Children who get beaten by their fathers are common as dirt, and Aila was no exception.

Even though she was nearly of age, the situation was no different.

A narrow, shabby hut roughly repaired from a ruined house. Inside, everything was in complete chaos like robbers had ransacked it.

Scattered across the floor were the few household items they owned: pots, wooden bowls, and spoons, all strewn about messily. A broken dining chair lay grotesquely toppled backward. Behind it, a faded tablecloth made by hand was half-torn and hanging in tatters.

Even the lace that had been placed on the corner shelf wasn’t spared. Thrown to the floor, the lace was trampled by muddy shoes and soaked in thin soup spilled from a pot, dirtied beyond recognition.

In the middle of it all, Aila lay face down like discarded trash, unable to regain consciousness for a long while.

Her disheveled hair, swollen red cheeks, and temples were beginning to show bruises spreading like stains. Her frail body, hidden beneath worn and tattered clothes that looked ready to fall apart at any moment, was injured everywhere.

Having been beaten nearly to unconsciousness, her head buzzed even after she barely came to. Her body, traumatized by the terror of violence, still trembled intermittently.

Aila barely managed to lift her heavy, swollen eyelids.

When she parted her lips slightly, faint breath escaped and created white vapor.

Though indoors, the house without any fire was just as cold as outside. Her thin ankles, bound with shackles, had turned not just white but blue.

Even so, she was alive.

Despite being beaten nearly to death, despite the bone-cutting cold, she had survived countless dangerous moments with her tenacious life.

Would it have been easier if she had died? Would she be resting peacefully in God’s embrace by now?

She dared to imagine such absurd thoughts, but they were all futile hopes.

Aila stretched her trembling arm somewhere. Terrible pain shot through her body that had been mercilessly beaten, but no groans escaped her lips. She bit her lips to suppress any sound.

It was also a habit peculiar to those who knew painfully well that no one would listen to their insignificant pain and suffering.

She had learned this harsh reality over a long time under her father Georg’s persistent abuse.

After groping the floor for a while, the familiar texture of thread that she could recognize even with her eyes closed touched her fingertips.

It was the lace she had been knitting without rest from morning to evening for the past three days.

However, the torn and soiled lace was no longer in a condition to serve its purpose.

The unsightly and useless lace seemed exactly like her own pitiful state. Aila curled up her body, clutching the lace to her chest.

“…”

The tears she had been holding back finally flowed out.

Her pale white face, which rarely saw sunlight, became wet with beaded tears. It was silent crying.

Even though no one was in the house after the commotion, the fear that someone might hear stole even her voice.

The terror of her violent and brutal father was deeply engraved to the bone.

So was the disgust and displeasure that was always contained in her father’s gaze when he looked down at her.

“Worthless brat. Everything you do takes after your mother.”

When he was drunk, when meals didn’t suit his taste, when the lace money wasn’t satisfactory, when she went outside or opened doors without permission, or just whenever he was in a bad mood.

Georg would beat Aila thoroughly. When that happened, she had no choice but to endure until her father’s anger subsided.

Sometimes when her father seemed to genuinely want to kill her, instinctive fear would completely block her throat, making it impossible to make even the smallest sound.

The thought that she might really be killed if things went wrong was almost a certainty.

Resistance was impossible. Escape was unimaginable. She didn’t dare hope that someone would help her.

During the long period of suffering under merciless violence, deep helplessness had somehow come to weigh heavily on even her invisible spirit.

Rattle rattle.

The rough noise of doors and windows that didn’t fit properly banging against each other in the winter wind filled the air.

Every time wind rushed into the hut that was so old it wouldn’t be strange if it collapsed at any moment, her body, pale with cold, trembled faintly.

She needed to stuff cloth scraps between the gaps to block the wind and gather fallen leaves to light the fireplace, but her body wouldn’t obey due to terrible pain and fatigue.

Aila curled up her body as much as possible and huddled together. It was an instinct to avoid freezing to death. Her eyes soon began to flutter, and her consciousness gradually faded.

In the darkness, the memory of someone unknown tried to surface briefly.

But at that moment, her exhausted and tattered consciousness finally snapped.

Aila fell into the bottomless winter nightmare like plummeting into an abyss.

* * *

At the same time, Georg was sitting in a luxurious reception room, conducting a transaction for Aila.

“Don’t give me any excuses later and check it properly.”

One hundred twenty silver coins. Exactly equivalent to ten gold coins, a fortune. Georg’s face brightened as he confirmed the amount.

It was worth the effort of shopping around everywhere. It was nearly double the typical bride price.

“It’s exactly right.”

Sitting across from him in a pompous posture was a small middle-aged man with a mustache.

The man was quite a wealthy merchant in this region.

Besides running a trading company for generations and having quite a bit of money, he was also a figure surrounded by various rumors due to his history of going through three wives.

Particularly since his last wife had died under suspicious circumstances, all sorts of ominous stories circulated about him.

Even so, the fact that there had never been a proper investigation by the security forces was said to be thanks to his powerful backing.

But such things didn’t matter to Georg. Even if all the rumors were true, he didn’t care.

The only important thing was that this man offered the highest price for Aila’s body.

Of course, he had to endure the inconvenience of bringing her to his house once because the merchant insisted on seeing Aila’s face.

But it wasn’t a waste of effort since it worked out.

That was because the moment the merchant saw Aila’s face, a gleam of interest flashed in his eyes.

‘Well, she does take after her mother with that pretty face.’

He felt no guilt about selling his daughter.

The cost of feeding and housing her until now. Considering that, it was only right to get this much for her body.

‘Where else would that foolish girl ever set foot in a place like this without me?’

Before she withered away and froze to death, he had secured her a position as a noble lady in such a wealthy household, so she should be thanking him instead.

“You said two weeks from now, right?”

The man’s words interrupted Georg’s thoughts.

“Your daughter’s birthday, I mean.”

“Ah, yes. That’s right.”

He quickly nodded his head.

In truth, he didn’t properly know Aila’s birthday and had never bothered to remember it.

He vaguely remembered it was around winter, and that was only because he recalled buying lots of firewood and stacking it by the fireplace when Terese, who was heavily pregnant at the time, was sensitive to cold.

What was that traitorous b*tch to him, the damn fool.

Georg still gritted his teeth whenever he thought about how he had been played by that foreign woman.

Their relationship had been wrong from the marriage itself, but naturally that wasn’t his concern.

“I’ll come to pick her up on the right date, so keep her safe.”

Still, the reason he had lied about her coming-of-age birthday being two weeks away was because he had habitually laid hands on Aila.

‘Really, why did she have to babble about not wanting to get married?’

Well, two weeks would be enough for the bruises to fade, Georg thought confidently as he answered.

“Don’t worry. She’s a child who’s always stayed at home, so there’s no concern about her running away anywhere.”

The merchant nodded with satisfaction at those words. For a man looking for an obedient and young wife, these were perfect conditions.

Georg, who had received a larger bride price than expected, was also satisfied.

Vulgar smiles spread across the faces of the two men who had satisfied their respective greedy desires.

“Well then, I’ll be going.”

“Yes, I’ll see you in two weeks.”

Just as Georg finished his greeting and was about to turn to leave the reception room.

“Wait.”

‘What now?’

Georg looked back at the middle-aged merchant with inner wariness.

‘He’s not going to change his tune now, is he?’

There were always troublemakers who would change their words at the last minute or try to twist things in their favor.

Georg clutched the heavy money pouch tightly with his thick hands while studying the other man’s face.

The man’s eyes had somehow become stained with lust.

It was a nauseating, disgusting carnal desire.

But Georg felt relieved instead. He was certain that at least the man wouldn’t try to break the deal.

The merchant licked his greasy lips with his tongue once and made an unpleasant smile.

“She’s definitely a virgin, right?”

Of course.

Georg opened his mouth with a bright smile spreading across his face.

He had a feeling this would be a perfect transaction.

* * *

He had certainly been confident of that.

Until he lost all the money from selling Aila at the gambling table that very same day.