CH 29

Just when I started to think it was taking a bit too long for the servants to wash the slave, they finally brought the tidied man out.

“Miss, we don’t have any clothes that fit the slave. What do we do?”

Hearing the servant’s report, I thought for a moment.

There was the set of clothes that Damian had originally put on the slave, but knowing Damian, there was likely a hidden mechanism added somewhere to the clothes. Which was the reason why I couldn’t bring myself to put those clothes back on him.

When the servants brought out the man, his upper body was completely revealed, with only a towel wrapped around his waist to hide his private parts. And looking at the servants’ expressions, it seemed as though they all saw something unbelievable.

‘What exactly did they see?’

His muscular neck, coppery skin tanned from natural sunlight, and large upper body were all proof that he had lived a long life of physical labor.

The maids standing in front of me all had their mouths agape as they stared at the slave.

His incredible size.

The man’s body was close to what could be considered perfect.

If Cassadin could be compared to a white wolf, then this man was a combination of a bear and a black panther. It was no wonder Damian wanted to gift this slave to the Crown Prince.

But it was then. That the towel tied around his waist slipped off.

As soon as the cover fell to the ground, all of the maids started to shriek.

“Kyaak!”

“Aaaahhh!”

The maids didn’t stop screaming, but even as they did so, not one of them turned to look away. There was even a maid who had covered her face with her hands but had her eyes wide open to look between her fingers. Then the cries progressively changed into squeals.

“Woahh…”

“Oh, the towel…!”

The servants in charge of the slave’s bath picked up the towel that fell on the ground and tied it around him. It seemed like everyone who witnessed what had happened was regretful that it ended.

Then I carefully peered at the slave’s state. His eyes were completely unfocused.

‘They used a tranquilizer.’

“None of the clothes would fit the slave.”

“Then you should have at least draped something over it! What in your right mind made it seem alright to bring it to the Miss in this state?”

“We’re terribly sorry.”

The servants bowed down and apologized in response to the housekeeper’s scolding. After waiting for everyone to finish talking, I then leisurely spoke up.

“It’s alright. I will make the clothes for the slave.”

“Y-you’re going to do it yourself, Miss?”

“Yes.”

“How could a mere slave be allowed such an honor…”

When I just quietly stared at the housekeeper, she slapped her own mouth and bowed down.

“My apologies, Miss.”

“You may leave now. And bring that slave to my room.”

The half-naked unnamed man was brought into my room. His large physique almost made my room seem small.

“What’s your name?”

“…”

He didn’t answer. His grey-blue eyes were unfocused and were unable to look directly at me. And there were distinct marks left on his wrists from the ropes that once bound them.

After watching the slave for a moment, I rang the bell and ordered the servants to prepare a meal.

The servants soon brought a variety of dishes to my room. They continued to steal glances at the slave as they placed the food on the table.

Placing all of the dishes on the table, one of the servants then carefully asked me.

“Miss, is it really alright to give such precious foods… to a slave?”

“It is, so you may leave now.”

With my firm answer, the servants closed their mouths and left the room.

Click.

After checking that the door was closed, I then offered the food on the table to him.

“You must have been hungry on your way here. Eat as much as you want. Let me know if you need any more.”

“…”

He just stared at the food. Though there was warm mushroom cream soup, a juicy steak, and all sorts of dishes that allured one’s nose and eyes, the man didn’t move an inch from his seat.

“It’s alright to eat everything, so don’t hold back.”

I placed a fork in his hand.

Trickle.

I filled his empty cup with water. Then I waited for him to start eating.

But he merely watched the steam rising from the dishes. It was natural to feel thirsty on a hot day like today, but the man didn’t take one sip of his water.

“…Does the food not suit your taste?”

“…”

But the man still didn’t answer.

‘What’s the matter with him?’

Damian wouldn’t have wanted to send a disobedient slave to the Crown Prince. That would only damage his relationship with the Prince. So there must have been a definite reason why he wished to send such a strong slave to him.

After thinking for a moment, I pointed to the couch in my room and asked him.

“Will you pick up that couch?”

The couch was clearly too heavy to lift with just one person. But the man immediately rose from his seat at my command and picked up the couch.

“…”

Seeing the man pick up the couch without a single change in his expression made me a little bewildered. The way he held a couch that several servants could barely manage to pick up made it seem like what he was holding was not a heavy couch but a cotton ball.

“Alright, put it down.”

Thump!

As soon as I finished my sentence, the man placed the couch back on the ground.

‘Something doesn’t seem right here.’

I decided to try one more time. This time, I pointed at the large dressing table.

“Can you move that there?”

Once again, the man immediately picked up the dressing table and moved it exactly where I asked him to.

“…”

At that moment, what I felt was not joy that I obtained a strong, obedient slave but unease. Because it felt as if the man was created just for physical labor.

Even now, he seemed to be waiting for another command.

‘He doesn’t eat or drink.’

A normal slave would have been busy scarfing down the food already. Was there something wrong? Sensing that something wasn’t right, I approached him.

His dark, tough skin seemingly boasted a smooth texture. Then I swept my hand across his body.

‘There’s a wound from a beast’s attack.’

It was a long scar that started from his ribs right under his chest. Then I continued to inspect the man’s body.

‘Teeth marks.’

‘From its depth, it’s neither human nor an animal.’

And my expression hardened the more I examined his body. The wounds that were scattered throughout his tanned skin were not scars a normal slave would have.

‘What exactly happened to this man?’

In order to find out if there were any problems with the man’s body, I placed both of my hands on his chest. As a healer, I’m able to see what illnesses the person has and what state they are currently in by coming into contact with their body.

I closed my eyes and concentrated my mind.

“……”

The man who was gifted as a slave was definitely abnormal. Unlike his masculine exterior, his internal state was in shambles.

His internal body was in such a terrible state that it was such a wonder that he was still alive.

‘His heartbeat is erratic from the tranquilizer.’

‘Though his energy is being consumed, it’s not being supplied at all.’

‘His life will be in danger if this continues any longer.’

I removed my hands from his body for a moment and collected my breath. The man was still staring into the void with an unfocused gaze. From the first moment I saw him, he has not once made a different expression or spoken.

Suspicious of that behavior, I forcefully opened the man’s mouth.

“…!”

I couldn’t believe what I was witnessing. There was no tongue in the man’s mouth.

The shock from the sight caused me to swallow down my words. Peering in closer, I saw that someone had cleanly cut off his tongue. With extraordinary skill, it had been cut off just enough so the man wouldn’t die from blood loss.

To think the reason he couldn’t speak was because he had no tongue. Suddenly, I remembered what Damian had said in the prison.

‘It was a struggle preventing him from attempting suicide by biting his tongue.’

Did they cut off his tongue to prevent him from attempting suicide?

I trembled at their cruelty. Damian was not sane. I took deep breaths as I rose back up from my seat.

“Wait here for a moment.”

Leaving the man behind, I opened the box that the servants had left in my room. Inside the box were several dozen needles of various sizes. And my stomach churned just from looking at them.

‘They’re tranquilizers. Even the most savage of beasts turn into harmless lambs with these. The effect lasts 10 hours.’

I recalled what Damian’s servant had said. Then I picked up one of the containers with a needle attached to it.

After inspecting the tube holding the liquid, I dripped a few droplets of its contents onto a dish on the table. But it had no reaction to the food. I waited a little longer, but nothing happened.

Contemplating for a moment, I brought out a sealed container. It was a container filled with various precious herbs that I had collected since my youth.

I removed the food from a dish and added one of the herbs to it. It was thistle, one of the rarer herbs that I had collected with my father. Then I added a few droplets of the tranquilizer onto the dish with the thistle.

P-plop.

A moment later, the thistle that had been a shade of dark green quickly started to wither. Absorbing the liquid drug, the thistle continued to shrivel until it turned bright red and completely withered.

The edges of the thistle that had curled into a red hue seemed much too pitiful, even for a plant.

“…”

I closed my eyes and let out a deep sigh. Thistle was one of the best herbs to test the effects of drugs, so the results were not questionable. This wasn’t a tranquilizer, but a ‘poison’ claimed to be a tranquilizer.

The poison was one that was foreign, even with my vast knowledge of herbs and plants.

‘What exactly is this tranquilizer made with? Did they make their own concoction?’

I dropped some of the tranquilizers onto several other herbs as well, but the only one that showed any reaction was the thistle.

It seemed to have been made so that one could not figure out its contents. I felt disgusted by Damian’s scheme.

Then why did Damian feed such poison to the slave he planned to gift to the Crown Prince?

The answer was obvious.

The reason he injected a drug with close to no antidote into the slave’s body was that such a strong slave shouldn’t be next to the Crown Prince for long.

He wanted to gain the favor of the Prince, yet he prepared measures so that he could remove the slave that would become an obstacle to him in the future.

‘That crazy bastard.’

Damian treated others as no more than tools. Just as I had been used as a tool until I met my demise in my past life.

I felt true pity for the man in front of me.

“Go lie on the bed.”

The man remained still.

“It’s a command. Lie down.”

Hearing the word command, he slowly walked toward my bed and lay down. When he settled on the bed, which was large enough for several to sleep in, it felt small and cramped instead.

‘It wasn’t this small even when Cassadin was on it.’

It felt as though there was a brown bear lying on my bed. After seeing that he was on the bed, I sat down on the edge and turned my body.

‘Let’s at least remove the poison that spread to his head first. Then turn his tongue back to its original state.’

It was likely because of the tranquilizer that he was in this daze. I hoped this would at least make him able to speak normally.

If he could regain his senses, maybe he would be able to tell me what happened at the duchy.

I cursed Damian as I placed my hands on the man’s chest.

‘Hup.’

Then a white light enveloped my hands and seeped into the man’s body. This was most likely going to be the most energy I used in my life to heal someone. Not only was I removing the effects of the poison, but I was also regenerating a human tongue.

I concentrated my entire mind on the process. I could feel what was happening inside his body through the tips of my fingers.

The contents of the poison were incomparably worse than the one that the Crown Prince had consumed. Since it was able to eat away at a body like this, it was likely that much stronger.

‘May your heart settle and mind be clear as the skies.’

I sucked away the poisonous substances spread throughout his body.

How much time has passed since?

Soon after, the light returned to the man’s foggy eyes, and life slowly started to flow through his body. The more light poured out of my hands, the more the man’s state improved.

It wasn’t hard to heal external wounds. But healing a body that had been ruined from the inside consumed much more energy. Especially if that included regenerating a severed body part.

Then I poured the rest of my energy into the man.

‘I wasn’t planning on going this far.’

It was after I had grown tired from the long session of healing. The man blinked slowly a couple of times, then slowly raised his head. The man’s bright, icy eyes met with mine for the first time.

“Who are you?”

His voice shot into my ear. Unlike his rough exterior, the man had a clear and calming voice. I smiled out of relief that he had regained his senses.

“…Where am I?”

Then my vision darkened, and I collapsed on top of the man.