“What were you… doing tonight…?”

Eileen’s sudden question caught me off guard. Her bright crimson eyes seemed to see right through my panic.

【Oh, you’re done for. She saw you going to the Red Court.】

No way….

She got the wrong idea!

No, wait—calm down first! Maybe she just noticed I’d disappeared in the middle of the night and was asking casually!

“Eileen, why are you still awake so late…? You have to get up early tomorrow.”

My excuse was painfully obvious. I even rubbed my head without thinking, a nervous habit. Eileen saw right through me. Sitting upright on the bed with her doll in her arms, she hid behind it, leaving only her misty eyes visible as she stared straight at me. She looked adorable, and yet it broke my heart.

I knew she’d seen through my lame excuse. I scratched at my faceplate.

“…Eileen, you saw me, huh.”

“Mm. I saw you….”

“You haven’t been asleep this whole time?”

“I haven’t slept. Not at all.”

She lifted her head and stared at me without blinking. Even in the dim moonlight, her ruby-red eyes glittered with a brilliance that could take your breath away.

They were mesmerizing.

“I was waiting for you to come back.”

“…I see.”

After that brief exchange, silence settled over the room.

The cool moonlight streamed through the window and fell across the faint tears at the corner of the girl’s eyes, making them glimmer like crystal.

Suddenly, the girl bounded over to me and began angrily pounding on my breastplate.

“You’re a skeleton! You’re a skeleton!! Why would you go to a place like that?! Are other women really that pretty?!”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa! I didn’t! I just went—hey, don’t hit me!”

“Don’t give me that! I saw you! You came out of there!”

“Just listen to me! Ah, don’t throw the pillow!”

“I don’t care, I don’t care, I don’t care, I don’t care!!”

She shouted as if she’d given up, pounding away at me as she pleased.

But before long, she grew tired of hitting me and collapsed against my chest

and started to cry.

“Don’t… don’t leave me…” she said in a trembling voice, clutching the doll in her arms.

“Eileen?”

I was taken aback.

“I… I’ve been so scared these past few nights… I’m afraid I’ll open my eyes and you’ll be gone. I’m afraid I’ll wake up somewhere I’ve never seen before.”

“But… but during the day, I’m so happy… I get enough to eat, no one hits me… and my Master stays with me and even buys me clothes…”

“I’ve been so happy these past few days… I’ve never known what this feels like… After my mother died, no one ever treated me this kindly again…”

“Eileen…”

I opened my jaw, but I didn’t know what to say. In the end, I could only look away.

But Eileen’s voice suddenly turned urgent. She clutched her chest tightly, as if all her feelings were building up inside her.

“But! But you leave here every night! You go off and do things behind my back!!”

“I’m so scared… I’m afraid that all these happy days have just been a dream, and when I wake up, I’ll find that I’ve been… been sold off to someone else…”

“No…! I don’t want to live a lie ever again! I don’t want this kind of fake kindness!”

She shook her head hard, her body trembling as she started to take off the nightclothes wrapped around her.

"If... if you have that kind of need, I... even though my body is so underdeveloped, but... but..."

Before she could finish, I wrapped her in the blanket, covering her body that was about to be exposed to the moonlight, and reached out to pull the slightly trembling Eileen into my arms.

“Ugh… Waaaah…”

When her emotions reached a boiling point, someone finally comforted her. Eileen couldn’t hold back any longer. Gripping my breastplate, she burst into tears.

“I don’t want to! I don’t want to be sold again! I don’t want to spend my days and nights running away anymore!”

“I’ll do anything you want!! Please, don’t lie to me! I don’t want this dream to be torn apart too!”

“No… Ugh… sob…”

Her voice grew quieter and quieter, until all that remained was her hitching sobs.

All I felt was pity and a heartache I couldn’t put into words.

I’d been so busy with my own affairs these past few days that I’d ignored how she felt.

I didn’t know what Eileen had been through, but I knew it couldn’t have been anything good. It had left an indelible mark on her young heart.

Then, one day, someone started treating her kindly without asking for anything in return—but didn’t give her the care and company she needed.

The despair she’d felt during the days I was gone had returned to her heart.

And so, she was afraid.

“I’m not going anywhere, Eileen. I’m right here.”

“R-really?”

The girl raised her tear-reddened eyes and sniffled as she looked up at me. A trace of unease still lingered in those captivating eyes.

I gently stroked her hair and spoke softly.

“Go to sleep without worrying. Nothing’s going to happen. You won’t be sold, and I won’t leave you behind. No one here will hurt you. When you wake up, there’ll be a hot breakfast waiting, and if you want, I can read you a bedtime story.”

“I’m not a little kid anymore…”

She pouted and answered sulkily. Her puffed-up cheeks were ridiculously cute.

I wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes and gently rested her little head against my breastplate.

Beneath the cool crescent moon, two figures—one large and one small—leaned against each other. One found warmth in the cold and soothed a heart covered in scars; the other felt, through a cold body, a warmth it could never have again.

“Th-Then, you went to that shop just now... I could have done it too...”

She looked at me with some fear, then glanced down at her own body.

“...Could it be that you prefer big ones?”

“No, I like loli!”

Without a second thought, I blurted it out with righteous conviction.

Paper-chan: 【……】

【This system wanted to switch hosts... but I didn't expect you to be a skeleton with no balls or dick, and yet still a lolicon.】

【This system senses danger.】

[Shut up, you artificial idiot…]

It's not like she's a loli, so what's she whining about...

However, Eileen paused for half a second, glanced at her own frail body again, and as if feeling that she indeed fit the word “loli,” an expression of dissatisfaction actually appeared on her face.

“Then you! You still go out, to... to do that kind of thing—I could do it too...”

What was this little girl even saying…?

I covered my head and took a moment to process it.

“Uh, wait a second, Eileen. I’m a little confused. You saw me come out of that place and thought I’d gone there for fun, right?”

“Wasn’t that what you were doing…?”

“No! You little pervert!”

I gave her little head a quick flick with my finger!

“Eek!”

She covered the spot where her cowlick had been flattened and blinked at me, looking completely confused.

“I only went there to do business with the owner. We’re new here and don’t know anyone, so we need a few business partners we can rely on. He’s one of the people I picked. I wasn’t there to do anything weird.”

Eileen lowered her head and thought it over, then looked at me suspiciously for a while.

“Really?”

“Really.”

“You didn’t go looking for other girls?”

“No.”

“Who’s cuter, the other girls or me?”

“Of course you are. Though, why does this conversation sound so weird…?”

It sounded like a wife asking her husband if he was having an affair.

“With such a cute girl at home, how could I possibly be interested in anyone else?”

I gently pinched the tip of her nose and smiled.

“Mmm…”

“By the way, Eileen, how did you know that place was the sort of establishment where people go for that kind of thing?”

She raised her little head as if remembering painful memories. Her expression grew a little sad.

“I know the looks on the men who came out of there all too well…”

“Huh?”

Wait, that was a brothel. How would Eileen know…?

What those men…

?!

I struggled to contain the sudden panic surging in my chest, then grabbed her delicate shoulders. She jumped in fright.

“Ah! That hurts! Master, what’s wrong?!”

“Eileen! How do you know about that? Have you seen it happen a lot?!”

No, wait… she…

What had she been through?!“

Hadn’t she said she was still pure?!“

“No, I haven’t. I’m still a good girl.”

She looked at me fearfully and answered in a quiet voice.

The weight on my heart suddenly lifted.

“That’s a relief… But how do you know about that kind of thing?”

“For a while, I used to live in a Red Court…”

For the first time, Eileen told me about her past.

“I was curled up on the side of the street. I hadn’t eaten for two days when a woman took me in…”

“She was the owner of a Red Court. She said she’d turn me into the most beautiful commodity, and gave me food and clothes.”

“At first, I thought she’d come to save me. I was so happy. I learned all kinds of manners from her, and she even taught me to read and write. Honestly, I was over the moon back then.”

“I was twelve that year… Before then, I’d always lived in a single room. I didn’t know what that building was for…”

Twelve… So, two years ago…

I worked it out in my head.

“But then one day, she said she was going to teach me the real skills and took me into a room.”

The girl spoke softly, and her body began to tremble.

"There, I saw..."

"The succubus sister who's always taken care of me, in bed..."

I was shocked. What had that perverted old woman shown Eileen?!

Damn it. I hoped she wouldn’t fall into my hands. If she did, I’d make her regret it for the rest of her life!

However, before I could finish my thoughts, Eileen raised her eyes to look at me. A faint shimmer seemed to dance within them, carrying an unexpected hint of allure.

“Hey, Master, do you want that kind of pleasure too?”

“Huh? I think I’ll pass—”

I refused without thinking.

But it was too late. Eileen slowly pulled the blanket off herself, a bewitching smile on her face that could drive anyone to madness.

Then, she pushed me down onto the bed with force.

“Eileen…?”

I couldn’t make sense of what was happening. My mind was a mess, and I couldn’t get the words out. I could only stare at her in a daze.

Then Eileen climbed onto me, leaned her head close to my ear, and whispered softly in a gentle, tender voice.

"If it's you, I'd be happy to."

"Master."