Well, I'll be damned. We do have one

"I didn't think we had a basement."

James said, following the lead of Asuna.

Rem tilted her head in confusion as well.

"I mean...there is a staircase heading down from the front hall, but there weren't anything noticable when I checked it out."

James rubbed his chin.

On one hand, it seemed unlikely that Asuna would every lie about anything, much less about something trivial as this.

On the other hand, it also felt unlikely that a pro-maid such as Rem would make a mistake while inspecting the mansion.

'Maybe Asuna mistook some supplies lying around as messuring tools...?'

It was a long shot, but that was the best guess James could think of.

"This way!"

Asuna skipped down the small staircase down to the lower floor.

The bottom of the staircase was indeed a blank room with nothing there.

There weren't even a light source present, so the room was dark...and frankily, slightly creepy.

"Asuna...I don't think there is anything here."

James said between small coughs. The air was filled with dust, making it uncomfortable to talk or breathe.

'Why on earth would there be a place like this in my grandfather's mansion?'

"Hold on a moment, master~. If I just press somewhere around here..."

Asuna rubbed her upper body across the gringy wall of the basement. Her white shirt quickly turned grey with dirt and dust, which made Rem wince from discomfort.

"Asuna, you are going to ruin that shirt! Stop that right now and—"

Click!

"Woah—!"

Asuna's body suddenly sank into the wall.

With a mechanical noise, a portion of the wall swung around like a spinning door and Asuna vanished out of sight.

"Asuna!"

Paniking, James immediately ran towards where Asuna was standing. The wall seemed completely normal, not a trace of hidden passageway in sight.

He hammered on the wall, but the wall didn't budge.

"Asuna, can you hear me? Where are you?"

For a fleeting moment, there was no answer.

But then, the wall suddenly creaked from behind and slowly spun open.

"Sorry~. I tried to pull it from the other side. I forgot this door was push only."

Asuna smiled brightly from the other side of the room.

James sighed in relief, but Rem looked at the hidden spinning door with a frown.

"Push only...so you've been here before?"

"Uh-huh."

Asuna nodded.

"Why didn't you tell anyone about it?"

"I am telling right now, aren't I? I found this room no more than half an hour ago."

Rem's frown deepened, almost matching her sister's scowl, but she didn't say anything further.

"Rather than that, look what's inside!"

Asuna enthusiastically pulled in James through the secret door.

"What in the..."

The other side of the room was vastly different from the basement.

The room was lit with dim lightings of red-toned bulbs, casting a crimson light over the deep purple or black color palette of the room.

The inner walls were also padded with thick leather cusions, making sure no sound from the inside could escape to the outside.

But what really made James loose his words were the furnitures inside.

On one corner, there were multiple central restraint device, such as a St. Andrew’s cross, bondage table, metal frame with cuffs, and cages.

There were chains, shackles, and leather straps secured to walls or hanging from ceilings with sybians or wooden horses underneath.

On the other side, several cabinets displayed a variety of tools like whips, floggers, paddles, gags, clamps, candles, etc.

"O-oh...my..."

Rem blushed deeper pink than her sister's hair. Her eyes were glued on the various BDSM items as she timidly stepped into the room.

Most of them she had never seen before, but the chip and mods installed inside her gave her knowledge about how exactly each and every one was supposed to be used.

Only Asuna was oblivious to the displayed things, as she skipped passed them without so much as a glance and headed to the other side of the room.

"This is the machine I was talking about!"

Asuna tapped on a row of egg-shaped pods. Each one had a cuisoning seat like a car seat and a small controal pannel attached at the right side of the cover.

"That's...isn't that a cryogenic pod? What's that doing here?"

James asked.

Asuna shrugged.

"I don't know. I just found it here.

Ram had explained before hand that the pods could analyze our everything, or even heal us if we are hurt.

We can use it to measure our body lengths!"

"That's a good idea..."

James looked over his shoulder.

Using the pods as messuring tools sounded promising, but he wasn't sure about bringing the characters down through the BDSM sex dungeon.

He had a fleeting suspicion that the pod's original purpose was much closer to healing than analzing...

'Wait, why would my grandfather have this in his basement? Wasn't this whole character-thing quite recent?'

The more he thought about it, the more uneasy James felt. He decided to drop the subject until it came back to him again.

"Let's get the others down here. Hopefully they won't react as drastically as I did."

Unfortunately, James's anticipation was discouraged in a different direction than even he had expected.

His biggest concern was that the characters would be horrified or disgusted when they walked into the secret layer filled with sex toys.

Instead, three of the more...predatory charaters were very interesed by the tools.

"Wow, look at all these..."

Ram ran her fingers over the sex furnitures, sending seductive smirks at her master every now and then.

"Ram, don't touch them without master's permission..."

Saber scolded, but even she fiddled over some dildos and especially took interest in handcuffs.

She kept twirling one between her fingers while glancing at James from time to time.

"...♡"

Finally, Lalter dropped the subtly and traced a crop whip over her bodysuit, indicating small spanks over her thick ass and thighs whenever James looked at her.

It seemed like, since everyone knew about her affair with James, she'd decided to let her desires out in the open.

James gulped and rubbed his neck.

Without a doubt, those three would be quick to jump into his bed whenever he asked—or sometimes, before he even asked.

On the other hand, there were also a handful of characters that were more timid and embarrassed.

"N-now, master brought us here for the pods, not for..."

Rem waved at the BDSM artifacts while making sure she wasn't giving them too much attention as well.

It must not have helped that Ram was one of the more enthusiastic bunch.

"..."

Karin didn't say a word.

She didn't even dare to look the other way except for the ground, yet her blush was prominent over her face and ears.

"...♡"

Ryu also kept her eyes closed to the floor, but she dared to glance over at James every few moment or so with a tinge of hopeful light in her eyes.

'I, if master wants me to, then I'll...'

And finally, there was Ellen.

"....tsk!"

She was the only one who reacted the way James had feared anyone would.

The shark-maid looked over the BDSM dungeon and frowned deeply in an obvious showcase of disgust.

She glared at her master, before letting out a huff of disproval and strode over to Asuna and the cryogenic pods.

Eventually, everyone else gathered around the pod as well.

"Wait, why are there only seven of them?"

Ram asked with a small frown.

"There are eight of us, aren't there?"

"Huh?"

James did a quick head count. Indeed, there were eight characters.

It confused him for a moment, until he realized that inviting Ram into his house up-ed the number to eight.

"Then, one of us have to stay behind?"

Asuna asked.

"Obviously so."

Ram slipped her hands under the shoulder strap of her maid dress and flung them off her body in one fell swoop.

"R-Ram san! Wh-what are you doing!?"

Rem yelped in surprise when Ram suddenly striped naked.

Ram smirked and ran her hands over her naked body, letting James get a good look.

"If we're going to use the cryogenic pod for measurement, we have to get in naked or the numbers won't come out correctly.

Everyone else, you'd better take off your clothes as well..."

Ram gave a small wink before stepping into the first pod.

When she lay inside, the lid of the pod automatically closed and began the measurement.

After sharing some glances with each other, other characters began taking off their clothes as well.

"Master...I know we're not in position to give out permissions, but you can look at my body whenever you want..."

"...same here, Master...this whole body is yours..."

Saber and Lalter whispered sensually before slowly walking over to the pod, making sure James had plenty of time to stare at their bouncing tits and ass.

"Hey, we can't fall behind! Come on, Karin!"

"W-wait, Asuna...!"

Despite Karin's embarrassed complaints, Asuna pulled her friend close as soon as they both stripped off.

"Master~ me and Karin are also always welcoming you on our beds."

"...of course, because...that's what we're supposed to do..."

Asuna giggled and dragged Karin to the pod. Karin followed behind with a small sigh, but she gave a small smile at James right before the pod closed.

"C-c-come on, Rem-san! W-we can do this too!"

"...I, I'm not sure...eep!"

Rem and Ryu squeaked in unison when James turned towards them.

They quickly covered their mouths with their hands out of embarrassment—a habit that they shared, James realized.

After a few awkward silences...Rem and Ryu hurriedly ran into the pod with squeaks and whimpers like frightened puppies.

As the last two pods closed down, James turned to the only remaining character who also hadn't bothered to strip.

"...what."

Ellen demanded with a scowl.