"Ellie?" I whispered.

  She looked up.

  Recognition bloomed instantly. Her lips parted. Tears gathered.

  That small flicker of hope in her eyes nearly broke me.

  Then she said it.

  "Mark."

  My chest tightened.

  No, no, no. My mind reeled. That wasn’t my name. Not to her. She had never called me that. Not once in five years.

  Was this not her? Just a copy? A coincidence? A twisted mockery wearing her skin?

  The room tilted.

  I staggered a step back, bile rising behind my throat. My hands trembled. My breath refused to come in rhythm.

  But my body refused to believe it.

  I looked into her eyes again. The recognition was still there. The ache. The longing. She looked at me like she’d waited centuries.

  So why call me that name?

  I didn’t have the answer. Only the fear curling in my gut, tightening until it hurt.

  I had to understand. This was essential. I needed to know or I’d break.

  "Mark, what's happening?" she asked. Worry lined her face, softening her features.

  Fascinating. Even while being on dispy, up for sale, she still had room to feel concern for me.

  Just like my Ellie.

  "You’re Ellie, right? I’m sorry… I don’t remember much. Just your name, and the looks." My voice shook. "Can you tell me who you are?"

  She nodded faintly, visibly shaken, but soon began to speak. Ellie Ashbourne. Daughter of a minor noble family whose nds bordered mine. We had grown up together, pyed in the same gardens, shared stolen sweets and foolish promises. She was meant to be my consort, once.

  But the war shattered everything.

  The demon invasion gutted the empire. Nobles were the first to be drafted. It was their duty to bleed first. And so they did.

  All my siblings died. So did her family. The st of her brothers perished a month prior. Only her and one uncle remained.

  David Merkaft. A parasite wearing a noble's name. As the st surviving male, he inherited everything, and discarded her without hesitation. He sold her off for coin, hoarding the wealth like a rat in a burned granary. He could have at least arranged for her to be pced in a noble harem as a political asset. But his hatred for her father ran so deep, he chose to erase her instead. Not out of necessity but of sheer spite.

  I clenched my fists.

  I knew what I had to do.

  Even if this wasn’t the Ellie I remembered, I couldn't leave her here to be desecrated by some brute. She looked exactly like the copy of my companion. And even acted the same.

  I looked at the bid tag and my heart sank.

  A quarter of my funds and that was just the starting bid. To secure her, I’d need at least triple that.

  Sebastian stood at my side, reading my face without needing to ask. He knew the numbers and our situation. But when he spoke, I let his words pass by without registering them.

  I wrote the number. I commited everything, only leaving enough to feed three mouths for two months. I sealed an envelope with the family crest and dropped it into the locked box at the base of her ptform.

  The auction ran until sunset. I tried to keep still and look dignified, but every passing moment chipped at my nerves. Free wine flowed like water, but I refused it. My mind had to stay clear.

  The stakes were extremely high. If somebody outbid me, not only i'd lose a week of time, which was already scarce, since I didn't pce any other bids. But also a part of myself that still remembered warmth.

  THough i could technically go to slums and find a girl there to train, but such 'items' were never accepted into noble harems unless they had the bloodline or something extraordinary. Training one to that level in two months was impossible.

  "Mark Ninetails."

  The unpleasant, sharp voice belonged to a tall blond youth with handsome features and a trained body in his te teens. Derrick Brongshold. A smug smile painted across his face. A fellow academy graduate and a middle-css noble’s heir.

  I didn’t remember him, but Sebastian had filled in the bnks. We had much spare time while waiting for the end.

  "I thought you were dead," Derrick said. "Or at least dying with honor on the front. Seems they scraped the bottom to give your house one st gasp."

  I was too tense to come up with a proper retort.

  His grin widened. "Try not to embarrass the name more than your brothers already did."

  He left, seemingly satisfied with his witty remark.

  I almost started biting my nails in frustration, but Sebastian’s gre stopped me mid-motion.

  Honor, even in desperation. That was his mantra.

  Finally, the announcement time came.

  The names were called. One by one. The closer they got to Ellie's position, the more tension I felt building up in my body. At some point, a low hum filled my ears, and throbbing pain started in my temples. I closed my eyes in waiting.

  Finally, I heard it. My name.

  Relief hit me like air after drowning. I stood too fast. Sebastian instantly gave me that same look he’d already given me multiple times today. I forced myself to walk slowly, seemingly uncaring.

  Papers were handed to me along with a colr and a tag. She was mine now. Property of House Ninetails.

  She looked up at me, eyes raw, voice thin.

  "Please be gentle to me, Master."

  "I will."

  We turned together. The three of us walked back to what was left of home.

  As the carriage carried us through the dusk, Ellie leaned softly against my shoulder, her exhaustion finally winning out. I noticed her swaying and told her to rest her head on my p. She hesitated for only a moment before obeying, her body going limp with sleep almost instantly.

  Sebastian gave me one of his signature gres, the kind that implied I was shattering centuries of propriety, which i consciously ignored.

  Her breath warmed my thigh. Unbidden, my body stirred. A slow, unwelcome tightness pressed against my trousers. I clenched my muscles hard, trying to quell it. Now was not the time. She needed rest. Even a little.

  Thoughts spiraled in the silence.

  I owned her now. Not metaphorically but legally. She was mine in every way that mattered to this world. Her body belonged to me. And she looked exactly like the Ellie I had known. I feared, deep down, she might feel like her too.

  This world gave me the authority to do anything I wanted. Unspeakable things. I recoiled at the thought. But some sick part of my mind stirred, its whispers dark and selfish.

  No. I couldn’t become that.

  But the truth lingered like a bde at my throat. I had to train her. Sell her. That was the only way to survive. Fame and reputation were my only shield against conscription.

  I tried telling myself I’d buy her back. That someday, once I was rich and respected, I’d recim her. That lie held me together.

  The carriage came to a stop.

  No maids greeted us, and no servants bowed. It had been a year since the st one was sold off to pay the interest on the loans.

  "You still live here. How fortunate. I fully remember the yout," Ellie said, her voice too bright for the situation.

  "This will be your home for the next two months," I said ftly.

  "And after that?" Her question came quiet. Innocent.

  "I'll have to sell you to pay off my loans. If I don’t, they’ll strip the estate and send me to the front."

  A heavy silence followed.

  Then, soft as breath, she whispered, "I'm gd my first time will be with you."

  I looked at her fragile frame. My throat closed. I resolved myself. whatever it took, I’d find a way to keep her. I couldn’t lose her again.

  "We'll start your training tonight. But first, we eat. You'll need all the strength you can get."

  After a modest supper, I led her to the bath. The water had already been drawn and heated by Sebastian.

  "Your first lesson begins now. Hygiene is essential. You must keep yourself and your master clean. Especially in the intimate areas."

  She nodded, a faint blush coloring her cheeks.

  "Bathing can be… more than practical. It’s a prelude. A form of seduction. When you wash in front of your master, you awaken his hunger."

  She tilted her head, confused.

  "Master… you say strange words. ‘Prelude’? ‘Seduction’? What do they mean?"

  I blinked.

  "Ellie… what do you know about sex?"

  She thought for a moment.

  "It’s a blessing from the gods. A gift for men who stake their lives to protect and provide for their families."

  Not quite what I expected. But pretty much inline with medieval fantasy.

  She continued.

  "And for women… it’s meant to be painful. A toll to pay for creating life. We trespass into the gods’ realm, so we must suffer."

  The words crawled into my skull like worms. I stared at her, not blinking, the breath stuck in my throat.

  She believed that.

  What the fuck?