Regaining consciousness, Yuris found herself tightly bound to a chair, her arms and legs shackled.
"I'm tied up…?"
The armor she had been wearing was gone, leaving her in the silk underwear she wore beneath, clearly of high quality.
"Me, in this state…"
It was humiliating.
Not only captured by the enemy but bound in her underwear, exposed.
It made her feel even more disgraced.
It was surprising that even her underwear was recreated, but remembering that illusions draw from her memories, she steeled herself.
"Calm down. There's got to be a way to escape."
She'd panicked momentarily when her strength failed her, but if she regained her composure and fought, she believed she could win.
She twisted her body to free her bound hands and legs, but her body wouldn't budge.
"This can't be…"
If her memory was correct, she was standing on her own two feet before the illusion magic took hold.
Generally, illusion magic adapts to the subject's real-world state.
If her limbs were free, her body in the illusion should be free too.
Illusions follow reality's rules.
That's why illusion magic is considered nearly useless in combat.
No matter how much it deceives the subject, it's bound by reality.
Not only was it shocking that she couldn't use her strength, but it was astonishing that her supposedly free body was bound.
"Just how skilled is that illusion wizard?"
Yuris thought of Max, the shop owner and illusion wizard who cast this spell on her.
She'd underestimated him at first due to his dazed expression and the odd smell, but he was clearly no amateur.
"Good. If I'm to experience defeat, it should be this thorough."
It was better this way.
She knew better than anyone what happened to captives in war.
Especially high-ranking knights like her would face even worse fates.
Inflicting horrific pain to extract secrets was commonplace, wasn't it?
Plus.
"I know well what happens to women."
Enemies rarely treated interrogated prisoners kindly.
She steeled her resolve.
She was already prepared.
Reorganizing her thoughts, she looked around.
It looked like an underground dungeon.
Moldy walls and a dripping cEileeng soaked with moisture.
Shackles, chains, and various torture devices filled the room, and Yuris was tied to a rickety wooden chair.
"Hng! Hmph!"
No matter how much strength she used, the shackles wouldn't budge.
No strength came to her.
It was humiliating for a knight commander, a swordmaster no less, to be unable to escape a flimsy wooden chair.
"Being weak is tough to endure."
Just being bound made her feel awful.
Losing her bodily freedom was deeply distressing.
That's when it happened.
"You awake?"
The door creaked open, and the bandit who captured her entered.
His lackeys from earlier were nowhere to be seen.
"You claimed to be Yuris, swinging your sword like you're someone important. Thought you were a big deal, but flailing in a deer trap? That was quite a show."
He cackled as he approached her.
"Your clothes are fancy, and your body's fine. Seems like some rich kid imitating Yuris. Too bad you ran into me. I'm not some nobody."
The stench of a long-unwashed bandit wafted over.
"Release me now. If you don't, I'll break free and cut your head off."
"Heh, still talking like that? Still think you're the undefeated knight commander?"
Yuris couldn't say anything to the bandit's blatant mockery.
She couldn't even handle the single bandit in front of her.
Plus, she was in a humiliating state, wearing only her underwear.
Just thinking about it made her rage boil.
Caught by a guy like this?
The sense of defeat stabbed her heart far deeper than she'd imagined.
The helplessness of being unable to do anything felt like a hand squeezing her heart.
"The great Lady Yuris, caught by a mere bandit and stripped to her underwear. That wouldn't happen unless you wanted it, right?"
The bandit mocked her further.
"Whatever. Whether you're the real Yuris or not, I don't care."
"What?"
"Why do you think I kept you alive?"
The bandit walked toward a table filled with torture tools.
She was ready for any torture.
How many wounds had she endured on the battlefield?
Knight Yuris had fought through battles despite flesh-tearing pain.
She could endure the pain of torture.
And.
"It's just an illusion."
No matter how painful the torture, an illusion wouldn't fully convey the shock.
That's why she wanted to experience defeat through an illusion.
"If you're trying to extract information through torture, you'd better give up. No matter what you do, I can endure…"
"What's that? Why do you think I'd cause you pain?"
"…What?"
"You really didn't know why I kept you alive?"
The bandit, holding a dagger, approached her step by step.
"Since you're pretty, I kept you alive to have some fun, don't you think?"
The helplessness of being unable to do anything against an approaching enemy was overwhelming.
Yuris bit her lower lip, chewing on the feeling of defeat.
She looked up at him, convinced this process would make her stronger.
"I just have to endure."
That's when it happened.
Slash.
"Ugh!"
The dagger sliced through the bra covering her breasts, exposing them to the world.
"You, what are you doing!"
"What am I doing? In a grim bandit camp full of men, there's only one thing to do with a captured woman, right?"
The bandit cackled.
The closer he got, the stronger the stench.
Sweat.
And an unidentifiable musky smell.
It was the distinct scent of men after training, familiar from her male knights.
"You dare! Do you know whose body you're touching…"
The bandit grabbed her resisting cheek with his right hand.
"Mmph!"
"God, you talk too much. Didn't you already think this far? A weakling like you coming to a bandit-filled camp, didn't you know you'd get taken like this?"
His rough, dirty left hand grabbed her pristine breast.
"Hng!"
The bandit's grip on her breast felt all too real.
This couldn't be an illusion.
It was supposed to be an illusion, so why did it feel so real?
I won't lose.
I'll endure.
I'm not someone who'd break from having my breast grabbed.
It was humiliating, but she could endure.
"Heh, so soft. Really beautiful breasts."
The bandit laughed, fondling her breast, violating her body.
Her breasts, never touched by a man, were distorted messily under his grip.
Her breast spilled between his fingers.
Red marks remained from how hard he squeezed.
And then.
"Ugh!"
The moment the bandit bit the tip of her nipple with his teeth.
Yuris's body trembled involuntarily.
"Oh? Looks like our knight's weak spot is here?"
"W-What nonsense…"
"It's fine. I'll develop it slowly."
The bandit began relentlessly targeting her nipple.
Licking with his tongue, sucking with his lips, and occasionally biting with his teeth, her body twisted with each action.
She struggled to escape, but with her limbs bound, evading his touch was impossible.
If just one arm was free.
Then she wouldn't have to endure this humiliation.
It was shameful.
The deep sense of defeat tormented her relentlessly.
She felt awful.
Her heart pounded fiercely, and it felt like someone was squeezing it tightly.
Even knowing it was an illusion, the sensation blurred the line between reality and fantasy.
I want to escape.
I want to end this humiliating situation now.
The unfamiliar sense of defeat tormented her far more persistently than she'd expected.
She regretted it.
Regretted her reckless choice to experience defeat.
This wasn't what she wanted.
She knew captives faced such humiliations, but the undefeated Knight Commander Yuris wouldn't be treated like this.
As a commander, even if defeated, she'd be treated with some respect as a prisoner and released civilly.
But this was different.
The bandit in front of her didn't believe she was Yuris.
After all, the real Yuris would never lose to such an opponent.
Wait, why am I enduring this?
The wizard clearly said.
"We'll project your desires. We'll show you exactly the desires you want, Commander."
I wanted this?
No.
I didn't want this.
Just the feeling of defeat from being captured.
To build immunity to it…
She instinctively felt it.
Dangerous.
This was really dangerous.
"W-Wizard! Cancel! Cancel it! Stop the illusion now…"
Slap!
"Ugh!"
With a burning pain, her vision flashed, and her head snapped to the side.
She belatedly realized the bandit had slapped her.
A metallic taste of blood filled her mouth.
"Goddamn, this bitch keeps yapping. What? Wizard? Illusion? Bullshit. This is reality. You challenging bandits, getting caught by me, and ending up like this—it's all real."
"N-No, that can't be…"
The wizard said it was an illusion.
An illusion, but…?
This is reality?
"No. You're not real…"
"Oh? I've been too nice, haven't I? Time to show our little lady a harsher taste."
The bandit grinned wickedly.
Seeing that smile, Yuris felt fear for the first time.
***
"Hmm, is this okay?"
I couldn't resist and lightly slapped her cheek, but it seemed to shock her more than expected.
Well, she'd never been hit in the face by an opponent before.
Playing the bandit across from Yuris, I looked down at her dazed expression and thought.
"Should I stop it here?"
But Yuris was the invincible Iron-Blooded Knight.
She wasn't so weak-willed as to tremble from a mere bandit's slap.
In the illusion, she was stripped to her underwear and bound, but in reality, it was different.
In reality, Yuris was sitting on a cushy sofa with fist-sized stones placed on each wrist and ankle.
Stones I placed to make her feel the sensation of being bound more realistically.
Not actually tied, but the weight of the stones made her feel truly restrained in the illusion.
That's how illusion magic works.
The illusion changes based on the real-world state.
I considered tying her with ropes for the shackle scene, but that could cause misunderstandings when she woke, so I settled for stones.
That's the trick of an experienced wizard.
During the process of her encountering and being captured by the bandit, I lifted her and sat her on the chair.
Maybe that's why, in the illusion, Yuris was dangling in the air, caught by a deer-hunting rope.
"Her reaction's better than expected."
Maybe because of her strong magic power, she was highly influenced by external conditions.
But I couldn't leave the entire video to the magic circle.
Didn't I learn from the test?
Leaving it fully autonomous caused an error in under twenty minutes.
Plus, it was using my precious mana, so I couldn't let it run fully on its own.
So, when the bandit reappeared before her, I removed the lackeys and only let the bandit leader, whom I could control directly, appear.
And I put my consciousness into the illusion magic to play the bandit.
The magic circle, having calculated what she wanted, kept showing me the results, and I acted them out in front of her.
Yeah, that's right.
Stripping her to her underwear.
Cutting her bra with a dagger.
Even touching and sucking her breasts.
It was all what Yuris's inner desires wanted.
Of course, slapping her cheek wasn't part of her desires.
I did it to stop her from breaking out of the illusion magic.
"Sorry for hitting you."
I'll apologize when we're done.
[Yuris's Desire: She wants the bandit to ravage her completely.]
That was the magic circle's analysis of her desire.
"Is this really okay?"