Collector’s Cage - Chapter 59

No other escape route was visible. The solid, firmly locked door seemed intent on opening only after the play was over. For a moment, Hermie indulged in the futile hope she had once held.

If I show my true feelings, will he let me go?

A heart that had once been profoundly disappointed. Now, the path to showing her true feelings felt even more distant.

She didn’t know if he would believe her sincerity. But if, by some one-in-a-million chance, he did believe her… Hermie wouldn’t run away even if the cage door opened.

“Froy.”
“Yes?”
“…Can I have a kiss?”

Hermie’s voice trembled faintly. It was a pitiful voice, as if drowned in fear.

Froy paused for a moment. Kisses were something they had done countless times when Hermie pretended to be a fairy. Though back then, it was just her small lips brushing against the bridge of his nose.

“Yes.”

Froy nodded, and Hermie pressed her lips to his.

It seemed a bit of a hasty action, so Hermie cautiously tried to pull away, but his lips clung to hers the instant they parted.

“Ah.”

Froy hungrily swallowed her lips, then chided her with a taunting tone.

“If you’re going to do it, you should see it through.”
“…No, I didn’t intend to go that far.”
“Why not? You were so good at saying you liked me, that you loved me.”

Froy slowly moved to hover over Hermie. It was a rebuke for the words and actions with which she had so despicably toyed with him.

Hermie looked up at him with a slightly stunned face, then nodded.

Yes, that was true. Hermie had lied to him to escape. She had whispered flatteries, saying she liked him, loved him, that there was no one but Froy, that she wouldn’t run away.

This time, too, Hermie acted the same. She said the words he likely wanted to hear, the words he desperately longed for. Giving him the words he desired was all too easy.

“I love you, Froy. Actually, I liked you too.”
“…”
“I missed you even after I left. I didn’t have the courage to come back. I didn’t have the decency to confess the truth.”
“…”
“Since I’m not a real fairy, I thought there was no way Froy would like me once I became human.”

Hermie wrapped her arms around Froy’s neck. Holding him, she hid her tearful face. Hot teardrops fell against his temples.

They were the words he wanted to hear, but they were also her true feelings.

The sincerity hidden behind the clichéd excuses about being tricked by a mage, about it being an accident.

Froy didn’t reply. Hermie guessed her sincerity hadn’t reached him. He won’t believe me.

It was only natural. She had deceived him, after all.

Froy devoured Hermie’s lips. As if prying open the mouth that had lied to him, he roughly parted them and delved into the softness within.

“Hah.”

Froy sucked on her tongue so strongly it felt suffocating. It was warm and soft.

He licked her neck, then fondled her soft b*****s. The shy, shrinking reaction was new to him.

Froy leisurely explored Hermie’s body, then frowned with displeasure.

Froy had an obsessive side that wouldn’t be satisfied until he knew even the number of brushstrokes on a painting he fancied.

That obsessive nature reared its head again now. He had thought he knew Hermie’s body well, but that was arrogance. There was still much to learn.

Unlike objects, living beings constantly change with their environment and time. He had overlooked that crucial fact.

Hermie, flushed with heat, tinged her neck crimson. It was a color he hadn’t seen before. When he twisted her n****e, her lower lip trembled as if startled. It was an unfamiliar reaction.

“Ah.”

Froy sighed in frustration at the realization that he hadn’t yet fully digested what was his.

“Hermie, Hermie.”

He repeated her name, pleading as if asking how she could make him feel so wretched.