Rowen lay collapsed on the cold floor, coughing. Dust had gotten into her mouth and nose during Tehern’s use of her.

She tried to lift herself up, but her body, worn out from his rough treatment, would not cooperate easily.

“……”

Tehern had already finished dealing with his own desire and left long ago. In truth, having him linger around would not have helped her at all, so this arrangement suited Rowen just fine.

Forcing her uncooperative body upright pulled an involuntary groan from her. Rowen crawled on all fours, gathering her scattered clothes. There was not a single part of her body that did not ache.

Picking up the clothes strewn across the floor, Rowen looked down at the maid’s uniform still wrapped around her body. Tehern had yanked at the fabric so many times during s*x that it hung loose and stretched. Two of the buttons on the front had popped off entirely and rolled somewhere across the floor.

Still, compared to last time, the uniform survived in relatively decent shape. Last time he tore it apart completely, like some uneducated beast.

Letting out a shallow sigh, Rowen rose to change back into her regular clothes. But just then, the sound of the lecture hall door opening cut through the silence. Startled, she clamped a hand over her own mouth on reflex, stifling the scream threatening to escape.

Her first thought was that it might be Tehern, but the silence that followed, with no words spoken at all, made her doubt that.

Rowen shrank into the corner and held her breath. She had no idea who it might be, but she was certain nothing good would come of being seen.

Whoever entered the room closed the door slowly behind them. The sound of dress shoes echoed through the lecture hall. The person moved with unhurried, leisurely steps.

“……”

At some point, Rowen’s heart began pounding uncontrollably fast. It thundered inside her chest like a drum. The sound nearly drowned out the footsteps entirely.

Rowen kept her eyes fixed on the dust-covered floor, praying desperately that whoever it was would not notice her. She hoped they would leave as quickly as possible. No ordinary person would have any reason to come into a dusty place like this, so why on earth were they here……!

“Hello.”

The person wandering through the room finally spotted Rowen hiding in the corner and spoke.

There was not the slightest trace of surprise or confusion in that voice. It sounded utterly composed, like finding her there was exactly what he expected all along.

The person crouched down on one knee in front of Rowen. Just as Tehern had, the very moment he first discovered her identity.

The instant Rowen recognized who it was, she nearly stopped breathing entirely.

Prince Michael…… His flawless, clean jawline entered her field of vision.

Rowen bowed her head as low as possible, hiding her face. She wanted to push herself backward, to escape even a little, but unfortunately a solid wall stood directly behind her.

“……”

Michael’s gaze seemed to drift toward the open front of her torn uniform. Rowen covered her chest with trembling hands. He let out a short, mocking laugh at that.

“Are you the maid assigned to Tehern? I saw him leaving here a moment ago.”

“……”

“Hey, want to come work as my maid instead? I’ll speak to Tehern about it myself.”

Michael offered gently, reaching out to smooth Rowen’s disheveled hair. Though what she wore was a wig, so it was only fake hair he was fixing.

Since she was currently dressed as a maid, Rowen knew she needed to react accordingly. If she failed to answer in time, he might accuse her of insolence and force her chin up himself.

But she simply could not bring herself to speak. Michael had already memorized her name by now. There was no guarantee he had not memorized her voice as well.

“I, I’m sorry…….”

Rowen mumbled as quietly as possible.

“Hm? I can’t quite hear you. What was that?”

But Michael, mischievous as ever, pretended not to hear and mocked her instead. Like he was determined to drag her voice out of her by any means. Whether he already understood the full situation and was doing this deliberately, Rowen could not tell, and it left her thoroughly confused.

In the end, rather than speak again, she bowed her head even lower. Hoping that would be enough to convey her meaning. Her face nearly touching the floor should have made her apology more than clear.

She did not want to remain alone in this room with Michael for a moment longer. Not knowing what he was really thinking only made her more anxious.

Rowen dragged her aching body and tried to hurry out. But suddenly, someone caught the hem of her skirt from behind.

“Ah!”

Michael grabbed the trailing hem to stop her from leaving, then let go again almost immediately. His manner was light, almost playful.

It really was nothing more than a light joke. But her injured leg, of all things, got in the way. If her leg had been fine, she could have regained her balance instantly, but with it still weak, Rowen ended up falling in an undignified heap.

“Are you okay? I was just teasing, I didn’t think you’d actually fall.”

“Ah……!”

“Your leg seems to be giving you trouble.”

Michael grabbed her injured leg, feigning concern.

Rowen, sprawled on the floor, struggled desperately to pull her leg free from his grip, but Michael would not let go easily. His expression stayed calm, like he was barely exerting any force at all, yet strangely, her ankle would not come loose no matter how hard she pulled.

It felt like every drop of blood was draining from her body, head to toe. A heavy, crushing air pressed down on her. Her heart felt like it was caught in someone’s fist, making it impossible to breathe properly.

Michael was sociable, certainly, but he never showed much genuine interest in other people. He was friendly enough to speak even to someone as blunt and ill-tempered as Tehern, but he was not the type to pour this much attention onto some maid who happened to sleep with Tehern.

At least, that was the Michael Louisa Hydra Rowen thought she knew.

He knew something. He was acting this persistent precisely because he already knew some fact she desperately needed hidden……

Rowen crawled away from him with desperate, ragged movements. Clawing at the dusty floor with her nails, thrashing to escape, Michael finally let her go with a laugh.

Rowen left the lecture hall with a face drained of all color and made her way back to her room, still limping on her injured leg the entire way.

She kept glancing back over her shoulder, terrified Michael might be following her. Running as hard as she could made her slowly healing leg ache sharply, but she could not afford to stop.

His sudden entrance meant she never even managed to change back into her regular clothes. Even so, Rowen kept running toward her room.

Most people probably could not even tell whether her room was a proper room or just a storage closet anyway. Even walking in dressed as a maid, anyone who noticed would likely assume a maid had simply gone in to fetch something needed from storage.

Reaching her door, Rowen frantically searched her pockets, and her face drained of color when she could not find the key. But then she remembered the key was tucked in her trouser pocket. As she hurriedly dug through the clothes bundled in her arms, someone wrapped an arm around her waist from behind.

Startled out of her skin, Rowen lifted her head. Michael stood beside her, looking down with a smile.

“Do you have some business here?”

“Ah, that, that’s……”

“Come to think of it, I think I have some business here myself.”

Rowen could not manage a single word, her mouth only opening and closing uselessly. Tears welled in her eyes from sheer terror. Cold sweat poured endlessly down her entire body.

It felt like being thrown, defenseless, in front of a beast starved for an entire week.

“Shall we go in together?”

This was Rowen’s room, yet he opened the door without waiting for her permission at all. Without even a key, a single gentle wave of his fingers through the air was enough to make the door swing open.

* * *

“Ngh, ah. Hngh……!”

Rowen gasped for breath like someone losing her mind. Crying and sobbing without pause eventually sent her into hyperventilation.

“Rowen. Hush now.”

Michael soothed her gently as she wept. Though his hands, unlike his voice, were not gentle in the slightest.

The moment she was dragged into the room, Rowen found herself thrown roughly onto the bed. Michael pulled the tie from around his own neck and used it to bind her two hands together. He tied it so tightly it felt like her wrists might snap.

Next, he stripped away everything Rowen had on. In truth, all she wore was the single maid’s uniform, so there was hardly anything left to remove.

Her bed, purchased by the imperial family when she first entered the Crystal Palace, was of decent quality. But with the room so small, the bed itself was necessarily small too. Of course, for someone as slight as Rowen, the size suited her perfectly well.

But what suited Rowen left no room at all for someone as large as Michael. Michael folded his considerable frame and climbed onto the bed anyway.

Even in the midst of her terror at what was about to happen, Rowen found herself thinking, absurdly, that the bed might collapse under the weight.

Tehern had a vicious, cruel nature, yet he had never once struck her across the face. Michael, in contrast, always smiling and speaking so gently, raised his hand against her without the slightest hesitation the moment she tried to crawl away.

Before long, Rowen’s face was left in ruins. Her cheek, struck by Michael’s powerful hand, swelled red. Tear stains soaked her cheeks and the skin beneath her eyes.

After a few strikes, Rowen grew docile, like an animal broken into obedience.

Michael stared down at Rowen, gone still and quiet as a doll, gasping for breath. Her small backside, reddened from being struck each time she tried to flee, colored deeper still. Every time he gripped her waist to hold her still and drove his c*ck deep inside, her pale, soft skin flinched.