The Dialectic of Master and Slave - Chapter 63
Jaha contemplated her options. Even a three-year-old child would know that mentioning Cedric’s name here would bring nothing good.
What if she just said it was for a fellow slave?
Surely the Emperor of the Empire wouldn’t bother to learn the name of some lowly slave.
In fact, he had violated Jaha for months without even knowing her name. What did it matter if the device that punches metal into paper was called a stapler or a Hochkiss? As long as it fastened documents properly. If it didn’t interfere with its use, names of objects wouldn’t matter to him at all.
But what if, by some chance, he asked who specifically?
Jaha had no particular friendships with slaves in the main palace. There had been no opportunity to interact. One makes acquaintances and holds conversations through shared work, but Jaha was on standby, required to go whenever the Emperor called, and thus wasn’t assigned separate labor. Nor could she mention the library slaves from Langjev Palace with whom she’d lost contact.
Could she just name any random slave?
Surely the position of Emperor wasn’t so idle as to verify the truth of such a trivial matter. But making a lie that could be easily exposed if the Emperor decided to check was too dangerous a gamble. In this world, lying to the Emperor could cost one’s head.
As Jaha hesitated to speak, the Emperor looked down at her and curled his lips upward.
“Were you intending to present it to me?”
He had his reasons for reaching this conclusion. If it was meant for someone else, she wouldn’t have brought it when coming to meet him. Moreover, slaves couldn’t own private property, so anything made by a slave rightfully belonged to the master. By any logic, this soap had to be his.
It was a complete misunderstanding, but even to Jaha’s ears, his misconception had some validity. Though she was astounded by his egocentric thinking, she had no reason not to go along with it.
Suppressing her discomfort, Jaha barely managed to play along.
“Yes.”
“To think you’d have the audacity to present such an unsightly object to me.”
The Emperor muttered in apparent disbelief as he turned the soap this way and that.
Suddenly becoming the foolish slave who ignorantly tried to offer soap to an Emperor who only used the finest products, Jaha was overcome with shame.
To be misunderstood in such an absurd way by someone she wouldn’t give even a bean to. The unpleasantness made her stomach churn.
With her head bowed, Jaha couldn’t see the smile spreading across the Emperor’s face.
Contrary to his reproachful tone, he was experiencing a strange elation.
She made this for me?
He wanted to appear indifferent but couldn’t stop the corners of his mouth from turning upward.
If someone else had presented a similar item, his reaction would have been quite different. He might have even considered it an insult and been displeased.
It was a clear double standard.
Though he hadn’t fully realized it, the criteria he applied to Jaha had long been different from what he applied to others. Only Jaha existed outside the mechanism that applied equally to all people in the world.
Fiddling with the unremarkable soap, he felt something tickling his chest.
It wasn’t just that he found it commendable, but something more… he wanted to cherish her more. As he remained in this uncharacteristically soft state, a question suddenly flashed through his mind.
“Where do you bathe? Not when you come here, but normally.”
Jaha couldn’t guess the Emperor’s intention behind this abrupt question.
“There is a place where slaves wash themselves. I bathe there.”
“Are there partitions? Is it set up for one person at a time?”
“No. It’s an open space, and everyone bathes together regardless of gender.”
At Jaha’s matter-of-fact answer, the Emperor felt as if a thousand fires were raging inside him.
An open space?
She bathes with male slaves?
Other men have seen this one’s naked body?
The blood circulating through his entire body turned ice cold. He wanted to gouge out the eyes and sear the brains of every slave who had entered that space.
To suppress the surging impulse, he gritted his teeth so hard they made a grinding sound. Forcibly relaxing his jaw, which had tensed up, he spoke as casually as possible.
“I’ll provide you with a private bath.”
Jaha was struck speechless by the sudden offer.
Hilale
Jealousy 😂😂😂