Chapter 150
“Waaah……!”
Suddenly, Carmilla began sobbing piteously.
‘…Huh?’
I stopped spanking her, flustered.
‘Gasp. Did I hit her too hard?’
For a moment, I felt guilty.
But now that I thought about it, something seemed strange.
Wasn’t Carmilla the monstrous powerhouse who had just fought Katarina to a standstill?
‘No. How much could it hurt when someone with a measly Strength of 3 hit her……?’
Even if I had hit her with all my strength, it shouldn’t have hurt much—and I hadn’t even used my full power.
When it came time to hit her, my heart went soft, so I held back quite a bit.
‘It was supposed to be a loving disciplinary spanking, so I hit her hard enough that it would teach her something… But I couldn’t bring myself to hit her really hard, either.’
Yet Carmilla was sitting on my lap, sobbing with her shoulders shaking.
“Waaah…… I-I was wrong…….”
“…….”
“I’m sorry for not listening to you, Master……. Sniff…… Please don’t hate me…….”
I looked her over in case she was putting on an act, but that did not seem to be the case at all.
Big, fat tears were pattering onto the sofa cushion, and she was even hiccupping between breaths.
If she could put on an act this convincingly, she deserved an acting award.
I was utterly at a loss.
‘Uh-oh…….’
Katarina had once shed tears because she was moved, but this was the first time one of my servants had cried this much.
What was I supposed to do?
I thought for a moment about how to raise her.
‘If I went with the K-mom, tough-love approach…….’
I could scold her even more with, “What are you crying about when you’re the one at fault?” but there was no way I could do that.
At the same time, coddling her with something like, “There, there, stop crying~ Mommy’s sorry~,” did not seem like good discipline either.
If I let it slide just because she cried, she might think that crying would get her out of trouble next time too.
After giving it serious thought, I decided to calm her down first.
“Carmilla, get up.”
Carmilla sniffled and carefully rose before sitting on the sofa.
“Sit up straight on the sofa and wait for a moment.”
“Sniff… I understand….”
I hurried over to the refrigerator.
‘Ah! It’s here!’
There was some fresh blood juice Aunt Suyeon had prepared.
I poured it into a cup and headed back to the living room.
When I returned, Carmilla was sitting obediently.
Her eyes were red, her nose was sniffling, and she had folded both hands on her lap.
She looked exactly like a young lady crying after being thoroughly scolded by her parents.
‘Wasn’t this the same girl who fought so viciously earlier……?’
I was dumbfounded, but I held out the cup anyway.
“Drink this and calm down a little.”
“……T-thank you.”
Sip, sip.
“Sniff…. Hiccup….”
Carmilla gradually calmed down as she drank the blood juice.
I waited with my arms crossed, sneaking glances at her.
Outwardly, I maintained a stern ruler’s expression, but inwardly, I was watching her reaction.
‘Is she feeling a little better now?’
Cold, sweet things helped one calm down.
I had often been scolded and cried when I was growing up in the orphanage, and whenever that happened, my teacher had given me juice like this.
I was simply putting that to use myself.
After drinking about half the juice, Carmilla seemed to have mostly recovered.
She was still sniffling, but she had stopped crying.
I asked calmly.
“Carmilla.”
“……I’m listening.”
“Do you now clearly understand what you did wrong?”
Carmilla was silent for a moment, clutching the cup tightly in both hands.
Then she gave a small nod.
“……I understand.”
“Tell me.”
She lowered her gaze.
“While I was fighting Senior Katarina…… my heart was pounding, and my body felt so hot.”
“…….”
“It was my first time properly fighting someone so strong…… I was having so much fun and was so excited.”
Carmilla placed a hand over her small chest and tightly clutched her collar.
“I could think of nothing but fighting more…… so even though Master told me to stop, I disobeyed.”
She spoke in a dejected voice.
“I was wrong…….”
‘Hmm.’
I nodded.
It was not that she had deliberately tried to defy me, nor was it some sort of attempt at rebellion against Katarina.
She had simply lost her self-control, intoxicated by the excitement of her first battle.
Even so, wrong was wrong.
“From now on, no matter how much fun I’m having, I will never disobey a word from Master.”
“Good. You understand that much.”
“Ah…….”
Just as Carmilla began to look a little relieved—
“But there is one more thing you did wrong.”
I added another sentence in a stern voice.
“There… is another?”
“Katarina is a servant ranked far above you, is she not?”
“That is so.”
“And more than anything, she is family who shares your blood.”
“…Family.”
“Even if you were excited during a spar, was it right to tell someone like that to die?”
“Ah….”
‘Fun, fun, fun, die, die, die!!!’
Only then did Carmilla seem to remember what she had said earlier, and her face slowly reddened.
She fidgeted with her fingers.
“I-I said that…. To think I uttered such a vulgar and discourteous thing….”
Her head drooped even lower.
“I am so ashamed…….”
“I am not scolding you simply for liking to fight. Anyone can lose their dignity for a moment. Even I do so from time to time.”
“E-even you, Master…?”
My emotions sometimes ran wild, and I lost my noble dignity too.
When I saw a bug, or when I got caught fishing blood pudding out of a stew in the middle of the night, and so on.
“That is so. So that in itself is not wrong. However, no matter how excited one becomes, there are lines one must not cross.”
Carmilla listened to my words with a serious expression.
“You must not behave that way toward fellow servants. Do you understand?”
“I shall surely keep in mind the noble principles Master has taught me.”
She nodded resolutely.
Thus, the etiquette lesson came to an end.
“Here. Wipe your face.”
“Thank you…….”
I pulled out several tissues and handed them to Carmilla, who wiped her tears. She blew her nose with a little honk, too.
Her little wings were also gradually rising back to their normal position.
We could return to the training ground now, but something was bothering me, so I remained seated beside her.
An awkward silence passed for a moment while Carmilla sipped the rest of her juice.
Eventually, I could not hold back any longer and asked her.
It was something that had been bothering me this whole time.
“…Servant, did it hurt much earlier?”
Carmilla looked at me with her large, round eyes, then shook her head firmly.
“It did not hurt at all.”
‘Huh?’
It did not hurt at all?
Then why had she cried so bitterly?
I stared at Carmilla, dumbfounded.
“It felt like a kitten gently tapping me with its front paw.”
‘Th-that was all?!’
I had hit her hard because I thought I was disciplining her properly.
So this was the sorrow of having a Strength of 3.
Snek-sad….
I was sad inside, but I hid it and asked,
“Then why did you cry like that?”
“My body did not hurt in the slightest. But my heart hurt.”
‘Your heart hurt?’
“Every time you struck me, I could feel that Master was disappointed in me. So…… I felt as if I were growing distant from Master…… and that frightened me terribly.”
‘Ah. So she didn’t cry because it hurt.’
Only then did I begin to understand.
Carmilla had accepted me as her master immediately after being summoned, and her new family had welcomed her too.
Yet on her very first day of life, she had disobeyed her master’s command and been scolded.
So she had been afraid that she would be abandoned or hated.
“More than anything, Master is so powerful that you erased all the shadows I created with a single word…. Yet when you punished me, you did not use any strength at all. It was because you were worried that I might be hurt….”
Uh…….
I had held back, but it hadn’t been to that extent.
I felt my conscience prick.
“I was so sorry that I disobeyed you from the very beginning, despite you being such an amazing Master…….”
Carmilla’s eyes grew moist again.
“That is why my heart hurt.”
So that was what it was.
She had not cried because I hit her, but because she was afraid I would come to hate her.
Even then, she had sensed that I was showing consideration for her, which only made her feel guiltier.
I had not intended it, but somehow, the lesson seemed to have sunk in much more thoroughly than I had expected.
‘…….’
My pathetic strength had actually helped.
I was satisfied, but somehow, I felt a little strange about it.
In any case, that was that, but there was one point I needed to make absolutely clear.
I spoke in a gentle voice.
“It was absolutely not because I hated you, Carmilla. I disciplined you because I want you to become an even better servant.”
“Is that really true…?”
Carmilla quickly raised her head and looked at me.
Her eyes were sparkling.
When I nodded, Carmilla nodded vigorously several times as well.
“I will become an even better servant from now on!”
“That’s more like my servant!”
That seemed to conclude the lesson for sure.
“Then let us return to the training ground now. Everyone must be waiting.”
“Yes…! Master…!”
***
Meanwhile, back at the training ground.
The servants remaining in the special training ground had gathered together and were discussing what had happened earlier.
“She really was strong, wasn’t she? The new servant….”
Sera spoke first.
“Yeah. Very strong.”
Siyeon nodded, and everyone agreed.
Namgung Yeonhee spoke with a serious expression.
“To subdue such an expert with a single word imbued with internal energy. So Lady Katarina’s words were truly correct.”
“Indeed. This is our lord’s true command.”
“Carmilla didn’t listen to Master, so Master got super angry…! Lili’s worried about Carmilla….”
“Master’s command is absolute. Disobedience is strictly forbidden.”
“Siyeon is right. She seems to have briefly lost her reason, intoxicated by bloodlust. It is unquestionably a grave offense. ……Yet she must face our lord’s wrath directly. It is terrifying even to imagine.”
Katarina sighed and shook her head.
“That’s right! The True Ancestor was really scary earlier. Her aura was incredible!”
“I hope nothing too serious happened….”
Ha-eun nodded emphatically, while Aunt Suyeon muttered worriedly.
At that moment, a portal opened in the training ground, and Eugene and Carmilla appeared.
Carmilla’s eyes were puffy and red as if she had been sobbing her heart out, and she was demurely holding her hands together.
‘……!!!’
The crazed girl who had been enjoying herself even while fighting Katarina had returned thoroughly chastened, after crying her eyes out.
The other servants could not even begin to imagine what kind of terrifying punishment she had received.