In this work, the words are used differently from their dictionary definitions:
- 'Lady-in-waiting: a person who serves by the side'
- 'Maid: a person who does cleaning and other menial tasks but does not serve'
Please keep this in mind while enjoying the work.
Prologue
This place was so eerie that even the creaking sounds added to its gloom. With each step, the sound of my boots echoed loudly, making me even more cautious.
I leaned slightly forward and walked at a pace that was neither too fast nor too slow. When I finally reached the familiar door, I stopped abruptly.
I took a deep breath before opening the door. After a few short breaths, I turned the doorknob and pushed the door open.
The shadows inside the room, darker than the corridor, rushed in. The pitch-black room, where nothing could be seen, made me hesitate to enter.
However, I entered familiarly and pulled open the long curtains. A beam of light so strong it made my eyes close streamed in.
It was blinding. Still, I finished pulling the curtains and turned around.
At that moment, something flew past my face.
Thud! The object hit the window frame, bounced off, and rolled on the floor. It was a desk clock. I glanced at it and turned my gaze forward.
The bed, farthest from the window, was in a corner where deep shadows fell. On it was a round shape covered by a sheet. The only part sticking out was a hand, gripping the edge of the sheet tightly, clearly trembling with fear.
“Get out.”
A hoarse voice echoed, filled with deep anger.
I ignored it and picked up the desk clock from the floor. The clock was broken, with nails protruding and the wooden surface torn. I concluded it was unusable and placed it on the new sheet I was holding. Then, I scanned the chaotic room.
The dishes were shattered into pieces, and the fragments were scattered dangerously on the floor. Forks and spoons were among them. Not only the dishes but everything in the room was broken.
I walked step by step, picking up the items scattered on the floor. The round shape on the bed trembled with each sound of my footsteps.
“Get out.”
The voice echoed again.
I ignored it once more and approached the bed. The shape, unable to bear the anxiety, fidgeted on the bed, felt around on the bedside table, and then retreated. Without anything to throw, it chose to run. But even running meant it was still on the bed, pressed against the wall, looking pitiful.
I scanned the shape from head to toe and extended my hand. It fiercely swatted my hand away.
“Don’t touch me.”
How could it be? I ignored it again and quickly pulled the sheet. The shape, covered by the sheet, staggered and revealed itself.
Tangled golden hair, a neck and shoulders turned pale with fear, and prominent bones were visible. My gaze swept down, and I knew without needing to confirm how emaciated the body under the clothes was.
Raising my gaze again, I saw sweat on his face up close. When I extended my hand, he fiercely swatted it away again.
“Don’t touch me!”
A thunderous shout followed.
“I told you to get out! Get out! Go away!”
As he spewed harsh curses, I finally sighed deeply.
The man’s pale face was flushed with heat. His chapped lips panted heavily. Despite this, he clutched the sheet so tightly that his fingertips turned white, as if not to let it be taken from him.
“Go away. Please, just go away!”
“Calm down, sir.”
“Get out! Go, go away— gasp!”
As expected, the man’s breathing began to sound labored. His flushed face turned pale again, and he clutched his chest in pain.
I quickly embraced him and took a respirator from my pocket, placing it in his mouth. I gently stroked his back and said,
“Slowly, breathe.”
He tried to regulate his breathing, inhaling and exhaling through the respirator. As he repeated this, the violent movement of his chest gradually subsided. After a while, I removed the respirator from his mouth.
“Ha, ha.”
“You’ll be fine now.”
His face was drenched in sweat. His wet golden hair fell onto my clothes. I stroked his hair, a gesture of approval. His tightly closed eyelids weakly opened, and his slightly pale emerald eyes looked at me.
At that moment, my body was pushed backward.
“Yah!”
Before I could blink, I rolled off the bed with a thud.
My skirt flipped up, exposing my underwear. I thrashed my legs in the air, and a face appeared above me.
The gaze, which had been staring blankly ahead, gradually moved downward. It felt as if he was looking directly at me. His face, still excessively pale and excessively handsome, filled my vision.
His moist lips parted quietly.
“Get out.”
A crack appeared on my face. Damn, what a bastard.
1. The Insufferable Master of the Earl’s Family (1)
I am the daughter of a tenant farmer, born with nothing and raised with nothing. Even that was difficult, as our situation worsened to the point where we could barely put food on the table.
A life of grinding poverty, where we earned just enough to survive each day, was all I knew.
Ironically, we had five children.
Unable to bear the crushing poverty, my mother ran away, leaving us. My father, who remained, drank and inflicted violence daily.
His hand killed the youngest, who was still nursing, and the fourth child died of starvation. The second child was sold to a brothel, and the third, who had a pretty face, was pampered like gold and jade. My father’s plan was to marry her off to a nobleman’s son to improve our fortune.
As for me, the eldest and the ugliest, I was kept around because I was good at household chores.
My day was filled with cooking, washing, cleaning, serving the third child, working at Mr. Mark’s bakery in town during the day, and enduring my father’s violence at night.
It was a life of endless hardship, with no time to catch my breath.
My already unattractive face became even more swollen and unappealing, and my legs, which should have grown during my teenage years, stopped growing after a fracture. I was a short, unattractive person. The neighborhood children called me that.
If there was a hell, I thought I was living in it. I envied my third sister, who grew more beautiful and radiant each day, and I found it hard to endure my father’s violence. I had tried to hang myself several times, but each time, I was caught by my father or a passerby, or the rope broke just as I was about to die.
This place was my prison, and I was a prisoner without knowing my crime. In fact, a real prison might have been better.
The reason my father didn’t sell me to a brothel was that he needed someone to do the household chores. However, this was only partly true. I later learned from the neighborhood women that when he tried to sell me to a brothel as a child, they refused to buy me because I was unattractive, and he decided to teach me household chores instead.
My mother called my father a devil, and I followed her in calling him that. My future would be dictated by this devil.
What else could this be but a tragedy?
But God did not abandon me completely.
My stunted growth miraculously increased by a few inches, and my lank bangs began to cover my unattractive face. When I started to look like a blossoming young woman, an old gentleman visited our village. I don’t know why such a distinguished gentleman would visit this small, remote village.
The turning point came when he gestured to me as he was passing by one day.
“I would like to hire your daughter.”
The old gentleman extended a pouch of gold coins and made a polite offer. My father, distracted by the gold, swallowed hard. His despicable mind quickly calculated the value of the old gentleman and the pouch of gold coins on the table.
My father, eager to grab the pouch, clenched his trembling hand and composed his expression.
“Sir, my humble daughter is a great honor to catch your eye, but she is only skilled in begging and is quite inexperienced. If you are not satisfied with her in the future...”
“I will not ask for the gold back, even if I am not satisfied.”
The old gentleman calmly pushed the pouch of gold coins toward my father. My father, whose mouth was curling upward, forced it down and looked at me, who was sitting beside him. His gaze, as if looking at a beloved daughter, sent shivers down my spine.
“My dear, I respect your thoughts. Money is important, but you are more important. Speak your mind freely.”
While saying this, he gripped my thin wrist with his large hand. The grip was so tight it felt like my bones were twisting. His face, which seemed to show concern for his precious daughter, was actually fixated on the gold coins.
The old gentleman also waited calmly for my response. If I refused, he would leave and find another girl, and my father would beat me to death as punishment.
“I will go.”
“Daughter.”
My father, with a face full of emotion and a voice tinged with tears, embraced me. I had to suppress the urge to push him away as he stroked my back.
I quickly packed and followed the old gentleman. My belongings were just a single bag. I had few clothes or possessions. The only difference from my usual appearance was that I wore a pretty dress with embroidered flowers instead of my usual tattered, dirt-covered clothes.
“Take care and be careful.”
My father patted my shoulder at the door, a gesture that also conveyed the silent pressure to behave well for the gentleman.
My third sister, Alicia, who was standing next to my father, smiled at me.
“Take care, sister. Stay for a long time.”
Don’t come back. Alicia added this with a smirk. When I didn’t react, she erased her smile and pouted.
I said one last thing to her.
“Take good care of that pretty face. It’s the only thing you have.”
“What?!”
I turned my back on the fuming Alicia and followed the old gentleman.
The place he led me to was a mansion so large it made my eyes widen. It was even grander and larger than the most affluent lord’s mansion in my village. Wow. I let out a pure exclamation and followed the old gentleman inside.
“You have arrived.”
A neatly dressed middle-aged woman greeted the old gentleman. The old gentleman nodded and removed his hat.
The middle-aged woman noticed me standing behind the old gentleman and asked,
“Who is this girl?”
“She will serve the master from now on.”
Master? I looked at the old gentleman with a question, and he gestured for me to come forward. I hesitantly stepped forward, and the middle-aged woman scanned me from head to toe, as if evaluating me. I swallowed hard and waited politely.
“I see.”
Whether the evaluation was positive or not, the middle-aged woman nodded and turned around. The old gentleman also turned in the opposite direction. I looked back and forth between the two, and then followed the woman.