Episode 119
Morning broke.
*Ring ring ring!!!*
Lulu opened her eyes in the bed of the commoner dormitory, far more cramped than the dormitory used by nobles.
"Mmm..."
Rubbing her eyes and turning off the alarm clock, she soon wore an expression of wonder and murmured.
"...I didn't have a nightmare today either."
It was a nightmare she had without fail every single day since childhood.
The scene where her parents, who used to look at her with affectionate expressions, suddenly developed the look in their eyes as if looking at a bug and chased her away.
The days when neighborhood friends she used to play with at the playground since long ago started having small accidents one by one, and gradually began to avoid her.
The false accusations against new friends who approached her with smiles, the unconsciousness of the nun who had embraced her until the very end.
Watching such scenes always in her dreams, Lulu had felt various emotions.
Persecution delusions that the world was isolating her to kill her, and the despair of not being able to be loved by anyone.
And, the impulse to end everything.
"How strange..."
But now, it was different.
She didn't know why, but it was because suddenly, a few days ago, she stopped having nightmares.
"........."
What Lulu felt when the nightmare that she thought would follow her for her entire life disappeared.
It wasn't a sense of liberation, nor happiness, but bewilderment.
Because it was a nightmare that drove her into an even worse hell every day, and therefore one she had wanted to stop somehow.
Because she had never imagined it could be eliminated overnight, like erasing a wrongly written memo with an eraser.
*Knock knock knock*
"Lulu, are you there?"
Thanks to that, Lulu, who had been spacing out for a while, only came to her senses after hearing the knock.
"Ah, yes..."
As she got up from bed and hurriedly tidied her messy hair before opening the door, a girl in maid attire came into her view.
She was the little girl with a sick younger sibling whom Frey had brought from a market alley one day and given to Lulu as a present.
"Are you okay? Miss Lulu?"
"Huh? Okay how?"
Lulu, who was looking down at her blankly, tilted her head at the question and asked back.
"Your expression looks so hollow..."
"...I do?"
When Lulu asked with a frown, the girl nodded.
The expression of Lulu that the girl had seen ordinarily had never looked as absent-minded as today.
"By any chance, did something bad happen to you because of that person...?"
Thanks to that, the girl asked cautiously with a frightened expression.
Although she was a girl who sold vegetables in the market alley, she knew well the rumors of Frey, the most famous scoundrel in the empire.
And, through interacting with the maids that Frey had named as Lulu's 'pets' after recently starting to live together.
This was because the fear toward Frey, who was the leader of the group that had horribly tormented them, had increased uncontrollably.
"N, no! I didn't even see or meet Lord Frey yesterday!"
Lulu waved her hands urgently as she said this to the girl who held such thoughts.
"...Really?"
"Yes, I went to find him to say hello before going to sleep... but he wasn't in his room."
Only after hearing those words did the girl relax slightly and let out a quiet sigh.
"Miss Lulu, if something difficult happens, please tell me. I'll help you somehow."
"Th, there's no need for that!!"
At that, Lulu raised her voice with a startled expression.
"L, Miss Lulu...?"
"You, you mustn't help me. Keep that in mind."
"But..."
"Please."
It was an unconscious action, because Lulu had been watching people who tried to help her get caught up in big and small incidents and become unhappy.
"...Ah."
The girl, who had been looking at such a Lulu, soon quietly lowered her head and spoke.
"Thank you always, Miss Lulu."
"Huh? Yees?"
"For protecting us from that person."
"....?"
Hearing those words, Lulu started tilting her head with a puzzled expression.
This was because she didn't know at all the fact that the maids, who had received treatment worse than toys while enduring unreasonable violence and torture for the past few years, had concluded that the reason Frey, who was extremely fond of women and even kept sex slaves in the basement of the mansion, had absolutely no interest in them, was thanks to Lulu's invisible help.
Of course, it was a rumor that Kania had intentionally spread to minimize the possibility of the already frail Frey receiving another penalty.
But at least to the maids, that was being accepted as truth.
"It seems like you're misunderstanding something... Lord Frey doesn't do to me what you think he does."
"...I see."
"N, no... it's true..."
Thanks to that, even at Lulu's protest feeling something was strange, the girl just nodded with a gloomy expression.
"B, by the way, how has everyone been doing lately?"
When Lulu, who had been looking at such a girl with a troubled expression, urgently asked a question to change the atmosphere, the girl smiled and began to answer.
"Both me and the others... everyone is spending time like a dream!"
"Is that so?"
"Yes! Thanks to Miss Lulu's consideration, my younger sibling is currently recovering at the hospital! And, the other maids say that not being hit even once a day itself is like a miracle!"
As she said, the maids were spending a dreamlike time.
Because they were people who would be beaten to death if their master was in a bad mood, even if they committed just the slightest mistake or error, or even if they performed everything perfectly.
Because they were people who couldn't even live a human life, eating trash-like food in narrow and dark rooms, let alone studying.
If they just performed their assigned duties perfectly, no one would say anything, and they were provided with wages and even time to learn letters.
And above all, the role of a maid in the commoner dormitory where even warm and delicious food was provided was, to them, a precious treasure that couldn't be exchanged for anything.
"Ah, right. Here's a gift!"
"Huh? Yees?"
Suddenly, the girl took something out from her bosom and handed it to Lulu, who was wearing a subtle expression while hearing such stories.
"Thank you for saving my younger sibling!"
What the girl placed in Lulu's hand as she spoke was a small rabbit doll.
- Big sister Lulu, thank you.
And inside that rabbit doll was a thank you letter, clumsy but sincere, written by the girl who had only recently learned to write.
"Ah, I can't accept this..."
"Well then, goodbye~!"
"...Ah."
Lulu, who was looking at that with an urgent expression trying to return the doll, murmured with a dazed expression as the girl quickly left the room.
"Right... it wasn't just the nightmares that disappeared..."
Somewhere along the way.
"...Misfortune is gradually disappearing too."
The effect of the 'Brand of Misfortune' that she thought she would never be able to break was gradually weakening.
By receiving love from Frey.
.
"Hey~ Lulu, what are you doing after class today?"
"Huh, uhh?"
After the complex theoretical magic class ended, several girls approached Lulu who was quietly reviewing the content alone.
"Do you have time? We're going to have lunch now, want to eat together?"
"N, no!"
Soon they suggested eating lunch together to Lulu, but Lulu answered with a terrified expression.
"I, I prefer eating alone..."
"Hmm? But... we ate together yesterday though?"
"Th, that's..."
But when they asked with puzzled expressions, Lulu soon became tongue-tied.
"W, well... that is... I mean..."
Of course, Lulu had only ended up eating together forcibly thanks to children who suddenly sat next to her while she was eating alone.
She didn't even notice they were beside her until the meal ended because she was so distracted watching from afar whether the maids Frey had assigned were using their utensils properly to eat.
"Then let's eat together today too!"
"Right, you were the only one in our class who didn't eat with others. I was always so worried about that."
"By the way Lulu, did something good happen recently? Your complexion looks much better, and your dark circles seem to have faded..."
Seeing that, the kind-hearted commoners of Class A who had been heartbroken watching Lulu not fitting in with the group, seized the opportunity to approach again.
"Uh, uhh..."
As a result, Lulu, who had no immunity to people's kindness and goodwill, was caught by the children and began heading slowly toward the cafeteria.
'What... is going on?'
Soon standing in line mixed among a group of girls, talking to each other while receiving side dishes on their trays, and then lining up again to head to the tables.
After experiencing a very novel experience from her perspective, Lulu wore an entranced expression and fell into thought.
'By any chance... has the curse disappeared?'
The fact that she hadn't had a single nightmare for the past few days might be a signal that the misfortune had completely disappeared.
The only way to lift the brand placed on her was to receive 'love' from others.
But, starting a month ago, Frey began giving her love.
Although it wasn't a person-to-person relationship but a person-to-pet relationship... still, receiving love was an undeniable fact.
"Hey, guys."
"...Yes?"
Thinking such thoughts, Lulu asked in a quiet voice to the students eating next to her.
"By any chance... has anything bad happened lately?"
"Something bad?"
"Yeah, for example, misfortune coming to visit... or having an accident... or getting sick..."
Since it wasn't a story to share while having a pleasant meal, the students momentarily wore flustered expressions, but Lulu's expression as she asked was extremely serious.
"Hmm..."
Originally, this seat was created to not leave Lulu alone, so eventually the students began to fall into thought one by one.
"Nothing in particular?"
"Yeah, me neither."
"There were lots of good things... but bad things... I don't know?"
After some time passed like that, they all answered in unison.
Thanks to the large amount of compensation they extorted from Frey a few weeks ago, and an anonymous sponsor who stepped forward to support them a few days ago.
The commoners of Class A were facing happier moments than ever before.
'...Don't tell me, really?'
Then, Lulu's heart started beating violently.
'Is the curse really disappearing?'
Still, minor misfortunes like stubbing her toe on the threshold, breaking things like plates, or losing textbooks were happening several times a day.
But, ever since she started receiving love from Frey... the 'major misfortunes' that always visited weren't visiting at all.
Of course, there was a possibility they were happening to other people instead of herself.
But according to what the students next to her said, that wasn't the case either.
Originally, people who showed even a little interest and affection toward her would have accidents the very next day.
'Finally... finally...'
Lulu, who had been lost in thought for a while, lowered her head pretending to eat and reddened her eyes.
This was because she finally realized that the brand that had been slowly strangling her since childhood was gradually disappearing.
'Finally, I can be free...'
"By the way, did you hear about Frey?"
"Frey?"
Lulu, who had been continuing her meal while suppressing the tears that were about to flow, froze completely when the students talking mentioned Frey's name.
'Right... Frey.'
According to what she saw last time, there was a high possibility that Frey was being greatly affected by her misfortune.
Since accepting her as a 'pet,' he had been coughing up blood and staggering while clutching his heart.
'No, Frey is a lesser evil...'
But, she couldn't stop the removal of the brand, so Lulu shook her head trying to shake off the thought and quietly murmured inside.
'And at this rate anyway... it'll completely disappear before long. So... until then...'
"That bastard, he collapsed, apparently?"
"...What?"
But hearing the words that came out of the student's mouth, Lulu asked back with a flustered expression.
"According to rumors, he's in critical condition!"
"It's his own doing. He's receiving divine punishment."
"Right... he tried to buy us last time. Just thinking about that time makes me shudder..."
"......E, excuse me."
Lulu, who had been wearing an anxious expression while listening to the children's conversation, soon asked in a quiet voice.
"Do you know where Frey is right now?"
"Probably in his room? From what I heard, he came back at dawn..."
"I'm going to go now."
"Huh? Wait! Where are you going, Lulu?"
Lulu, who had stood up from her seat, started heading toward Frey's room after leaving the cafeteria.
"...Don't tell me, it's an exaggerated rumor, right."
Muttering with a trembling voice.
.
Meanwhile at that time.
*Cough! Cough...!*
"Young master, please endure a little. You must vomit out the bad blood in your body to become even a little healthier."
Frey, still unconscious, was vomiting out the bad blood accumulated in his body with Kania's help.
"Mmm..."
And that blood was stained black due to the effect of having mixed souls with Kania.