I woke up at half past four in the dim dawn, my internal clock now finely tuned.

Moving quietly, I planned to freshen up in the kitchen sink before heading down the mountain to fetch the food box. However, as I rouse, unexpectedly, my hair was grabbed.

It was Master Naoya.

With his right arm raised to shield half his face in sleep, his left hand tightly gripped a strand of my hair.

“No need to go,” he mumbled, seemingly half asleep.

I was momentarily puzzled by his intentions but, considering yesterday’s events, understood he meant there was no need to go down the mountain for the food box.

I could go back to sleep.

However, he didn’t release my hair, and showed no intention of doing so.

I didn’t dare to attempt to break free, so I just let him hold on.

I planned to sleep once he let go.

But he didn’t release it, instead transitioning from pulling my hair to playing with the ends with his fingertips.

I cautiously raised my eyes to gauge whether Master Naoya was actually asleep.

Instead, I collided with a pair of golden eyes in the darkness.

My breath caught, and I quickly lowered my gaze.

He let go of my hair and lazily ordered, “Come closer.”

I scooted closer as instructed.

He pinched my face. “Open your mouth and stick out your tongue.”

Trembling, I complied, protruding my slightly swollen tongue. He poked it, then probed inside my mouth, his expression growing increasingly disgusted and disdainful. “So disgusting.”

My eyelashes fluttered.

He withdrew his finger, wiping it clean on my collar, then shifted in the single bed. “Sit here.”

I obediently sat on the edge of the bed.

His head then rested on my thigh, his eyes closed, his breathing gradually calming. It was unclear whether he had fallen asleep again or was just dozing off.

The room was eerily quiet, and the balcony windows were tightly shut. I dared not sleep or move, afraid of disturbing Master Naoya’s rest. I could only sit still, lost in thought, until my gaze inadvertently fell on Master Naoya.

His hair had been dyed golden a month ago, shining even in the darkness. But I noticed a bit of black at the roots.

I couldn’t help but remember when Master Naoya hadn’t dyed his hair, when it was black. For some reason, I felt that during that time, he seemed more unapproachable, whether he was smiling with narrowed eyes or wearing a serious expression. It was as if his feudal aura was stronger then, making it easier to recall the unknown darkness within the Zenyuan family.

As daylight filtered in, a familiar voice gently tapped on the door.

“Master Naoya.”

It was the head maid from Master Naoya’s household.

Master Naoya didn’t open his eyes, even turning over to face my stomach, his voice muffled and impatient. “Come in.”

“Yes.”

The maid’s respectful voice came from outside the room. With the slightest movement, she gently pushed the door open from the outside, entered with the food box, and then left the door slightly ajar. She turned to leave but paused when she saw me sitting on the bed and Master Naoya resting his head on my thigh.

I dared not meet her gaze and lowered my head.

I heard the faint sound of the food box being placed on the coffee table. After a while, the door was silently closed again.

After the maid left, Master Naoya lounged in bed for another ten minutes.

“What time is it?”

He still hadn’t opened his eyes.

I glanced at the clock and whispered, “Seven fifteen.”

“Mm.”

His response was casual.

After another four or five minutes, he got up from my lap.

Previously, in the Zen’in household, Master Naoyoshi had always been attended to when dressing, but since coming to school, he had always been disdainful of me, never allowing me to assist him with dressing. Today was no different.

He took out a kimono from the wardrobe and put it on as if no one else was there.

I took the opportunity to return to the kitchen for a quick wash. Through the kitchen window, I observed outside.

Last night’s wind had blown strongly, and I had been worried it might rain, but the clothes hanging on the clothesline in the women’s dormitory area seemed fine.

It hadn’t rained, just a bit overcast.

As usual, Master Naoyoshi ate a few bites before losing interest in food. His appetite always seemed rather low.

At noon, the head maid brought another meal.

At that time, Master Naoya hadn’t finished class yet.

She came to the teaching building and handed the food box to me. I kept my head down, just as I hadn’t dared to meet her gaze in the morning.

After handing me the food box, she didn’t leave immediately but stood in front of me for a while. Just as I began to feel uneasy, she spoke up. “Master Naoya is of marriageable age now. In a few years, he will be engaged to a girl from another clan. By then, the mistress will never tolerate your existence.”

I cautiously raised my eyes, not understanding why the head maid said those words.

She was also staring at me with lowered eyes.

I quickly lowered my eyelashes again and focused on the food box in my arms.

“While there are still a few years left until then, strive harder.” With these words dropped, she turned and left.

After a while, I turned as well, carrying the food box back upstairs.

Master Naoya’s classroom was on the third floor. As I climbed the stairs, I pondered the maid’s words.

Growing up in the Zenyuan family, I was not naive to the ways of the world. After all, the filth of the master’s household was not even a tenth of what the servants endured.

The maid’s implication was that if I wanted to survive, it would be best to work harder in these few years and bear a child with cursed power for Master Naoya. Even if he grew tired of me after marrying someone else, I could still use it as a way out of the Zenyuan family.

But I had no desire to get involved with Master Naoya any more than necessary; I just wanted to have enough to eat. The maid had guessed wrong.

Master Naoya didn’t actually like me.

He just enjoyed that momentary pleasure.

When I reached the third floor.

Technically, Master Naoya still had over twenty minutes left before class ended.

But he came out early because he received a task. As the future heir of the Zenyuan family, he didn’t need to do tasks, but this particular one was in Kyoto and quite tricky, beyond the capabilities of ordinary sorcerers. After high-level discussions, the task fell to him.

“You wait here,” he said, bypassing me to leave.

Looking at the food box in my arms, I anxiously spoke up, “Master Naoya.”

He paused and glanced at me.

I cautiously observed his expression and stammered, “It’s too hot. The food won’t taste good if it’s left until the afternoon.”

He wore a contemptuous expression, as if seeing through my thoughts. “If you want to eat, then eat. After all, in your eyes, this kind of thing is still considered a delicacy.”

I was delighted and held the food box tighter.

Although I wanted to devour everything right away, I also knew the difference between being full once and being full every time. Reluctantly, I placed the food box in a corner where it wouldn’t be kicked and approached Master Naoya, then gently bit his fingertip.

I could feel his arm tense.

In the end, we did it in the cramped storage room for cleaning supplies.

I bit his finger.

His tense body was almost pressed tightly against mine, but he didn’t embrace me. The hand that wasn’t in my mouth was bitten by himself.

He was a head taller than me but buried his head in my neck as if afraid of showing any expression.

I was used to his fear of exposure to light and lightly bit his finger.

“Ugh.”

He released his teeth from his hand and bit my neck, while the hand that was freed grabbed my sleeve tightly, almost tearing holes in it with the force.

My neck hurt, but Master Naoya shed tears before me, though just a drop. Through gritted teeth and trembling, he said, “Get away, damn it.”

He said such things again.

But after last night’s experience, I knew what to do now.

I bit his finger harder, and as expected, he trembled even more violently, his breath in disarray to the point of suffocation, without the usual arrogant demeanor.

He tugged at my sleeve forcefully.

I understood his intention and pulled out a pink handkerchief from my pocket.

He rudely snatched it away.

There was a rustling sound, and soon, he bent over, burying his head in my neck, so weak that he almost collapsed into a heap, unable to rely on anything but me for a short time.

After Master Naoya left.

I took the food box to an empty classroom on the first floor.

Because he said to wait here. I wasn’t sure if he meant to wait at school or in the teaching building, so I assumed it was safer to wait in the teaching building.

Arriving at the empty classroom, I didn’t sit in those chairs.

Even if no one was attending classes.

Subconsciously, I still felt that those seats were not meant for someone like me.

I sat on the steps of the platform, opened the food box that was originally meant for Master Naoya, and the array of dishes caught my eye. They were so exquisite that I hesitated to eat them all at once. Unable to resist my hunger, I started eating slowly, savoring each bite.

I ate with my eyes half-closed, thoroughly enjoying it.

Recently, I could eat every day and eat a lot at once, no longer feeling half-full all the time.

Perhaps I was easily satisfied.

In such days, I already felt it was a high-quality life.

I nibbled and chewed slowly, eating for two or three hours, still leaving three-quarters of the food.

It would spoil if left too long.

Although there was a refrigerator in the dormitory, Master Naoya didn’t allow leftover food to be placed in it.

So even though I was already full, I continued to stuff myself.

Master Naoya’s temperament was unpredictable; he might enjoy this kind of thing now, but who knew if he would lose interest someday. Then I would have to continue starving. It was better to eat more now, even if it made me uncomfortable, than to feel hungry.

Until the classroom door was kicked open.

Before I could see who it was, my hair was grabbed.

“Ah, caught you red-handed, you daring little maid, actually dared to steal Naoya’s food. You’ve got some nerve.” Master Takuto had a look of finally seizing an opportunity, “When he comes back, I’ll hand you over to him.”

My hair was pulled painfully, tears streaming down my face, but what hurt me more was the food box kicked over by Master Takuto.

“No, these are… Master Naoya gave them to me.” It wasn’t until my hair was pulled harder that I managed to explain, crying with pain, “It hurts so much, my tears kept falling, and my voice was full of sobs.

“He gave them to you? Are you kidding me?” It sounded like a joke to him, “Who doesn’t know he hates you the most? The only reason he hasn’t killed you is to torment you some more.”

I understood.

Combined with what I overheard Master Takuto talking with others on the phone last time, it should be Mr. Zen who asked Master Takuto to please Master Naoya more at school.

But due to the incident between Mr. Zen’s wife and the head of the family, Master Naoya always disliked Master Takuto.

So Master Takuto had been anxious because of this.

“Naoya, you’re here,” my hair was pulled again, and I was dragged forward a few steps, then finally thrown to the ground. My scalp was numb with pain as Takuto’s excited voice echoed above, boasting of his discovery. “I just remembered I dropped something and came back to get it, but I never expected to see this maid stealing your stuff. Incredible, really, to have such nerve.”

“Oh, is that so?” came the indifferent voice of Master Naoya from the classroom door.

“Yes,” Takuto continued incessantly. “You’re just too easy going normally, which has allowed such a lawless servant to emerge.”

I struggled to get up from the ground, curling up in a small corner.

Even though the food in the lunchbox was indeed given to me by Master Naoya, given his level of disdain for me, I wasn’t sure if Takuto would pass the opportunity to punish me to him. Would he then pretend not to know about the lunchbox incident, label me as a thief, and proceed to punish me?

Takuto also had this intention. Regardless of whether it was Master Naoya who gave me the food, as long as he successfully shifted the blame, he could earn some favor from Master Naoya.

After all, those two classmates of Master Naoya had amused him many times using this method.

I curled up, trembling.

I didn’t dare to lift my head to observe the situation, but I heard footsteps. It seemed Master Naoya had walked in from outside the classroom. Takuto immediately went up to him but before he could say anything, Master Naoya slapped him.

The slap was forceful.

It knocked out four or five teeth, sending him flying, crashing into several desks and chairs. He couldn’t even crawl up from the ground.

It took Takuto quite a while before he uttered a question from his mouth, “Wh-why?”

Master Naoya shook his hand, disdainfully ignoring him, not even sparing him a glance, then turned to me, squatting in the corner, covering my hair, looking bewildered. He sneered, “How long are you going to hide there, embarrassing yourself?”

It was only then that I realized and quickly scrambled to my feet.

But my steps weren’t steady, and I stumbled forward, instinctively grabbing onto Master Naoya’s arm to steady myself. However, as soon as I realized whom I had grabbed, I froze, quickly releasing his hand, apologizing as I backed away.

He looked somewhat disdainful but didn’t say anything overly harsh.

He never even glanced at Takuto, walking away with his head held high.

I hurried to catch up, but I couldn’t keep pace. He seemed unhurried as he walked, even a bit leisurely, but he was actually quite fast, taking much larger steps than me.

I finally caught up.

And saw the usual contempt and mockery on his face directed towards me. “A woman like you can be trampled on by anyone. Think about it, even if someone wants to cherish beauty, you have no figure, no face, no brains. You have nothing worth noticing.”

I didn’t dare to speak.

He arrogantly continued to insult my appearance and personality, but I pretended not to hear.

The morning sky, which had been overcast, finally began to clear.

I glanced back at the classroom.

Takuto still couldn’t get up, lying there, only able to lift his eyes. He was glaring at Master Naoya, but when he noticed my gaze, his focus shifted to me.

“What are you looking at?” There was a tug on my wrist.

“The food fell on the ground and got wasted.” I quickly withdrew my gaze from the classroom, cautiously looked up at Master Naoya, and gave a timid yet slightly sincere smile. “And, thank you, Master Naoya.”

He was taken aback, staring at me.

Feeling a bit frightened under his gaze, I quickly lowered my head. I noticed the hand grabbing my wrist.

It was his left hand.

Although Master Naoya’s fingers had calluses on the tips, they were still beautiful to the point of perfection, long and slender. As he firmly grasped my wrist, faint blue veins could be seen beneath his fair skin. The only flaw was the teeth marks on the back of his hand, deep enough to have bled but had scabbed over. He had bitten himself in the storage room at noon.

After a while, I heard him sneer from above, “Are you mistaken about something? I just felt like scratching when I saw that useless Takuto.”

But he didn’t let go of my wrist.