Chapter 26
After Mary wiped down the floor and me, Kaelan left me there and began scribbling something on paper.
Because the chain linked us, however, I had to stay beside him.
With my legs drawn up and wrapped in my arms, all I could do was tremble in fear of what was to come.
How many hours had passed like that before my stomach growled?
When I looked out the window, the sun was gradually sinking.
‘Could I eat a meal like the one I’d had this morning?’
He said he’d treat me as a beast—as a pet dog.
Would he actually give me food fit for a human?
It didn’t seem likely.
Kaelan glanced once at the clock hanging on the wall and set down his pen.
“It’s almost time for dinner.”
A few minutes later, there was a knock at the door.
“Come in.”
Mary came into the room, pulling a serving cart.
Two trays sat on it.
“Mary, put both of them on the desk.”
“Yes.”
A delicious smell wafted from the trays.
‘I’m hungry.’
My body, tormented to its limit by severe pain, was desperately craving food.
I wrapped my arms even tighter around myself to ease the hunger pangs, but nothing changed.
Kaelan picked up a fork and knife and began cutting something.
I tried to look away, but the aroma of the food kept turning my head back.
Kaelan placed a bowl in front of me.
The bowl contained several foods, all cut into bite-sized pieces.
“Ella, I’ve been thinking, and the name Ella is too good for a dog. So from today onward, your name is Aria.”
For a moment, I wondered if he was going to give me the food, but then Kaelan said something absurd.
Aria.
My heart turned cold.
No.
I had to act.
I had to become his pet dog.
But Ella was the name my parents had given me, the name Noah might have called until his final moment.
I couldn’t let him take even this name from me.
Reason and instinct clashed violently within me.
In the end, the truth I couldn’t suppress burst out.
“I don’t like it. I’m Ella.”
“Whether you like it or not doesn’t matter. I’m going to call you Aria, and the responsibility for failing to answer to it will be yours alone.”
“What does that—”
“Come on, Aria. You need to eat.”
He cut me off, saying only what he wanted to say.
“No matter what you call me, Lord Kaelan, I’m not Aria. I’m Ella.”
“…”
At that moment, his toe came down precisely on the fingers I had braced against the floor.
I barely managed to suppress a scream at the sudden pain, as though my bones were being crushed.
Hearing my muffled groan, he whispered softly, as though satisfied.
“See, Aria? Even a single name can create such discord.”
“Ugh.”
When his foot pressed down even harder, I could no longer swallow the pain.
“Ella no longer exists. But Aria is still alive.”
He slowly lifted his foot and whispered.
“The more you cling to the name Ella, the more beautiful the melody will be when that name disappears from the world. So resist all you want. Until the day you finally answer to Aria.”
Kaelan’s hand slowly stroked my head.
But that lasted only a moment before he slowly lifted the bowl.
The bowl disappeared beyond the window and out of sight.
“Ah!”
“If you aren’t Aria, there’s no food. Simple, right?”
My stomach growled.
The smell of food still filled the room.
Ignoring me as I sat there in a daze, Kaelan began eating his own meal.
The sounds of a fork and knife scraping against the plate, chewing, and swallowing.
Not only the smell but every sound was torture.
“You’re hungry, aren’t you, Aria?”
I quietly bit my lip.
My body was still noisily churning for food.
“…I’m Ella.”
“Really? Then wait until tomorrow morning. If you still call yourself Ella then, there’ll be no food until lunch.”
His hand stroked my head.
“But the moment you answer Aria, delicious food will appear right away. Simple, right?”
Yet instead of mocking me, he wore a worried expression.
“What will you do if you stubbornly starve to death? My Aria. Your body belongs to me.”
His sudden gentleness sent chills down my spine.
His unpredictable whims frightened me even more than his anger and violence.
After finishing his meal, he began rapidly scribbling something again.
As though nothing had happened moments ago, he remained absorbed in his own world.
I could only keep myself hunched over as far from him as possible.
The hunger had passed beyond mere emptiness, becoming a burning pain in my stomach.
The pain of my empty stomach being wrung out.
The tips of my crushed fingers still throbbed.
The cold of the floor seeped into my bare skin.
‘Aria…’
The name kept circling through my mind.
Just by saying this name, I could escape this dreadful hunger.
To survive and take revenge, I needed strength.
And to act as the perfect pet dog he wanted.
That might even bring me closer to taking revenge.
I repeated it silently countless times, but the name rising to my throat never came out.
The name Noah had called out in his final moment.
My father’s voice.
The name my mother must have whispered as she held me, newly born.
The moment I betrayed Ella, it felt as though something inside me would disappear.
Time passed slowly.
The light from the fireplace flickered faintly, and the world outside the window was completely dark, but Kaelan was still sitting at the table.
No, not this one. Too indecisive. This one is too hasty. Only fragments like that could occasionally be heard, as though he were sorting something into categories.
My stomach growled again.
‘Yes… if I say Aria…’
No.
If I discarded this name, could I still be me?
Even through the pain, I bit my lip.
Only the sound of Kaelan’s pen scratching against paper continued to fill the room.
At last, Kaelan set down his pen and stretched languidly.
The chair scraped backward.
When he rose from his seat, the chain pulled taut.
“It’s time to sleep, Aria.”
Without even looking back at me, he walked toward the bed.
The chain pulled me forward.
I wanted to escape this hunger, even if only in sleep.
I rose slowly without resisting.
Just as I was about to stagger forward,
“No, Aria. Dogs don’t walk on two legs. You know that too, don’t you?”
His words were meant to trample on my pride.
But I quietly bent my knees.
I could act this much.
I could give up even this much.
I put my hands on the floor.
This was for revenge.
I crawled forward on all fours.
My knees hurt as they scraped against the ground.
The hands that had wielded a sword and cut down enemies on the battlefield.
The hands that had held my parents’ hands and helped them with chores.
Now they were scraping across the floor like a dog’s.
Kaelan lay on the bed, and the chain still linked my neck to his wrist.
I curled up again on the cold, hard floor beside the bed.
The collar jerked upward.
“Get on the bed, Aria.”
It was an order to climb onto the bed and remain right beside the man who had tormented me.
But my eyelids, already drooping, could no longer hold out.
When I slowly climbed onto the bed, Kaelan grabbed my arm and pulled me against him.
I could hear his breathing right in front of me.
His face was only inches from mine.
His fingers slowly stroked the area around my eyes.
“Beautiful…”
The pleasure of appreciating a work of art shone in his eyes as he gazed into my navy-blue ones.
He wound a strand of my hair around his finger and rubbed it as though he were touching soft cloth.
“My own, my navy blue.”
His whisper was filled with possessiveness.
Trapped in his arms, I felt him gazing into my eyes.
Like a doll.
It was a horrifically cruel reality.
The reality of having to fall asleep in the arms of the man who wanted to destroy me, to break me completely, his breath right before my face.
My stomach still ached with hunger, my body throbbed, and my throat felt constricted.
But my eyelids were endlessly heavy.
Today, I wanted to forget this hellish reality for a little while.
If only so I could fight again tomorrow.
I would survive and take revenge, no matter what.
Clinging to the last of my will, I let my consciousness slip into the cold darkness that contrasted with his warm body.
_____
The chill beside me woke me.
The first sensation was hunger.
My stomach was completely empty.
My mouth was filled with a bitter taste.
When I swallowed, my throat stung.
‘I’m hungry…’
My body had grown weaker overnight.
The warmth that had been beside me was gone.
I hurriedly sat up and looked around, but Kaelan was nowhere to be found.
‘If I say Aria…’
No.
Though hunger was clouding my mind, I was still Ella.
Footsteps approached soon after.
The door opened.
But his hands weren’t empty.
One hand held a white dress.
The other held an ivory-colored object I couldn’t identify.
“Ah. Aria’s awake. This is what you’ll wear from now on.”
The dress he handed me when he reached the bed was white, just like the one before.
But its neckline fell below my shoulders, exposing my entire collarbone.
He meant to flaunt the mark carved into me.
To make matters worse, the hem was far too short.
It was obvious what he wanted me to feel when I crawled on all fours.
Disgust surged within me, but I had no choice.
‘Anything is better than being naked…’
I couldn’t wear the previous dress because of the pain, and I thought this one would also be useful for lulling him into carelessness.
With that thought, I took the dress and slowly put it on.
The fabric slid down over my body.
Over my chest, my stomach, my thighs.
The hem was even shorter than I had expected.
It barely covered the area just below my buttocks.
It didn’t even cover most of my thighs.
Clothing meant not to conceal but to flaunt.
If I crawled as ordered, my buttocks would be completely exposed.
A dress that covered me without feeling as though it did.
But the object Kaelan held made me even more uneasy than the feel of the dress.
There was something heart-shaped that appeared to be made of ivory, three fingers thick, and something that appeared to be a string of beads, each smaller than half a pinky nail.
Unable to guess what the objects were for, I had an ominous feeling that last night’s humiliation was not the end.
“A long time ago, Viscount Duchenne showed me a very interesting tuning tool… From today onward, I’ll use this to toilet-train you.”
How did he intend to toilet-train me with that?
Could he possibly be planning to put those things inside my body?
Even imagining it made the blood in my entire body seem to freeze.
He smiled in satisfaction and whispered,
“My finest work must be perfectly tuned all the way down to the inside.”