Prelude (11)

Betty and Lorian, knowing the identity of the milk, maintained an awkward silence. Breast Milk, from Agassi’s chest, squeezed out directly. These three facts clung to their minds like a curse, making them hesitate to even guess.

What is that? What on earth is in there? Even while thinking such thoughts, they couldn’t erase the bizarre and twisted sensation running down their spines.

It was a task they had repeated for days, but squeezing human milk could never become familiar. It must be that they had become desensitized from not feeling stronger emotions.

The first time. It was an emotion that could only be felt at the beginning. A person, squeezing human milk, and supplying it to the mansion. By the time this crazy plan no longer seemed strange, they had already passed far beyond the ‘first time.’

But Betty and Lorian could feel that ‘first’ emotion again. That feeling of being twisted inside, of being confused because they couldn’t accept it in their heads.

One difference was that milking was more fun than they thought. This was why they gave up and adapted so quickly. Yujin was a hopeless pervert and an extreme masochist, but the image she showed to the maids was ‘human.’ It was a level they could understand as a unique person, and they could get along with it.

But that thing. The ominous assumptions that flashed through their minds were torn apart and reassembled. As they repeated the process, Betty’s face turned blue.

“…”

Lorian was equally silent.

“Hey, guys? What’s wrong…?”

Pure Lena couldn’t even guess what they were thinking. She just looked at her colleagues with worried eyes, keeping her mouth shut and breathing quietly.

“Haa… Right. There’s no way.”

Purity.

Lorian took a breath as she looked at Lena’s innocent expression. But Betty, who was timid in a strange way, couldn’t stop her delusions.

“…Could it be. Really?”

“No, no. Betty. There’s no way. Relax your face.”

Lorian shook Betty’s shoulders. Her neck swayed back and forth, and her hair fluttered. Betty licked her lips, brushing away the hair that covered her eyes.

“Look at the size of the barrel. It’s barely big enough for a child to fit inside.”

Then she pointed out the size of the barrel. Slightly smaller than a wine barrel sold on the market. It didn’t seem like a person, let alone an animal, could fit inside.

“You’d have to get rid of your limbs to get in there, right?”

Lorian chuckled.

“Don’t have such ridiculous thoughts and let’s go back. We have a lot to do. This time, the eldest doryeonnim renewed the contracts while cleaning up the surrounding shops. There’s a clothing store among them, so we have a lot to do.”

“…Okay, uh.”

Lena smiled brightly as she saw the two return to normal.

“Yeah, yeah. Let’s finish work quickly and go play in the warehouse.”

Then she smiled and took their hands. She took Lena’s hands as if she was used to it. The three maids in charge of coordination shared an unspeakable secret and became much closer.

This could be said to be thanks to Yujin. The things they gained while working with Yujin weren’t just unpleasant and unique memories. It was true that they had become financially well-off thanks to Agassi, who was excessively generous, and Shuriel even stepped in to guarantee their convenience in many cases.

They return. To their usual work. And doing some unusual work in parallel. They pick up their pens again.

“……”

Lena didn’t have any particular thoughts, and Lorian shook off her stray thoughts, but Betty still couldn’t let go of her curiosity.

Even as she left, she kept staring at the barrel. She kept glancing back, unable to take her eyes off the barrel until just before turning the corner.

Right then.

-Deolkeong.

“……?!”

The barrel, moved.

“W, wait a minute. Guys.”

“Huh?”

Betty’s pale lips trembled.

“D, didn’t the barrel, move?”

She knew that she wouldn’t get an answer even if she asked this. They were walking while looking ahead. Betty was the only one who looked back.

But she couldn’t shake off this uneasy and fearful feeling without saying it.

“The barrel moved?”

“…Really! S, slightly to the left-“

Betty, who had said this far, realized the gazes directed at her and shut her mouth.

Lorian looked at her as if she was cute, and Lena looked at her with pity for some reason. Betty, shaking her head at that unbearable gaze, forced a smile and laughed haha.

“Haha… I guess I’m a bit sensitive today. Sorry. Let’s just go.”

She wasn’t feeling well today. She decided to think that way. But the curiosity and dangerous thoughts that remained deep in her heart had already taken root and sprouted, and would not disappear unless she cut out her heart.

Betty vowed to ask Agassi about it after work. Where she had been that day. She wanted to meet her right away, but as Lorian said, there was a mountain of work to do as the contracts for the surrounding shops were being renewed.

* * *

Five hours had passed.

It had been a whole five hours since I was stuck in a barrel where I couldn’t see anything, with my arms and legs cut off.

But unlike what I thought, that I would drown in breast milk, the breast milk quickly ran out. There were those who secretly came during work hours to take out the breast milk, and there were even those who were shameless enough to take five cups.

However, the pain brought by time became clearer as my mind was clear, gnawing at my body.

‘…I can’t, lose, consciousness.’

Thanks to the reconstruction, my flesh didn’t rot, but there was no way it wouldn’t hurt after being pressed down for five hours. The nipples that had been spewing breast milk for a long time had long lost sensation.

It wasn’t just the nipples that had blurred boundaries of sensation. The sweet smell of milk and the fragrant smell of flesh mixed and mingled, creating a complex and subtle smell.

The smell disappeared as soon as the breast milk was discharged through the faucet, but the inside was a completely different world. The sweet smell was several times stronger. It felt like my nose was pickling.

The cut surfaces of my arms and legs and face, pressed against the wall, were so tight that it was hard to breathe, making it feel like the barrel was the whole world.

The boundary with the world is gradually blurring. I put in a lot of effort to turn back my increasingly dull eyes, but my body, which had been stuck in the barrel for a long time, had already adapted to the twisted sensation.

Even if I tried to come to my senses and had other thoughts, those meager thoughts were quickly split apart and pecked at my head as if to mock me.

And so, time passed and it was late evening.

The time when the maids’ work was at its peak.

“Ugh, heup…?”

I, who had been breathing stupidly with a hazy and disconnected mind, sent a blank gaze at the breast milk that had risen to my chest.

It took a long time to recognize and accept it. Breast milk, it’s breast milk. More breast milk. And the barrel. Trapped. Can’t move. It was very difficult to extract one piece of information from such disconnected thoughts.

‘…Ugh, ah?’

And by the time I realized that fact, the breast milk had already reached my neck.

‘Ah, ugh. Breast milk, not draining…?’

I trembled my eyes as I looked at the breast milk splashing right below my neck.

What time is it now? I don’t know because I’ve never thought about it. Where did the maids who are crazy about Lecante milk go? I fell into confusion. I looked at the increasingly rising breast milk with fearful eyes, and I got excited as much as I felt fear.

If I get excited, the speed of spewing breast milk increases, so I had to find peace of mind. But when I imagined dying in breast milk, that unsightly and futile death, I couldn’t help but tremble. And, I couldn’t help but get excited.

‘Ah, no…’

Don’t get excited. You might die. Why, why are you getting excited. My head scolds me almost pleadingly, but my body doesn’t listen at all.

“Euheup, heup……’

-Kkoreureuk….

The breast milk came up to below my nose. When I exhale through my nose, bubbles rise up.

I lifted my head to live. I desperately pushed my face against the wall to create space, and barely prevented myself from drowning in breast milk.

But even this was invaded again. I tried to create air bubbles as a last resort, but as soon as they were created, they touched the wall and burst with a pop.

The speed at which my head turns increases. My wizard’s reason commands me not to die like this, to break the barrel and escape right now, but the instinct that has been conditioned throughout my life does not avoid death.

No, I couldn’t. The attitude of a loser that had seeped into my bones couldn’t dare to go against the death that Shuriel had bestowed upon me.

“Heup, geueup……”

I hold my breath. I couldn’t take a deep breath right before holding my breath, so the time I could hold my breath became shorter.

“Kkeup, heup….”

The pain was familiar, it was a toy that I could heal at any time, but the death that came after the pain was never a joke. Death has never shown me mercy even once since I fell here.

I hold my breath.

Even though I know it won’t last a few seconds, I block my breathing holes. My mouth is blocked, and the only hole is my nose, so if I breathe, it will definitely go into my trachea.

5 seconds.

My heartbeat ticks like a clock. Dugeun, dugeun. As the second hand turns, my face turns blue.

10 seconds.

My temples become numb as I put strength into my chin. At the same time, the throbbing of my heart becomes even louder.

15 seconds.

Everything floats. If I don’t pay attention, I feel like I can hold my breath for a few more seconds.

‘S, save, me…’

* * *

As Yujin said, Shuriel was a workaholic.

His personality, which dragged in and handled things that were not under his jurisdiction, was inherited from his brother.

But when Yujin is around, he keeps loosening up. It’s not that he dislikes the time he spends with Yujin, but rather that he feels comfortable, but just as Yujin felt disgusted by the peace of the East, Shuriel felt disgusted by the leisure in rest.

I want to keep being with you. I want to stay by your side. I want to throw everything away and hold your hand. But such thoughts soon collide with the onrushing disgust and shatter into pieces.

‘…Has so much time already passed?’

The shattered thoughts soon become emptiness and pierce his heart.

Looking outside, it was already dusk. Shuriel looked at the bright red sky beyond the empty window and thought of Yujin’s hair.

Have we spent too much time together? Is it already too late? No, it’s already too late. A long time ago. Shuriel frowned his left eye at the stiffness and got up from his seat.

And he walked through the mansion’s hallway to loosen up his body.

But.

What came into his eyes was the red carpet, the crimson lighting, the red candles, the bright red decorations, red, red… It was a mansion overflowing with colors, but only red came into his eyes.

“…Tsk.”

Shuriel clicked his tongue and turned his feet. It was the dormitory facility outside the mansion where the servants lived.

“……”

The thought that, could it be, was also in his mind. He couldn’t help but be anxious. He accepted Yujin’s disgust, her twistedness, and all kinds of negative aspects, made them his own, and then swore to melt into them and embrace her, but anxiety-he couldn’t shake off this one thing.

Shuriel put his anxiety aside for a moment and quickly moved his feet.

The servants’ section was quiet. It was the time when they were busy working, so no one was in sight.

“……”

And so, he reached the corner. Shuriel felt the flow of Mana and instinctively sensed that Yujin was beyond that.

‘…Damn it.’

And he frowned.

-Jureureuk…

The barrel containing Yujin was so full of breast milk that the lid was lifted, and it was spilling its contents.

Because the maids were busy working, no one came, so the breast milk didn’t decrease.

But Shuriel wasn’t flustered. It was expected. He had already done enough asphyxiation play to be sick of it. Yujin had a strong body that could live for a few minutes even if her neck was bent.

-Deolkeong.

Shuriel calmly opened the lid.