A month has passed since Keith told me to leave Lord Stuart’s Castle.

Since then, Keith had stopped talking about it.

It made me quite happy, yet somehow deep inside, I was a bit angry.

I thought that this was due to a rebound effect of my current memories converging with those of my previous life and stopped pursuing the matter.

It was April 23rd, a sunny Friday morning.

Every Friday and Saturday, I was relieved from work and allowed to do anything I wanted during those days.

In this world, months, days and years had names which were different from the ones in my memories.

Learning about them required me to go to a school which was reserved exclusively for nobility; I decided to use the calendar in my memories.

By the way, the first day of this calendar is the time when I had first worked here.

“… 20… 21… 22… 23…”

“Eulalia… as I expected, you’re here.”

I stopped swinging my wooden stick the moment I heard Keith’s voice.

“How’d you know I was here?”

“You’ve been doing this since that day last year. Did you think I wouldn’t know?”

A year ago, as I walking along the corridors of the castle, a few soldiers that were patrolling saw me and came closer.

Knowing that no one would help me if they went and started harassing me, they gathered around me and treated me as if I was an object for entertainment.

The bucket of water I was carrying was taken from me and its content was poured all over me.

Unlike the maids, who restrained their resentment, the bored soldiers surrounding me weren’t.

Instead of being passively aggressive, they wanted to be more open and active.

They leered at me with lecherous eyes and laughed as they saw me soaked in water.

Since they were stronger than me, even if it was one on one, I decided to endure their harassments and wait for them to get bored.

Just when one of the soldiers was about to grab my shoulder, Keith suddenly appeared between us.

I couldn’t see his face at that time but the pressure he emitted from his back was enough to distort their faces in fear.

They started whispering amongst themselves and left us.

Although he was reassuring me that nothing bad was gonna happen to him, just because he openly defended me, his words held little to no weight, so I decided to check up from time to time on him for a few days.

I noticed that Keith's training was getting harsher and more strict.

The exercises he did were twice, no, thrice the number of what other trainees did.

Though he continued telling me that what he was experiencing was normal, I was secretly blaming myself for what he had to endure.

Since that day, I decided to use all of my free time to practice with the sword and become stronger.

Despite the fact that, that level of harassment was nothing noteworthy, compared to what had happened to me in my previous life, seeing it happen to a person I held dear, my heart felt like it was being pierced by a stake.

It turned into my drive to get stronger, so that the next time a similar incident were to happen, Keith wouldn’t have to suffer because of my weakness.

“Eulalia… what’s the point of you doing that anyway? I’ve always been curious about it.”

“What do you mean?”

“That repetitive swinging motion you do all day.”

“Ohhh… that~ well, there’s really no deeper meaning to it. I’m just doing it to relieve my stress. (I’m lying, Keith. I’m so sorry.)”

I was actually copying what a swordsman was doing in a movie I once saw.

But because I didn’t know the exact reason as to why he was doing that and how he became stronger because of it, I couldn’t tell him anything.

Besides, I don’t want Keith to know that I was doing it for him.

“Really?”

Keith slowly went closer to me and his hand grabbed both of my shoulders.

He silently stared at my eyes as he awaited for my answer.

“It’s true!”

“Then it’s fine…”

Keith's face was so near, that I could practically feel his breath brush my cheeks.

His breath was so ticklish that it became a bit uncomfortable.

“Umm.. Keith… you’re really close…”

When I uttered that phrase to him, his face quickly became beet red and fell on his back.

“Why’d you fall? I didn’t do anything?”

He held his head down while quietly muttering something to himself.

I tilted my head to the side and reached my hand out to him.

“Need help?”

“… thanks…”

Keith accepted my hand and had me help him stand up.

As he regained his standing position, a gust of wind blew through my hair.

So I closed my eyes and used my hand to keep my hair from covering my face.

When the wind died down, I slowly opened my eyes and found Keith showing a very pale face.

I shifted my gaze to where he was looking and saw a scene that would put anyone in despair.

A large army marched along the plains in rows so tight, not even a single speck of green could be seen in this usually lush landscape.

Their sheer number made the earth tremble with each step.

Five banners were spread across them, they had symbols of a black dragon, climbing towards the sky.

“50… thousand?”

Keith muttered those words under his breath, showing a disheartened expression.

“I have to go back quickl--”

Before he could finish his sentence, I grabbed his right arm and stopped him from leaving.

I lowered my gaze and stared at the ground, strengthening my grip.

“Eulalia… please let go… I need to go there quickly.”

I shook my head to his words.

“... Please.”

“No… Keith, don’t go. If you do, then you’ll surely die… there’s no way you can survive.”

I raised my face and locked my eyes with his.

He made a puzzled expression as he relaxed his body and stood in front of me.

“Eulalia, aren’t you grateful to our Lord? Didn’t he give us a roof over our heads and meals for our stomach? Although I know that you don’t really like him… In the past I refrained from asking… but now the situation is different. Eulalia… why don’t you like our Lord? Why are you so spiteful of him?”

“You’re only able to say that cause you don’t know what he really is…”

He gave me a skeptical look and urged me to continue with his eyes.

“... I guess it’s better to show you.”

I started untying the ribbon on top of my chest and slowly removed the upper part of my clothes.

Keith became flustered because of it and tried to stop me, but I still continued.

I took a deep breathe and showed him my back when the last of my clothes was removed.

Of course I held my front covered from his eyes, even I know that what I was doing is really embarrassing.

“This… what is this?”

“It’s the reason why he picks up people from the slums, Keith. Do you really think that there’s such a person who does something like this out of the goodness of their heart?”

A warm hand traced my bare back and followed the lines of the wounds that crisscrossed over my back.

“Are you saying that our Lord did this to you?”

I gave him a small nod.

“When has he been doing this to you, Eulalia?!”

“Even if you ask me when… he started torturing me the week after I had arrived in the mansion.”

“Why!?”

“Even I don’t know the answer to that question, Keith.”

I took a glimpse at him over my shoulder and noticed that he was showing a very dejected look.

He ground his teeth and tightened his fists until blood was dripping from his palms.

“Why didn’t you tell me any of this?”

“I didn’t want you to know… besides, I’m already used to this.”

“... used to it? How can anyone get used to it!?”

If you experience something like this every night, I think anyone can become apathetic to it.

Although at the first time and in the first few weeks, the experience was quite painful.

As the days went by, my pain threshold increased with every session.

Now that I think about it, the very reason why my room was near the dungeons was for this, huh.

“I didn’t want your face to be filled with anger. (If I showed it you beforehand, then your blood would have rushed up your head, making you forget reason and run to him. If you did that, surely you would die.)

“... how painful were they? Just how many times were you whipped?”

“I lost count and I gradually got used to the pain. (Well, yours were also included here.)”

There was a day where Lord Stuart became bored of abusing me because I was getting indifferent.

He remembered that Keith was a person who I got along with and told me that he would torture him in front of me.

I couldn’t take that, so I begged him not to bring him here and even made a deal with him.

That was why there wasn’t a night that I didn’t spend in the dungeons.

Even though I experienced hell every night for the past two years, the time I’ve spent with the person who was my friend made everything worth it.

So I was quite happy during those days.

Although it felt really ironic to me that Keith idolized the Lord, because he didn’t know who Lord Stuart really was.

“Kuh!”

Contrary to my expectations, Keith started running towards the castle.

I thought for sure that he would be swayed to run away after he saw the wounds on my back.

“(Is his admiration that deep?) Wait! Are you still gonna go back and serve him!?”

“After seeing that? Of course not!”

“Then why!?”

“For revenge!”

Spoiler :

Kk: Hmm… Yep, this is good.

Eu: What’s good, Kk-sama?

Kk: I think I was able to make the flow of this chapter good.

Eu: That’s nice… btw Kk-sama, can I ask you a question?

Kk: Sure?

Eu: Why did you torture me here?

Kk: …

Eu: I can understand why I was bullied in my previous life… but torturing me every night for 2 years? Kk-sama… do you hate me?

Kk: Of course not! Why would I hate you!?

Eu: Read the chapter, Kk-sama…

Kk: There’s a reason for it!

Eu: Really?

Kk: Really!!

Eu: Could you tell me?

Kk: Then I’d be spoiling the readers… though I think some of them are able to guess why already.

Eu: You could whisper it to me.

Kk: … Haa~ You win… whisper* whisper* whisper*

Eu: Kk-sama

Kk: Hmmm?

Eu: Please just die!

Kk: This is one of the reasons why I did it to you!!! It’s because you’re always doing this to me!

Eu: This and that are two different matters, Kk-sama.

Kk: Huh?

Eu: You don’t even hate it, right?

Kk: Who even likes getting tortured!?

Eulalia points Kk.

Kk: Are you implying that I’m a masochist!?

Eu: Uh-huh

Kk: …

Swoosh*

A knife hits Kk_Akatsuki’s right flank.

Kk: Uggh…

Eu: Since you like getting hurt so much, I’ll kill you, then revive you at the hospital, and kill you again.

Kk: …

Eu: Don’t worry, those deaths will be painless.

Kk_Akatsuki runs away*

Eu: You’re not getting away!

Eulalia chases after Kk_Akatsuki*