I Became a Slave to the Man I Abandoned Novel (Completed) - Chapter 95

Blood began to drip down his back. Khalid gritted his teeth and continued to lash his back. The presence of the ring clenched in his other hand was too overwhelming. He didn’t like that Nox had risked so much just to possess this small thing. And now.

“Ugh, mmph…!”

He also disliked Nox’s stubborn silence, his refusal to scream. If he had cried out in pain, if he had shrieked and convulsed, the lashing would have stopped. But there was a kind of stubbornness in his back, as if he were accustomed to it or had steeled himself, enduring the blows while stifling his groans.

Nox recalled his mother hitting him, but Khalid interpreted it as Nox’s attachment to this ring. The two seemed destined to run on parallel lines forever, unless something extraordinary happened.

Crack, crack!

“Duke…!”

A long time passed.

Marlene, the head maid, in a low but urgent voice, stopped Khalid. Khalid, his eyes a chilling blue, responded, “What is it?”

“If you hit him any more… he’ll die.”

Khalid, who had been lashing out mindlessly, lowered the whip and briefly looked at Nox. He saw him, already half-collapsed.

The blood that had flowed from his back soaked the floor, and all the skin on Nox’s back was torn away, revealing raw red flesh. The whip, too, was damp with Nox’s blood.

“Hah, hah…”

Nox still knelt, his arms held, half-collapsed, only intermittent gasps escaping his deeply bowed head.

Khalid frowned at the sight. He couldn’t distinguish whether what he felt was jealousy, self-reproach, or betrayal.

He knew. He knew that even if something had happened between the Second Prince and Nox in the past, it couldn’t be considered a betrayal now. But for some reason, something kept welling up inside him, a surging bitterness.

While I desired you, and only you, did you harbor feelings for someone else? Was that look in your eyes then merely kindness shown to a young servant? It couldn’t be. It couldn’t be. Khalid’s hand trembled, and he forced himself to bring the whip down one more time.

Crack!

“Augh…!”

From Nox’s mouth, which had only been panting, a scream finally emerged. But his back was already a shredded mess. The skin was torn, revealing raw red flesh beneath, the gashes so deep they made onlookers shiver. Blood oozed from between the wounds, pushing them open and trickling out, then dripping, plop, onto the floor.

Thud.

Nox finally fainted and collapsed to the floor. The servants holding his arms didn’t know what to do, awkwardly trying to support him. But it was difficult to raise someone who had completely lost consciousness, leaving them in a clumsy, helpless state.

“Step back.”

The servants immediately retreated at his command.

“Confine him to my room.”

Marlene pressed her lips together and replied, “Yes…”

“No healer is needed separately.”

Marlene then briefly looked up at him, then immediately cast her gaze down and nodded. 

“…Yes.”

“You cannot leave this room without my permission after this.”

“Understood.”

Khalid tossed the blood-clotted whip onto the floor and ascended to his own room.

He didn’t want to see Nox’s face right now. Images of Nox, perhaps whispering sweet nothings with the Emperor, were forming unbidden in his mind.

His jealousy was ugly. So ugly, it was black. As Khalid disappeared into his room, Nox was helped by the servants back to the small room he usually stayed in.

The wounds on his back were too severe to be left alone. However, since the master had ordered no treatment, the servants could only leave the grievous wounds untouched and retreat.

As the servants laid him facedown on the bed and left, Marlene, the head maid, stood among them. Unbeknownst to others, Marlene subtly placed a small bottle of medicine beside the nightstand. Then, as if she had done nothing, she vanished.

She didn’t know if it would be effective for such severe wounds, but it was all she had, so there was nothing else she could do.

Nox continued to sleep in a state of unconsciousness. Nox himself wouldn’t know if it was because his body had reached its limit or if it was from a desire not to wake up. But around dawn, Nox quietly opened his eyes, which he had never wanted to open again. A small sound came from outside the door.

Sniffle, sniffle, sniffle.

It was the sound of a child sniffling. Nox immediately recognized the child’s crying. Ena, that child. The small, cruel child who had betrayed him and pretended not to know him. Nox didn’t even have the energy to get out of bed. But the voice from beyond the door was painfully clear.

“I-I’m sorry. Nox… I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I made a mistake, hiccup, I did.”

The child was begging for forgiveness with all her might. Nox thought it was right for him to be angry here, but he had no strength left to even feel anger. So he replied blandly. His voice was cracked and dry, like a parched desert floor with not a drop of water remaining.

“It’s o-okay…”

At his voice, the child’s crying intensified. She seemed to linger by the door, unable to leave. Perhaps she didn’t have a key to enter. Or perhaps she wasn’t brazen enough to come in.

“…Now, it doesn’t matter anymore.”

“Nox…”

“So, Ena. Go…”

“Nox, but…”

“Ena.”

He finally spat out the word, rough and cold and brief.

“Get out.”

Hmph, the child’s cries caught in her throat, but Nox made no more sound. After a long time of Nox remaining silent, Ena lingered by the door a few more times, then cried and left. Nox didn’t want to forgive Ena. But if asked if he hated her, that wasn’t it either.

He felt as if his brain was submerged in lukewarm water. He didn’t want to feel anything, or do anything. Even someone speaking to him felt like an effort. Just, everything, all of it.

Nox closed his eyes again. Sleep came. To escape his agonizing body. As if trying to flee from a world that now held no meaning. As he drifted into sleep, Nox felt it.

Ah, it’s all over now. Everything. Even the past. All of it, now.

***

The next day, Khalid had a meeting scheduled at the Imperial Palace and had to go to the imperial court. Less than a day had passed since Khalid’s growling departure from the Emperor.

Khalid, dressed in his formal attire, descended the stairs and saw the small door to Nox’s room in the distance.

“…”

When he paused, silent for a moment, Marlene, the head maid, answered, “The slave is in that room.”

“Treatment?”

“…Was not given.”

“…I see.”

With those words, Khalid got into the carriage bound for the Imperial Palace. One might have expected him to say something about allowing treatment after a day, but he showed no such inclination.

Marlene looked at Nox’s room with a worried expression.

Can a person endure such a life? She had always thought that while looking at Nox.

Could anyone truly endure and live through this?

Her question would soon be answered. Soon.

This is how tragedies begin. When no one can predict it, when no one expects anything to happen.

***

The Emperor sat in his office, receiving a report. The meeting scheduled for today was a regular gathering of nobles who had elevated Pheltyon to the throne, essentially a regular assembly of all political powers in the current government. But then.

“Did Valtias Deron again say he wouldn’t attend?”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“So.” The Emperor’s eyes gleamed. “Where is that fellow now?”

The Emperor’s attendant lowered his gaze and reported, “He seems to regularly appear near Duke Via’s mansion, spend some time there, and then return to his own estate.”

“What in the world is he doing?”

The Emperor let out a hollow laugh. Valtias Deron. The grateful yet regrettable fellow who had risked his life to bring information from the Rainerio ducal family for him.

“So he skipped even the regular meeting for that today, you say?”

“That’s correct.”

“What in the world could that fellow be hiding from me?”

It wasn’t likely he bore a grudge against Khalid Via. Perhaps he wanted something from him. Or, then.

The Emperor frowned. When Valtias Deron had visited the Imperial Palace but left without seeing him. He might have met someone then.

Immediately, one person came to mind.

The person who was now at Duke Via’s mansion but had been at the Imperial Palace at that time.

‘Nox.’

Valtias Deron, who had been extracting information from the Rainerio family, and Nox Rainerio, the Rainerio family’s only son. There was clearly something between the two of them.

“What in the world could be happening that’s making that timid Valtias Deron move like this?”

Pheltyon stroked his chin. He still couldn’t pinpoint anything concrete. But the fact continued to bother him.