The Hourglass of Friendship Cracks
I didn’t follow Arun to the workshop on the second day we spent together. Having finally gained some breathing room to reflect on myself, I felt the urge to read the magic tomes I had taken from Zophy, along with my own grimoire that introduced mental magic—a subject I had only skimmed in a half-mad state before.
Come to think of it, this was how I had lived in my previous life too. I used to act as if someone would kill me if I didn’t open a research paper whenever I had a spare moment. …Well, the professor really would have killed me if I hadn’t.
Once my thoughts reached that point, a bit of my lost laughter returned.
In the room lit by a faint magical glow, I read through the records Zophy had meticulously documented during her research and felt a reluctant acknowledgment. She had poured her heart and soul into becoming a proper mage after graduation. That much, at least, I had to admit—even if she was an unforgivable witch. After all, she had been the top graduate.
According to her notes, she had developed a few simple spells, much like I had. The magic she used to knock me unconscious during my kidnapping wasn’t the standard Nemeros’s Deep Sleep I had assumed. It was her own improved version—stronger, deeper, more vicious.
There were also records of drugs and poisons. The white powder that had completely shattered me, the one I didn’t even want to think about, was apparently one of her custom blends. That made sense. There was no way such a horrific recipe would appear in any legitimate grimoire.
I had copied several of Zophy’s spells into my blank spellbook as well. Although they were someone else’s creations and took a little getting used to at first, my own harsh experiences had sharpened my magical skills enough that I had no major trouble understanding or replicating them.
I would never make that terrible narcotic again, but the other spells might prove useful someday.
I spent the entire day like that—reading books and transcribing notes. With no windows in the room, I lost all sense of time and only realized the day had passed when Arun returned.
That night, I did not try to seduce him.
It wasn’t that the desire to be held by a man had completely vanished. The self-destructive urge to be utterly ruined by my childhood friend’s hands, to spread my legs for anyone and earn their contempt, still flickered like dying embers.
But I endured it.
Part of it was hesitation after being rejected twice, but the day spent immersed in magical research had also calmed my mind enough to resist the dark whispers urging me to fall into the abyss.
The next day, Arun left early again after eating a few pieces of hard bread. The moment he was gone, I lit a magical flame and opened the introductory tome on mental interference magic.
That day, Arun came back far too early. My sense of time had dulled while reading by the faint magical light, but I could tell from the number of pages I had read that it was only a little past noon.
“Hm? Arun, you’re back already?”
And then… something was wrong.
Thanks to having somewhat recovered the ability to treat people warmly, I was able to greet him with genuine delight. The short time I had spent with Arun had healed some of my emotional wounds, at least on the surface.
But he said nothing. His back was to the sunlight streaming in from outside, so his expression was hard to read, yet his eyes seemed… bloodshot.
“Arun…? What’s wrong…?”
Still silent, he tossed a single sheet of paper at me. The fluttering page landed on my lap, over the plain, unadorned cotton dress I wore. Without thinking, I picked it up and looked at it.
It felt as if my heart had plummeted to the floor.
There I was on the paper. A youthful face—likely captured from the day of my graduation ceremony—had been drawn with almost photographic precision. The day of the graduation ceremony meant the exact moment I had rewound time to during my escape from the basement… nineteen years and four months old. In other words, exactly how I looked right now.
“Arun, this, this is…”
There was no need to ask. It was a wanted poster, stamped with the imperial seal. My list of crimes was written beneath it. The portrait had probably been created by the magic university professors using memory transcription spells.
The charges listed were bizarre. I was named the prime suspect in the massive “mutation” incident at the Mittenburg ducal house.
Employed by the ducal family, I had developed a wicked spell that turned people into rats so they could never be restored, then experimented with it inside the ducal mansion, taking countless lives in the process.
I let out a hollow laugh.
I could understand why the person who wrote the poster had packaged the story so ridiculously.
It would do no good to let the public hear the gruesome tale of countless nobles being transformed into fetuses and trampled to death. Besides, no one would believe such an absurd summary anyway.
Even so, the charges were more than enough to warrant a swift trial and execution. Especially since Zophy was still alive as both witness and victim.
As I stared at the poster, Arun slowly walked toward me.
A thousand thoughts flashed through my mind. Was I about to be thrown out? No—if it was only that, I would be lucky. Would he accuse me of deceiving him, a criminal hiding in his home? Were the guards or interrogators about to burst in behind him?
Was I going straight to the gallows?
Standing on the scaffold, looking back at my utterly fallen self with no place left to sink, would I die with an ecstatic, masochistic, perverted expression of pleasure on my face? Would I hang there, bowels emptying, tongue lolling like a hideous corpse, still shamefully squirting waves of pleasure until I finally became nothing but rotting meat?
If possible, I hoped someone would drag my corpse down and spit on it. If there was anywhere left to fall even after death, that would be the perfect end for someone like me….
While I was lost in such filthy delusions, Arun had already closed the distance.
“I-I’m sorry, Arun… I didn’t mean to de—”
I stopped mid-sentence. In truth, I had meant to deceive him completely.
But the real reason I fell silent was…
“Ugh, hngh… k-kk…”
Because Arun had seized me by the throat.
“I can read too, Kaira. I learned from my father because you need to be literate to do proper leatherwork.”
His voice was thick with rage and fury, yet his tone remained coldly calm. …Which meant he was absolutely furious.
“You were planning to hide here by deceiving me? You were going to drag me into this too, destroy me and the precious workshop my father left me? Just like your own house was destroyed? Were you going to turn me into a rat as well?”
‘N-no, I…’
“Hngh… glk… khk, k-hek…”
I had no right to make excuses, and even if I did, I couldn’t. My throat was squeezed so tightly that not only words but even breath couldn’t escape—my carotid artery was completely cut off.
Just before I lost consciousness, Arun threw me aside. I clutched my neck, gasping and coughing violently.
“Now it all makes sense. Even the way you seduced me like a filthy whore.”
“Hngh… cough, cough… A-Arun…”
I barely caught my breath, sitting on the floor and looking up at him with a terrified expression.
“You know what, Kaira? When you tried to seduce me, I was really shaken. Because I’ve liked you since we were kids. All the other boys did too. You knew that, didn’t you? That’s why you deliberately spread your legs like that, right?”
“I-I didn’t know…”
How could I have known? Back then, the shock of my memories from Earth was still so strong that I couldn’t possibly recall the innocent crushes that passed between children.
“So you thought that if you gave me your body, offered me your virginity, I would hide you even after finding out? You miscalculated, Kaira. No matter how much I liked you, I’m not stupid enough to shelter a dangerous criminal like you.”
I couldn’t respond. Terrified by the transformation of the childhood friend I thought I knew, I simply trembled, teeth chattering, clinging to the bedpost.
“In a way, this is perfect. The poster says dead or alive, so whether I bring you in alive or deliver your corpse, I’ll get the bounty. And I’ve been wanting to expand the workshop anyway.”
I barely managed to open my mouth and speak.
“Are you… going to kill me…?”
Even in that moment, the terror of impending destruction… and the pleasure that terror brought slowly soaked the space between my thighs. I was thinking about how intense the ecstasy would be the moment I died.
I hated myself for becoming so broken. I hated Zophy for breaking me like this. But at the same time… I was grateful.
There was no way to restore the shattered me. There was nothing else I could do. All I could do was accept this ruined desire and take pleasure in it.
“Not right now, at least. Not when the girl I had a crush on is right in front of me, ready to spread her legs if I tell her to. So, Kaira. You seduced me, didn’t you? You wanted my body, right? Then I’ll give you exactly what you wanted.”
“W-why… I-I treated you well… I was so kind, I even let you use the house…”
My mind fractured by fear, I could only babble useless nonsense.
“That was before I knew you were a cruel mass murderer with a bounty on your head. I thought you were still the same childhood friend Kaira I remembered. I’m a member of the town watch. It’s my duty to stop monsters like you from walking around freely.”
“I-I’ll scream…”
“That wouldn’t be wise, Kaira. Then I’d have to share the bounty with whoever comes running. I’d have to share your body too. That’s why I didn’t tell any of the other friends you were here, just like I promised.”
With those calm words, Arun grabbed my throat again.
“Khk?!”
“Open your mouth. If you want to live a few more days instead of dying here with a broken neck, and die on the gallows instead.”
My throat hurt from the pressure, and Arun terrified me so much that I trembled and obediently opened my mouth. A long leather gag wrapped in cloth was shoved deep into my throat.
“Hngh… ugh, mmmph… ngh…”
Having sealed the woman’s final weapon—her ability to scream—Arun pulled a thick, sturdy leather strap from his pocket.
Neither the gag nor the straps had been in the workshop when I looked around two days ago. They carried a strong smell of the chemicals used in leather treatment. I understood immediately. Arun had spent the afternoon making these.
“You’re a mage, aren’t you, Kaira? Only an idiot would leave a mage’s mouth free.”
Only then, like an idiot, did I remember. That I was a mage. That from the very beginning I should have calmly used magic to confuse or incapacitate him and escape somehow.
But my mouth was already sealed, and with my body restrained I couldn’t even open my spellbook. The spells I had practiced enough to cast without books or incantations could be counted on one hand.
Menelon’s Ice Sheet, Menelon’s Honey, and the completely useless Kaira’s Secret Diary in a situation like this. That was all.
I couldn’t possibly use my rewinding ability. I hadn’t even been able to use that terrible power on a mere bandit. There was no way I could turn it on my childhood friend.
Resignation, the fear of death, the helplessness of being abandoned by my childhood friend, and… the thrill of finally falling into utter ruin all mixed together. Every ounce of strength and will to resist drained from my body.
Arun used the leather straps—made strong just for me—to bind my wrists and ankles, my elbows and knees, then tied the other ends to the bedposts.
“I’ll be counting on you then, Kaira. I never imagined my first love would end up like this.”
Looking down at me with cold, thorough eyes, Arun spoke those bitter words. Bound to the bed so tightly that I could barely move anything except my fingers and toes, the only resistance I could offer was…
“Mmmph!!?! Mmm, mmmph!!!!”
Absolutely nothing.