“No… I don’t want this! It’s so strange!”
Inside the luxurious dressing room, the tearful protest of a little girl echoed, her soft, sweet voice filled with terror toward what was to come. However, the weak resistance was useless in the face of absolute authority.
“That simply won’t do, Merlinlia.”
Ophelia was wearing a deep purple velvet gown, her gaze carrying a formidable sternness. “Even as a stepdaughter, how can you run around with bare legs? It is completely improper.”
At this moment, little Merlin was being held down on a couch so soft that one would sink right into it by two maids. In front of her lay a set of little clothes that made one’s heart race.
“No, no, no! I already said little Merlin’s legs are fragile! You always force little Merlin to wear pantyhose; it was already so uncomfortable when I wore the maid outfit yesterday, wuuuu!”
It was a cute, black, short dress with layered lace ruffles; the hem was fluffy but only long enough to cover the base of her thighs. Beside it sat a pair of extremely thin, translucent black pantyhose, and a pair of shiny patent leather Mary Jane shoes with delicate buckles and stiletto heels.
“Stretch out… your legs. As a lady, wearing beautiful stockings is the first step.” Ophelia’s tone was severe.
Little Merlin had teary eyes, but her body uncontrollably obeyed the rules of the dungeon. “Wuuuu… Mommy is a bully…”
That pair of small feet, which had originally been free to run wild in the wilderness, could now only helplessly stretch out toward the bundle of black, smooth pantyhose that emitted a mysterious glow under the sunlight. The maids skillfully rolled up the thin, mist-like black pantyhose and first slid them onto Merlin’s round, cute toes.
“!” The sensation was so strange, gu wuuuuuuuuu.
The touch of the pantyhose against her legs made Merlin’s body shudder. It would have been better not to wear them, but this layer of black silkiness felt like a second skin, clinging tightly to her. It sucked onto her soles and ankles with no room for error, just like the skin being stuck to by a slime in the countryside; as Merlin moved, the fabric continuously wriggled.
As the maid’s hands pulled upward bit by bit, the thin-as-cicada-wings silk climbed from her slender ankles and sensitive calves all the way up.
Zzzzt—
It felt as if a weak electric current burst across her skin as the stockings covered it. Every inch of skin wrapped in black silk keenly felt the silky, tight pressure of the fabric. When the stockings passed her knees, squeezed her inner thighs tight, and finally cinched at her waist, little Merlin couldn’t help but tremble.
“So… so weird… my legs… have electricity… Mommy!”
She looked down to see her originally fair legs covered in a layer of translucent black shadow. The ultra-thin silk shimmered with a delicate, tempting luster under the light, revealing the fair skin beneath and outlining the curves of Merlin’s legs perfectly. Her smooth, tender skin was pressed down under the taut pantyhose; the all-encompassing, no-dead-angle feeling made Merlin feel as though she were bound, destined only to be a lady.
She subconsciously wanted to press her legs together and rub them to relieve the strange sensation, but Ophelia lightly tapped her knees with a riding crop.
“Keep them together. From now on, put on the dress and practice a lady’s gait.”
After putting on the cute short dress, the fluffy skirt bloomed like a flower, but because it was so short, the long legs encased in black silk were exposed even more thoroughly. Finally, Ophelia personally grabbed the little foot wrapped in black silk and forced it into the black Mary Jane high heels.
“Wuu…”
The shoes were beautiful; the patent leather reflected light under the lamps, but to little Merlin, they felt like torture devices. The heels were so high… As the silky little foot slid into the narrow shoe cavity, because the surface of the pantyhose was too smooth, her sole couldn’t hold onto the insole at all and “slipped” right to the very front.
“It’s so tight…” To accommodate the heels, Merlin’s arches were forced to straighten. Her round, cute toes were forced to curl tightly together inside the pointed toe box, squeezing against each other through the slippery fabric.
Ophelia looked at her daughter’s pitiful appearance and commanded coldly, “Stand up and walk a few steps. Remember, a lady walks with her back straight, knees together, and steps steady.”
Merlin grabbed the armrest of the sofa and stood up shakily. The moment she stood straight, she almost fell. To avoid falling, she had to obediently press her legs together tightly, trying to find a balance point. But this effort didn’t bring much sense of security.
Swish—
A subtle sound of fabric rubbing echoed. Because the material of the stockings was too smooth, her pressed-together legs were actually harder to keep steady due to a lack of friction. The slippery sensation meant Merlin’s legs had no leverage; with the slightest effort, it felt like they were going to slide apart, and a panic of losing control welled up in her heart.
“Eek!” Merlin gasped, her ankle twisted, and she almost fell to her knees. The panic of losing her center of gravity left her mind blank.
“You are not allowed to fall!” Ophelia’s stern voice rang out. “Keep walking, walk with a girl’s elegance, Merlinlia! You are a princess; don’t act like a kitten that just learned to walk!”
Merlin bit her lip, the corners of her eyes turning red. Enduring the soreness radiating from her ankles and leg muscles, she took her first step.
Click, click, click.
The black high heels clicked against the floor, making a crisp, irregular sound. Her feet couldn’t hold their grip inside the shoes at all. Every time she lifted a foot, the heel would slide inside this ill-fitting torture device due to a lack of friction and nearly slip off; every time she landed, her toes would forcefully jam into the hard, narrow toe box due to inertia, forced to squash together into a lump.
“Wuuuu, Mommy is bullying me, I hate it, I hate it.” Merlin muttered to herself as she walked. The continuous squeezing sensation under her feet made her toes instinctively want to dig into the sole, curling up like a startled kitten, but they could only struggle against the slippery leather insole.
“Come, learn from me.” Ophelia demonstrated in front of her.
Merlin tried her best to imitate her mother, propping up her trembling knees as she took alternating steps. With every step, the skirt of her dress swung, and her tightly pressed legs made a faint swishing sound because of how incredibly uncoordinated they were. To Merlin’s ears, the sound was practically a countdown to a public execution.
The sensation of being tightly bound by the stockings became more and more pronounced as she moved, making Merlin feel as if her legs no longer belonged to her.
“So uncomfortable… the road is so hard to walk… Mommy, I don’t want to walk anymore… it hurts…” Merlin said with a sobbing voice, her legs weak and wobbly from maintaining the pigeon-toed stance for so long.
“Endurance is also a required course for a lady.” Ophelia remained unmoved and even punished Merlin slightly. “Failure!”
“Awoo!”