Chapter 7
“I was wrong. I’ll do it again. I can do better. Please, please, please… Give me one more chance…”
Please, don’t make me like those children lying on the floor. Don’t confine me.
The girl with the emaciated body, her wrists touching, was covered in blood and tears.
Even though her skinny wrists made a dull sound when they touched, the girl was desperate.
Her coarse black hair was messier than the tangled heap it was tied into due to lack of care.
Bound in chains, the desperate girl struggled, more desperate than pitiful.
“Whatever we say, whatever we command, you just have to obey like a dog.”
“Yes, yes.”
“You’re emotionless, well-trained bitches. Got it? If we say bark, you bark…”
The stern-looking woman, wearing shoes, forcefully struck the girl’s chest with her foot.
“Thud!”
Screaming, the girl rolled on the floor in agony.
Coughing incessantly, she coughed in pain.
“If we want you to bark, bark. If we say spread, spread. You have to obey anyone’s command. That’s your position, girls.”
With a sophisticated dress and seemingly expensive shoes, she chuckled as she left the wide attic room.
Silence descended, and darkness settled. In the pitch-black room where not a single ray of light entered, the sounds of stifled moans and suppressed sobbing echoed from all directions.
The girl with black hair hunched her body and covered her ears.
“I want to survive.”
Recalling her nightly wish, she opened her eyes in the pitch-black darkness, only to have the winter sunlight, laden with chill, break across her face.
“Ah…”
Helia jolted upright.
Her head spun. Her silk pajamas were drenched in cold sweat, making her neck damp and uncomfortable.
“Heh… Heh…”
Her wheezing breath filled the quiet room with an eerie atmosphere.
“Ha…”
Her suppressed breath burst out in terror.
Her chest felt tight. She wanted cold water. She got up and put on a shawl.
The house was quiet. There were hardly any people around. Perhaps they were waiting for Helia to make a decision.
From the beginning, everyone in this house, including the people, was not on Helia’s side.
The kitchen was chilly. Even though it was noon, there was no one preparing meals.
“I need to hire new staff.”
She poured water into a cup with ease.
As she came out of the kitchen and headed upstairs, the first person she encountered was Caligo.
Helia stopped in her tracks. Her body stiffened, and her expression involuntarily hardened. It wasn’t because she had any remorse towards Caligo.
Caligo was just a difficult existence for Helia.
At first, he was a small hope and even likable, but he turned out to be someone who made her realize that being together was just painful.
Perhaps he was also taken aback by their unexpected encounter, as he stood a little way off.
“Have you had your meal?”
It was Helia who spoke first.
Only after she initiated the conversation did Caligo take a hesitant step closer with a slightly relieved expression.
“I had a light meal prepared by the maid. How about you?”
Even so, it seemed he made some effort to be hospitable. Even if he didn’t want to offend the Duke’s sensibilities.
“…Me too.”
Her response came a bit late.
It was a lie.
Caligo easily saw through her lie.
When she lied, she did it a bit late, with a slight downward glance.
Despite being good at lying, she couldn’t handle such penetrating remarks smoothly.
Even now, her inability to speak was evidence of that.
“I wish I could be seen as a villain.”
If that were the case, she could hate him as much as she wanted and divorce him.
However, she didn’t show such a side when they were alone.
She wasn’t arrogant or rude, contrary to what others called her, ‘crazy fox.’
Caligo considered himself to be within the normal range.
A person who did his best in his own position.
He wouldn’t have been surprised if he hadn’t known that she had trembled down the stairs alone.
“I have a duty to take care of you, so if you don’t want to be treated like trash, prepare yourself and come down.”
She turned slowly.
Though subtly shrunk, she didn’t want to argue any further.
She was inexperienced in conversation, and Caligo was more adept than her.
“I understand.”
“I’d like to tour the estate.”
“I’ll assign someone.”
“You’re not going to have lunch?”
Caligo opted for proper etiquette.
She wasn’t eager to show her displeasure towards Caligo, it was just that being with him was as painful as that.
“We’ll wait for you.”
“Okay.”
Her response came a bit late.
It was a lie.
Helia didn’t inform him that she would come down, yet he notified her.
It was exactly 30 minutes later when Helia came back down to the room.
Coming downstairs, Helia saw Caligo, who was now wearing a sleep suit and a coat.
“Do we have any servants?”
“No, we’ll hire new ones soon.”
“I kept some aside for now since I thought you might do that. Is the dining room not luxurious enough? Is it okay?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“I hardly saw any servants around.”
“It doesn’t matter. I’m planning to dismiss them all.”
“All the servants?”
“Yes, we don’t need them anymore. And they probably won’t look very presentable anyway.”
Helia casually spoke as she boarded the carriage. Normally, she would have demanded an escort in any situation.
With nowhere to put the hands that were naturally preparing, he watched her get into the carriage without turning back.
Suddenly, Caligo’s eyes caught sight of her long coat. Every inch was meticulously covered, even down to her fingers with gloves.
Helia’s clothes were always long and dark, even in summer.
The sight of her meticulously wrapped up felt eerie.
“Aren’t you feeling a bit remorseful?”
“Remorse?”
A dry response came to her laboriously uttered words.
“Haven’t you stood in front of Auravi’s grave for quite some time?”
“Yes, maybe I did feel remorse.”
“I heard the body wasn’t even intact.”
“…Perhaps I wished he could have survived.”
Helia whispered honestly.
Alive, well, and able to turn the tables under her feet.
He was the one who had brought the greatest despair to Helia’s life. Auravi, the deceased husband, but there wasn’t a single good memory.
“I brought some medicine that’s trending in the empire. It cost me a fortune for your sake.”
Under the moonlight, the needle of the syringe glimmered faintly.
“It’s supposed to make you feel very good, but it’s a brand new one, so I’m not sure if it’s safe.”
With a cruel laugh, Auravi extended his hand as if demanding it from a dog.
Helia simply extended her arm with dead eyes. Once again, the syringe pierced her hole-ridden forearm.
“I hope this one is properly made. Remember when you went crazy and banged your head against the wall? I thought you were going to die.”
It was a casual tone, like experimenting on a lab rat.
Yes, to them, Helia was just that. A doll to flip and reverse the misdeeds of the wayward son.
Countless children were dying, and the reason why she was being used as a footstool was simply that. A convenient way had come to mind, and it had caught their attention.
With every injection of such medication, Helia thought she was becoming stranger and more sensitive.
She became irritable more easily, and anything touching her skin felt repulsive and uncomfortable.
She became sensitive and irritable, so much so that every little noise made her nervous.
But all she could do here was one thing. Extend her arm as ordered and bark when told to bark.
“You’re enduring it well.”
He lightly scratched her chin with his finger.
The liquid seeped through her veins, and the sensation of her entire body burning made her grimace.
Helia feigned an impression.
What came to mind was one after another, crushed and trampled, experiencing how much human dignity could be slammed to the ground.
She thought cynically.
“I… I don’t understand you.”
Caligo said.
Helia slowly lifted her head out of her reverie.
‘You wished I had died by my own hand before…’
This time, his faintly murmured words of regret were incomprehensible.
“Do you need to know about me? Once the contract is over, you and I will part ways.”
The time when she was hurt by his coldness, cutting off the relationship with a single blow, had already passed.
Caligo could now overlook even such a cold reaction from her.
“…Yes.”
Even if that made his mood slightly dirtier and more irritated than usual.
