“Take a break for a moment, though you don’t exactly look that tired.”
Seraphina finished annotating the document before her and handed it to Lina to sort through. Then she carefully placed her pen into the inkwell, leaning back against the chair.
“Just sit on any chair you find. This task used to rotate among the other maids, but now it’s fixed on you. They found it boring, but you seem rather indifferent.”
Seraphina had expected Lina to grow restless with such a tedious job, but after an hour and a half, she seemed to handle it well.
Yet Lina didn’t respond to her observation and simply sat silently with her head lowered, lost in thought.
“Hmm… as long as you don’t find it boring, that’s good. This is probably the only way I can help you survive better here. Don’t even think about running away, or your fate won’t be any better.”
“It’s like you’re in an arctic wasteland, and I’m the only source of fire for miles around that can keep you alive. Quite a vivid analogy, isn’t it?”
Listening to Seraphina’s words, Lina couldn’t help but feel conflicted. To her, Seraphina was one of the leaders of the demon clan, yet she was the one ensuring the life of someone from a different race. “Why?”
“Why?” Seraphina repeated Lina’s question. “Why do I do this? Hmm… let me think. Maybe because it’s just plain boring.”
She rolled her eyes and glanced over the towering pile of official documents on the desk, a trace of self-mockery in her tone. “Dealing with these pitifully stupid things every day, watching them fight tooth and nail over petty interests… it’s not so bad to change the flavor now and then.”
“Seeing a human grit their teeth but still have to submit is far more entertaining than those idiots.”
Lina’s fists clenched tightly beneath her skirt, knuckles whitening…
As if seeing through her thoughts, Seraphina chuckled softly. “I heard from Erasia that you’re a slave, right? Maybe you shouldn’t feel resentful about being in the Demon Realm, because even if you went back, you’d still be nothing more than a plaything.”
She scoffed. “No, they wouldn’t treat you that well. They’re ruthless to their own kind… humans.”
This was the harsh reality of this world—the nation Lina desperately protected was the very one oppressing her, a truth so hateful yet pitiful that even Seraphina felt it.
Such a disparagement of the human nation didn’t conflict with Seraphina’s desire to escape this place because she already knew how to solve all of this.
Lina kept her head lowered, her eyes swirling with complex emotions. She opened her mouth, wanting to say something but bit her lip in the end.
“Am I the only one wasting my breath? You’re not going to say anything? Like… how you feel about me?”
Only silence answered her.
“Tch… forget it.” Seraphina gave up trying to force a response and picked up the next document. Twirling the quill between her fingers, she said, “Go pour me a cup of hot tea, about fifty degrees should be fine.”
Only after Lina left the study did Seraphina slump onto the desk, the persistent ache in her lower abdomen already unbearable. “Ugh…”
When had it started…
Just as Lina returned with the tea at the perfect temperature, she found Seraphina holding one hand against her belly, brow furrowed, face paler than usual, beads of sweat forming at her temples.
“Um…” Lina blurted out instinctively.
Seraphina’s eyes snapped open, a flicker of panic flashing through them before being masked by her usual coldness. “Just put it on the table.”
Her voice was weak but still carried a tone of command.
Lina set down the cup, hesitating before quietly asking, “Are you… alright?”
“Hmph… do your job and don’t ask questions beyond that!”
Seraphina tried to suppress her moment of weakness with a harsher tone, but to Lina, it only felt forced. Remembering their earlier casual conversation, Lina suddenly thought Seraphina was quite nice…
“No… no, how could I think that way?”
She quickly crushed that thought and reminded herself that Seraphina was a true demon!
But a sudden intensification of pain forced Seraphina to stop her work.
“Come here.”
She commanded Lina. “Sit here.” Seraphina pointed to the nearest chair, barely two meters away.
She no longer worried that Lina would attack her again—the girl’s strength had been completely stripped away, well within her control.
Though reluctant, Lina obeyed Seraphina’s authority and sat down, allowing her to see the flicker of torment in Seraphina’s eyes more clearly.
“How… how did you get to me and attack me yesterday? And where did that fragment come from?” Diverting attention was now the best way to ease the pain, so Seraphina had Lina sit close and keep her company.
If she kept her distance, Lina would probably remain silent, so closing the gap was necessary.
As expected, Lina stayed silent, but this time Seraphina slammed her hand on the desk, locking eyes with her seriously—a silent order that Lina couldn’t ignore.
Startled by the sudden noise, Lina’s gaze dropped from Seraphina’s pale face to her tightly clasped hands. Her voice barely rose above a whisper.
“I don’t know either. I took that metal fragment from the wreckage of the shattered carriage in a panic, and then… after being captured by the Demon King, I suddenly ended up outside your room.”
Seraphina’s eyes narrowed slightly. Just as she suspected—it was Movira’s carefully crafted “surprise.” She didn’t even bother to hide the deliberate manipulation, as if watching a play whose script had long been written.
“Hmph, I can only say you’re lucky. But that’s not even my room…” Seraphina snorted coldly, trying to suppress another wave of stabbing pain in her abdomen. Her fingers pressed hard against the desk, trying not to let Lina notice.
“But it’s a pity you’re too weak.”
Those words stabbed Lina’s rising complex emotions like a needle. Her cheeks flushed instantly as she glared up. “You—!”
“What?” Seraphina cut her off, her voice trembling slightly from the pain but her resolve undiminished. “If it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t even know where you’d be suffering humiliation right now!”
Lina’s chest rose and fell lightly, but in the end, her anger gradually subsided, replaced by a deeper, more crushing silence of shame and helplessness. She lowered her head again, refusing to look at Seraphina.
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