The Grand Mage's Cottage (2)
“Ugh……”
My head…… it hurts. It feels as though something is crushing my skull, squeezing my brain dry.
I remember losing consciousness after catching that strange smell. Some kind of anesthetic, perhaps. This headache must be the aftereffect.
When I forced my eyes open, I found myself seated on a wooden chair beneath the cottage eaves. The cloth binding the magic seal on my hands remained in place, and the ropes still bound my body, but Pirel was no longer beside me.
“Pirel……?”
Gasping for breath in an attempt to clear my head, I called out to her.
“Yes! I’m right here!”
The moment I called, Pirel popped up from below my line of sight and answered with a bright smile.
“Hik!? P-Pirel?”
“What’s wrong? Why are you so surprised, Kaira?”
Of course I was surprised—she had suddenly appeared out of nowhere. I managed to steady my breathing and asked,
“Weren’t you captured by the witch? I’m still tied up like this……”
Pirel puffed out one cheek. Something about my words must have displeased her.
“The witch is you, Kaira. Viran is not a witch—she is a grand mage, remember?”
I had no reply to that sudden defense. Moreover, the way she was suddenly praising the woman who had kidnapped us was baffling.
Pirel vanished below my line of sight again with a soft pyut. I turned my head to follow the girl’s face. Crouched in front of the chair I was bound to, Pirel was untying the ropes around my ankles—boots and all.
“Are you trying to free me? Where is Viran? If she is nearby and you untie me like this, you will be in danger too, Pirel.”
“Hm……? No. You are supposed to stay tied up, Kaira.”
As I suspected, something was wrong with Pirel’s state.
“Your words keep contradicting themselves, Pirel. Stop joking and untie my arms and body too……”
Pirel did not answer. Instead, she set something down on the ground. A heavy metallic clatter rang out.
“Pirel…… what…… is that……?”
“Viran gave it to me. Shackles and handcuffs made for countering magic. They have resistance to supernatural phenomena, so even if you try to rewind time, they will resist as much as possible. She said that as long as you are wearing them, we will not have to worry about you taking off your boots……”
“Wait a moment—are you saying you are going to put those on me?”
Pirel looked up at me and tilted her head.
“Yes. Of course. You promised to become Viran’s test subject, did you not?”
“But…… there is no need for you to help that woman so enthusiastically, is there……?”
A small smile spread across the girl’s face.
“What are you saying, Kaira? Viran is a good person. We should cooperate with her as much as possible.”
With that reply, Pirel turned her attention back to my boots. Something was definitely wrong. Her consciousness and personality seemed intact, yet it was as though some bizarre common sense had been implanted in her……
I stared at Pirel’s seemingly innocent eyes as she focused on untying my bootlaces. Those red eyes, shining with a peculiar, crystalline clarity that was both familiar and alien, carried a faint shadow……
“……You have been hit with a mind-affecting spell, Pirel.”
Pirel did not even look up as she answered.
“Hm? I do not know anything about that. Anyway, Kaira, put some strength into your legs. I am taking your boots off.”
The fully loosened boots slipped limply from my calves. The sudden sensation of cool air brushing against my feet, now freed from the warm leather, made me instinctively curl my toes.
“Ugh……”
“Viran said that a dangerous witch like you might be hiding a means of escape—something to cut the ropes. But if we take your shoes, you will hardly be able to walk through this harsh forest, so it should be fine.”
While uttering those chilling words that did not suit her at all, Pirel brought something that made a metallic scraping sound directly to my ankle and fastened it with practiced ease.
Click. A metallic sound of something locking together reverberated through my shinbone, and the icy chill of the cold shackle wrapped around my left ankle, exposed to the early winter wind. The heavy weight of the metal mass already made my anklebone ache.
“Th-this…… it hurts a little……”
Without answering, Pirel rotated the two shackles connected by a short chain, as if checking that they were properly secured. The chain between them was so short that taking even a single step would be difficult.
“……Pirel……?”
I called out to her in an uneasy voice as she stared fixedly at my feet for a long while.
“Rasail……”
The moment she suddenly uttered my father’s name, I twisted my body and looked at her with startled eyes. With my upper body tightly bound by ropes, there was nothing I could do but watch.
“Hehe. Your feet smell delicious, Kaira. Whenever I visited Rasail’s house, he would toast the leftover bread crusts until they were crispy. That kind of smell……”
The girl’s face slowly turned toward my toes.
“W-wait a moment, Pirel? Pirel……?”
I could only look down anxiously at Pirel’s head as she brought her nose close enough that her breath tickled my toes.
And then—
“Hih!?”
A shiver ran through my body at the sensation of something moist and soft lightly rubbing against my big toe.
“……Salty.”
“O-of course it is! I was wearing my boots even inside the sleeping bag, so of course there is a lot of sweat built up…… No, wait—what are you doing right now!?”
“Still…… it tastes good……”
Pirel ignored everything I said and spoke in a mesmerized voice. At this point, there was no use saying anything.
“Hahp.”
As Pirel’s small mouth opened slightly, I squeezed my eyes shut.
“Chup.”
My left big toe was sucked into Pirel’s mouth with a soft pop. The tip of my foot, chilled by the winter wind, was warmed by the girl’s moist, warm oral mucosa.
“Ugh!?”
A strange, ticklish sensation spread from the tip of my toe through my spine and throughout my entire body.
“P-Pirel…… this…… stop…… it tickles a little, and…… it is embarrassing……”
These were feet that had not been washed since leaving the inn in Limena. Thanks to my strange ability, the smell was probably not bad…… but they were still dirty. The shame of having the dirtiest part of my body placed in Pirel’s—my mother’s—mouth, along with a sense of transgression and immorality, gradually heated my body.
“Mmmph…… Chuuuup…… pah. Chup. Ehehe. Rasail’s daughter is…… Hehe, so this is what our daughter tastes like…… Chup……”
“Hyah!?”
A bizarre sensation spread from Pirel’s tongue as it carefully licked between my toes. It was not a tentacle of darkness. It was simply…… yes, simply the pink tongue of an ordinary girl.
Yet even that was almost unbearable.
‘W-what…… It is just…… ticklish…… no…… it is not…… hic……’
While the shackles clinked, I tried to endure by wriggling the toe that had been swallowed into Pirel’s mouth, and I tried to make her stop, but—
“Hng…… Pirel…… stop…… ugh……”
My tightly bound body and arms would not move, and there was no way Pirel, who had completely overpowered me, would listen to my words.
“Mmm…… chup, chup. Nyam…… Hehe, no♡ You have to listen to Mommy, our daughter.”
Pirel spat out the toe she had been playing with in her mouth and deliberately let a sticky thread of saliva stretch as she moved her lips to the sole of my now-cold foot.
With the sound of a kiss, the girl’s soft, pliant tongue extended like a tentacle and tickled the sole of my foot. I could not hold back any longer and let out a heated moan.
“Hyah!? A-hah♡”
The ticklish pain, the bewilderment, the shame, the sense of loss as though something precious had been taken away, even the betrayal of being subjected to such an act by my own mother—all of it seemed to transform into pleasure……
“Hih…… A-hah…… M-my sole…… no…… it is weak…… hng!? A-hah…… Hyahahaha, I-I hate it…… stop…… hic……”
My voice, a mixture of laughter, crying, moans, and whimpers, only seemed to stimulate the sadistic impulses of the girl kneeling before me.
‘I have dealt with customers who licked this place before…… hyah!? But this…… really is different. Because the other person is Pirel…… hng…… perhaps……’
Pirel…… had she always had this kind of preference?
“Chup…… Ehehe, it is delicious, Kaira. Delicious…… Relax. Hm? Mommy is here…… Chuuup, lick, chup, lap♡”
“Hyaaaaang!? Ugh, hih, heheee…… hyah♡ Hiyaaaaang!?”
‘N-no…… I cannot…… !?’
A terrifying wave of pleasure and liberation raced up my spine and blew away my reason for a moment. I wondered how many seconds I had lost consciousness. When I came back to my senses, I was wetting my skirt and legs with a hot liquid mixed with arousal and urine.
“Hehe…… E-he…… Ehehe…… P-Pirel…… A-hng……”
I had climaxed from nothing more than the sensation of my foot being stimulated by Pirel’s mouth. Mortified, I tried to turn away from her, but with my body bound, even that was not free.
Pirel began licking the now-cooled liquid running down my legs.
“Our daughter…… mm, chup…… even here, it smells like beer…… chup♡ So that is how it is……”
Watching that scene, I shuddered.
“Pirel! Please…… that…… hng…… it is dirty…… I said it is dirty…… hngk……”
I slumped and sobbed. To have fed my mother something like that…… The self-loathing of behaving in a manner beneath human dignity scattered even my will to resist.
“Yes…… chup…… chup, chup…… lick. Slurp…… I love you, Kaira…… Rasail, Rasail…… I love you……”
Around that time, a mature woman’s voice came from beyond the corner of the cottage.
“Now then, Miss Pirel, Miss Kaira! I have finished setting up the experimental equipment—……? What are you two doing?”
“Ah…… Viran!”
“Hngk…… Hwaaaang……”
The moment I saw Viran, I burst into tears. Viran looked slightly flustered at my reaction, but Pirel paid no mind and threw my foot aside before leaping into her arms and rubbing her cheek against her.
“I put the shackles on Kaira! But the smell coming from Kaira was so good that I could not help myself. Hehe.”
A sigh carrying countless thoughts escaped the centuries-old mage’s lips. It seemed she had not anticipated this situation either.
Still clinging to Viran, Pirel dangling from her, I caught my breath from the afterglow of climax and immediately asked,
“……What kind of magic did you use on Pirel?”
“Hehe. You recognized it as magic right away? Even though you have only been learning magic for about ten years, you little novice.”
I furrowed my brows and glared at Viran.
“You know of Olberg’s Cute Rabbit, do you not? It was in the grimoire you stole a glance at after taking my robe.”
Olberg’s Cute Rabbit. A mind-interference spell that makes the observer mistake a person enveloped in magic for a harmless target unless they can shake off the spell’s influence with their own willpower…… I had prepared it but never had the chance to use it due to circumstances.
“It is a spell I modified in my own way. Used on a single target, it draws out the desire to cooperate with the caster to the utmost limit. Since I created it, I named it Viran’s Child’s Play. What do you think? Is it not terribly selfish that I am the only target?”
“You certainly know it is selfish.”
Viran let out an unpleasant chuckle.
“But the stronger the effect, the more restrictions there are. The target of cooperation is limited to me alone, only one person can be affected at a time, it can only be used about once a day, memories during the brainwashing remain intact and the personality stays the same, it can be resisted with willpower, and it is immediately dispelled if either party falls asleep and wakes up.”
‘What kind of ridiculous magic is that.’
“How about it? Quite the eccentric and inconvenient spell, fitting for a grand mage, is it not? That is why I called it Child’s Play. Actually, I used it on the horses you rode here as well. That is why they kindly carried you all the way to my house even though I am a stranger.”
There seemed no need to dig any deeper into the old mage’s terrible hobbies. I asked something else.
“So Pirel did this to me…… ugh…… because of that……?”
While wriggling my feet—now sore from the pressure of the shackles and chilled by the early winter wind, with Pirel’s saliva drying on them—I asked.
“Hm? Even though it is a mind-control spell, it does not have any of those suspicious brainwashing effects that fat, lecherous old men would like, you know? This is simply because this child……”
Viran gently stroked Pirel’s head as the girl still clung to her, giggling.
“……likes you very, very much.”
‘I am tired……’
I let out a long sigh filled with many meanings.
‘Both of them……’
Only after Pirel fastened a pair of short, uncomfortable, heavy handcuffs—similar in make to the shackles already on my ankles—onto my wrists did she finally release me completely from the ropes.
“Now then, shall we go? The experiment is ready.”
The ropes were gone, but because of the shackles I could not wear my shoes. The forest floor around the cottage was littered with twigs and pebbles, so every step sent sharp pains through my feet and made me grimace.
“Ugh……”
The short chain also restricted my stride, and lifting my feet high before stepping down hurt as well, so I had no choice but to drag my soles across the ground. Seeing my state, Pirel looked disappointed.
“Hng…… Your feet got so dirty, Kaira. Now I cannot lick them.”
I glared at Pirel, who was still clinging to Viran even while under hypnosis, and puffed out my cheeks to convey my silent displeasure.
The front yard of the cottage where Viran lived in seclusion was surprisingly well-kept for something tended alone in the middle of the forest.
The soil was fine and crumbly, so my feet did not hurt much, and no weeds sprouted up. In a small section of the yard, various herbs and mushrooms that looked useful for magical reagents grew in neat rows.
Viran led me to a spot where several suspicious magical tools had been set up.
“You said Kaira’s strange ability is limited to objects she touches, correct? Here—I have an old gemstone ring I made a very long time ago that has now lost all its mana. I will give it to you, so try rewinding its time.”
Viran had Pirel loosen the cloth on my fingertips slightly. Just as I was about to rewind time, the handcuffs bothered me and I asked,
“……These handcuffs are supposed to block magic, are they not?”
“Ah, the handcuffs themselves only have magic resistance. It would be troublesome if you rewound the handcuffs back into leather or iron ore and escaped. The only thing that blocks supernatural abilities themselves is that cloth. I loosened it a little, so you should be able to manage.”
“Understood. Once this is over, please release us as promised.”
After seeing Viran nod with a faint smile, I rewound the time of the slender ring set with a cracked purple gem.
Rewind.