Chapter 16 Slave Nigel

Regina’s POV
I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.
Nigel as the servant?! What the hell!
And I immediately looked towards Gray, knowing that this must be his idea. He kept his eyes straightforward, deadpan, as though he didn’t notice my furious glare at all.
Others around the table had all recognized Nigel as well. They all seemed astonished. No one said a word.
Nigel approached us carefully, walking around the table serving us coffee, starting with me. His hand was shaking so severely that a drop of hot coffee dripped on the back of my hand. It burned, but I decided to say nothing about it. Because I didn’t want to cause any more trouble for him.
After Nigel was done with me, he moved onto Gray. He trembled even more. I looked at the pot in his hand nervously, afraid that he might still coffee on Gray.
“A—Alpha Gray…Coffee?” Nigel stammered, breathing lightly.
Gray didn’t say anything, but simply tapped his index finger on his empty cup.
Yet Nigel didn’t notice that tap on the cup. After a few seconds silence, Nigel’s face turned a deeper shade of gray in horror. Plucking up his whole courage, Nigel asked again with a quivering voice, “D—Do you want…coffee? Alpha Gray?”
“What are you doing!”
The chamberlain rushed over and hissed at Nigel urgently, “Never talk to your master directly! Didn’t I just warn you about this?”
“Sorry…” Nigel murmured nervously, “But I didn’t know if the Alpha wanted coffee or not.”
I couldn’t watch this anymore. So I reminded him kindly, “He tapped his finger on the cup, which means that he will be having coffee. Let me help with it.”
I stood up and wanted to take the coffee pot from Nigel. I was afraid that he would make more mistakes in panic. It would be easier if I simply did the work for him, which I was used to anyway.
I reached to grab the pot, but Nigel dodged urgently. The pot slipped through our grasps and dropped to the floor, spilling hot coffee over half of Gray’s body.
Everyone gasped sharply, including me. Nigel mumbled a few words that nobody could make sense of, while the chamberlain clenched his chest rolling his eyes as though he was getting a heart attack.
I quickly grab a napkin and tried to wipe the coffee off him, “Are you OK? Did you get burnt?”
The chamberlain said hastily, “Princess Regina, please let me—”
Gray took the napkin from me and wiped his face himself. He waved his hand at chamberlain, gesturing him to step down. Then he finally looked at Nigel with a cold, fixed look.
“How do we normally punish blundering slave?” Gray asked the chamberlain freezingly, while keeping his eyes on Nigel.
The chamberlain hesitated and said, “There are all kinds of punishments…from doing hard labor, to flogging, to—”
“No!” I cried, raising my voice. “No hard labor. And certainly not flogging!”
Nigel gave me a grateful look. But Gray’s face had turned dark.
“No punishment for the slave? This isn’t how court is run,” Gray said coldly.
“But this is his first day! And this isn’t his job anyway.” I tried to protest.
But Gray ignored me completely. He glanced at the scorching sun outside and said to the chamberlain, “I noticed that the front yard’s lawn needs weeding, which might just be the perfect job for him. Take him outside and watch him weed the lawn. No lawn mower, with his hands.”
“Yes, Alpha.” The chamberlain bowed humbly.
I couldn’t believe this. There was at least 100 degrees outside! Letting people work under this weather was unethical! Yet before I could voice out my protest, the chamberlain had dragged Nigel out forcefully.
“Sit down, Regina.” Gray said warningly, “You already went against my order once last night. Don’t do it again.”
I stood on the spot stiffly for a few seconds and then slowly sat down. I was furious inside. I had lost all appetite.
So this was Gray’s so called “punishment,” reducing Nigel to a lowly slave and insulting him.
“Gray, don’t you think it’s a bit too much?” my grandma Violet asked in a worried tone, “Nigel is still Shadow Valley’s ambassador. We shouldn’t treat him like that.”
“But he deserves every single bit of these as Regina’s husband.” Gray set his cup on the table and looked at me, “Tell them what happened last winter at Nigel’s house. With the ash tray.”
I blinked blankly.
Last winter? With the ash tray?
What was Gray talking about?
“Have you forgotten? When you broke the crystal ash tray?” Gray repeated.
And then it hit me. Right. It did happen before.
Last winter, I accidently broke Nigel’s ash tray while dusting the house. Nigel had a huge temper tantrum because of it. He kicked me out of the house and forced me to chop woods at the middle of the night. It was snowing heavily that night and I only had shabby clothes on. By the time he let me into the house again, I was almost frozen to death.
…So Gray was getting back at Nigel for me because of this?
But how did he know about it anyway?
“I talked to him briefly before you visited him in the dungeon.” Gray snorted, “He confessed everything. He didn’t just bully you, Regina. His whole family treated you like a slave! Now do you still think the punishment I gave him was too harsh?”
“Oh my god!” Grandma gasped in shock, “Is it true, Regina? Why didn’t you tell us?”
My lips trembled. I was rendered speechless.
I didn’t notice if there was anything wrong with the way Nigel treated me before Gray pointed out. I was used to it already. I made a mistake and Nigel punished me for it. It was natural.
But why did I find Gray’s punishment to Nigel unethical?
So did it mean that…What Nigel did to me was unethical as well?
I just hadn’t realized it before?
I stayed distracted for the rest of the breakfast and excused myself right after I finished my last bite. Walking out of the dining room, I headed straight to the front yard, where Nigel was working.
He was on his knees pulling weeds.
It was unbearably warm outside. I saw hot sweat streaming down Nigel’s face as he worked. He seemed as though he was on the verge of passing out.
This scene reminded me of what I had been through last winter, at that night.
It was so cold, so freezing cold. My knees were shaking, and my hands were numbed with cold. I let my hair down hoping that it could keep my back warm, but it didn’t help. The snow kept falling and it soon buried my feet. I still carried frostbite on the back of my feet even till this day.
I thought I would die that night.
All those miserable memories rushed back to me. Now I looked at Nigel, for the first time in my life, I felt like he deserved this.
He deserved it. For how he treated me.
“Regina!”
Nigel had spotted me standing under the roof. He quickly scrambled to his feet and called out to me, waiving his hands at me excitedly.
Taking a deep breath, I slowly walked over.
“Regina! Thank god you are here!”
Nigel staggered to grab my hand. But before he could touch me, a guard appeared and stood in front of me.
“Back away from the princess!” the guard snapped. “The Alpha forbids you to talk to anyone before your work is done.”
Nigel’s face was contorted with rage. He pointed at me and snarled, “This is my wife for fuck’s sake! You can’t forbid me to talk to my wife!”
“You are a slave here. And this is the princess you are talking to. So keep your distance.” The guard said unwaveringly.
“It’s OK.” I sighed, “I’ll just have 5 minutes with him. Thank you.”
The guard nodded to me, “Well, if you insist, Princess Regina. But I will be right over there. Let me know if this man bothers you.”
He marched away and stopped a few feet away from us, keeping his eyes on Nigel the whole time.
“Bastard…filthy scums!” Nigel spat at the guard, “Have you seen how they have been treating me, Regina? You must get me out of here, quick!”
“The guard was simply doing his job, Nigel.”
“His job?!” Nigel snarled, waiving his fist in the air. “He tortured me and took pleasure from it. I am the ambassador god damn it! Who let an ambassador mow the lawn under this weather? I’m telling you, Regina, your brother is a twisted psychopath!”
His words made me frown.
Has Nigel ever reflected upon why Gray was treating him this way?
Was he ever sorry for what he did to me?
“Let me ask you something, Nigel. Do you remember what you did to me last winter…after I broke your ash try?”
I held my breath after that question, waiting for his response.