I, Julietta Ojias, 20 years old, am a woman who, despite being born to a prestigious ducal house, have, through circumstances, became enslaved to a madman. What can I say, life absolutely sucks, and I want to kill myself every single day. I can’t physically do that however, as the enslavement collar will inflict enough pain to knock me out whenever I go so far as to even try it. But more importantly, I’m not the worst off in this filthy mansion. I have to stay strong for the other three who suffer much harsher maltreatment from our Master.
Truly, this is no life I imagined myself having into adulthood. I used to dream of salvation, I used to have hope in the early days, but not anymore. Not after everything, everyone I’ve lost. I open the thin drapes covering the frameless window in my master’s chamber, letting in the horrid light that shines in the perpetually black sky. It convinces me how there is no justice in the world and how today will be another miserable day.
“...”
“Ah yes, thank you Julia, and good morning. Do go have breakfast with the others, I’m sure they’re waiting.”
As usual, Master interprets my silence however he wishes. Does he think we haven’t? Well, we have. As usual, it was thin, tasteless soup with hard black bread. As usual, Master had made sure to spread his ejaculate all over the stock. Regretfully, I am very used to the putrid taste, but this time, I managed to find a loophole in his commands and feed Madelin a small amount of untarnished food I hid away. She deserves so much more after what this man did to her upon his return last night, but this is the most I can do.
“Why are you not speaking, speak.”
“... Yef, Mafher.”
“Follow me to the laboratory.”
“... Yef, Mafher.”
My throat and face hurt. After his session with Madelin, he had made me clean his disgusting member. And when my teeth barely brushed against it due to him pulling my hair and driving it into the back of my throat, he began punching my face over and over. His command of never defending myself against him became active and I was prevented from even easing the blows with my arms.
I followed after him with tired legs through the halls lit blindingly bright with mystic blue flames. I noticed the smell of rotting flesh. He must’ve brought another body to torture and mutilate. He never cleans up. Who was it this time? Mrs. Penny, who once gave him breadcrumbs, or perhaps one of the Parkins brothers, who tried to teach him the sword? Of course he interprets past events such as these as completely negative and malicious towards himself, and will go on occasional prowls in the night to cull off his revenge targets if they’re misfortune lands him in one of his errand thoughts.
The laboratory was a scene of nightmares, one that even I, in my two years serving this creature in the vague semblance of a man, will never get used to. There is a constant cacophony of screams coming from disfigured bodies and other places I’d rather not think about. There is a red hazy smoke covering the room and the usual bright lighting makes it feel as if I’m drowning in a sea of blood.
Master lifts his palm from the contraption made of metal, flesh and glass, and turns to glare at me with bloodshot, reproachful eyes, and a deep scowl causing his facial lines to become dark. Shit.
“There is something wrong. You know something right, head maid Julia?”
“...” Pain assaulted me.
“Speak the truth, that is an ORD… I suppose I can fix your mouth first.”
Master pulled me by the hair, and shoved one of his skinny hands inside my mouth. He chanted a spell, and I began smelling an intoxicating odour of dried sewage. … I must’ve lost conscience for a moment, and when I came to, the pain in my face was gone, and it felt cool. However, that relief was only momentary as my mind caught up to the fact that I was being violated up the ass while bent over on a metal desk. Master must’ve injected an aphrodisiac while I was out cold, as I soon began letting out moans in spite of the pain and humiliation. Once he was done, perhaps ten minutes later, he turned me around, ripped away the remainder of the maid uniform covering my chest, and rubbed his flaccid thing against my ruefully moist nethers while fondling my breasts.
“One more time, who did it? Who tried to sabotage my experiment?”
“It was… Selma… haah, she… last night… nhh...”
I betrayed Selma in between sharp gasps. I feel awful. I hate this. I hate this. I think I’m crying. My eyes feel hot. Dammit. I didn’t want to cry anymore. I promised not to show any more weakness. But what choice did I have? I only saw it accidentally, but I saw it. Yesterday, at noon when Master slept, I was making my way to the kitchen when I saw Selma come out of the back door to the laboratory. She didn’t say anything, since that would increase the risk. She had simply retreated to her room silently with her dark, baggy eyes.
“Hm… Oh, oh dear. That won’t do. Right, haha, I suppose I’ll have to reward Cynthia for her effort.”
“Master… I beg you, please, she, nh, she did it by accident, please don’t hurt her. Please.”
It’s not like me begging and grovelling at his feet is going to cancel Selma’s punishment, but doing this, as I’ve learned, lessens it. And as expected, he stepped down on my head with his grimy boot. He sniggered softly, and then yelled at the top of his lungs.
“CYNTHIAAAA!!”
The craggy voice carried and echoed across the mostly boarded up mansion. But after a minute, it seemed that Selma wasn’t coming. Shit, shit. Stupid Selma, you’re only making it worse. Sure she had a few more freedoms since most of her slave commands were used up on magic related things, but she should know better than to blatantly disobey like this.
“Go get her!”
“... I’ll be, just a, kh, moment.”
As I left the horrid room, I heard Master’s mad screams and glass breaking. Hope as I may that he injure himself from those outbursts, he never does. In fact, he finds ways to make us suffer for any losses he might suffer due to his own fault.
I walked quickly, knowing that the more time I take, the worse it’ll be when I get back. I take a shortcut through the kitchen and descend to the basement where us maids have individual rooms. I want to check up on Madelin, but I don’t have the time. I walk further in. I hear the sound of a shower turning off, and Lorelai comes out of the common bathroom at the back of the narrow corridor. As always, she’s completely naked, revealing tanned, taut, and muscular skin with water dripping off her.
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“Hey. I heard him yell for Selma. What the fuck is going on now?”
“She, Selma did something in the laboratory. And I, I told him…”
I shuddered. Why did I tell her that? Am I feeling weak? Do I need comforting words after all this time? No, surely…
“Sigh, It’s fine. I won’t say it’ll get better, but you’ll live through it. The fuckface likes us enough not to kill us, for better or for worse. Though, I guess that’s more worse than anything...”
Lorelai gently held my head to her chest. She stroked my hair, the light blond that my mother used to braid for me, now dirty, dry, and torn in various places, Lorelai stroked it like an older sister, even though I’m supposed to be older. She’s dirtying her body with my filth and tears.
“... Geez, I’m not good at this. Look Julietta, you’re stronger than this. One day we’ll get out of here, but not now, now we bide our time. Isn’t that what you told me on the night I was captured? You’ll lead us out of here, I believe in you. So go.”
“... Of course.”
As her damp warmth left me, I felt something like a spark inside my heart. It’s tiny, but my flame of hope hasn’t been extinguished yet. There is still hope. There will be a chance. Someday, somehow.
Selma wasn’t in her room. I found her in the attic cowering behind a box after 5 precious minutes. She resisted a little, but I managed to get her to walk with me back to the laboratory.
“M-Master, you, needed, some-shing!?”
Master clutched Selma’s pale cheeks from under her chin, digging unkempt, yellowed nails in.
“Ah, Cynthia, good morning. You look a bit pale today, like you went without sleep to try your little scheme.”
“Uf, Shorry, I’m, Sho--”
“Master! Punish me instead of her! I, I told-- allowed her to do it, it’s my fault, she didn’t know!” that it’d be this severe.
I tried my best to shift the blame toward myself. Due to one of my commands, I’m not allowed to lie to Master. Even attempting it caused severe pain in my head.
“No can do. As a good master, I need to reward my maids for individual effort. And this time, I got something special in store that I’m sure she’ll enjoy more than you can, Julia.”
“...!!”
Selma opened her eyes in despair. She was Master’s so called assistant, but the only thing she was used for was her genius speed in calculations and for performing spells that Master couldn’t do.
Master made a toothy grin, revealing an uneven set of yellowed teeth and blood red gums. He grabbed my hair with his other hand and dragged us deeper into the laboratory, the room of unceasing horrors and screams. I couldn’t shut off the sounds, but I could still close my eyes. It somehow made the shrieks and cries sound even more anguished but it’s better than having to look at them. I used to feel bad for these now abominations trapped in various implements, but this was the only way I could think of to maintain my sanity. Moments which felt like hours later we came to a stop.
“You know, as much as I know how you’re so absorbed with the arcane, which makes me sad that you’re showing interests befitting your age. I am, of course, talking about that boy at Craven’s place, the apprentice tailor.”
“N-No, No no!!”
Selma was screaming. I quickly open my eyes, and… I see it. I see what he’s done. This is awful. This is awful. This is awful. I feel sick.
“Did you think I didn’t know? Did you think I don’t have eyes following you when you go out? Well, do you? You’re smart, so perhaps you do. But you ignore it. You knowingly cheat on me. My love, I give you so much love every day, and you repay me with this, you bitch, you whore! You spread your legs for any man who looks nice at you now, is that it? Dammit, fuck, FUCK!!” He kicked the bloody, mangled, dismembered, disfigured young man. “Every time, every time I think… but no… they’re always, always. Ah, but Maria is the exception. She’s the only one who truly loves me. Even me.”
Master kept kicking the body which hadn’t died only because he kept it alive. Selma was unable to look away from her childhood friend whom she tried to avoid ever since she was hired by Master. She’s hyperventilating. I can only imagine how she must feel, knowing fully well the heinous ways Master tortures his captured. I at least didn’t have to witness my family be killed and home burned down by this man, but I can only pray that they are reborn far away from this kingdom.
Master took out a vial with a black liquid inside from a coat pocket and popped the cork. Immediately I was assailed by a pungent, acrid smell. This is… poison!
“And there, now the coffee’s all over him. Seeping into him. This is strong stuff, you know? Injecting this into the bloodstream will almost definitely kill him, even with all the regeneration crystals I’m using.”
“HaAH-hAAh-HAah-haaH-HaAh...” Selma’s eyes bulge as her fast and heavy breathing intensifies. She holds her chest in pain, sweat coating her forehead.
“But, owing to your usefulness, I will allow you to save his life. I already removed his lips, teeth and dick, so you’re allowed to keep him as long as you don’t slack on work…. I’m sure you know what to do.”
This is no kindness, it’s a trick. It’s always a trick. Always. But Selma, she, with determination...
“Time is my master but not my chain, flows eternal but no course maintained. I speak the truth, I know what is, I know what was. Kaala hear me, answer, realize my wish = Minute Reversal!”
She chanted a spell, magic words I had no way of understanding, and a miracle happened. The black ‘coffee’ that had dyed the boy’s shredded flesh flowed back up from whence it came and was once again inside the vial in Master’s hand. Selma fell on her knees looking exhausted. She was still breathing roughly, but seemed to calm down.
I may not be able to make head or tail of this mysterious thing called magic, but even I could tell that what Selma has just done is nothing short of a miracle. A feat so spectacular, for an instant, I just stared in awe. Well, before Master started speaking again.
“Well, that was interesting, I didn’t know you’d already learned that spell, Cynthia. What can I say, good work?”
Selma crawled on her knees towards the childhood friend she loved, and saved. She raised a hand to touch him, but hesitated as she couldn’t find a place without meat and gore. She balled her hand into a fist, and shed tears for many, many reasons.
“Aww, how sweet. But. As a researcher, you should know that doing something once isn’t nearly enough data. That time magic could’ve been a one time fluke. And since you seem to have the energy, do it again.”
He poured the vial of black on the boy once again…
“It’s somehow sad seeing her grow up and try to leave me. Julia, you and Maria are the only ones who didn’t. But I don’t think I need to put her down like I did Gloria and Adelia. Well, I suppose you and Sophia have your work cut out for you. Train her better so that she doesn’t even think to try something like this again.”
“... Yes, Master.”
Selma lay unconscious on the floor. Her long black hair is in disarray and blue blood vessels are bulging out of her skin. She had lasted 3 turns repeating the time magic, in the end, screaming out with all her strength until she coughed up blood and collapsed. Her hand was stretched out towards the now dead boy, touching him on… I can’t even tell where.
“Julia, go ready breakfast. And tell Sophia I’m going out. Make sure she knows what will happen if she tries to betray Locus the Dazzling. You have until I’m finished pumping some fresh mana to replenish Cynthia here.”
“... Yes… Master.”
I exited the laboratory to the sounds of clothes tearing. I stopped myself from imagining the goings on inside that room. I instead made my way back to the kitchen to ready the best meal I can. Those are the standing orders for me, and no matter how I hate it, I have to use my familial talent to make delicious food for that man. After all, that is my only use. I can’t fight, I can’t use magic, I can only cook. That’s the only reason I’ve been kept alive so far. Even my mind is being manipulated in a way that I can’t even think to insult him. Even in the privacy of my head, I am compelled to call him Master. I can’t lead the charge against him. I’m sorry Lorelai but I just can’t do it. I’m not strong like Garnet or Anna. They were close, but they couldn’t kill him in the end. I still don’t know why they hesitated at the last moment, but they did, and this is where we are. Lorelai and Selma came after that incident, so they don’t know. Madelin is… she’s broken already. I’m sorry Garnet. I couldn’t protect your sister. I don’t know how much longer I can last like this. I don’t want this. I don’t want this. I hate this. I want to kill myself. But I can’t.
At midnight, Master left with Lorelai in tow. She was still under the command of remaining stripped bare, but she was allowed to carry her sword.
I suppose it’s time I wake Madelin. I have to feed her lunch as her arms are currently in a state of being impaled on the bed. She will surely keep rambling on about how much she loves and adores Master. I hate this.