The night over Gloamreach Vale was surprisingly quiet, broken only by the soft crackle of the dying campfire and the distant howl of the wind crashing against the black cliffs.
Half an hour after concluding their first, incredibly successful transaction on the market, Elarienne made a decision that perfectly matched her pragmatic character.
Instead of going to sleep on the stones, the blonde elf gathered all five demonic workers and set off back toward the outskirts of the Green Forest.
Her reasoning was simple: the night in the forest was quiet, visibility was not an issue thanks to her acute elven eyesight, and as long as the prices of roasted meat on the trading platform were breaking popularity records, wasting even a single hour on idle sleep was a blatant squandering of time.
In this way, only the two of them remained in the ruined heart of the valley.
Nyssara sat on a wide, flat boulder near the Sovereign Nexus. Her hands occasionally made fluid, slow gestures in the air, as if she were swiping invisible tabs and examining hidden layers of the interface.
Liselotte, on the other hand, had found herself the absolute most magnificent spot in the entire dimension as, with a quiet, contented purr, she climbed directly onto the Empress's lap.
She settled in comfortably, wrapping her bare, pale thighs around Nyssara's hips, and rested her head softly against her full, warm chest.
The Mistress accepted this without a word of protest, and her left hand instinctively came to rest on the maid's silvery hair, stroking it in a slow, lulling rhythm.
Liselotte had initially hoped for something significantly more spicy.
After all, she hadn't spent so much time sculpting her gigantic, bouncy breasts just for them to lie there idle!
She dreamed that Nyssara would slip a hand beneath the lace, squeeze a hard nipple, or at least weigh her bust in her palm.
She quickly noticed, however, that the Empress was strangely absent.
Her eyes were fixed on empty space, and a profound, rarely seen concentration painted itself across her forehead.
What was more interesting - Nyssara had not shared any of her windows.
Throughout the day, the Mistress had flawlessly projected all panels for mutual viewing without hesitation, so the fact that she was currently browsing something in absolute secrecy meant one thing: it had to be something exceptionally important and private.
True, Liselotte's pride was slightly stung by the lack of immediate attention, but the rational part of her mind ordered her to be patient.
Out of boredom, she gazed at the public Demon King chat hovering before her, resting her chin on Nyssara's shoulder.
The stream of messages flowed a bit slower than during the day, but it was still full of bizarre, tragicomic posts from participants trying to survive their first night:
[Does anyone know how to turn off these cursed cricket sounds? They're the size of dogs and have been sawing with those legs for three hours!]
[Be glad they're crickets. Something is panting right under my altar. I'm afraid to light a torch.]
[Trading 10 units of wood for some kind of magic lamp. The darkness in this cave is driving me insane.]
[Don't trade with him, wood is dirt cheap, and almost no one has magical items.]
[Am I the only one who got a race without eyelids? My eyes are drying out to crisps, I have to splash water on them every ten minutes.]
[At least you're not a plant Demon King. I just realized I lose 80% of my strength at night because there's no photosynthesis. I'm literally lying here wilted like old lettuce.]
[Hahaha, lettuce!]
[Did anyone buy that meat for 5 coins from that extortionist?]
[I bought it. And you know what? It was worth every single coin. My hunger dropped to zero, and I only ate half a portion. If that person lists more, I'm taking it instantly.]
[Sucker. Paying usurers.]
[I'd rather be a living sucker than a dead smartass with an empty stomach.]
[Guys, I found an underground passage in some ruins. There's a massive iron gate with chains, and inside there are cages, hooks on the ceiling, and a stone bed with straps. It kinda looks like a torture dungeon... Though my subordinate says it's some medieval BDSM dungeon.]
[Cages and chains? Sounds like a ready-made prison for captives or... a pretty good party spot, if we survive.]
[Jealous. I only have a damp hole in sandstone and a pile of bat shit.]
Liselotte locked her gaze onto the message about iron cages and hooks, and her ruby pupils instantly dilated to their absolute limits. Her demonic tail went rigid, then began to wag wildly behind her back.
"My Mistress..." she spoke up in a dreamy, overly sweet voice, gently nudging Nyssara's collarbone with her nose. "Look at this. I want a dungeon too. Please, let's build our own sex dungeon! A real, proper one! With chains on the walls, cages hanging from the ceiling, a pillory right in the middle, and a rack for all those wonderful toys from my inventory!"
Nyssara didn't even bat an eyelid, and her fingers continued to swipe invisible tabs in the air.
"Of course, we will certainly build you your little sex dungeon in the future," she tossed out in an entirely indifferent, absent tone, stroking her hair like a preoccupied parent brushing off a child's request for a new toy.
Liselotte should have been jumping for joy that she had received permission for her greatest fantasy, but instead, her left elven ear twitched nervously, and her eyelid fluttered slightly.
She isn't listening to me at all... she thought with a quiet, internal groan.
She agreed to a dungeon with whips with the exact same level of engagement as if confirming it was going to rain tomorrow!
The servant pushed her lips out into an exaggerated pout, squirming on her lap. She was just about to open her mouth to demand attention at the top of her lungs and perhaps brazenly bite the Mistress on the shoulder, when Nyssara suddenly spoke first.
Her voice was low, composed, but still directed at the empty space before her:
"Give me two more minutes, Liselotte. I will devote my full attention to you in a moment, just allow me to finish analyzing your system."
Liselotte froze mid-movement, lifting her head from her chest.
"My... system?" she choked out in surprise. "But you saw my status a long time ago. What else could possibly be in there?"
Nyssara slowly furrowed her brow, and an expression of mild, cold bewilderment appeared on her lips.
"Your status is one thing," the Mistress replied, swiping another invisible tab. "But as your Mistress, I received an overarching management panel. I am slowly beginning to understand how this entire mechanism of commands and punishments stemming from your Total Surrender operates... but your inventory is an entirely different story. The sheer volume of equipment you crammed in there is truly... overwhelming. Four hundred and twenty-seven items? Did you genuinely have to purchase literally every single harness, gag, and electric toy this system had in its database?"
Liselotte forgot her pout in a fraction of a second. Her cheeks flushed with a thick blush, and all seriousness vanished from her mouth, replaced by boundless pride.
"Of course I did!" she thrust her chest out until the lace groaned. "I did it specifically for you! I wanted my Mistress to have an absolutely comprehensive selection for every conceivable occasion! Leather, silk, latex, magical... whatever catches your fancy! Instead of complaining, you should appreciate my sacrifice!"
Nyssara snorted with a quiet, dry laugh.
"An extraordinary sacrifice. A true martyr, aren't you."
"Exactly!" Liselotte grinned brazenly, then her gaze softened, giving way to pure curiosity. "And... how exactly does this system of commands and punishments work? You said you've already figured it out. How does it look from your end?"
At that moment, Nyssara finally ceased browsing the system windows.
Her hand dropped, and the invisible windows closed in one fluid gesture. The Mistress slowly lowered her gaze, looking straight into the large, ruby eyes of the girl sitting on her lap.
A dangerously fascinating smirk bloomed on the Empress's sensual lips.
"Rather than explaining it to you dryly... I suppose it will be easiest to demonstrate it on your own skin," the Empress purred.
Before Liselotte could ask what she meant, Nyssara summoned a small, private window right in front of her chest, the contents of which the maid had no chance of seeing.
With two long fingers, the Mistress quickly tapped out a short command on the virtual keyboard.
She tapped the confirm prompt, then closed the interface.
She looked at Liselotte with an amused glint in her eye.
"Alright then, my little servant," Nyssara tossed out softly. "Tell me a nice, long sentence now. Whatever comes into that little head of yours."
Liselotte blinked, slightly thrown off.
"A long sentence? That's it?" she shrugged, instantly slipping back into her favorite role. She clasped her hands over her sternum, thrust out her hips, and began with reverence:
"I believe, my Mistress... Woof!... that your body... Woof!... is absolutely... Woof!... the most beautiful thing... Woof!... I have ever... Woof!... seen with my own... Woof!... eyes, and I will do... Woof!... everything, just to be able... Woof!... to lick your... Woof!... tits!"
Liselotte froze.
Her mouth remained wide open, with her tongue sticking halfway out, and her ruby irises dilated so violently they almost eclipsed the whites entirely.
Her long elven ears stood rigidly in the air, trembling in absolute, paralyzing shock.
"W-What was... Woof!... that?!" she screamed, grabbing her own throat with both hands. "Why am I... Woof!... Woofing every... Woof!... other word?! My mouth is... Woof!... doing it on its... Woof!... Stop... Woof!... doing that!"
The sensation was truly terrifying, yet simultaneously fascinating for Liselotte.
It wasn't an impulse in her head - her vocal cords and diaphragm simply, mechanically, without her consent or awareness, formed a clean, loud dog's Woof exactly between every single spoken word!
She didn't have a shred of control over it!
Nyssara laughed resoundingly, her low laughter echoing across the stone courtyard. She waved her hand, opened the panel, and reset the entered command.
"I disabled it," she tossed out with a calm smile.
Liselotte took a deep, panicked breath, cautiously opening her mouth:
"One... two... three... mic test?"
The sounds flowed clearly, smoothly, without the slightest Woof.
The servant let the air out of her lungs with a loud whistle, then looked at the Empress with such a strange, suspicious expression that Nyssara struggled to suppress another smile.
"Are..." Liselotte narrowed her eyes, tilting her head, "...is petplay your private kink, my Mistress?"
"A little bit, yes," Nyssara admitted without a shadow of embarrassment, raising the corner of her mouth slightly. "But we are not discussing my preferences at this moment. Were you not just asking with utmost seriousness about how the command mechanics operate?"
Liselotte shrugged lightly, and her demonic tail danced happily.
"Eh, mechanics are just boring rules. Finding out what really turns my Mistress on is a hundred times more important and useful for my survival."
Nyssara shook her head with boundless amusement, then raised her hand and tugged her lightly by the tip of her sensitive ear.
"For a completely shameless maid... I must admit you are surprisingly perceptive and adorable in your own, twisted way."
"Thank you! It's undoubtedly due to my innate predispositions for being a submissive bitch!" Liselotte blurted out proudly, grinning.
Nyssara sighed, but her gaze turned serious, returning to the core issue:
"You see, this is exactly how the overarching system of your curse operates. I do not have to issue commands to you out loud. I can, at any given moment, input an order directly into the Total Surrender panel, and your body and mind will execute it one hundred percent subconsciously."
Liselotte nodded slowly, but after a moment, a deep wrinkle of thought appeared on her forehead.
"Wait... but since you typed it quietly into the window, that means I had absolutely no idea what you wrote in there. And despite that, I was Woofing like a trained mutt before my brain could even register it..."
"Precisely," Nyssara confirmed coldly, all trace of joking vanishing from her eyes. "The system is under no obligation to inform you of the command's content. You forfeited your will, after all, so you will execute the order as naturally as if it were your own unconditioned reflex."
A violent, icy shiver rolled down Liselotte's spine.
Her brain pieced it together in a fraction of a second. She understood the full, horrifying scale of what she had gotten herself into.
"That means... that if, for example, you typed into the panel that during a fight with a monster I should suddenly strip naked and dance in front of it defenseless... I would do it, thinking it was my own, brilliant idea?"
"You would do it without a second of hesitation," Nyssara agreed. "Or I could type an order that, during a conversation with a hostile Hero, you walk up to him, kneel, and hand him a dagger so he could plunge it into your heart, and in your mind, you would consider it absolutely right and necessary."
The Empress leaned forward slightly, grasping Liselotte by the shoulders with both hands and forcing her to look straight into her eyes. The Mistress's voice became low, hard, and dripping with raw, ruthless realism:
"Do you finally understand, damn it, what you have done by creating this curse? Do you understand what a horrifyingly dangerous thing you have subjected yourself to in this world?"
Liselotte looked into her eyes.
She heard every word.
She visualized all of it - the absolute loss of control, total defenselessness, being an empty vessel in the hands of another entity, a marionette whose strings were pulled by someone standing above her.
But instead of fear, her breathing became ragged, shallow, and searing in a fraction of a second.
Her nostrils flared, and her chest began to heave violently.
Instead of terror, instead of panic and regret over the mistake she made... a fire of excitement so wild and overpowering exploded in her ruby eyes that it made her head spin.
With a quiet, choking moan she lunged forward, throwing her arms around Nyssara's neck and pressing her entire trembling, feverish body against her breasts:
"I beg you... please, my Mistress... let's do it! Type something like that! Let's test it! Order me to do something awful! Please!"
Nyssara literally stiffened.
For three whole seconds, the Demon Empress remained motionless, staring into space with an expression of such immense stupefaction, as if she had just heard the stupidest thing in the history of the entire universe.
And then her brows drew together furiously, her teeth clenched with a loud grind, and her hand shot downward.
SMACK!
The strike against Liselotte's exposed buttock, tightly framed by the miniature skirt, was so powerful that the sound echoed throughout the entire hollow!
"Oooouch!" the maid shrieked, jumping on her lap.
"Are you completely out of your mind?!" Nyssara shouted, losing her composure for the first time and shaking the girl by the shoulders. "I am telling you about the absolute loss of your humanity and mortal peril, and you're getting excited?! What would have happened if you had landed on the list of some psychopathic sadist Ruler, who, for pure amusement, ordered you to cut off your own fingers or throw yourself off a cliff in the very first minute of the trial?! You would have died like worthless garbage before you even understood what had happened!"
Liselotte held her stinging, burning buttock. Her ear throbbed with pain, and tiny tears welled up in her eyes from the force of the strike, which was much harder than the previous spankings.
But instead of screaming, instead of making excuses or joking... the girl suddenly fell completely silent.
Her gaze became clear, calm, and strikingly sober.
She slowly lowered her hands, sliding them to the Mistress's waist. She leaned closer, until their noses almost touched.
"But I didn't choose a psychopath," Liselotte said quietly, and there wasn't a shred of mockery or erotic chaos in her melodic voice. "I looked through quite a few profiles, my Mistress. I rejected every blockhead, every mindless butcher, and every lunatic. I chose you. A woman who knows how to manage a state, who has ironclad principles, who cares for her servants, and who will never destroy something that belongs to her."
Liselotte placed her hand on Nyssara's chest, right over her beating heart.
"I know how dangerous this curse is. I know what I risked. But you are the one holding my leash, my Mistress. No one else. I surrendered everything to you, and I trust you one hundred percent. So nothing bad will happen to me. Never."
Absolute, boundless silence fell over the ruins.
The wind brushed their hair, and the fire threw dying sparks into the darkness.
Nyssara stared at the small, serious face of her servant. She saw in her ruby eyes boundless, blind, unwavering trust - pure and unconditional, the likes of which she had never experienced from anyone in her previous life full of intrigue and betrayal.
The Empress slowly let a long, heavy, martyred sigh escape her lungs, unable to comprehend where this maid derived such immense trust in her when they hadn't even known each other for 24 hours.
The woman raised her hands, wrapped them around Liselotte's waist, and, with a quiet rustle of her gown, pulled her tightly against her body, hiding her face in her own cleavage.
"You are... a truly hopeless degenerate," Nyssara mumbled quietly, shaking her head with a helpless, warm smile. "And a total, irredeemable idiot."
Liselotte snuggled into her with all her might, feeling the safe, firm grip of the Mistress's arms, and giggled quietly right against her skin:
"That's exactly what I have my wonderful Mistress for... to protect this stupid, beautiful degenerate from the entire world."