Elena opened the book — not from the first page, but flipping straight to the middle in one go.
And the very first glance left her frozen, a pink flush racing across her small face, her mouth falling slightly open without her meaning it to.
What she was looking at was not a work of literature, nor a document of any scholarly value, nor even a novel to pass the time.
What the book depicted was a girl — a maid, scantily dressed, hung all over with restraints, with a small box strapped to her thigh.
The whole book was composed of illustrations paired with text, and it was the combination of the two that was making Elena's face burn with embarrassment.
It was filled with techniques for training a maid and making a maid obedient, and even with how to punish a maid when she erred.
Worse still, there was a section on how to have a maid attend you in the bedchamber...
"What in the world is all this!!"
It took Elena a long moment of paralysis to react, and then she flung the book straight at Lilith.
She then sprang across to the other sofa, grabbed a cushion and buried her scarlet face in it.
"Pervert!! Why would you read something like this... in the living room!"
Elena beside herself with fury, paired with cheeks flushed from embarrassment, looked exceptionally cute from where Lilith sat.
"I did say you mustn't look~ And look at you — you insisted, and now you've looked you're unhappy about it~"
Lilith grinned wickedly, as though she had foreseen Elena's reaction all along.
"You!"
Frantic as Elena was, she could not find any grounds to argue back; she had snatched it away and read it herself, after all.
The pile of curses that should have come pouring out got swallowed back down, and in the end she could only squeeze out one feeble word.
"Pervert...!"
Then she curled up on the sofa and glared furiously at Lilith.
Seeing Elena rather calmer, Lilith set the book on the table in front of her, stood, and walked toward Elena one step at a time.
Watching Lilith close in step by step, the pictures she had just seen in that book surfaced in Elena's mind unbidden.
Her mind even substituted herself for the maid in the illustrations automatically...
Lilith was definitely reading that book because she intended to do that sort of thing to her!
She arrived at that conclusion without hesitation, and was entirely convinced of it.
So what she needed to do right now... was run!
Except the moment she so much as moved to flee, Lilith spoke first.
"Don't run~ If you run, every single thing in that book gets used on you~"
One sentence was all it took to strip Elena of every means of resistance.
She could not win. There was simply no winning!
She accepted that reality and curled back up on the sofa, exactly like a small cat.
Lilith sat down beside her then, reached out and removed the cushion Elena was hiding behind, then tilted her chin up, forcing Elena to look at her.
"Now then, it's time to settle accounts~"
"S-settle what...?"
Elena panicked, because she had the sense that Lilith meant it this time.
"For my little maid calling her Master a pervert, of course — and throwing a book at her Master~"
"Ngh! I-I didn't do it on purpose! Who... who told you to read a perverted book like that!"
Elena scrambled for excuses and tried to break free of Lilith's grip, could not, and settled for looking away.
Having her chin held and being forced to make eye contact was genuinely terrifying to her!
"Oh~? So my little maid is saying it's all her Master's fault?"
At that, the smile faded from Lilith's face, and she let go and stood up.
"In that case, that's another charge on top~ Now your Master has no choice but to punish a disobedient little maid~"
"Wait!!"
Hearing that, Elena did not dare keep up the tough talk, and cut in hurriedly.
"I-I'm sorry..."
Elena's apology came out very quietly and did not sound remotely sincere, and Lilith plainly had no intention of letting her off that easily.
"Too quiet~"
"I'm sorry!!"
This time, the sound very nearly carried through the whole estate.
It was fortunate Sarah had long since gone, or she would have learned one more of Elena's humiliating episodes.
"Mm-hm~ That's a good girl~"
Lilith crouched down in front of her, satisfied, and reached out to ruffle Elena's head very fondly.
Except that doting gentleness did not last long.
"Even so, the punishment you've earned can't be skipped~ Though seeing as you've been so good, we'll make it a small one~"
Elena was not going to escape Lilith's punishment in the end, and could only pray silently that Lilith would go easy on her.
"Your answer?"
"I-I understand! Master..."
To lighten the punishment, Elena swallowed her embarrassment and got the word "Master" out too.
"Very good~"
Lilith stood up again as she said it.
"The punishment, then: within one hour, put on that cat set and come to my bedroom~ Seeing as you've been good, you may leave the tail off~"
With that, Lilith turned and left the living room, heading for the second floor.
Only once Lilith's back had disappeared did Elena let out a breath and go completely limp on the sofa, muttering to herself.
"Whew... next time, I can't be so hasty."
She had reflected deeply on where she went wrong, and resolved that from now on she would curse only inside her head, and never touch Lilith's things — touching them never ended well!
After a brief ten-minute rest Elena got up; those ten minutes had been enough to prepare herself thoroughly.
It was only putting on clothes; there was nothing much left to be embarrassed about, and as long as she did not have to touch that tail it was within what she could accept.
Back in her room, Elena went to the bed and picked up the bag of items she had accidentally brought back with her, which still held the other two sets.
She looked at the bag and thought it over. She was going to have to wear them anyway, so there should be no harm in seeing what the other two were.
Call it planning ahead — preparing herself mentally in advance, since Lilith would have her in the full set sooner or later.
At that thought, Elena suddenly turned bold.
She took the three boxes out one by one, set the cat set aside, and kept the two she had not seen.
Without hesitation, Elena opened both boxes at once.
One of them held an outfit that appeared to be made of leather, black all over, and simply very strangely shaped.
There was one piece in particular, something like a V shape, and she had absolutely no idea what it was for.
If she could not work it out she would not bother trying, so she stuffed that set back and put the lid on.
The other was straightforward: a swimsuit, a two-piece at that. It was not revealing as such, but a swimsuit was embarrassing enough on its own!
What was more, this swimsuit had three hidden pockets in it, and she had no idea what those were for either, so she packed it away again as well.
By now there was very little left of the time Lilith had set, and Elena hurriedly stripped off her nightdress and picked up the cat set.
She tossed the tail aside without ceremony, put on the garment that was indistinguishable from underwear, and finally fixed on the cat ears, which matched her hair color exactly.
"This should do it...?"
Elena stood before the full-length mirror looking at her own mortifying reflection, one hand moving to cover the cutaway section at her chest without her meaning it to.
Though not covering it would hardly have mattered, since she had almost nothing there — two little buns at best.
After one final round of steeling herself, she walked out of her bedroom and pushed open the door to Lilith's room...