I Tamed the Slave Male Lead Chapter 3

Regita twisted her beautiful lips into an ugly sneer and openly taunted me.

“Surely, Arabella, you didn’t make such a spectacle of yourself because you were worried sick that you might not be chosen as the Crown Princess? The young lady of the great House of Count Maiona couldn’t possibly sink that low. Surely not. Right?”

As she showered me with mockery disguised as questions, she lightly covered her mouth with her lace-trimmed fan. Her tawny eyes, arched like crescent moons above the fan, glittered cruelly.

The young ladies around her also giggled behind their fans, following her lead.

‘How childish. Perhaps because she’s royalty, even her mockery is so old-fashioned.’

To someone from South Korea, the paradise of keyboard warriors, this was a laughably simplistic and one-dimensional attack.

And yet, it was strange. Although I was clearly thinking that in my head and scoffing at her, my body kept shrinking in on itself, and even my heart began to race.

‘…It’s an automatic response ingrained in the real Arabella’s subconscious. She must have been bullied terribly, or perhaps she was simply an extremely timid person to begin with.’

Strangely enough, most of the more recent memories I had inherited from Arabella had been erased, so I couldn’t tell exactly what had happened to her.

It was unfortunate, but now that her life had become my life, I couldn’t just let people walk all over me.

Just as I was calmly thinking of something to throw back at Regita, a tall, handsome man came walking toward us, drawing the gazes of Regita and all the young ladies toward him and ruining my timing.

“Brother.”

The moment I heard the affectionate tone in Regita’s voice as she welcomed him, my heart sank.

‘If he’s Regita’s brother, then… Crown Prince Sota? Could he really be… the second male lead?’

Sota Gamitheon Groheim, the character who formed a love triangle with Dorothea and Yusiliph in Blue Roses at the End of the World, and the axis of evil who would hasten the world’s demise.

He was walking steadily toward me, his gaze fixed on me.

His striking height, sturdy inverted-triangle physique, and the overwhelming presence radiating from his entire body made it unmistakable from a distance that he was one of only two Swordmasters in the entire continent.

“Are you feeling better now, Lady Maiona?”

His greeting was as dry as could be, accompanied by an indifferent gaze. Even though I was a candidate for Crown Princess, it was obvious that he had not the slightest interest in Arabella.

No, looking more closely, the Crown Prince’s brown eyes were actually examining me closely. I could read the suspicion lurking in those emotionless eyes.

‘Is he wondering how I managed not to die?’

The moment I saw that look in his eyes, I remembered something he had whispered in the original novel after forcing Dorothea down onto a bed.

‘If that woman, Arabella Maiona, hadn’t been poisoned back then, things could have become quite troublesome.’

‘Was it you? Were you the one who tried to kill me—no, Arabella?’

I couldn’t conclude that he was the culprit based solely on that line from the original novel. But at the very least, there was a good chance he was an accomplice or an aider of the person behind it.

‘Besides, this guy later goes berserk because Dorothea chooses Yusiliph, blows up the labyrinth, and even hastens the apocalypse.’

Therefore, Crown Prince Sota was someone I needed to avoid at all costs right now. Clearly, my chances of survival would increase if I stayed as far away from his attention as possible.

Having reached that conclusion, I deliberately lowered my head and pretended to be frightened as I answered.

“I-I am fine, Your Highness.”

I deliberately didn’t even look at his face. Perhaps my act of pretending that I didn’t want to show him my horribly disfigured face had worked, because after scrutinizing me for a moment, he soon lost interest and offered a perfunctory word of encouragement.

“That’s a relief. I hope you make a full recovery.”

The predator’s gaze, which had been examining me as though I were some mangy animal, finally moved away.

I inwardly breathed a sigh of relief, only for Princess Regita to immediately cling to him and speak in a cutesy voice.

“Brother, now that the Crown Princess selection has fallen through anyway, why don’t we go to the gladiatorial arena early and watch the matches?”

“Oh, is that today?”

“Yes. My slave is competing today.”

“Well, all right.”

When Sota readily agreed with a slight nod, Regita exaggeratedly brightened and asked,

“Yay! Then can I ride with you in your carriage, Brother?”

“Sure.”

“And you can let two of the young ladies I’m close with ride with us too, right?”

“Do as you please.”

Despite his half-hearted replies, the group of young ladies who had been eavesdropping on the conversation between Princess Regita and Sota immediately lit up and squealed like dolphins.

Soon afterward, Sota left the area as though he were in a hurry, and an intense battle of wits broke out over which of the young ladies would get to ride in his carriage with Regita.

Before I knew it, I had been completely pushed out of everyone’s attention. Ignoring the maid who was looking at me with pity, I listened carefully to their conversation.

“Come to think of it, isn’t today the semifinals? I heard Her Highness’s slave made it to the semifinals.”

“That slave is incredibly famous in the arena these days. I heard he won every single match in the preliminaries, too. My goodness, Her Highness certainly has an excellent eye for choosing slaves.”

“His looks are incredible, too. That body of his, and there’s even something sensual in his eyes… I heard there are quite a few young ladies losing sleep over that slave these days. Hehe.”

“Please lend him to me for just one night sometime, Your Highness. I’ll use him discreetly and return him without a trace!”

“Hehe, we’ll see. Now, let’s get going too. Brother must be waiting.”

Led by Regita, the young ladies all filed out, and before long, the banquet hall had become deserted.

The maid, who had been fidgeting nervously, cautiously spoke to me as I stood lost in thought.

“My lady. Shall we return to the estate now? You need to hurry back and get treatment.”

She was so careful about reading my mood as she spoke that I was embarrassed just watching her. Arabella had probably always been treated poorly at the Imperial Palace like this, and whenever it happened, she seemed to have taken out her pent-up anger on the people around her—most likely this maid.

‘Pathetic, Arabella.’

I sighed and looked at the maid.

“What was your name again?”

“Pardon? My name? It’s… Becky, my lady.”

The maid studied me anxiously. She seemed worried that I might have somehow injured my head when I collapsed.

“Right, Becky. Thank you for worrying about me. Let’s go now.”

As I hurriedly started walking, Becky was startled and quickly grabbed me.

“W-Wait! Where are you going?”

“The place where the gladiatorial matches are being held. You lead the way.”

“What? You’re going there like this?”

The maid asked with a flustered expression. I glanced back to check my reflection in the decorative cabinet.

She was right. For a noble young lady, I certainly looked ghastly.

My face was swollen beyond recognition, my hair was a complete mess, and my dress was covered in stains, probably because I had spilled the teacup when I collapsed.

It bothered me, but there was a far more urgent matter than appearances or dignity.

“There’s someone I need to go save—no, meet—right now.”

None other than Yusiliph Nathael Mohan.

The male protagonist of the original novel and the only hope this world had in the face of its approaching end was about to face the greatest crisis of his life.

Judging from the conversation among Regita’s group, today had to be that day.

I had to get there right now and save him.

Before he was completely broken and trampled into a person consumed by trauma and hatred.

If saving him could also ease even a little of the resentment he held toward me, then all the better.

The moment I made up my mind, I gathered up my skirts and started running, only for Becky to hurriedly block my path.

“My lady! Are you really going like this? B-But what about your treatment? What if you collapse again?”

But I gestured firmly for Becky to step aside and ordered her without hesitation.

“I’ll take care of that myself, so just lead the way. Oh, right. And…”

I raised my eyes, and Becky immediately shrank back, watching me nervously.

‘She looks just like a frightened puppy.’

I asked her with as gentle an expression as possible, as though soothing a child.

“Do you happen to have any money on you? I have somewhere I need to spend it.”

 

***

 

At the same time.

Woooooo—

In a room deep beneath the gladiatorial arena, the cheers of thousands of spectators could be heard faintly from afar.

Inside the moldy little chamber, a man who had been curled up like a corpse slowly opened his eyes.

In the darkness so deep that it was difficult to see even an inch ahead, blood-red eyes flashed like an ominous portent.

Then, in a low voice filled with disgust, he muttered,

“I’m sick to death of these damn humans. If the apocalypse would just come already and wipe every last one of them out, I couldn’t ask for anything more.”