She sent me flying with something like an aikido technique, and I almost got burnt by my own fireball I was trying to attack her with. I ducked out of the way and crawled on the ground in an awkward limbo position.
“Ninety-three tags remaining.”
“Ow, ow, ow! Time out! Stop! There’s no way I can win this!”
This is nothing but a miserable, one-sided beat-down.
“The difference in our physical abilities is too brutal! I’m no match against a beast hybrid! And the tail thing is just unfair!”
“So you still feel it is unfair. In that case…”
Shiro walked steadily toward me across the marble floor of the large hall. When she passed the statue of Lady Justice, she snapped off its bronze sword with an axe kick.
“I will recognize this sword as an extension of your hand.”
Clang—the sword, a cold tan color, came clattering toward me with a metallic sound.
“Now things are getting exciting.”
I was getting fired up. I had chosen kendo as my elective in PE class. I picked up the sword and got into a basic stance.
“Graaagh!”
Shiro dove at me like an animal. Trying to avoid hurting her, I held back as I swiftly swung the sword.
Clang, clang—the sound of metal on metal.
“Eighty-five tags remaining.”
She knocked me down over and over.
Clash, clang—my hands were shaking.
“Fifty-nine tags remaining.”
The bronze sword got shorter and shorter. Shiro flew through the air while kicking her metallic boots against the sword, breaking it off bit by bit.
“Guh… Arrrgh!”
“You are weak. Thirty tags remaining.”
No matter how I swung the sword, or how I came at her, I couldn’t touch her.
This is the true power of the Royal Watchdog…
In desperation, I threw what remained of my sword at her. But she had already disappeared from the spot where I last saw her.
“I will make you understand. Five tags remaining.”
My whole body felt hot. My flesh was engorged with blood and stinging all over.
“Ugh!”
I fell over, face down. I felt a fragment of copper prick me, and the cold marble of the floor against my face.
“Please face this way.”
Shiro kicked me and turned me over to my back. In an instant, her metallic boots stepped on both my arms. The heels functioned just like shackles over my wrists as she pinned me to the floor. I looked up at the ceiling and at Shiro. She wasn’t even breaking a sweat.
“This is the last tag. You lose.”
She reached out her hand. I heard the fabric of her maid outfit sliding against me. Her beautiful hand, white like porcelain, stretched out toward my cheek. Then—
“Hyou hlet hyour grrrd dnn!”
You let your guard down—I said, as I touched her.
“This is…a piece of the sword? You…?!”
I had been holding a broken piece of the sword in my mouth. I had feigned pathetically falling over onto the ground and put it into my mouth. And now, I used it to touch her hand.
“Bleh.” I spat out the sword fragment. “How’s that, Shiro? You did say the sword was an extension of my hand, right?”
“…”
Shiro was frozen.
“I win. You have to listen to what I say.”
“Heh…don’t be absurd. I’ve already broken your spirit enough. Game time is over.”
“Wh-whaaat?”
You’re kidding me, right?
“Akuto Satou. You understand now, right? You are no match for this.”
“Huh?” The fire that had built up inside me suddenly went cold.
“You have felt it. You are weak. What if Tsukasa Wagatsuma is attacked? What if you are attacked? You can’t do anything to protect yourselves, can you?”
Shiro spoke to me as she straddled my trunk. Her two eyes returned to the color of their calm state.
“Therefore…I will give you one more chance. Please stop Princess Ecstasia’s trial.”
The moonlight streaming in from the ceiling illuminated Shiro’s body.
Her thin waist. Her dainty head, and the two small mounds hidden under her maid’s uniform.
Her ethereal silver-white hair. Her completely emotionless expression.
And her ice-blue eyes, silently staring back at me.
“If you refuse, I’ll make you bleed half to death. What will your sister think when she sees you so weak and defeated?”
I looked up at her stiffly upright body.
I could faintly see her canine teeth peeking out from her mouth. I couldn’t move my arms. She could bite into my carotid artery by simply stooping down. She held my life in the palm of her hand.
She’s driven me into a corner. No doubt about it.
I was scared.
“If you stop the trial, I will protect you and your sister. We can assign a large number of maids to your service as guests of the royal family. I can promise you a luxurious life as an eternal, honored guest.”
“Shiro, are you being serious?”
“Yes. And if you so desire…you may also do as you like with me.”
As she said this, she picked up her skirt with her fingers.
Inch by inch, she gradually pulled up her skirt. I caught a soft, faint whiff of her flowery scent.
The sight in front of me started changing from black to white. Her snow-white skin…her tightly toned legs…past the edge of her thigh-high stockings…and a gap the shape of an inverted triangle that led up to her rear…
“Ah…” I let out a sigh.
“Sit up and show your reverence. If you do, I will pet you, like a good boy. Like a baby. You do not have to think about anything else.”
If I sat up now, like she said…I might have been able to bury my face into her lower abdomen.
“Shiro…”
But I decided to tell her the truth instead.
“…you’re not very good at the whole seduction thing.”
Her hands that had been raising her skirt suddenly stopped.
“…What do you mean?”
“And your legs are torn to pieces.”
Both of her legs were wounded. Her stockings were so ripped and full of holes that I couldn’t tell how they were even staying on. Her skin was covered in scrapes and dried blood…