In Northnd, it was common for children to attend a public school from the age of 5 until 16 before they could start working. Commoners with low income and social status could choose to send their children to a church school, which was free of charge. As for the middle social css, there were a range of public schools to choose from. However, it was quite different for aristocrats. They hired excellent private instructors until the child could attend the Northnd Academy for three years, starting at the age of 15.

  The Northnd Academy was a prestigious school where nobles and families could afford to receive extensive education in their chosen specializations. Also, it was the best pce for young nobles to establish their networking with other families as well. As their holidays were over, Ophelia and the older Chevaliers returned to the academy to continue with their studies once again. Initially, Stel thought that she could finally have a break away from Ophelia’s abuse and control. However, she had another form of nightmare to deal with instead.

  Despite being at the appropriate age to attend the academy, she was forced to stay back and study with other younger Chevaliers because they did not trust her and thought she wouldn’t escape. The safest option was to keep her locked in the manor until she was tamed enough to go outside.

  Thus, that was the beginning of Ophelia’s unhinged offer.

  She would be kind to request that Marquis Chevalier permit Stel to attend the academy as well if she was able to show excellent performance with her studies and swordsmanship. However, she didn’t promise it would be a fair deal to begin with, and Stel was right not to believe her. The treatment she received was borderline abuse. The older omega’s reason was simple: it would be a disgrace to have an uneducated and weak fiancé. Thus, she wanted to train her to be qualified as her precious alpha.

  Stel joined the private study at Chevalier Manor along with other younger Chevaliers. The first half of the day was spent in the library receiving lessons from Professor Oliver, who was one of the most famous tutors in Northnd. He was a genius and became the youngest graduate to become a professor at the academy. It was expected that he would have a ridiculously long waiting list, but it wasn’t surprising that the Chevalier managed to grab onto him with the amount of fortune they had.

  “Stel, you made a lot of mistakes in one of your previous assessments. You’ll redo them until you can get to answer all of them correctly.”

  “…Understood.”

  Day after day, she kept receiving absurd amounts of reading and assessments to complete. It felt as if the professor was intentionally nitpicking at every mistake of hers. The way he treated Stel and other Chevaliers was night and day. As others always received compliments and words of encouragement from him, Stel would only receive criticism and extra work to do.

  “She is scolded by Professor Oliver again. Is she that dumb?”

  “I bet. I heard that she has a lot of studies to catch up to where we are at.”

  “I also heard rumors that she’s a pampered daughter, so she avoids studying most of the time.”

  “She should be ashamed of herself for being less intelligent than us.”

  Other young Chevaliers had fun gossiping from another table since they completed their assessments and reading for the day. Countless rumors circuted among the Chevaliers about Stel’s ck of education. The bck-haired alpha could hear every word since they had no intention to hide, but she had more matters to be concerned about.

  Rumors were simply rumors since they had no idea what she was forced to study. The textbooks and assessments that the professor gave her were all exceedingly advanced for her level. She recalled seeing her older sister, Bke Albrecht, study these textbooks when she was in her final year of the academy. The professor knew that this was beyond her level yet made her do it anyway.

  At this rate, she felt more like she was being bullied than she was studying to improve.

  In the tter half of the day, she had arduous sword training in the afternoon. Swordsmanship csses were only permitted for alphas and beta males, and the training was led by Sir Jayson, who was one of the elite knights from the Northnd Knight Academy. As all the Chevaliers were training together, Stel was isoted to focus on pure physical training.

  “Stel, as your warm-up, you’ll be running around the field for 50 ps, followed by 100 push-ups and sit-ups, before finishing off with 1000 swings, do you understand?”

  “…Yes sir.”

  It was just hell. Luckily, her mother and father trained her ever since she could hold a sword, so she had the stamina to complete Sir Jayson’s outrageous warm-up regime. As she ran around the training ground, she was constantly ridiculed and ughed at for only doing physical training. They had never seen her spar with anyone before and wondered if she was too inept to demonstrate her skills. By the time Stel completed the warm-up, other Chevaliers had finished their training for the day already. However, this was far from over.

  “Are you done with the warm-up yet?”

  Stel was completely soaked in her sweat, and her hands were tired from one thousand swings non-stop. She only gred at him before he called her out to the middle of the training ground. Stel had to do another full hour of the sparring session with Sir Jayson, and he was just merciless and brutal. His skills and physical power were far superior to hers, and he did not hesitate to strike her the moment there was an opening. She lost count of how many painful bruises she received from him and how many times she fell to the ground. If this was a real fight, she would’ve been killed multiple times.

  “Is that all you’ve got? Giving up already?”

  “Ugh…!”

  She had no choice but to get up and st for the entire hour before he allowed her to leave. Once the torturous sword training session was over, she had to sit at the dining table with Ophelia and others before she could have some peace of her own. She bandaged up the blisters on her palms and soles from training and still had to complete her reading before css tomorrow.

  All these special abusive treatments were thanks to Ophelia.

  The number of things she needed to do per day was inhumane. The exhaustion and pain repeated five times a week, and the pink-haired omega constantly checked on her performance to see if she was making any solid improvements. She practically forced all these things on Stel as she was ‘training’ her to become the ideal alpha she wanted.

  -

  On the weekends, Stel used this precious time to catch up with her studies and assessments, but Ophelia would never leave her alone. She forced the young alpha to study together in her bedroom so that they could spend their weekends together. At least studying in Ophelia’s room meant that she wouldn’t be pestered by Theo and other Chevaliers. If she had to choose, she would rather deal with this lunatic and possessive omega instead.

  “… Can you stop staring at me?”

  Stel could sense the pair of green eyes staring at her, and it was distracting her from her studies. She looked up and accidentally made eye contact with her, who was lying down on the sofa. No one knew how long she had been watching her like a stalker.

  “Why? I can’t look at my fiancé?”

  “It’s distracting. I have too much to do, all thanks to you.”

  The alpha knew that Ophelia was the one behind these abusive treatments from her teachers. The pink-haired noble smiled silently before she sat up and moved to sit next to Stel instead. She showed no remorse on her face, and the tone she used was as if she were trying to provoke her.

  “Are you angry with me?”

  “Are you seriously asking me that when you already knew my answer? I’m in pain, exhausted, and angry, as you wanted me to be. Are you happy???”

  Even when the young alpha threw a sarcastic remark, it didn’t faze her in the slightest. What infuriated Stel more was her satisfactory smile upon witnessing her annoyed reaction. All of a sudden, Ophelia pushed her down onto the couch before cupping her cheek gently with care.

  “Perhaps I should reward you then?”

  “The best reward right now is for you to leave me alone.”

  “Fufu, you can wish it, but you already know the answer…”

  Stel’s pheromone gradually changed to a heavily burning wood scent, which directly reflected her present foul mood towards Ophelia. However, that didn’t bother the pink-haired omega because she knew how to please Stel’s body as an omega, and the young helpless alpha wouldn’t be able to refuse it.

  “It has been a month since I st marked you, and you know what that means, right?”

  “…You are a disgustful woman.”

  “Now now… watch your foul mouth, Stel. You’ll be nice to unbutton your shirt for me rather than I do it for you, right?”

  Ophelia reached out to touch her neck with a possessive smile, and she intentionally released her vender pheromones to calm the cute angry alpha. She just knew the right words to trigger Stel and force her to do everything she said. Thus, the young alpha might as well get it done quickly rather than entertain this deranged omega by resisting her. Stel unbuttoned a few buttons, just enough to reveal her neck.

  “There. Do your worst and get it done already.”

  Typically, a temporary mark would st for a month before it faded away, and Ophelia would check weekly to see if her alpha was still marked by her. She had to make sure everyone knew Stel’s body belonged to her alone by renewing the bite mark monthly. Her green eyes gnced at the faded mark she made st month. She embraced her tightly before she buried her face in her neck. No matter how much Stel despised having physical contact with her, she needed to tolerate this. Ophelia’s teeth pressed against her flesh before it sent chills down her back.

  “—!!”

  She didn’t feel that physically helpless compared to the first time she was marked. Perhaps it was the constant pheromone exposure and marking that made her body get used to it. Nevertheless, the bck-haired noble hated how her alpha instincts found Ophelia’s scent pleasant and soothing. Thanks to her genuine hatred for the Chevalier, it gave her the strength to resist her instinct.

  “Fufu… now you’re remarked.”

  Ophelia licked her lips with satisfaction before pnting a gentle kiss on the fresh new mark. Stel grunted with frustration before she gently pushed her away, as she couldn’t bear to be embraced any longer. Despite their twisted retionship, Ophelia was still a noble and a woman by birthright. It was Stel’s stubbornness and righteousness that made her choose to still treat her respectfully, despite being tempted not to. No matter how much she hated Ophelia and others, the young alpha held onto the noble courtesies her parents instilled in her closely in her heart. If it weren’t for that, she doubted that she would’ve remained this patient through countless abuses and mockeries from everyone.

  “Now that you’re done, I need to study, so stop bothering me, will you?”

  “Hehe, sure. Since you’re obediently doing as I said, I won’t tease you too much, just for today.”

  At least the pink-haired omega kept her word and left her alone to study peacefully while she focused on her studies. Even though she was exhausted and annoyed with the harsh treatment she received from the teachers, she was partly grateful for this offer. Thanks to Ophelia, at least she had the opportunity to learn and train so that she wouldn’t remain stagnant while being imprisoned here. She would make use of this opportunity, no matter how abusive it would be.

  -

  Time certainly flew by quickly when one’s mind was kept occupied. Before she realized it again, it had been about 5 months since the start of this torturous study and training schedule. At st, the fruit of her hard work and persistence paid off. Stel was able to ace every single assessment from Professor Oliver, and he was out of things to criticize.

  “…You got 100% once again. Hmph, okay. It seems you’ve been doing your reading.”

  “Of course, professor. I finished every textbook you told me to read, and I felt that the things we were reading were rather easy and boring. Could we learn something more challenging than this?”

  She even challenged him to give her much more challenging content, which made him speechless for a short moment. Perhaps he didn’t expect Stel to understand the textbooks he assigned her and improve significantly in such a short time. Aside from her studies, she secretly trained on the weekends as well to improve her fitness as quickly as possible in a short time. She was able to notice the changes to her body as she was able to keep up with the intense sparring sessions with Sir Jayson. Her strength and speed improved significantly, and she managed to catch him off guard on multiple occasions. She had a smaller physique, which made her nimbler than him and was able to use it to her advantage.

  “—!?”

  Her wooden sword stopped right before it hit his neck, and Sir Jayson had no choice but to accept his defeat. The young alpha smirked with great satisfaction as she savored the taste of victory. Thanks to her improved fitness and the sword skills her mother drilled into her, Stel was able to win several matches against Sir Jayson. Her mother, Lady Alicia Valens, was once an elite knight in the Northnd Reconnaissance Division, which only the best of the knights of the Northnd Knight Academy could join. As her daughter, Stel took pride in the unique Valens swordsmanship that she inherited.

  “Hm, not bad. You’ve seemed to have improved quite a bit.”

  “I’m a fast learner. Perhaps you should take me more seriously, or else you’ll be on a losing streak.”

  “Hah. Don’t get so cocky yet after I let you win several times.”

  Ever since then, other young Chevaliers have noticed a slight change in the teachers’ attitude. Initially, they enjoyed watching the teachers nitpick on every mistake of hers, but now it felt like Stel was taking the spotlight instead. Both Professor Oliver and Sir Jayson had been giving Stel much more attention since the young alpha did not compin or shy away from any challenges that they threw at her. Thus, it was inevitable that it would reach the point that some arrogant Chevaliers would want to challenge Stel to exert their dominance…

  -

  “She tried to kill my son! Marquis, please punish her!”

  The young alpha boy, Caleb Chevalier, pointed his finger at Stel for attempting to kill him at the training ground earlier, as he was covered with dirt and bruises from top to bottom. He and the other two boys told their mothers, and they all came today to Marquis’s office to inform him of Stel’s unacceptable behavior towards their children. What had happened earlier was that it was a 3 vs. 1 fight, and it was a clean, easy victory for her. As a result, the bck-haired alpha was called over to share her side of the story.

  “Stel, care to tell me what happened at the training ground?”

  Ophelia was also present in the room to hear what her aunts had to compin about, and she was nice enough to ask Stel to share her side of the story as well.

  “We’re doing our usual training, and Caleb and others challenged me to a duel. I refused it initially, but he kept insisting that he funts his sword skills.”

  “You’re lying! You’re trying to kill me and my cousins! Everyone saw what happened, and they’ll vouch for me that I’m speaking the truth.”

  Caleb knew that all his retives would side with him, even though he was in the wrong. When all three of them ganged up on her, it was at that split moment that Stel didn’t hold back and accidentally gave them a couple of bruises. Just because of that, they were accusing her of attempting to kill them. After this entire talk, Marquis punished her with solitary confinement since it was just a trivial quarrel.

  “This is utterly ridiculous. I better not hear this absurdity again.”

  He warned Stel before he sent her back to her room for the day. She could accept this punishment because it could’ve been worse. In a way, this was a blessing in disguise since the young alpha would not need to meet anyone for the next three weeks, but knowing the Chevaliers, she knew that it would not be a peaceful confinement period.

  -

  As Stel expected, the Chevaliers found ways to make things difficult for her by sabotaging her meals.

  Now that she had been moved to the first floor temporarily, the maids were tasked with bringing three meals a day. However, she would find needles or gss shards in her meals, or the food was left rotten for weeks. If it was none of that, then it may be ced with some form of poison. It was obvious the ones behind her were the mothers of the three boys she beat up. Thus, the only thing she trusted herself enough to eat was the dry stale bread that luckily came with the meals.

  Three days had gone by, and she had a proper meal once a day in the morning. Thankfully, she had a private bathroom and could live with tap water in case the juices they brought in were drugged too, but this would be quite difficult to st for three weeks without proper meals. She could tell that these maids couldn’t care less about her well-being and were aware of the sabotage as well. As she was pondering what to do, she heard a small knock coming from the window. Stel saw a mysterious figure in a dark green cloak peeking from the corner of the window before he showed her a piece of paper.

  “Please open the window. We brought you food—huh?”

  The figure nodded before he showed Stel a basket of food, and she was quite skeptical of this person. She couldn’t trust anyone in the manor, and they might have intended to bring her guard down to poison her. The man flipped to the next page and told her that Ophelia ordered him to bring them to her. If there were to be someone who wouldn’t want her physically dead yet, then it would be that deranged omega.

  In the end, Stel reluctantly opened the window before accepting the basket. The aroma of fresh bread kicked her nose before she began to salivate out of hunger, but she hesitated to eat it. The mysterious servant took note of Stel’s expression and scribbled more words onto another page to show her once again.

  [There is no drug in the food.]

  “My reaction is quite obvious, huh? At least it smells good…”

  She sniffed and tore the bread into bite-sized pieces to check if it may have any hidden needles or gss shards she wasn’t supposed to eat. She squeezed each bread piece between her fingers and sniffed it before she ate it slowly, just in case it was ced with poison. The servant watched her finish everything in the basket before Stel’s blue eyes stared straight at him. She couldn’t see his face through that thick cloak that covered more than half of their face, and the only thing visible was his lips.

  “Who are you? Ophelia sent you?”

  He scribbled on an empty page that Ophelia was aware of the sabotage, but since she had a lot of matters to attend to, she ordered her servants to bring her some food to keep her alive at the very least. Furthermore, the servant told her that Ophelia didn’t order him to bring it daily; it was just today. What did she expect from that lunatic anyway? One minute she seemed to care about her, and the next minute she was ready to leave her stranded to death. As she was thinking to herself quietly, she heard the servant scribbling on another page once again. He refused to speak so that she wouldn’t be able to identify who he was or his gender, which was a smart move to protect his identity.

  [I can bring you food for every meal. Three times a day.]

  “Huh??”

  He wrote down to consider this the servants’ appreciation towards Stel. Working as the servants for the Chevalier, it was normal to be treated like objects void of emotions. However, the young bck-haired alpha was the only person who treated them like humans and was always polite to them, regardless of their commoner background. When the servants needed help, Stel was the first person to reach out and assist them with a gentle smile.

  [Not just me, but everyone appreciates your kindness. This is the least we can do to help.]

  “…But what if you get caught? Won’t you be severely punished?”

  He shook his head before he scribbled on the next page to reassure her that they would make sure they didn’t get caught. Upon reading those words, she wondered if this was too good to be true. What if they were all deceiving her into trusting them so that they could backstab her ter? Thus, time proved that he wasn’t lying to her. She waited for the next meal time, and that same servant showed up with a basket of more food and drinks, as he had promised.

  Ever since then, Stel has had three proper meals a day and found things to do in her room to kill boredom. Initially, the servant would leave after Stel finished with her meal, but now he started to stay back to keep her company. Over time, the young alpha eventually warmed up to him, and they casually exchanged words with each other. Ever since she came here, this was the first time Stel was able to converse with someone freely and be herself. They had numerous lighthearted conversations every time the nameless servant brought meals and other things that Stel specifically requested.

  [I thought you said they were kittens! I fed them as you asked me, and I didn’t expect to see two snow leopard cubs instead.]

  “Hehe, my bad. Well, I’m gd that they’re still doing well.”

  Stel had a secret that she didn’t tell anyone, and that was about the snow leopard cubs that she encountered by accident within Chevalier’s grounds. The snow leopard was a native species and the symbol of Northnd, but it wasn’t common to find them around here because they predominantly lived at the high altitude of the snowcapped mountains. So, Stel believed these two cubs were stranded by their mother and accidentally wandered in here, which was coincidentally next to the snowy mountains.

  “Please don’t let others know about this. I’m afraid the Chevaliers would turn them into scarves if they found out…”

  [I promise I won’t tell a single soul.]

  “Thank you.”

  Despite snow leopards being Northnd’s treasure, it was inevitable there would be poaching due to the fwless beauty and quality of their fur. Stel was worried that if the Chevaliers found the snow leopard cubs, they might not keep them alive, so she skinned them for their fur. Stel told stories of how she had found them a couple of months ago and had been dropping by to give them food after her sword training. Thus, it was inevitable that she would give them a cute name to call them.

  “The bigger cub is Nix, and the smaller cub is Lux.”

  [Nix means snow, and Lux means light, am I correct? That’s a beautiful name.]

  “Hehe, thanks. Nix is a boy, and I assumed he’s the big brother of Lux, who’s a girl.”

  The nameless servant noticed how Stel was smiling much more when she talked about the two leopard cubs, and it made him smile along with her as well. They were the only source of her happiness and peace in this depressing pce.

  “The fact that both Nix and Lux allowed you to see them means that you truly have a good soul. I’m sorry that I didn’t tell you at the beginning because I want to test whether you’re trustworthy.”

  [What do you mean?]

  “If you don’t have a good heart and fail their test, then the snow leopards wouldn’t have shown up to let you see them to begin with.”

  The legends stated that the snow leopards of Northnd received a divine blessing to see through one’s soul, and it made them the perfect judge of character. No human could lie before the golden eyes of the snow leopard. As for Stel, it didn’t take long for the cubs to approach her after a few encounters, and she passed the test with flying colors. When she learned that the cubs appeared in front of the nameless servant, she was able to rest assured that she could trust him.

  “Truth be told, I was extremely wary of you at the beginning, and I’m sorry that I might’ve appeared rude to you.”

  He shook his head and scribbled on the empty page once again. He told Stel not to apologize, and she was right to be wary of him in the first pce because she shouldn’t trust anyone here, both the Chevaliers and the servants.

  “As my sincere apology and gratitude for your help, I have something for you.”

  Stel handed the servant a special protective charm she had made. Previously, she requested that the servant bring her some thick blue strings so that she could make a unique knot charm that her mother once taught her. As she owed this servant massively for saving her life through this predicament, the most she could do was make him a protective charm to ward off misfortunes.

  “My mother passed down the technique to make the Valens’ signature protective charm. I hope it will keep you safe and sound.”

  The servant froze for a moment before he gripped the charm and brought it closely to his heart. He began scribbling on the notebook and wrote down that he was extremely grateful for this gift and promised to treasure and cherish it with his life. Before she could respond to him, Stel heard a subtle sniffling noise, and that caught her off guard. She didn’t expect that a simple gift like this would make a man burst into tears like this.

  “Are you crying?”

  He shook his head in denial, and she could hear him sniffling even louder. He refused to acknowledge that he had teared up from Stel’s gift, and that made the young alpha let out a smile.

  “This pce must’ve treated you badly as well, hey? Hang in there, okay?”

  “…”

  “Promise me that you’ll leave this terrible pce when you can…and don’t be imprisoned like me. When you feel down, just look at me. They treated me like a prisoner and a mutt, but I never shed a single tear for them.”

  He remained silent as he sniffled even louder. It was clear as day he was crying underneath that thick dark cloak of his, and Stel saw a firm nod from him. That was more than enough to make her smile with relief. Even though she couldn’t leave here yet, Stel didn’t want to see another kindhearted person being crushed by the Chevaliers.

  “I’m gd you love the charm. Keep it close to yourself, and it will ward off all misfortunes.”

  He nodded once again, and that was the st day of her 3-week confinement period. This was the only happy memory that she ever had here at Chevalier’s manor. Even though she didn’t know his name, Stel was grateful that she was able to call him her friend. It saddened her slightly that she would never know who it was or whether he was still working in the manor or not. Part of her wished he would use the charm she gave, but it would be wisest if he didn’t. It was best not to know who it was because that’s the best way to protect his identity too.

  All that Stel could do was wish for his safety and freedom out of this prison.