However, Iris wasn't going to let him continue any longer. She climbed on top of her mother's upper body and shielded the unresponsive woman with her own fragile, tiny vessel.
"I see how it is… Fuck it all. You need to be taught a lesson in respect and order as well it seems!"
For the first time, he raised his fist against his once beloved daughter.
*Bam!*
Extreme amounts of pain shot through both me and Iris. Now this much hurt was also affecting me greatly, unlike before when she fell while whiffing her kick into the ball.
"Ah!" She gasped from the shock she received both due to the simple fact that her father truly hit her with so much strength, and also because this was the first time the young girl felt so much pain.
I could tell from our shared connection that she did her best to keep her lips shut, but she just couldn't do it. Fear and pain were overwhelming her entire existence. However, her cry helped Vernice return to consciousness who as soon as she opened her eyes was greeted by the contorted, teary features of her cherished child, and that was all her motherly instincts needed to take over.
She took Iris into her arms and curled up into a ball so that she could protect the little girl with her own body.
Thankfully Gilbert was just a lowly level 1 person, so he could only use his base stats, but for a fragile woman like Vernice that was more than enough to cause serious injuries. However, she didn't relent. Now that she had someone to protect, the woman knew she couldn't just give up and lose consciousness, thus she gritted her teeth and bore with the senseless assault of her abusive husband.
It took a few minutes for him to calm down. Iris was trembling from the overwhelming fear his father instilled in her. She never would've thought that her once kind father would be capable of such cruel acts.
"Do you know your place now?!" Gilbert shouted as he stood up from next to the beaten form of his wife, and walked somewhere. Within a few moments he was back and he poured a health potion on Vernice's ugly wounds.
"I- I'll do it…" Vernice whispered through the extreme pain she was enduring. "But you can't touch our daughter again, ever."
I couldn't believe what I was hearing.
…
The potion took effect and Vernice was rejuvenated within a week's time. Thankfully she suffered no serious wounds to her brain or other important organs. Read new chapters at
Iris was currently hiding behind a corner as she was intently listening in on the discussion taking place in the mon room where Vernice and Gilbert were entertaining three male guests.
"Is this truly okay…?" One of the men asked in a hushed tone.
"Yes. You've already received our written permission." Gilbert nodded.
"And we can even be rough…?" Another asked with great puzzlement in his tone.
"Yes, but you will have to pay the price of three high-tier healing potions as pensation." Iris' father replied once again.
"… Okay then, we accept! Here's the agreed amount." The third replied, and I could hear the clinking of coins.
…
From this point on, Vernice would be forced into prostituting herself at least once a day to anyone Gilbert deemed worthy - meaning they had enough coins to pay for her pany.
Iris didn't truly understand what her mother was doing behind closed doors with strange men who she had never seen before, but the young child understood that it was nothing good. That idea was further reinforced in her little head by seeing her mother's mental state deteriorate incredibly rapidly.
She'd contracted sexually transmitted diseases on the regular, at least once a week, but the recovery potions did their work. She'd also gotten pregnant, but of course, she wasn't allowed to give birth to the child. Gilbert forced her into miscarriage after miscarriage, after all, the clientele who would've been interested in a pregnant woman was much less than a regular trendy noblewoman. ṜἈΝꝊ฿Ęš
Gilbert had also learned his lesson from the other nobles and the mafia boss. He increased the taxes his subjects were forced to pay, and he spent a good portion of the money on establishing a respectable personal army. He now fully understood that the duke and other nobles weren't on his side; he was alone and only personal strength could get him what he wanted.
The peasants were naturally abhorring the new taxes, but with his budgeting, they were pretty much financing their own execution squad each time the dues were collected. Yes, whenever a dissident emerged, Gilbert would send his hit squad to deal with them and hold a public torture and execution session for all to see.
This private militia took up nearly all of his budget, but it was fine. With Vernice's extra ine, he could also continue living life the way he wanted to, which meant buying lots of liquor, holding parties with other nobles, and, of course, taking a peasant girl now and then from their homes and forcing them to be his concubines until he got bored of them, at which point they would either be sold off to a brothel, killed if they were beyond recovery from his own cruel administrations, or if he felt really magnanimous he would send them back to their families.
"Mother… How can I help…?" Iris asked with teary eyes. The woman in front of her was a husk of her former self. A lifeless, emotionless gaze stared back at the little girl.
I could feel the incredible sorrow envelop me just as it enveloped Iris. I couldn't help but pare the cheery image of the old Vernice in my mind with this one. She was a bright woman just like any of the women I consider important in my life, yet this happened to her, and if I were to remain weak, it could happen to any of them as well.
Is this what you want me to be prepared for, Soul Records?
Iris was being consumed by a great deal of sadness with every passing day. This kind of pain was entirely new to me. I couldn't cast [Earth Armor] to block any such injuries, neither could I ask Seraphiel to heal me. Truly, mental trauma was much harder to deal with than physical.
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