But he had already wagered on this fruit twice. He should have been less cheap. It seemed he wasn’t the only one who couldn’t haggle.

“Again?”

“……”

“What do you want to eat?”

For the first time since meeting Carlie, Raham’s heart fluttered.

⁕⁕⁕

Returning with the handcart filled to the brim, Raham was filled with suspicion.

Could she have been pretending not to want to buy anything? How could someone who acted as if she had no intention of buying anything suddenly load up so much? Even if she enjoyed being tormented, this was too much.

Moreover, after the pomelo, his master hadn’t bothered to haggle with him at all.

Regardless of the facts, this incident significantly increased Raham’s loyalty. There was no reason to resist a master who bought so many things her slave wanted to eat.

Besides, his usual thought that “it’s better to be asked to hit than to be hit” had now solidified into a truth.

The two sat facing each other in the living room, peeling various fruits and commenting on their taste.

Typically, Carlie would say “this one’s a bit different” and Raham would respond “hmm,” or she would say “this year’s figs aren’t so good” and Raham would reply “hmm.” To Raham, everything tasted delicious.

After eating fruit until his stomach was full, he gathered all the peels and seeds and burned them in the furnace. After wiping the juice-stained floor and washing the dishes, he found Carlie in the living room with her belly protruding. What she wanted was obvious.

“……”

Raham approached her with a very generous attitude. Carlie, sitting in a chair, was holding something he hadn’t seen before.

It was… a rope.

His feelings instantly became complicated. Was there more to do with that?

“Here, tie me to the chair with this. Behind my back… make sure it’s tied well so it doesn’t slip off the chair.”

His master… might need some therapy. He was genuinely concerned but decided not to say anything. After all, he had eaten well and could continue to do so in the future.

At least she wasn’t running around n*ked outside asking random people to torment her; she was intelligently asking only her slave to do it.

Raham silently tied her wrists together with the chair. She added another request.

“Pull that chair over here. So I can rest my feet on it. Yes, there.”

With two chairs pushed together and her legs stretched out, Carlie looked up at Raham. Her face sparkled with vitality.

“Hit the sole of my foot once with the switch.”

Raham did so without arguing. Thwack!

“Aaagh!”

At times like this, she made his feelings truly, truly strange. She seemed completely unaware of how… troubling it was to watch her writhe and moan in pain.

Making a noble member of the ruling clan cry and beg under his hand was satisfying, refreshing, and true… but her crying face was just too pretty.

It’s that fair face that’s the problem, Raham cursed inwardly.

Taking a deep breath, Carlie nodded downward.

“Tie my ankles too.”

There was another coil of rope. This time Raham couldn’t hold back.

“Do you really enjoy this sort of thing?”

“Raham, I’m not asking you to get hit. Right? What did you say earlier when you wanted me to buy you pomelo?”

He said nothing more and tightly bound his master’s ankles.

‘What if I just bash her on the back of the head, knock her out, and chop her into pieces?’

His master truly had no sense of fear. Perhaps when the lord sent him to his sister, he hadn’t explained at all who Raham was or what crimes he had committed.

Thinking about it that way, she led quite a pitiful life.

“Hit me a little more gently than before.”

Thwack!

“Hngh. Haah. Hnnnng.”

With her ankles tied, Carlie couldn’t rub her feet together but still twisted them somehow. That’s what she gets for asking to be tied up…

“Good. This intensity is right. You know the rules?”

She was truly incomprehensible. Raham replied with resignation.

“……Stop immediately when you say ‘I did wrong’.”

“And play along. You can be a bit harsh until I say those words.”

Fearless woman.

Having already received his reward, he had no mantra to focus on this time. Raham had to engrave in his mind the pitiful contorted face and the tears clinging to her long eyelashes with each strike to her soles.

“Ah, hng, it hurts. It hurts.”

Even while twisting her feet, Carlie trembled and then aligned her soles again, making them easy to hit. He would strike once, wait, strike again, and repeat.

While patiently playing along, she suddenly became demanding.

“Is this all you can do?”

What does that mean? Unable to distinguish whether her nonsense about playing along was sincere or not, Raham just stared down at her blankly.

She had the audacity to complain.

“Do I have to wait for you? Be, be a bit more harsh. Act like you’re punishing a disobedient slave. Why are you so passive? After eating all that fruit.”

This was both absurd and provocative. As Raham looked down at her with an incredulous face, Carlie said spitefully:

“Do you think I’ll take you to the market again if you keep this up?”

Raham grabbed both her big toes firmly with his large hands. Holding them tightly to prevent her from twisting her ankles further, he delivered a severe beating at the intensity she had specified. With no pause between rapid strikes, Carlie’s screams grew louder.

“Ah, hngh! Ah! Ah! Ahng!”

After thoroughly beating the soft hollows of Carlie’s soles until they turned red, his irritation subsided. Carlie trembled and wept with her captured feet.

“Ahnnnng, hnnng. Hnnnnnng……”

Maybe that was too much. Raham fell into contemplation. But she definitely hadn’t said she was sorry during the beating. If nothing else, Raham had been listening carefully for that.

Sniffling and crying, Carlie curled her feet and trembled all over. Occasionally she would kick as if unable to bear it or pull at her wrists tied behind her.

Raham stole a glance at Carlie’s face, which he had been deliberately avoiding. Her reddened face was covered in tears, looking pitiful.

“Hnnnng.”

When their eyes met, she averted her gaze as if frightened, and Raham realized.

She’s still playing.

“……”

With no choice, Raham applied the switch again. What else could he do? Even with his master tied to a chair and being beaten on the soles of her feet, he was still a slave.

“Ah! Aaah!”

As he wielded the switch with now-familiar intensity, Carlie let out pitiful moans. Raham thought it was truly fortunate there were no neighbors nearby.

No, could that be why the house was so isolated in the first place? Whatever the truth, this woman truly had many issues.

“Ah! Hnng! Ah, I did wrong, I did wrong! Please!”

Finally, Raham was freed from his mental labor. He untied the ropes around her ankles and went behind the chair to untie her wrists.

Meanwhile, Carlie slumped with her head dropped as if exhausted. Despite being fooled every time, Raham again felt suspicious concern for her condition. He tapped her shoulder.

“Haah……”

Exhaling a long sigh, Carlie made an annoyed face as if telling him not to touch her. She didn’t want to leave the afterglow.

Assuming she would want to wash again since she was covered in sweat, he drew water to fill the bathtub. While the water was heating, he returned to the living room to clean up the tools they had used, and realized something.

“……”

Am I crazy?

There was a subtle pressure building below. It wasn’t enough to tent his clothing, but it was uncomfortable to walk.

No, from where? How? Why…? Too bewildered, Raham couldn’t form words.

“……”

It would be disastrous if she found out. What could be more terrible than being labeled a pervert by a pervert? Becoming one of her kind? That was also true.

He quickly turned his back and entered the bathroom. Carlie, left outside, called for him.

“Raham, take me to my room.”

“Com… ing!”

He hastily destroyed the evidence. Cold sweat poured down his face.

“My room.”

Raham carried her to her room with absolutely, absolutely minimal contact.

After mixing unrecognizable chemicals to create recovery reagent again, Carlie treated herself and went to wash with light steps.

While washing her, Raham finally asked:

“Is there something else we’ll do next time?”

“I want to try it blindfolded.”

“……”

“I also have clamps.”

What are clamps for? Raham gave up asking further questions. With a mixture of slight enlightenment, slight incomprehension, and very faint curiosity, he asked something else.

“……Do you really enjoy it?”

“Do you want to try it too?”

Seeing Raham pull his head back with a serious expression, Carlie giggled. Soon she leaned back in the bathtub with a languid face.

“I like it…… Besides, you’re kind of my type.”

“……”

Ah, this was really… difficult to dismiss casually. Raham suppressed his desire to avoid this two-fisted master.