Part 1

I am Stuart Jonas of Hiltherheight, an Earl of a bountiful land in the southwestern region of the country of Celestines.

As the lord over 5,000 soldiers, I was a powerful Earl, dominating that province.

One day, I received a letter that contained the order to move my troops to the frontlines.

The order was for me to go to the western part this country and subjugate the bandits there, as well as defending the region.

It was an unreasonable command where I would have to send all of my forces to the western front and leave my territory without any soldiers.

So I decided to go to the capital to have an audience with King Henry the 20th and discuss about this matter.

When I arrived at the capital, I wasted no time and went straight to the royal castle.

Thankfully, the king showed understanding to my pleas and accepted my request to send only 1,500 soldiers.

He sent word to other nobles near me to also deploy their soldiers to that region.

After everything was done, I, along with my guards proceeded to return to my castle.

Although I was able to convince the king, cooperating with the other nobles was another matter altogether.

Most of them wanted to reduce my power and obtain dominance in that region.

None of them would willingly send their soldiers, even if the king ordered it. Because the king knew of this, he dumped the responsibility of rallying their soldiers onto me.

This was of course a very stressful job.

I wanted to find a way where I would be able to relieve all the stress I was accumulating.

Luckily, a girl with a beautiful silver hair and red eyes that contained an unbending will appeared before me.

She was a ragged dirty girl, but she exuded a very regal atmosphere, even when Leo, my best guard, swung a sword at her neck.

A desire to break her will and make her submit to me sprouted within me, so I decided to take her in to my castle.

BAnd because she was a commoner, she was unable to refuse any of my orders.

Making sure she won’t run away from me, I gave her a fake smile that showed generosity and goodwill.

When I told her to become my servant, the girl made a sigh before accepting my request.

That sigh of her felt as if she was already used to all the unreasonableness of the world and because she couldn’t fight against it, she had decided to just go with the flow of fate and accept whatever may happen, regardless of the result and conclusion.

“(She seems to be a very interesting child… I can’t wait to see how she will look after one night.)”

Right after that, a commotion occurred where a fruit merchant suddenly appeared before the girl and smacked her head.

It would’ve been very troublesome if the girl were to die because of it, so I decided to intervene and stop the merchant.

When he learned that the girl came under my wing, his eyes made a sparkle and demanded reparations for the food she had stolen from me.

Since it was just a measly 50 copper coins, I gave him a silver coin which made him very happy.

I then approached the girl and discovered a very interesting phenomenon occur to her.

“(It seems like this girl will be able to withstand my sessions for a long time… excellent.) Leo, carry this girl to our carriage and have a maid nurse her back to health.”

Leo grimaced his face before saluting to me.

“As you command, Milord.”

A week has passed and my desk had a stack of papers on it.

What was written on them were complaints, requests and negotiations from several of people.

The most numerous papers were the letters that the surrounding nobles sent to me.

All of them contained their refusal to send soldiers to the western front.

I reached my limit and decided to have the girl go to the dungeon room at night.

When night fell, I proceeded to the dungeons and saw the girl standing before the door with a puzzled expression.

She stood at attention with her feet closed and her hands placed in front of her.

As she saw me approaching her, the girl made a curtsy and bowed her head to me.

When she met her eyes with mine, I could see that she was harboring some hostility to me.

Seeing her like that, a vicious smile floated on my face and ordered some of the soldiers to grab her hands and restrained her to the dungeon.

The sight of her struggling free felt really satisfying.

She was bound to chains and was now dangling inside the room.

I had a soldier undress her body as I took had some soldiers get the tools I would need.

While I waited for the tools, I observed the situation unfolding in front of me.

It was very surprising to see the girl make a deadpan face as the soldier stripped her.

The expression she made disgusted him out, so he quickly undressed her and walked away after it was done.

I approached the girl with small steps and held her chin with my hand.

I wanted to see if she still possessed the same eyes she had back then even after she was being submitted to such treatment.

My heart leapt in joy when I saw that she still possessed a strong will.

“Do you know why you’re here?”

“…”

The girl didn’t answer my question and diverted her eyes elsewhere.

Feeling pleased because of her defiant attitude, I smacked the girl’s right cheek with my free hand.

A red mark that had the same shape as my palm formed on her cheek.

It felt very satisfying doing that and because I wanted her to despair, I asked her again.

“Do you know why you’re here?”

“… No.”

Although the girl was still not looking at me, this time she answered my question.

“Do you wanna know why you’re here?”

“… No.”

I punched the girls stomach and told her that she could only reply ‘yes’ to my questions.

Even though I already know the answer, I still repeated the same question.

“Do you wanna know why you’re here?”

“… Yes… please tell me.”

I smiled and answered her.

“It’s very simple, little girl… the reason why you’re here is to become my play thing. Not in a sexual meaning okay, I’m not into little girls. I wanted something that I could use as an outlet for my stress and that’s where you come in, little girl.”

After hearing my words, the girl finally looked at me and with a very small voice she asked,

“Why… me?”

“Coincidence.”

The girl’s eyes widened at my answer and a feeling of hopelessness invaded her eyes.

Right at that moment, the soldier I sent to get the tools needed for my fun.

When she saw those objects lining up in front of her,

She started squirming on her spot and tried to escape.

Seeing her like that really made me happy.

“... No… no!... why! Even here.”

The girl started muttering nonsense as she continued to make futile movements.

I ignored her for now and approached one of the tools.

I decided to use the whip first and tested it in front of her eyes first.

Crack*

The whip made a very satisfying noise and approached the girl’s back.

Crack*

“Kaa!”

I whipped her back and heard her moan in pain and like the time when she was being beaten up by the merchant, her wounds were healing quite rapidly.

Seeing that my eyes weren’t lying to me, I continued to whip her.

Her back, front, legs, and arms, I continued to torture her until she lost consciousness, all the while she continued to scream in pain.

As she fell to the ground when the soldier loosened her bindings

I ordered the soldier to carry her back to her room.

Feeling uplifted after letting all of my pent up stress, I walked back to my study and returned to my room.

Since then, I continued to call the girl to the dungeon and tortured her every night.

Although she thought that I was had a healer heal her after every session, I didn’t correct her from that misunderstanding.

In fact, it was more convenient that she didn’t know of her power.

From time to time, I would change my approach on torturing her.

Sometimes, I had some of her co-workers experience what she did, only to have them die halfway.

On other times, I would brand her or carve her body using a knife.

I didn’t hit her vital parts whenever I carved her, her power was still unknown to me and she might die.

She was still very useful, so killing her would only make very troublesome.

There was a time where she got used to the pain and her expression would become flat, even though what she was experiencing could drive other people insane.

It troubled me greatly so I had some of the soldiers follow her and learn if she had anybody important to her.

When the soldiers reported to me that there was a person who was capable of making her smile, despite the treatment the other servants subjected her to, I was highly delighted.

That night, I decided to use this to threaten her. Life returned to her previously dead eyes.

Her expression became more vivid and the flat expression she formerly had seemed as if it were an elaborate act.

Tears fell down from her cheeks and she continued to beg me to spare him.

Of course I wasn’t planning on killing that young boy, he was a very exceptional and talented boy.

I was only using it as an empty bluff to make things fun and it worked wonders.

Everything that happened after that night felt the same during the same time.

Now, because one of her precious people was a hostage, her will to endure my tortures got stronger.

That boy seemed to be very precious to her, because he was able to make her smile and was important enough to break her act.

Since that night, my abuses escalated by a step, but because she was a monster with inhuman regenerative powers, she was still able to survive them.

“Milord, a force of 50,000 soldiers from Wendelia have been confirmed by the scouts. Their destination seems to be this place.”

“I see… quickly scramble the knights and soldiers. Strengthen the gates and have the archers go to their positions. As for the mages, have them create a defensive barrier around the castle. Kill any that collapse from mana exhaustion, we don’t need anybody useless in this defense.”

“As you command!”

The soldier who gave me the report quickly ran out of my study.

Moments later, the sound of bells rang throughout the castle.

Soldiers scrambled and horses galloped everywhere.

Archers position themselves on the ramparts and the mages that were stationed on various places started casting large barriers.

I didn’t know how magic works, but the sight of those giant symbols floating up in the air felt very secure.

Though it looked very irritating to see different patterns, but as long as they properly do their job I won’t say anything about it.

Bang*

As I continued to stare at my soldiers running about, the door to my study suddenly slammed open.

I fixed my gaze at the intruder and discovered a young boy with golden blonde hair and cerulean blue eyes.

What was even more surprising was that this boy was the very same boy who was so close to my plaything.

I think his name was…

“Keith! What are you doing here!? Didn’t you hear the alarm? Quickly get back to your post!”

Leo, who was one of my guards, shouted at the boy.

“(So his name was Keith.) Quickly state your business boy, can’t you see that by wasting your time here, you are creating opportunities for the enemies to strike.”

When I spoke those words, the boy gritted his teeth, his eyes filled with hostility and his body emitted a heavy pressure of killing intent.

Though this boy was still small, the amount of killing intent he directed towards me was almost at the same level as a veteran soldier.

I smiled and accepted it all.

“(Did the girl tell him of what I did to her? Interesting, though I’ll need to punish her later for this.)”

As I thought of what I would do to punish the girl, the boy unsheathed his sword and charged towards me.

Leo, who was by my side, locked his sword with the boy’s.

Part 2

-Keith-

“Keith, have gone mad!? Why are you attacking our Lord? What did he do to warrant your hostility?”

“What did he do? You’re asking me what he did after seeing the scars on her back!?”

I jumped backwards and disengaged from my former comrade, Leo.

“Are you talking about the wounds on that thing?”

“Did you know about it?”

“Know about it? I saw how our Lord gave her those wounds. Did you think that I, one of our Lord’s guard, wouldn’t know about it?”

I gnashed my teeth when I heard that he allowed that person torture Eulalia.

She was a very kind and beautiful girl, why would these people want to see her suffer?

“Sir Leo… did you know that the food she makes is very delicious.”

“...”

“Did you know, that even though people ignored her or were even outright rude to her, she endured all of those just because I was here… what did she even do to deserve this treatment!”

I gripped my sword tighter and charged towards Leo.

He prepared to meet my sword, but at the last moment, I used my fist and punched him in the face.

This made him stumble backwards and by using this chance, I slashed his arms turning him into a cripple.

“You think that you can win against me just because I’m younger?”

I wonder why, but even though I was fighting against a person who was my former comrade, I felt no remorse in cutting off his arms.

“Arrghh!!!”

Leo, who lost both of his arms made a desperate attempt and charged towards me.

Ironically, because of all the training my colleagues have given me because I was her ally, I became better and stronger than most of the soldiers inside this castle.

As long as it’s one-on-one, I was confident that I would be victorious.

As Leo continued to charge towards me, I made a step to the side and used the handle of my sword to strike his head.

Though he deserves death for abusing Eulalia, I was still grateful to him for training me.

So I still felt reluctant to kill him.

Clap* Clap* Clap*

As Leo lost consciousness and fell to the ground, the sound of clapping resounded through the room. I turned my gaze towards the source and found our Lord.

The person who had tortured Eulalia every night.

The main target for my revenge.

“You truly are a skilled child. I’m very happy that such a person is a part of my army.”

I gave him a snort before replying to his words.

“I’m not under you anymore… and it’s all because you made her suffer every night!”

“Is that so? Such a shame to lose such a skilled person.”

I raised my sword and readied my stance so that I could charge at him anytime.

“Before I kill you, may I know the reason why you abused her?”

“... why? It’s very simple actually. The reason why I did those things to her was because she was the perfect thing to relieve my stress on.”

I gnashed my teeth and calmed my nerves, it was still not time to kill him yet.

There were still many things I want to ask him… and also do to him.

I wanted to give this person the most painful death I could imagine, as a reward for what he did to Eulalia.

“Some people say that the best way to relieve your stress is by letting it all out on something. Who knew that it was actually true! Every time I whipped her and heard her scream, it felt very satisfying and fulfilling!”

“You’re a sick bastard. I can’t believe I once adored you.”

After learning what he did to her, I became disillusioned about him.

I thought that he was a very kind Lord, who was fair to everyone.

He was hardworking and liked to improve the quality of life for those under his rule.

He even made an orphanage for the children who lost their parents because of the war.

This person would even gladly give a mother and her child a home to live in.

He did so many things for the people under him.

I thought that there must’ve been a reason why he was doing those things to Eulalia.

Somewhere within me, I still believed in him.

That he didn’t know what was happening to her.

That there was a different person who was doing those things to her.

“(There’s no way such a kind-hearted person like him was able to those things to her.)”

It turned out that I was wrong, at this time I regretted ever asking him for the reason.

“It would’ve been better for me if I hadn’t heard it. So die!”

I kicked the floor and raised my sword above my head and dashed to him.

“It won’t be me that’ll do the dying though…”

At that moment, soldiers flooded into the room and held me down.

‘Just how did they know about this? Nobody except me and him should’ve been near this place.’

I turned my gaze towards the door and found Leo laying there.

Some of the soldiers that didn’t hold me down gathered around him and were treating his injuries.

It was also at that exact moment when a person with silver hair and red eyes came inside the room.

The person that came inside was, Eulalia.

“Keith!”

Part 3

-Eulalia-

When I saw Keith’s figure disappearing as he ran towards the castle.

I hurriedly dressed myself and ran after him.

Even though the clothes were still very loose and some of the buttons weren’t properly inserted, I still chased after him.

He was the very first friend I had made since I regained my memories.

I wanted to treasure him more.

I wanted to spend time with him more.

I wanted to talk to him more.

He was the very reason why the past two years became bearable.

I was greatly indebted to him, I was really happy that he became my friend.

I don’t care what I’d experience, as long as I get to spend time with him, everything would be fine.

Even if I was tortured every night and got treated like dirt by everyone, as long as he remained my friend, everything would have been fine!

Clang* Clang* Clang*

The alarm which signalled to prepare for an enemy attack resounded within the castle.

Everyone became frantic and started running around everywhere.

Since all of them were very busy, not one of them paid any attention to my disheveled look.

Which in this situation, was quite a blessing.

“Was showing him some of the wounds that weren’t healed by magic the wrong move? Oh God, please… I don’t care if everyone else abuses me… Please just let Keith live!”

I continued to run down the long hallway and when I was finally near the Lord’s study, I saw a lot of soldiers enter the room.

When I got closer, I saw a person who looked quite familiar, lie on the ground with his hands cut off.

Imagining a blood bath occurring all because of my rash decision, I increased my speed a bit more.

When I arrived, I saw three soldiers holding Keith down and the remaining ones, guard the Lord while some treated Leo.

“Keith!”

“... Eulalia?”

I quickly tried to approach him, but was captured by the soldiers that should’ve been guarding the Lord.

“Bastards! Let go of her!!!”

“Well, aren’t you quite the selfish child. First you want to kill me, now you want them to listen to your words?”

Keith gritted his teeth as he angrily stared at the Lord.

He slowly went closer to Keith and picked up his sword from the floor.

Then, as if taunting me, the Lord raised his sword in front of Keith.

“No! Please! Anything but that! Please don’t kill him! I’ll do anything… even if I’m locked up inside the dungeon for the rest of my life… please just don’t kill him.”

“Hmm… it would’ve been interesting to see your reaction once I’ve killed this boy, but I came up with a better idea.”

The Lord lowered his sword and drew closer to me.

He had a big smile on his face, this smile was the same smile he would have everytime he’d torture me.

It was a sickening smile that seemed to take pleasure in seeing me experience pain.

“Because I need to punish the boy for trying to kill me, I’ll need to show him what you really are. After he sees that, I wonder what kind of expression he’ll make.”

All of a sudden the Lord thrust his sword towards me, the place he aimed for was my stomach.

Like in my previous life, I died because I was stabbed in the stomach when I tried to walk past a suspicious guy

“Ughhh!”

It felt ironic that I was gonna die in this life with the same wound that I started out with in my previous life.

Unlike the knife the murderer used, the sword was dull and badly maintained, so I experienced a lot of pain the moment it entered my body.

“Eulalia!!!”

“Kukuku… nice expression boy. Now, you’ll see what this girl really is.”

“Kuhh!”

The Lord used the embedded sword to torment me before slowly removing it.

The moment the sword was removed, a lot of blood gushed out of my body and spilled onto the floor.

Even my mouth tasted like iron and I felt drool escaping from my lips.

A few moments later, while my hands were held by the soldiers, I vomited blood.

He then started slashing my body, creating lots of shallow wounds all over me.

“You bastard!! I’ll kill you! I’ll kill you!”

All throughout this time, Keith continued to curse the Lord while he was being held down by the three soldiers.

His strength must have been quite something, because he was able to escape their hold by squirming under them and freeing a hand.

He then used that hand to grabbed a sword that dangled on the waist of one of the soldiers but was denied and had the hand binded by another soldier.

“This is the best part boy, look at the wounds I inflicted.”

At that moment, as my consciousness started to get hazy, I saw Keith open his eyes wide at me.

I couldn't understand his reaction, so I decided to look at the wounds myself.

I saw something a normal human shouldn’t possess.

My wounds were closing at a very fast rate and some of the wounds I had were gone, it was as if they weren’t there from the start.

Since I wasn’t able to look at my own body whenever the Lord would torture me, this was the very first time I had seen this myself.

The wounds, which I thought were healed by magic, were in fact closed by my strong regenerative ability.

It was as if I was a…

“Monster! See boy, this girl isn’t a human being! She’s a monster that wears the skin of a human…. So tell me boy, are you still gonna say that you're gonna protect this monster?”

Keith didn’t answer for a while.

His silence as he stared at me made me very anxious.

Then he gently smiled as he stared at me and said,

“I don’t care even if she’s a monster to you… she’s still a very important person to me. I will still protect her, even if she became the enemy of the world, I’d still be her ally.”

“(To think he treasured our friendship this much… You really are a true friend, Keith.)”

Even though most of my wounds were healed, I could still feel a lot of pain in my stomach.

“Wrong words, boy.”

The Lord directed his eyes towards one of the soldiers and it made a nod when he met his gaze.

The soldier walked closer to Keith and unsheathed his sword in front of him.

He raised its sword and with swung it down towards Keith’s neck.

“No!!!”

Even though it was painful to breathe, I used all of my remaining strength in that scream.

In that instant, time slowed down and the world became monochrome.

Everything except for Keith and the sword that was slowly moving towards his neck disappeared from my view.

At this moment, my mind became blank and a voice resounded within my head.

This voice sounded very nostalgic, this was a voice I used to have in my previous life.

A string of words floated on my head and with nothing else to cling on, I recited it under my breath.

[I, the mother of a race that has yet to exist, implore the power the sleeps within me,fulfill my desires.]

As I spoke those words, the blood that was spilled on the floor shone and flew towards Keith and protected him.

Klang*

“What the!”

Using the surprise of the soldiers, I imagined the blood becoming blades and flying towards all the soldiers, including the Lord.

As the blood turned into what I desired, I coughed blood and fell to the floor.

Without me being able to confirm if the people inside the room had died, I lost consciousness.

-A/N-

Spoiler :

Before you start talking about how different Lord Stuart become in this series. Stop for a moment and remember how in the previous series, he started creating monster and walked on the the path into becoming a demon lord as a result.

Also, remember how he was a commander of the rebels in the original. So I still sticked to his original character design and only made a few tweaks.

Eulalia was only able to see His side as a torturer, so that should explain how prejudiced I made it. Hopefully, I was able to make it work well. Writing in a first person view while sticking the knowledge and vision an MC should have is hard work. I mean, as a writer of a story, you already know what the person in your story really is. The only problem is that because this story is in the 1st POV, I have to write in a way that it is biased and prejudiced… so yeah~ Hahaha

Hopefully, the change of POV I made in part 2 was enough to subtly give you a peek of what the Lord appeared to the people who adored him. This is very useful for the future chapters. Hehehe

All men have different faces when talking to others, some may see you as this, others may see you as that and some stuff like that.

I tried writing this chapter without ending it in a cliffhanger in the end, only to have it backfire… LOL.

Well, that’s all for now~

PS, I can't make a good name for this chapter... so please suggest me a good name... hehehe

RAWR!!!!