Attachment Knight - Chapter 2

Chapter 1. The Princess and the Knight

Millicent.

People called me that.

I think I had a different name when I was born, but it was so long ago that I forgot it along with my parents’ faces.

I’d lived on this island since I was a baby, and I’d never left it.

Don Pisano always warned me about the dangers of the mainland. He said parents abuse their children, friends betray each other, and love breaks easily. He said my purity and beauty would be defiled, so only this island, Omelas, was a safe fence.

Of course I didn’t trust his words completely, but I also didn’t argue much. Since he raised me from childhood, I believed he’d never say anything that’d harm me. Life on the island wasn’t bad except for being dull.

I had no regrets or burning desires in life.

Until that man suddenly barged into it.

“Is this him?”

Yesterday, I think, Don Pisano dragged in a slave. Don held a major stake in the underground market of eastern Apellant, where human trafficking was rampant, and he said he’d brought the slave from there.

The basic principle of teaching absolute obedience is violence.

Maybe the slave resisted a little because he was in terrible shape.

I watched the man who’d collapsed unconscious.

His appearance was ruined, but even in the darkness, his features shone brilliantly.

White skin and fine silver hair like daffodils.

Honestly, I’d never seen a man with this kind of mood around me, so I stared at him for quite a while out of curiosity. The men on the island were generally musty and had something vicious about them, like each one kept a murder plot in his chest. But everything about him was clear.

His neatly closed lips were pretty, and every time he exhaled, I felt like a cool mint scent would come out.

Seeing his sculpted torso and solid forearms covered in whip marks made me think he hadn’t eaten and had been tortured. I felt sorry for him.

“It’s too much. Way too much, isn’t it?”

“I was told to kill him if the brainwashing failed.”

“Slowly and painfully, if possible?”

“Yes.”

When the guard pulled the chain, the man flinched.

Even while barely holding on, a fierce aura swirled around his trained body as if he could break the restraints.

He was so handsome….

“He looks dangerous.”

“You know Don never shows anything dangerous to you, young lady.”

“That’s prejudice.”

“His aura circuit is broken, so he’s not threatening. Don’t worry.”

I slipped on the lace gloves I’d kept in my pocket and asked, “What kind of person is he?”

“Judging by his use of upper-class Apellant speech, I assume he’s someone of high status. Not that it matters. They’re all the same once they’re slaves. From the shape of his hands and the calluses, he seems to be someone who handled a sword, so we threw him into the Colosseum arena and made him entertainment for the nobles.”

“Colosseum?”

“He’s popular with the high-ranking madams. You wouldn’t know since you stay only inside the mansion… if he’d just behaved and listened, he’d have lived with better treatment than the other slaves.”

The guard seemed annoyed by the slave’s handsome face, acting spitefully as he tapped the man’s head and shoulders with the baton in his hand.

“What’s his name?”

“Ra… Radem, I think. Something like that.”

“Ah. The undefeated gladiator slave.”

“You know of him?”

“He’s famous, so I’ve heard of him.”

The guard poked the man harder with the baton. The jealousy and irritation in his eyes were obvious as he kept glancing at me.

“I really can’t understand why a girl-like guy like this is so popular.”

All he had left on his body was a half-broken vambrace. His drooping head was powerless, and his wrecked body was pitiful. Yet he didn’t feel wretched, which was strange.

“Young lady, shall we begin now?”

My leisurely contemplation ended.

It was time to carry out the task Don ordered.

The guard struck the man’s chest with the baton.

“Ugh…!”

A rough groan spilled out.

I ate the chocolate I brought and fiddled with the jeweled bracelet. It was a conscious habit I used when I needed composure. The guard made Radem drink the potion he’d brought.

His exhausted lips swallowed the suspicious potion without resistance.

The guard, having finished his job, didn’t leave and stayed there. He was staring holes into me. Like he was watching a stripper about to go on stage.

“You’re not leaving?”

I paused as I was about to pull my collar down to my cleavage.

“I don’t recall Don ordering you to watch what I’m doing.”

“Ah, well…”

Even without him saying it, I could read his filthy intentions. He was curious. Even a great wizard like Don Pisano failed to brainwash this slave with magic. The next best option was to use seduction made possible through the brainwashing potion. To stir the man’s instinctual domain. And that was why I was here.

The guard clearly wanted to see how that method worked, staring rudely at my face, my slender body, my round lifted breasts, and my long thighs.

“I… I’m sorry. I’ll step out. Call me when you’re done.”

Fortunately, fear of Don’s retaliation made him hurry out of the cell.

This world is full of annoying, tiresome humans.

I stood in front of Radem. I knew the command that’d been put into me and what I had to do, but I felt confused, like I’d lost my way.

Stimulating a man’s affection or sexual desire is ridiculously easy, yet for some reason, I felt lethargic.

If I failed, I’d probably be locked in the tower’s top room. Even so, I didn’t do anything.

I didn’t take my clothes off, didn’t pull his lips to my chest, and didn’t climb onto his face with my skirt off.

I found myself staring at him, strangely still.

For some reason, really….

At that moment, the man twisted as if coming to his senses. His hazy eyes focused on me and widened. Disgust, contempt, wariness. All kinds of negative emotions swirled like exploding light, and what was left in the end was bewilderment.

I was also bewildered.

“Have we met somewhere before?”

“….”

He didn’t answer, maybe because he was slipping back into unconsciousness.

What on earth am I even saying?

Since he’d taken the potion, I stopped the impulsive, pointless question and carried out the order.

“I know you’re in pain right now. You’re hurt so badly you’d think dying is better. Stop resisting.”

Normally, in this cramped, filthy cell, I’d have to undress at least. To plant a distorted illusion through the brainwashing that we were passionate lovers, for a man whose instincts and primal nature would be the only things left.

That was probably the core of Don’s command. I’d gotten similar orders often, and before carrying them out, I’d always chew chocolate or drink a glass of wine. Every time I did that work, I felt something inside me break, but at least Don erased the memories of those I’d sucked dry afterward.

“For my sake, stop. I don’t want you to get hurt.”

I muttered bitterly and took off my clothes. His unfocused eyes looked at my completely exposed chest. Clear moonlight pooled on the reddish nipples.

“Do you remember how affectionate we were as lovers?”

“….”

“Let’s go back to those times, when we were happy and having fun like before. It’ll be easier if you don’t resist. For my sake, the one who loves you.”

Even this much was usually enough. As guided, they’d babble nonsense like: “Are you my lover? Did we share love? Ah, how could I have forgotten a woman as beautiful as you…” and reach their hands toward me.

That was the line Don allowed.

Then what was the boundary I allowed?

I didn’t know well, and it had long since stopped having meaning. I obeyed Don Pisano, and I existed to live for him.

Radem was still a man, so I thought he’d obviously react the same way. I waited, but the response that came back was very unexpected.

“…I’d rather you erase me.”

“….”

“Kill me here.”

“That’s not the kind of answer….”

That wasn’t in the expected script.

Feeling a little embarrassed, I glanced down. My breasts were white and swollen like soft bread. Their round shape was pretty, and I was confident in their size, enough to fill even his large hands. The nipples that stuck out like flower stamens were an appetizing, vivid red.

But he didn’t spare even a glance at my chest, as if he were looking at a forbidden fruit.

This kind of dismissal is a first….

I pulled my collar back up and scooted away with my butt pressing against the floor.

I was wondering what to do when the clank of metal broke the silence.

A chill ran down my back.

A man wearing a penguin mask stood before the bars, hands in the pockets of his mottled suit. He looked like he’d just finished playing pretend with children.

“Don.”

The creator of the island, my master, my only family, my teacher, my lover….

When I whispered to him happily, his briefly slipping gaze soon moved to Radem.

There was silence, and the air sank unpleasantly.

Don murmured, “Millicent, is this your taste?”

“….”

The chocolate wedged between my teeth trembled. I quickly bit down and chewed it to pieces, but crumbs fell onto my knees.

Taste… Do I even have something like that?

I shook my head slowly, but Don didn’t budge.

His pitch-black gaze swept between me and Radem.

“A slave bastard needs to learn submission.”

Don grabbed Radem’s head roughly and forced it down. The handsome man’s bloodied face was dragged to the tip of Don’s shoe. Normally, another person’s humiliation like this would spark my interest, but for some reason, everything only felt bewildering now.

“Lick and suck like a dog.”