“The Queen… is waiting for you.”
Sylvie’s footsteps came to an abrupt halt.
Her entire body stiffened as if pinned in place by an invisible force.
Even her heart seemed to stop beating for a split second.
The Queen… is waiting for me?
How is that possible?!
Sulga had clearly said the Queen left the city to handle affairs and wouldn’t return for several days!
How much time had passed?
Half a day?
A full day?
But what filled her with the most panic and dread was…
Last night she had slept the entire night in Utia’s arms!
Right now, her whole body was practically soaked in that sickeningly sweet scent of Utia’s.
She had likely been completely “marinated” in it.
Last time, merely carrying a faint trace of that scent had caused the arrogant, near-obsessive Queen to fly into a rage and nearly drain her dry!
If she went to see the Queen reeking of this scent…
She would die!
She would really die!
Even worse, what terrified her most was—
She had no idea when exactly the Queen had returned.
If Klal had come back last night, she would have definitely gone looking for her to be served.
But if she discovered that Sylvie hadn’t been in her room at night, or had been gone the entire night…
Sylvie remained frozen for a long moment before she finally managed to speak.
Her voice came out slightly hoarse, and the calm she had forced herself to maintain began to crack under the weight of fear.
“Is Master… waiting for me in the grand hall?”
Sulga glanced at her.
His flat answer sent Sylvie plunging into an icy abyss.
“No. In your room.”
“…Sylvie understands.”
It’s over.
What do I do… what do I do… what do I do…
On the street, Sylvie walked briskly toward the pitch-black grand hall while waves of panic surged through her mind.
The Queen was waiting for her in her room.
What did that mean?
It meant the Queen had not only returned but had very likely already visited her room and discovered she was missing.
Even more terrifying was the fact that the Queen had chosen to wait there instead of in the throne hall or audience chamber.
Waiting in that space carried a silent, domineering sense of judgment.
Klal wanted to personally examine this “disobedient collectible” in a domain that completely belonged to her.
Calm down! Sylvie, calm down!
She dug her nails hard into her palm, nearly piercing the skin.
The pain helped clear her chaotic thoughts a little.
Punishment was now unavoidable.
But she could still try to reduce its severity as much as possible.
The most urgent priority was to cover up the scent on her body.
Otherwise, what awaited her would be torment far worse than death.
Yet Utia’s scent was so overpowering.
How could it possibly fade so easily?
Scent… scent…
Her eyes darted frantically across the street.
Suddenly, a dark brown pile in the corner of a wall caught her attention.
It was a small puddle of foul-smelling rotten mud.
It was probably garbage left behind after some blood livestock had moved away, never cleaned up.
Ugh…
Sylvie’s face turned deathly pale as she stared at the mud for a long time.
In the end, she slapped her own cheeks hard, as if steeling herself for a decision.
There was no time to hesitate!
…
Inside Sylvie’s small house.
Klal sat silently on the bed, her blood-red eyes lowered, staring fixedly at the door.
She kept her arms crossed, her fingertips lightly tapping against her pale arm.
The darkness in her gaze was so thick it felt almost tangible.
Yes.
She had waited an entire night.
A whole night.
The air felt frozen solid by an almost suffocating pressure.
Only deathly silence spread throughout the tiny room.
Tiana felt as though she was about to freeze to death.
The Queen sat comfortably while she had been forced to stand in this narrow, freezing little house the entire night, not daring to shift even one step.
Finally, after what felt like an eternity of freezing tension, extremely light footsteps sounded from outside the courtyard.
They carried hesitation and exhaustion.
Klal’s tapping fingers stopped.
The corners of her mouth slowly curved into a smile that was ice-cold to the point of cruelty.
She’s here.
The footsteps stopped right outside the door.
The person seemed to hesitate for so long that Tiana began to wonder if they were considering running away.
Finally—
The door was slowly pushed open.
A figure appeared in the doorway.
Tiana could hardly believe her eyes.
This was… the “toy” the Queen favored?
The girl in front of them was almost unrecognizable.
Her entire body was covered in a thick layer of blackish-brown mud that clung wetly to her cheeks and neck.
A nauseating stench of rot instantly filled the small house, completely overpowering Sylvie’s original scent.
Klal was stunned for a brief moment.
Then her eyes grew even colder.
Sylvie walked into the room with her head lowered, not daring to meet Klal’s eyes.
She quietly knelt on the ground, placed her hands neatly on her thighs, and fixed her gaze on the Queen’s slightly raised bare feet.
It was clearly a posture of apology, yet she appeared strangely calm.
Klal looked down at her from above.
The corners of her mouth curved into a mocking smile as she deliberately softened her voice and asked:
“Did you have fun outside, my dear?”
The mud concealed Sylvie’s expression, leaving only a numb filthiness.
The fear deep in her emerald eyes was well hidden.
She spoke, uttering only a few words:
“…It was cold.”
She knew Klal was extremely angry right now.
Moreover… it seemed the Queen really had waited here the entire night.
But at a moment like this, she absolutely could not show any panic.
Because the slightest panic would be an admission of deliberate wrongdoing.
If that happened, the Queen could torment her freely under the charge of “disloyalty.”
Not panicking, on the other hand, meant she believed her actions had not crossed the line—
Because the order to “freely manage her time” had indeed been personally given by the Queen.
She had simply followed the order… and had only returned a little late.
Sylvie’s voice remained perfectly calm without the slightest ripple, as if she were merely stating a simple fact.
“Master said that while you were away from the city, Sylvie could freely manage her time.”
“Sylvie kept that in mind.”
Klal’s crimson eyes narrowed slightly.
The mocking smile froze at the corner of her lips, replaced by an even deeper, more dangerous chill.
“Freely manage time…”
She repeated the words softly, her voice so low it was almost inaudible, yet it caused the temperature in the small house to plummet.
“So, you think… this is your freedom?”
“Covering yourself in filth like something that crawled out of a cesspit, wandering Eternal Night City for an entire night, and then telling me you were simply making use of the time I gave you?”
Klal’s voice grew increasingly cold.
She stared at the “mud person” before her.
The displeasure in her heart could no longer be suppressed.
It was time—
To properly punish this disobedient little thing.