52. What It Means to Be Unable to See
Her mouth was sealed by something, preventing her from making any sound. Both her arms and legs were bound by an invisible force. No matter how desperately she struggled, the restraints showed no sign of loosening.
The woman who had tied Rena up removed the skirt she was wearing, revealing a tight black bodysuit that clung perfectly to her figure. Then she pulled off her wig and shook her head from side to side.
Even in a situation where she could be killed at any moment, Rena desperately moved her head.
She had once believed that becoming someone’s slave was no different from being dead. But after talking with Takuma, she had started to feel that might not be entirely true.
If it’s this person’s slave… I might still be able to enjoy life. She had even begun thinking that way.
At the edge of her vision, she saw Takuma sleeping peacefully, completely unaware of what was happening right beside him.
Filled with growing anger toward her master and a desperate plea for help, Rena twisted her body toward the bed and threw herself onto Takuma’s abdomen.
“Whoops, none of that.”
Of course, the woman didn’t allow it. Just as Rena’s body passed a forty-five-degree angle, the woman caught and supported her, rendering Rena’s final act of resistance utterly futile.
She’s definitely going to kill me now, Rena thought, quietly closing her eyes.
But the woman lifted the tilted Rena upright, brought over a nearby chair, and sat her down on it.
“I’ll tie you to the chair so you don’t fall, okay?”
With those words, the woman once again wrapped something invisible around Rena’s abdomen, securing her firmly to the chair. She then bound Rena’s legs to the chair legs with rope-like restraints so they couldn’t move.
“There we go, all done…”
The woman had gone through the trouble of binding Rena to the chair, but Rena had no idea why. Why restrain someone you were about to kill? What was the point? She thought desperately, but no answer came—until the woman standing before her revealed it.
“You really are wonderful…”
The woman slowly looked Rena’s body up and down.
Rena felt a chill run through her at that gaze. It wasn’t the terror of death, but the more recent fear she had learned: the fear of having her body toyed with.
“I’m in a similar position to you. I have a master too. I’m forced to work for him and used however he likes. That’s why I hate that man who owns me. But you… you’re not like that, are you?”
With her mouth bound, Rena naturally couldn’t answer. Still, the woman continued speaking as if it didn’t matter.
“I came here today on orders, but you caught my interest far more than this man. So… let me examine you a little, okay?”
The woman placed her fingertip on Rena’s chest. The instant the finger touched her, memories of that morning flooded back.
Just from a single finger brushing her chest, Rena’s body trembled. Not from pleasure, but from pure terror at what was about to happen.
“You don’t have to be so scared. I’m just going to play with you a bit.”
The woman then moved her left hand—the opposite of the one that had touched Rena’s chest—toward Rena’s eyes.
Rena didn’t know what was coming, but she knew it would be bad. She shook her head frantically, but the woman easily covered both of Rena’s eyes with her left palm.
“Did you know? Humans receive most of their information through sight. Just by losing your vision, a huge change happens to your body.”
The woman’s hand moved away from Rena’s eyes, but the scene in front of her had vanished. No matter where she looked, there was only pitch-black darkness.
“Some people lose their sense of balance. Others feel extreme tension. I wonder if you can sleep in total darkness? There are even people who can’t sleep without at least a little light. That’s how important vision is to humans.”
Rena could sleep with the lights on or off. But that didn’t matter right now. The situation filled her with deep unease.
Even though her eyes were open, she couldn’t see anything. Her entire body was bound, she couldn’t move, and she couldn’t make a sound. She had no way to respond to any movement the woman might make, no matter where or when it came from.
“Mmmn!!”
She tried desperately to speak, but the thing clamped in her mouth prevented her from forming proper sounds.
Cold sweat trickled down her cheeks. Those few seconds that hadn’t even reached ten felt like an eternity as Rena waited anxiously for the woman’s next words.
What would she say next? What exactly was going to be done to her?
The only way to find out was to listen to the woman’s voice.
“Fuu…”
“NNN!?!?”
A sudden breath against her ear made her body jolt violently.
The sensation she felt was far too faint to call pleasure.
“When you lose your sight, your body becomes much more sensitive, you know? I’ve always been on the receiving end, so this feels pretty fresh…”
The woman sounded almost impressed as she began touching both of Rena’s ears with her hands.
“Did you know? Ears are erogenous zones.”
The woman’s slender, delicate fingers traced the outline of Rena’s ears again and again. Then, using her index finger and thumb, she gently stimulated the pointed tips—characteristic of beastmen like Rena—with just enough pressure to almost pinch them.
“Especially for beastmen like you, this spot must be particularly sensitive, right?”
The woman was exactly right.
For Rena, a cat-type beastman, her ears were both vital and extremely delicate organs. It was thanks to these ears that she had noticed the woman entering Takuma’s room in the first place. Even now, if she concentrated, she could hear Lorraine’s sleeping breaths from the next room.
But right now, that sensitivity had become a double-edged sword.
Her ears, so attuned to sound, were equally sensitive to every kind of stimulation. And without her vision, that sensitivity was doubled—maybe even tripled.
