Chapter 1-4:
The Facility
UPON MY RETURN TO THE MANOR, I TOOK ALL the orphans and had them line up in the garden.
“I’m Serena, the daughter of a duke, and I’ll be your master from today,” I declared. “From now on, mind your words when you speak with me. I may be a lady, but I shall be stricter than a man as I educate you. Whenever you speak with me, you must add ‘sir’ before and after your words. Am I clear, worms?”
All six of them looked taken aback and didn’t utter a single word in reply. I chanted a little spell and conjured a fireball above the palm of my hand.
“Am I clear?” I repeated.
“Sir, yes, sir,” they hastily replied.
However, they spoke too softly, much to my disdain.
“I can barely hear you,” I said. “Your weak voices will never reach my ears. If I burn you to a crisp, will I be able to hear you croak beautifully like toads?”
My fireball burned even brighter as I pointed my palm at them.
“Sir, yes, sir!” they shouted. Their voices echoed throughout the garden.
Very good, I thought.
“If you can endure my long training, you will have the honor of becoming my squires,” I said. “Your job will be to offer your lives to me. That’s all. But until then, you’re all nothing more than pebbles on the road. You’re the lowest of the low in this world—in fact, you’re not even human. You’re worth only a fraction of a piece of dog poop.
“You may grow to hate me for being strict. But that only means that you’ve grown as people. I’m equally strict with all. Thus, there will be no discrimination here. Whether you are an orphan, the daughter of a harlot, or the son of a noble, everyone will be treated equally. Why? Because everyone is equally worthless, except for me. In fact, you should feel grateful to be in my service.
“However, I must eradicate all useless and unfitting squires. Failure means death, and any attempt to escape shall result in death accompanied by suffering. Am I clear, worms?”
The orphans all turned tense as they shouted their responses desperately. “Sir, yes, sir!” they replied.
I referenced an assassin’s education regimen to train these orphans. One of my father’s trusted confidants did some dirty work, and I’d learned many useful details from him. At a glance, he looked like a friendly butler, but he was actually quite famous in the seedy underbelly of society. When I asked about assassination and similar topics, he taught me quite a bit, as though I was his granddaughter. He was also the one who advised that one should be referred to as a “sir” even if that was a form of address reserved for men.
“The teacher should always be called ‘sir,’” the butler said. “I shall not accept otherwise.”
He spoke zealously, and I chose to follow his advice. The butler might have simply assumed that I was a very curious child; he perhaps didn’t expect that I would follow his words as I recalled the stories he told me when I was young. He had served our house since the previous generation and was rather elderly. A short while ago, he had taken a leave of absence and retired. And so, not a single soul in this manor suspected that I was trying to train my squires into excellent assassins.
Had that old butler still been around, he would surely have stopped me and claimed that I was attempting a foolish feat. However, I could predict the future due to my previous life, so I knew when he would leave. I timed my plans perfectly and seized this opportunity. No one was around to stop me.
The other servants in my house probably assumed that I was trying to act like a mature teacher with children my age, and they found it a wholesome sight.
Now, then, I heard that stressing trainees out with verbal abuse is the trick to raising excellent assassins. I didn’t relish the act of showering ten-year-olds with insults, of course. I don’t want to do this.
But to fulfill my lofty pursuit, I had to steel myself.
Hmm, I wonder why I can’t stop myself from smiling?
✦ ✦ ✦
I would like to turn back time, just a little.
“I’ll buy you anything you want!” my father always said.
He’d said that constantly in my previous life, and he continued to spoil me in my current timeline. In my past life, he’d showered me with gifts, including dresses, accessories, and various artworks. But in this life, I didn’t ask for much. When I died, I’d realized that clothes and jewels were meaningless.
The adage that I had learned then was that without power, one couldn’t survive in the world. It didn’t mean that I didn’t need money—I needed it now more than ever. The butler who had taught me about assassination mentioned that a special facility would need to be built to raise excellent assassins. I would require some other items too. For example, I needed a large obstacle made from logs, a muddy swamp that was difficult to traverse, a steep, rocky cliff, and many more.
While our manor boasted a spacious garden, we obviously didn’t have anything like that. Those things needed to be built. I decided to consult my father.
“Father, to educate the squires that I’ll bring, I’d like to make something in the garden,” I said. “May I? It might cost some money…”
My father smiled and immediately agreed. “You don’t have to worry about money. Do as you please.”
What a kind man he was. The moment I received his permission, I immediately contacted construction workers, artisans, and other laborers and invited them into the manor.
However, when I told them what I wanted…
“Um, my lady,” one of the artisans said. He sounded rather hesitant. “This large, vertical ladder-like contraption is so high up that someone would die if they were to fall…”
“Carry on,” I replied. “The one who falls will be to blame.”
“And this quagmire is so deep that it’s seemingly bottomless. A person could completely submerge and drown…”
“Then people need to cross it before they sink. Carry on.”
“If we make a cliff with this large boulder, a person would be squashed flat if a rock were to fall upon them…”
“I don’t need bumbling oafs who can’t dodge rocks. This will be the perfect opportunity.”
After some back-and-forth with the construction crew, I finally had a training facility for my squires. I had a large ladder obstacle made from logs that towered high above us, a quagmire that one could never escape should they sink, a large cliff of rocks made from stacking countless boulders, and many other hurdles. They all cost a pretty penny, so I was so glad that my father was wealthy.
“Serena, you have a truly unusual way of using money,” my father said.
He forced a smile, his cheeks twitching when he saw the invoice addressed to him.
✦ ✦ ✦
Truth be told, that butler had exaggerated just a little when he spoke of the training facility to Serena. He wanted to add a bit of flair to weave a more interesting story, but Serena was adamant that she could build better grounds. She created an even tougher establishment for her squires, a theme park of malice that one could only call inhumane.
“I built this just for you guys!” Serena said.
She smiled broadly as she proudly presented the training facility to the orphans. They stared at the various massive and menacing obstacles in astonishment.
She’s not telling us to cross these things, is she? the orphans thought. Their expressions made their feelings clear, and only the athletic Emma looked joyful.
“Now then, let’s have you climb that ladder first,” Serena said.
She pointed to a magnificent, towering ladder made of logs. If one fell from the highest rung, they wouldn’t just break a bone.
“Sir, I’d like to ask whether anyone has ever climbed that ladder,” Oscar said. “It looks like a ladder to the moon where construction stopped midway, sir.”
He wanted to know if it was even possible for a human to climb to the top and whether proper safety precautions had been taken.
“Nope,” Serena replied. “You’ll be the first.”
With her merciless response, the orphans’ hell had only just begun.
One by one, the orphans met their limits on the infernal obstacles that Serena had built. Most of them were unable to make it up the ladder that reached high in the air, and even those who managed to clear it quietly sank in the quagmire. Only Emma managed to reach the steep cliff, but she slipped and fell during her climb. It was a miracle no one died.