Chapter 99
Chapter 99
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: EP.25 – No Secrets Can Be Hidden (3)
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...Rustle.
Levi turned her back and slipped off her clothes.
Lee Han flinched.
It wasn't the sudden sight of her undressing that startled him.
It was simply what was on her back.
"Can you see it?"
"...A tattoo, huh. Modern noble ladies are pretty bold."
"Hehe, you know that's not it."
"Ahem."
He cleared his throat awkwardly.
It was a silent signal that she didn't need to say anything, but she was resolute.
"It's a slave brand. A particularly vicious one."
She spat out the harsh truth.
"......"
"You see, Master, I don't have parents. I'm an orphan in every sense."
She hurriedly dressed again, and Lee Han gave a wry smile.
"You could've just told me. Why go through all the trouble of stripping?"
"Showing it once is better than explaining it a hundred times. Isn't that what you always say, Master?"
"...Damn overachiever."
"I'll take that as a compliment."
Levi was unusually eloquent today.
She wondered if she'd ever spoken so freely and steadily in front of someone else.
She'd always been timid, but now that she'd bared all her secrets to him, she felt like she could pour out everything without holding back.
And so, Levi pressed on even more boldly.
"I'm a slave. About five years ago, I was sold to the Pollet family."
She revealed her greatest weakness and secret.
"......"
...He simply listened to her words with a quiet gaze.
His eyes said it didn't matter that she was a slave.
He still saw Levi not as a 'slave', but as his 'disciple' and a 'girl'.
Her heart swelled!
'...Whew, this man really...'
He was too kind for words.
'Anyone else would be shocked or feel betrayed... He's too good a teacher for someone like me.'
Levi held back the tears welling up again.
She could cry after she'd revealed everything she'd hidden all this time.
"...I'm not from Pendragon originally. I'm from Britann. Though for a slave, origins don't really matter."
She had been a war orphan from the start.
Britann had long provoked wars with the Empire and Pendragon alike.
War orphans were more common than street rats there, and Levi was just one who had lost her parents and become one at some point.
And then, Levi was captured by a slave trading caravan.
Slave trading was mostly banned, but everyone knew they still existed openly.
So it wasn't particularly tragic or cruel that Levi had been kidnapped and enslaved.
...That was just how life was for a powerless orphan.
"I don't know if it's fortunate, but I was unusually beautiful for an orphan, and my hair color was rare, like a noble's. So I was classified as 'top quality' and received extensive training. The merchant said there was overwhelming demand for high-end slaves."
She didn't know if it was misfortune or luck, but she was pretty.
And pretty girls had 'demand', according to the slave trader, who taught her to read and write, along with noble etiquette.
She had a knack for learning, and once they realized how quick-witted she was, the merchant was even happier.
'I can sell her for a fortune!'
-That was the slave trader's constant refrain.
"I wasn't happy about it at all."
...It was during her training as a high-end slave that it happened.
Pendragon and Britann went to war, and the slave trader had the bad luck to get caught up and killed.
It was misfortune for him, but luck for her.
She'd gotten a chance to escape.
But of all things, she-
"I had no idea being a high-end slave would cause problems."
[Seal of Obedience].
That was the true nature of the slave brand on her back, etched by a rogue mage the trader had hired.
It was like a curse, a spell that couldn't be removed by ordinary means—a nightmare.
The trader's way of ensuring high-end slaves couldn't escape, and as a result, she ended up with another merchant who absorbed his organization.
And that merchant...
"Sold me to Pendragon. It was wartime, so he sold everything he could convert to cash. Including me, for a cheap price."
Ten silver coins.
That was her price.
"And the place I was sold to was..."
"The Polt family?"
"...Yes."
"Where'd those guys get the money to buy you?"
"Probably borrowed it, I guess. Just a hunch, but they saw it as an investment. That man probably intended from the start..."
To resell her.
-You're our daughter from today on. We'll call you Levi Polt. Haha!
The day she was sold, the Polt family gave her a name and surname, welcoming her as family.
Even though she was just a slave.
Levi had been moved.
Aah, a day like this has finally come for me too—the miraculous luck from fairy tales!
She had been truly happy.
But.
-Why are you growing so slowly! Grow up faster, damn it!
Reynold Polt hadn't adopted a slave as a daughter for nothing.
It was to 'sell her off'.
To marry her to a great noble or wealthy merchant guild.
Yes, he'd seen investment value in her and bought her for that reason.
The Polt family.
This house was utterly hopeless.
Still dreaming of reviving as a knightly house, they raised their heir-daughter preciously, but only to prepare a 'sacrifice' to extract money through marriage.
They never tried any other way or real effort to rise again.
Truly a clan of ghosts.
Levi faced their madness and incompetence, desperate to run away.
She knew exactly how her fate would end otherwise.
She'd waited for a chance to escape or report them...
-You'd better not even dream of running.
But the Seal of Obedience left her powerless.
She was bound, unable to defy her master's orders.
The commands imprinted on her were three main ones.
One: She couldn't reveal to others that she was a slave.
Two: She couldn't act against the Polt family's interests.
Three: She had to obey the Polt family members.
With these branded into her like a stigma, she
"Had no choice but to obey them, no matter how repulsive."
The guild member who'd toyed with him the day before.
When he'd threatened her mother and sister, her sudden cooperation wasn't from affection or kindness toward them.
"I have to obey that mother and daughter too."
A true curse.
Freedom didn't exist in her life—only oppression and horror clung to her.
...Horribly so.
"And yet, ironically, I wanted them to accept me as family. It was the first time I'd ever had one, so... I really, truly tried my absolute best."
Effort.
The blind effort Lee Han had called it.
Through that effort, she wanted to prove herself.
Wouldn't they acknowledge her if she tried her hardest?
If she achieved something worthy of the family...!
"I dreamed a childish girl's 'fantasy' that maybe they'd accept me as family."
"......"
"Hehe, I'm so foolish and stupid, right?"
She asked again.
She squeezed her eyes shut, assuming his face had hardened in disgust at her foolishness.
Too scared to hear his answer—
"-No, it's the opposite. I'm so proud of you, I want to hug you and say you've been through so much."
"......"
"You've suffered so much. Really... you've been through hell."
...He met her with the same gentle gaze.
It wasn't pity.
Genuine admiration.
For the girl who'd endured such hardship. That was all she felt from him.
"......Ah."
Levi blanked out for a moment.
All this time, she'd lived in anxiety, wondering what reaction revealing her secrets would bring—would he despise her?
But now.
...Someone who accepted her as she was stood before her, and Levi trembled from head to toe.
"Well, a hug from an old guy like me probably isn't appealing, but even if you think it's nonsense..."
Whoosh!
"......"
"...Hic."
"...Yeah, cry it out. You can borrow my arms as long as you need."
"Hic! Waaahhh!"
"That's right, cry loud like that. That's how you let it all out."
Levi ran to him with all her strength and threw herself into his arms.
And at the same time, she resented him.
Why show up only now?
Why hadn't she met someone like him when she needed him most?
The grueling, exhausting 19 years.
Facing the 'family' who would truly cherish her, Levi wept bitterly.
Not quietly like the day before, but with loud sobs...
Truly heartbroken sobs.
"...It's okay. You're okay now."
Lee Han gently patted her back.
Warmly.