Phyllis had insomnia!
“I can’t sleep!”
Phyllis rubbed the space between her eyebrows, feeling a bit frustrated.
She lay with her eyes open in the dim room, staring at the patterns on the ceiling while her tail swept back and forth across the sheets.
She had walked such a long way last night and hadn’t rested much during the day yesterday.
Logically, she should have passed out the moment she hit the bed.
“So why couldn’t she sleep now?”
Her current situation was that her body was exhausted, but her mind was abnormally sharp, as if suspended in mid-air by an extremely fine silk thread.
‘What exactly is wrong with me?’
Phyllis asked herself, patting her cheeks.
In truth, she knew the real reason.
The words Carola had spoken kept echoing in her mind.
“Become strong. Strong enough to protect yourself, strong enough that I — have to let you go.”
Phyllis buried her head in her pillow.
As she tossed and turned repeatedly, certain images surfaced uncontrollably.
It was no longer a tug-of-war of imprisonment and escape, but a vision of a day where she truly possessed enough power to stand beside or even surpass Carola.
At that time, what expression would Carola have?
“Surprise? Relief?”
“Or…”
“Would she let go and watch her walk toward a wider world?”
In her fantasy, Carola stood with her back to her, white hair fluttering lightly in the wind, her voice distant and calm: “You are free, Phyllis.”
“Heh… hehe…”
Phyllis couldn’t help but giggle.
However, as she laughed, she grew frustrated again.
She still couldn’t sleep!
Moreover, Phyllis realized something else.
Something was missing from the room.
She belatedly realized that the two Little Bats responsible for monitoring her were gone.
‘Maybe Carola took them back while we were walking last night?’
Perhaps she thought they were useless?
Or maybe, after seeing her daily cycle of eating, sleeping, and dazing off, she realized there was really nothing worth monitoring?
In any case, those two pairs of little red dots that always blinked in the shadows had vanished.
Now, only the sound of her own breathing remained in the room.
“Should I… try the Airplane Sleep Method?”
Phyllis suddenly thought of the method she used to use during bouts of insomnia in her past life.
While the method was effective, for her current self…
As a certain thought occurred to her, Phyllis’s hand, which had been reaching deep under the covers, suddenly stopped.
Who knew if Carola had other ways to monitor her besides those Little Bats!
Better not.
However, after Phyllis tried hypnotic methods like counting sheep, she still remained wide awake.
‘It can’t be helped!’
Phyllis tried to convince herself.
Then, her hand slid deep under the covers.
***
After a bit of tossing and turning, Phyllis finally drifted off into dreamland.
***
By the time Phyllis woke up again, it was already afternoon.
She rolled over dizzily and accidentally pinned her tail, which felt a bit uncomfortable.
After rolling over, her brain gradually began to clear.
The memories of this morning came rushing back like a tide.
The sunrise, the morning light, the silver patterns, and those words…
‘Strong enough that I have to let you go.’
Phyllis sat up abruptly.
‘Calm down, calm down! Don’t let one ambiguous sentence from Carola mess with your head, Phyllis!’
Phyllis slapped her cheeks, attempting to dispel the cluttered thoughts.
“Yawn—”
Phyllis took out her mirror and opened it to check her current state.
She froze at her reflection.
Her black hair was a messy nest, faint dark circles hung under her blue eyes, and her entire face was practically screaming that she had “a lot on her mind.”
‘This look is almost like…’
Like a young girl whose heart had been stirred by a lover.
Phyllis shook her head violently, throwing the thought out of her mind.
“Ah… I’ll sleep a little longer…”
Phyllis closed the mirror and lay back down, wrapping herself in the duvet until she was an airtight cat roll.
*Gurgle… gurgle…*
As she lay there thinking, she realized she was hungry.
“Time to eat!”
Phyllis rang the bell by the bed, then got dressed and headed to the Dining Room.
“Ugh, so full!”
After a focused, single-minded feast of fish, Phyllis sprawled out contentedly in her chair, her small hand patting her slightly protruding belly.
The texture… seemed a bit softer than before?
Phyllis stiffened and looked down to inspect herself.
Over the past few days, aside from being forced to undergo Blood Sucking, her life had consisted of almost nothing but eating and sleeping.
Carola didn’t mistreat her in terms of food.
On the contrary, the Puppet Servant always managed to make various dishes that suited her palate, especially fish.
The result was that she seemed to have… gained weight?
A sense of crisis suddenly descended!
She was a Cat Girl!
Lightness and agility were her advantages! If she really ate her way into becoming a round cat ball…
“No way!”
Phyllis clenched her small fists, a fighting spirit igniting in her blue eyes.
“I have to work harder during tonight’s training! I need to burn off all this extra… uh, energy!”
Perhaps because blood was rushing to her stomach after the meal, or perhaps because the debt from last night’s insomnia finally had to be paid, a heavy wave of sleepiness crashed down on her like a mountain.
“Yawn—”
Phyllis gave a massive yawn, a few tears pricking the corners of her eyes.
“Anyway… there’s still some time before training tonight…” Phyllis mumbled, wobbling back toward her bedroom.
“I’ll just take a quick nap… to recharge… for training tonight…”
***
“Close your eyes and relax.”
Carola’s voice was deeper than usual, possibly because they were in the training room.
Of course, it could also just be Phyllis’s perception.
Phyllis kept her eyes closed, but she couldn’t relax at all.
Her nap had been very comfortable, but the result was that she woke up to find Carola, dressed in a black Training Uniform, standing right by her bed.
“Master? Did you get up that early?” Phyllis had asked, hiding under the duvet with a weak tone.
“Let’s go. We’re going to the Training Ground.”
Carola had sat on a chair in the room, crossing her legs and fixing her gaze on Phyllis.
“Oh, okay!” Phyllis had scrambled out of bed, the duvet sliding off her body.
She felt Carola’s gaze as if it were a physical weight, slowly sliding across her neck, her collarbone, and then further down.
*Gulp.*
Phyllis couldn’t help but swallow hard.
‘She didn’t see what I did this morning, did she?’
Phyllis had turned her back awkwardly, reaching for the set of training clothes that had been placed on the bench at the foot of the bed in advance.
It was a set of deep gray, sharply tailored training clothes.
The top was a form-fitting, mock-neck short waist-shirter made from a blend of resilient linen and fine cotton, with soft leather reinforcements embedded at the shoulders and elbows.
There were adjustable ties at the sides of the waist, which could cinch the waistline perfectly without hindering breathing or twisting.
The pants were cropped, tapered trousers made of the same material, tightening at the mid-calf to reveal slender ankles wrapped in black stockings.
The most unique part was the back.
The back of the top featured a crisscross lace-up design, leaving an opening for her tail to move freely.
Phyllis carefully threaded her furry black tail through the opening.
The laces were tightened and secured just above the base of her tail, ensuring they wouldn’t press against her while guaranteeing the clothing wouldn’t shift during movement.
She tied the last knot at her waist and turned around.
Lately, under Carola’s pressure, she had lost all sense of shame about changing clothes in front of her.
Sometimes, even Phyllis marveled at how quickly she had changed!
“It suits you.”
Carola spoke, her voice devoid of emotion.
Phyllis looked down at the Training Uniform.
It was capable and light, with every detail designed for combat. It did indeed suit her.
“Let’s go,” Carola said, standing up.
The black Training Uniform traced tall, powerful lines across her body.
Carola walked toward the door but paused, turning her face slightly to look at Phyllis.
“As a lover, sometimes don’t do it alone…”
“!!!”
Phyllis’s face turned completely red.
‘How the hell did you see that?!’