Chapter 10
“Huff, huff, huff.”
“Haah, hah, hnng.”
End My Life is an all-ages story, so do not misunderstand these panting sounds as anything improper.
“M-my lady. Hngh.”
A maid knelt and bowed down in front of me. Her messy hair fell forward.
“Haah, ah. P-please spare me.”
Her breathing was up to her throat, heat poured off her skin, and sweat covered her body.
I wiped the sweat from my forehead and spoke to the maid, who was bent over and gasping.
“Didn’t I tell you? What are we doing here?”
“T-training…”
“Yes, we are training. At a time like this, you should say, ‘Thank you for teaching me.’ Should you really be begging me to spare you? People might get the wrong idea.”
I slipped a finger under the maid’s chin and gently tilted it up, moving the hair stuck to her sweaty face.
“Get up. We’re not done yet.”
Despair crossed her face.
I smiled and straightened up. Then, as I was about to continue doing my duty, a familiar figure rushed toward me.
“What are you doing here?”
Karl came over at an incredible speed and asked without sounding even slightly out of breath. A little later, Wilson arrived too, having run off while receiving my training.
I did not need to hear an explanation to understand the situation.
I shot Wilson a slight glare and looked at Karl.
“It’s been a while, Karl.”
As someone educated in proper manners, I greeted him first. Karl gave a stiff little nod.
“I asked what you’re doing. As you can see, I was training the servants.”
“Training?”
“Yes. A healthy body holds a healthy mind. People usually say it the other way around, but either way, health is good. If they have better stamina, they’ll be less tired while working.”
Karl shut his eyes tightly for a moment as if he could not believe what he was hearing, then opened them again. He turned his head and looked at the training yard.
The servants were running around it, panting hard.
In their hands were the tools they used most often.
The gardener held a shovel.
The maid who mainly served tea carried a teapot.
The maid who handled clothes carried a dress.
Karl frowned, clearly displeased with my training method.
But I had no intention of listening to him.
“Karl, you asked me to train the servants.”
“Are you saying that because I gave you work, you’re taking your anger out on them now?”
Really, this man!
“Or did the servants make some kind of mistake again?”
This misunderstanding was slightly better than the last one. At least he was not immediately assuming I was simply being cruel for no reason.
But all his guesses were wrong.
I was not training the servants to torment them.
It is true in every time and place that a healthy body creates a healthy mind, and it is also true that better stamina improves work efficiency.
No matter the position, the first thing needed is the strength to do the work.
Even in the martial world, when I trained disciples, I always started with physical conditioning.
“Karl, unless you plan to take away my authority over servant training, don’t interfere. And I’m not tormenting them.”
I lifted my dress slightly and stretched out my bare foot in front of his shoes.
“See this? I’m running with them too. If I were trying to torment them, why would I run as well?”
“You’re running… with them?”
His voice cracked.
His neat face broke in a very funny way.
I nodded proudly.
“That’s right. A teacher has to lead by example.”
This is what true leadership looks like.
I started moving my feet again and lightly cut through the wind as I rejoined the group running hard.
“Why are you slowing down? You have to do fifty laps. Hey, you there! The teapot lid is about to fall. Don’t drop it!”
Even while running, I paid attention to every servant’s posture and breathing.
It was one-on-one custom training.
Perfect service, really.
And what? Tormenting them?
That offended me a little.
I decided that next time I saw Karl, I would say something about it. Then I casually turned my head toward where he had been standing.
At that moment, our eyes met in midair.
I had thought he would have gone back already, but Karl was still standing there, watching me with a very serious face.
He sighed.
I could not hear it from that distance, but his shoulders rose and fell heavily, so I knew he had sighed.
Soon he started walking toward me.
He walked slowly at first, then began to run and caught up to me.
“Stop for a moment, Klone.”
He grabbed me and stopped me.
Then he lifted me into his arms.
“Karl!”
My forehead hit his chest, which felt like a wall. I grabbed my forehead and shouted.
“Let’s stop the training here for today. If you push too hard on the first day, both the teacher and the students will become exhausted.”
He really knew nothing about training.
If you go hard on the first day, everything becomes easier after that.
Especially me—I liked to keep my subordinates tightly under control and then occasionally let them breathe.
If you push hard from the start, then even a small break feels like mercy.
That’s human nature.
But Karl did not know that.
“Put me down.”
I struggled in his arms, and Karl pulled me even closer.
This time my sharp nose hit his chest.
“Ah.”
His chest was as hard as stone.
‘So he’s naturally built.’
Someone born with muscle.
I looked at my own thin arms and legs and sighed.
How does someone even get muscles like that?
“Stop touching me, Klone.”
Karl spoke in a low, almost biting voice.
Without realizing it, I froze.
My hand was on Karl’s chest.
“Karl, I’m the teacher, and you are…”
“Your husband. And really, stop touching me!”
Oh dear. I seem to have pressed my own desire button.
I pulled my hand back and raised both hands as if surrendering.
Karl’s ears were red.
Feeling a little sorry for teasing him, I decided to listen to him.
“Karl, I have one favor. Those people need meat for dinner tonight. Meat.”
The end of training should be sweet.
Karl looked down at me as if I were absurd, then called for Dex.
And that was how the servants’ first training session ended.
That night, Karl came to see me.
He smelled of clean soap.
When I got closer, I saw that his hair was still slightly damp.
Naturally, I remembered his chest.
In my past lives, I had lived far too strictly.
In Korea, I was too busy worrying about getting a job.
In the martial arts world, if you let your guard down, your head could be cut off.
This life was not that hardcore, so maybe I was allowed to enjoy it a little.
As the memory of touching his muscles during the day returned, my palm started itching.
‘They really were good muscles. Medically and aesthetically.’
“What is it with your hand?”
I got caught clenching and unclenching my fist.
How embarrassing.
I quickly hid my hand behind my back and nodded toward the table, pretending nothing was wrong.
“Sit down.”
Karl looked around the room.
There were plenty of places to sit in my room.
There was a table by the window.
A chair in front of the light dressing table.
A sofa on the rug in the middle of the room.
And then—
Karl’s gaze stayed especially long on one place.
The bed.
“Ahem.”
I cleared my throat, walked past Karl, and sat in the chair near the window.
It was the place where I sat and drank tea first thing in the morning, when the sunlight was pleasant but the wind was not.
“Come here, Karl.”
He placed a basket on the table and sat across from me.
“What is this?”
“Ointment.”
When Karl opened the basket, I saw a cream jar about the size of a palm.
“Ointment? Why?”
I took the jar out and turned it over in my hands.
Then Karl took it from me, knelt on one knee on the floor, and sat there.
“Please excuse me.”
He apologized suddenly and lifted the hem of my dress.
The moment I felt him touch a vulnerable place, I kicked out on instinct.
Karl quickly moved back.
“Ah, my mistake.”
If Karl’s reflexes had been even slightly slower, he would have gotten a nosebleed.
Karl narrowed his eyes and grabbed my foot, which was still hanging in the air.
Because I had run around the yard barefoot, my foot was swollen and scratched. Karl stared at it for a long time.
For feet that had run dozens of laps on stone, they were still fairly clean, but Karl scooped up a large amount of ointment and spread it all over them.
“What are you doing?”
No one had touched my feet without being paid since Dan-a.
Startled, I tried to pull my leg back, but Karl gripped my calf tightly.
“It needs medicine.”
“I can do it myself!”
I had washed, but they were still feet, and that felt awkward.
But Karl ignored my protest lightly.
His big hand pressed my heel, stroked the arch of my foot, and kneaded the thick part below my big toe.
The ointment, which had been firm, melted under Karl’s body heat and softly wrapped around my foot.
“Ah…”
A cool feeling spread through my foot.
Before I knew it, a satisfied sigh escaped me, and my discomfort turned into comfort.
The tiredness in my feet vanished in an instant, and even my mind grew heavy and relaxed.
I wanted to fall asleep like this.
My eyes slowly closed.
‘I still need to do breathing practice tonight.’
That was what I was thinking.
Then—
“What are you?”
Karl gripped my ankle tightly.
The force was so strong it shocked the sleep right out of me.
I opened my eyes wide and looked down at him.
Karl was staring at me intensely.
There was suspicion in his golden eyes.
“You’re not Klone, are you?”
My heart dropped.
