There are currently only two magic schools in Japan, both nestled deep in the mountains. The vegetation is lush, teeming with birds, animals, and insects.

The crisp chirping of birds outside the window roused me from a heavy dream. The sky outside was already faintly bright. Without a watch or any timekeeping device, I’ve developed a skill over the years. Unless it’s a rainy day, I can determine the current time by observing the daylight.

It should be around 4:30 in the morning.

I got up.

However, everything went black in front of me, and I fell back heavily. Because the dormitory rooms are not soundproof, I quickly suppressed a short exclamation and closed my mouth tightly. Holding my breath, I observed the movement outside the kitchen door.

One second, two seconds, three seconds…

I relaxed and breathed out softly.

I lay on the ground in a contorted posture for more than a minute, allowing the pain in my joints and the darkened vision to subside. Slowly, I supported myself against the wall and climbed up from the floor.

I slightly opened the kitchen door.

The dormitory is small, with separate spaces for the kitchen and bathroom, while the living room and bedroom are connected. I cautiously crawled towards the door, attempting to open it as quietly as possible.

The door opened.

I only opened a small slit, enough for me to slip through.

Leaving the dormitory building, I hurried towards the foot of the mountain. Because Master Naoya, couldn’t get used to the cafeteria food, the three meals a day were prepared by the Zen family’s chef and delivered to the foot of the mountain. It was my job to fetch the meals three times a day.

But the mountain was too high.

Even though I’ve lifted the hem of my kimono and hurried back without stopping for a breath, a round trip still takes a considerable amount of time. By the time I rush back to school, the first class has already started.

Master Naoya is sitting in the middle of the classroom, wearing a black and white kimono, reclining in his chair, and yawning as if he’s oblivious to everyone around him.

However, something is different this time.

His hair is dyed a golden color, matching his eyes, and he has a row of earrings on his left ear.

In the month since he arrived at this school, Master Naoya quickly established good relations with his classmates. More accurately, it seems like most of his classmates have managed to earn a bit of his favor.

Master Naoya’s has two students from prominent families in the magic world. However, their families are in no way comparable to the Zen family. Due to the rarity of producing a child with cursed power, their families are on the decline. Besides retaining the distinctions of primary and secondary wives and the heir and branch lines, they have largely assimilated into modern society. Their everyday clothing is modern, and before entering the specialized high school, they attended regular high schools.

In contrast to Master Tadokoro, who has been receiving guidance from family tutors and wears kimono every day, even at school, showing a reluctance to wear the school uniform, they adapt more to the modern world. The Zen family remains devoid of modern products due to the head of the family’s strong version to technology during the Taisho period. This dislike has persisted, resulting in a lack of items aligned with the advancements of the new era within the Zen household.

That’s why they prefer to take Master Naoya to experience new things, like dyeing hair or getting earrings. His recent fascination with staying up all night playing games is also influenced by them.

In the classroom, he yawns again, notices me at the door, and his expression darkens. “Come in.”

The teacher at the podium is forced to interrupt the class.

But he doesn’t dare to show any displeasure. Instead, he wears a forced smile.

I place the lunchbox on Master Naoya’s desk, kneel beside his legs with my hands on my abdomen.

He stares at me. “You’re ten minutes later than yesterday. What were you doing on the way?”

“I’m sorry.”

Master Naoya doesn’t say anything more.

Previously, he would take the opportunity to insult and scold me. But perhaps due to repetition, he simply lazily opens the lunchbox, takes a few bites, closes it, and puts it aside without paying further attention.

Then, he tosses his notebook and pen into my lap. “Take notes for me.”

I don’t react immediately.

He furrowed his brow. “Don’t you understand?”

I quickly shook my head, spread the notebook open, and looked at the podium.

The teacher on the podium had resumed the lecture, holding a textbook in one hand and writing on the blackboard with the other, explaining the lesson.

I couldn’t understand.

The words on the blackboard were also incomprehensible to me.

But Master Naoya asked me to take notes, presumably to transcribe the content from the blackboard.

I looked at the black pen in my right hand, tried to recall Master Naoya’s pen-holding posture, gripped the pen, and began to struggle to write on the notebook.

The handwriting was crooked.

Every stroke was trembling.

And I couldn’t even write within the grid.

By the time I laboriously completed one word, the teacher had already erased the blackboard and started writing something else.

Next to me, the two legitimate sons from the other families burst into loud laughter. In a short time, they had mastered how to quickly please Master Naoya, completely ignoring the teacher on the podium, pointing at my notebook. “What’s this girl writing? It’s hilarious.”

“Her pen-holding posture is like this,” one of them imitated.

The other burst into laughter, “Hahaha, this is too funny!”

I felt helpless.

Master Naoya beside me also made a mocking sound. He bent down, leaned closer to me, looked at the words I wrote on the notebook, and the pen held tightly by my right hand.

He laughed again, with a strong sense of ridicule.

“Oh, I forgot, Aichin, you’ve never been to school. No matter how good or bad your figure is, your face isn’t that pretty either. You’re always wearing a gloomy expression. Any man, no matter how desperate, wouldn’t desire you. Now, even these small tasks like taking a lunchbox and making notes, you can’t do them properly. You’ve truly lost all value as a woman.”

“I-I’m sorry.”

“An utterly useless and foolish woman like you, only I wouldn’t mind,” he took the notebook and pen from my hands.

“Yes,” my eyelashes trembled and lowered, and my hands clasped tightly in front of me.

Master Naoya smirked lazily. “Go get me a cup of water.”

“Yes.”

I blinked rapidly several times, trying to hold back my tears, and stood up to go to the tea room to pour water. After taking a few steps, I was called back.

He glanced at the untouched lunchbox on the side. “Throw this away.”

I carried the lunchbox and left.

It was only after I was far from the classroom that I dared to lift my head and wiped the tears from the corners of my eyes with the back of my hand.

I always thought I had grown accustomed to Master Naoya’s ridicule and malicious treatment, but sometimes, I couldn’t help but shed tears.

I took a moment to compose myself, finally easing the desire to cry, and continued walking forward.

There was only one trash bin on the first floor of the school building. As I descended with the lunchbox, my steps gradually slowed. The aroma of the food emanating from the lunchbox was tempting me at every moment.

I hadn’t eaten a proper meal for a long time.

To be precise, I rarely even ate to satisfy half of my hunger. Aunt Ju from the cafeteria was willing to give me some food, but whether it was the security personnel or the staff responsible for the cafeteria and plants, they all worked in shifts.

I could only meet Aunt Ju once every seven days.

“Gululu.”

My stomach kept making noises, and I covered it with my hands, but it seemed even more delighted.

Do you want to eat?

Anyway, Master Naoya also said to throw it away, so I could say I already did when the time comes, and he wouldn’t find out.

Once this thought came to mind, I couldn’t suppress it no matter what.

I completely stopped in my tracks and opened the lunchbox.

The fragrance intensified.

Various types of breakfast items filled the lunchbox. Many of them were dishes I had only seen the young masters and mistresses of the main families eat, but I had never tasted them.

I swallowed saliva, reached out, and tried to pick up the most inconspicuous pastry.

But as soon as I touched it, I heard a particularly familiar voice. Startled, I quickly withdrew my hand and closed the lid of the lunchbox.

“I’ve been trying my best to please him, but he’d rather respond to the boring questions of those two brats from the wild chicken families than pay attention to me. What can I do? Besides, you can’t do anything about it either. That guy has always hated you and that old woman since childhood. So, can you stop forcing onto me something you can’t do yourself?”

At the end of the corridor, someone was standing there, hands on hips, talking on the phone, looking very upset.

He was Master Tadokoro’s cousin, Master Takuto, the son of the second master. He was also one of the participants in the events that led to Nakano Yoko’s death. Two years older than Master Tadokoro, he was currently in his third year.

I wasn’t very comfortable being alone in a space with him.

I hadn’t seen Nakano Yoko’s body, but just hearing descriptions from other maids made me shudder.

So, taking advantage of the moment when he wasn’t looking this way, I slipped into the narrow storage room for cleaning tools. Outside, Master Naoya became more and more upset as he spoke, eventually giving the wall a strong kick, hanging up the phone, and leaving.

After his commotion disappeared without a trace, I came out of the storage room, walked to the trash bin, took a last look at the lunchbox in my hand, swallowed hard, closed the lid with reluctance, and gently placed it on top of the trash bin.

In the afternoon, Master Naoya didn’t go to class; he stayed in the dormitory watching videos.

Perhaps he didn’t care about schoolwork, or maybe he just wanted to humiliate me. He threw a notebook at me, telling me to attend class for him and organize the lecture notes. He would check in the evening, and if I hadn’t done a good job:

“You won’t be allowed to eat for two days.”

He lifted his chin, not hiding his malicious intent.

I carried the notebook and pen, lowered my head, and walked into the classroom.

Seeing me, the two classmates of Master Tadokoro showed a puzzled expression. It wasn’t until they saw me kneeling in my morning seat, clumsily opening the notebook, gripping the pen, and recording the knowledge points from the blackboard, that they suddenly realized and burst into laughter.

“Master Tadokoro really knows how to torment people.”

“This girl is really not clever at all. Why did Master Tadokoro bring her to school?”

“To make it easier to bully her.”

“Not necessarily.”

I pretended not to hear, trying hard to suppress the awful emotions surging within me, awkwardly holding the pen and writing on the notebook. Suddenly, my chin was pinched and lifted.

Then my bangs were flicked aside, fully revealing my eyes.

I hadn’t anticipated this at all, and my eyes widened in surprise.

“Look, a rare gem.”

One of Master Tadokoro’s classmates touched my cheek, then pinched it gently, showing a meaningful smile. “But it could also be because Master Tadokoro hasn’t realized how strong he really is and has enough arrogance. But people raised in those old-fashioned families rarely have smart minds.”

“Hahaha.”

I never expected that these two, who flattered Master Tadokoro so much in front of him, would talk about him like this behind his back. The teacher on the podium remained indifferent to their behavior and disrespectful words, continuing to teach mechanically at his own pace.

Another person’s hand also came up, and the back of his hand slid back and forth on the other side of my face.

I looked flustered and, at this moment, noticed that there were many more words on the blackboard. Thinking about the additional two days of not being able to eat, I completely forgot about everything else, gripped the pen, and was about to continue copying. However, after the teacher wrote two more words, he erased the blackboard.

“Wait, that…”

I urgently spoke up, but my weak voice was easily drowned out by the teacher’s lecture.

“Oh, you haven’t finished writing. If you don’t finish, how will Master Tadokoro punish you?” Someone embraced me from behind, and the person’s chin pressed against my shoulder. At the same time, I felt my cheek being pinched harder.

Another person reached over, tapping my lips and saying with a sly smile, “How about this? Let us hug you, kiss our faces, and we’ll help you take notes. How does that sound?”