He led me out of the throne room door, into a dark corridor with dim lighting, very different from the grand corridors the others had passed through.
We moved past a noisy kitchen full of rushing servants, then a laundry room thick with steam and the sharp scent of detergent, until we finally reached a small, shabby building behind the palace.
"This is the barracks for the low-ranking servants." he said with disgust.
"You can sleep there. A servant will bring you food later, don't bother the heroes with your presence."
The door slammed shut, leaving me alone in the dark, dusty room. All I had was a thin straw mattress, a rotting wooden table, and a small window facing the stables. The stench of animal dung drifted in, sharp enough to make my nose sting.
I took off my shoes and slumped onto the bed, holding back my sobs.
My first night in this new world, and my fate hadn't changed.
I was still Vira the useless…
Vira the trash…
Vira who deserved to be ostracized…
Hunger began to gnaw at my stomach, reminding me that I'd only eaten a small plate of rice that morning, before leaving for school.
The hunger grew even stronger. Hours passed, and just as the sun began to set, an old woman servant finally arrived with some food.
She placed a piece of hard bread and a glass of murky water on the wooden table. "This is your food. Tomorrow morning, you must be up before sunrise. There's plenty of work waiting for you."
"Sorry, is... is this all—"
Before I could finish my sentence, the old servant had already turned away and disappeared, leaving me alone with a piece of bread and a glass of water that wasn't enough to ease my hunger.
I sighed in resignation.
"At least there's something I can eat" I mumbled to myself while reaching out to take the bread.
But before I could touch the bread, two other servants suddenly appeared at the doorway, smirking at me
"Well, well, what do we see here?" said a large built male servant with a sneering smile.
"The talentless one already got his food ration, huh?"
And the red-haired woman, approached with leisurely steps.
"Wait a moment, Leo. It seems she isn't hungry enough to eat such delicious bread yet."
Without warning, she shoved my shoulder hard, sending me crashing to the floor.
"Ouch...!" I cried out reflexively, a sharp pain spreading from my elbow and back that had hit the floor.
The red-haired woman just smirked, looking at me like I was something disgusting.
"Look? She can't even stand properly."
Leo, a large-built male servant, snatched the bread off my table. "Exactly, Mira. What do you think she should do to get this food back?"
Mira pretended to think.
"Hmm… maybe she should entertain us first. I heard people from her world know plenty of strange dances. Show us your dance, little girl."
My whole body ached from Mira's earlier shove, but the hunger twisting inside me was far worse.
"Please… give the bread back." my voice trembled weakly, fists clenched at my sides to suppress the shaking.
"I'm so hungry... That bread is the only food I have..." Tears began to well up in my eyes, but I prevented them from falling.
"HAHAHA! Hear that, Mira?" Leo laughed loudly.
"She thinks whining will make us pity her!"
With my body still in pain, I tried to get up from the floor. But before I could stand, Mira was already approaching me.
She bent down, shoved my shoulder until I fell again and was forced to kneel before her. Her face came so close that her breath almost touched my skin.
"Listen carefully, little girl," she hissed, her eyes narrowing full of threat. "In this palace, we have an unwritten rule. The weak must entertain the strong. Now, DANCE!"
"I... I can't dance," I whispered, my voice shaking as I instinctively leaned back.
"I don't care!" Leo shouted.
"We want entertainment. So dance!"
Tears blurred my vision.
"Please... I can do other things. Clean your shoes, or—"
Mira cut me off with a sharp, irritated click of her tongue. "We said dance! Make that pathetic body move!"
With a shattered feeling and a body still throbbing with pain, I slowly rose and began moving awkwardly. My hands trembled, and my feet felt stiff.
"HAHAHAHA, SHE MOVES LIKE A SICK OLD WOMAN!" shouted Leo while laughing.
Mira added, "No! SHE'S MORE LIKE AN ELECTROCUTED CAT, HAHAHAHA!"
"When else can we mess with an hero?" Leo taunted.
"Though she's not really a hero, because she's TALENTLESS! HAHAHA!" continued Leo, his insults growing harsher with each word.
Why…?
Why is my fate always the same no matter the world?
Before, back in school, people looked down on me because I came from a poor family.
Now, in an entirely different world, nothing has changed. I'm mocked for being talentless.
It's as if the universe is determined to prove that I don't deserve to belong anywhere.
Every time I think maybe this time will be different, but the reality is always the same.
Is it really impossible for me to find a place where I can feel enough? Where I don't need to feel ashamed of being myself?
Or maybe... there really is no place for someone like me?
And just when I thought this torture would soon end, a bitter reality came approaching.
After a while of dancing in humiliation with a trembling body and shattered feelings, Leo threw the bread onto the dirty floor.
"HERE! NOW EAT! BUT REMEMBER, YOU HAVE TO CRAWL LIKE A DOG FIRST!"
Hearing that, my breath caught in my throat. Should I do this?
Should I really crawl just for a piece of bread that's no longer even fit to eat?
The hunger screamed at me to surrender, while my dignity begged me to remain standing.
I trembled, torn between fear and suffocating shame.
I looked at the bread that was now dusty and dirty, then looked at their scornful gazes.
"Bu–but..." my voice broke, almost inaudible.
"But the bread is dirty... and do I still have to crawl?" I said while holding back tears.
Mira's smile widened, cold. "Yes. You have to crawl if you want to eat,"
she said, each word like a nail piercing.
"If not... well then. You can starve to death. As for the dirty bread, that's your own problem."
In the end, I gave up my pride because my empty stomach left me no choice.
With tears I could no longer hold back, I crawled toward the bread. My knees scraped against the rough floor, leaving a stinging pain that strangely wasn't as bad as the pain in my heart. Every movement felt like testing the remnants of my remaining dignity.
I knew I had no other choice. Hunger and despair held me in place, like invisible chains forcing my body to submit. My dignity screamed to stop, but my empty stomach forced me to keep moving.
I just wanted to eat...
Why did even that become entertainment for them?
"LOOK! SHE'S ACTUALLY DOING IT!" Cheered Leo, as if my suffering was evening entertainment for them.
Just as my hand reached for the bread, Mira's shoe came down on it
"A-akkhh—!! please stop" I cried out.
The pain was sudden and sharp, stopping my breath.
The sound of small bones in my hand creaked faintly under her pressure.
I grimaced, my tears falling more heavily.
Why...? Why even just to fill my stomach do I have to be humiliated like this?
Do I really deserve to be treated like an animal...
"Wait," she said softly but frighteningly, her lips curling into a smirk.
"You forgot something..."
Mira's shoe was still pressing on my hand. The pressure didn't lessen, it actually grew heavier, as if every word she spoke added weight to my hand, sending waves of pain through my arm.
I grimaced, my voice breaking between sobs, "A-akhh— it hurts... please stop..."
But she didn't care.
Instead, she bent closer, her face inches from mine, and her hair brushing my cheek.
A thin smile formed on her lips, a smile that made my blood feel like it was freezing.
With increasing pressure on my hand, she said loudly, her voice cold and cruel.
"Now say 'I AM A WORTHLESS TRASH'!"
My breath hitched. My lips trembled.
"I... I am..." The words stuck in my throat. I looked down, biting my lip, trying not to utter those words.
I'm not trash… I'm not…
Mira saw me remaining silent. Her eyebrow raised, her smile faded into a thin line. Without warning, she pressed her shoe harder onto my hand. The pain immediately struck like electricity, making my body tense and my back arch spontaneously.
"Aaaaghh...!" I screamed, my tears streaming down. A mix of heat and sharp pain merged, making my fingers go numb.
"Louder!" shouted Leo from behind Mira, his voice like a cheer in an arena.
"Say it. Quickly!" Mira ordered, still pressing her foot harshly on my hand.
I bit my lip again, trying to hold back the screams. But the pressure kept increasing, and every second felt like my bones would break.
I can't take it... I can't take it anymore...
Finally, my lips moved on their own, my voice breaking in a scream.
"I AM A WORTHLESS TRASH!"
Mira lifted her foot. "HERE! NOW EAT, TRASH!"
"Goodbye, TALENTLESS Hero! HAHAHA!" Leo laughed, walking out of the room with Mira.
With a hand still trembling and throbbing with pain, I grabbed the bread. Every movement of my fingers felt like being sliced with hot needles, the remnants of Mira's step still burning on my skin.
But I still took the bread, even as my tears continued to stream down my cheeks.
My hand shook, a persistent pain throbbing in my bruised and reddened fingers as I clutched the bread. It was even hard to hold, as if all the strength had been drained away.
I sat on the floor, the bread still clutched in my throbbing hand. The pain seemed to beat in rhythm with my own heartbeat.
This world turned out to be crueler than Earth…
I stared at the bread for a long time, the bread was full of dust, and a little dirt stain on its edge.
With a trembling hand, I tried to blow on it softly, trying to clean it as best I could. Dust particles flew away, but some remained stuck.
I wiped it with the edge of my already dirty uniform, hoping it would be at least a little cleaner... even though I knew it was futile.
Tears fell again. Whether from the pain in my hand, or because I realized how low I had become, that I was still trying to save this dirty bread as if it were something valuable.
Finally, with nearly shattered courage, I put the bread into my mouth.
Dust grains grated between my teeth, leaving a bitter taste that wasn't easy to get rid of. But that taste was nothing compared to the humiliation I swallowed along with it. Every bite felt like stabbing my own heart, not my stomach.
At school, even though I was often a target of physical and mental bullying, I could still endure it. But here… they dared to take the only food I had and forced me to humiliate myself just to get it back.
I finished the bread with an empty feeling, then returned to the straw bed. Outside, the large purple moon seemed to gaze at me with pity.
"Why?" I whispered into the darkness.
"What did I do wrong? Why in every world, I always become the outcast?"
There was no answer, only torturous loneliness.
My hand, still aching, tightened around the edge of the rough blanket. Each squeeze sent a throbbing pain shooting from my wrist to the tips of my fingers, but I didn't care.
That pain was like the only thing that still made me aware that I wasn't completely dead yet.
I remember every time I came home from school with puffy eyes, Mom would always say,
'My dear Vira, you must be patient. One day all of this will end.'
Mom's voice seemed to echo in my head, soft yet distant.
I bit my lip, holding back the tightness in my chest. "But, Mom... in this new world, everything has become even worse..."
I stared at my right hand, which was bruised and red, the remnants of that step hadn't faded. The pain seemed to answer my words, telling me that even pain had followed me to this world.
Exhaustion and despair finally defeated me. My eyes grew heavier, and slowly I fell asleep with tears still wetting my cheeks, hoping tomorrow would bring change.
Even though, deep down, I knew that hope might be nothing more than an illusion.