Published at 9th of May 2019 6:45 pm

Chapter 1

This chapter is updated by NovelFree.ml

It’s normal for people to not be able to remember what happened when they were younger.

But Azrael Estella remembers her childhood clearly in detail. She remembers what her mother said when she barely learned how to crawl.

“A twin, what an ominous thing… It would have been better if Banhiram was the only one born.”

She could even remember her mother’s eyes full of disgust, staring as if she was a bad omen stuck to her brother.

She also vividly remembers the expression her dad had when he kicked her.

“This kind of thing should just die already. You’re just a burden that stole your brother’s luck.”

She has a good memory; to the point it was troubling. Her parents treated her as a wicked thing that took her brother’s luck.

As a twin who was born after her brother, Azrael’s existence was nothing more than a curse that made her brother miserable.

Therefore, the parents didn’t give a name to their daughter.

“I don’t believe in something like that.”

The only person who was kind to Azrael was her one and only twin brother, Banhiram.

“You’re my sister, not a curse. A sister that I’ll protect. So, I’ll give you a name.”

Her brother replied, with the same black hair and golden eyes she had. Soon, there was a war. The village burned down and her parents died. Only the twins survived and ran away.

Even though everyone died, Azrael was fine as long as her brother was alive. Nonetheless, the only family she had was her brother.

Not so long after, her brother died as well. The name her brother had given disappeared along with her brother’s death. She became all alone at the age of 7. The nameless orphan wandered around the streets.

The girl who slept on the streets, one day woke up on a huge, fluffy bed.

“Miss, you’ve turned 0-year-old this year. The one who named you left us with you. We’ll be your guardian from now on.”

The couple who were claiming to be her guardian kindly smiled.

“I’m… 0 years old? There’s someone who named me?”

“Oh my, don’t you remember?”

Azrael couldn’t remember anything. She completely lost her memories when she was 7 years old up to now. Despite having an excellent memory, she couldn’t remember what happened during those 3 years.

“Miss, do you remember your name?”

“My name…”

There was one thing that she could remember. A low yet soft, man’s voice ringed her ear.

“Azrael Estella. That will be your name.”

A bright and warm light covered her. That was the only piece of memory she remembered. The guardian parents didn’t know what happened during those 3 years. No matter how much she asked, they didn’t give an answer. Even so, they were very kind. Azrael spent a luxurious life she’d never imagined while living in the mansion.

But that only lasted a year.

“I’m sure this child is abandoned.”

The couple secretly wanted the grand fortune Azrael had. During that time, Azrael was only . She couldn’t protect the fortune she had from greedy adults. Despite having different kinds of safety devices, it didn’t take too long for the couple to take all the fortune and sell the girl as a slave.

Azrael was sold as a slave multiple times. She was branded on her foot with a burning iron. She tried escaping countless times, got caught and ended up getting whipped.

When she finally gave up on escaping, a merchant bought the girl.

The merchant took a notice that Azrael has gorgeous looks. He cleaned the girl up and well dressed her, she was also taught basic manners. The merchant sold her off as a whipping child to Colt, an earl in the Aucandor Kingdom.

Azrael was 2 years old back then. A whipping child was a person that would be whipped instead of a high-class child when they were lazy with their studies or did something to be punished. If it was a royal family, a noble’s child would be used but a normal earl family would use a commoner or slave. Since the whipping child would be used among nobles, a fair looking kid around the high-class child’s would be used. Earl Colt had a daughter around Azrael’s age. He bought her for his daughter.

The Earl’s daughter, Deborah Colt was a pretty girl with shining golden hair and blue eyes but was dumb and spoiled. Deborah would sleep in class and never did her homework. She would laugh or make fun of her private tutors and throw an ink bottle at them. There wasn’t a tutor who lasted half a year in the Colt household.

The daughter of the Earl thought a whipping child getting whipped was an obvious thing. Even so, she was embarrassed by seeing Azrael walking around full of scars and bruises. The scars on the whipping child were proof of laziness and disgracefulness. And so, Deborah became a bit more productive and didn’t let exposed parts (such as the arm, legs, and face) get whipped.

But behind Azrael’s clothes, her back was full of scars and bruises that would never seem to disappear. If she ever walked around exposing the scars, Deborah would get angry and starve her. Azrael had no choice but to bear and hide the pain.

Whenever young Azrael was in pain, she believed and had hope.

‘One day the person who named me will come and find me. I’m sure that person is incredibly strong and very kind.’

‘They probably got annoyed at the fact I lost my memories and decided to leave me for a while. It’s not like they’ve abandoned me’

‘That person must be worried about me. Perhaps they’re desperately searching for me right now. They’ll find me soon and save me from here.’

Those rough days continued.

Whenever Deborah had lessons Azrael was constantly whipped. After Deborah’s lessons, she would continuously work.

The girl who became a slave to a whipping child had a back full of scars and rough hands from work. This continued for 4 years.

The feeling of the warm light that covered her disappeared. No one came to save her.

It was Spring, year 996 according to the Iskam calendar.

The girl who turned 6 had given up her hopes from when she was a child. The miracle she had given up, was different from what she had imagined.

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Her day started off unlucky.

It was normal that Azrael would be whipped since Deborah never did her homework and was impolite towards her tutor. But the private tutor seemed to be much more annoyed than usual. After being whipped more than 30 times, Azrael’s back was bloody. Even so, the tutor wasn’t satisfied and left while huffing. Deborah slapped wobbling Azrael’s cheek.

“Stop acting as if it hurts. It’s embarrassing”

“Understood, Miss”

“…Disgusting”

Deborah glanced at Azrael with annoyance and left the room. Azrael returned to her room after organizing Deborah’s books and belongings.

Her room was located in the basement, a corner of the wine storage. It was always humid, cold, and full of dust. For a girl who constantly starved and whipped, the condition she lived in was worse for Azrael with a weak body.

While coughing, she opened a rusty bottle. The smell of the cheap ointment spread across the small room. The ointment didn’t really help her injury but was better than nothing.

She took off her top and applied the ointment. There were places her hands couldn’t reach and struggled to apply.

After she quickly finished applying the ointment, she listened to the sound coming from the ceiling. The hallway between the kitchen and food storage was located right above her room.

“Quickly, quickly, move it! Quickly! You guys know who’s coming tomorrow. If we don’t reach his expectations, you might all turn into frogs!”

Azrael could hear the head maid yell impatiently. The busy maids would move back and forth, giggling. She also knew who was coming tomorrow. One of the greatest wizards was planning to come to the capital. Wizards from fairy tales would call out lightings or form land, they would often stop a war and fight dragons.

But that was a long time ago.

Modern day wizards were similar to healers or craftsman. Of course, they deserved more praise than others. “Communication” was available even among the weakest wizards. It was possible for wizards to communicate regardless of how far they were. Communication between wizards took a huge part in the kingdom’s system and were important.

According to rumours, the wizard who would be visiting was different from others. The wizard was like one from the legends, compared to the normal or 2 wizards in town. Wizards like him wouldn’t visit here, but it seemed like it had to do with the ruins discovered in Colt’s land.

“What? We ran out of butter? You should have checked that beforehand! Meili, hurry up and go buy some butter!”

“M’am, you’ve already sent Meili a while ago to the drawing room since there weren’t enough people to help out.

“Ah, right. Who’s available then?”

“Everyone’s already too busy. Right, didn’t Miss Deborah’s lessons end already? I saw teacher Carter’s carriage return a few moments ago!”

“She should have finished a long time ago. Where the hell is that brat fooling around again?”

The head maid yelled with anger. Startled, Azrael stood up from where she was. She quickly wiped off the ointment left on her hands and hurried upstairs. She could hear the head maid’s loud footsteps coming from above the stairs.

“Ma’am, were you looking for me?”

“You were fooling around once again, weren’t you?!”

The huge head-maid squinted at the small, skinny girl. Quickly, she bowed her head.

“Mr. Colt fed and provided a place to live for a brat like you, even upgraded your status to a commoner yet you don’t seem to be grateful at all. You don’t have any real work to do and fool around all day long!”

“That’s not true, I was putting on some medici-”

“What kind of stupid excuse is that? You’re making a big deal out of some few whips!”

The head maid violently grabbed Azrael’s hair. Azrael gave up trying to defend herself. She figured out whatever she will say would only anger the head-maid even more at this point.

It was true that Azrael wasn’t a slave anymore. It wasn’t thanks to the Earl, 2 years ago Aucador abolished slavery. At that time, Mr Colt had a disgruntled face while tearing down Azrael’s slave bond and claimed money from her.

“You should be the one paying back the money you were sold for, indeed. Additional fees were added.”

Azrael ended up with a debt of 000000 pels. She earned 5 pels monthly, so it’d take her 67 years for her to pay. It was impossible for Azrael, especially because Mr. Colt never actually paid Azrael by making an excuse of the debt she had to pay.

Even though slavery was abolished, Mr. Colt never intended to let go or even pay Azrael at all. This was a common thing in Aucandor which recently abolished slavery.

The slave mark on Azrael’s foot was still there. Even though she was a commoner according to documents, the slave mark didn’t disappear. In reality, society was still the same.

Azrael was the only one hired who wasn’t a commoner or noble in the Colt family. The maids judged Azrael for being ‘nothing more than a slave” yet all she did was wear clean clothes and stay besides Deborah during her lessons while others were doing housework. Since Azrael wasn’t allowed to show her scars, there weren’t many people who knew how much she was constantly whipped. It made sense that Azrael was hated judging by her scarless appearance. The head-maid especially picked on Azrael.

“Go to the market and buy 3 blocks of butter right now. Don’t you even dare try to snitch a coin, since you’ll be in big trouble then!”

The head-maid warned her and handed over a few silver coins. Azrael quickly put the coins inside her pocket and hurried outside. Surely, the head-maid would yell at her for being lazy if she was late. Azrael hurried through the castle to the back door.

-End of chapter -

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