Come Home

Raymond adjusted his tie as he saw the sun rise from the window of his room at the Outhouse. Lloyd had offered him a room inside the main main mansion when he first arrived there. But Raymond refused.

Instead he chose to live in the small outhouse behind the mansion.

He never accepted anything other than his salary from the Marquis.

He ate what the servants ate and dressed as the servants did.

The majority of his payment went to orphanages for donations.

From the last two months since Frank had arrived, Raymond's remaining salary that he had been saving, all went to the bank in Frank's name.

But what was it all for?

Why did he choose to live such a meagre life?

It was all to stay beside Lloyd. If Raymond gained his own resources, he knew Lloyd wouldn't let him be his servant anymore.

That was the kind of person Lloyd was. Instinctively knowing what the other person wanted.

Lloyd found Raymond during his first battle against the rebels of Frechenare. Raymond was held there as a slave from a foreign country.

It was the country of ice and gold, Lorath. Lorath was infamous for its gold mines and wealthy families. No one from Lorath suffered from hunger and poverty. Even the poorest of the poor lived better than the low level nobles of Alkezar.

Yet, there was this child, barely any older than Lloyd himself at the time, shivering inside a prison cell. He had no clothes on him. Just a rag to make failed attempts of escaping the cold in that basement.

His skin was the fairest and rosiest Lloyd had ever seen before. They said that the people of Lorath had elf blood in their genes. Which made them incredibly beautiful.

Lloyd couldn't agree more that they were beautiful.

But for the shivering child in front of him in that prison cell, that beauty came as a curse.

Bite marks all over his body, tattered lips from repetitive rubbing and worse of all, his torn out bottom filled with slimy liquid slowly bleeding him to death.

Those rebels weren't human in any way. They just did that to a child who was merely 13 years old.

Abused in every way possible, that child was nothing like a human. It was like a beast who was hiding from everything because he was hurt so much.

Lloyd didn't pay attention to the child's feral behaviour as he bit him on the arms that he lent out to carry him away from that hell.

It took two years for that wounded beast to become human again. Raymond still sometimes dreamt about those days in the prison cell. At that time they has truly felt like they would only end if he died.

Those men that kept coming, one after the another with no end, still haunted his dreams.

As he told Lloyd after coming to his senses, his father, a baron in Lorath, sold him off to the rebels for a fortune just because he happened to catch the fancy of them.

From the day Raymond was taken to that prison cell, crying and screaming, he was trapped there for three years. That meant he was sold off when he was just 10.

They tore off his clothes never to cover him again. There was no need to. They just gave him enough food so he won't die. They splashed him with cold water once a week calling it bathing him.

But the worst part was the abuse. In the beginning it was just two or three men who came together taking turns to have their way with him. But the numbers slowly increased.

Five, then ten, then twenty, forty... at some point, Raymond stopped counting. Soon it became that all he could remember was something being pushed into him whether it was morning or night. The spectators scared him for the first few months, but he soon realized that they were just more men waiting for their turn.

Every corner of his body was sullied. It was like it didn't belong to him anymore.

After one year, tears stopped coming from his eyes. He couldn't eat solid food anymore. Nor could he feel pain from his tattered and ripped flesh.

All he could feel was that it was cold. As his sense of time collapsed, so did his consciousness. Had it not, he wouldn't have survived the two more years of that hell that was awaiting him.

Then he saw Lloyd. Inside that grand mansion. It was like he had pulled Raymond up from the depths of that prison cell all the way up to this mansion. And all he had to do was keep holding that warm to remain there.

As he looked in the mirror, Raymond looked at the new golden glasses Lady Fallon had gifted him. He took them off.

He was aware that Lady Fallon held affection for him that's why she repeatedly called him to her side.

He scoffed.

"How could I ever come to you, my Lady?" Raymond said as tears dripped from his eyes.

"I feel as if I'd fall back into that prison if I'm not by my Lord's side."

He wiped his tears and put on his glasses again.

He walked out of his house and reached the horse near the main gate stables.

Today was the day he had promised to meet lady Fallon.

"Constance is leaving no chance to win you over, is she?" Lloyd said as he stood leaning against a tree outside stable.

"Don't fight with me and give my lady her chances then, my Lord," Raymond said as he mounted on top of a horse.

"Come back home, Raymond," Lloyd said with a pleading smile. "Let's drink the wine I hid away all night."

Raymond felt his heart melt and set at ease. That was his Lord. Always coming back first to make amends.

"I think today I might say yes to lady Fallon," Raymond said teasingly. "So keep that wine hidden."

"What?!" Lloyd yelled as he blushed at being caught off guard. "You're coming back and that's final! I won't take no for an answer! You heard that."

Raymond laughed. So dearly that Lloyd fell silent.

And he left the estate laughing as if he didn't have a single worry over his mind.