In Northland, it was common for children to attend a public school, from the age of 5 until 16 before they could start working. For commoners with low income and social status could choose to send their children to a church school which was free of charge. As for middle social classes, there was a range of public schools to choose from. However, it was quite different for aristocrats. They hired excellent private instructors until the child could attend the Northland Academy for three years starting from the age of 15.

The Northland Academy was a prestigious school where nobles and families could afford to receive extensive education in their chosen specializations. Also, it was the best place for young nobles to establish their networking with other families as well. As their holidays were over, Ophelia and older Chevaliers returned to the academy to continue with their studies once again. Initially, Stella thought that she could finally have a break away from Ophelia’s abuse and control. However, she had another form of nightmare to deal with instead.

Despite being at the appropriate age to attend the academy, she was forced to stay back and study with other younger Chevaliers because they do not trust her that she wouldn’t escape. The safest option was to keep her locked in the manor until she was tamed enough to go outside.

Thus, that was the beginning of Ophelia’s unhinged offer.

She would be kind to request Marquis Chevalier to permit Stella to attend the Academy as well if she was able to show excellent performance with her studies and swordsmanship. However, she didn’t promise it would be a fair deal to begin with and Stella was right not to believe her. The treatment she treated was borderline abuse. The older omega’s reason was simple –it would be a disgrace to have an uneducated and weak fiancé. Thus, she wanted to train her to be qualified as her precious alpha.

Stella joined the private studies at Chevalier Manor along with other younger Chevaliers. The first half of the day in the library receiving lessons from Professor Oliver, who was one of the most famous tutors in Northland. He was a genius and became the youngest graduate to become a professor at the Academy. It was as expected that he would have a ridiculously long waiting list, but it wasn’t surprising that the Chevalier managed to grab onto him with the amount of fortune they had.

“Stella, you made a lot of mistakes in one of your previous assessments. You’ll redo them until you can get to answer all of them correctly.”

“…Understood.”

Day after day, she kept receiving absurd amounts of reading and assessments to complete. It felt as if the professor was intentionally nitpicking on every mistake of hers. The way he treated Stella and other Chevaliers was night and day. As others always received compliments and words of encouragement from him, Stella would only receive criticism and extra work to do.   

“She is scolded by Professor Oliver again. Is she that dumb?”

“I bet. I heard that she has a lot of studies to catch up to where we are at.”

“I also heard rumors that she’s a pampered daughter, so she avoids studying most of the time.”

“She should be ashamed of herself for being less intelligent than us.”

Other young Chevaliers had fun gossiping from another table since they completed their assessments and reading for the day. Countless rumors circulated among the Chevaliers about Stella’s lack of education. The black-haired alpha could hear every word since they had no intention to hide, but she had more matters to be concerned about.

Rumors were simply just rumors since they had no idea what she was forced to study. The textbooks and assessments that the professor gave her were all exceedingly advanced for her level. She recalled seeing her older sister, Blake Albrecht, studied these textbooks when she was in her final year of the academy. The professor knew that this was beyond her level yet made her do them anyway. 

At this rate, she felt more like she was being bullied than she was studying to improve.

In the latter half of the day, she had arduous sword training in the afternoon. Swordsmanship classes were only permitted to alphas and beta males and the training was led by Sir Jayson, who was one of the elite knights from the Northland Knight Academy. As all the Chevaliers were training together, Stella was isolated to focus on pure physical training.

“Stella, as your warm-up you’ll be running around the field 50 laps, followed by 100 push-ups and sit-ups before finishing off with 1000 swings, do you understand?”

“…Yes sir.”

It was just hell. Luckily her mother and father trained her ever since she could hold a sword, so she had the stamina to complete Sir Jayson’s outrageous warm-up regime. As she ran around the training ground, she was constantly ridiculed and laughed at for only doing physical training. They had never seen her spar with anyone before and wondered if she was too inept to demonstrate her skills. By the time Stella completed the warm-up, other Chevaliers finished their training for the day already. However, this was far from over.

“Are you done with the warm-up yet?”

Stella was completely soaked in her sweat and her hands were tired out from one thousand swings non-stop. She only glared at him before he called her out to the middle of the training ground. Stella had to do another full hour of sparring session with Sir Jayson, and he was just merciless and brutal. His skills and physical power were far superior to hers, and he did not hesitate to strike her the moment there was an opening. She lost count of how many painful bruises she received from him and how many times she fell to the ground. If this was a real fight, she would’ve been killed multiple times.

“Is that all you’ve got? Giving up already?”

“Ugh…!”

She had no choice but to get up and last for the entire hour before he allowed her to leave. Once the torturous sword training session was over, she had to sit at the dining table with Ophelia and others before she could have some peace of her own. She bandaged up the blisters on her palms and soles from training and still had to complete her reading before class tomorrow.

All these special abusive treatments were thanks to Ophelia.

The number of things she needed to do per day was inhumane. The exhaustion and pain repeated five times a week and the pink-haired omega constantly checked on her performance to see if she was making any solid improvements. She practically forced all these things on Stella as she was ‘training’ her to become the ideal alpha she wanted.

 

-

 

On the weekends, Stella used this precious time to catch up with her studies and assessments, but Ophelia would never leave her alone. She forced the young alpha to study together in her bedroom so that they could spend their weekends together. At least studying in Ophelia’s room meant that she wouldn’t be pestered by Theo and other Chevaliers. If she had to choose, she would rather deal with this lunatic and possessive omega instead.

“…Can you stop staring at me?”

Stella could sense the pair of green eyes staring at her and it was distracting her from her studies. She looked up and accidentally made eye contact with her that was lying down on the sofa. No one knew how long she had been watching her like a stalker.

“Why? I can’t look at my fiancé?”

“It’s distracting. I have too much to do all thanks to you.”

The alpha knew that Ophelia was the one behind these abusive treatments from her teachers. The pink-haired noble smiled silently before she sat up and moved to sit next to Stella instead. She showed no remorse on her face and the tone she used was as if she was trying to provoke her.

“Are you angry with me?”

“Are you seriously asking me that when you already knew my answer? I’m in pain, exhausted, and angry as you wanted me to be. Are you happy???”

Even when the young alpha threw a sarcastic remark, it didn’t faze her in the slightest. What infuriated Stella more was her satisfactory smile upon witnessing her annoyed reaction. All of a sudden, Ophelia pushed her down onto the couch before cupping her cheek gently with care.

“Perhaps I should reward you then?”

“The best reward right now is for you to leave me alone.”

“Fufu, you can wish it but you already know the answer…”

Stella’s pheromone gradually changed to a heavily burning wood scent, which directly reflected her present foul mood towards Ophelia. However, that didn’t bother the pink-haired omega because she knew how to please Stella’s body as an omega, and the young helpless alpha wouldn’t be able to refuse it.

“It has been a month since I last marked you, and you know what that means right?”

“…You are a disgustful woman.”

“Now now…watch your foul mouth, Stella. You’ll be nice to unbutton your shirt for me rather than I do it for you, right?”

Ophelia reached out to touch her neck with a possessive smile and she intentionally released her lavender pheromones to calm the cute angry alpha. She just knew the right words to trigger Stella and force her to do everything she said. Thus, the young alpha might as well get it done quickly rather than entertain this deranged omega by resisting her. Stella unbuttoned a few buttons just enough to reveal her neck.

“There. Do your worst and get it done already.”

Typically, a temporary mark would last for a month before it faded away, and Ophelia would check weekly to see if her alpha was still marked by her. She had to make sure everyone knew Stella’s body belonged to her alone by renewing the bite mark monthly. Her green eyes glanced at the faded mark she made last month. She embraced her tightly before she buried her face in her neck. No matter how much Stella despised having physical contact with her, she needed to tolerate this. Ophelia’s teeth pressed against her flesh before it sent chills down her back.

“—!!”

She didn’t feel that physically helpless compared to the first time being marked. Perhaps it was due to constant pheromone exposure and marking that made her body become used to it. Nevertheless, the black-haired noble hated how her alpha instincts found Ophelia’s scent pleasant and soothing. Thanks to her genuine hate towards the Chevalier, it gave her the strength to resist her instinct.

“Fufu…now you’re remarked.”

Ophelia licked her lips with satisfaction before planting a gentle kiss on the fresh new mark. Stella grunted with frustration before she gently pushed her away as she couldn’t bear to be embraced any longer. Despite their twisted relationship, Ophelia was still a noble and a woman by birthright. It was Stella’s stubbornness and righteousness that made her choose to still treat her respectfully despite she was tempted not to. No matter how much she hated Ophelia and others, the young alpha held onto the noble courtesies her parents instilled in her closely to her heart. If it wasn’t for that, she doubted that she would’ve remained this patient through countless abuse and mockeries from everyone.

“Now that you’re done. I need to study, so stop bothering me, will you?”

“Hehe, sure. Since you’re obediently doing as I said…I won’t tease you too much, just for today.”

At least the pink-haired omega kept her word and left her alone to study peacefully while she focused on her studies. Even though she was exhausted and annoyed with the harsh treatment she received from the teachers, she was partly grateful for this offer. Thanks to Ophelia, at least she had the opportunity to learn and train so that she wouldn’t remain stagnant while being imprisoned here. She would make use of this opportunity no matter how abusive it would be.

 

-

 

Time certainly flew by quickly when one’s mind was kept occupied. Before she realized it again it had been about 5 months since the start of this torturous study and training schedule. At last, the fruit of her hard work and persistence paid off. Stella was able to ace every single assessment from Professor Oliver and he was out of things to criticize her.

“…You got 100% once again. Hmph, okay. It seems you’ve been doing your reading.”

“Of course, professor. I finished every textbook you told me to read, and I felt that the things we were reading are rather quite easy and boring. Could we learn something more challenging than this?”

She even challenged him to give her much more challenging content which made him speechless for a short moment. Perhaps he didn’t expect Stella to understand the textbooks he assigned her and improve significantly in a short time. Aside from her studies, she secretly trained on the weekends as well to improve her fitness as quickly as possible in a short time. She was able to notice the changes to her body as she was able to keep up with the intense sparring sessions with Sir Jayson. Her strength and speed improved significantly and managed to catch him off guard on multiple occasions. She had a smaller physique which made her nimbler than him and was able to use it to her advantage.

“—!?”

Her wooden sword stopped right before it hit his neck and Sir Jayson had no choice but to accept his defeat. The young alpha smirked with great satisfaction as she savored the taste of victory. Thanks to her improved fitness and these sword skills her mother drilled into her, Stella was able to win several matches against Sir Jayson. Her mother, Alicia Valens, was once an elite knight in the Northland Reconnaissance Division, which only the best of the knights of the Northland Knight Academy could join. As her daughter, Stella took pride in the unique Valens swordsmanship that she inherited.

“Hm, not bad. You’ve seemed to have improved quite a bit.”

“I’m a fast learner, perhaps you should take me more seriously, or else you’ll be on a losing streak.”

“Hah. Don’t get so cocky yet after I let you win several times.”

Ever since then, other young Chevaliers noticed a slight change in the teachers’ attitude. Initially, they enjoyed watching the teachers nitpicking on every mistake of hers, but now it felt like Stella was taking the spotlight instead.  Both Professor Oliver and Sir Jayson had been giving Stella much more attention since the young alpha did not complain or shy away from any challenges that they threw at her. Thus, it was inevitable that it would reach the point that some arrogant Chevaliers would want to challenge Stella to exert their dominance…

 

-

 

“She tried to kill my son! Marquis, please punish her!”

The young alpha boy, Caleb Chevalier, pointed his finger at Stella for attempting to kill him at the training ground earlier as he was covered with dirt and bruises from top to bottom. He and the other two boys told their mothers and they all came today to Marquis’s office to inform him of Stella’s unacceptable behavior towards their children. What had happened earlier was that it was a 3 vs 1 fight, and it was a clean easy victory for her. As a result, the black-haired alpha was called over to share her side of the story.  

“Stella, care to tell me what happened at the training ground?”

Ophelia was also present in the room to hear what her aunts had to complain about and was nice enough to ask Stella to share her side of the story as well.

“We’re doing our usual training and Caleb and others challenged me to a duel. I refused it initially, but he kept insisting that he flaunts his sword skills.”

“You’re lying! You’re trying to kill me and my cousins! Everyone saw what happened and they’ll vouch for me that I’m speaking the truth.”

Caleb knew that all his relatives would side with him even though he was in the wrong. When all three of them ganged up on her, it was at that split moment that Stella didn’t hold back and accidentally gave them a couple of bruises. Just because of that, they were accusing her of attempting to kill them. After this entire talk, Marquis punished her with solitary confinement since it was just a trivial quarrel.

“This is utterly ridiculous. I better not hear this absurdity again.”

He warned Stella before he sent her back to her room for the day. She could accept this punishment because it could’ve been worse. In a way, this was a blessing in disguise since the young alpha would not need to meet anyone for the next three weeks, but knowing the Chevaliers she knew that it would not be a peaceful confinement period.   

 

-

 

It was as Stella expected, the Chevaliers found ways to make things difficult for her by sabotaging her meals.

Now that she was moved to the first floor temporarily, the maids were tasked to bring three meals a day. However, she would find needles or glass shards in her meals, or the food was left rotten for weeks. If it was none of that, then it may be laced with some form of poison. It was obvious the ones behind were the mothers of the three boys she beat up. Thus, the only thing she trusted herself enough to eat was the dry stale bread that luckily came with the meals.

Three days had gone by, and she had a proper meal once a day in the morning. Thankfully she had a private bathroom and could live with tap water in case the juices they brought in were drugged too, but this would be quite difficult to last for three weeks without proper meals. She could tell that these maids couldn’t care less about her well-being and were aware of the sabotage as well. As she was pondering what to do, she heard a small knock coming from the window. Stella saw a mysterious figure in a dark green cloak peeking from the corner of the window before he showed her a piece of paper.

“Please open the window. We brought you food—huh?”

The figure nodded before he showed Stella a basket of food and she was quite skeptical of this person. She couldn’t trust anyone in Chevalier's manor, and they might have intended to bring her guard down to poison her. The man flipped to the next page and told her that Ophelia ordered him to bring them to her. If there were to be someone that wouldn’t want her physically dead yet, then it would be that deranged omega.

In the end, Stella reluctantly opened the window before accepting the basket. The aroma of fresh bread kicked her nose before she began to salivate out of hunger, but she hesitated to eat them. The mysterious servant took note of Stella’s expression and scribbled more words onto another page to show her once again.

[There is no drug in the food]

“My reaction is quite obvious, huh? At least it smells good…”

She sniffed and tore the bread into bitesize pieces to check if it may have any hidden needles or glass shards she wasn’t supposed to eat. She squeezed each bread piece between her fingers and sniffed them before she ate it slowly just in case it was laced with poison. The servant watched her finish everything in the basket before Stella’s blue eyes stared straight at him. She couldn’t see his face through that thick cloak that covered more than half of their face and the only thing visible was his lips. 

“Who are you? Ophelia sent you?”

He scribbled onto an empty page that Ophelia was aware of the sabotage but since she had a lot of matters to attend to she ordered her servants to bring her some food to keep her alive at the very least. Furthermore, the servant told her that Ophelia didn’t order him to bring it daily, it was just today. What did she expect from that lunatic omega anyway? One minute she seemed to care about her, and the next minute she was ready to leave her stranded to death. As she was thinking to herself quietly, she heard the servant scribbling on another page once again. He refused to speak so that she wouldn’t be able to identify who he was or his gender, which was a smart move to protect his identity.

[I can bring you food for every meal. Three times a day.]

“Huh??”

He wrote down that to consider this the servants’ appreciation towards Stella. Working as the servants for the Chevalier, it was normal to be treated like objects void of emotions. However, the young black-haired alpha was the only person that treated them like humans and was always polite to them regardless of their commoner background. When the servants needed help, Stella was the first person to reach out and assist them with a gentle smile. 

[Not just me, but everyone appreciates your kindness. This is the least we can do to help.]

“…But what if you get caught? Wouldn’t you be severely punished by the Chevaliers?”

He shook his head before he scribbled on the next page to reassure her that they would make sure they didn’t get caught. Upon reading those words, she wondered if this was too good to be true. What if they were all deceiving her to trust them so that they could backstab her later? Thus, time proved that he wasn’t lying to her. She waited for the next meal time and that same servant showed up with a basket of more food and drinks as he promised.

Ever since then, Stella had proper three meals a day and find things to do in her room to kill boredom. Initially, the servant would leave after Stella finished with her meal but now he started to stay back to keep her company. Over time, the young alpha eventually warmed up to him and they casually exchanged words with each other. Ever since she came here, this was the first time Stella was able to converse with someone freely and be herself. They had numerous lighthearted conversations every time the nameless servant brought meals and other things that Stella specifically requested.

[I thought you said they are kittens! I fed them as you asked me and I didn’t expect to see two snow leopard cubs instead.]

“Hehe, my bad. Well, I’m glad that they’re still doing well.”

Stella had a secret that she didn’t tell anyone and that was about the snow leopard cubs that she encountered by accident within Chevalier’s ground. The snow leopard was a native species and the symbol of Northland, but it wasn’t common to find them around here because they predominantly lived at the high altitude of the snowcapped mountains. Thus, Stella believed these two cubs were stranded from their leopard mother and accidentally wandered in here, which was coincidently next to the snowy mountains.

“Please don’t let others know about this. I’m afraid the Chevaliers would turn them into scarfs if they found out…”

[I promise I won’t tell a single soul.]

“Thank you.”

Despite snow leopards being Northland’s treasure, it was inevitable there would be poaching due to the flawless beauty and quality of their fur. Stella was worried that if the Chevaliers found the snow leopard cubs, they might not keep them alive and skinned them for their fur. Stella told stories of how she had found them a couple of months ago and she had been dropping by to give them food after her sword training. Thus, it was inevitable she would give them a cute name to call them.

“The bigger cub is Nix, and the smaller cub is Lux.”

[Nix means snow and Lux means light, am I correct? That’s a beautiful name.]

“Hehe, thanks. Nix is a boy and I assumed he’s the big brother of Lux that’s a girl.”

The nameless servant noticed how Stella was smiling much more when she talked about the two leopard cubs, and it made him smile alone with her as well. They were the only source of her happiness and peace in this depressing place.

“The fact that both Nix and Lux allowed you to see them means that you truly have a good soul. I’m sorry that I didn’t tell you at the beginning because I want to test whether you’re trustworthy.”

[What do you mean?]

“If you don’t have a good heart and fail their test, then the snow leopards wouldn’t have shown up to let you see them to begin with.”

The legends stated that snow leopards of Northland received a divine blessing to see through one’s soul, and it made them the perfect judge of character. No humans could lie before the golden eyes of the snow leopard. As for Stella, it didn’t take long for the cubs to approach her after a few encounters and she passed the test with flying colors. When she learned that the cubs appeared in front of the nameless servant, she was able to rest assured that she could trust him.

“Truth be told, I’m extremely wary of you at the beginning and I’m sorry that I might’ve appeared rude to you.”

He shook his head and scribbled onto the empty page once again. He told Stella not to apologize and she was right to be wary with him in the first place because she shouldn’t trust anyone here, both the Chevaliers and the servants.

“As my sincere apology and gratitude for your help, I have something for you.”

Stella handed the servant a special protective charm she made. Previously, she requested the servant to bring her some thick blue strings so that she could make a unique knot charm that her mother once taught her. As she owed this servant massively for saving her life through this predicament, the most she could do was to make him a protective charm to ward off misfortunes. 

“My mother passed down the technique to make the Valens’ signature protective charm. I hope it will keep you safe and sound.”

The servant froze for a moment before he gripped the charm and brought it closely to his heart. He began scribbling on the notebook and wrote down that he was extremely grateful for this gift and promised to treasure and cherish it with his life. Before she could respond to him, Stella heard a subtle sniffling noise and that caught her off guard. She didn’t expect that a simple gift like this would make a man burst into tears like this.

“Are you crying?”

He shook his head in denial, and she could hear him sniffling even louder. He refused to acknowledge that he teared up from Stella’s gift and that made the young alpha let out a smile.

“This place must’ve treated you badly as well, hey? Hang in there okay?”

“…”

“Promise me that you’ll leave this terrible place when you can…and don’t be imprisoned like me. When you feel down, just look at me. They treated me like a prisoner and a mutt, but I never shed a single tear for them.”

He remained in silence as he sniffled even louder. It was clear as day he was crying underneath that thick dark cloak of his, and Stella saw a firm nod from him. That was more than enough to make her smile with relief. Even though she couldn’t leave here yet, Stella didn’t want to see another kindhearted person being crushed by the Chevaliers.

“I’m glad you love the charm. Keep it close to yourself and it will ward off all misfortunes.”

He nodded once again and that was the last day of her 3-week confinement period. This was the only happy memory that she ever had here in Chevalier’s manor. Even though she didn’t know his name, Stella was grateful she was able to call him her friend. It saddened her slightly that she would never who it was and whether he was still working in the manor or not. Part of her wished he would use the charm she gave but it would be wisest he didn’t. It was best not to know who it was because that’s the best way to protect his identity too.

All that Stella could do was wish for his safety and freedom out of this prison.