My wrists and ankles hurt from how tight they were tied. The butler threw me over his shoulder and carried me like a sack of potatoes to the gates. At that moment in time I was as still as I could be. I swear; this man was not human. I’m pretty fast but how he managed to catch me, his looming presence, the fierce look in his eyes…

Fuck, I’m so scared! He could have beaten me up within an inch of my life or fulfill his threat of cutting off my tongue so easily. I no longer had any courage to defy him anymore. But this left me in a bad position. I needed to escape, otherwise it won’t matter whether he just threatens me or actually beats me, I will really die!

I opened my eyes wide and tried to memorize the way in case I managed to escape. As expected of the house of a noble, it had nothing to do with my shabby house and its shabby barn and the shabby terrain overgrew with parasitic vegetation. The exterior was stone, the gardens taken care of with plenty of beautiful flowers, and the interior… shining marble and brocade furniture and pure white walls.

Damn you viscount! Living in such luxury while the rest of us are starving because of the decreased crop production! Is this where all our hard-earned taxes go?! Double damn you!

“My lord, I have brought her.”

On the other hand, please forgive my life.

The viscount was just as I remembered from my past life. Dark, short copper hair, a mustache curled in a very obvious evil way, and a cane on his hands covered by leather gloves. His clothes were all dark, elegant, fitting of a villain of his caliber, and his narrowed black eyes looked as if they could absorb all the light in the room. He’s even scarier in real life than in the manga or even the anime.

He had pretty cool, ominous music there, though.

“Good job, Sebastian.”

What the… no. No, just… no. His name is Sebastian? Oh my God… I must not laugh, I must not…

“Is there a problem, young lady?”

Sebastian looked at me with cold eyes. There’s no way he could know I’m laughing at the coincidence but… better keep a serious face. Yes, that would be better.

As I was trying to keep a straight face, a sleek hand grabbed my chin and tilted my face. It was not the feeling of skin though, but of leather, for the viscount was inspecting my face, turning it here and there surprisingly gently. That confused me a little.

“She’s too thin” he declared, still holding my face and looking into my eyes. I was getting nervous and not only because I was scared. I didn’t like this man touching me, but of course I wasn’t stupid enough to try to slap his hand away.

“I bought her from a farm in the southern region. The soil there suffered more than in other places because it’s closer to the river. She’s probably had little to eat this past year.”

That’s correct. If you know that already, why don’t you help your vassals instead of grieving over your personal losses?

“That doesn’t matter. She doesn’t need to be in perfect shape for the sacrifice to work” the viscount released my face. I frowned. It doesn’t matter? Your people are starving and it doesn’t matter? Well, what am I expecting, he’s a villain. It’s not like he would actually care about anyone but himself. And his wife. In fact, I think not even his children are special enough for him. They were just a duty, after all, or at least that’s what I got from the manga. That’s the reason his children betrayed him in the end. They realized they were nothing but tools for his father.

Unfortunately, they will realize it only after he betrays them in the heat of battle with the hero, so there’s probably little chance of getting one of them to help me. How unfortunate.

“Lock her up in the eastern tower. The ritual will start in three days, when the moon reaches full phase. In the meantime, give her something to eat. I don’t want her to die before it’s time.”

And with that, I ended up locked in a small closet sized cell with hay on the floor, moss on the irregular walls, and an open sight to the too bright sky about ten meters above.