the room. Her eyes held no emotion at all.
"…What is the meaning of this?"
Cecilia asked in a thin voice.
Chloe turned her head slowly. The moment she spotted Cecilia, something in her gaze changed. The coldness she had fixed on the bound maid vanished, and in its place an unreadable obsession came flooding up.
Don't tell me it's starting again. I've got a bad feeling about this.
"You came."
Chloe walked toward her, sparing not so much as a glance for the bound woman.
Standing before Cecilia, she simply stared for a long while — starting at her face, then trailing slowly down over her body clad in the maid's uniform.
"…Just as I thought."
A low sigh of admiration spilled out. Chloe's hand rose and brushed the back of Cecilia's hand, then slid upward along it until her fingertips were caressing her cheek.
"Exactly as I expected. It suits you so well, that outfit."
…Please, don't say it like that. It gives me chills.
Cecilia's stomach twisted. Every instinct screamed at her to shove the woman away right then and there. But she couldn't bring herself to do it. What would happen if she recoiled? The woman bound in that corner was showing her the answer without a word.
Fear closed around her throat. Sweat poured down as though from a downpour, until before she realized it, her whole body was drenched.
After a moment, Chloe's hand left her cheek.
It traveled around to her back, and then her arms wrapped around Cecilia's waist, pulling her in with a force that might have snapped her in two.
"W-wait, that hurts! Be gentle, will you!"
She could barely breathe. Chloe's body heat pressed through the fabric and into her back, and Cecilia stood frozen, unable to move.
Chloe buried her face against her — into the nape of Cecilia's neck, where her damp white hair spilled down — and inhaled deeply.
"…You smell wonderful."
This woman, honestly…
Cecilia's spine went rigid. Sniffing a person right in front of them — even a beast would have had more manners.
But the thought lasted only a moment. An unfamiliar sensation touched the nape of her neck.
Chloe had bared her teeth, just slightly.
"Ngh…! Please, I'm begging you, be gentle."
The breath leaked out of her against her will. Cecilia squeezed her eyes shut. Her every nerve went taut at the sudden sensation. It didn't hurt terribly, but neither was it nothing.
A feeling she simply could not make sense of. What was she even trying to confirm?
I don't know. I don't understand what Chloe feels.
"Don't close your eyes."
A low voice whispered at her ear.
"I want to see your face."
As she spoke, Chloe's hand began to move. One of the arms wrapped around her waist slid downward, fingertips tracing over the thin fabric — around her navel.
The tips of her fingers swept slowly across that spot.
"……!"
Cecilia flinched. Her hips twisted of their own accord, as though something deep in her belly had been prodded. She bit down hard on her lip, desperately damming up whatever threatened to escape.
The fingertips moved in slow circles. Through that single layer of thin cloth, a faint heat seeped inward, and Cecilia's breathing fell apart. The harder she tried to endure, the more honestly her body responded.
Chloe watched it all, drinking it in — and the more Cecilia fought to hold herself together, the deeper and darker those eyes grew.
"…That face you make when you're enduring it isn't bad either."
The low voice tickled through her skull. Cecilia swallowed her curses. Her body didn't feel like her own anymore; it did as it pleased. That a single fingertip of this woman's could toss her about like this was, above all, humiliating. And what terrified her more than the humiliation was the realization that she was somehow growing used to even that.
There's no hell worse than this. Get a grip. Now is not the time.
Cecilia forcibly dragged her blurring consciousness back. She could not let herself sink into those hands.
After toying with her for a long while, Chloe abruptly stopped. She lifted her head and jerked her chin toward the woman in the corner.
"So here's the thing."
Her voice had turned remarkably light — as if she were picking out a dinner menu.
"What should we do with her?"
The gagged maid shook her head desperately, as if pleading something, but all that escaped her lips was a stream of muffled sobs.
"If you want, I'll deal with her right now, and you won't have to dirty a single hand. Shall I cut off her head and mount it somewhere for decoration? Or toss her in the lake and let the fish have her?"
"…Are you saying that seriously?"
Cecilia asked in return. A cold smile curled at the corner of Chloe's mouth. She looked capable of doing something at any moment.
"She dared to try and put a scratch on what's mine."
The words scraped against something inside Cecilia. Property. An object. She doesn't even count as a person anymore. And yet she could do nothing about it — this was simply the nature of the deal.
"Last night, she ran her mouth about you. Something about a witch, something about a curse. …She never knew her place. You didn't like hearing it either, did you?"
Chloe's gaze fixed on the maid. Through the gag, something that sounded like begging leaked out. Her face, ruined with tears and snot, shook back and forth in frantic denial.
"A mouth like that would be better off gone, don't you think?"
"Mmph…! Mmmph! Please! Mercy! Mmmph!"
"Look at her. She still hasn't learned her lesson."
The woman thrashed, rattling the chair. As if trying to explain herself, she poured out something desperate and urgent through the gag — but Chloe had no intention of listening.
She strode straight up to the woman and seized her by the nape of the neck.
"Kgh…! Kkuh…!"
Slender fingers closed around the woman's throat. Her face flushed a deep red. The chair rattled, the bound body convulsing without restraint.
Cecilia's heart plummeted. She's really going to die like this. No. No!
Her mouth moved faster than her thoughts could follow. She had to stop this. Now. This is too far!
"…Stop it."
For a moment, the strength in Chloe's hand lessened. That head turned back toward Cecilia.
"I don't mind things like that. I'm used to them."
She caught her breath, then added:
"So please… don't torment her anymore."
Silence settled over the room.
Chloe gazed at Cecilia for a long, unreadable moment. Then, slowly, she released the maid's throat, and the woman gasped and sputtered for air.
But Chloe did not back down.
"That alone isn't enough."
"What…?"
"Did you really think I'd simply do as you ask just because you begged? I truly had no idea the Empire's villainess could be this naive. How adorable. I could just eat you up."
Chloe turned back toward her. At the sound of those approaching footsteps, Cecilia instinctively stumbled backward — until her back hit the bedpost. There was nowhere left to retreat.
"A price is required. A life has never come cheap. Cecilia, you know exactly what it is you have to offer me."
Chloe closed the distance until there was nothing between them. Cecilia met those eyes head-on — and read, all at once, what was tangled inside them.
Desire. Craving. An endless, gnawing hunger.
…Ah. So that's what this is.
She was holding a hostage as bait, trying to make Cecilia choose it herself. Apparently everything Cecilia had already given up without a word hadn't been enough. Truly, a vicious thing to do.
Cecilia gritted her teeth inwardly. But the answer had already been decided long ago. She could not let that girl die.
Cecilia closed her eyes. No fear remained, no trembling. Only resolve.
Shaking, Cecilia moved. She rested her hands on the strings of her apron and undid the knots one by one, and the loosened garment slid down off her shoulders. Then she turned and lowered herself onto the bed.
She leaned her upper body back. As she drew one leg up, it — wrapped snugly in its stocking — traced a soft curve across the bed.
Holding that pose, she looked up at Chloe.
"…Go on, then. Eat until you've had your fill."
Her voice cracked as she said it. Even so, it never wavered to the end.
"As much as you want. All of it, without leaving anything behind."
Chloe's eyes shook violently. The maid in the corner had already vanished from her field of view entirely. She came forward without a shred of hesitation and seized Cecilia's leg.
"…I knew it. I knew you'd be the one to say it."
Deep satisfaction soaked through her voice, and her fingertips glided up the length of the stocking.
Cecilia felt that touch — and then, with effort, turned her head away to the side. A faint smile rose to her lips.
…Chloe, you really are an easy woman, aren't you.
Her body was already broken beyond repair — a shell that had thrown away its dignity and been trampled countless times. But if a shell like that could save someone, wasn't that enough?
Cecilia quietly closed her eyes.
Even a person who had fallen to rock bottom still had one thing left to give. And for this one strange, suspended moment, that fact didn't feel bad at all.