Luke made her swing the wooden sword till her hands got blisters which only took five to ten minutes. He didn't want to let her do it in the first place.
Since she wasn't having it, he had no choice but to listen to her request eventually just to prove himself right.
She knew this body was weak but not to this level. So she left Luke talk a little shit like he was right and let him have a small victory while keeping her silence.
[ Caution ]
[ User is suggested to rest ]
[ Body Stats : Burning may occur. Full recovery estimated to be within 5 days. ]
....
The next day..
[ Time Remaining : 12 hours, 20 minutes, 13 seconds ]
Sici kept blinking at the screen, her chin placed against her left hand.
"Right, there was a timer on my head," she sighed out loud. She had forgotten to check the timer the past few days.
"Wasn't the time supposed to reset at midnight? Is it a glitch?" She asked because the system was indicating her time would be up when the clock hits 7pm. Though she clearly remembers it's supposed to be midnight.
"No one's going to answer me?"
[ User's Time Was Reduced Due To Points Accumulating In The Negative For Three Times In A Row ]
"Oohh, now I get it!" She says as the reason fits the puzzle in her head, "I could jave known sooner if I didn't forget to check!"
"Sounds like your fault," Melina signs in.
"Gesh, thanks! Didn't know that," she rolls her eyes and gets out of the room, heading to the dinning room.
....
The Marchioness had finally joined them for breakfast, returning to the mansion after she had recovered from a strange sickness. Still, her attitude didn't change towards Melina.
"Seems like you have yet to learn proper etiquette, Melina," she said politely smiling, her expression mixed with annoyance.
Sici didn't know how to deal the Marchioness yet. As she hesitates to answer lowering her head, the system screen pops up. She doesn't look as the words ring inside her head on it's own, continuing to resume her attempt for eating the meal though it is once again interrupted.
[ 20 Points Deducted For Showing Hesitation ]
Sici wasn't fazed yet but annoyed as it keeps deducting her points. At this rate, one day it might even deduct points for breathing in the wrong way.
[ Points Remaining : -100 ]
"Is it going to reduce my time for today?" She thought, putting a small piece of meat in her mouth.
[ User Has Accumulated A 100 Negative Points ]
[ It Will Be Converted Into A Panelty ]
She almost chokes on her food as she hears the systems words. She quickly drinks water and looks at the screen to make sure she didn't hear it wrong.
[ Initiating The Convertion ]
[ Convertion Initiation Successful ]
[ Points Conversation Successful ]
"No... Stop please," she thought, "I don't want it. Do something else!"
[ User's Request Is Rejected ]
[ Initializing The Panelty ]
[ Panelty Initialization Complete ]
She kept blinking thinking what the panelty was since it was not specifying it, "Did it reduce the time? Last time it never showed anything before reducing so what is it this time?"
[ User's Freedom Of Speech Is Restricted ]
[ User May Not Speak Freely Till The Duration Of This Panelty ]
[ Panelty Duration : Locked by Host ]
[ Points Remaining : 0 ]
"Freedom of speech?!" Her eyes widened unable to comprehend the situation. She tried to test if it was for real as she slightly parted her lips to let out a word, a mere whisper but nothing came out.
Rather, her throat started to hurt instantly, a pain similar to when a person is suffering through a cold but worse than that as the pain started to grow making her regret to check if the system was serious about it.
First the hands, now her voice, how worse could it get? Oh right, the time is going to be up today with her still having no clue to avoid it.
The Marchioness wasn't going to let her silence slide specially after they both returned from a similar fate. She wasn't going to accept her playtoy of all this years behaving differently than before as she heard from Kayser and the maids.
Finishing her meal rather quick, she stood up, taking the glass of apple wine and raising it, "Shouldn't we make a toast?"
Luke replied, sipping on his own glass of wine, "For what, mother?"
"It's been such a long time since we have gathered all together as a family, Luke," she smiled, "Shouldn't we at least celebrate on it?"
"Hold a ball then," Kayser suggested, not interested to make a toast.
"Oh dear, of course we will but first a moment for the family please," she knew exactly what words to use to have Kayser on her side. Kayser sighed and played along with her.
Everyone joined in to that toast with her glass of wine though Luke's glass had only a few drops left just to annoy his mother as she still holds onto her polite smile despite her patience being tested. But she already had someone to let it all out on.
She sipped a little bit of the apple wine before starting her complain. She gestured towards a maid to come forward to her and as the maid came, "Is there something wrong, my lady?"
"Yes," she said still holding her fake smile as she stretches her hand with the glass of wine towards her, "Whoever chose the wine for today."
The maid got startled with her tone not matching her expression as the Marchioness continued talking, "Does the person not know that I hate it with every breath I take in?"
She twirled the glass filled in wine and watched the liquid wave around while she waited for the maid's response.
"I'm sorry, my lady. I will fix this-"
"How?" The maid raises her head to her question.
"How do you plan to fix it?"
She continues before letting the maid think or answer her question, "It has already been consumed by me. How you plan to undo that?"
"M'lady, I-"
"Come closer," she ordered.
Kayser chooses to break their conversation, "Dear, let it go. You have been absent for awhile so they must have made a mistake."
However, everyone except Sici knew the Marchioness was lying just to take some frustration out on someone and this she chose this method. Apples were her favorite, every servants in this mansion knew that.
Naturally, today's selected wine was in fact one of her favorite but how could a maid dare to talk back to her when she exclaimed it wasn't.