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***
He still smiled gently and glanced at the robe.
If it wasn’t for the blood stain on his cheek along with his bright smile, many women would get excited.
“I can’t let any dirt get on you on my watch…”
His thumb swept slowly across Valletta’s cheekbones.
“I have paralyzed your sense of smell, so you won’t smell the blood.”
Reinhard said, smiling kindly.
His affectionate voice was his habit, but the fact that his eyes were still not smiling made her even more anxious.
‘Instead of doing useless considerations, why don’t you let me go back to my room!’
Valletta shouted in her head.
Why the hell would he give his robe to me in the first place? Is he trying to keep my body warm before he kills me?
Valletta tried to shake off the description from the novel that came into her mind. The image of Valletta smiling with a torn smile in front of her birthday cake made of human beings.
“Come on in, Master.”
He wrapped his arm around her shoulder and gave her a gentle tug.
But Valletta never wanted to go in. She strengthened her legs and held on. At the same time, she heard a low laugh. Reinhardt snapped his fingers together. Valletta’s feet then began to move on its own.
“Wait, no…!”
“Master tried to get rid of me.”
Reinhardt whisphered, clutching Valletta’s shoulders as she tried to struggle. Her legs started to move toward the dining room, her back stayed stiff.
“……”
“My tender heart was hurt a lot.”
‘Like hell!’
She reflexively cried out in her mind. Her mouth was so tightly shut that no voice came out.
Valletta bit her lips down, looked down at her feet, moving according to Reinhardt’s will.
“You used to say that the reason was because I was useless.”
His voice became even colder.
“…”
She just said that she doesn’t need a slave. In the midst of begging for him to be expelled, however, there were times where words would just come out.
She never knew he was listening. Valletta’s face turned pale.
“So I thought I would prove my usefulness like my master wanted.”
Reinhardt whispered low. He then bent down meeting her gaze, as he tugged Valletta’s hair behind her ears.
“So take a good look.”
Reinhardt’s eyes folded into a half moon. A gleaming gaze of madness reached her left wrist.
It was the forced repatriation bracelet with a green jewel from Count Delight.
“I cleaned up the trash so I’ll be useful.”
The bracelet that was made of gold, became ruptured, cracked and soon crumbled into a powder and fell on the floor.
She looked up at Reinhardt with amazed eyes, but his gaze had already left Valletta.
He opened the dining room door while holding Valletta’s shoulder.
What unfolded was a feast of red. Although there were living people, all of them had no intact limbs. Only groans rang out.
Valletta’s frowning gaze stopped at a person sitting at the top of the table decorated with knives.
… Is he dead?
The moment she thought that, the remaining eye of the man sitting on top of the long table rolled and turned towards Valletta.
It was Count Delight.
His arms and legs were pinned by the knives used to cut steak, and one of his eye sockets was empty.
She first saw his severed fingers and trembling eye. It was a horrible sight that no words could describe.
“Ugh…! Ugh……!”
Count Delight’s eyes sparkled at the sight of Valletta. Valletta looked at Count Delight with an indifferent gaze.
‘What is he trying to say?’
An alchemy potion would heal him right away like nothing happened, but she’s in a situation where she could not move on her own.
Of course, she felt sorry for his situation.
However, it was Count Delight who over and over again ignored her words to abandon the madman because of his greed.
‘You deserve it.’
The scene in front of her is still frightening, but perhaps because her sense of smell is paralyzed, there was a sense of distance, as if she was watching a movie. There were many movies and dramas worse than this in her original world, so when she recalls that, she doesn’t think that the situation is that serious.
It was her foresight that she did not show anyone in the mansion her affection, because she thought that this would happen.
In fact, even though it’s been such a long time, she never remembered the names of any of the maids or attendants.
“The slaughter is not over yet, so the pigs are still squealing.”
Reinhardt said, squinting at Count Delight.
Count Delight, who received his attention, trembled greatly.
It was very unfamiliar for Valletta to see the man, who was usually arrogant and proud, to be terrified like that.
Reinhardt, reaching out his hand, rubbed her earlobe with his thumb.
“I’m sorry for dirtying your ears.”
Valletta’s body stiffened at Reinhardt’s smile that didn’t match the horror around them.
‘He must have really gone mad.’
Reinhardt gently rubbed her back, as if trying to appease her. She wanted to ask what kind of medicine he gave him, but Valletta’s lips did not open.
“I was actually planning to wrap it up properly tomorrow morning…”
Reinhardt said, leading Valletta to the side where there were no bodies. Valletta tried really hard to move her body, but the spell that she was under, did not allow her to move even a single finger.
“Master came first.”
It’s her fault for being awake. What Reinhardt was trying to say was clear.
But Valletta knew that it was a useless excuse.
Reinhardt, who had served Valletta for more than a decade, couldn’t possibly have not known what time she sleeps or when she eats her meal. It would have been more believable if he had said that he adjusted the time zone purposely.
“Did you know that he dared to try to teach me about sex, master.”
Reinhardt’s question raised goosebumps on her back. She knew about it as she only heard about it by today.
“…”
If you’re gonna ask a question any way, can you make it so that I can answer.
As Valletta looked at him with an annoyed gaze, Reinhardt beautifully bent his eyes into a half moon. But that did not mean that Valletta could speak again.
“If my master had not abandoned me, it may not have happened.”
“…”
Valletta felt that was unfair.
The reason why Count Delight had picked him up in the first place was to use him for that purpose.
He was also quite a famous slave trader behind the scene, and for him, Reinhardt would have been a jewel that would become more and more valuable as he grew up.
“So I first sliced up half of his tongue into pieces for hitting me in the face with his hand, and for his useless stick getting excited while looking at me……”
Reinhardt said, touching Valletta’s hair with his fingers.
Whether the robe also had a thermal function, it continued to warmly wrap around Valletta’s body, whose body temperature dropped due to the tension.
“Is there anything else you want to see?”
If you are going to ask me, let me speak. Valletta silently looked at Reinhardt’s mad eyes.
Reinhardt let out a low laugh and rubbed her lower lip sideways with his thumb. Her lips which were tightly closed, as if they were glued together, loosened.
She slightly moved her lips several times, then sighed and opened her mouth.
“My father brought you for that purpose.”
Valletta said the words she was suppressing. It was unfair of him to blame her for it.
Perhaps because it was beyond Reinhardt’s expectation, his shoulders shook and he laughed loudly. He looked like a madman laughing in the midst of corpses.
“If it was under master’s tutelage, it would have been welcomed.”
Reinhardt said with an ironic laughter. As Valletta shrugged, she looked at him with extreme disgust.
Reinhardt slowly stroked Valletta’s shoulder.
“And no matter how vengeful you are or whatever you do in this house, it has nothing to do with me,” she said.
At that, Reinhardt looked down at Valletta with his arms folded diagonally. Valletta’s body stiffened. His gaze was watching her. He looked at her as if contemplating whether to kill her or not.
“If only I wasn’t harmed.”
No matter what, Valletta’s life is a lot more important.
Honestly, it didn’t matter to her whatever happened to this family. Right from the start, she tried everything that she could. In her own way, she tried her best to tell them many times not to harm Reinhardt for the last 10 years.
After seeing that they never changed, Valletta had already prepared her mind a dozen or a hundred times.
She would’ve honestly run away a long time ago if it wasn’t because of the repatriation bracelet.
“My heartless master.”
Reinhardt shrugged and lamented.
Of course, it’s obviously an exaggeration. His real feelings were still unknown.
He was always like that. That is why Valletta was always on guard.
“I always tried to be your loyal dog…”
Reinhardt’s cold hand wrapped one of Valletta’s cheeks.
“My master always tried to push me away.”
She narrowed her eyes, feeling an unknown emotion that was closer to contempt. Valletta then opened and closed her mouth.
‘It’s because you were bound to kill me.’
She can’t say it. She can’t say that she has seen the future.
Reinhardt stood there motionless, waiting for Valletta’s reply for a while.
He then soon exhaled a sigh and reached for her lips with a sigh.
“Because everything about you…”
Reinhardt’s approaching hand stopped under Valletta’s nose. He then stayed still and looked up into her eyes. His eyes were emotionless, they weren’t smiling or contained any feelings.
“Is a lie.”
But Valletta thought that it was closer to the real him.
***