𝕊𝕟𝕒𝕥𝕔𝕙𝕖𝕕 𝔸𝕨𝕒𝕪 | 𝚂𝚞𝚔𝚞𝚗𝚊 𝚁𝚢𝚘𝚞𝚖𝚎𝚗, 𝚂𝚊𝚝𝚘𝚛𝚞 𝙶𝚘𝚓𝚘

𝟝.

After stuffing my face until I felt so heavy I was barely able to get up, we slowly walked back to the castle. We were a few meters away from the slave's quarters when Ren suddenly froze, his eyes devoid of expression.

"Ren...?" I inquired.

He slowly turned his head toward me, and in a flash life populated his eyes again.

"I have to go." he declared. "I'll let you return to Mrs.Ho."

He disappeared in a blow.

I sighed. I could see Mrs.Ho getting busy around the house from where I stood.

✄┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈«

Being still early in the afternoon, I hoped I'd get to see Mana. I needed to let her know I was doing ok. A child her age should have never had to witness what she saw, even if she wasn't human. Thinking of her little face distorted by her crying was painful.

"At last !" exclaimed Mrs.Ho. She scanned me as I was approaching her. She cringed. "Child, you stink."

I smiled, embarrassed. "They say they don't have showers so..."

"Do you think you're noblesse?" she snorted. "Come here."

I followed her to the rear yard. Slaves were washing dishes in big water buckets. While a group was washing, another group was drying the dishes. The strongest men were taking the piles of clean dishes, transporting them inside.

We were standing in the middle of the court when Mrs. Ho stopped in her tracks to face me.

"Get naked." she ordered.

I tilted my head, not sure if I heard that right.

"Right now." her tone was menacing.

I looked around me nervously. "But there is -"

"Nobody cares about your nudity. A slave doesn't have privacy. Your body and soul doesn't belong to you anymore."

Yeah right, old hag.

I hesitantly grabbed the pan of my blouse. Nobody seemed to care about what was happening right now, they robotically kept doing what they were doing before we arrived.

"Our King ordered us not to touch you. But I can touch someone else in your stead." she had a nasty smile on her face.

"Mana..." I muttered.

I clenched my teeth and started undressing. Each of my movements were shaky. I hated for people to see my body. I didn't even like seeing it myself.

I was too afraid to look around to see if people were watching. I blushed, ashamed, nude in the center of the court.

In a big splash, I was suddenly drenched in hot soapy water. The old hag threw a whole water bucket at me.

"Scrub." she ordered, throwing me a piece of harsh cloth.

I frantically scrubbed my body, especially the zones where Sukuna put his tongue on me. Despite the fact that I was naked in front of dozens of people, the smell of soap was nice, as well as getting rid of the sticky spots all over my body. When Mrs.Ho decided I was clean enough, she threw buckets after buckets of clear water on me until there wasn't any soap left on my skin. I then dried myself with a piece of clothes she handed me.

As I was dressing up, a big crow flew down on Mrs.Ho and landed on her shoulder. He was carrying a message on his paw. She slowly unclipped the rolled paper off of his paw and he immediately flew away.