"Did you hear the demons have plundered another village?" a kitchen maid murmured.
Valentius didn't pay much attention to gossip.
Slave runes…
Iron doors, iron bars, iron runes.
It all made sense, now, he thought. They were never going to get out of serving the guild.
But how were the ones with the slave runes going to serve? And… what had been that creature, who…
"Valentine!" he hated the Head Maid. She always called him that. Accused him of stealing food as well, just because he was fat. "What are you doing, boy? Are you trying to convince the potato to peel itself?"
Oh, Valentius had a couple of things which he wanted to tell the woman, but he held his tongue.
As a servant of the lord, he received at least two meals and a warm place to stay.
And there was no slave rune on his neck. For all that, he felt like there was one.
"No, Ma'am!" He said so, as if the woman were a general. "I was just… thinking."
"Thinking? You? A Guild Reject?" The woman's laugh was between the oinking of a pig and the screeching of a male cat in heat.
Valentius wanted to tell that woman what he thought of her to her face, but instead, he became Valentine once more.
Slowly, he resumed peeling the potato he was holding.
"I'm sorry, Ma'am," he told her.
He wasn't sorry. He had nothing to be sorry about. Except… the fact that he was weak.
A Valentine.
"Hm," the woman took something off the table and walked away.
Not talking back was the trick.
Valentius allowed himself to throw away the mask of Valentine and hide away in his thoughts once more.
He had chosen to come and serve the Lord for more than one reason.
The man had a library! Lord Claudius couldn't use it because he was illiterate, but it was still a status symbol to own one.
So, he added skill books to it every month—books that cost hundreds, if not thousands, of gold coins!
Man, what Valentius would have given to be the Lord of a region with silver mines…
"Valentius," he blinked. Oh…he had started to peel the already peeled potato.
"I was making… chips?" He offered.
Beth, the Supervisor of the Kitchen, sighed.
"Valentius, honestly, you have to concentrate. If you can't even peel potatoes, you will be kicked out! You don't know what it's like out there! It is not summer yet! You'll freeze!"
"Sorry," and this time he was.
Because he knew all that. Knew that this was his one chance at a good life. If he lost this job, he wouldn't get another.
"Val," it was better than calling him Valentine. Valentius did not begrudge Beth this attempt at kindness. "Is it true? Can you read and write?"
He nodded. He was too young to see any danger in that innocent question.
Not even after what he had seen in the Academy on that faithful day.
"Lord Claudius wants to see you. He wants you to read him a story!"
The gears in Valentius' mind began to turn. The Lord… wanted to see him? So, could he read to him?
Then Valentius would be able to trick the man! Take a skill book off a shelf, bond to it, and get a system!
Become strong, rich, and loved!
"Oh! Do I go now?" His smile was blinding, his enthusiasm all-consuming.
He didn't see how Beth's eyes dimmed despite the gentle tug at the corner of her lips.
How could he? He was just fifteen.
"No. At midnight, go to the Lord's chambers. He will have the book you will read to him there," Beth said, lightly squeezing his shoulder. "Good luck."
It was just a whisper—a hint.
Valentius saw a black shadow in Beth's face. He froze.
"Midnight?" He could read and write. People talked.
Besides, even though he was chubby, people still thought him a handsome youth.
"Don't worry!" Beth's eyes widened, begging him for something he couldn't place. Valentius noticed that there was a bruise on her arm. "You just need to read!"
Her eyes finally traced his gaze.
The shame was naked on her face. She bowed her head, accepting her fate. The boy would run if he were smart.
And she… she would have to go to his chambers once more.
0000
Valentius was halfway across the drawbridge when he stopped.
That bruise.
The country of Nightshade had been strong once. It had spanned the world.
But then, the Archdemons had ruined everything.
First, the Seven Deadly Sins, who were born as demons. And then, those seven added necromancers to their ranks.
People could do what they wanted to the weak if they were powerful. The Archdemons protected such scum.
Beth was kind. She made sure that there were two warm meals for him.
Warm… not ice-cold like what most people got.
She liked it when he told her of his dreams. She giggled around him. Valentius had even thought that one day…
She had still sold him to the lord.
But was that enough to leave her to such a fate? The bruise was not the product of a bump, of that much, Valentius was certain.
Was he going to become Valentine for true? Or was there still hope of him going back to being Valentius?
A Valentius who protected the weak?
The Archdemons protected the scum. But that didn't mean that lord Claudius was immortal.
No demon gave away immortality.
Only one had it, and he would never part with it! The one who made them all shake in their boots: The Archdemon of Wrath.
Valentius gulped.
Does he turn back, kill the lord, steal his books, and save Beth?
Or does he just run… like a rat?
Valentius didn't want to be Valentine for the rest of his life. Even the past month working in the kitchens had been too much.
No.
It was time he became a hero.
Because the life of a rat was too much for him to stomach.