158 - Magdalin

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Magdalin's Point of View

I stare down at the blank polished wooden floor of our family house in the capital... now stained with splatters of my blood.

Father is at the meeting at the palace. My brothers too.

Only mother is left here today, looming over my undressed and helpless body.

Even though I've done nothing bad, the cracks of the cane persist in a seemingly endless stream... causing my body to sear and burn like it is being torn apart up by mother's hatred.

She has never gone this far before, but this too is my fault.

It wasn't too bad at first. It hurt, but it was just single strikes against the bare skin of my back and thighs... but each stinging crack of the cane merged together until it became like a sea of flames on my back and legs. I don't think I'll be able to stand... my body won't stop trembling.

It hurts... but the doors and windows are blocked off by stone walls.

"Scream!"

Mother's hoarse voice echoes through the room like a pig's shriek. She pants from exhaustion before another crack resounds... and more blood splatters onto the wooden floor next to me... mixing with the many tears already fallen.

"How dare you tell him?! After everything that has happened why do you continue to shame this family?!"

I had messed up. They'd beaten my hands bloody for running off, and I'd asked Lily-sama to heal it when I could hardly hold a glass. When mother found out, she became like this. Father doesn't know... but I don't think he'd care. Michael wouldn't care either... he practically did the same.

"Leeching off of a hero like a parasite! Sullying our name!"

Leeching?...

Have I leeched off Lady Lily's kindness? Have I escaped into her calmness to forget about all of this?...

A sudden, vicious, strike hits my side rather than my back, digging into the soft flesh by the hip, causing me to scream out. I weakly try to cover the spot with my elbows as my sight begins to blacken.

If I hadn't asked Lily-sama for help and had endured the pain instead, then things wouldn't have gone this far...

Mother pants heavily. I can hear the sound of the cane scraping against the floor... back and forth.

"If not for that cuckoo mother of yours-"

The blinding hate still lingers in her voice. The disgust...

I've certainly clung to Lily-sama... but I know that mother is wrong.

I am not a parasite...

Five years ago I asked Lily-sama if she kept me by her side out of pity... and I remember Lily-sama's answer clearly, and the somewhat cold look as she had replied with an insulted huff: 'Why would I pity the strong?'

Lily-sama had sipped her tea, and then leaned back in the garden chair calmly and continued.

'If you wanted to punish your family, then the fools would suffer horribly.'

Her eyes had gleamed with cruelty.

I watch the tears and blood begin to mix on the floor beneath me.

"I... am not... a changeling," I wheeze out, slowly turning my face to see mother's expression.

"...my mother is you. Even if you are afraid of it."

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