“Wake up.”
“Yes.”
Unnaturally, I was suddenly awoken from my sleep.
Anna was standing there looking, no, glaring at me would be the more appropriate way to describe it.
“Hmph, master is too kind. If only I was given more days to train you, then I could make you into a proper lady.”
“I don’t want that though!”
Now that I’m not in that trance, I could finally refute back againts her.
I suddenly heard a sound coming from the balcony.
When I looked, there’s nothing there.
Was it just my imagination.....?
“Stand.”
Just as she told me to, I stood up from my bed.
No wait, what am I doing!?
Why am I still obeying her every word?
“As I thought, master could not erase the discipline I ingrained to your body.”
She show a playful grin.
“How.....?”
“As long as you are distracted, your body itself will still listen to what I say. Discipline is a hard thing to get rid off after all.”
“Tch.”
“A proper lady should not click her tongue.”
“I don’t want to be a proper lady though!”
Anna then lets out a sigh.
“Even though it had been a long time since I met such a blank canvas. Now, let us get you dressed up.”
I was still keeping my guards up.
“There is no need to worry, I will not do anything to you today.”
“Really?”
“Of course. A proper lady does not tell lies after all, though hiding the truth is a different thing.”
“So you are hiding something from me!”
“It is not something I need to hide. Frillia-sama is keeping an eye on me at the moment so there is not much I can do. Now enough talking, the others are awaiting you for breakfast.”
Without letting me ask further question, she started dressing me up again.
Today’s dress was quite loose compared to what I wore yesterday, it didn’t feel constricting at all and quite easy to move in.
With Anna leading the way I headed towards the dining room.
“There you are Misa.”
Frillia greeted me as I entered
“Sorry I took a while.”
“Good morning Misa!”
“Nee, good morning.”
Ru and El were already there.
Though I’m more surprised by the one sitting next to them.
“Misa, good morning~”
“Yes, good morning Cure.”
“Come come~”
Cure patted her lap and opened her arms wide.
I let out a sigh and just obediently sat on Cure’s lap.
“Good~ Also Frills, if something like yesterday happened again I might not be able to hold myself back so you better set that maid of yours straight before I destroy this whole mansion~”
“Y-Yes…..”
Apart from me, Cure, Frillia, and Anna, the others were confusedly looking at Cure when she said that.
Anna didn’t seem fazed at all from Cure’s threat as she kept her usual pose.
Cure only shrugged After looking at Anna’s reaction, or rather lack of reaction and focused on her attention on hugging me instead.
Anna then served us our food and we started eating.
Though I expected as much, Cure was being way more doting than usual.
She wouldn’t even let me eat on my own as she locked both of my hands in place by hugging them with one hand, and use her free hand to spoonfed me.
She would also poke my cheeks from time to time.
Well, I won’t complain much about it today though, it’s definitely way better than what I experienced yesterday at least.
“So where are we going today Frills~?”
“Hmmm, dunno. Do you have any suggestions?”
“Hmmm~ If it were me I would go to the forest in the east or just the knights training ground~”
“Haaahhh, why did I even think about asking a battle junkie like you. Normally I have Kanae to ask about this...... How about you Anna, do you have any reccomendation?”
“How about a picnic, master? Bring a monster repellant charm and have a picnic on the wide grassland next to town. The weather is good and there are a lot things everyone can do in the wide open area.”
“That’s.....honestly not a bad idea.”
“Then, after breakfast, I will borrow Misa-sama to help me prepare the food for the picnic. Master and everyone else can go ahead and.....”
No wait, your real intention is leaking out!
“Rejected. Seriously Anna, you’re not even trying to hide it anymore.”
“Master already knew about it after all.”
“Haaahhh, I guess it’s partially my fault for leaving the 2 of you alone despite knowing your personality, though I didn’t expect for you to be so attached.”
“Of course master. It has been a while since I saw someone with as much potential as Misa-sama, so if I can get some time alone with Misa-sama I can educate her to be a perfect proper lady, even going further than what I had imagine to be possible.”
Her words sent shivers down my spine.
I really have to keep in mind to never be with Anna alone.
“Then, as per Anna’s suggestion, let’s go on a picnic! I’ll be relying on you to prepare the picnic basket.”
“Yes, leave it to me.”
We peacefully finished lunch and then waited for Anna to finish making the foods for the picnic.
No well, that was how it was supposed to go but the moment we finished breakfast the picnic basket was already ready.
When did she make this....
“Kanae and Gai will be joining us later.”
“Hmmm~? Is it not resolved yet~? If my precious time with Misa gets taken again like the previous 2 days just because the knights are incompetent enough that they can’t handle a simple monster horde then I would really crack you know~?”
Cure.....Your voice is a bit scary at the end there.
“N-No, unless something outrageous happened, the 4 of us should be completely free for today.”
“Hmmm, Cure-sensei, is there even anything that you can’t defeat with how powerful you are?”
“Let’s see~ I know that there are some people that’re stronger than me, though for now the ones I know numbered less than 5. As for monsters, I don’t think I’ve ever met one that I had trouble with yet~”
“Alright, we can chat more on our picnic, lets go!”
Frillia cut the conversation short herself and picked up the picnic basket from Anna, before leading the way outside.
“Finally here!”
Frillia said as she stretched her body.
The place we ended up was a small hill just south of the town.
The slope was quite gentle and smooth so getting up here wasn’t hard, though we did walk a fair distance away.
Surprisingly, we didn’t encounter anything on the way.
“Misa~ Is there something on your mind~?”
“N-No, well.... I thought we would be encountering monsters on the way.”
“Hmmmm~ why indeed~?”
“Without answering my question, Cure just let out an amused giggle before taking a seat on the ground.
Frillia also looked like she knew why but she also didn’t disclose it.
While I was thinking about what they could be hiding from me, I could see smoke rising in the far distance.
When I pointed it out, another thing came to view.
Even from afar, it’s huge body can still clearly be seen.
“A dragon.....?”
Yeah, 10 solid chapters of abuse is leaving a really unpleasant taste. Let's see...
- Aunt: abusive, stole inheritance, kicked them out on to the streets
- opening day: SC kidnapped and mildly assaulted the MC, forced him to pretend to be a girl who knows how long, forced him into the SC without consent, fraudulently altered his paperwork because apparently it's cheap and easy to screw with someone's legal identity... so abuse from beginning to end
- trip to the mansion for "dress up": yet more coercion, the start of a grooming pattern, yet more attempts to have the MC sold to slavery, purchasing contact info for a minor, forcibly outing his situation to El, trying to manipulate a minor into slavery, and some last minute sexual harassment and blackmail at the end
- El: even though she supposedly loves the MC, she's lying about and concealing her interactions (staying at friends? what friends, she's the only child there her age)... she didn't hesitate to jump on the bandwagon of dress up doll abuse even though she should be clear he's suffering. Oh, and seems to be happy to ditch Misa whenever she sees something else to do
- Ru: was being a friend for all of a day before she rolled over for Cure and now seems to exist to eat Misa's food, join the dress up abuse, and rub Misa's face in how literally every named character other than Misa seems to be OP from the start or immediately given special power ups.
- Anna: suuure, leave the abused MC in the care of a total psychopath TWICE, knowing she's a torture addict... reprimand her? She's threatening Misa with even more abuse if she tries to speak out. Even the "apology" Misa got stinks of being manipulative.
So yeah, you have this single might-be-trans-but-actually-abusively-forced character, who comes off as something of an insult to real transfolk, being abused, manipulated, groomed and brainwashed by almost every other character, while going out of your way to make Misa the only weak and helpless character. Every last one of them treats Misa as a toy they can mess around with and break.
You could maybe try to excuse it a tiny bit if not for all the author comments implying this is exactly the intent and how you planned to continue writing. Can you see why it's hard not to detest the characters? Misa should find a room to barricade in and tell the lot of them to f*ck off. At least that way any that can be bothered about how Misa's internal dialogue has been nothing but misery and pain might, just might, notice how screwed up this is.
That's just plain Brainwashing, slavery, hurting and so on. WHY THEY DO NOT CARE?? SHE DIDN'T EVEN BASICALLY TALK IN THE HALF OF THE CHAPTER?? WTF IS GOING ON? IS THIS ANOTHER WORLD ISEKAI STORY OR SOME KIDNAPPING AND BRAINWASHING SHIT?
Anna's still scary! But this chapter is progressing nicely for several characters as well as opening up a few little mysteries :3
To all the comments that is criticizing the abuse:
As they say, the abused often doesn’t know they are abused. You have Misa’s narration to go on to determine that she is abused, but I have to remind you that we lack adequate information to determine such thing. Firstly, we lack their view on what they are doing. Frillia (or was it Cure) mentioned that he didn’t even resist beyond complaining. They chalked it up to Misa pretending to be strong, but I have a different view, which is that Misa just don’t mind too much with it.
Freedom is important. If they leave Misa alone, she might get peaceful days, and it is impossible to say for certain that being dragged around by Cure and others may be good. For all I know, she may get everything even without being involved with them. This is looking for justification by utility however, so it is a non-argument in the first place. Just putting it out there just in case.
A freedom to choose is important if you want to know what you are thinking. Misa has been dragged here and there, and I don’t know what she really have in her mind, but we have only seen complaints, no “I hate this”. I can simply chalked this up to fawning however.
So, after writing this much, this message that is supposed to counter the critics ended up reaffirming them. At the end of the day, I end up improving your arguments, and I’m fine with that. I do want to counter the conclusion you derived from your conclusion, however.
Just because she has been abused, and being abused generally end up in broken heart and lose of one’s time to learn to move in accordance to one’s heart independently (I suppose this also applies to a kid whose path in life have been laid down by their parents, and they are walking down it obediently. Now that’s what I call neglecting to teach a kid to know what they feel. Whether I count this as abuse or not, is beyond this message’s scope), doesn’t mean that you should detest everyone. I would call them insensitive, but definitely not uncaring and unconcerned, nor do I call them deliberate and done with intent. People seem to think that they are deliberately failing to give him time and space for him to dawdle around and pass his time peacefully, but there will be experience and memories to be gained.
The sore spot that most trans have, which is all the emotion abuse that they received? I’m not opening that can of worms at this point of time, sorry. However, please don’t gang up and start criticizing and downvoting works left and right. Let people have their fun, and let people discover as free as they can.
As a last note, I agree that he is being abused, but I believe that he is being nurtured too. I suppose this is what make some people don’t mind abuse, especially when they come in a package, like in Misa’s case. I believe that he will find his passion, sure, but should we really stop an abuse in a way that make the abused one lose out? Don’t be close-minded ever. It will be an experience everyone in the story will learn from, whether it end good or bad. An experience that everyone will learn from.
I agree with kaithar the Mc isnt even the same person he started as because of all the conditioning he's gone through
Sorry dropped, thanks for the novel....