"What's the meaning of this, Aria? I thought you were a better person than this, but you're no different than those lecherous perverts"
Wait…
What's going on again? Why isn't Letty here yet? And why is Carolina ambushing me with such allegations, right outside my room?
"Uhm… What are you even talking about? Let's sit down first and talk calmly", I said as I invited her inside my messy bedroom.
"Now take a deep breath, and tell me what's this about?", I asked.
"I saw it. With my own two eyes. I can't believe you would do such a thing to Letica. Especially after all the stories you told me about your best friend. Those were all big fat lies, weren't they?"
"Letty? Are you talking about last night? We just quarreled a bit. It was no big deal. Is she still upset? And why do you know about this in the first place? It's between me and Letty"
"Have some conscience. To think that you'd use such underhanded means on such a sweet girl. I saw her running away from your room when I was taking a walk in the garden, and I also saw…" she paused for a moment and continued, " A slave crest on her abdomen. I couldn't believe my eyes. To think that my only friend would be such a… sicko"
Oh, I see. Keeping aside the matter of how she saw the cloth covered slave crest in the first place. Given the situation, her reaction is quite natural. I need to clear up this misunderstanding first. It's a good thing that she confronted me instead of making a scene in front of others.
"What? Cat got your tongue? You aren't even denying it. How could you do such a cruel thing to an innocent girl? That's it! I want to return home"
"Are you going to give me a chance to explain? Just listen to me for a bit, I'll tell you the truth", I said.
"Letty isn't any ordinary girl. I met her when I was eight years old. She has been my personal maid ever since. It was then that she revealed her class to me. It's an unorthodox class, and I swear on my name that I am not lying about this, it's called 'Pleasure Slave'. And to escape the helpless state she was in, she asked me to become her Mistress"
I waited for her to catch up. And she was clearly not buying any of this. In fact, her face turned from that of digesting the information, to that of disgust. Her cold gaze was sending chills down my spine, as if saying that 'all the trust I had in you is crumbling to bits'.
Well, who would believe such claims without proof?
"Stop looking at me like that. And I can easily prove it to you. Just follow me", I said. I grabbed her hand and practically dragged her along with me.
"Where are we heading to?" she asked.
"Towards Letty's room"
We knocked on her door and waited.
…
Why isn't she opening the door? Is she so upset that she doesn't want to talk to me? Is that why she didn't come this morning to wake me up?
Oh no! I am so sorry for being immature, Letty, please open the door.
She isn't sick, is she?
"My Lady. If you want, I can bring you the key for this room", one of the passing maids said.
"Yeah, please do"
She brought us the keys, and I hastily opened the door.
"Oh, thank God, she's fine", I said as I saw her flipping around in her sleep.
I went up to her bed and gently shook her shoulder.
"Wake up, dear"
"Uhm- Aria. Good morning. Muah", she just groggily held my head and kissed me. Wow, uhm… I wasn't expecting this, but I'll take it.
"Kya- How shameless?! Is this one of your orders? K-k-kissing you as soon as she wakes up? You really are a s-sicko", she stammered while blushing hard.
I suppose the show was a little too much for her maiden heart.
"No, I haven't. I don't see her as my slave. She's my girlfriend", I clarified.
"That's rich coming from her mistress", Carolina said.
I better wake her up first.
"What's goin- (yawn). Kyaa- why are both of you here? I am sorry for kissing you out of nowhere, I thought I was still dreaming", she started to go red after noticing Carolina.
Hehe, how cute!
"I don't mind one bit. And about her, well, she somehow saw your slave crest yesterday and came to my door to confront me, first thing in the morning. And what's up with you? You're usually an early bird, what happened today? I was worried sick", I said.
"I am sorry for worrying you. It's just that after you told me to leave me alone, stuff happened, and I was worried that you would still be angry at me, so I couldn't sleep and ended up oversleeping this morning. I am glad to see that it's not the case", she said.
"You didn't have to just leave, you know. I wanted you to-"
"I-I'll excuse myself for a moment", saying so, she just ran past the door and closed it on her way out. Hahah, she must have felt so uncomfortable seeing us both so chummy.
"Hahaha… Anyway, I'm sorry for what happened. I acted so immaturely. I just had so much on my mind, and I lashed out on you"
"No, I was insensitive. It's my fault for saying such hurtful things to you. But more importantly, I discovered some new things about my system yesterday", she explained to me about all the events that transpired after she left.
"Oh no, I'm so sorry. It turns out you didn't leave the room because you were upset, but you were forced to. This could have been dangerous, I feel so stupid that we didn't experiment with such things before hand"
"Don't worry about it. You didn't know this would happen either. We just got caught up in some unfortunate circumstances. It's no big deal", Letty consoled me.
"Okay, I'll leave you to freshen up and meet me in my room. There, we'll perform some experiments. Until then, I'll check up on Carolina", I said.
On that note, I headed towards Carolina's room.
"Sorry, if we made you feel jealous"
"Who's jealous of your shameless display? To think that you'd do such things in front of just anyone", she retorted.
"Hey, cut her some slack. She didn't know that you were in that room as well"
"Anyway, why did you leave after throwing so many allegations at me? Didn't you want to verify the proof yourself?", I asked.
"I did, but whatever happened up until now just can't be an act. There is no way to order your slave to love you. And I know when someone's faking it and when they're not… So, I'm sorry", she said the last bit in a low voice.
"Sorry, I didn't hear you. What did you say?"
"I said that you are a shameless brat"
"Hehe, let's leave it at that"
***
"Letty, do you mind showing her your crest? That would make her certain that I am not lying", I said, asking Letty to show her crest to Carolina. It's a bad idea, given how much of a blabbermouth she is, but the cat's already out of the bag. So I might as well kill any lingering suspicion in her mind.
She quickly put on some linen pants and held the hem of her uniform up to reveal her slave crest.
"Wow, this can't be real. I see why you wanted to show this to me. There is no way that a human is capable enough to construct such an intricate and powerful slave crest. This has to be the work of the angels themselves. Oh poor Letica, I can't even imagine being in your shoes. Aria basically has full control over you. This is unreal", she muttered as she gazed at the slave crest.
Although she isn't very knowledgeable in this department, she could still understand the crest better than I do.
"See, now you understand? And just for the sake of clearing any lingering doubts. Letty, I'm sorry for this, but… I order you to only tell the truth for the next two minutes"
"Now, did I ever ask you to fake a relationship with me?", I asked.
"No, you didn't", she instantly replied.
"Go ahead and ask her whatever you want", I said to Carolina.
"Uh… Did she ever order you to do anything indecent?"
"No, she would never do that", she said.
"I see. Then did she ever take advantage of you?"
"No, in fact, apart from some mundane things like, don't ask me about this or bring me a cup of water. She never ordered me seriously", Letty said.
"Is that so? Then, my last question. When you said that you loved your job and that you were happy to do so, you didn't lie, did you?"
"No, I get to be together with Aria all day and take care of all her needs. I couldn't ask for anything better", Letty said.
"Aww. I feel the same. You staying by my side is all I could ever ask for. Hehe, I love you so much, Letty"
"Come on, I'm right here. Stop it! I get it, I'm sorry for doubting your relationship", Carolina said.
""Hehe, we're sorry"", we both apologized.
"So moving on, let's do some experiments now"
We tried messing around with orders, and here is what we observed:
1) The latest order has the power to override any past order. Which means that if I told her to lie for the next hour, and then asked her to tell the truth, she would tell the truth.
2) The order is based on what Letty is able to interpret. Like, if I draw a magic circuit and ask her to clean it up, which is a jargon. She literally started to erase the magic circuit.
3) I can't order the impossible. Which means that I can't ask her to fly. But if she has enough SP, she could buy some gadget that does the job. Like when I asked her to destroy a metal sheet, she bought a highly acidic potion and destroyed the metal.
4) I can't order her to harm me. I asked her to slap me, but she didn't.
5) I can't ask her to feel or stop feeling emotions. Which means, when I asked her to tell me an embarrassing story without feeling ashamed, she was as red as a tomato even before starting the story. I picked up on the cue and asked her to stop. I wanna respect her privacy after all. And similarly, I can't ask her to be sad or happy when she doesn't want to. But I could ask her to fake it, then it'll depend upon her acting skills.
6) And lastly, the orders are registered when I specify so, or when the emotions behind my words are strong. Like what happened last night.
I even tried to order her to stop being a slave, but all it did was unbind her from me and didn't get rid of her slave status. So, upon her request, I accepted the role of her Mistress once again.
I need to be cautious about what I say to her when I am feeling emotionally vulnerable. That's the only way to protect Letty from any unwanted orders.
After concluding our experiments, I was reassured that it's for the best if I don't order Letty to do anything.
***
Following that, the next few days went by with us playing around in the lab or back at home. Carolina accepted that I am not using Letty for anything and that she's working as my maid and assistant on her own accord.
Oddly, little Wies has been hanging out at the lab more often. On the first day, he waited in front of the gate and tagged along with Letty with the excuse of providing help. But after that, he started to think of the lab as some hangout place.
For obvious reasons, he is restricted from touching anything inside the lab. But he still likes to hang around and read some books with Letty, so I let him be. At least this way, Letty would stop overworking herself and get some peace while he's here.
Any day now, we are expecting Sophia to join us, and our team would be all set. She had some nice ideas for marketing my products when we were at the academy. It'd be nice to see them in action.
And now for the most important update: I have boobs! Finally! The milk's effects kicked in, and the flat-chested Aria is a thing of the past. The pads are not needed anymore, my natural boobs are somewhere around the B-cup. At least now, I can hold them in my hands. I've got to treat Letty to something really nice for this.