Torture Princess: Fremd Torturchen, Vol. 2

by Keishi Ayasato

  Realizing how bad it must look to Hina, Kaito frantically tried to explain.

  “Uhhh, Hina, this is, uh—”

  “Please forgive me for my rudeness, Master Kaito.”

  After murmuring rapidly, Hina dashed across the room and wrapped her arms gently around his back. She then stooped down a bit and buried her face in Kaito’s shoulder. Her silver hair rustled pleasantly against his cheek.

  Hina spoke to Kaito, who had stiffened up in surprise, in a muffled voice that sounded like she was on the verge of tears.

  “I’m so glad you’re all right… I feared that perhaps you weren’t going to return.”

  “Wait, Hina, why? I only… I just went to go get something.”

  “Recently, it feels like you’ve been becoming more and more distant, Master Kaito… And it feels like you’re getting hurt in places where I cannot reach you. The magic you’re using has a dangerous aura to it…and that pit down there is dark and hollow and terrifying. I thought that you might have been sucked in by it. Please don’t go down there on your own. Please don’t leave me alone… I beg of you.”

  “Wh—? Huh?”

  Kaito’s voice was full of confusion. It was true that the Treasury was a magical space filled indiscriminately with things brought over from Elisabeth’s old castle. It lacked so much as handrails, and if one touched the wrong thing within it, they were liable to die. Even so, there was no reason for a powerful automaton like Hina to fear it so.

  Thinking on her words, Kaito suddenly recalled a certain scene.

  There was an illuminated wall, and iron shackles were growing from it. A naked girl hung crucified from them, on display like goods in a store. Having mistaken her for a human, Kaito had unfastened her restraints.

  Does Hina have memories from back then, from before I turned her on properly?

  “Hey…Hina…”

  The question on the tip of his tongue, Kaito closed his mouth. She was lightly trembling as she held him in her embrace. Apparently, she hadn’t even noticed the wound on his hand. After thinking for a moment, Kaito wrapped his arms around her. Taking care not to sully her maid uniform, he put strength into them.

  Uh…I think I saw a mom and her kid playing like this at a park once, right?

  Kaito then grunted and tried to lift Hina up in his arms. However, it was beyond him. She was heavier than he’d expected. As cute as her appearance was, she was metal on the inside after all.

  A few silent seconds passed, and Kaito grunted and gathered his strength once more. Hina tilted her head to the side in bewilderment.

  “Um, Master Kaito, may I ask what it is you’re trying to do? Wait, I smell blood… Eek, Master Kaito, your wound!”

  “Don’t worry; it’s fine. We’ve come this far. Hina, can you, like, do a spin?”

  “It is most certainly not fine, it’s… Hmm? If you say so, but a spin?”

  Hina moved her feet to match the way Kaito was tilting his body. The two of them spun. As they did, Kaito tilted his body even more. Hina frantically shifted her feet.

  They spun, and they spun, and eventually began energetically twirling atop the stone floor. The hem of Hina’s maid outfit gently swayed. Rapidly blinking her emerald eyes, Hina held Kaito tight so as not to let him go as she followed his lead and shifted her feet even faster. Before long, the centrifugal force was lifting Kaito off the ground.

  Supported by Hina, he spun around in her arms.

  “No, no, Hina, the other way around! I wanted to do this to you!”

  “Pardon me? But Master Kaito, forgive me for saying this, but I feel that lifting an automaton body would be difficult, given your physical strength… Ah, but this is really quite fun. It makes my gears feel all warm and fuzzy—eek!”

  “Hwah!”

  Kaito had tried to recover by putting down his feet, and the two of them teetered over as a result. Hina maneuvered her body under his to break his fall.

  The two of them collapsed on the stone floor.

  “M-my bad! Hina, are you okay?”

  “Yes, very… As a matter of fact, this situation is rather lucrative for me.”

  With an ecstatic expression, Hina hugged Kaito to her ample bosom. It was a rather problematic position, and he squirmed to get free. He couldn’t exactly just stay surrounded by that marshmallow-like softness.

  Kaito quickly made his escape. Pretending not to notice how regretful Hina’s expression was after they parted, he collapsed to the floor next to her.

  The floor was cold and hard, but the two of them reclined as though they were lying on a bed of flowers.

  Amid the orange light shining down upon them, Kaito murmured briefly.

  “Is the fear all gone now?”

  “Master Kaito…”

  “I saw a kid playing like that at a park once a long time ago. The kid was crying, and their mom picked them up and spun them around and around.”

  “Around and around?”

  “I didn’t really understand what I was watching at the time. It didn’t really click. But now, I understand that it’s for times like these. So I thought I’d try it out.”

  “…”

  “Well, if you’re not afraid anymore, then I guess it worked.”

  “…”

  “Hina? Can you hear me? Did it not work?”

  “Oh, I can’t take it anymore! I love you so muuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuch!”

  Suddenly, Hina let out a shout. Kaito lay there, surprised, and she covered her face and rolled and rolled and rolled far away from him. Then she bonked into the wall of the room.

  As Kaito silently wondered what he should do, she came rolling and rolling and rolling back, her face still buried in her hands.

  “I’m not totally following what you’re doing, but welcome back.”

  “What am I going to do if you make me wuv you any more, Mashter Kaito…? I weally, weally can’t take it anymore…! Shomebody shave me…!”

  “Hina, you’re slurring your words a bit.”

  “I wuv you sho, sho mush I can’t even talk…! My shinsherest apologiesh…! Tee-hee.”

  Still covering her face, Hina curled up into a ball and rocked from side to side. After trembling from lovesickness for a little longer, she quickly stopped.

  Remaining curled up, she murmured.

  “I told you, Master Kaito. I told you that I’d eventually explain why I chose you, why it couldn’t have been anyone else.”

  “…Yeah, you did say that.”

  “To put it all into words would take a week. However, allow me to tell you about the beginning of the beginning. Before you turned me on, before you established my settings… Even in my base state, I could perceive the outside world.”

  Kaito nodded, his suspicions affirmed. It had seemed like she was able to tell what had been going on around her, even when she seemed dormant. She hadn’t been turned on at the time, but it was impossible to tell how active the consciousness born within her gears was from the outside.

  “However, while I could obtain information, I was unable to feel, nor was I able to think. When I was brought into the world, and when I watched those around me get activated and dispassionately serve their masters, I could do nothing… Do you remember the automaton maids that were with Vlad? They were not furnished with the start-up setting wherein one out of the four options—‘parent and child,’ ‘siblings,’ ‘master and servant,’ or ‘lovers’—is selected. They were designed to serve as servants…and I was designed to be presented to others.”

  “…Presented to others.”

  “A twisted gift Vlad enjoyed giving his guests. For those he wasn’t fond of, he would give us to them without telling them the correct answer, and to those that he was, he would tell them the answer and give us to them as toys. The girls who were successfully gifted met miserable fates. When I was at that man’s estate, I saw dolls who had three extra breasts added and genitals installed in their cheeks yet still smiled and served their masters as their lovers.”


  “That’s messed up…”

  “At that time, I was unable to think. All I did was silently perceive. However, due to the start of the battle between Vlad and the Torture Princess, I was not gifted to anybody and instead was set so as to not freely activate and then stashed away in a storehouse. One day, though, I found myself frivolously transported from the castle’s storehouse to Lady Elisabeth’s Treasury. Then I stayed there…and ages and ages passed. At some point, even the renewal period for the temporary master I had been assigned so that I wouldn’t disobey him, Vlad, lapsed, and I returned to a clean slate. And just when I realized that nobody was ever going to come there, you arrived.”

  “I did?”

  “You did.”

  Hina nodded deeply. She closed her eyes, as if thinking back to that time.

  “I sensed your warmth and felt your gaze upon me. But instead of rudely appraising me or inspecting me, you simply called out and asked if I was okay and then unfastened my restraints.”

  “I mean…that was because I thought you were a human.”

  “Among all the people I knew, not one of them would have saved a bound girl who they knew nothing about. When they’re initially activated, most dolls are filled with rage—the rage of having their tranquility shattered and being made to yield. Unless they receive orders, they will abide by their rage and destroy everything in their path. And I, being no exception, attacked you. However, when I found myself bound from head to toe and determined that I was at a loss, I thought fervently to myself that I wanted it to be you.”

  Kaito thought back to that time. The doll, affixed to the Ducking Stool, had looked at Kaito. She had focused her emerald-green eyes directly on him, as if imploring him.

  “…That was the first powerful urge that ever sprouted within me. You had released me to no personal gain, and you saved me from being demolished even though I nearly killed you. That was when I decided that I wanted it to be you. You were different, so I wanted it to be you. If I were to serve, if I were to be granted feelings, then it would be unthinkable for it not to be under you. Even after you formally decided for me to be your lover, I never doubted those powerful feelings I felt then.”

  “Hina…”

  “Allow me to say something arrogant: You are a man well deserving of my love.”

  Hina opened her eyes and then turned to her side. Her cheek made gentle contact with the stone floor, and her emerald eyes glowed as she turned to face Kaito. The love in her expression was as real as could be.

  She then reached out a hand and gently enveloped his blood-soaked palm.

  “Oh, how terribly wounded you are. Even so, you understand the pain of others. You are full of fear, yet you still hold others precious to you, and you still try to treat people with kindness. And amid the deep rage and despair we find ourselves in, you still hold a heart that values our daily routine.”

  “…”

  “When I watch you trying to preserve kindness and warmth despite knowing the madness and terrors of the world…what reason would I have not to love you? You say that you have given me nothing and that you are nothing more than a man, but that is hardly the case. I have received so, so many things from you. So many wonderful things.”

  Tears began spilling out from the corners of Hina’s emerald eyes. They fell to the floor, glittering in the golden twilight. As her teardrops scattered against the stone floor, Hina gently smiled.

  “Do you know how much joy preparing food every day brought me? Do you understand how blessed I felt at cleaning the grounds, at laughing together with Lady Elisabeth, at hearing her compliment my cooking, at greeting you, at working alongside you, and at being able to tell you about my love for you?”

  “Hina…all that made me happy, too. Before I came here, I’d never experienced anything like it. Even after seeing all the terrible things the demons did and getting mixed up in those gruesome battles…even then I was happy. Ever since I came here, I got to experience so many things for the first time.”

  Spurred on by Hina’s words, Kaito thought back to his old life. His days back then had been filled with nothing but pain and despair. With his broken ribs and twisted body, he’d moaned every time he lay down on his tatami mat. He hadn’t even had the strength to shoo away the flies that would gather above his eyes.

  Hina gently combed back his bangs and stroked his forehead as though to console him for those days he’d left far behind. She smiled through her tears. It was a warm, kind, affirming smile.

  “…It looks like we’re a perfect match, aren’t we, Master Kaito? You are a man of tremendous value. That kindness you possess that you managed to maintain despite all your sorrow is like a diamond in the mud. It is impossible for me not to love you. And I don’t want to lose you.”

  Hina squeezed Kaito’s hand in hers. He could clearly make out the strong feelings in her grasp.

  “Hina…”

  Kaito understood whether he wanted to or not. She had noticed something. Even if she didn’t know the specifics, she had probably sensed what he was thinking and planning.

  Tears pouring from her eyes, she tried to stop him.

  “…Master Kaito, I cannot say that I know what you’re thinking. But please, please…I beg of you…”

  Hina made a vague plea. Still feeling the warmth of her hand, Kaito closed his eyes. He thought back to everything that had happened up until then.

  He thought back to Elisabeth punching the table and tearfully proclaiming that Kaito’s cooking was vile. To Hina, bringing out new food with a troubled smiled on her face. To Elisabeth, rejoicing with such vigor it seemed like cat ears would sprout atop her head. To Hina, gently watching over her.

  He thought back to the conversations the three of them had shared and to the peaceful days they’d spent despite how twisted their situation had been.

  He was on the verge of losing all that.

  He was going to lose it in a manner as cruel as the way all the powerless people who’d been killed by the demons up until then had lost their peaceful lives.

  “I’m sorry…but I refuse to give this up.”

  Kaito murmured softly and then opened his eyes and shook off Hina’s hand. She looked shocked. However, he quickly reached his arms back out. Still lying on the ground, he tightly embraced her.

  It was the first time he’d ever properly reached out and hugged her.

  Blood seeped into her maid uniform, but he ignored that. He put strength into his arms, the way someone would hug a sister, a child, a lover.

  Hina’s face went pink, and she began flapping her mouth open and closed. Before she could say anything, Kaito whispered to her.

  “Sorry, Hina… Even though you think so highly of me, I might become someone different than the person you love.”

  “Master Kaito, what are you—?”

  “Please just hear me out. I can’t tell you the specifics. But I might change. But even if I do, there’s one thing I need you to believe. I want to protect this life of ours. I want to protect this life that you and I love so much. I can’t stay powerless anymore. I want to protect you and Elisabeth. No, I will protect you. That’s all. So even if I become completely different… If even then…”

  Kaito licked his lips. It scared him to put it into words. Up until then, he’d always lived life on his own. And he didn’t even know if such a thing was permissible. Maybe it wasn’t right to even ask. But even with those thoughts running through his mind, he squeezed the words out of his throat.

  “…If even then you still love me, then please fight by my side.”

  “Master Kaito…”

  “You said that no matter what happened, you would stand in the way of all my enemies. And you told me that if I thought anything of you, that I should tell you either to protect me or to fight together by my side… If you don’t mind me taking you up on that, if you don’t mind me believing in you, then I’ll do everything in my power to live up to those feelings of yours…and if you don’t think that I’m worthy
of your love anymore after I’ve changed, then so be it. But even if that happens, there’s one thing I want you to remember.”

  As he continued speaking ambiguously, he put more strength into his arms. He couldn’t tell her the specifics. If he told her what he was planning on doing, she’d probably try desperately to stop him. That was precisely why he was keeping his intentions hidden as he hugged and conveyed his heartfelt feelings to her.

  “I love you. Please never doubt that.”

  “Master Kaito…”

  “I love you, Hina… Ah, I see. So this is what love is like.”

  Kaito laughed foolishly. He rested his chin on Hina’s shoulder. Tears began leaking from the corners of his eyes. He spoke in a voice tinged with happiness and sadness.

  “You know, I never expected to fall in love after I died.”

  Hina quietly trembled as she hugged him.

  She whispered gently back to him, as though they were exchanging wedding vows.

  “No matter what kind of person you become, you will always be my dearest, my darling, my destined one, my master, my one true love, and my eternal companion. And I shall always be yours. No matter what kind of life awaits me, I don’t mind… So if you must fight, then I beg of you, call upon me. I shall accompany you to the depths of Hell.”

  “…Thank you, Hina.”

  The two of them silently embraced each other atop the stone floor.

  That was how spent their peaceful moments together.

  The twilight faded, its golden light swallowed up by the darkness of night. The wind carried a slight chill as the moon ascended into the sky. Eventually, Kaito slowly rose to his feet and began walking away from Hina.

  He didn’t turn to look back. Understanding, Hina didn’t call out to stop him.

  He left the throne room alone. After descending the stairs, he made his way down the hallway.

  After reaching the bedroom, he paused for a moment, unsure of whether or not to knock, and then opened the door a hair. He could hear two people sleeping within. He slid into the room to check up on them, being careful not to make a sound.