Only Carlie would buy him lamb skewers, strawberries, and pomelo. Apart from flour that could be exchanged for bread and the recovery reagent whose composition he couldn’t begin to understand, Raham still had no idea where the money came from.

He resolved to erase today’s events from his memory forever.

⁕⁕⁕

Once again, peaceful days passed by.

There were several research attempts and near-explosive experimental failures, but even those could be considered peaceful. After all, Carlie didn’t seem bothered, and no misfortunes befell Raham the slave.

Their issues lay elsewhere, of course.

Raham had grown accustomed to his master asking to be tied up and tormented, blindfolded and tormented, and additionally, with her ears plugged and tormented. And each time, he became more skilled at hiding his own excitement.

But just when he would start to adapt, Carlie would always bring out something new.

“Raham, is there anything about me that bothers you?”

“……?”

She asked while they sat facing each other, eating milk porridge and white bread for breakfast. Raham had no idea how to answer.

After a long while, he reached a conclusion. After careful consideration, he struggled to speak.

“Do you… want me to like you?”

He thought she was tolerable to live with, but he had no desire to get along well with her. She was… too overwhelming to handle.

It seemed his connection with her would end here. Tonight would be the time to smash that pretty head and run away.

Carlie responded:

“No. I need something for you to nitpick about.”

He gave up on everything. Understanding her would be more difficult than removing his brands and spells and transforming into a member of the ruling class.

“……I don’t understand.”

“Tell me something that bothered you while living with me or a habit of mine you don’t like.”

Where would a slave have such concerns? You just adapt to your master and live accordingly.

‘Ah.’

He spoke urgently.

“Those explosives in that room… couldn’t you close the lids properly?”

“That’s not possible. Something else.”

Raham suppressed his temper.

“……Please put out your dishes after meals. They dry up and become difficult to wash.”

Carlie’s eyes began to sparkle.

“Good, that’s it. Anything else?”

“……”

He stared intently at the ceiling.

“……Couldn’t you clean up the parchments in that room? It’s awkward to step on them when entering, they get in the way… and make cleaning difficult.”

“Ah, that’s a bit troublesome. Couldn’t you do it?”

“……Can I just bundle them up any way?”

“Mmm, no. There’s an order to them.”

“……”

“I understand. Let’s exclude that too.”

Even forced nitpicking was difficult. Other dog-like masters would find fault even with how a person breathed, so why couldn’t he do even that?

“There’s nothing else.”

“Make something up. Quickly.”

Raham sighed. In his life, he had never had reason to sigh while gritting his teeth, but living with Carlie, occasions for sighing had increased exponentially even as reasons to grit his teeth disappeared.

“Your clothes… please change them and don’t pile them in corners… at least put them outside your room.”

“Good.”

What’s good about that? Suppressing a sigh rising from deep in his lungs, he replied firmly.

“There’s nothing more. Please stop looking.”

“Fine. From now on, whenever I don’t put out my laundry or leave dishes in my room, punish me.”

Utterly dumbfounded, he lost his words. While he gaped, Carlie plucked pieces of cheese and popped them into her mouth.

Regaining his senses belatedly, Raham secured a few pieces for himself and stuck them on the bitten surface of his bread to prevent them all from being taken.

“So… now I have to find reasons to hit you while I hit you?”

“Then you’ll probably be able to demand more from me too, right?”

“……”

Carlie smiled mischievously.

“I’ll teach you something good today.”

“……”

After finishing their meal, Raham tied Carlie’s wrists and suspended them from the wall.

Behind Carlie, who hung with her hands above her head and her bare back exposed, Raham stood holding a whip. Though not as heavy and thick as an actual punishment whip, it was still something he wouldn’t want to be hit with.

To hit Carlie with this, Raham had to practice controlling the whip’s intensity every evening for the past week.

Carlie, tied up with her bare back exposed and slightly turning to look behind her, was beautiful as always. If she had been born a slave rather than a member of the ruling clan, many high-ranking people would have paid millions to possess her. That might have been more enjoyable for Carlie.

No, then she couldn’t have asked to be hit with the intensity she wanted, so maybe not. Then again, how much could such a delicate woman endure? If she were truly a slave being beaten, she would collapse after just three strikes.

“When I say I’m sorry, you must untie me immediately.”

“I know.”

“But if you like my begging, you can untie me first.”

What was this now? Raham flinched as he was thinking.

Carlie chatted cheerfully with an amused expression.

“After we finish this time, is there something you want me to do for you?”

After a moment of silence, he said hesitantly:

“I’d like to catch and eat one of the chickens in the yard.”

The chickens that had been mere pullets when he first arrived had grown and started laying eggs, and those eggs had now hatched into medium-sized chicks. He had been wanting to roast one.

“Hmm.”

She gave him an eye-smile.

Seeing this, Raham muttered to himself. Did this woman know how to use her face like that deliberately?

“If you do well, let’s do that.”

Hadn’t he always done well with the hitting? As he thought indifferently, Carlie spoke as if reading his mind.

“This time, hitting well alone won’t be enough. You need to set the mood right and act well too.”

This perversion truly develops endlessly without limits, Raham lamented inwardly. Regardless, she was serious, and her eyes sparkled with eagerness again.

“Let’s try a practice round first. Let’s say I’ve piled my laundry in a corner again, so you’re punishing me. What would you say while hitting me?”

Raham responded while inwardly feeling annoyed.

One chicken. One chicken.

“Didn’t I tell you not to pile up your laundry?”

“Good. Then I would apologize. What would you say then?”

“……What should I say?”

“You want chicken, right?”

“……I’ll forgive you if you let me eat chicken?”

“Try that a hundred times and see if any chicken makes it to your mouth.”

He felt his temper rising again. Even knowing this was something his master did to provoke him, he got irritated every time—probably because he was a simple-minded slave.

“……Then what exactly am I supposed to do?”

Carlie grinned.

“Make me beg to the point where I’m not quite ready to say I’m sorry, but desperate enough to offer payment.”

“Hah……”

His head feeling like it might explode, Raham sighed. Where had his master learned such things to inflict these trials on him? Just for a chicken, how much would he have to…

One chicken… Yes, one chicken was worth this effort. But he still didn’t understand.

“If you don’t understand, just do it like usual. Go ahead. Start.”

Looking at Carlie who was already pressing herself against the wall with a pained expression as if she’d been hit several times, Raham picked up the whip. He practiced swinging it in the air a few times to get the right intensity, but the sound must have been threatening because Carlie squeezed her eyes shut and flinched.

That reaction was subtly stimulating. The sight of a member of the ruling clan moaning under his hand always gave him a strange pleasure.

Swish—crack!

“Hnnngh!”

A cry mixed with tears burst out. He knew this level wouldn’t make Carlie even blink. Without hesitation, he delivered about three more strikes in succession, and she sobbed with a voice both pained and wronged.

“Why, why are you doing this to me……”

For a moment, Raham was so dumbfounded he couldn’t speak. His master had the terrible habit of not only being a pervert herself but trying to make him one too.

After one more strike, Raham remembered the new rule she had emphasized earlier. He said stiffly:

“Didn’t I tell you not to pile up your laundry?”

Despite his embarrassing line, Carlie didn’t respond and just pressed her forehead against the wall. She seemed to be waiting for something.

It was obvious what she was waiting for, so Raham had no choice but to swing the whip again.

Swish, crack!

“Ah! Hngh, h… hnnnng……”

Carlie moaned as she turned her head to the side. The look she gave him seemed to indicate she had just realized why she was being punished, while simultaneously encouraging him that this was exactly right. It was a gaze that provoked him in two ways.

Feeling shame at the words coming from his own mouth, Raham spoke again.

“Answer me. Did you or didn’t you?”