… swish.
Levy turned his back and took off his clothes.
Lee Han flinched.
I wasn’t surprised that she suddenly took off her clothes.
Just behind her back.
“Can you see it?”
“… Tattoos, these days, noble ladies are really extreme.”
“Haha, you know that’s not the case.”
“Ahem.”
I try to cough in vain.
It was a silent signal that she didn’t have to say anything, but she was determined.
“It’s a slave mark. And it’s a bit harsh.”
He blurted out the harsh truth.
“… … .”
“I mean, Master. I don’t have parents. I’m literally an orphan.”
She put her clothes back on in a hurry, and Lee Han smiled bitterly.
“Why are you taking off your clothes and making a fuss when you could have just said it?”
“It’s better to show once than to explain a hundred times. That’s what the Master often says.”
“… Anyway, this guy is a top student.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment.”
Levy was particularly eloquent today.
I think this might be the first time I’ve ever spoken so well in front of others without hesitation or trembling.
Although she had always been timid, she felt like she could tell him everything without hiding anything since he had revealed all his secrets to her.
So Levy became even more blunt.
“I am a former slave. I was sold to Fault Street about five years ago.”
He exposed his greatest weakness and secret.
“… … .”
…he just listened to his words with a silent, calm gaze.
Eyes that made it seem as if it didn’t matter to her that she was a slave.
He still did not see Levy as a ‘slave’, but only as a ‘disciple’ and a ‘girl’.
Ugh!
‘… Phew, really, that person.’
He must be a very detailed person.
‘If it were anyone else, I would be shocked or feel betrayed, but… to me, you are a truly great teacher who is more than enough.’
Levy held back his tears again.
Crying is about revealing everything you’ve been hiding, and it’s never too late to cry.
“… I’m not from Pendragon, I’m from Britain. Well, even if I were to say where I’m from, I don’t think it really matters what my origins are to a slave.”
She was originally a war orphan.
Britain has been waging countless wars against the Empire and the Pendragons for a long time.
Perhaps because of this, war orphans were more common than rats in Britain, and Levi could be seen as a case of someone who lost his parents and became an orphan during the war.
And, Levy was captured by the ‘Slave Top’.
Although it is known that slave trades have been largely banned, it is a well-known fact that slave trades still exist.
It wasn’t particularly unfortunate or cruel that Levy was kidnapped and made a slave.
… This is what life was like for most children who had no parents and no power.
“I don’t know if it was fortunate, but I was an orphan and had a beautiful complexion, and my hair was a rare color like that of the nobles. Thanks to that, I was classified as ‘the best,’ and I received a considerable amount of education. There were quite a few people who wanted high-class slaves… no, there were an abundance of them, according to the merchants at the time.”
She was pretty, whether it was luck or misfortune.
And the pretty woman was the slave trader’s word that there was ‘demand’, and the slave trader taught her the etiquette of the nobles, including how to write.
The slave trader was even more delighted when he found out that the boy had a good aptitude for learning and that he was also very intelligent.
‘I guess I can sell it for more!’
-This was something the slave trader would often say to himself.
“I wasn’t happy at all.”
… … That’s how it happened, while she was being trained as a high-class slave.
A war broke out between Pendragon and Britain, and the slave trader was unlucky enough to get caught up in the war and die.
Of course, it might have been unfortunate for the slave trader, but it couldn’t have been anything but fortunate for her.
Because I got a chance to run away.
But, of all people, it was she-.
“I didn’t know, that there would be problems because I was a high-class slave.”
[Seal of Obedience].
It was the true identity of the slave mark carved on her back, a mark that the slave trader had personally carved into her when he visited the illegal wizard.
This imprint was a kind of sorcery, a nightmare-like curse that could never be erased by any means.
It was the result of the slave trader’s efforts to prevent the high-class slave from running away, and as a result, she was handed over to a trader who had absorbed the slave trader’s organization.
And the merchant took her… .
“I sold them to Pandragon. It was wartime, so they sold everything they could exchange for money. I was also sold for cheap.”
Ten silver coins.
That was her ransom.
“The place I was sold to….”
“Was it a fault?”
“…yes.”
“Where did they get the money to buy you?”
“I think he probably borrowed it. It’s just a guess, but I think it was an investment concept, the guy probably from the beginning… .”
I think he was thinking of reselling me.
– From today onwards, you are our daughter. Levi Fault, let us give you that name. Haha!
On the day she was sold, Fault gave her a name and a surname and accepted her into their family.
I mean, I am nothing more than a slave.
So Levy was impressed.
Ah, this day has finally come for me, the miraculous luck from a fairy tale has come to me!
She was truly delighted.
however.
– Why, why is it that you grow so slowly! Please grow up quickly!
There was no other reason why Reynold Fault took a slave as his daughter.
To ‘sell it’.
To marry off to a high noble or a wealthy upper class.
Yes, he bought it because he saw it as an investment worthwhile investment.
The Fault family.
This family really had no answers.
Still dreaming of reviving as a knightly family, he raised his daughter, who would become his successor, with great care, but also prepared a ‘sacrifice’ to get money out of her.
A family with no answers who will never try to get back on their feet in any other way or with any other effort.
They are truly a family of ghosts.
Levy wanted to run away from their madness, their incompetence.
Because it was obvious what my fate would be.
I was waiting for a chance to escape, or to file a report, but…
– You’d better not even dream of running away.
Because of the imprint, the imprint of submission, she could not do anything.
Because she was a subordinate being and could not disobey her master’s orders.
There are three main orders she received.
One. You cannot reveal to others that you are a slave.
2. You cannot perform any actions that cause damage to the fault.
3. You must be obedient to the person in charge of the fault.
These commands were branded upon her, so she.
“No matter how disgusting it is, I have no choice but to obey them.”
The guild member who had harassed him the day before.
When that guild member threatened his mother and sister, the reason he suddenly became cooperative was not because he had developed feelings for them or because the mother and daughter had been kind to him.
“Because I have to be obedient to that mother and daughter too.”
That’s a curse.
There was no freedom in her life, and it seemed like only an oppressed and terrible life was always by her side.
…horribly.
“… But, ironically, I wanted to be recognized as family by them. It was my first time having a family, so… , right? I really, really… tried my best.”
effort.
An effort that Lee Han described as blind.
Through such efforts, she wanted to prove herself.
If you put in the effort and really do your best, won’t they acknowledge you someday?
If you achieve and achieve results that will bring honor to your family, maybe…!
“I think I had this really foolish, girlish ‘illusion’ that maybe they would accept me as a family member.”
“… … .”
“Hehe, I’m really stupid and foolish, right?”
She asked back.
I thought he too must have been fed up with my foolishness and his expression hardened, so I closed my eyes tightly.
I was even scared to hear the answer he would give me.
“-No, rather, you’re so great, I want to hug you and tell you that you’ve worked hard.”
“… … .”
“You’ve worked hard, really… You’ve worked hard.”
…he just gave me that same, unchanging, affectionate gaze.
It wasn’t that I felt sorry.
I’m really proud of you.
I just felt proud of her for overcoming that difficult time.
“……ah.”
Levy was dumbfounded for a moment.
All this time, she had lived a life always anxious about what kind of reaction she would get if she revealed her secret, and whether she would be looked down on.
But now.
… There was someone in front of him who accepted him for who he was, and Levi’s whole body trembled.
“Well, it might not be nice to be hugged by an old man like this, but even if I think about it as nonsense… .”
Wow!
“… … .”
“… Sob.”
“… Okay, go ahead and cry. I’ll lend you my arms as much as you want.”
“Ugh! Huh-huh-huh!”
“Yeah, crying is like screaming loudly. That’s how you feel better, of course.”
Levy ran to him with all her might and hugged him.
And at the same time, I hated him.
Why did it only appear now?
Why couldn’t I have found someone like this when I needed him so much?
19 years of suffering and hardship.
Levy cried sadly as he finally met his ‘family’ who truly cared for him.
Unlike the day before, it wasn’t completely quiet, but rather loud… … .
Truly, I cried so sadly.
“… It’s okay, it’s okay.”
Lee Han carefully patted her back.
Warmly.
