Give Me Back My Glass Shoe - Chapter 11

Hello everyone! there are changes in the chapter numbering, I had edited it to the correct arrangement as there was confusion in the chapter count. Apologies and enjoy the translation!

“But look. I just brought you here, and all those steps were skipped, weren’t they?”
It was very efficient. Paiki clapped his hands, praising his own actions.
Aniella finally understood why people said Paiki had thrown his morals to the dogs. He lacked the basic common sense that one shouldn’t kidnap and confine people. He was a villain to whom avoiding his own inconvenience was more important than such things.

“B-but even so, why me? There must be plenty of other people……”
“Shh. Stop talking. You can’t leave this place until you become a complete slacker. If you want to go home quickly, sleeping is your best bet.”
Paiki continued to urge her, telling her to sleep. How could she possibly sleep in such a frightening situation? Aniella looked at him with tearful, wide eyes, begging him to please send her back.
“If you don’t listen, using rough methods is faster and easier for me than persuading you.”
Paiki grinned. Aniella, who had been lying still trying to figure out how to get him to send her home, widened her eyes.
Rough methods? What was he planning to do!
Paiki fumbled in his coat pocket and pulled something out. Aniella tensed, hunching her shoulders as she watched his hand.
Embarrassingly, the item he pulled out was a sleep mask. He placed the mask over her eyes and put his hand over it. Through magic, the mask soon grew warm. The scent of jasmine she had smelled in the carriage also wafted to her nose.
Aniella, trying to gauge the situation, subtly lifted the mask.
“Stay still. Don’t fuss about not being sleepy and at least try to sleep.”
His tone was like someone dealing with a troublesome child refusing to go to bed. Putting aside how difficult it was to sleep peacefully in such a bizarre situation, she couldn’t even remember the last time she had to try to fall asleep. It had been so long since her tired body would pass out as soon as it hit the bed.
“You keep refusing to sleep, so I have no choice. Mullier, don’t blame me for using the final method.”
At his gloomy, low voice, Aniella flinched. Should she pretend to sleep, even now? As she pondered, she heard the sound of a chair being dragged nearby.
Was he really going to torture her until she passed out, perhaps by making her sit in that chair? She thought it was possible; no one would want to stain such high-quality bedding with something like blood.
With her vision blocked by the mask, her anxiety peaked, and her imagination ran wild in the worst possible directions. An eerie silence continued. The tension was giving Aniella a headache.

At that moment, Paiki spoke in a solemn voice.
“Once upon a time, there lived a cat. It was black all over, except for one place. It was a cat whose only left front paw was white, as if it were wearing a single sock.”
His tone was as if a parent was reading a fairy tale to a child at bedtime. Aniella was bewildered by his sudden change in tone.
There was no way Duke Paiki was going to read her a fairy tale. It was absurd. But immediately, she heard the sound of a page turning.
“This cat had four more brothers. They were all cats who were jet black all over, without a single white spot. Perhaps because it was the only odd one out? The cat with one white sock was the weakest. In competitions with its brothers……”
Good heavens. It seemed he really was reading a fairy tale. Aniella was so surprised her lips parted.
“Duke, um……”
When Aniella tried to interrupt, Paiki shushed her.
“Be quiet and listen, Mullier. Listen to the story, take its lesson to heart, and fall into a sweet sleep.”