I Became a Slave to the Man I Abandoned Novel (Completed) - Chapter 12

‘This is not a place for someone like you to come.’

‘Go away.’

Spit landed next to Khalid’s head. One of the gatekeepers had aimed and hawked it before disappearing behind the heavy doors. Khalid pulled his aching body up from the ground. Just once more just once. If only he could see Nox one more time.

If his affection had been too burdensome if that was why he’d been cast aside then he was ready to quietly disappear. But before that, just once, he wanted to see him. Even from a distance.

Dragging his battered body along, he circled the outer wall of the mansion. If he went far enough to the right and turned the corner, he’d see the garden outside the young master’s room.

“Young master…!”

And there, standing in the garden, was Nox. His hair shimmered green under the sun, his back straight as ever. Unchanging, as cruel as ever, even after Khalid was gone. Khalid clutched the iron bars embedded in the low wall and called out no, he tried to.

“….”

He would have called him if not for the small figure that came trotting up beside Nox in that moment.

“Young master! I brought what you asked for!”

“Good.”

Nox seemed to have found himself a new servant. A young boy with freckled cheeks and unremarkable brown hair. He wasn’t particularly charming, yet Nox took what the boy handed him and gently patted his head just as he once had with Khalid.

“Well done.”

“Y-yes…”

The boy’s cheeks tinged pink. Watching this, something inside Khalid cracked with a sharp, cold sound.

All he had done was love the young master and for that, he was cast away. And now, in the space where he once stood, another boy had taken his place. One around his own age. Looking at that boy’s face, Khalid realized it fully. How deeply he had loved him. And how plainly, how helplessly, he had laid that love bare.

His hands shook where they gripped the bars. He wanted to claw that boy away from Nox. Break the hand that dared to give him things. That was his place. No one else’s. Khalid’s alone.

But it was Nox himself who had torn him from it. How…how could he do that? How could he replace him so easily, as though it meant nothing?

Khalid’s breath grew ragged. Then came the dry heaving. Still clutching the bars, he crumpled to the ground and retched over and over. His stomach felt like it was folding in on itself.

After spilling out all that bile, Khalid looked up once more at Nox and the new servant. His eyes widened.

Nox was smiling at the boy. Just like he used to smile at him. As if it were the most natural thing in the world.

“…So it didn’t matter. Whether it was me or not?”

He felt something boil deep in his belly. He didn’t know what to call it and had never felt this before. A raw pain bloomed across his abdomen. Khalid clutched his stomach and stared, unwilling to look away until the pair disappeared from the garden.

Until Nox led the boy inside and the door closed behind them.

Only then did Khalid stand, stumbling, swaying from the pain that pulsed through him. His back wounds hadn’t reopened, thankfully, but every place the knights had struck him throbbed in protest.

“Young master… You’re truly cruel.”

He muttered to no one, voicing a truth now far beyond his reach. He made his way back to the inn he was temporarily staying at, his limbs heavy as lead.

Once inside, Khalid collapsed against the door. He couldn’t erase the image of Nox and that boy from his mind. Hugging his knees to his chest, he buried his face, hands trembling. He had thought seeing Nox from afar, just once more, would be enough. But inside, something was burning.

“…Why.”

Why? How? How could you do this to me, young master?

That question, wrapped like a serpent in his gut, twisted into resentment. The kind that doesn’t announce itself until it’s already coiled tight. Tears began to fall, dotting his knees. Khalid scratched at them with trembling fingers.

“How can you smile like that… like it’s nothing?”

When I feel like I’m dying.

He couldn’t hold back his sobs any longer. A wail tore from him, echoing through the small room. How could you discard me and act like it meant nothing? If you were going to take everything from me, you might as well have taken my life too.

But the one who needed to hear that was no longer there.

Khalid cried and cried until he collapsed onto the floor, sobbing still. That day sank into him like a stone in deep water, heavy with bitterness and grief. A pit he might never climb out of.

The next day, Khalid left the inn with a heavy coin pouch in hand courtesy of Maeta. It had been given as a severance payment, though clearly padded beyond formality. He needed to exchange the gold coins for smaller denominations and set out quickly.

“I’ll have to find new work before I spend all this…”

Truthfully, it was enough to last him two years even without working. But Khalid wanted to find something immediately. The best option would be another noble household.

“That way… maybe I’ll still get to see him. Once in a while.”

Even after falling asleep cursing his name, Khalid’s mind remained full of Nox and nothing else. He thought of the recommendation letter folded neatly in his pouch.

He hated him. He resented him. But the name “Nox Reinerio” was carved into his soul.

That’s when he entered the alley.

Three figures were lumbering toward him. Slouched shoulders, filthy clothes, eyes shadowed with ill intent. Khalid flinched, his steps halting.

The three men slowly closed in, forming a loose circle. Khalid instinctively stepped back.

“Looks like he gets it.”

One of them snickered and beckoned with a finger.

“Hand it over. Everything.”

“….”

Khalid swallowed hard. They were all adults. Two looked underfed and wiry, but one was massive twice his size, at least. Khalid tried to back away, but one of the others had already moved to block the exit behind him.

“You wanna bleed, kid?”

They were carrying rusted knives. Khalid knew he couldn’t win. Slowly, he untied his pouch. It wasn’t a small amount of money, but he had confidence he’d find another position soon. As he moved to comply, one hand carefully reached for the folded recommendation letter inside.

“Don’t move.”

“…!”

Khalid froze. The men raised their knives again.

“Hand it over. Everything. No tricks.”

“Y-you can take the money, that’s fine, but please this letter, it’s not worth anything to you!”

Quickly, Khalid tucked the letter into his shirt and tossed the pouch onto the ground. The thieves exchanged glances then lunged at him. Khalid tried to run, but the man behind him blocked the way out.

“Stay still!”

“Agh!”

One grabbed his arm and twisted. Khalid struggled, but even with his natural strength, he couldn’t handle three grown men. They overpowered him and searched through his clothes.

“What’s this? Just a piece of paper?”

“Y-yeah! That’s all it is, really please!”

The men were illiterate. They had no way of knowing the value of the letter. Khalid looked up at them, pleading.

No noble house would take a servant without a letter of recommendation. Not even the most charming, beautiful applicant could enter without it. The letter from House Reinerio was essential.

“I need to find a house near the young master…”

That meant he had to aim for at least a count’s estate or higher. The letter was everything. He couldn’t lose it. Couldn’t let it be destroyed.

But then

Rrrrip.

The sound was unmistakable. Khalid’s eyes flew open.

“Whatever it is, it’s useless to us.”

“No! Stop!”

Khalid writhed, held back by one of the men, and tried to hurl himself toward the one tearing his letter.

“Whoa, shit !”

The strength he poured into that sudden movement was enough to throw one of his captors to the ground. He broke free and reached desperately for the shredded letter

Thud!

But the man to his side was faster. He kicked Khalid hard in the ribs, sending him crashing into the alley wall with a sickening sound.