The Hollow Piggy Bank
The carriage rattled through the darkened outskirts of the capital, heading toward the mansion. Inside, a suffocating silence reigned. Across from me, Elina sat with her spine rigidly straight, every inch the eldest daughter of a ducal house. She had once been the empire’s merciless vanguard, slaughtering enemy nations without mercy. Even with her Mana Heart destroyed, a razor-sharp killing intent still pierced the cramped space. The stench of the sewers and the metallic tang of blood were merely bonuses.
“……Haa.”
She furrowed her brow and let out a ragged sigh. A faint vein rose along the elegant line of her neck. It was the instinctive wariness of someone who had lost all power yet still reacted to unfamiliar presences. Her lips, drained of color, were pressed into a tight line as she desperately tried to hide the trembling of her body.
But my gaze never once turned toward her. It remained buried in the worn ledger clutched in my hands.
Things are a complete mess.
Prostitution, narcotics, contract killings. He’d dipped his fingers into every filthy racket imaginable, yet the company vault was bone dry. I flipped the page with an irritated snap.
If I cut off these dirty businesses in one clean stroke for the sake of immediate efficiency, the back-alley cartels that had been leeching off them would come for my throat by morning. And they weren’t the only parasites. Touching anything now would be reckless.
When acquiring a failing company, the first step was always the same. In my previous life, I would purge the rotten old executives, keep only the useful ones, and put them on a perfect leash through restructuring. It was the art of grinding down the petty pride of lofty elites and rebuilding their foundations from the bones up. As a cold-blooded corporate raider, I had done it as routinely as eating.
“We have arrived, Master.”
At the coachman’s hoarse voice, the carriage stopped. Without sparing Elina in the front seat a single glance, I opened the door and stepped down.
With a heavy creak, the massive iron gates swung open, revealing the mansion’s grounds.
“……!”
Elina, who had been stepping out of the carriage, froze mid-motion. Her blue pupils dilated grotesquely wide. She must have expected a hellscape stained with blood and echoing with endless screams. Instead, the mansion before her was so splendid and immaculate it could have been a detached palace of the imperial family.
“Welcome back, Master.”
In the vast garden, dozens of slaves stood in perfect military formation, disciplined like an army. Battle slaves radiating killing intent. A steward exuding dignity. Beautiful maids of refined grace. The quality of personnel was monstrously perfect, enough to easily overshadow even the servants of the Valois ducal house where Elina had been born and raised.
And beneath every one of their collarbones was engraved the Brand of Subjugation. Clear proof that Victor was no mere back-alley slave trader. In her eyes, my status was being completely redefined on an entirely different orbit.
“Silvia.”
Chief maid Silvia bowed at a perfectly precise angle. Silver hair as cold as ice, features so refined and intelligent they seemed to steal one’s breath.
“Wash her. Thoroughly.”
Elina’s shoulders stiffened like stone. Instead of answering, Silvia simply bowed her head in silence, then immediately led the way into the mansion.
The spacious room was filled with the warm steam of hot water.
“……”
Elina sat submerged in the marble bathtub, her face flushed crimson. A faint, expensive aroma of scented oils lingered at the tip of her nose. This was none other than the “office,” fully equipped with the highest-grade bathing facilities.
“Raise your arm, please.”
Silvia’s voice was utterly devoid of emotion. A soft sponge carefully wiped away the grime and crusted blood from Elina’s body. Torn clothes were removed, revealing an overwhelming naked form above the clear water. Sleek, firm abs and a flexible waist befitting a reaper who had ravaged enemy nations. In stark contrast, her breasts were breathtakingly full. Her skin, heavy with moisture, glistened sensually under the light of the mana lamps.
Splash. Splash.
Silvia’s cautious hands stirred gentle ripples. Her white blouse, soaked through and clinging transparently to her body, revealed the voluptuous curves she usually kept hidden.
Rustle.
Why is the acquisition cost for this place so inflated? Someone’s been skimming off the top.
I sat at the desk just ten paces from the bathtub. It was a front-row seat with a perfect view of their wet, naked bodies. Yet my eyes remained fixed solely on the ink marks crawling across the documents.
Being stripped naked in the most private workspace was a vicious pastime the original Victor had secretly enjoyed. My perspective was different. There was no more perfect method of gaslighting to shatter the petty pride of noble slaves in a single blow.
No reason to dismantle such an excellently designed system.
Elina trembled, arms wrapped tightly around her chest. Not only was there a bathtub in the office, but she had been left completely naked and treated as if she were invisible. Her quivering, bloodless lips and her violently shaking blue eyes spoke volumes about her current state.
A used asset that had just been purchased and was currently being cleaned. A mechanical repairman servicing it. If I failed to properly subjugate this used asset, I would be carrying the risk of having this body sliced apart. I had to turn Elina into a perfect slave by making maximum use of Victor’s memories, experience, and my own.
How much time had passed?
The splashing finally stopped, replaced by the rustle of fabric filling the quiet office.
“All instructions have been carried out, Master.”
Only then did I lift my eyes from the ledger and turn my head. Elina now wore a neat maid uniform. Her skin glowed like polished marble, and her jet-black hair reflected softly in the mana light. It was a seductive figure that made it hard to believe she had been a caged beast only moments ago.
“You may leave.”
Silvia bowed silently and exited the room. With a soft click, the door closed.
Now, in this vast space, only Elina and I remained.
Rustle. Rustle.
Without giving her a single command, I turned my gaze back to the documents.
One hour. Two hours. Then four hours.
In the silent office, only the sound of ink wetting the pen and pages turning echoed through the room.
“……”
Elina was desperately trying to maintain the straight-backed posture befitting a ducal lady. But as time dragged on, her once graceful, swan-like bearing began to crumble. Her slender calves trembled. Cold sweat trickled dangerously down her forehead. Her breathing grew rough, and her ample chest rose and fell heavily beneath her uniform. The pitiful yet sensual sight would have stirred any man’s sadistic urges, but my eyes remained glued to the numbers in the ledger.
And then, when five hours had finally passed.
“U-um…”
The moment Elina, at the limit of her stamina, tried to speak in a cracked voice—
“Who gave you permission to speak to your master without leave?”
A cynical, ice-cold rebuke froze the office solid.
“……!”
Elina’s shoulders jerked violently. Her pale hand clutched the hem of her uniform in a death grip.
Tap.
Only then did I set down the pen I had been holding and slowly raise my head to meet her eyes. For the first time in a full five hours, my gaze fully captured her. At that overwhelming indifference, her pupils quivered strangely.
It was the oppressive feeling of absolute control she was experiencing for the first time in her life, the kind that bound one to the marrow of their bones.
I reached into the drawer, pulled out a glass bottle containing a murky green liquid, and tossed it to her.
“Drink it.”
Elina’s shoulders flinched once more. Poison? Or an aphrodisiac? Her trembling eyes asked the question silently.
“If you think some cheap drug like this…”
She gripped her clothes even tighter.
“…will erase my sanity, then just kill me instead.”
“I thought I told you to know your place.”
I tapped the armrest of the chair with my fingers, watching the glowing brand and Elina’s pained expression.
“It’s a Mana Stabilizer. With your shattered Mana Heart, you must be suffering bone-melting agony every night.”
“……!”
“Stop talking and drink.”
A slave branded with the mark had no right to refuse once the master held the leash.
Gulp.
She squeezed her eyes shut and swallowed the liquid. A faint moan escaped her lips. The terrible pain that had never let her go for even a single day cooled as if by magic, like a blazing fire doused in ice.
I stared at her in silence. In that heavy quiet, Elina’s eyes gradually reddened at the corners. She was surely thinking of the vulgar nightly duties a slave was expected to perform. Soon, as if resigning herself, her once rigid shoulders drooped ever so slightly. Her white fingertips trembled without pause. Slowly, carefully, that hand rose toward the buttons of her uniform.
The moment the ducal lady chose submission of her own will for the sake of survival—
“What do you think you’re doing?”
My emotionless voice stopped her fingers cold.
“……Pardon?”
“I asked why you are undoing your buttons.”
Deep bewilderment flashed across Elina’s eyes as she looked up at me. The expression of someone who believed she must offer her body in return for the grace she had received.
I leaned back deeply into the chair and continued.
“Don’t misunderstand, Elina.”
“……!”
“Why would I bother keeping a piece of meat that I would only throw to rutting goblins?”
Elina’s blue eyes shook with violent tremors. She had fallen to the level of a worthless slave and lost all choice. The value as a woman she had kept as her final weapon in the worst situation had just been thoroughly denied and treated like filth.
Her last meager pride as a woman snapped.
Her bloodless lips trembled. Her once proud head bowed slightly downward. It was the collapse of asset value, and the sign of a wretched surrender.
“Rest.”
I tossed the words out while rifling through the documents on the desk.
“Even a goblin would vomit at the sight of you in that state. Recovering your physical condition through sufficient rest is also one of your duties.”
“……”
“Starting tomorrow, learn everything from Silvia. Your role, the rules of this place, all of it.”
Tap. Tap. I lightly rapped the desk twice with my finger.
Creak.
As if she had been waiting outside, the door opened. Silvia had already changed out of her wet clothes into a neat new maid uniform.
“Take her.”
Silvia gently took Elina’s arm. With a face utterly shattered, Elina was led away. Even until the very last moment before the door closed, her trembling gaze remained fixed on me, still buried in the ledger.
Once the door shut, a heavy silence settled over the office once more.
“Haa.”
I massaged the back of my neck with a tired hand and picked up the pen again. The rotten tasks piled in front of me were mountainous.
First, the dried-up liquid funds after pouring three hundred and fifty gold coins into Elina. Second, the stinking, loss-making businesses. Third, the interest payment due the day after tomorrow.
The surest way to put an artificial respirator on a company on the verge of bankruptcy was to forcibly swallow a massive cash pipeline that could transfuse blood immediately.
Rustle.
My finger stabbed down onto the map of the capital’s back alleys spread across the desk. Massive illegal gambling dens where astronomical sums of gold changed hands every night.
If you don’t have the money to repay the debt…
A smile came naturally.
Just rob the creditor’s vault clean. That solves everything.