CHAPTER 56…………
Kant Mende
By the time I opened the basement door, I had more or less calmed my mind.
The cold air inside cooled my flushed face, if only a little.
I looked down at Kant with an expression hardened into coldness, as though I had never once been embarrassed.
He was once so strikingly handsome that he could have stood beside Lydia, the so-called goddess of beauty, without being outshone. But now he was in ruins. His skin had gone rough, his cheeks sunken, leaving him with a sharp, nervous look—one that suited his true nature far better. If his outer shell really matched his inner self, he ought to be wearing the hide of some hideous beast.
“Did you eat everything today without leaving a scrap?”
His bad habit of spilling food on the floor had been broken in just three or four days of starvation. He had probably never once gone hungry, living the pampered life of a noble’s son. To be locked alone in a pitch-black basement all day and on top of that starved—he must have gone mad with despair. Ever since then, he’d eaten every single meal I brought him, so I didn’t bother being petty about his food anymore.
“I hope you keep eating well from now on.”
I smiled faintly, praising him as though he’d done a good job. Kant rolled his empty eyes and stared silently at me. I had chained his neck to a post, but otherwise he wasn’t bound. His wrists were already set and wrapped in bandages, so if he really wanted, he could lunge at me where I stood so close. But he had already experienced the vast difference in strength between us. He wasn’t foolish enough to waste his energy. He seemed to be learning resignation, just as I’d told him.
He opened his mouth haltingly.
“That’s enough… isn’t it?”
“You want me to let you go? Don’t feel like running away anymore?”
“…And if I said that?”
“Your answer is vague.”
So he wasn’t ready to let go of his foolishness yet. I slammed a food bowl down before him and straightened my clothes, as if preparing to leave the moment I had arrived. Desperate, he grabbed at my hem.
“You said you’d tell me why you’re doing this. Please—at least let me know the reason. Please?”
The chain clinked whenever he moved. His pitiful, pleading eyes shone at me, but I brushed his hand away as if it were dirt. Why was he so obsessed with knowing a reason? Even if he found out I was Ailey White, he wouldn’t apologize. He wouldn’t regret the past.
When I just stared at him in silence, Kant, jumping to his own conclusions, started babbling.
“Maximilian, Dior… then me. And now you’ll go after Eilhart and Michael too, right? I think I know what you’re after.”
“And what’s that?”
I listened with a calm face, wondering what nonsense he would spout next.
“You want to become like Lydia, don’t you? The only reason you did this to me is because I realized you were setting a trap between Max and Dior.”
“What utter nonsense.”
“Don’t play dumb! You think you’re the first girl like this?!”
He almost shouted in anger but then quickly forced his face back into a groveling expression, like someone with split personalities or severe rage issues.
“If even I noticed, then Hart and Michael must have noticed too. No matter how monstrously strong you are, you won’t turn those two into wrecks like me. So if you let me go, I’ll help you. I’ll make you into Lydia. You’ll never become like her acting the way you are now.”
The longer he rambled, the more absurd it became. Wasn’t Lydia supposed to be their sacred goddess, worshipped like a religion? Yet Kant tossed out the promise of making me “like Lydia” so easily that I just looked at him with disbelief. Then I mocked the title given to them in the Empire—“the five knights who guard the flower of the Empire.”
“Two princesses for one knight to serve?”
“Pfft, haha! Then kill her! You can, can’t you? Stab her heart, take her blood-soaked seat for yourself!”
Finding my words funny, he burst into wild laughter. I muttered in disbelief:
“A knight betrays his princess just because his own life is in danger? I thought you loved her.”
“I did. I do. I still do! She’s my sun—the one who guides me, who shines on me!”
At that moment, I realized trying to reason with him had been a mistake.
Was Kant really all right like this? I had planned to keep him locked up until he learned resignation, but if he lost his sanity completely, that would be troublesome. What fun was there in tormenting a man whose mind had already broken? He already looked dangerous; if left too long, he might not even know where he was, running around with flowers in his hair.
Maybe I should just douse him with water from the washbasin. A little sunlight might help him regain his senses.
“I’ll stop listening to your nonsense here. And I have no intention of becoming like Lydia.”
Once, I had wanted that. But not anymore. I no longer needed to imitate her to exact revenge. Hearing that, Kant ground his teeth furiously—surprising that he even had that much strength left.
“Then why!”
Why did he cling so hard to knowing the reason, when it wouldn’t change his fate in the slightest? As I thought about it, realization dawned. Tilting my head, I sneered.
“You think someone as great as you needs a reason to have ended up like this, don’t you?”
“Urgh!”
I yanked him by the hair. His red strands tangled around my fingers as he was dragged helplessly toward me. Even as I sighed at his stupidity, he met my gaze—not with defiance, but with eyes full of bitter recognition of who held the upper hand.
“There’s no such thing as a reason. Like a royal family fallen overnight, reduced to slaves. Like a beautiful maiden violated by some stranger nobleman. Why is it only when it’s your turn that you demand a justification?”
“……”
“You thought this could never happen to you, didn’t you? Living in that delusion isn’t so bad. It’s funny, seeing someone flail as though the world has ended once they’re dragged under.”
Casually, I snapped the chain from the post. Kant’s face went pale as he saw me break in an instant what hadn’t budged under all his strength.
“You’re not human, are you?”
Muttering about elephants, saying no human could possess such strength, he was ignored as I dragged him by the collar. Gasping and choking, he stumbled along behind me. His legs wobbled with dizziness after so long without standing, but I didn’t slow down.
Halfway up the stairs, he tripped. Something scraped—face or knee, I couldn’t tell.
“Lu, do we have any clothes fit for a slave?”
While Kant lay collapsed, dazed, I asked Lupian. He poked his head from near the second-floor study, frowning at the sight of me holding Kant’s chain.
“Well, only my clothes, really.”
“I don’t want yours getting dirty.”
“Then that leaves Eli’s.”
“…That would dirty my eyes.”
The thought of Kant in frilly dresses was enough to scar my soul. With a rotting expression I didn’t bother to hide, I shrugged and dragged him outside. I remembered a big laundry tub in the back garden, large enough to fit a person. Washing and drying the laundry could wait. Wet clothes wouldn’t kill him.
Ignoring the fact that the weather had grown chilly lately, I kicked Kant’s back.
“Fetch water from the well, or throw yourself in headfirst. Your choice.”
“I’ll go! I’ll go right now!”
“Your tone is arrogant. For a slave. Call me Master.”
“……”
He looked back at me, face twisted with humiliation. I arched an eyebrow, mimicking Lupian.
“If you really want, I’ll put you in the well myself…”
“M-Master!”
Drawled out lazily, my words were met with his desperate, hurried reply. He really believed I would throw him in if he didn’t obey. Naïve fool. I hadn’t gone to the trouble of dragging him here just to kill him easily. Passing by his gritted teeth, I snorted at him.
Then, as if remembering, I added:
“Use honorifics.”
“……”
“Now.”
He kept his lips tightly shut. I stared until he slowly opened them. His eyes squeezed shut in humiliation, fists trembling. Even crushed, the noble’s pride still smoldered—persistent as ever.
“Yes, Master.”
When he lifted his lids again, his sunset-colored eyes glared with fierce resolve. He would bow now, but someday he would escape and punish me—that determination burned clear. That was the Kant Mende I knew: unbroken by force.
Seeing his rekindled resolve, I smiled brightly instead of mocking him. I fanned that tiny ember of hope higher. Stretching out a hand, I ran my fingers gently through his red hair, as though I’d never degraded him.
“Good boy.”
Like a pat thrown to a well-trained dog. Kant froze in shock, unable to move.
