So what did Maya do instead?
She found a way to hurt Heena that would appear completely virtuous and beyond criticism.
It was announced that the Master, due to his injuries, needed to eat only easily digestible watery foods—thin congees, light broths, nothing heavy or difficult to process.
And Maya, being such a devoted and loving wife, declared that she would personally fast and pray for her husband’s swift recovery.
Furthermore, she ordered that all food prepared in the household kitchen must be vegetarian—no at, no rich foods, nothing indulgent—as a show of pious restraint during this difficult ti.
And she would personally oversee all the cooking herself to ensure everything t her exacting standards.
The real problem with all of this? Heena.
Because if Maya was controlling all the food preparation, Heena knew she would never actually get to eat anything.
Maya would "accidentally" run out of ingredients before making servant portions. She would "forget" to set aside food for the help. She would claim everything had been used up for the Master’s special diet.
And without food, Heena couldn’t maintain her physical strength to do the brutal manual labor required of her.
’Damn it. This bitch is smarter than I gave her credit for.’
.
.
The next day arrived, and Heena’s fears were imdiately confird.
As soon as she ca back from her early morning trip to fetch water from the river—exhausted, sweating, her neck and shoulders aching—she found that damn woman already in the kitchen.
Maya had spread out an absurd number of cooking utensils and implents across every available surface, creating complete chaos for no apparent reason other than to establish dominance over the space.
She looked up as Heena entered, and a small, satisfied smile flashed across her face.
She was already in the process of cooking, various pots bubbling on the stove.
"Just get out of here," Maya said dismissively without even looking at Heena properly. "I will handle all the cooking for the Master and the household. You’re not needed."
Hearing that cold dismissal, Heena clenched her fists at her sides but forced herself to bow respectfully.
"Yes, Madam."
With that, she set down the water pots she’d carried and left the kitchen.
’Damn, I’m so hungry already.’
She touched her stomach, which was growling audibly despite the early hour.
Heena had a particular problem with fasting. If she decided on her own to fast—if it was her choice, her decision, her control—she could go two or three days without food and barely feel uncomfortable.
Fasting itself wasn’t a big deal when she was in control of it.
But the problem was, if soone else FORCED her to fast, if the deprivation was imposed on her against her will, Heena beca exponentially more hungry. It was a psychological response she’d never been able to fully control.
It was only four in the morning, and she was already starving.
’This is going to be a problem.’
But there was nothing she could do about it right now, so she started on her other assigned work—cleaning floors, organizing storage areas, preparing laundry.
Soon it was seven in the morning. Heena had been working non-stop—washing clothes at the river, scrubbing floors, cleaning chamber pots, all the usual backbreaking labor.
By ten in the morning, she was desperately hungry and hoping that maybe, just maybe, Maya would have left so small amount of food available for the servants.
She returned to the kitchen—
And found it completely, utterly wrecked.
Cooking utensils were thrown everywhere in chaotic disarray. Pots and pans were stacked haphazardly. The entire space looked like a tornado had torn through it.
Heena looked around desperately for any leftover food.
Nothing.
Not a single grain of rice. Not one vegetable scrap. Not even a piece of burnt crust from the bottom of a cooking pot.
That bitch Maya had scraped out every last drop of food—given it all to the family or possibly thrown it away deliberately.
Heena checked the food storage areas.
Empty. Completely empty.
No rice left to cook. No vegetables. No dried goods. Nothing.
Maya had deliberately used up or hidden away every edible thing in the entire kitchen, making it impossible for Heena to prepare anything for herself even if she’d wanted to.
’She did this on purpose. Absolutely, deliberately on purpose.’
Heena felt rage building in her chest, but she forced herself to take deep breaths and stay calm.
Getting angry wouldn’t solve the imdiate problem of needing food.
The System appeared beside her, looking equally frustrated.
"Host, this is really bad. You need to eat to maintain your strength!"
Heena nodded grimly. "I know. Let’s go to the mountain behind the village. I’ll gather so wild foods—edible plants, maybe mushrooms, whatever I can find."
She grabbed a basket and headed out to the forested mountain area where villagers typically gathered wild foods and firewood.
But as soon as she arrived, she encountered yet another problem.
The usually abundant foraging areas were completely picked clean.
There were people everywhere—far more than usual—all desperately searching for edible wild plants, mushrooms, berries, anything they could find.
It seed like half the village had decided to co foraging today, probably because their own food supplies were running low as sumr approached the lean season before harvest.
Heena walked through the familiar paths, checking the spots where she’d previously found good foraging.
That tree that had been laden with fruit just a few days ago? Completely stripped bare. Not a single piece of fruit remained.
She searched around the undergrowth for edible plants and mushrooms.
Nothing. Everything had already been harvested by earlier arrivals.
And the problem with this particular mountain area, unlike so wilder regions, was that you couldn’t find ga animals to hunt.
In this village, there were many experienced hunters who regularly patrolled these forests, so most of the wildlife had been hunted out or driven away to more remote areas.
You couldn’t just catch a rabbit or bird and cook it over a fire like in survival stories.
Heena spent hours searching, growing more exhausted and hungry by the minute, and found absolutely nothing edible.
Finally, as the afternoon sun beat down rcilessly, she had to admit defeat.
She returned to the household empty-handed, her stomach cramping with hunger, her head starting to ache from lack of food and too much physical exertion.
The System looked at her with genuine concern.
"Host, this is really dangerous. You can’t work like this without eating. Your body will start breaking down."
Heena knew he was right.
But what choice did she have?
She couldn’t steal food from the family’s stores—that would give Maya exactly the excuse she needed to have Heena beaten or expelled.
She couldn’t buy food because servants weren’t paid in money, only given room and board.
She couldn’t forage because the mountain was picked clean.
She was trapped.
’This is exactly what Maya wanted,’ Heena realized with cold clarity. ’She can’t attack directly, so she’s using starvation. Making it impossible for to eat while maintaining her virtuous image of a devoted wife fasting for her husband’s health.’
’It’s actually quite clever, in a vicious sort of way.’
Heena returned to the household and chanically continued her work, but she could feel her energy flagging with each hour that passed.
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