"Don't you dare insult Kyle!" she snarls at me threateningly. I want to say something in response, but Koro steps in between us.
"Calm down, girls!" the warrior shouts. Groaning, he positions himself between Tosa and my bed. "Either you calm down and tell me quietly what happened here, or I'll get Otscharsan." His gaze shifts to Tosa, who visibly flinches at the mention of her half-brother's name. "He would love to join the argument, especially if it looks bad for his dear sister."
"Koro, please don't call him," Tosa pleads. She lowers her head, looking distressed. "I'd like to talk to him myself if I may."
"Name a volunteer who would gladly voice my suspicion to Otscharsan!" A smile flickers across his lips. "Whoever tells him what I suspect will regret it, even if it's the truth."
Something I can well imagine, given his reaction to my observation.
Koro's gaze moves sternly and expectantly from Tosa to me and back again. "So which one of you is going to tell me what's going on here?" His eyes glance toward the door, behind which lies his dead comrade. "But I can already guess what happened. It probably starts with me being glad I overslept for the first time today."
"I'm sorry." Tosa's gaze remorsefully drops to the floor. It's clear how difficult it is for her to continue speaking.
But she won't get any sympathy from me.
My hand rests on my still aching ribs, my eyes filled with anger as I look at the brunette.
Koro places his hand on her head and strokes it. "Tosa, why on earth are you doing something so foolish?" He seems puzzled but almost as if he's speaking to a little sister who has made a mistake. "You should lack for nothing. Especially since your brother is friends with Torsos. Besides, our ruler supposedly freed you from your life as a slave. You should be grateful to him. Why are you doing this?"
Tosa hesitates, unsure of how to respond. Something I'm happy to help her with.
"She's being exploited by a guard," I answer in her place, somewhat calmer than before.
The brunette whirls around angrily to face me. "Kyle is not exploiting me, he loves me!"
"It might be love for you, but not for that creep." I shudder at the thought of that guy and our first encounter. My hand instinctively goes to my throat, where he strangled me. Twice. The spot from the last time is still covered with a bandage.
"Kyle loves me and he said he..." She pauses. Tears roll down her cheeks, and she buries her face in her hands. "When it's all over, he wants to run away with me."
"You're naive!" I say, looking at her sternly. I walk over to her and pull her hands away from her face, forcing her to look at me. "He hates you and despises you!"
"No!"
"You're a slave, and he threatened me if I told anyone about your relationship."
"To protect me," she insists, but I have to disappoint her.
"He doesn't want anyone to know he's involved with a slave," I say bluntly, making her shake her head again. "He seems to despise slaves and is just using you." I pause, looking at her, but Tosa continues to cry. She doesn't want to hear it and doesn't want to believe it.
I'm a liar, that's all she believes.
"The first time I met him, I asked him to take me and Nora, the girl always with me, to the shower. There, he tried to assault us." Tosa gives me a disbelieving look as my hand moves to my throat again. It hurts so much with every word, but someone has to enlighten her. So I continue speaking. "Back then, he tried to kill me, and that was before I interrupted you in the kitchen. Not only can Nora testify to it, but Mak as well. He saved us from that bastard that day."
"Mak doesn't like me, he'd say anything to get rid of me," she believes.
"But not Nora! She has nothing to do with you and is just afraid of Kyle." But even that she doesn't want to believe.
Tosa shakes her head and weeps.
The young warrior pulls her into his arms, his hand soothingly stroking her back, something that doesn't make me happy. I'm the victim here. She wanted to kill me. Why is he comforting her instead of me?
"I need to inform Gasard first," he says. Koro points at me. "If it's as she claims, you'll see when we confront this Kyle." He raises his arm and a control panel is projected into the air. "As long as it's nothing more, you'll probably get away with a reprimand."
I can imagine he expects such a lenient punishment because she's Otscharsan's sister, even if I can't understand such a thing.
Tosa flinches slightly at his words. It's clear she has something else on her mind that she's afraid to say.
Even Koro notices. "Is there something else?" the warrior asks her, seeming to have a bad premonition.
"If I lie now, it won't matter whose sister I am." With her head lowered, she finally speaks. "Kyle ordered me to mix poison into Tarisa's food, hers..." She points at me. "Yours and Waro's." In the next sentence, she looks directly at Koro. "And into the food of Torsos' confidants."