The Society’s Pet Daughter

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[Mother, I really really love you.]

A bright smile blooms towards me.

[Uh, are you feeling unwell? No… Mother can’t be sick…]

The two most lovable blue jewels look up at me filled with worry.

[I’ll take care of you…! Don’t worry, Mother!]

Her little hands tremble with anxiety, yet the earnestness behind that adorable gesture melts my heart.

I gently placed my hand on her beautiful cheek. The world’s most lovable girl tightly held my hand resting on her cheek and opened her cherry-like lips.

[Disgusting woman.]

Huh?

[You knew I wasn’t her. In the end, you turned away from me just like you did with Father. Die. I never once thought of you as my mother.]

In an instant, her blue eyes turned cold.

And simultaneously, the world began to flip upside down.

[You are the murderer who killed my father.]

“Cough…!”

As soon as I woke from the dream, I was met with the subdued gray air and the all-too-familiar ceiling of my bedroom.

“Cough…! Cough…!”

A painful ache ignited my throat as retching fit me. Covering my mouth with trembling hands, I looked down to see dark crimson blood staining my fingertips.

“Baron, here.”

Princess Viviana, who had been fidgeting beside me, carefully extended a handkerchief.

I had clearly said I didn’t need a nurse, but I suppose I had to acknowledge her stubbornness for still being in this mansion.

“Thank you, Princess.”

“Please speak comfortably, Baron.”

“…How could I do that to you, Princess?”

I cautiously wiped the blood from my mouth with the handkerchief I received from her. The dark crimson stain on the snowy fabric vividly illustrated just how dire my condition was.

A week had already passed.

Ever since that day when Tina—or rather, that child—unleashed her cruel truth upon me, my world had thoroughly crumbled.

I had known all along.

That child possessed a personality far too different from Tina.

Ever since the late head of the Blanc family, my father Bonnie Blanc, passed away, Tina had never once called me mother.

She had always remained cold and dismissive, her gaze always like that of a murderer.

I became aware at some point.

No matter how hard I tried, the resentment deeply rooted in her heart would never dissolve.

Even if I paid off the family’s debts and revived the family name, I knew Tina would continue to despise me.

How tormented I felt when I came to realize that fact.

That’s why.

Even aware of the sudden change in my daughter, I desperately turned a blind eye to that truth.

The affection of my transformed daughter was addictively akin to a drug, and I didn’t want to let go of that sweetness.

The inner desire to not return to a hollow, gloomy gray life made me flee from the truth I could not face.

“I… am also a sinner.”

With heavy limbs, I forced myself to rise from the bed. I nearly toppled over when my legs wobbled, but thanks to Princess Viviana quickly supporting me, I avoided injury.

“What happened to that child?”

The princess hesitated for a moment but then responded with a serious gaze.

“She is still at the Saint’s Mansion. We decided to keep her there until the Demon is purified.”

“…Is that so.”

Now that I realized that child wasn’t my daughter, I no longer needed to invest my heart in her.

That child was the one who had stolen my real daughter away and committed countless evils.

The Saint would surely handle it well.

Now, the only thing left for me was to ask.

After the Saint purges that Demon, where is my real daughter? It was about finding out my daughter’s whereabouts.

If, in the worst-case scenario, my daughter could never return here…

What would I do then?

“Cough….”

Again, a wave of nausea surged as dark blood spewed out of my mouth. I tried to drink the water that the princess hastily offered, but the burning sensation in my throat and the weight pressing down on my chest remained.

My heart sank heavily.

The feelings endlessly tormenting me inside were a tangled mix of resentment and sorrow for losing my daughter.

But why? It felt like there was something else, inexplicably tangled in my heart.

Grasping my trembling chest, I looked up to see a bright flower crown hanging in the middle of the desk.

As if entranced by something, I slowly approached the flower crown.

[Mother! I made this for you in the garden, hehehe, how do you like it…?]

It was the gift she had given me.

Back then, I had cherished it happily and placed it carefully in the center of the desk, keeping that heart close.

[Is it… not much? Ah, my hand? It’s nothing! If it makes you happy…!]

With that small, delicate hand, wounded from thorns, she had carefully picked and lovingly intertwined flowers to create the crown.

‘Could it really… all have been an act…?’

Artasha carefully clasped the flower crown with trembling hands. Gazing at the meticulously gathered flowers, emotions long suppressed inside me began to crumble.

“Child…”

Looking at the flower crown in my hand, I muttered in a low voice.

“Did you… truly think nothing of me?”

The remnants of memories I’d wanted to forget clawed at my heart once again.

* * *

Clang—clank—

The iron shackles tightly bound around my arms and legs clanged as they echoed around me.

“Hugh…!”

My warm breath filled the gloomy and cold space.

“Hugh, hiik…? Hah… don’t…”

“Just a little longer, Tina. It’s almost done.”

Squeeze—

“Hah?! Huh…! This, this is strange…!”

Squeeze—squeeze—

“Aagh…! Hiik… Huh…”

This prison-like space created by Lilian. My arms were bound to the shackles attached to the ceiling, and my legs were firmly tied to the shackles on the floor.

With my limbs spread wide apart, I was unable to move even an inch; my shirt had even rolled up, exposing my embarrassing belly.

This bizarre and humiliating position was all thanks to that wretched Saint before me.

And Lilian was performing an utterly incomprehensible act while keeping me bound like this.

​

Squeeze- squeeze!

​

“Hah?!?”

Lilian spread her palms wide and gripped my waist, gently pressing her thumbs into my lower abdomen.

As if sculpting clay, each time Lilian’s mischievous fingers pressed deeply into my lower belly, strange currents surged throughout my body.

​

Squeeze- squeeze!

​

“Hiik!?! S-stop that…!”

“Just a little bit, it’s almost done being etched.”

My body trembled as if having a seizure, but the iron chains fixed on my arms and legs only allowed slight quivers.

How did it come to this?

I woke up to find this body bound.

When I asked Lilian what she was doing, she looked at me with unnecessarily bright eyes and said,

[Today, I decided to do some toilet training? I’ve prepared a lot for that.]

After that, Lilian began to play with my lower belly as she pleased.

Pressing, touching, pinching, tickling—using every perverted maneuver to toy with me.

With my limbs unable to move, I could only tightly shut my eyes and bite my lip, suppressing the humiliation that engulfed me.

I don’t know how long it had been since Lilian began to knead my lower abdomen.

Finally, she pulled her hands away from my waist and wiped away the sweat that had gathered on her forehead.

“Heh… Hik… Hah…”

“Ah, it’s done now.”

“You perverted bastard… pervert… perverted bastard…”

Breathless, I spat curses at Lilian, yet she paid no mind and held a handheld mirror in front of me.

“Want to take a look, Tina? It’s etched beautifully.”

With a sultry smile, Lilian positioned the mirror against my belly, tilting it at an angle where I could see.

I gazed at my stomach reflected in the tiny mirror. The whiteness of my skin was marred with red imprints from Lilian’s fingers.

In the center was my little belly button.

And beneath that was a pattern I had never seen before, etched onto my belly.

“…Huh?”

I mumbled, dumbfounded, staring blankly.

The strange pattern etched below my belly button.

It was drawn with a faint platinum hue, depicting a small cross at the center, with angel wings spread out on either side.

“What, what is this…?”

“Fufu, pretty isn’t it? It’s a marking I made for you, Tina.”

“Marking…?”

“It matches nicely with your white skin. Like an angel.”

I knew a few things about markings.

There were the obedience markings that would burst a heart if one refused the master’s orders. Those were typically marked illegally in slave markets.

Or there were those markings that amplified a person’s lust and sensations several times over, preventing pregnancy regardless of sexual activity. Those were mainly etched by courtesans.

I knew one or two more, but I had never seen a marking of this kind anywhere.

Hence, an unknown fear overwhelmed me even more.

“What, what have you done to my body…”