Chapter 13
Chapter 13
“Ugh!”
A flash of pain, and Hilde’s legs gave way. She crumpled to the floor.
“What are you doing?”
An emotionless voice fell upon her from above. A voice so low it made her heart sink. She knew who it belonged to.
“Uhg…!”
A hand gripped her shoulder, casually tightening its hold. Hilde moaned again.
‘I have to answer.’
He didn’t like silence. Recalling the man’s temperament she’d quickly learned, she hurriedly opened her mouth.
“I, I…”
Her chin was grasped and lifted. Forced to meet the man’s gaze, a sudden chill ran down Hilde’s spine.
Such abyss-like eyes.
A mesmerizing, beautiful gold, yet they seemed to devour everything they beheld. A butcher’s eyes, capable of tearing her apart without a change of expression.
For a moment, she felt as if she’d stared into an abyss. Before she could speak, the question came again.
“I asked what you are doing here.”
“I, lost my room… trying to find it…”
It was the truth, yet it sounded like an excuse. She felt it herself, so how much more so to him?
As expected, he coolly questioned her again.
“You were trying to go back? To your room?”
An icy tension ran down her spine. Hilde clasped her hands together, feeling like a prisoner lying during an interrogation.
“…Yes.”
A blatant sneer flickered across his lips. Yet, for that fleeting moment of amusement, Hilde felt a sliver of relief. If mockery and derision were all it took, she considered herself fortunate.
“Aagh!”
But her relief shattered in mere seconds.
“Ugh! Agh! Aaah…”
His thumb began pressing down on the bandage covering her wound.
Like a fish thrown onto land, Hilde thrashed and screamed. But she couldn’t escape his iron grip on her shoulder.
“St-stop, aagh! Please…”
She begged him to stop, but he didn’t. Instead, he whispered in her ear as she writhed in pain.
“If you’re going to beg, do it properly. Shall I unravel this and dig around in the wound?”
The threat of him reopening her arrow wound and torturing her sent terror through her. She lost all sense of reason.
“I-I was wrong… ugh!”
Hilde pathetically pleaded, over and over. She confessed to being wrong, begging for forgiveness.
Finally, he stopped.
“At least you’re not completely stupid.” He added, casually tapping her tear-stained cheek. “A crippled slave isn’t very appealing.”
Fear froze her to the core. The thought that she might have been tortured until she lost the use of her shoulder sent shivers down her spine.
This man was more than capable of it.
Hilde trembled. Partly from the physical pain and emotional shock, but the man’s very presence evoked a primal fear.
No one she had encountered in her life had been this terrifying.
Not the orphanage director who ruled like a tyrant, not the children who tormented her daily, not the people who scorned and pointed fingers at her for being an orphan. They all possessed more humanity than this man.
“One arrow wasn’t enough, it seems. Considering you tried to run away again.”
“I-I wasn’t trying to…”
Hilde tried to deny it but stopped mid-sentence.
Then why did she leave her room?
She should have waited obediently until her master returned.
The anxiety of being alone in an unfamiliar place, the open door, a flicker of curiosity.
Several reasons intertwined, but she couldn’t pinpoint exactly why she made that choice.
…Could she honestly say she hadn’t even the slightest intention of running away?
Hilde’s pink eyes trembled. Biting her lip, she averted her gaze.
He narrowed his eyes, interpreting her action in his own way.
“My slave still doesn’t seem to understand her position.”
“Ugh…!”
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