The Price of Crossing the Line
The Price of Crossing the Line
Dawn had fully broken.
Ines, curled up on the old bed, had yet to open her eyes.
I quietly slipped out of the dormitory and headed to the market.
A few silver coins earned from slaughtering the demonic beasts last night. Using them all up, I bought a set of black maid's uniform—cheap in quality but roomy and neat—along with low-heeled leather shoes.
Returning to the room, I woke Ines.
She flinched at my presence, but as the familiar sound of my heartbeat drew near, she soon calmed down.
I dressed her in the maid's uniform with an indifferent touch, as if clothing a doll.
A cheap scrap of cloth.
But draped in that dark, murky fabric, her dazzling platinum blonde hair and fair skin stood out all the more brilliantly, ironically.
Even her vacant eyes, now those of a perfect idiot, seemed like the unfathomable melancholy of a mysterious saint.
"Hold tight."
There was no way she understood the meaning of my words.
But as I turned and began to walk, she instinctively grabbed the hem of my uniform with both hands, clenching it like a lifeline, afraid of being abandoned.
A beast's survival instinct, desperate not to stray even a little from my scent and heartbeat.
Leading her, who clung close behind me and followed with quick, shuffling steps, I headed to the academy's administrative office.
"...You're insane."
The fat clerk in the administrative office lifted his glasses and snorted.
"A commoner bringing a personal maid? There's no precedent for that in academy history."
"There's no rule against it either."
"Look here, cadet. It's not about the rules—this is an insult to the nobility..."
Clink.
Instead of answering, I casually slid the pouch of remaining silver coins onto the clerk's desk.
"......"
The clerk's greedy eyes turned toward the table.
Things like justification and discipline always yield before the weight of a purse.
I confirmed he had pocketed the silver coins and put them in his drawer, then left the office without any lingering attachment.
From today, Ines was my officially registered personal maid at the academy.
A perfect excuse to keep her bound within my sight, within arm's reach.
I didn't care about the nobles' contempt or conflicts that would arise in the process.
The academy's massive main lecture hall.
Inside, adorned with a chandelier and red carpet, high-ranking noble sons and daughters gathered, murmuring.
Creak—
The moment I pushed open the heavy wooden door and stepped inside,
The air in the lecture hall instantly froze cold.
"Is that bastard insane?"
"How dare a mere commoner bring a servant and enter this sacred lecture hall!"
"...Oh my goodness. Look at that girl's face."
Blatant contempt and disgust, along with naked curiosity aimed at Ines, poured down like arrows.
Dozens of gazes sticky-ly swept over her, trembling and hiding behind my back.
Ines, feeling extreme terror in the flood of unfamiliar noises and stares, clenched her hand gripping my uniform so tightly it turned white.
Her thin shoulders trembled like an aspen leaf.
I covered the back of her hand with my large hand, once, lightly, with a pat.
Even that alone made Ines's trembling subside slightly.
Completely ignoring the surrounding noise like the fluttering of insects, I moved toward the very back corner seat.
Thud.
At that moment, a navy blue uniform embroidered with brilliant silver thread blocked my path.
Well-combed blonde hair, a jawline dripping with arrogance.
He was the second son of the powerful House of Bordeaux, a count's family.
"Hey, commoner."
He sneered and tapped my name tag on my uniform.
"We merciful nobles turned a blind eye to you, a nameless orphan brat, crawling into the academy just because you made some achievements on the battlefield. But."
His gaze slid from my name tag to Ines, hiding behind me.
"This is way over the line, isn't it? Picking up some slave bitch that was rolling around in a garbage dump..."
The count's son's speech dragged on, but I didn't feel it worth answering.
It was just annoying filth blocking the way. I just had to clear it and pass by.
I gave him a cold glance, then turned my body to sidestep past him.
"Where do you think you're running?"
He roughly grabbed my shoulder.
And in his eyes, a lecherous, sticky desire blatantly bloomed.
"...But, her face is quite usable, I must say. For something picked up from a trash can."
The count's son licked his lips and took a step toward Ines behind me.
"Hey, commoner. What makes you think you're fit to have a maid? I'll take that beastly bitch off your hands."
His lips twisted upward.
"I'll pay you more money than you've ever touched in your life. Wash that bitch tonight and send her to my room."
A provocation that had clearly crossed the line.
Not only treating Ines like an object, but a vulgar molestation aiming to make her a whore.
"Come here, girl."
He chuckled and reached his hand toward Ines's pale cheek, trembling violently.
Just as Ines, terrified, let out a beast-like scream and tried to completely hide behind me—at that very instant.
Snatch.
My hand caught the count's son's wrist as it reached out.
"...Huh?"
The young master's stupid eyes turned to me.
He probably expected my face to be filled with rage, but he was wrong.
My expression was cold and dried up like a midwinter ice sheet.
I didn't utter any warning, not even a common curse.
I grabbed his wrist and bent it upward—snapped it.
Crack—!
"Kk, aaaaagh!"
A grotesque sound of muscles tearing and bones dislocating.
A death scream burst from the count's son's mouth.
But it wasn't the end.
I drove my other fist mercilessly into his face, which was thrust forward from the broken wrist.
THWACK—!
"Kuhak!"
With a violent impact sound, the count's son's nasal bone completely caved in.
Shattered tooth fragments and dark red blood scattered in a parabola through the air.
He couldn't even scream properly, frothing blood and rolling pathetically on the carpet floor.
"Kyaaaaah!"
"That, that crazy bastard hit a noble!"
The lecture hall instantly turned into a bedlam.
Noble ladies screamed and backed away, while male students who had been stunned stared at me with horrified faces.
"You, you dare...! Kuhak! Do you know who I am...!"
The count's son, collapsed on the floor, clutched his bloodied face and screamed convulsively.
At the fact that a mere commoner worm had hit him, his eyes rolled back in resentment and shock.
I casually wiped the noble's dirty blood from my fist onto my pants.
My vision was cold, and my mind was operating with a chilling composure.
This wasn't a simple failure of anger control.
It was a thoroughly calculated act of violence.
Those broken bones and crushed nasal bones would heal cleanly without even a scar with a low-grade potion from the academy infirmary and a healing spell from the priests.
Even the serious crime of assaulting a noble would be covered up in this dark fantasy world plagued by manpower shortages, as a justification proving my overwhelming martial prowess.
But the 'fear' I left behind today by crushing that bastard's bones would not be healed.
Through this insane act, I had to drive a wedge into the entire academy.
That whoever touched my maid—whether noble or imperial—would have their head smashed in.
I had to imprint the fact that I was a mad dog with no blood or tears, so that no piece of trash would ever dare lay their dirty hands on my property.
The harassment toward Ines was the perfect kindling to build my notoriety.
Ta-dada-dak!
At that moment, heavy military boot steps poured in from the hallway.
"What's this commotion!"
"Young master! How dare a commoner!"
Bursting through the door as if breaking it down were the academy guards and the knights escorting the count's son.
From the eyes of the knights who found their master collapsed and bloodied, a fierce killing intent burst forth.
Clang! Clang!
The friction sound of dozens of swords being drawn all at once echoed menacingly through the lecture hall.
"Kneel immediately, commoner!"
"Resist and we'll execute you on the spot!"
In an instant, a dozen sharp sword tips were aimed at my throat and heart, layered in multiple ranks.
A precarious distance where even a deep breath would feel like it could cut the back of my neck.
A terrible tension, just before the storm of blood, weighed down the lecture hall.
"Aaaah! Auhhh!"
At that terrifying killing intent and shouting, Ines, who had been behind me, finally lost her composure.
She covered both ears, curled up on the floor, and began to howl and convulse like a beast.
Her eyes, trembling like an aspen leaf, completely lost focus and were sinking into the abyss of fear.
"....."
I, as if the knights' cold blades, nearly touching my neck, were of no concern at all.
I turned my head with a slow, indifferent motion.
Neither the shouts to kneel nor the cold sword grazing my cheek could move me.
I slowly bent one knee, lowering myself to eye level with the curled-up Ines.
And in the midst of this battlefield reeking of blood,
I pulled her into my broad chest, as if to completely embrace only her.
"Stay still."
A dry voice without even a gentle word of comfort.
But with my large, rough hands, I firmly covered both her ears, as if blocking out all the noise of a world filled with killing intent and shouts.
And I buried her head deep against my heart.
Thump, thump, thump.
A hair-trigger situation with dozens of blades aimed at me.
My pulse, which had just been mercilessly crushing a noble's face, was paradoxically beating endlessly calm and regular.
"Uu, uung..."
Ines's beast-like convulsions, buried against my chest, subsided like melting snow at that single heartbeat sound.
Even the knights pointing swords, and the nobles who had been screaming, froze with their mouths open.
In the midst of blood-soaked violence, I held the maid with vacant eyes and casually stroked her back.
As if no matter how this damn world turned, only the two of us existed.