The whip came at her face-on, and Ella's first reaction was not to dodge. She put out a hand on instinct, meaning to catch it.
Obviously, she did not manage what she had in mind.
"Ssah...!"
Her palm lit up with searing pain, and the instant it registered, Ella snatched her hand back.
Elos watched from a little way off, arms folded. She saw Ella's stupid attempt to grab the whip.
Her mouth twisted, and she went on watching.
"Hey! Sss..."
Ella had more to say, but before she could get it out, the whip fell again.
The crack of it splitting the air was harsh in the ear. Ella tried to back away, to dodge.
It did almost nothing. Beyond her palm, the searing pain kept blooming open in new places.
With nowhere to dodge to, all Ella could do was try to curl up.
After the crack of split air came the sound of tearing cloth.
"Ngh—?!"
Crouched down, shrinking the surface she presented as far as she could, Ella took the beating with unusual expertise.
Well, there was no helping that. Stick your neck out for people often enough and the beatings come with it.
Head down, Ella said nothing, only whimpering now and then.
Perhaps out of some regard for the fact that she was nominally a wife, Elos called the two maids off soon enough.
"That's enough."
At her word, the maids stopped.
Two splits had opened on Ella's arms, and under the torn fabric the bloody marks were hard to look at.
Sticky sweat had soaked into the wounds. They hurt and they itched.
"Ss-hah... ss-hah... hoo..."
Breathing in great gulps, Ella lowered the arms she had been shielding herself with.
She raised her head slowly and glared at Elos.
She thought it over. There was an old saying in her past life: the wise bend with the times. Under another man's roof, you bow your head. She decided not to argue every last point with this lunatic of a young lady.
Once she had made it big, she'd have this chick singing her tune.
Mm. Bide your time. Right, right.
Having gotten that far, Ella packed the resentment away out of sight in her eyes.
"What, a few lashes and you've finally learned some manners?"
There was a smile in the words at last. Seeing Ella's gaze turn docile, Elos seemed to be needling her.
"A real man doesn't fight women."
Ella got unsteadily to her feet.
Her arms hung stiff at her sides. She didn't dare move them much.
"Manners at last. Go bathe."
With that, Elos turned.
Ella followed on stiff legs.
"Crazy woman..."
Complaining inwardly, Ella got the feeling the days ahead were not going to be easy.
"Haah..."
She sighed softly.
Now she finally understood why the girl who had bickered with her earlier had looked at her with such gloating eyes.
***
She followed Elos all the way to the bathhouse. It was the height of summer, and the pool was full of cold water.
"Get in and wash yourself clean."
At the bathhouse door, Elos showed no intention of going in.
"..."
Ella opened her mouth and closed it again, hesitating.
"What, forgotten your manners already?"
Perhaps because she believed she had beaten Ella into submission, a note of contempt had crept into Elos's voice.
"Medicine... There's medicine, right?"
Ella looked down at her injured arms.
Her sleeves were soaked through with blood, and her fingers and the backs of her hands trembled with no strength in them.
Elos did not answer the question directly. To the sound of Ella's shriek, she planted a kick in her back.
"Sss! What are you doing?!"
Ella staggered a few steps and went headfirst into the pool in an undignified heap.
"...Uugh? Cough, cough... cough..."
Coughing violently, choking down several mouthfuls of water in a row, her vision blurred, Ella struggled back to herself.
Through the blur, she looked at the smug Elos in the distance.
"Bastard..."
She grumbled it quietly. Cold water pressed in from every side, and Ella had no attention to spare for much else.
She scrubbed at herself carelessly, and when her fingers met softness her whole body went stiff. The fact that she had become a girl acquired some reality.
Not daring to touch the wounds, she washed at random for a while and then climbed out.
Getting out, she covered the sensitive parts carefully with both hands, and the tips of the ears of the brash, careless Ella finally went red.
Thoroughly satisfied, Elos had someone bring clothes over.
"Change yourself."
Without letting the maid into the bathhouse, Elos threw a fluffy dress and a set of underthings at Ella herself.
"..."
Ella picked them up and looked at the women's clothes in her hands, so at odds with everything in her memory. For once she was silent.
"Hoo... Bide your time. Bide your time."
Squirming all the while, she put the dress on.
She had never worn women's clothes before, so her movements were stiff, and when she had finished the dress sat on her in wrinkles.
Still, it looked good on the whole. The white of the dress set off her long pink hair, and the sleeves were loose enough not to cling to the wounds on her arms.
While Ella stood there fidgeting and staring into space, Elos threw her a pair of leather shoes and white ankle socks.
With the shoes and socks on, apart from her hair still being soaked, she was more or less put together.
Ella walked slowly over to Elos.
"You..."
Her mouth opened, then stopped.
What had she been about to say? Probably too much had happened in one day; Ella's brain was running past capacity.
"Hmph."
Paying no attention to Ella's hesitation and squirming, Elos gave a light snort and turned to leave the bathhouse.
The person behind her was odd. She was all noise and bluster, like one of those uneducated troublemakers. But after a beating she hadn't reacted the way troublemakers do, in either direction.
She hadn't rushed up to seize her collar and curse at her and put her hands on her. Nor had she gone cringing and spineless.
What a strange person, Elos thought. Nine years ago this one had been strange too.
"Boring."
She rather wanted to see rivers of blood. This person had hit her once, had actually made her cry.
More than the girl's silence, Elos wanted to see her weep, wanted to see the shape of her begging, wanted her kneeling down in front of her of her own accord and pleading to be let off. That would take the edge off it.
Elos's thoughts drifted back to nine years ago. This person had popped up out of nowhere to plant herself in front of that eyesore of a peasant girl, saying something to herself about how a hero can't turn tail before the battle, and then come charging in, yelling the whole way.
She had latched on and refused to let go, and the harder the hangers-on hit her the harder she hit back. What a bastard.
After that, Elos stopped taking children her own age out with her and took sword-carrying escorts instead.
"Tsk..."
Lost in the memory, she had arrived without noticing.
"This is my ground. Listen. There is no chance I am letting you live with me. We may be wife and wife on paper, but I don't like you. Understood?"
"Yup."
Ella didn't much care. She was only somewhat disappointed.
So it wasn't the domineering-heiress-falls-for-me plotline. This one was a pure villain.
"This room was for servants. I had them clear it out. You'll live here from now on."
Elos pointed at the room adjoining her own.
"Fine."
Ella couldn't have cared less. All she felt right now was that her arms hurt and she was hungry.
"..."
Elos looked at the total indifference on Ella's face, and the veins started popping on her forehead again.
What was the matter with this person? She had just taken a whipping, had just been insulted and shoved into a servant's room, and she wasn't reacting at all.
The villainess grew unreasonably angry.
"Tell me. Why don't you cry?"
"...?"
Ella lifted her head and gave her a blank look.
"Speaking of which, milady. What's for dinner today?"
It was only a whipping. She did rather dislike the person in front of her, but Ella wasn't going to cry. That was a protagonist's pride. Mm. Probably.
"You—!"
Elos's face twitched with rage.
"Turned into a girl, taken a whip to, shoved into a servant's room, and you have nothing else you want to say?"
It wasn't supposed to go like this. The person in front of her ought to be frightened. Ought to be terrified.
She belonged to House Beaumont, the house every noble in the Empire feared.
"I'm hungry. Food matters. So, what's for dinner?"
Ella had a great many questions. She was hungrier.