Suppressing his rising irritation, Raham continued striking her b*ttocks. Carlie slid sideways, perhaps losing strength, and Raham instinctively caught her.

With slightly frightened eyes, Carlie looked up at Raham.

“Sorry, I’m sorry…… I’ll position myself properly……”

Raham was confused whether this counted as saying she did wrong. As he looked down at her, Carlie squirmed and properly lay down on the cushion. He could see sweat pooling in her deep cleavage, dampening her shirt.

“Don’t be angry……”

She looked up at him while whimpering like that. Panting with the face of the most pitiful person in the world. She also stared intently at Raham as if waiting for some reaction.

This must be what she meant by playing along. But when faced with the request, he couldn’t think of anything to say.

What am I supposed to do? Though his face remained stoic as he looked down at her, cold sweat ran down Raham’s back. Finally, he managed a short response.

“Alright.”

It didn’t seem like a particularly useful response, but it would have to do.

Thinking “what on earth am I doing,” he raised his hand. Carlie exhaled an ambiguous sigh that could have been satisfaction or dissatisfaction and said:

“Speak informally to me, Raham.”

It was a bizarre request, but Raham accepted it without much shock. He had a general sense of what Carlie wanted.

This high-born member of the ruling clan wanted to pretend to be a slave. And not just any slave, but a pitiful one under harsh domination.

It was inappropriate, but Raham thought he understood why she had been driven from the position she should have occupied.

“Hnng, it hurts.”

“Bear it.”

Slightly, very slightly, Raham became excited. He defined this inexplicable pleasure as vicarious revenge against the ruling clans who abused slaves.

He felt a slight urge to beat her severely, but he didn’t forget. Even while doing this, this woman was still a member of the ruling clan who could instantly transform and throw Raham into a pit incomparably worse than this.

Slap! Slap!

“Hngh, ah!”

Raham entered a state of no-thought again.

Strawberries. Strawberries.

“Hnnngh, I’m sorry……”

After striking repeatedly, Raham hit her once more before stopping. Sure enough, despite her whimpering and begging, Carlie wore a sharp expression.

“Focus. Don’t think about other things.”

Why is this pervert so demanding? Grinding his teeth inwardly, Raham apologized.

“I’m sorry.”

Unsatisfied with his stiff, formal apology, Carlie nagged:

“When I say stop, it’s because I can’t take any more. If you hit me again after that, what happens? It becomes truly painful, and all the good feelings up to that point are wasted.”

“……I’m sorry.”

Tired of her nagging, Raham apologized more sincerely. Otherwise, he felt he would have to listen endlessly.

Fortunately, she stopped there. With a groan, she used the chair Raham had been sitting on to stand up.

“Help me up.”

Raham carried her to the workroom.

The room, where he couldn’t distinguish what had changed from before, was still a mess. It looked as if it might have already exploded once.

When Carlie produced medicine using bottles completely different from what he had guessed, Raham abandoned his plan to steal his master’s drugs. He had occasionally heard rumors of deranged alchemists burning down entire houses, and he didn’t want to become a cautionary tale of someone who burned to death in such circumstances.

After cleaning her b*ttocks, Carlie entered the bathroom again with a satisfied expression.

A moment later, she emerged after splashing herself with water and gave Raham, who stood firmly in front of her, a blank look.

“What is it?”

“Aren’t you going to ask what you can do for me this time?”

Of course, as a slave, he would have done it even without compensation.

But a promise was a promise. Raham was secretly worried that Carlie might refuse to give him anything because he had struck her one extra time.

When she smiled slightly, his worry quickly vanished.

“Right, what should I give you?”

Until the last moment, Raham debated between going outside and strawberries. Choosing something unfamiliar at this precious moment of choice carried a big risk, and fearing that strawberries might not be as satisfying as expected, Raham chose going outside.

“……It’s suffocating being inside all the time. Couldn’t I at least walk to the alley up ahead?”

“Hmm.”

Carlie made a thoughtful face. Raham waited anxiously.

The spell’s effectiveness wouldn’t diminish with distance, and he had no intention of running away from a place that was completely satisfactory except for these strange activities. No, even this activity was tolerable in its way. It was certainly much better than being on the receiving end.

While he rationalized like this, Carlie finished her playful deliberation.

“Alright then. Tomorrow is market day, so let’s go out together.”

Raham opened his eyes wide. Carlie smiled slightly.

“It’s quite rural so there’s not much, but it’s still the best attraction in this village. Go to bed early.”

Attaching a barely noticeable short greeting to the end of the conversation, she went to bed. Raham also tidied up the living room, which was cluttered with orange peels, the switch, cushion, chair, and drops of sweat, before going to bed.

⁕⁕⁕

Carlie left the house dressed more neatly than usual. Thanks to Raham finally learning how to iron clothes after burning four outfits, she was able to wear a relatively wrinkle-free shirt and skirt.

Behind her followed Raham, holding a handcart that seemed comically small in his large hands.

True to Carlie’s words that there wasn’t much, the village had nothing particularly worth seeing. There were no splendid circuses, fire shows, feats of strength, or attention-grabbing slave auctions.

The market consisted only of food items like pigs, sheep, chickens, sausages, cheese, bread, and eggs, along with necessities such as reed-woven baskets and a few types of fabric.

But because there were so few things, each item drew more attention, and since most were brought directly from people’s homes, the contents were substantial.

Though Raham tried not to show it, his eyes were wide open as he looked at the various fruits and ingredients. The only quality ingredients he had ever tasted were the few simple ones delivered to Carlie’s house; the rest had all been on other people’s tables, untouchable to him.

Carlie leisurely walked, enjoying Raham’s gaze that darted here and there. She held up a large fruit in one hand.

“It’s a pomelo.”

“……”

“The mangoes are good too.”

“……”

“The plums are nice as well……”

“……”

After saying just that, Carlie passed by all of them.

Was she looking for better prices? Even though she couldn’t haggle at all. He decided to note the prices carefully and haggle for her if she tried to buy something.

He waited with an especially fierce expression for this purpose, but Carlie passed by all the shops. As she turned around briskly after one circuit, it really seemed like she had come out just to show Raham around.

Since she had called it “market day,” it probably wasn’t always open. When would he be able to see these things again?

In his urgency, Raham pulled at Carlie’s clothing. Unable to touch his master’s body directly, this was his desperate choice. Both actions were equally impertinent, but he had to try something.

“Master.”

“Yes, Raham?”

Somehow her response sounded annoying. Since this was common and he was in a hurry, he didn’t mind. He pulled her clothing more, bringing his lips close to her ear.

“That…… if you buy it for me, I’ll play with you.”

“Hmm.”

Carlie made a thoughtful face. Raham waited anxiously.

“As much as you want…… I’ll do it twice for you……”

Even as he said it, Raham thought his bargaining was unspeakably strange. A slave asking his master to buy him something in exchange for tormenting her. Every part of it was bizarre.

Carlie seemed to think so too as she laughed quietly. Yet she continued walking without stopping. He pulled at her clothing again.

“You’ll tear my clothes, Raham.”

He flinched and let go. When he thought about it later, if his master had been anyone but Carlie, he would have been sprawled on the market floor, scratching the ground with his fingertips by now.

Anyway, it seemed she didn’t intend to buy anything for him. He gave up. The handcart she had brought along had given him false hope. As he frowned in dissatisfaction, he noticed Carlie had disappeared from his side.

“……?”

“Hmm, one basket of those, please.”

Seeing Carlie return to a shop they had passed and buying fruit, Raham found the fact that his master was a supreme pervert among perverts to be exceptionally sweet.

Carlie poured fruits—each almost as big as her head, slightly smaller or larger than melons—into the handcart with a clatter.

As the round, heavy fruits filled the bottom of the handcart, Raham felt greedy again. It seemed too wasteful to just look at all these things and leave after coming all this way.