Living Room.
Utaha and Hayasaka sat at the table, their ears filled with the moans of Touko coming from the nearby bedroom.
Hayasaka sat upright, her gaze fixed straight ahead, her slender legs clad in white stockings pressed tightly together.
Utaha, on the other hand, had a faint blush on her cheeks, her plump black-stockinged legs crossed and occasionally shifting positions.
Both appeared composed, but the faint tension in the air betrayed their unease.
If you two are going to do it, at least soundproof the room!
It was unbearable.
"What exactly happened?"
Utaha's eyes held clear concern.
Though the sounds still echoed in her ears, her mind replayed the scene of Touko carrying Roy into the room earlier.
Though it had only been a fleeting glimpse, Roy had seemed to be in great pain.
She had never seen him like that before—something must have happened to him.
"What they're doing now... could it have some special meaning?"
Hayasaka whispered to Utaha, her voice filled with shock.
What Utaha had thought of, she had naturally considered as well.
The moment something happened to Roy, Miss Touko had carried him back to the room, and from then on, moans of Touko filled the room.
There was no way this was just Miss Touko acting on impulse, right?
So, could doing that actually help heal him?
Hayasaka didn't understand, but she was deeply shaken.
"Don't ask me, how would I know?!"
Utaha lowered her voice and shot Hayasaka a glare.
Listening to the sounds from the bedroom, she felt a lump form in her throat.
Before long, the noises from the bedroom finally stopped.
After waiting a while longer, they saw Touko emerge, her orange-red hair disheveled, wearing a nightgown, her expression languid.
This woman was strikingly beautiful, her tousled appearance adding to her mature charm. Whether it was due to what had just transpired, a faint flush of desire still lingered on her face.
It should have been an alluring scene, but Utaha and Hayasaka only felt a chill run down their spines.
That was because Touko's body bore not just the marks of passion but also numerous bruises—large and small—scattered across her snow-white skin, a shocking sight.
"You two are still here."
Touko glanced at them. She wasn't wearing her glasses, and her cold demeanor was a stark contrast to her daytime self.
"Roy's asleep now. Don't disturb him."
With that, she walked off toward the bathroom without another word.
The two attendant girls exchanged glances, suppressing their urge to check on Roy, and resigned themselves to waiting in the living room.
A full half-hour later, Touko finally emerged from the bathroom, drying her damp hair with a towel, a bathrobe draped loosely over her body. Her long, shapely legs were faintly visible, and she paid no mind to the strange events from earlier.
"Whew, a bath really hits the spot!"
Touko sat down at the living room table, a satisfied smile spreading across her face.
Hayasaka stared at her in surprise.
Touko was wearing her glasses again.
The change in her demeanor was immediately obvious.
In the evening, her aura had been gentle, like a senior colleague kindly looking out for her juniors at work. But the moment she took off her glasses, she became an ice-cold woman who couldn't care less about anything.
Is this person, just like Lord Roy, someone with a split personality?
"I can tell what you're thinking just by looking at your face."
Touko noticed Hayasaka's gaze and chuckled lightly.
"However, this isn't a split personality—it's a dual disposition. It's for switching between different personas. Think about it—aren't there times in the workplace when you have to go against your true feelings and react in ways you'd rather not? This is for those situations. It makes negotiations easier."
"By the way, these are non-prescription glasses. Roy uses the same kind. No one in our family is nearsighted."
Hayasaka understood.
It was similar to a routine—essentially a form of self-suggestion, switching personalities as needed to handle different, otherwise challenging situations.
At the same time, Hayasaka felt a chill.
She prided herself on being a master of keeping a poker face, yet her thoughts had been read so easily. The insight of a magus is truly terrifying!
"More importantly, what exactly happened to Lord Roy?"
Utaha's black-stockinged legs had been trembling under the table for a while now. Seeing that the two still hadn't gotten to the main topic, she couldn't help but cut in.
"It's a common occurrence."
Touko didn't mind her bluntness.
Her gaze swept over Utaha and Hayasaka with amusement.
Compared to Hayasaka, Utaha was clearly more concerned about Roy himself. That brat really has a way with people.
"A common occurrence? Has this happened often before?"
Utaha's expression darkened slightly.
"Yeah, it's not the first time."
"Then what exactly is the issue?"
Utaha couldn't help raising her voice a little.
"Simply put, it's a curse."
Touko wagged a finger and pressed it to her lips.
Utaha immediately realized her mistake and lowered her voice.
Roy had just fallen asleep.
"Roy was afflicted with a curse a long time ago—one that can't be completely severed and keeps recurring."
Touko's expression remained unchanged as she continued, "His will is strong, so whenever the curse flares up, he can usually endure it on his own. But today was special, and his mental state was already a bit unstable. This outbreak was harder to bear than before. As a result, he stubbornly resisted the curse's urge to wreak havoc, and it ended up like this."
Ended up requiring this method to release it.
Touko didn't say it outright, but her words clearly implied as much.
She had taken Roy back to the room to vent the destructive impulses brought on by the curse.
As for why this method—well, it was certainly better than letting him go on a indiscriminate rampage. Aside from killing, sexual desire was the most suitable outlet for malice.
"Though he wears the same glasses as me—oh, and this method was something I taught him."
Touko grinned carefreely, as if she were long accustomed to such things.
"But Roy and I are different. I use this personality switch to handle different situations, using whichever side is advantageous to resolve matters. Roy, however, has turned it into a way to suppress his own destructive urges."
By putting on the glasses, he gave himself the suggestion: "I'm not the kind of person who wants to destroy everything." This was how he kept the dark side of his heart in check.
"Lord Roy's mental state was already... unstable? Why is that?"
Utaha hesitated for a moment but asked firmly nonetheless.
Even as Roy's attendant, she felt she needed to get to the bottom of this.
She believed Roy wasn't the type who enjoyed destruction.
Even if it was just self-suggestion, he had helped her escape her cage and even rescued her old friend. That kindness couldn't have been faked through mere self-suggestion.
***
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