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A loud din awoke Janice, a headache piercing her head. It was the pulsing kind and disoriented her before she was able to acquaint herself with her surroundings.

“What in tarnation?” she said involuntarily, rubbing the sleep on of her eyes as she looked around. She couldn’t recognize where she was. It wasn’t the maid quarters of Sunrise Palace, nor anywhere similar to the imperial palace. The room was dark as night had fallen, and entirely constructed out of crude wood. A heavy perfume hung in the air, the cheap kind, and there was laughter and singing vibrating the floor beneath her.

The memories came flooding back.

Framing Princess Winter. Being dragged away. And now...

She looked down at her body, appalled to find her maid’s uniform gone and swapped with a cheap, itchy dress that revealed a generous amount of her bosom. Janice coughed, her throat feeling scratchy. She couldn’t fathom what had happened. This... this wasn’t the Red House she was supposed to be sent to.

“Hello?” Janice called tentatively, intermittent coughs breaking up her speech. She rubbed her throat with a delicate palm, confused by her surroundings. For a moment, the haughty former maid appeared vulnerable and frightened, the kind of woman any man would try to save.

A low, feminine chuckle broke up the encroaching darkness and despair. As if it had never been there, the vulnerability melted away, leaving behind a scowling exterior.

.....

“Who is it?” Janice retorted. There was the familiar scratch of a match on wood and then a spark of light appeared on the other side of the musty room. Janice’s eyes took a moment to adjust as a slender candle was lit, her eyes narrowing on the target. It was a girl, perhaps a few years ahead of her in age and marginally less pretty, although quite lovely in her own right. Despite the clear toil of her desperate situation leaving its mark on the olive-skinned beauty, it was clear that she had once possessed a glamorous lifestyle.

“Sarah,” the girl said curtly, the shadows cast from the flickering candle enhancing the shadows on her face and making her look eerier.

“I don’t care who you are!” Janice snapped, channeling her uncertainty over her situation into her mood. “Just tell me, what is this place?”

The former maid lurched into an intimidating standing position above the grounded Sarah, her legs stiff from being on the hard floor for hours. Surprisingly, Sarah wasn’t off-put by Janice’s tone.

“Another newbie,” Sarah muttered to herself, “Well that attitude is going to wear off soon enough.”

To Janice, she said in a matter-of-fact tone, “This isn’t the Red House you were expecting, huh?”

“What?” Janice exclaimed, bewildered by how the girl knew.

“They told you they would send you to a Red House, but now you’ve woken up in a lowly brothel. You’ll be disappointed to know that noblewomen, despite the many virtues they are taught, are rarely honest,” Sarah continued, watching indifferently as Janice’s face went through several expressions within a minute.

Janice floundered, flopping back to the ground before Sarah, the wind from her skirt nearly causing the flame of the candle to go out.

“B-But she promised-” Janice stuttered.

“They always do.” Sarah cooly countered.

“If I just did that one thing for her-“.

“Deception is an art form long mastered by them to survive in high society. You were played for a fool. Say, what’s your name?” Sarah blew on her nails as if the world ending realization for Janice was just another day of business for her. And in a way, it was.

“Janice,” Janice was too shocked to maintain her regular attitude and sounded somewhat polite for the first time.

“Janice,” Sarah drawled slowly, lifting the candle to take a good look at the former maid. She tsked in appreciation. “I must say, you are very pretty. I’m not surprised they went back on their word and tossed you here. In a Red House, your popularity would drive many noble’s wives for a tizzy when they don’t know why their beloved isn’t coming home at night.”

Janice howled in fury on the inside, furious she had done the empress’ bidding without receiving her end of the bargain. She didn’t admit to herself though that she wouldn’t have played along to the scheme if she too didn’t desire to see Winter’s demise, as Janice was exceptionally skilled at passing the blame from herself. That was exactly what she had desired, to wrap a wealthy, unsuspecting noble brat around her finger and secure a lifetime of wealth and glory. But alas, she was subjected to this dingy brothel where the best customers were probably construction workers. If Empress Katya stood before her at that moment, Janice would have tried to tear into his neck the same way she had Sir Gregory.

Suddenly recalling how her body had craved something unspeakable and she had bitten Sir Gregory as if he were a chicken leg, Janice paled further. With the madness that had followed, she had not had the chance to process everything that had happened that day. Janice frantically felt her face and checked the back of her hands, but as she had seen before, her hands were spotless and beautiful as before, as if those age spots and wrinkles were nothing but a bad dream.

“Quick, tell me. How do I look?” Janice asked in shock, looking at Sarah desperately.

Sarah was confused by the sudden flip in the newcomer’s demeanor, but simply figured that perhaps the girl thought that she may have been scarred secretly before she was brought here.

“Don’t worry, your appearance is the same as it most likely was before,” Sarah assuaged.

“Are. You. Sure?” Janice bit out slowly, staring accusingly as if Sarah herself had slashed her across the face.

Janice glared at her with a frighteningly sharp gaze, one that put Sarah on edge as she noticed a dark glint in the newcomer’s eyes that she hadn’t noticed under the haughtiness. As someone who had pandered in flesh for years and had long understood the darkness of people’s hearts, Sarah was always a good judge of character. And there was something inside that girl that she didn’t like.

Nonetheless, Sarah let out an easygoing laugh.

“Of course! Smooth cheeks with a hint of a blush, lips as red as cherries, and flowing brown locks. You look like you could be a princess or a pampered noble miss,” Sarah replied convincingly, going above and beyond with the compliments to settle the unhinged Janice.

It worked like a charm. Instantly, a sigh flowed out of Janice and she fell back into her cocky expression as if it were Sarah’s great fortune to see her beautiful face. Sarah shook her head internally. A beautiful face in a place like a run-down brothel close to the West Bend meant that Janice would get worn out like an old shoe before the year was even through.

Realizing that her previous behavior was a little strange, Janice decided to butter up the girl before her for more information. Imposing a sickly sweet attitude that made Sarah even more uncomfortable, Janice smiled and asked, “Has anything happened in the capital recently?”

“Hmmm... as in what’s the latest gossip on the streets? Well, people are saying that the youngest princess of the royal family, the one who was recently discovered, may have attempted to murder a knight. But it’s all up in the air at the moment since not many people believe that a kid who hasn’t even lost her teeth could kill a grown man,” Sarah responded. Janice perked up and leaned in.

“Oh really? Did they mention anything about accomplices or anything?” she asked eagerly.

“No, they haven’t. The entire case is kept under wraps since it involves the imperial family, but considering the circumstances, the rumors should clear up soon.” Sarah answered, curious about Janice’s sudden interest. But she quickly let go of her curiosity. It was that kind of desire to play with fire that had landed herself in this filthy place to begin with. And it seemed that same fire would soon burn the girl before her, if it hadn’t already.

As Janice digested the information Sarah had told her, fuming at the fact that Winter, that brat, hadn’t already been beheaded, Sarah spoke again. Her conscience was pricked and despite not liking Janice one bit, she still felt she had to equip the girl for her miserable future.

“Listen,” Sarah began slowly, looking away from Janice, “Things... will not be as you expect. This isn’t a Red House-”

Janice snorted obnoxiously. “That’s for certain.”

Sarah cleared her throat loudly with a pointed look at Janice and continued, “This isn’t a Red House, so don’t expect to get the decent treatment you would’ve gotten there. Here, your food comes from how many clients you take. You’ve done that before haven’t you, been with a man? If you were thrown here, I can assume that you’ve had some experience.”

Janice gritted her teeth in hatred at Sarah’s words, not appreciating the gesture of goodwill that Sarah was willing to help her acclimate. Did she not look like a pure girl? She had been pure until she had bedded the head courtier so she could enter the palace as a servant. Besides, Janice knew that she was so pretty that there wasn’t a single man who would decline her even when knowing she wasn’t a virgin.

“In a Red House, you aren’t forced to sleep with clients. If you are talented in music or dancing, you can perform to earn your keep instead of sleeping with men. You can also auction off your first time and keep a large amount of the bidding amount. There are also wealthy and important clients that you could become the mistress of. But here, from dawn ’til dusk, you have to serve whoever the head madam tells you to serve. There’s food twice a day, but she won’t feed you if you don’t make the amount of coins she feels your face is worth. You are very pretty, so the amount for you will probably be very high,” Sarah said. Normally, she wouldn’t have compared their circumstance to that of a Red House, but she found Janice annoying so Sarah subtly let her know what she would be missing out on.

As expected, Janice’s face paled further. “No, no I can’t be here,” she shook her head emphatically.

“Who’s in charge of this dump?” Janice asked frantically. “I must let them know that there’s been some sort of mistake. I’m not meant to work in this kind of place.”

She shuffled slowly towards the door, the feeling of pins and needles in her legs.

“I wouldn’t recommend that,” Sarah sighed, sounding resigned to her fate. But Janice couldn’t dream of trying to survive here. All her dreams of wealth, fame, and fortune had been within her grasp when she had been given her pretty face. And now, it seemed her pretty face would doom her to a fate worse than death in this place.

“Is that so?” Janice spat viciously, looking over her shoulder at the girl who was still slouched across the slow in an uncomely manner. “Then come and stop me!” she taunted.

She wanted to rile up the calm Sarah, whose mouth had delivered her awful verdict. Janice wanted to hit someone and fight and drive the ugly emotions rushing through her out.

Sarah laughed again, the same low chuckle that had first alerted Janice of her presence. It fanned the flames of Janice’s anger further and Janice stopped short of the door and whirled around.

“Is something funny?” she asked furiously. If the girl found amusement from her situation, Janice had no qualms about hitting her where she sat.

It was a full belly laugh, one more fitting of an old man than a young woman.

“No, not at all,” Sarah said in between laughs, wiping a tear from her eye. “I really would go and stop you if I could.”

“If you could?” Janice replied incredulously, settling her hands on her hips in a disgruntled manner.

“Yes, if I could.”

Sarah had been leaning on the floor, her arms propping her up. A threadbare blanket covering her legs. But as Janice watched, Sarah pulled the blanket from her body and grasped the candlestand with a knobbly hand that had seen much labor.

“I don’t know what you’re...,” Sarah commenced in lifting the skirt of her dress from her legs and Janice’s irritated voice trailed off as her eyes opened wide. Starting from Sarah’s knee, where a supple, olive-skinned calf should’ve been, was a hideous little stump of gnarled flesh that was purple and red where it was cut.

“They didn’t even have the decency to cut it properly when they did it too,” Sarah said bitterly before lowering her skirt and pulling up her blanket, her easygoing exterior finally showing a crack.