“I’ll have an easier time resolving this if I know more of your past. You must tell me everything, including the tale of your enslavement.”
Olivia burst into tears, and, sobbing, began to tell her story.
★ Olivia ★
“You’ve lived such a hard life. Damn those wretches!”
“Hic… Sob… Lord Chris, are you crying for me? Waaaaaah!”
Tears flowed from Lord Chris’s eyes like a waterfall as I bared my heart to him. I was surprised, for I had never seen a gentleman cry. My heart filled with warmth and joy when it struck me that he was lamenting my suffering, and soon I too began to cry.
Once upon a time, I was Olivia Heltor, a child of one of the three ducal families in the Magne Kingdom. From a tender age—perhaps for as long as I can remember—I’ve been weighed against my sister Angelique, two years my junior.
My father had eyes for only her. My brothers and the men among our servants treated me cruelly yet they doted single-mindedly on my sister. My father demanded that any resources that could be spent on me should instead be focused on my sister, but my mother and grandmother, and the women among our servants, treated me well and gave me their love and support. It was thanks to them that I learned how to comport myself as a proper noblewoman.
I once asked my mother, but even she had not an inkling of why the men all hated me so. It was incomprehensible. Even if the women wished to stand up for me, all power lay with the head of the family. They hadn’t the influence to fight on my behalf.
As I grew and mingled with other children, the boys all focused on my sister. The only words they spoke of me were filled with venom, and baseless at that. I had only the friendships I could form with the girls, which went well enough. I wasn’t completely isolated; they even sympathized with me.
When we reached marriageable age, suitors for my sister’s hand came by the wagonload. There was much fighting over who would be the lucky family to have her hand.
It was then that the queen came to like me, leading to some discussion of me marrying the prince. But he was head over heels for my sister and opposed the idea staunchly, so it did not come to be. That was the last time anyone even discussed marrying me off.
With that failure, my father declared me a stain on the family name and ostracized me, declaring me no longer a member of the family. That very day, I was sold as a slave to the man Lord Chris had incapacitated, who looked on me with deep loathing. He dragged me to this forest where nobody would see us, cut down a tree branch, and beat me with it, time and time again. He roared with laughter as I screamed and cried, and then he pulled out his dagger and began to stab me. Lord Chris, had you come even a moment later…
“Sniffle… I can’t believe them. What filth! I’ll start by removing the slavery curse so you can move freely again.”
The least of the slavery curse’s powers was leashing a person so they were unable to run away from their owner. If a slave attempted to move more than a few hundred feet from their owner, they would be racked with intense pain, rendering them unable to move.
Beyond that, it prevented them from keeping silent when asked a question. Refusing an order was right out; death was all but guaranteed for that offense. The countless limits the slave curse imposed combined to rob the slave of their dignity.
Lord Chris had promised that he could easily remove the curse, but it was a potent, high-level curse. Surely even he…
Snap!
“Sickening. I’ve broken the curse now.”
Impossible though it seemed, the curse’s pattern disappeared from my chest.
“I won’t be able to break the other curse through brute strength, though.
We’ll have to go to a temple and deal with it after it’s weakened.”
The curse is… gone? I’m not a slave anymore?
“I was planning to make a name for myself in the royal capital, but I don’t want to breathe the same air as those horrible people who did this to you. Do you know of any cities nearby which would have a large temple?”
“I-I see. Perhaps the Rarogne Region to the north? They follow the Grand Temple of the Goddess of Law, and they are planning a major redevelopment campaign for the city. If you can render them a great service, they may even grant you a noble title.”
I’d not made his acquaintance, but I understood the second prince, Charles, to be spearheading the redevelopment. The Queen had informed me
of it during a tea party. However, I was unsure whether they would be recruiting when we arrived.
“I don’t know the area, so you’d be a big help. I say we go there. After we clear up your curse, I’ll do some big, flashy things and make a name for myself.”
“But won’t it be a bother to take me along? As a social pariah, I’ve nothing to offer you in return.”
I was an ostracized girl with no title and no family. I could only think of how much of a burden I would be. But that was when Chris took me in his arms.
“That so? Then how about this: after we deal with the curse, let’s you and I get married.”
“What?! But my family would… Oh…”
I’d been ostracized. I had no family.
“We can sit here and bicker about the little things all day if you’d like, but none of it matters. All that matters is that I’ve fallen in love with you, Olivia, and I want to marry you. What do you say?”
We’d been crying not five minutes prior, and our faces were yet streaked with tears. But when Lord Chris gazed fondly into my eyes, he looked more gallant and handsome than anyone I had ever seen. Before I knew it, I had softly murmured a yes.
Lord Chris broke into a wide grin the moment he heard my response, and at the sight of it, I couldn’t suppress a shout of joy within my heart.
“Just you wait. As your husband, it will be my duty and my pleasure to provide you with a life so wonderful that you’ll forget the pain and indignity you’ve suffered.”