The Reason I Keep Avoiding My Childhood Friend

Chapter 21

I had thought of this as just an act to protect my future happiness, not a gesture of personal revenge, but I guessed that I had a lot more resentment accumulated against this person named Kirsec than I had thought. Now that I had gotten to slap him, I felt a rush of utmost exhilaration. I felt refreshed, like something that had been stuck in my throat had finally gone down. It seemed that, without knowing it, I had accumulated a lot of stress, enough to tie my insides into knots.

So along with my first time physically hitting someone, I also experienced an unprecedented moment of self-reflection.

This extraordinary action seemed to have shocked everyone, with even the maid’s cries petering out, and the drawing room was filled with silence.

Still, as expected of someone with his years experience, the old butler was the first to come to his senses.

“Young master Kirsec!”

At his desperate cry, the eyes of Kirsec, who had been stunned by the slap, began to refocus. Having been stuck trying to process the situation, he belatedly realized what had just happened.

As his head turned to look at me, a devil-like grimace that I had never seen before descended over his face.

“You, you dare to hit me?”

Kirsec huffed angrily as he glared at me, his eyes filled with a desire to tear me to shreds. This was a far more intense reaction than I had expected. His gaze drilling right into me set my heart pounding and made me feel I was about to pass out again.

“You are unforgivable! What are you doing, old man? Catch that girl immediately and whip her! Right now! Do it in front of me!”

This time as well, a merciless command emerged from Kirsec’s lips.

Could it be because of the instincts that had been ingrained in my mind and body from my previous life? I had to admit that, from the moment I met him, I was terrified of Kirsec. That’s why, even though he didn’t treat me didn’t treat me like a maid or a janitor, I always ran away from him preemptively. Because just standing in front of him frightened me. He naturally made me feel as nervous and intimidated as a sinner in front of a priest.

However, after hearing him immediately order someone to whip me after I had just slapped him in the face, I instead experienced the wonderful feeling of that fear simply fading away.

Without yielding to Kirsec’s fierce glare, I stared right back at him.

Just try me!

“Old man! Are you just going to stand there?”

Kirsec had to shout once more before the butler began to move.

The butler ordered the servants, who had been paralysed with shock as they were in the midst of capturing the maid, “What are you all doing! Grab that child immediately! She is your priority.”

Again, his attitude showed no hesitation, only obedience. It looks like I needed to convince him to stop.

While taking a step back from the servants approaching me, I boldly demanded, “Stop right there! If I am to be punished, then the punishment must come from the Grand Duke.”

If I had to pick who was the most powerful person in this mansion, then it would of course be the Grand Duke. Even though Kirsec was the son of the Grand Duke, as soon as the name of the Grand Duke was called upon, the servants had no choice but to halt their actions.

“Didn’t you hear me? I clearly told you to get that girl to kneel down in front of me!”

Not listening to a word I said, Kirsec stomped his feet in anger. However it wasn’t so easy for the servants to follow his orders. My dignified actions played a part in their hesitation.