"Are you dismissing me, sir?" she whispered so quietly I could barely hear it.

"I suppose you could call it that, yes. Why? Do you need to formally ask me or something?" I asked as I closed the closet.

"They would want to know, yes," she said quietly, her voice shaking.

Not knowing what to do, I sat down a respectable distance from her and asked, "I assumed you wouldn't be happy if you were forced into it, so what's wrong?"

"I.... This was my chance to not become a plaything prostitute... because if you had expressed that you wanted to keep me, I'd be required to stay by you and not.... I'm sorry, I spoke too much," she said as small tears started to form as she seemingly regretted what she said.

"No, no, it's-"

"I'm sorry, please forgive me. I was cruel and should never have spoken such a manipulative thing out loud. Please forgive me, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry-"

She had gotten off the bed and was now on the floor bowing to me while repeating the same words over and over again. I had no clue what to do in this situation. I wanted her to stop but it was like she couldn't hear me, or rather, probably trying not to hear me. It's fear that drove her to do this despite my attempts to seem like a half decent person, even if I'm not. I can only assume that I'm not the one that made her afraid, but somebody else.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I was rude, I won't do it again, I swear, I'm sorry-"

"It's alright, it doesn't matter if you just want to explain what I asked you to. Calm down, if you don't want to go back, you can stay here while I work on some papers. I can have food delivered if you want some since you look like you need food," I said as I got down next to her and put a cautious hand on her back to try to calm her down.

"You don't need to do that," she said, still bowing.

"I insist. Come up here and lie down. I'll ask for food for the both of us, alright," I said as I managed to pull her off her knees. Her tear stained face made me feel sad, and all I wanted to do that this moment was to get her to stop crying.

"I'll be perfectly happy just sitting here, you don't need to," she said as she sat on the blankets as I went to my desk to get a dark blue handkerchief which I wet with water.

"Honestly dear, I don't believe you with a second with how happy you looked that the mention of food. Here, I'm assuming you don't want to lie down with all that on," I said as I offered the cloth to wipe off the makeup that had been messed up slightly by her tears.

"Thank you, sir. I'm eternally grateful," she said as she took the wet cloth and wiped off the makeup.

"I consider this basic human decency, so don't bother thanking me for this," I responded before I walked out of the room and gave a passing servant orders to get us food.

"...Danke schön," she whispered with a smile. I smiled back at her before I took a seat at my desk and when over some of the notes I had taken today.