9 - The Time of the Blind Beast (15+ Revised Edition) Episode 9
Chapter 9
“Who is the mail from?”
Ezekiel asked abruptly.
Madam Serva, tapping her cane, walked over and took the mail from his hand. Most of the employees were illiterate, but housekeepers were often educated to some extent. Naturally, Madam Serva could read. However, her presbyopia was the problem.
She pushed her glasses up, held the envelope at arm’s length, then took them off and brought the letter close enough to touch her nose.
Ezekiel pressed.
“What does it say? Why no reply, Serva?”
“……I think I’ll have to call someone in from outside. My eyesight has been dim for a long time, and this old woman can no longer see the small print on letters.”
Madam Serva sighed. Moreover, the room was dim, making it impossible to see anything.
Rose, who had been standing silently, glanced at the name scrawled in cursive on the envelope.
Moncam.
It was the sender’s name. After reading the visible part, Rose answered in Madam Serva’s stead.
“It’s from someone named Moncam. It says ‘Captain’ next to the name, so I suspect they are involved with the military.”
“Moncam? Then it must be the search report I requested. But how would you know that?”
Ezekiel countered.
“Rose, can you read?”
This time, Madam Serva was also surprised. Rose confessed readily.
“I learned at school.”
“You went to school?”
“Yes. Though I didn’t finish.”
“What did you learn?”
“Poetry and novels, composition, history, geometry, algebra… and I can also prepare accounting ledgers. I learned a little about musical instruments, but I’m not proficient.”
A strange silence fell over the unexpected and comprehensive list of educational subjects.
“If you went to school, why are you doing menial labor?”
Ezekiel spoke first. His chillingly cold voice revealed his suspicion towards her without reservation.
Madam Serva was equally perplexed. Given the level of education Rose had revealed, she could have demanded much higher wages. Yet, she had remained silent, taking on the arduous labor of the laundry room until her hands were swollen and wrinkled from the water.
“Why is laundry considered menial labor? If the masters are to wear clean clothes every day, then I must do the laundry.”
Rose calmly asked back.
At the Valdemara main house in Claris, her parents had scrubbed floors until their backs ached and washed clothes until their finger joints stiffened. Although she had committed sins, she did not want to degrade her parents’ labor, which had raised her, into menial work.
“Of course, laundry is a necessary task for daily life. Not just laundry, but cooking food or cleaning the house, all of them. But Rose, I don’t understand this either. I always thought Rose was desperately looking for work. You came to us in the middle of the night, without anyone knowing. But don’t you have opportunities to earn more money? Even as a tutor…”
It was a perfectly valid question. It was understandable that either Madam Serva or Ezekiel would find her suspicious, having come to a remote mansion when she possessed the ability to find expensive jobs in the big city.
“I… I really wanted to work here.”
But Rose had a reason why it absolutely had to be here.
While she felt she had to atone for her sins, even without that incident, Rose would have sought out Ezekiel eventually.
She turned her gaze to the man’s cold profile.
“Major.”
Ezekiel furrowed his brow at the unexpected title.
“Do you happen to remember Milena Girls’ School?”
“Milena Girls’ School?”
His tone suggested he had no recollection at all. It was natural. For him, it would have been just one of many battlefields he had passed through.
But she had been at that school then.
“It’s in Cielsa, in the north. Not too far from Derosa either.”
It was a brief but intensely remembered war.
As the fighting spread sporadically, ominous rumors circulated through every region near the border. However, they had not anticipated the front lines descending so quickly into civilian areas.
Most of the citizens living in the city had fled to other cities, but the students who remained at the mountain school were too late to receive news and were trapped. Faced with the enemy forces closing in, the students decided to barricade the school and defend it.
“Still, what power could civilians like us have? We were all women, and unarmed. We could only pray. Pray that our army would win and stop the enemies.”
But the front lines unfolded unfavorably. Eventually, watching their own forces gradually retreat, the students trembled with anxiety.
“Soon, we realized that the soldiers had abandoned the area. And what would happen to us after our allies left. We would probably become prisoners of the enemy, or perhaps, having less value than captured soldiers, we would be killed on the spot, or…”
The only remaining outcome was to be raped by soldiers excited by the smell of battle. This was always the preceding process, whether one lived or died.
Warfare was always like this. Soldiers who had shed blood to seize land would first satisfy their compensatory desires by ravaging the women belonging to that land, displaying their brutal conquest.
Terrified, the students burst into tears. They waved anything they could find, curtains and blankets alike, crying out for their lives.
“But perhaps that very sight further provoked the enemy. The enemy advanced towards us much faster. We truly thought we were all going to die. Even if we were to die, we tried to save the younger students by hiding them in the storeroom, and friends held onto each other and cried…”
A military unit with black flags returned from within their own lines. Someone who recognized the symbol on the flag shouted.
“It’s our army!”
“Black flags! The 37th Regiment!”
“The one led by Major Ezekiel Valdemara…”
“My goodness, thank you. We’re saved now…”
The students sobbed with relief.
Praise for the 37th Regiment had also spread widely within Milena Girls’ School.
The King’s Army.
People referred to the 37th Regiment as the so-called ‘King’s Army.’ Of course, all armies belonged under the King’s authority, but the 37th Regiment was the only one to earn the honorable moniker ‘King’s Army.’ And the protagonist of that praise was none other than Major Ezekiel Valdemara.
Ezekiel’s company, specially formed with volunteers for special operations within the regiment, had most of its information classified as top secret, but its reputation alone was brilliant.
The most valiant unit, which would charge into even the most perilous battles without hesitation and bring victory. Furthermore, the achievements of the young and handsome Major leading that unit had become the greatest symbol representing the regiment, despite the actual regimental commander of the 37th Regiment.
“They said they seemed to have spotted us remaining at the school. The unit blocked our path as if to protect us. And then they fought to the end and protected us.”
The 37th Regiment pushed back the enemy forces after a fierce battle and secured the school. The students, who had been huddled in classrooms trembling, went up to the rooftop as the allied forces gained the upper hand and cheered for Ezekiel and his soldiers.
Perhaps out of concern for the frightened students, the 37th Regiment did not disturb the firmly locked school gates even after their victory. A young officer was seen in the distance, leading his soldiers with an expressionless face, ordering them to withdraw.
The students plucked roses blooming abundantly on the school rooftop and threw them towards the departing soldiers.
Rose was one of the students present. A rose she threw, carried by a strong gust of wind, fluttered a long distance and fell upon the officer who had led the operation. The officer glanced at the rose that landed on his shoulder and tucked it into his uniform pocket.
A black-haired officer, with a particularly tall physique among the burly soldiers.
She knew at a glance. He was Ezekiel.
“……What an incredible coincidence. It’s a wonderful story. Now I finally understand everything. That’s why Rose worked diligently and worried about you, Master, from behind. Because you are the benefactor who saved Rose and the school.”
While Madam Serva, unable to hide her excitement as the story unfolded, Madam Serva, unlike Rose, lowered her head quietly.
That was why, when Achenaus ordered her to harm her brother, she felt as if she had become a beast. For repaying the kindness of the man who saved her with enmity.
She even owed him her life twice.
At Milena Girls’ School, and at the Valdemara mansion in Claris.
“How about assigning Rose to attend to the Master? She is kind and diligent, and has learned various accomplishments, so she will be much more helpful than this old woman. It will also be much easier for me to focus solely on managing the mansion and the employees.”
Madam Serva suggested in a much brighter tone.
Rose watched Ezekiel’s reaction with some tension. The choice of her position depended entirely on Ezekiel; she had no authority. It was a natural principle in a master-servant relationship, so Madam Serva did not ask for Rose’s opinion.
Even if she had been asked about her desired position, she would not have been able to answer carelessly. While her desire to be more helpful to him was strong, there was also a degree of unknown fear.
Even though he was not in a position to know anything, he was half-immersed in the dim shadow. The shadows deepened along the uniquely prominent contours of his features, making his expression almost invisible.
“……Do that.”
A simple permission was granted.
