According to them, demons were so beautiful that anyone who encountered one even once would forget themselves and follow in a trance.
If demons really existed, wouldn’t it be this man in front of me? I stared blankly at his picture-perfect appearance like I was entranced, when the surreal man’s red lips moved.
“You came earlier than usual today.”
“…Ah, I have something I’m curious about.”
“Curious about what?”
He turned his gaze for the first time after being lost in thought for a long while. His golden eyes, which had been empty, suddenly flickered with interest. His smoothly relaxed brow instantly furrowed and I heard a fierce voice.
“Who did that?”
“What?”
“Who did that to your cheek?”
I had spent the whole day outside and hadn’t had time to check my face. Judging by his completely distorted expression, my appearance seemed worse than I thought. I wondered what to say, but it felt strange to tattle on Ralph like a child, so I just deflected.
“Ah… I got hurt while working.”
“That’s not an injury from work.”
“It’s a common accident.”
At my single comment, his eyes turned sharp.
“A common occurrence? Getting hit hard enough to leave blue bruises on your cheek?”
“There are more dangerous things in the kitchen than you’d think.”
“Stop deflecting and tell me quickly. Who dared to do this?”
“Um, well…”
When I drew out my words, his eyebrows began rising higher and higher. It wasn’t difficult to say who did it, but after always listening to my siblings tattle, when it came to me speaking up, my mouth just wouldn’t open.
This felt like becoming a child again.
“Wasn’t yesterday’s punishment enough? Do you want something bigger today? Should I shove fake c*cks into you until your p*ssy gets loose? Then you’d probably cry all night long.”
“No, I absolutely hate that…! It was… head chef Ralph who did it!”
“What’s the reason?”
“This morning… I was late.”
“That’s it?”
Strictly speaking, that wasn’t the end of it. That was just the public reason. Ralph had said he wanted to see how much I would express my apology with my whole body. That was basically no different from saying I had to have s*x with him if I wanted to work again.
It was truly disgusting just thinking about it.
“If I wanted to avoid consequences for being late, I had to… with him…”
“With him. What?”
“Sleep with him. When I said no, he just slapped me, so I just took it.”
“Isn’t he completely insane?”
This situation where the most insane person was calling someone else crazy was too ridiculous. If he thought about how shameful the punishments he gave me were, he wouldn’t be able to say such things.
I was about to laugh at the absurdity when suddenly my head spun and the world became dizzy. I barely managed to support myself against the nearby wall to avoid falling, when the man who had been standing far away approached with a puzzled expression.
“What’s wrong?”
“It’s nothing.”
“It doesn’t look like nothing.”
I unconsciously stepped back at the approaching distance, but his movement was faster. He instantly grabbed my wrist and covered my forehead with his large hand. Then a bitter-sweet scent like wildflowers lingered at my nose. Strangely, a mysterious resonance arose from deep in my chest.
“Your forehead is burning up.”
“This kind of thing gets better with a little rest. So let’s talk for now. I’ve been curious about something since earlier…”
The man’s lips twisted stubbornly for a moment. Then he suddenly lifted me up and moved toward the inner room. When my legs floated in the air with nowhere to stand, bewilderment and fear welled up together.
“Put me down, please. I can walk on my own!”
“Sure, I bet you can.”
“I said I’ll walk on my own! That would be more comfortable for you too.”
No matter what I said, he didn’t seem to care at all. When I struggled a bit, he lightly slapped my buttocks without hurting me.
“Ah…!”
“If you want to get hit again, keep trying.”
At his growling tone, I couldn’t be stubborn anymore. There was nothing good about getting on his bad side, so I had to keep my mouth shut and watch where he was taking me.
The place we arrived at was a small room inside. The considerably aged interior decoration caught my eye first. Behind that were faded books stacked with various odds and ends.
I couldn’t help but be shocked to see fake penises modeled after male g*nitalia inside one of the miscellaneous boxes I glimpsed.
‘Why are such hideous things here…?’
There were also various other items whose purpose I couldn’t guess. I was so surprised that my breathing stopped. All the muscles in my body stiffened like a wooden doll.
Whether my reaction showed outwardly, even though I hadn’t said anything, he spoke first.
“In case you misunderstand, those things have nothing to do with me.”
“…Then?”
“The perverted hobby of this room’s original owner.”
“A hobby? What kind of…”
Whether he was annoyed by my barrage of questions, he frowned. He stared quietly at me in his arms, then spoke in a low voice.
“If you’re that curious, I’ll show you tonight.”
“No, no! I’m not curious at all. Just… please pretend you didn’t hear that.”
The man who had been striding forward set me down on the bed. Then he turned around without regret.
“Rest now.”
I couldn’t understand this man’s contradictory behavior. Wasn’t he someone who didn’t care what happened to me in the first place?
Caring enough to let me rest because my body wasn’t well didn’t suit him. Maybe that’s why it felt uncomfortable somewhere, like my mouth was full of sand.
When the man who had turned around was about to leave the room, I unconsciously grabbed his wrist.
“Wait, just a moment…!”
He stopped walking abruptly and turned to stare at the wrist I was holding. The touching hands were hot like burning logs.
Belatedly realizing what I had done, I hurriedly let go of the hand I was holding.
“I’m sorry. I was unconsciously anxious…”
“Why?”
“There’s something from yesterday’s conversation that’s bothering me.”
He just nodded quietly like telling me to speak.
“By any chance, does my body… only get better when you touch it?”
“So you’re not completely stupid after all?”
My suspicion had become reality. According to this man, I would have to endure that terrible act every night. Becoming like a toy, not even being treated humanely.
The world seemed to collapse and my vision went dark with despair. But I knew I couldn’t lose consciousness here. I still had many things left to ask.
“Then you really did cast some strange magic on my body, right? Or maybe you gave me some drug without my knowledge.”
“Do I look like I’d do such petty things?”
“If not that, then what…”
“You’re misunderstanding something, so I’m telling you – the victim of the magic is actually me.”
“You’re the victim?”
“Yeah. That d*mn old mage cast a f*cking spell on my body. That’s why you’re also bound to my magic.”
I couldn’t understand what he was saying at all. From what I roughly understood, this man’s body was under a spell, and I was also affected by that magic.
“Then… how can we break this magic?”
His eyes looking at me turned cold. The words that followed were no different from a death sentence for me.
“There’s no such method.”
“What…? You’re lying, right? How can that be…!”
This was too hopeless. If I couldn’t return my body to normal, even if I left this mansion, I couldn’t live a normal life.
It would take more than two weeks just to get from here to the village where my family was, and if my body heated up right after departure, I would surely face terrible things on the street. But the more horrifying fact was that no matter how much I soothed and calmed my body, I ultimately couldn’t settle down without this man.
‘How can this be? Then I have to live with this body for the rest of my life. And if this person doesn’t calm my body down, it’ll be the end.’
If this was true, the women who had disappeared before might have been affected by the same magic. Thinking about it, Rebecca that night also seemed to have clung to this man because she couldn’t calm her burning body. Her face looked anguished as she trembled, looking no different from me now.
‘Should I ask about the women who disappeared here? If I just annoy him, it might be worse…’
No matter how I thought about it, asking about the disappeared women didn’t seem like a good choice. Maybe because my physical condition was poor, the more I thought, the hotter my head became. The back of my head felt heavy and my vision became blurry.
I struggled to lift my lowered eyes to look at him, but his expression was still unreadable.
“If you have something to say, say it.”
What should I say here? If I asked him to spare me, would he show mercy? If he were such a generous person, people wouldn’t have disappeared from the mansion in the first place.