The air froze in place like a midsummer afternoon. The fingers pinching Viya's book began to tremble, visibly.
"Why?"
"Isn't that obvious enough? Not liking it means not liking it. And it's only a dress. If it doesn't fit, get another one."
Marilou fussed with the nightclothes, and once she had the robe on she straightened up and reached back to pull at her tangled hair, utterly unbothered by the fact that Viya's eyes were fixed hard on her.
"That's your answer. I don't accept it. Eat the papaya on the table."
Viya gave Marilou no chance to explain further and pushed the papaya at her.
Composing her expression, Viya let out a long breath inwardly. That was close. She'd nearly forgotten her lines.
Viya's eyes flicked now and then to the book in her hands. A small compartment had been hollowed out of the respectable volume, and a slim book was stuffed inside it, its title written along the bottom of the page.
"Locked Up as a Caged Canary, I'm in a Battle Royale Every Day!"
That's right. Viya had no interest whatsoever in forcing Marilou to drink milk, or in making the girl grow her bewbs because a dress was too big.
These were all unhinged plot beats out of the book. To get Marilou to wake up and plan her escape sooner, Viya was genuinely out of ideas. Surely if she ran through every trick in that book, Marilou would have to start thinking about running?
Marilou kept her lips pressed together and looked at Viya, right there in front of her. She could tell Viya had been truly strange these last few days. Strict she had always been, but never like this.
The things coming out of her mouth were unhinged as hell!
Then Marilou thought about the pocket money Viya handed her every month, close to a hundred thousand in purchasing power, and the resolve rising in her flattened right out.
Go on, kick me. You've kicked into a bale of cotton!
There was no help for it. Viya gave her far more than the capitalist bosses of her old life ever had.
Reaching that conclusion, Marilou fought down the corners of her mouth, ran through every sad thing in her head, and set about gnawing the papaya with visible reluctance.
To give Viya a sense of participation, Marilou deliberately put on a wounded expression, so convincing that she half believed it herself.
Seeing her goal achieved, the smile transferred to Viya's face. But she had to hold hers in too, in case Marilou noticed something was off, and so Viya also went hunting desperately through her mind for the saddest thing in her life.
The two of them gazed deeply into each other's eyes, each crushing down the corners of their own mouth.
Both wore an agonized look, as though about to devour the other. Later on the agony became genuine, because holding in that much laughter had started to hurt.
She might be about to grow abs.
"When you've finished eating, come with me to the study."
Viya was in real pain by now, her left hand pressed to her stomach. She'd nearly laughed aloud several times and her middle genuinely ached, but she forced herself to hold it. After all, laughing out loud in front of people was no different from squatting down in the middle of the street.
The two of them were each holding an entirely different picture of the scene.
To Viya's mind, the unhinged plot beat was working. Marilou had just bared her teeth at her. She'd be running away soon enough.
Novels really were worth reading more of.
To Marilou's mind, Viya had just been laughing, hadn't she? By the look of it, she'd successfully entertained the young mistress once again.
Whose fault was it that the young mistress liked tormenting her for amusement? As a seasoned professional actor, there was nothing she couldn't perform, so long as the money was right.
As for actually running away, out of the question!
She followed Viya to the study, found a chair and sat down, hands gripping the edge of the seat, her eyes moving over Viya.
Viya lit the mage-ore lamp and put on her glasses, using the moment to steal a few more glances at the novel, then spoke in a low voice.
"Reflect on what you did wrong today."
Viya's fingers drummed on the desk, tapping out a small clatter.
"Oh. I shouldn't have gotten moody, shouldn't have fallen asleep in the bath, shouldn't have skipped my homework."
Marilou bit her lip and lowered her head. That was what came out of her mouth; in reality she spent the whole time looking at her toes.
"I'll leave the rest aside. Isn't it about time you sat the magic examination? Then even if you leave the Temple, with a magical gift as fine as yours you could still stay on in the royal capital. Or do you mean to go back to your village?"
Viya spoke with earnest weight. It was, more or less, a speech she had worn out.
"Why don't you teach me? I've no gift for magic, I'm slow, I can't follow what the teachers are doing."
Marilou stuck out her little tongue, wearing a blank uhh-buh-buh sort of look, fidgeting with the chair, in no way resembling someone who wanted to study.
"How many times have I taught you? Enough. Next item. In a few days I'm taking you to the family banquet. Remember to wear the dress I've had prepared for you."
"Huh?"
Marilou blinked. Now that she thought about it, she hadn't been out in a very long time.
"That's right. I've considered what Mother said, and she isn't wrong. I can't keep you shut inside the Temple forever. It's time I took you home for a look. You are, after all, my only wife at present."
Viya stepped forward and laid her palm lightly over Marilou's hand, her expression looking somewhat forlorn, and somewhat sad.
"Will there be good food at the banquet?"
Marilou blinked at her and made a childish little gesture. She had noticed that Viya very much liked seeing her act young.
Sometimes she wondered whether what Viya wanted was a wife at all, or a daughter.
"There will. But you certainly can't spend the whole evening eating. This is a family banquet, and a great many important people will be there. If it comes to it, you can simply stand with me."
"Can I not go?"
Marilou blinked at her.
Viya went blank for a moment. If you don't go, how am I supposed to let you run away?
But she obviously couldn't make it look too deliberate, so all she could do was harden her tone:
"Oh? You want to bargain with me? Marilou, do you think that because I'm speaking calmly to you now, you can do as you please?"
Seeing Viya put on a foul face, Marilou knew the effect had landed, and pulled back, choosing to stop while she was ahead.
Heh heh. The boss must have enjoyed that telling-off.
"I'm sorry. I was wrong."
Viya: ...
"It isn't your fault either. All right. Don't go back tonight. Pick a room and get some rest early."
Viya cut off any thought Marilou had of pressing further. In truth she didn't know the details of the banquet either, and besides, she wanted to carve out some time to catch up on her novel.
"Right! Good night!"
Marilou left the study as though a weight had come off her, thinking back over her recent performances and concluding they had done justice to what the boss was paying.
And apart from today, the boss hardly ever touched her. Work like this, body clocked in and heart clocked out, was genuinely hard to find.
A hundred thousand a month, no sharing a bed, nothing to endure but a scolding, and a whole crowd of servants waiting on her.
It was even on a contract, so in a few months she could extract with more money than she could ever spend.
Until then, she absolutely had to look a little sadder, and not let the boss catch on.
Back in her room, Viya read the descriptions in the novel with her heart beating hard. How was it that they were both keeping caged birds, and hers felt so strange?
The caged birds in the book fought back at the risk of their lives. Hers stopped short every single time, and when she ran out of steam you had to push her along from behind. It gave her the persistent feeling that she was raising a border collie...
Viya looked at the soft white hands the book described.
She touched her own left hand and felt nothing at all. It was only that afternoon, carrying Marilou out of the bath, that she had felt something...