The Life I Refuse to Waste

“If either answer sounds suspicious, cut off the liar’s head.”

Aeglo’s face lost every trace of color.

The guard standing beside him tightened his grip on the sword. The blade, still stained with blood, slowly rose, ready to strike Aeglo’s neck at any moment.

However, before the sword could fall, Zeldryn raised one hand.

“Stop.”

The guard immediately halted his movement.

“Yes, my lord.”

He lowered the sword but did not return it to its sheath.

Aeglo released a breath of relief. His body nearly collapsed after feeling as though his neck had already reached the edge of death.

Zeldryn looked between Henry and Aeglo.

He truly wanted to kill both of those bastards.

However, after thinking it over, killing them now would not be the best decision.

If he simply ordered the guard to behead them, the people in the mansion might assume it was nothing more than another change in his mood. They could believe Zeldryn was angry because he had been betrayed, not because he cared about the servants who had suffered under them.

That would not be enough to change how they saw him.

Zeldryn turned toward the guard.

“Stand near them.”

The guard nodded.

“If they try to escape or attack anyone, disable them.”

“Yes, my lord.”

The guard positioned himself behind Henry and Aeglo. His sword remained in his hand, ready to be used at any moment.

Zeldryn shifted his attention across the entire hall.

Hera, the servants, and the guards immediately straightened when they realized he was looking at them.

“Today, everyone in this room will speak.”

Zeldryn’s voice rang out clearly.

“Tell me everything these two bastards have ever done to you.”

Several servants immediately exchanged glances.

“Do not lie. Do not hide anything.”

Zeldryn’s gaze moved from one person to another.

“Tell me everything honestly.”

He then looked at Hera.

“We’ll start with you, Hera.”

Hera froze.

“M-me, my lord?”

“Yes.”

Zeldryn leaned against the back of the chair.

“Tell me everything they have ever done to you.”

Hera lowered her head.

Her bandaged hands clasped each other in front of her body.

She did not speak immediately.

Part of her still feared that all of this was merely another one of Zeldryn’s games.

Perhaps Zeldryn had deliberately ordered them to reveal everything, only to punish anyone who dared speak badly about his two friends.

However, after seeing Henry’s severed thumb lying on the floor, Hera began to doubt her own suspicions.

Something had changed within Zeldryn.

She did not know what it was.

But the look in his eyes showed that he genuinely wanted an answer.

Hera slowly drew in a breath.

“Lord Henry has touched my body without permission.”

Henry, who had still been groaning in pain, immediately raised his head.

“What?”

Hera flinched at the sound of his voice, but the guard quickly pointed his sword at Henry’s neck.

“Silence.”

Henry immediately closed his mouth.

Hera lowered her head again.

“He has grabbed and squeezed my breasts several times, my lord.”

Hera’s voice trembled.

She appeared to struggle with every word.

“He also squeezed my backside while I was carrying food. When I tried to move away, he laughed and said that a servant had no right to refuse a friend of Lord Zeldryn.”

Zeldryn did not interrupt her.

Hera continued.

“He often grabbed my hand, blocked my path, and said obscene things to me. He also once ordered me to enter a bedroom with him.”

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Her hands began trembling even more.

“When I refused, he took the food I was carrying, chewed it, and spat it into my face.”

Several servants stared at Henry with hatred.

Henry tried to avoid their eyes.

“He said food carried by a lowly servant belonged on that servant’s face.”

Hera fell silent for a moment.

Zeldryn could see her jaw tighten slightly.

It seemed Hera had kept all of those memories buried inside her for far too long.

“What about Aeglo?” Zeldryn asked.

Hera’s eyes slowly moved toward Aeglo.

Aeglo immediately lowered his head.

“Several days ago, Lord Aeglo tried to kiss me.”

Hera clasped her hands even more tightly.

“I was startled and accidentally slapped him.”

Zeldryn glanced at Hera’s bandaged hands.

“And then?”

“He became angry.”

Hera’s voice grew quieter.

“He grabbed both of my hands and struck them repeatedly with great force.”

Aeglo kept his head lowered.

“When I fell, he continued hitting my hands until I could no longer move my fingers.”

Hera looked down at the bandages wrapped around both hands.

“That is why my hands are like this, my lord.”

Zeldryn remembered Aeglo’s smile when the man had looked at Hera earlier.

He had not been looking at her face.

Aeglo had been staring at the hands he had injured himself.

His smile had been a reminder that those wounds were Hera’s punishment for daring to resist him.

Zeldryn finally understood why she had started trembling the moment she saw them.

It was not merely because Henry and Aeglo frequently behaved like perverts.

Hera knew that neither of them would hesitate to hurt her whenever she refused.

“Is there anything else?” Zeldryn asked.

Hera remained silent for quite some time.

“There is much more, my lord.”

“Tell me.”

Hera began recounting everything.

Henry often touched her whenever no guards were nearby. He had embraced Hera from behind, kissed her hair, and pulled at her clothing while laughing.

Aeglo touched her less frequently, but he often threatened her.

He told Hera that if she continued resisting, he would ask Zeldryn to hand her over to them for an entire night.

Zeldryn’s name had always been used as a weapon.

Whenever Hera tried to fight back, they claimed that everything they did had been permitted by Zeldryn.

When Hera finished speaking, the hall fell silent again.

Zeldryn looked toward one of the female servants Henry had harassed earlier.

“You’re next.”

The servant flinched.

“M-me, my lord?”

“Speak.”

The servant swallowed.

At first, she appeared terrified. However, after glancing at Hera, who had revealed everything without being punished, she gradually gathered her courage.

“Lord Henry often slapped my backside while I was working.”

She stared at Henry with hatred.

“He once reached inside my clothes from behind. When I screamed, he threatened to have you whip me for disrespecting him.”

Henry lowered his face.

Another servant began speaking.

“Aeglo once struck me because I was late bringing his drink.”

“Henry once forced me to sit on his lap.”

“Aeglo once took all of my wages and claimed it was the cost of allowing me to live in the mansion.”

“They often took food from the kitchen without permission.”

“Henry once entered the servants’ quarters at night.”

“Aeglo threatened to sell me if I told the guards what he had done.”

One by one, the people inside the hall began raising their voices.

At first, they spoke nervously. Every few words, they glanced toward Zeldryn as though expecting a violent reaction.

But as more people spoke, their fear slowly transformed into something else.

Anger.

The grievances that had remained buried for so long began pouring out without restraint.

One servant described how Henry had thrown a plate at her head simply because the food was slightly cold.

Another said Aeglo had forced her to kneel for hours after she refused to surrender her savings.

One of the guards admitted that he had once seen Henry dragging a servant toward a bedroom. When he tried to intervene, Aeglo used Zeldryn’s name to threaten him with dismissal and imprisonment.

It was not limited to harassment.

They had also committed violence, theft, humiliation, and used Zeldryn’s name to force everyone into obeying them.

Henry and Aeglo could no longer deny anything.

Whenever one of them tried to speak, several people immediately offered matching testimony.

The two men could only remain silent while desperately thinking of a way to leave the hall alive.

Zeldryn continued listening.

This time, he could detect no hesitation or dishonesty in their words.

Unlike when they had answered his questions about the mansion, the servants now spoke with remarkable ease.

It was as though they were finally releasing every emotion they had been forced to suppress.

The same people who had trembled merely from standing near Zeldryn now dared to raise their voices while describing Henry and Aeglo’s crimes.

“Is it because they saw these two being punished?”

Zeldryn narrowed his eyes slightly as he noticed the changing atmosphere inside the room.

Their courage had not appeared from nowhere.

It had emerged because they had finally seen that Henry and Aeglo were no longer protected.

Zeldryn became increasingly convinced that fear could be displaced by justice people witnessed with their own eyes.

Their opinion of him might not have changed completely.

They were still afraid of him.

But at the very least, they had begun to see the possibility that Zeldryn would no longer protect Henry and Aeglo.

That was enough for a first step.

Zeldryn understood how people thought.

If he personally announced that he had changed, no one would believe him.

But if the servants were given a chance to take revenge, they would be the ones to spread the story of what happened today.

The rumor would travel through the kitchen, the servants’ quarters, the guard posts, and eventually every corner of the mansion.

They would tell others how Zeldryn had punished the two men who had abused his name for years.

Some people might still refuse to believe it.

Others might assume that this was merely another one of Zeldryn’s twisted games.

But slowly, their view of him would begin to change.

Not because Zeldryn forced them to believe him.

But because they had seen and experienced it themselves.

After hearing nearly every testimony, Zeldryn raised his hand.

“Enough!”

Everyone immediately fell silent.

Zeldryn rose from the chair.

He looked at Henry and Aeglo, who remained bound and kneeling before him. Both of their faces were filled with fear.

“In my own name, Zeldryn Giorry.”

Zeldryn’s voice echoed throughout the hall.

“I order every guard and servant in this room to repay them for everything they have done.”

The servants’ eyes widened slightly.

“You may strike them.”

Zeldryn pointed toward Henry and Aeglo.

“You may kick them, stab them, or do anything else you desire to these two bastards.”

Henry immediately raised his head.

“L-Lord Zeldryn, wait!”

Zeldryn ignored him.

“You.”

He pointed toward the armored guard.

“Call every other guard and servant in the mansion.”

The guard looked surprised.

“Everyone, my lord?”

“Everyone.”

Zeldryn stared at him seriously.

“Tell them that this is my order. Anyone who has ever suffered because of these two bastards may come here and take revenge with their own hands.”

The guard looked at Henry and Aeglo.

Then he bowed deeply.

“Yes, my lord.”

Zeldryn continued.

“Do not allow either of them to escape, loosen their restraints, or attack anyone.”

“Understood.”

Zeldryn looked across the room once more.

“Whether they survive or die is none of my concern.”

Everyone froze.

But their surprise was quickly buried beneath emotions they had suppressed for years.

Anger.

Hatred.

The desire to repay every humiliation they had endured.

One by one, the servants’ expressions became serious.

There was no hesitation left in their eyes.

They looked at Henry and Aeglo as though they were staring at two men whose punishment had been delayed for far too long.

Zeldryn walked toward the hall’s exit.

No one attempted to stop him.

Just before leaving, he paused and glanced back.

“Enjoy yourselves.”

After saying that, Zeldryn continued walking.

Several seconds after he left the hall, a voice came from behind him.

“Thank you, Lord Zeldryn.”

Zeldryn did not look back.

Then another voice followed.

“Thank you, my lord.”

“Thank you, Lord Zeldryn.”

“Thank you.”

More and more people began saying it.

Their voices blended together inside the hall, sincere and filled with emotion.

For the first time since awakening in this world, Zeldryn heard people thanking him without coercion or false flattery.

He continued walking through the mansion’s corridor.

Behind him, the screams of Henry and Aeglo began to echo.

But Zeldryn did not stop.

He returned to his bedroom and allowed the people of the mansion to settle the matter themselves.

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