A Gilded Cage

“I’ve never been a s*ave either! Just listen to me moderately well….”

He suddenly bowed down low, and I reflexively squeezed my eyes shut, but for some reason, it was quiet. I slowly opened my eyes and my jaw dropped.

“Does this look a bit more like a s*ave.”

Karvan was kneeling on one knee, looking up at me.

“Wh-why….”

I stuttered at the unbelievable sight.
That aloof and arrogant man, who had never once been below me except when our bodies were joined, was now facing me in such a submissive posture.

The Chief of the Varg, Karvan Baharga.

It was once my wish to make this man, who seemed carved from ice, submit, and now it had unexpectedly come true.

“What else shall I do. Master.”

Even with his suggestive voice, I just blinked with a furrowed brow, not knowing what to do, when the man reached out, smoothly tracing my ankle, and said.

“Shall I lick your feet as a sign of submission.”

“…What?”

“You told me to act like a s*ave. I must show my sincerity.”

“N-no! Forget it, I don’t need that…. Ack! Go away!”

As he touched my heel as if he were really going to take my shoe off, I freaked out, shoved him away, and ran out.

“…Huff, huff….”

Fortunately, Karvan didn’t chase after me.

Only after turning the corner and reaching the end of the long hallway did I rest my hands on my knees, panting to catch my breath.

‘He’s gotten even more sly and shameless while I haven’t seen him!’
I rubbed my goosebump-covered arms.
Still, I was glad there was some gain. To think I finally made that man kneel.

…But, I feel very strange.

I gave him a stern warning that I would betray him if push came to shove, and I even heard him call me ‘Master’.
So why do I keep feeling like I lost? Why do I feel like I was teased again?

Unable to hide my unsettling feeling, I was just rubbing my forehead vigorously when I heard someone approaching from behind.

“No! I said I don’t need that kind of submission….”

“Shinbi-nim?”

Thinking it was that man, I backed away in fright, but Loktis was looking at me with strange eyes.
It must have looked quite bizarre for me to be standing there, having hopped out on one foot like Cinderella.

“You said you were going to rest, so why are you standing there looking like you’ve seen a ghost. What’s the matter?”

“Loktis.”

“Yes. Speak.”

His characteristic bored gaze swept over me from top to bottom.
I started speaking gloomily.

“…I have a favor to ask.”

“My, my, someone who has never even glanced at a s*ave before…. Why a mutant, of all things?”

Loktis snapped at me with a face that said he was hearing nonsense in the middle of the night, but he still granted my request.

“It would be worth looking at if he at least had beast-kin characteristics, but isn’t this just a human? No ears, no tail….”

He spoke with an air of complete dissatisfaction as he looked at the man sitting impassively on a cot set up inside an ornamental s*ave cage that carpenters were hammering together in my bedroom.

“And why do you insist on putting him in your bedroom? If you need a partner for the night, shall I introduce you to a sturdy Empire lad? I know a few guys with that kind of ash-gray hair….”

“Ack, it’s not like that!”

I hurriedly pushed Loktis away while anxiously glancing beyond the iron bars.

“…….”

Fortunately, Karvan was just looking at me impassively as I slammed the door shut and panted heavily.

‘You can’t act however you want! For an ornamental s*ave, stability is the top priority, so if you show any ferocity, you’ll be kicked out immediately.’

It seemed my threat that he wouldn’t be able to stay in my bedroom anymore if he did had paid off; Karvan was surprisingly well-behaved.

Thanks to that, no one suspected him of being a Varg, let alone the Valta.
It seemed they couldn’t even dream that this silent, mutant beast-kin without ears or a tail was the notorious chief of the Vargs.

“You don’t have to go to the mines like other slaves, just stay in the room. I already told them.”

I finally managed to kick Loktis out, then pulled up a chair in front of the ornamental cage, sat down, and spoke.

Sitting face-to-face through the bars, it really felt like I had come for a prison visitation.
Honestly, I thought it was excessive to put him in handcuffs, an obedience collar, and lock him in a cage, but they said it couldn’t be helped because he’s a beast-kin.

‘Beast-kin are strong even without magic, making them good slaves, but they’re nocturnal, making them perfect for launching surprise attacks while you sleep. We have to set up minimum safety measures.’

Of course, I didn’t think Karvan would hurt me, but I didn’t want to go so far as to break Midvalen’s rules to free him.

“…….”

Because seeing that gaze reaching out from beyond the iron bars, it felt like if I let him loose, I would be subjected to a surprise attack of a different meaning while I slept.

I had various furniture installed in the cage so it wouldn’t feel like imprisonment, and he sat on the sofa in front of the bars, resting his hand against his temple, staring straight at me.

“Your meals will be sent through the portal device. See the table over there? If you need anything, write it on parchment and send it through there.”

Just looking at that aloof expression makes me feel like I’m the one imprisoned.

‘…Ugh, let’s not get dragged into this.’
I tried shaking my head and added coldly and business-like.

“I hate anyone coming into my room, so there’s no call bell. So it might be a bit inconvenient. Oh, and since you don’t have citizenship yet….”

“That guy seemed to enter your room just fine.”

“Huh?”

“That vampire male.”

With expressionless eyes, he stares at the door once, then at me.

“Ah, Loktis?”

“You two seemed quite close.”

His eyes demanded I explain what kind of relationship we had.

If it were like before, I would have jumped up and denied it, but thinking about how much I had suffered inwardly, I felt sullen.

“…Of course! We’re! Very! Close.”

I purposely spoke clearly and emphatically, but surprisingly, there was no reaction.

“He’s also someone who comes in and out of my bedroom sometimes!”

Rather, his arrogant demeanor, tilting his chin up as if telling me to keep talking, angered me, and I kept spewing out things he didn’t even ask.

“We were alone at dawn, clashing this and that, and also. What was it….”

It wasn’t a lie, since Loktis had come into my bedroom angrily to wake me up when I overslept, and we had been called out at the crack of dawn to spar, clashing our weapons.

“‘Close’, ‘relationship’, you say.”

But Karvan’s reaction was different from what I expected.
Even though I picked the most provocative words I could, he just slowly repeated my words.
Was he saying this was nothing?

“Ah! Last time, we even took a walk together…!”

Just as I felt a surge of unnecessary stubbornness and tried to forcefully squeeze out the handful of memories I had with Loktis,

“I’m certain I told you before.”

A cold voice cut me off.

“If there’s a male you want dead, say it with your own mouth.”

Karvan doesn’t smoke, and I never gave him cigarettes, so there’s no way the smoke wafting from his mouth beyond the dark iron bars could be from a cigarette.
It felt as if freezing cold air flowed from his lips with every single word he spoke.

“You don’t need to beat around the bush like that.”

“…….”

“I understand perfectly.”

“I-I was joking. Nothing happened. Really!”

At the voice that seemed not just frozen with thin ice, but snapping and breaking apart, I hastily took back my words.
Because I felt like if I let it be, Loktis really would disappear without a trace one day.

“…Ahem! So what are you going to do now?”

Avoiding his slanted gaze, I quickly changed the subject.

“Security is tight because of the Coliseum, and you’ve become a s*ave. Even if I secretly take off those handcuffs, what’s next?”

“Wasn’t that matter already settled. We’re going to usurp Dowongyeong.”

The man, who had been quietly listening to my words pouring out like a waterfall, opened his mouth.
His tone was so indifferent that it made me wonder when his eyes had gleamed so fiercely.

“The menial tasks will be handled by the lowly s*ave. The Master need not concern herself.”

“Stop joking! Just tell me clearly, what on earth happened to the Suras?”

“…Are you only worried about them?”

With one arm draped over the back of the sofa, the corner of his mouth that curled up crookedly was unusual.
I flinched momentarily at his chilled gaze, but I answered without backing down.

“A-anyway! You have no plan, no Suras to help you, and you can’t use that broken ice skill…. So what are you going to do now?”

“Do you want to know?”

“Yes!”

Even as I quickly nodded and urged him, he just stared at me with one arm resting on the sofa’s backrest.

“Just what on earth are you thinking! Say something!”

“…If I satisfy your curiosity.”

‘Why is he stalling again!’
Just as I was about to rattle the iron bars out of frustration, like shaking an empty piggy bank, he kept tossing and catching a piece of ice from an unknown origin as he spoke.

“What do I get in return? Can I receive proper compensation?”

I didn’t bother asking, ‘What do you want?’

Because the moment I met the man’s darkly gleaming eyes, I felt like I had already heard the answer.

“…Forget it! It won’t do anyone any good. I’m not curious!”

Under that gaze, feeling like I would get swept up again, I shot up from my seat and drew the curtain hanging over the iron bars.

Beyond the fluttering silk fabric, I could see the shadow of the man still sitting upright, looking in my direction.
It felt strange to me that I felt relieved just from that silhouette.

…Still, I shouldn’t trust him.

How could I possibly trust a man who finally appeared but gave no explanation and seemed to have no plan.
Furthermore, if what the Skollcat said was true, I needed to be even more careful.

‘This is the Legacyth continent, nya. It’s a dimension that actually exists.’

If I really had wandered into another dimension, I shouldn’t rely on him even more.

If even the last resort of ‘logging out’ was gone, I really had to find a way to survive on my own.

‘…How can I trust a man who disappeared for three months and returns without a word of explanation.’

I’d rather trust my Leviathan.
I grumbled and pulled the blanket over me.

For the first time since I respawned from Bahalgras, I didn’t have a nightmare.

I slept soundly without waking up once, and I thought I felt refreshed, but I soon realized the reason.
The Skollcat, who used to burst into my room every morning to wake me up, was nowhere to be seen.

…Strange. Why hasn’t he come?

By this time, he should have come to stomp on my pillow, demanding cherry tomatoes.

‘I have a bad feeling. I’m not going out today, nya. Go by yourself, nya.’

Ever since the Skollcat said those random words yesterday and holed up in his room, I hadn’t seen him once.
I thought it might rain, but the weather was clear.

Wondering if something was wrong, I went to the top of the main tower where he stayed.

“Skollcat!”

Knock, knock, knock.
As I knocked carefully, the purple vines that had been tightly binding the heavily scratched door, as if strangling it, vanished with a pop.

【’Divine Outcast’ Skollcat’s <Thorny Restraints> skill has been deactivated.】

‘What are you standing there blankly for.’

“Uh, huh?”
As I stared at the door in bewilderment, the Skollcat, who was sitting on the bed licking the back of his paw, spoke in annoyance.

‘If you don’t come in, I’m closing it again, nya.’

“That, how did you do that?”

‘What.’

“In Midvalen, skills…. I mean, you can’t use magic.”

‘Hmph! That’s a story for you ordinary folks! Such old and outdated rules don’t work on me, who still possesses the authority of a transcendent being!’

…Setting aside the Skollcat, who was again talking about things only he knew.

Anyway, that must be nice.
There was a reason Baalzeph treated him with the utmost respect without a peep.
I glanced at the Skollcat enviously and asked.

“But why didn’t you come to my room today? Are you sick anywhere?”

‘…In your, room.’

He glared at me for a while while lying on his stomach, then spat out.

‘There is something very unsettling, nya.’