I Became a Slave to the Man I Abandoned Novel (Completed) - Chapter 104

“Let go of that! Please!” The maid stomped her feet, at a loss. Another maid frantically ran out of the room to call Khalid.

After Nox returned to the mansion, such incidents happened almost daily.

“Nox!”

Hearing that Nox was harming himself again, Khalid rushed in and forcibly wrestled the shattered flowerpot piece from Nox’s hand. Nox’s palm was completely torn and stained red from how tightly he’d clutched the sharp fragment.

“Nox, please…”

“Please, what?” Nox asked indifferently. “What more do you want from me?” His voice was flat, like a doll’s.

When Nox reopened his eyes in the Imperial Palace, he was, quite literally, out of his mind.

Some days, he’d wake with the face of a fallen slave; other days, he’d speak with the face of the young master he once was.

“Do you happen to know where Khalid is?”

Nox, with the young master’s face, greeted Khalid, who had arrived at dawn after hearing the news. He smiled faintly, looking at the grown Khalid with wonder, even touching him.

“It’s strange that you’ve grown so big.”

“…A long time has passed.”

“Indeed, a very long time has passed.” Nox said that, then fell silent. Khalid initially thought Nox was merely quiet, but as the silence stretched, he sensed something was wrong.

Drip.

A streak of blood trickled from Nox’s mouth. Seeing this, Khalid frantically gripped Nox’s jaw, pulling it open.

There was a clearly visible bite mark, and his tongue was red with blood. Nox tightly gripped Khalid’s arm that held his jaw.

“Could I perhaps forget it all after a long time?” You, and this broke me. If it takes that long, if it takes painfully long, wouldn’t it be better to end my life now?

Nox whispered. Khalid, his face pale, forcibly picked him up and carried him to the healer. After the treatment, Nox would ask as if nothing had happened, “Khalid, your expression is strange.”

Khalid eventually declared he would take Nox to his own mansion.

Because whenever Nox woke with the young master’s face, he sought Khalid out as if it were ordained.

Late at night, he had even wandered the garden looking for Khalid when the imperial attendants had briefly left their posts. Knowing this, the Emperor quietly nodded. And then he said something enigmatic.

“I’ll be busy for a while, so it would be better for you to take him and look after him.” Khalid didn’t attach any particular meaning to the Emperor’s words, and the Emperor didn’t explain himself either.

And so, Nox returned to the mansion. Some days, he would stroll through the garden with Khalid, and other days, he would scream as if having a seizure. He harmed himself and begged Khalid to let him die.

“Khalid,” “Master,” “My beautiful Khalid.” A chaotic mix of names spilled from his lips. Beneath Nox’s fingernails, there was always hardened flesh from where he had scratched himself.

“Nox. Treatment, let’s treat it first.” Khalid held Nox’s hands. The maids cleaned the blood-soaked carpet. The hastily summoned healer treated Nox’s wounds, held by Khalid’s hands.

The sensation of his flesh healing was terrible. The further he moved from death, the deeper his despair grew. Nox gasped for breath, then seemed to lose all strength and slumped. Khalid held him tightly. The current Nox didn’t even have the energy to resist being touched by him. He merely rolled his eyes once and looked towards the window.

‘Ah, what floor is this, again?’

Unfortunately, it wasn’t a very high floor. It meant he’d probably just break his legs if he jumped.

Nox, limp, was moved to the bed by Khalid’s hands. He lay still, thinking. How can I die? Will there be a time when Khalid leaves? Well, even if Khalid left, the servants would probably stop him. But Khalid, as if he had nothing else to do, pulled a chair beside him and sat down. And Nox hated that, terribly.

“Khalid.”

“…Yes, Nox.”

“Just get lost.”

“…”

“If you get out of my sight right now, I’ll be quiet for today.”

“…Alright.”

Khalid quietly left. Nox lay on the bed, staring at the ceiling, thinking, Ah, I wish my heart would just stop like this. After one act of self-harm, he had no strength left to even twitch a finger. He wished someone would just strangle him right now. He would gladly lift his chin and accept that death.

Nox closed his eyes. The closest thing to death he could achieve right now was sleep, and only that. So Nox forced himself to court a sleep that wouldn’t come.

After all, he had promised to be quiet for the day. As Nox slowly drifted into sleep, the servants breathed a sigh of relief.

Once Nox fell asleep, he didn’t wake easily. The servants quietly left the room to avoid disturbing his slumber.

As the sun set and late night arrived, Nox, having exhausted all his sleep, opened his eyes. In the darkness, his black eyes blinked without light.

“…Ah.”

A small sound of distress. He rose from the bed. The maid assigned to him was dozing in a chair in the corner of the room. Nox quietly slipped out of the room barefoot, without even putting on slippers.

The Nox who had just woken up didn’t even know who he was. The room felt suffocating, so he’d escaped, but he didn’t know where to go. Then, Nox heard footsteps.

Click, clack.

It was the regular sound of shoes. A familiar sound, as if he’d heard it somewhere before. Nox, as if entranced, began to follow the sound of the shoes.

He walked down the corridor, descended the stairs, and reached the basement. And he saw a room. Nox knew that room. Ah, this place. This is where I first abandoned myself. He remembered it, even though he didn’t know who he was.

Creak—.

Nox opened the door. It revealed a dusty basement room filled with empty boxes. Nox looked at the inside of the door. The distinct scratch marks on the door. Nox recalled that he had made those marks himself. Nox slowly stepped into the basement room.

Suddenly, a voice echoed.

‘You finally can’t hold onto your sanity, can you?’

Ah, Nox belatedly realized why the sound of those shoes had been so familiar. It was his mother’s footsteps. Nox slowly knelt in that spot.

“Mother…”

Yes. His mother was right. He had just been crazy from that moment until now. Everything was an illusion, he was mad, and all of this was fake, and even this very moment, kneeling here, might just be a dream.

Perhaps he had simply been decapitated alongside his father on the day his father was beheaded. Nox slammed his head against the floor. His forehead tore and bled, but he felt no pain. His hands trembled uncontrollably. He scratched the floor so hard his nails bent backward.

“Mother, please.” He gasped for breath, the dust scratching his throat. “Please kill me…”

Mother, Mother. Please. Why didn’t you take me with you? Or why didn’t you just whip me to death back then, saying I was a worthless child who couldn’t come to his senses? If it was going to end like this anyway, why didn’t Mother, who knew everything, put an end to it from the beginning?

“Someone, please, just kill me.”

Blood flowed from his torn nails, soaking the floor. Then, frantic footsteps sounded from behind him. Nox simply remained with his head buried. The door opened, and hurried breathing was heard.

“Nox…!”

The mansion was turned upside down due to Nox’s sudden disappearance. Even Khalid got up and searched the garden and the entire estate, but Nox was nowhere to be seen. Khalid then looked at the stairs leading to the basement.

Surely, surely he didn’t go there? That place. That place. Khalid swallowed dryly.

And as if drawn, he descended the stairs and saw a slightly ajar door. Through the gap, a voice could be heard.

Mother, please kill me. Someone, please. The voice, pleading with someone, was deeply hoarse. It was a plea. The voice of someone utterly without the will to live scratched at the listener’s very soul.

Khalid picked up the kneeling Nox. Ah, the night passed, so a day has gone by, hasn’t it? Then I didn’t break my promise to stay quiet for a day. Nox thought, limp. Khalid said nothing. Nox, what did you see there? What did you hear? And what on earth were you thinking there back then? Only unaskable questions filled his mind.

Fortunately, his torn nails were treated. Khalid silently wiped Nox’s bloody hands with a wet cloth himself. Nox quietly watched him, then asked, “Why do you look like that?”

Khalid bit his lip. Because he couldn’t answer. Because he shouldn’t answer.

***

Thus, a month passed. Snow was falling from the sky. The snow piled on the branches looked to be about half a 4 cm deep. Whispers circulated that it would be an unusually harsh winter.

Nox stood by the window, looking out. The blanket draped over him was a gift from the Emperor, and the clothes he wore were prepared by Khalid. Nox gazed blankly at the accumulating snow with eyes devoid of light.

“Lord Nox.”

It was Marlene’s voice. Nox turned his head. Marlene, despite a slave suddenly becoming her superior, served him with utmost devotion, showing no signs of discomfort.

“His Majesty the Emperor will be visiting soon.”

“…”

There was not a single expression on his face. Perhaps a corpse’s face would look like that. Marlene left after saying only what she had to. Nox felt the cold wind coming through the slightly open window, and he cursed himself for being alive.

After a little while, the distinct thud-thud of two people’s footsteps approached. Nox felt his breath constrict the closer the footsteps came. Nox took a deep breath, then exhaled.

As he exhaled, the door creaked open, and two men entered. Nox looked at them with dark eyes. Feltion spoke.

“…How are you feeling today?”

“You don’t need to concern yourself.”

“…I came to speak with you.”

“Proceed.”

“Sit and listen.”

“It’s fine. Just speak.”

“…Yes.”

At the cold reply, the Emperor fell silent for a moment, then slowly began to speak. And he said something unbelievable.

“I will reinstate you.”

“…Huh.” Nox let out an involuntary, hollow laugh.