"So it really is hand sanitizer."
Natsuki picked up the glass bottle and poured some of the transparent, colorless liquid into his palm. It felt smooth and slippery—hand sanitizer, no question about it.
"So then." Natsuki looked at Mr. Billy, a thoughtful expression on his face. "Mr. Butler came here specifically to deliver hand sanitizer for us?"
Mr. Billy's eyeballs rotated: "That's correct. As a butler, it is my duty to satisfy the needs of every guest."
So considerate of guests—the award for Butler of the Year should certainly have your name on it.
Natsuki turned to Kaguya:
"Put your hands out."
Kaguya extended both hands.
The light was dim.
Even so, it was possible to see quite clearly: the ice queen's fingers were slender and graceful, her skin a luminous snow-white, like peeled sections of green onion. Her nails were neat and even, bearing no nail polish whatsoever, yet they remained rounded and lustrous... In short, they were extraordinarily beautiful.
Beautiful hands stayed beautiful even when shackled in iron.
"Good thing we didn't end up playing Mr. Butler's game after all. Otherwise you'd have had to endure something rather unpleasant."
Natsuki spoke as he poured the hand sanitizer onto the ice queen's wrists.
"You're reading too much into things." Kaguya couldn't help but scoff. "I'd rather keep the handcuffs on than use that kind of hand sanitizer!"
What was wrong with washing hands? Using Chika's own words, the stuff could even save lives in the desert!
The ice queen's skin was already delicate and smooth to begin with. After Natsuki applied the hand sanitizer, it became even more slick and slippery—like a fish gliding through water. It felt as though, with the slightest inattention, her hands would slip right out of anyone's grasp.
As the coefficient of friction between her wrists and the handcuffs dropped rapidly, Kaguya successfully "slipped" free of the shackles.
Hand sanitizer really was a wonderful thing. Incredibly versatile.
"Off they come." Natsuki tossed the handcuffs onto the table. "Let's get out of here."
"Wait." Kaguya wiped her wrists. Something about the feel of the hand sanitizer seemed slightly different from the usual kind. "The collar around my neck still hasn't come off."
If the cage and the handcuffs had imprisoned her body, then the collar imprisoned her soul.
Something that had only ever appeared in manga and in dreams—now fastened around her own neck, and in the most mortifying way imaginable. It absolutely had to come off.
Natsuki, hearing this, looked down at the wooden butler still tucked under his arm: "Mr. Butler, how do we remove the collar?"
Mr. Billy's voice was low: "The answer lies on your person."
"On me?"
Natsuki blinked, thought for two seconds, then reached into his pocket and produced the silver "key" from earlier. "You mean this?"
At the sight of the remote, Kaguya's dark brows immediately drew tight. The awful initial experience from just moments before flashed vividly back to her.
"You're saying there's a button that will make the collar open on its own?" Kaguya folded her right arm across her chest and asked in a cold, clipped tone.
Mr. Billy: "This guest's keen perception deserves praise."
Kaguya pressed the matter:
"Which button?"
"I'm afraid the rules prevent me from revealing that." Mr. Billy answered once more.
"Not telling is fine." Natsuki looked at the ice queen. "There are six buttons on the remote in total. I pressed the upper-left one earlier. That leaves five. It won't take long to figure out which one it is."
Kaguya bit her lower lip, a flicker of hesitation passing across her pretty face.
The "key" wasn't an exact match for the one in the manga—it had several extra buttons she didn't recognize. She had no way of knowing what pressing them would do. But wearing the collar indefinitely was simply unacceptable...
"Try it."
Kaguya made her decision quickly.
She was not a pet girlfriend. She absolutely refused to keep wearing a pet collar!
"Then I'm pressing?" Natsuki held up the key.
"...Go ahead."
The ice queen quietly clenched her fists beneath her folded arms, steeling herself for whatever was coming.
Last time there had been zero preparation. This time, with her guard up, she wouldn't let out such an embarrassing sound.
"Here I go."
Natsuki tried pressing the second button.
"Mrrrow~"
A soft, yielding little meow suddenly rang out.
Kaguya instinctively raised her right hand and pressed it over her pink lips.
Natsuki silently regarded the ice queen—now, in essence, a cat-eared girl.
Their eyes met.
Natsuki pressed the key again.
Kaguya widened her beautiful eyes slightly, her expression one of fierce, desperate restraint.
Several seconds ticked by.
"Mrrrow~"
The embarrassed, indignant little cat-sound escaped once more, and the girl's willpower crumbled.
"You pressed it again!" Kaguya's pretty face flushed crimson in an instant. She couldn't help but shout: "Stop it! Stop right now!"
She had braced herself for an electric shock—but when the key was pressed, no strange jolt came. Instead, her throat felt the faintest tickle, as though something desperately needed to slip out. It was like a cough. Utterly impossible to suppress.
"So it really is the key." Natsuki turned to Mr. Billy, his expression grave. "Mr. Butler, I require a reasonable explanation."
"Since it is a pet collar, having the pet produce sounds that are pleasing to hear—isn't that entirely logical?"
Mr. Billy's answer was completely airtight.
"I suppose it is..." Natsuki nodded on instinct.
Catching the humiliated girl covering her lips and fixing him with a withering warning glare, Natsuki quickly changed course, his tone turning serious:
"Why would something so awful exist inside this castle in the first place? That doesn't make any sense."
"Everything that exists has a reason for its existence." Mr. Billy's tone carried a certain weight. "Please do not question the castle's hospitality."
Natsuki looked at the mortified miss: "It seems the second button didn't work either. Want to keep going?"
"...Continue."
Kaguya drew in a long breath, her resolve hardening.
Giving up now would mean all her previous suffering had been for nothing. That was completely incompatible with the temperament of a capitalist—so Kaguya Shinomiya would absolutely not surrender lightly.
It was just animal sounds. It wasn't as though she hadn't practiced them before in Vengeful Spirit Academy.
"Then I'll continue."
Natsuki tried pressing the third button.
"Woof~"
Kaguya's hand remained pressed firmly over her pink lips, but sound still leaked through the gaps between her fingers.
"Looks like this time it's the dog variety."
Cat sounds and dog sounds were both common among pets. Perfectly reasonable.
"I'll keep going."
Natsuki quickly pressed the fourth button.
Her long, slightly curled lashes could be seen trembling. Then, in a voice heavy with shame, barely above a whisper, the words slipped free:
"...M-master."
Natsuki felt a wave of warmth wash through him. He couldn't stop himself—he pressed the button again.
"Master."
The girl's shameful voice rang out once more.
"Master."
No. He absolutely could not stop pressing.
The ice queen, blushing from head to toe, calling him "master"—no one in the world could possibly resist that, could they?
"You pressed it three times." Kaguya bit down hard on her lower lip, her shoulders trembling with indignation. "...Turn yourself in. Right now."
"My deepest, sincerest apologies." Natsuki's tone was perfectly earnest. "My hand suddenly stopped obeying me just now."
"If your hand won't obey you, hand it over to someone who needs it." Kaguya's pretty face hardened into a stony expression. "This ends here. I'm done trying to take this collar off."
"There are still two buttons left." Natsuki said, genuinely regretful. "Want to hold out a little longer?"
"This. Ends. Here." Kaguya wrapped both arms tightly across her chest. "Think about it carefully—Mr. Billy never actually said that pressing a single button would open the collar. What if it requires some kind of combination? There would be no way to verify that through trial and error."
Natsuki pondered: "Thinking back to the cage earlier, the way to unlock it might turn out to be just as simple."
Unfortunately, he couldn't figure it out right away.
Seeing Kaguya firmly refuse any further experimentation, Natsuki could only pocket the key with quiet regret: "Chika is still in the room next door. Let's go find her."
To be safe, the two of them climbed back onto the cage, crawled through the passage overhead, and returned to the room on the third floor.
After confirming the hallway was clear, they stepped out with care and quickly slipped into the adjacent room.