1-4 The Facility
Upon returning to the mansion, I immediately lined up the orphans I had brought back in the garden and made a declaration:
“I am Selina, the duke’s daughter and your new master. From now on, you will only speak when spoken to. Though I am female, I will educate you far more strictly than any man. Therefore, when you address me, you must use ‘Sir’ before and after your words. Do you understand, you little worms?”
These words caused the six children to show shocked expressions. Moreover, none of them replied.
I chanted a spell, conjuring a fireball in my palm.
“Do you understand?”
“Sir, yes Sir!”
The six hurriedly responded. However, their voices were too quiet.
“What kind of voices are those? I can’t hear them in my heart. Perhaps if I roast you a bit, you’ll be able to croak with nice voices like toads?”
I made the flames flare up larger and turned my palm towards them.
“SIR, YES SIR!!”
The voices of the six echoed throughout the mansion’s garden. That’s more like it.
“If you can endure a long period of training, you may become my glorious servants. Your job description is simple: dedicate your lives to me. That’s all.
However, until you become servants, you are no better than pebbles. You are the lowest beings in the world. You are not human. You’re worth about as much as a speck of dog feces.
You may come to hate my harshness. But hating me means you’ve grown that much.
I am equally strict with everyone. Therefore, there is no discrimination here. Whether you’re an orphan, a prostitute’s daughter, or a nobleman’s son, I’ll treat you all equally. Why? Because no human other than myself has any value. You should consider yourselves lucky to be able to serve someone like me.
However, those who prove unworthy as servants must be eliminated. Elimination means death, and escape means a painful death. Do you understand, little worms?”
“SIR, YES SIR!!”
They shouted with strained faces, almost desperately.
In training these orphans, I’m referencing methods used to raise assassins.
Father’s confidant, who works in the shadows, had told me about this in detail beforehand. He appeared to be a kind-looking butler, but apparently, he was quite famous in certain circles.
When I begged him for these kinds of stories, he would tell me various things as if he were talking to his grandchild.
For example, it was this butler who taught me that they should always use the honorific “Sir,” which is typically used for men.
“You must always have them call their instructor ‘Sir.’ I won’t accept anything else,”
he had said dreamily. That’s why I’ve adopted the use of “Sir” as well.
He probably thought I was just a young lady with a keen curiosity. He surely never imagined that a young girl would actually put what she heard into practice.
That butler had served since my predecessor’s time, so he was quite elderly and had retired a short while ago. Therefore, there’s no one in this mansion now who understands that I’m trying to train my servants like assassins.
If that butler were here, he’d probably try to stop me, saying, “What nonsense are you up to?” However, I knew from my memories of my past life that he would retire, which is why I chose this timing to put my plan into action.
Thus, there’s no one to interfere with my plans. The household members probably think I’m just playing a cute little education game with my peers who are servant candidates.
Now, according to what I heard, the key to raising good assassins is to continuously shower them with verbal abuse and stress.
Of course, it’s not my true intention to throw such harsh words at ten-year-old children.
I don’t really want to do this. But sometimes, for a noble cause, one must steel one’s heart.
Why, I wonder, can’t I stop smiling?
Let’s go back a bit in time.
My father always used to say to me,
“I’ll buy you anything you want, okay?”
This was true in both my previous life and my current one.
In my previous life, I had him buy me various things like dresses, accessories, and artwork.
However, in this life, I haven’t really asked for much. When I died, I realized that things like clothes and jewels were ultimately meaningless.
“Without power, you can’t survive.” That’s the truth.
It’s not that money is unnecessary. In fact, it’s more necessary than in my previous life.
According to what I heard from that butler, it seems that special facilities are needed to train assassins.
Apparently, you need all sorts of things like huge log obstacles, difficult-to-traverse swamps, sheer cliff faces, and so on.
However, while our duke’s garden is vast, it obviously doesn’t have such things. If we don’t have them, we have to build them.
So I consulted my father.
“To educate the servants I’m bringing next time, I’d like to build some things in the garden. Would that be alright? It might cost a bit of money though…”
My father laughed and agreed.
“Don’t worry about the money. Do as you like.”
What a kind father.
— So I got his word. I immediately invited construction workers and laborers, and instructed them on what to build.
“Um, young lady. I think this vertical, large ladder-like structure is too high. If someone falls, they might die…”
A worker nervously asked.
“It’s their fault if they fall. Don’t worry about it.”
“If we make the mud pool as instructed, it’ll be too deep and become a bottomless swamp. People might sink completely…”
“They just need to cross it before they sink. It’s not a problem.”
“If we make a rock mountain with rocks this size, if a rockslide occurs, people might be crushed without a trace…”
“We don’t need slowpokes who can’t avoid falling rocks. It’s perfect.”
As a result of such constructive discussions, the training facility for the servants was completed.
Log obstacles consisting of sky-high ladders, a swamp where you’d never resurface if you sank, a huge rock mountain made of countless piled rocks, and so on. It really cost a lot of money. I’m so glad my father is rich.
“…Selina, you have quite an unusual way of spending money, don’t you?”
My father’s cheek twitched as he smiled, looking at the bill that arrived later.
READ THE ORIGINAL TRANSLATION AT GADGETIZEDPANDA.COM
Actually, that butler had slightly exaggerated when he told Selina about the training facility. It wasn’t really that elaborate, but he had embellished the story to make it more interesting.
However, Selina thought, “Then I’ll make something even more amazing,” and designed something even more scaled up than what she had heard.
The result was an inhumane theme park with [malice] as its concept.
“I made this for you all!”
Selina revealed the training facility she had produced to the orphans with a beaming face.
They stared blankly at the numerous gigantic and vicious obstacles.
(Surely she doesn’t expect us to challenge this?)
The orphans’ expressions told this story. Only Emma, who liked physical activities, looked happy.
“Well then, let’s start by having you climb the ladder.”
Selina pointed at a particularly prominent giant ladder made of logs. It was clear that falling from the top would result in more than just broken bones.
“Ma’am, has anyone ever climbed that enormous ladder that looks like someone started building it to reach the moon but stopped halfway, ma’am?”
Oscar couldn’t help but ask. He wanted to confirm if it was actually something humans could climb. Preferably, he wanted to check its safety too.
“No. You’ll be the first.”
The answer was merciless.
And so, their hell began.
The orphans fell one after another to Selina’s hellish obstacles.
Most of them became immobilized halfway up the log ladder due to its extreme height, and even those who overcame it quietly sank into the swamp. Only Emma managed to reach the sheer cliff face, but she ended up slipping while climbing.
It’s a wonder there were no fatalities.
Selina pondered.
(The success rate is too low. I wonder what’s wrong? Their basic physical strength?)
Selina, who never thought she could be at fault, didn’t consider that the difficulty might be inappropriate. So she concluded that “the orphans were too inexperienced to use the training facility” and decided to start with training to build basic physical strength.
The orphans were genuinely relieved when Selina said, “To build basic physical strength, we’ll start with running,” but they still didn’t fully understand what kind of person their master was.
For a while, the training facility was left unused, but interestingly, the duke’s servants became curious about it. They tried challenging it for fun, but there was a string of serious injuries that were no laughing matter. They say they truly sympathized with the orphans.
TLNOTE : While waiting, I implore you dear readers to read other masterpiece novels that also written by the same author :
- When the Monster Meat I Ate Led Me to the Throne
- Who killed the Hero?
- The Suspects of Necromancy
- The Exiled Merchant Saves the World with the Power of Gold (translated by my friend meerkat)
Also check out my friend Localizermeerkat for more LN translations!
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