Chapter 6 – A Pitiful State
Her eyes swept around the room scanning it for a kettle of water. They landed on a little jar that lay on the side on a table.
She felt relieved as she went to it in order to dampen her handkerchief with it. As she got closer, a nasty smell became known, which made her crumple her nose from disgust.
She was no longer surprised about how ill Hir has become. In this room it was only a matter of time before anyone became ill. It was possible that Hir’s room was part of a warehouse, due to how old and battered it was. Despite the smell she went ahead to pick up the kettle and poured the water over her handkerchief.
“Oh, Lord.”
Instead of clear, clean water, terrible, grimmy black water spilled out. It was a color that one would recognise from seeing it near the sewer.
No way I must be hallucinating.
Lila lifted the lid of the kettle with a trembling hand and a disgusted face. Inside the kettle was rotten, spoiled water, if it could even be called that. It seems like she had found the source of the room’s revolting smell.
“Hir, did you … did you drink this water?”
“Yes … Sorry. I’m so sorry. I thought I was allowed to drink it-”
“No, not that, and I told you not to apologize to me I’m obviously not angry at you.”
Oh my Goodness!? shouldn’t he at least get to drink clean water? How could someone not let him not drink some normal water?
The abuse was even more clear, now that she had seen it first-hand. It was not described as this serious in the novel. She could not believe that he was apologizing for a problem that previous her must have caused anyways, this was wrong in every perspective.
She must’ve been crazy! Cold-blooded with no shame or pity!
Lila bit her lip. I have to try and fix this! She thought. She started by opening the windows and dumping all the murky water from the kettle outside. As soon as the last drop fell to the ground the maid returned with what appeared to be a small bowl in her hands.
“Here, I brought you some soup.”
“Oh, you can give that to me.”
“A-are you going to feed him yourself?”
“Yes.”
“N-no you cannot!”
“Huh? Why not?”
“Well, about that … Y-you might burn your hands. I-I’ll do it!”
“Give it to me.”
While she was handing her the bowl another smell was made clear, as if her nose hadn’t had enough. It was a pungent fishy smell that she may or may not have smelt this kind of smell in a pig pen.
No way. Don’t tell me this too…
Lila prayed inwardly and slowly looked inside the covered soup bowl, eyes anxious.
Unfortunately, her prediction was on-spot.
The soup. Which too was undeserving of such a label No, was just a mixture of food waste. She couldn’t even identify most of the things inside. It was almost like she was looking at a bowl of muddy garbage. truely a horrible scene. Even a starving animal wouldn’t eat this kind of food.
“What is this??”
“What? Som-someone … someone must have made a mistake in the kitchen-”
“Huh?! what mistake?!” Lila snorted and snatched the bowl from the maid’s hand roughly. She sent the bowl down the same way that the spoiled water was sent, out of the still open window.
CLINK, CRASH!
The sound of shattering glass didn’t even phase Lila’s posture. As if it never even happened. She turned around with anger clear as day in her violet eyes.
“This is not food that human beings eat!”
*
Footsteps echoed in the hallway, as the maid hurried over with a hot bowl of soup in hand towards Hir’s room. This time the contents of the bowl seemed edible, possibly even delicious.
“Could you hand it over to me please?”
“He-here you go!”
Lila received the soup without any change in her expression. She held the soup in one hand and gestured with the other issuing another command before reaching Hir. “Oh, and bring some warm water.”
“Right away, my lady!”
It seemed the maid’s pace could not be any quicker, however, she surprised Lila once again with her agility- she was gone before she knew it. Lila continued towards the bed in the corner where Hir sat in a slump.
“It would be best if you take some medicine and rest after having the soup with some warm water. With that, you’ll get better,” she said, trying to put a warm smile on her face. Something Hir found very unusual.
“Ye- yes.” He mumbled in reply.
Lila picked up from the expression on his face and the trembling of his body that Hir was still trying to piece together the contrast in treatment. He was clearly still on the edge, this made Lila sigh inwardly again. I wish I had gotten into Mrs. Marshmell’s body before she had taken off her angelic mask.
However, she knew that there was nothing she could do about it at this point, so she thought it was best to accept things as they were and go with the flow. Besides, such things took time to change anyway.
“Here’s some warm water!” The maid rushed in, sweat evident on her forehead.
Hir had barely gulped down a few spoonfuls of soup when a small, yellow children’s cup appeared before him. After confirming that the water was clean and drinkable, Lila once again ordered the maid: “Get some good medicine for colds. Something a child can consume.”
“What? I-I’m sorry but we don’t have any such medicine here.”
The maid’s words could have easily been true, Mrs. Marshmell had basically been neglecting Hir’s existence until now. The child didn’t even have water to drink. There was no way there would be any kind of children’s medicine in this mansion.
“So?” Despite being fully aware of the situation, Lila did not back down. “It doesn’t matter if we don’t have it, you can get it from somewhere right? Are you complaining to me?”