More years passed and it was time for our “exhibition” to the aristocrats.

  It was a one-time event per batch.

  By the time we were old enough to do so, half of us had already died.

  Many of us had bruises or scars. Some ‘Liles’ had worse than others. Some of us who had to endure the additional poisons had sustained long-term damage. Luckily, C11 and I were fine.

  Neither ‘Lily’ had been punished for a while.

  For a few days, we had our “colourless lily” mark engraved onto us. The ones taking the procedure skipped parts of the training, but for some reason, the training was relatively lighter than usual.

  Compared to most of what we had to endure, it was like taking the day off. It was by no means pleasant, however.

  At least we weren’t tortured during that time nor improved our poison resistance, but we had to study a subject where we had to understand the social etiquette.

  For savages like us, it was harder than the physical exercises.

  The tattoo was a curse to haunt us until our last day. It was on our backs in the form of a lily’s outline. The petals were left with no colour.

  I inspected C11’s and she mine when we both got one.

  The morning after the last ‘Lily’ was marked, we had breakfast earlier than usual and skipped training.

  We were told to climb into machines we rarely saw when we ran outside, military trucks.

  Each truck had five of us, two people in black and one in white with red crosses, plus the driver.

  When the truck began to move, we all felt a strange and uneasy sensation. We had never experienced a ride on a vehicle and some of us had motion sickness. I was one of them.

  We arrived at our destination at night, but we were already in the garage inside the building.

  Due to my motion sickness, I couldn’t remember much. The pills the person in white with red crosses gave me didn’t help me enough.

  We were allowed to sleep after we ate our dinner. It was the first time I had a room with a bed for myself. We all got one.

  The return of the pillow made me happy, albeit knowing it was temporary.

  The rooms had windows, but I didn’t dare to open them. I only braved enough to see the outside world, but it was too dark to see anything. Even the sky was filled with clouds and the moon and stars were hidden.

  A few days later, C11 said she tried opening the window, but it didn’t budge.

  The door was also locked.

  Sleeping in such comfort felt strange. I liked it, but it was alien to me and the rest of the ‘Lilies’.

  The next day, before we were “exhibited”, we had to take a bath – something we never had before.

  The closest occasions to “taking a bath” were two situations. The first one was when we had sustained injuries from which our outer skin was cut and we bled.

  The people in white with red crosses were treating our injuries, cleaning our wounds with some fluid.

  They were the only ones who perceived us as human beings; the only ones who cared if we were to die; the only ones who did their best to make us live another day.

  Maybe, prolonging our lives was their way of being cruel to us? No, I shouldn’t be thinking as such… Our lives were the only things we possessed before being assigned to a master.

  It wasn’t like we had never been inside water before. The second occasion was when we had taken a few swimming lessons.

  Once a month, we are told to swim for around an hour to refresh our knowledge. We wear a one-piece swimsuit during that time. The first time, the water was cool, but afterwards, it was cold.

  After breakfast, we were taken by women dressed in maid uniforms. Each ‘Lily’ had a maid helper and every five ‘Lilies’ were guarded by one of the people in black. Only women entered the hot, steamy room where there were many small pools. It appeared to be a bathhouse or something similar.

  The maids helped us with the bath and it felt very strange to be inside a fluid that was so warm, light and colourless, especially with the unusual bubbles. They hurt when they touched our eyes.

  The state of my body being clean was very unusual to me. I had been used to being sweaty and dirty, with a few spots of dried blood or my vomit.

  Being clean was a feeling I had rarely, if ever, felt by then.

  When the maid rubbed my head with the shampoo, I felt very comfortable. She was massaging my hair for a few minutes, cursing silently about how I never cleaned my hair.

  The only hair care we had been given by then was a haircut. Our hair was kept no longer than the shoulders.

  For this occasion, we hadn’t had a haircut in the past four months, allowing our hair to become longer than usual.

  I preferred the shorter hair. It had less impact during my daily training.

  The last step before our first time to be seen by aristocrats was to get dressed. The maids also helped us with that.

  After all, the only clothes we had thus far were our underwear and a one-piece dress, with rare opportunities to wear something else during some of the training.

  We had no taste for clothes, something the aristocrats had before they could even speak

  Thinking about it right now, we were like dolls. Big, meaty, breathing dolls the maids had to dress up and make presentable to the public.

  We were dressed in single-coloured sleeveless dresses with our backs open and our cleavage at full display. Mine was in the colour of dark blue. We also wore high heels matching the colour of the dress.

  It was a nightmare. I remember stumbling on every step for the first minutes.

  We were given special underwear for the occasion. It was thinner and more revealing than our usual one and in the same colour as the dress, but we didn’t have a bra.

  In fact, the first thing picked was the underwear.

  Even our hair wasn’t left as it was – we were combed, had hairstyles, wore perfume and other makeup was applied onto us. We didn’t get any jewellery accessories.

  We still didn’t know what a “perfume” was or what half the things they used on us were.

  Nonetheless, it felt pleasant having someone take care of me. For the first time in my life, I felt relaxed and in pleasure. For the first time, we were treated like women.

  Little did we know of the price we had to pay for all this…

  The dresses we wore and all the care we were given were cruel – for all to see that we were ‘Lilies’, that we were “goods” they could look at or consume. The prettier the good, the higher the chance of it being taken.

  At sunset, the maids inspected us and made final adjustments before we were presented in a wide hall filled with many people in the early night.

  When we entered, everyone stopped and looked in our direction, but soon resumed their actions. Some gossiped about us.

  It was a place with many well-dressed people, plenty of food we didn’t know the names of and live music was playing. Then I still had no idea what a “ball” was.

  Seeing something like this for the first time was overwhelming.

  The people were in either dresses or suits. Some of them were running around and serving food and drinks, but neither one of them came near us.

  The dresses were all different, colourful, some even extravagant for the ‘me now’, but it was all amazing and new for the ‘me in the past’.

  Even the supervisors wore white suits. The ones armed were outside and there were no people with red crosses.

  However, there were a few people whose presence was hard to notice. They kept an eye on the surroundings. I assumed they took the same role as the people in black I knew.

  The suits of the male aristocrats were more or less the same – all of them were in some nuance of dark colour, but they didn’t give the same feeling of dread as the ones in black we knew.

  Some were chatting, others were eating and third were dancing.

  As for us – we were told to stay upright around the walls and corners.

  We were to stay still until further orders were given by our supervisors or by an aristocrat.

  For every five ‘Lilies’, there was one supervisor.

  C11 found an opportunity to tell me something in a quiet voice while the one supervising us took his eyes from us.

  “The ones that treat our wounds gave me a pill. They told me to take it in secret if I get taken by an aristocrat. They also added to keep it a secret from the others. If you get picked before me, I’ll give it to you. I feel… uneasy about all of this…”

  I haven’t required medical attention for a while. If I did, maybe I would also have been in possession of the pill she spoke of.

  “Thank you, but you should keep it. What if they saw you handing it to me?”

  “Yes. Sorry. Forget what I said.”

  “Stay upright,” the supervisor said after seeing us chatting.

  I couldn’t help but think he allowed us to chat this long.

  We returned to our position, awaiting further instructions.

  We stayed and gathered intel on our surroundings for some time, watching and waiting, wondering what this unusual training would be about.

  C11’s warning also had me on guard, but whatever was about to happen, we had no other choice but to follow and endure. The execution of C32 was vivid in my memory.

  I didn’t want C11 or I to have similar endings. Then, I dreamed of both of us graduating and going to the same place. Such a pure and naive dream I had back then.

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  I cannot remember the exact time, but at least an hour had passed before we were approached.

  The male aristocrats were giving us looks from time to time while drinking some colourful red fluid, different from the red we knew, from glasses we hadn’t seen before.

  The female aristocrats were chatting among themselves, some children were dancing or playing, while some of the now red-faced males came to take a closer look at us.

  Some came with young males – their offspring most likely.

  We hadn’t seen males our age and we might have been curious about them. We only knew the big and tall men who taught, treated our injuries or intimidated us with their presence.

  The ones who came gave us a look or two. There were occasions when some of us were told to open our mouths or to move two steps forward.

  Other orders ensued, such as turning left, right or making a 180-degree turn. Some even order us to bend our bodies and smacked our butt once, giving it a feel.

  I didn’t experience such humiliating treatment.

  Some talks could be heard among the supervisors and the aristocrats.

  “This one looks good. I’ll be taking her. I have to give her back tomorrow morning, don’t I?”

  “Have a nice time, Viscount George. But could you please refrain from breaking this one? They take a lot of effort to grow,” a supervisor replied and both of them laughed.

  “Will do my best for you, pretty Lady. I hope I’ll live long enough to see them ripe,” the red-faced man said and took the girl somewhere upstairs while holding her by the hips and caressing her butt.

  Other talks could be heard, but this one was the worst of them all.

  “My boy, we have taken a quick look at them. Since this will be your first time into manhood, I’ll let you choose. After you have satisfied yourself, I’ll get a round or two,” a plump old-looking man said.

  “Won’t Mother be angry at you?” his son asked.

  “This is a special occasion. We could see them once per year. Being invited here is a great honour in itself! Your mother is busy socialising with the other ladies, as you can see if you look at her and won’t mind me doing so with one or two of them. Sadly, the rules only allow the use of one per family. And…” the man whispered something into the little one’s ear.

  “If that is the case, father, I’ve already made my choice. I’ll take this one!” he pointed at the one to my left.

  She was my friend, C11.

  “Your scion has good eyes, Earl Arthur. I wish you a pleasant night. Just, please be gentle with her. She…They are all… still too young…”

  “What we’ll do with her is none of your concern. We will bring her to you tomorrow in one piece.”

  “Yes, my Lord,” the supervisor made a bow.

  C11 and I looked at one another before she walked near the younger male and went with them. The boy blushed when he tried to hold her, but his shyness prompted his father to show him how it was done.

  “You touch a woman like this,” he grabbed C11’s right breast, almost exposing it for all to see.

  “I see, father… I have much to learn.”

  “Don’t worry. Take your time, try different poses and ways and then pick the one you like the most. Both you and the night are young. Haha!”

  C11 kept her fish eyes. My poor friend was humiliated to this extent and was about to…

  Neither of us, the ‘Lilies’, had any idea what was happening or what would be done to us.

  We weren’t educated about the “things” they were going to do to us were we “chosen”.

  Only years later did I manage to understand what they were intending to do to us or how old we were back then – 14 and already forced into the world of adults without our knowledge, let alone our consent.

  Disgusting! Disgusting! Disgusting…

  I myself had some aristocrats look at me, but I felt nothing while they were doing so. I missed C11 and worried about her.

  I had no idea that they were looking at my figure nor did I know what embarrassment was.

  I only knew how to obey and how to stay alive.

  Still, back then, I wanted to experience the pain C11 was going to go through. I wanted to share this event with her.

  How foolish of me. The best outcome would have been for neither of us to be picked.

  As time passed, the number of people decreased.

  Most of the ‘Lilies’ were taken somewhere. And were already…

  I was one of the few who were left.

  An aristocrat with a plump build was coming towards me.

  He was using a walking stick and had dark hair, but was bald in the middle. He had dark green eyes. His gaze piercing my existence and showing unimaginable disdain and loathing.

  “What’s that, ‘Lily trainer’? There are a lot of them this time around. How many were in the batch last year for this occasion? 30, was it? Last time, the guests had to fight to get a ‘Lily’, but now, there are some ‘Lilies’ that are yet to be taken?” he spoke with my supervisor.

  “This batch seems promising, Viscount Balor. The method of training is also getting better with each passing year. I hope next year there will be even more of them surviving. I believe they have the potential to be the treasure of our country. Just like…”

  He didn’t finish his sentence as the Viscount interrupted him.

  “Is that so? Or are you being too lenient with them? Well, either way, I’ll see soon for myself in person.”

  “What do you mean?” the supervisor asked, his voice slightly shaken.

  I had never felt this emotion from the supervisors before.

  “I was finally appointed this morning to be the head trainer on batch C. I’ll be coming in about a week after I finish some personal business. I’ll finally see what the “curriculum” does with my own eyes. That bastard did all in his power to stop me, but the Monarch decision was final. Bless the Monarch!”

  “Bless the Monarch!”

  “Bless the Monarch,” I repeated.

  It was a salute towards the Monarch. All ‘Lilies’ were taught to reply with the blessing when someone blesses him.

  “You taught them this much. Good.”

  “Yes, we did our utmost. Allow me to be the first to congratulate you. I wish you to acquire the results you are wishing for,” the supervisor said with a pale face and a slight bow.

  Viscount Balor. A bastard that finds joy in little things. The main ones are alcohol, women and seeing the suffering of others. At the time, I didn’t know what hell he’d bring to us all.

  Much, much later, I discovered that our education was entirely based on his instructions. All the hell we had to endure was thanks to him, but even if we had to follow someone else’s “curriculum”, I doubt it would have been much better.

  “Seems like this little girly wasn’t taken. While her other “sisters” already are being used,” he said while looking at the supervisor.

  He turned his cold and hostile, but tired gaze towards me.

  “Follow me,” he ordered flatly, as if I were an object.

  The supervisor opened his mouth but didn’t dare say anything.

  I was about to follow him into the unknown when…

  “I like this one. I want to take her with me!” a tender voice was heard.

  We all turned to see a girl. No, a young woman.

  She was in a pretty, sleeveless, glittering dark blue dress, white gloves and short blond hair. She wore a necklace and a pair of earrings. She emitted a pleasant fragrance.

  Her eyes were dark blue, resembling lapis lazuli, and her smile was brave and cheeky.

  “What nonsense are you saying, little lady? I already picked this one up. Go look for another,” he said while trying to maintain manners.

  I didn’t know who to listen to and turned to look at the supervisor.

  He still had a pale expression. No, it was worse than it was just a moment ago.

  “Our Lady’s…” he clenched his fists and stopped mumbling.

  According to our studies, there were a total of six aristocratic levels. From highest to lowest, excluding one, they were: duke, marquess, earl, viscount, and baron.

  Duke was a “high” noble, while marquess and earl were “middle” nobility. As for the last two – “low”.

  The sixth title was in the “high” nobility, but as it could only be used for one person, it was rarely used – monarch, the one ruling the nation.

  If we had an “owner”, a Master or a Mistress, we had to listen to only them.

  As for the ‘Lilies’ without one or in training, we were supposed to listen to the orders of the higher noble present or the supervisors.

  “What are you saying, mister? I was looking at her for quite a long time by now,” the girl retorted.

  “Then why did you, missy, come so late?” he asked in a way to show his annoyance.

  “Because… the crowd slowed me!”

  We all knew that was a lie. There were very few people left.

  Back then, a few pairs of people, male and female, were dancing in the middle of the hall.

  “Brat, are you mocking me?” he replied with his anger obvious to the naked eye.

  “Depends. If I say ‘yes’, would you give up?” she continued, tilting her head slightly and asking such a daring thing with a smile.

  He was dumbfounded and his face turned red.

  “Who the hell are you to tell me what to do, little girl?!”

  “I’m Mariana, my father is Marquess Gareth!” she boasted with sparkles in her eyes.

  “A marquess? Wait… Gareth at that… Yes, you look exactly like…” the viscount said with a surprised expression, his mood dampened, showing loneliness and deep regret.

  No one uttered a sound after that, the girl staring boldly at the viscount. A drop of pure sweat on her forehead.

  “I’ll let you have this one, little lady,” he said politely while bowing as if he were another person.

  His anger was extinguished the moment he understood who her family was. The man looked bitter and heartbroken for some reason.

  ‘Was her family that much higher than his?’ I thought back then.

  He left the hall through the front door and I hadn’t seen him again that night.

  I was now looking at the girl and she was looking at me. She had a brave smile while I was expressionless. She was an aristocrat while I was a ‘Lily’. She was like a God while I was nothing.

  “I may take her, mayn’t I?” she asked my supervisor.

  “Go ahead, my Lady,” he permitted while bowing.

  He bowed lower than to the Viscount.

  She grabbed my hand and pulled me somewhere outside.

  She walked quite gracefully with her high heels, whereas I barely managed to keep up with her pace.

  The gloves that were pulling my arm were soft and warm. I silently followed her, looking at her back.

  “My name’s Mariana, but please call me Mary! What’s your name?” she asked me with her smile and gentle gaze.

  “C23,” I replied robotically.

  The warmth she was giving me was making me uncomfortable.

  “C23? I don’t like it. How about you be… Lily?” she proposed, but didn’t give me enough time to reply.

  “These boys here are my friends,” she said and gestured towards one of them.

  There were two more children around her age.

  How funny of me to say they were “children”. I was younger than all of them, but to society, they weren’t old enough to be called adults yet.

  The one she pointed at was dressed in a dark suit, with short, spiky gingerish hair and his eyes were also reddish.

  “His name is Leonard. You can call him Leo. The other boy’s name is Richard or Rich for short,” she told me while smiling and looking at me, her warm hand still holding mine.

  I remember seeing the three of them among the people in the large hall while C11 was next to me.

  Mariana then looked at the boys and introduced me.

  “This here is Lily!”

  Richard was in the same suit as all the males. He had short, dark brown hair and hazel eyes.

  I exchanged greetings with them, but it felt strange and I sounded awkward.

  “Greetings. I am known as C23. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

  “Ahem!” Mary made the sound and looked at me, somewhat disapproving.

  “Greetings. I am known as Lily. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance,” I reintroduced myself.

  “Well, it was a bit better,” Mary approved this time.

  “Hello…” Leonard replied, but Richard only stared at me.

  “Come on, boys! Be more polite! Don’t be such meanies!” she scolded them.

  “Hello! My name’s Leonard, but my friends call me Leo!”

  “Name’s Richard and I am always glad to know more people.”

  We discussed how boring the gathering was, how good the food was and about the music. Afterwards, we started playing games.

  By discuss, I mean they were doing most of it. I was listening and replying if I was asked.

  Just by hearing about the food I hadn’t eaten, I was mesmerised by its existence.

  I didn’t know what that red thing called “crab” was, but the way they described its taste made me drool.

  The games we played included tag and some card games. There was the possibility of playing ‘Hide and Seek’, but if I remember correctly, we didn’t. We also played a bit of ‘Truth or Dare’ at the end.

  Since the beginning of my training, there was no such thing as “games”, they had to explain them to me.

  “In tag, one is marked as “it”. They chase the other players. If the “it” manages to touch one of the other players, they trade their roles. You run from the new “it”. If you are the “it”, you try to touch one of the other players.”

  “In hide and seek, one counts to 30 while the others find a place to hide. The game ends when all the hiding ones are found. To make sure we won’t get lost, let’s hide in the garden area only!”

  “In turn, we’ll ask ourselves questions. You have to answer them truthfully. If you decide not to answer, you have to do something the asker tells you to do.”

  That time was the happiest of my life.

  I played with other children and for a while, I felt like a “normal” human.

  The most interesting part was when we played ‘Truth or Dare’.

  “Mary, what do you think about me?” Leo braved and asked.

  “What do I think? Hm… I think you are the bravest friend I have.”

  “Mary, what do you think about me?” the other boy, Rich, also asked.

  “You are very good at shooting!”

  I didn’t know why, but the boys, especially Leo, had heartbroken expressions afterwards.

  There were other questions, orders and so on.

  I also remember looking at the night sky. There were no clouds that day.

  I saw the moon, the endless stars. It was mesmerising. It was so endless… so pretty…

  But everything good had to end.

  “Rich, where are you?”, “Sweat Leo, come! It’s time to go home!”, “My dear Mary, it’s time for us to go.”

  Their parents come to take them back.

  I bowed to them. The ladies made a disgusted expression when they saw the tattoo on my back.

  “Bye, Mary, bye, Rich and Lily!”

  “See you soon, Mary, Leo and Lily.”

  “Hope we meet soon, Leo, Rich!”

  She turned to her father. He was the only one who didn’t change the way he looked at me after realising my marked back, but I could feel he was tired.

  “Father, would it be fine if we take Lily with us for tonight?” she asked with sparkles in her eyes.

  After some thinking, he agreed.

  “I’m this mischievous lady’s father. It’s a pleasure to make an acquaintance with you,” he told me.

  “I am C23, but some call me Lily. It is a pleasure to meet you, my Lord,” I replied and bowed.

  “C? Was it time for the Third generation…” he murmured and the last part of his words were unheard by me.

  He was tall, with short blond hair and blue eyes. He had dark circles under his eyes and, compared to most other people here, he was quite dishevelled and didn’t care that much about his appearance.

  We then informed a supervisor and walked outside the entrance. We continued on foot to a building about 10 minutes away. It was a big structure with five floors – a hotel.

  While we walked around the city’s streets, I constantly looked around.

  Mary and the insignificant I shared the same room. The bed was better than the one I slept on yesterday. Even the pillow was superior.

  We had a little talk before falling asleep.

  “How has your life been by now?” she asked innocently, with the curiosity of a pure child.

  I gave a brief description of my daily routines – study, fights, torture and so on.

  By the time I ended with what we had to do on a normal day, she had tears in her eyes.

  “You had a hard life, didn’t you?” she said while hugging me.

  I could say no more. I was just speechless from the warm embrace she gave me. I hugged her back and soon, I fell asleep on her warm and gentle bosom.

  In the morning, everything nice had to come to an end.

  A supervisor retrieved me and I reunited with the other ‘Liles’. They looked exhausted and the neat appearance they had last night was nowhere to be seen.

  We had breakfast and we were off in the trucks. Our daily routine was going to begin anew.

  I had no idea then what hell the next two years would be.