The Main Heroine Falls for the Extra

Feeling a sudden stabbing pain in her head, Illia Anies opened her eyes.
But despite opening her eyes, Illia was in pitch-black darkness, just as before opening them.
Startled, Illia tried to move from that spot.
Clank
With a sound like dragging something metal on the floor, Illia’s body staggered.
Illia almost fell to the spot after losing her balance, but her body stopped in mid-air as if caught on something.
“What… what is this…?”
When she touched what was supporting her body, it was a steel chain.
Illia, now fully alert, felt around her body to check.
Illia’s waist was bound by a large steel handcuff, and that handcuff was connected to the wall by an iron chain.
Illia, who had fallen forward, had not fallen down because of the handcuff attached to the wall.
Realizing that she was in pitch-black darkness and restrained, Illia felt like she was going to lose her mind with fear.
Who on earth? For what purpose am I…?
At that moment, along with the sound of something heavy moving, a small amount of light came in.
Using the momentary light to look around, she saw stone walls and dully gleaming iron bars here and there.
…It seemed to be a prison.
The sound that was probably the door came again and darkness returned.
But at that time, a faint light entered again along with the sound of footsteps, and the sound of something being dragged.
The footsteps and the light were approaching her.
A strong tension flowed through Illia’s body.
And, when those footsteps stopped.
“Oh my, it seems you’ve woken up?”
It’s a voice she had heard before. And quite recently at that.
But the emotion contained in that voice was very unfamiliar.
Excitement, or joy.
It sounded completely different from the cold and dry voice she had heard until just now.
“The timing seems quite good. I was just thinking it was about time for a shift.”
“La…Lady Eve…? What on earth is…”
Instead of answering, Eve opened the barred door of the prison where Illia was confined and entered.
Then she threw something down next to Illia.
It fell next to Illia with a thud!
Illia unknowingly shifted her gaze towards it.
And immediately regretted it.
“Hik!”
It was a person wearing tattered clothes.
Though the clothes were tattered, the body’s condition was clean.
But regardless of that, her face was terribly distorted with pain.
From her slightly open mouth, saliva was dripping, and she was exhaling faint breathing sounds.
“C…Chloe…?”
It was Chloe, a woman who had been working as a personal servant just like herself, and who had been with her until just now.
There was a big gap with her usual self, who always carried out her duties faithfully with a calm expression, and this transformed appearance made Illia start to tremble.
“Puhit”
Illia’s gaze moved to the source of the laughter that erupted, incongruously with the situation, to Eve.
Eve’s face, illuminated by the lamp, wore a crooked smile.
“Puhuhu…Ahahahaha!!”
Eventually, Eve burst into loud laughter as if she could no longer hold it in.
“Haha…no, I’m really sorry, it’s just too funny.”
Gathering her erupting laughter, Eve looked at Illia.
Illia couldn’t understand the situation.
Why on earth?
I just came to deliver a letter…
Why am I suffering like this?
As Illia was thinking this, Eve’s chilling voice entered her ears.
“Did you really not expect this to happen?”
Illia looked up at Eve, trembling.
Eve’s expression, which had been full of ecstasy until just now, was now filled with contempt.
“After having insulted your master so much until now, did you really not know this would happen?”
Illia’s mind became even more confused.
Insulted my master?
Me?
Looking at that appearance, Eve made a strange expression.
“It seems you really have no awareness.”
Slap!
Along with a loud sound, a sharp pain struck Illia’s right cheek.
Simultaneously, a sensation of her head spinning.
Along with that sensation, a cold voice entered Illia’s ears.
“Well, it doesn’t matter whether you have awareness or not at this point.”
Slap!
And a following impact on the opposite cheek.
Now Illia couldn’t regain her senses.
“It’s too late for words like ‘It wasn’t my will~’ or ‘I was being controlled~’.”
For several hours, the sound of primitive beating echoed in the prison.
By the time Eve was catching her rough breath and about to stop her aching hands, Illia’s face was swollen due to Eve’s one-sided assault.
Due to the great pain and mental shock, tears were streaming from Illia’s eyes.
“I’m… sorry, please… forgive me…”
“……”
Illia began to cry and beg for forgiveness, unable to think of anything.
But Eve’s eyes were coldly frozen.
That’s understandable, as she had just seen the same scene a few hours ago.
Chloe too had shown such an appearance in the face of one-sided violence.
Then…
Eve opened her mouth with a feeling of experimenting.
“Then, leave the duke’s family.”
“…What?”
“Quit being a servant, and get out of the Ignis duke family, I’m saying.”
“……”
“Can you do that?”
To be honest.
Working at the duke’s family, and working as a personal servant of the duke’s family is very attractive.
But it’s not enough to endure and continue even while being beaten like this.
So, well, even if she said she would quit being a servant, Eve had no intention of letting her go originally.
She had made the same proposal to Chloe as well.
Chloe, who, like Illia in front of her, had been crying for forgiveness with her heart broken due to one-sided violence.
But the moment she heard ‘leave the duke’s family’.
“Th…that’s the one thing I can’t do!”
Ah, as expected.
It’s the same reaction as Chloe.
It was almost like an instinct.
They refused to leave the duke’s family as if such a thing was impossible.
“Why?”
“Huh…?”
“Why don’t you want to leave the duke’s family?”
“That…that’s…”
Illia made a troubled expression.
She’s making that kind of expression again.
Chloe too didn’t want to leave the duke’s family even if it meant being beaten to death, but she couldn’t explain the reason herself.
There is definitely something.
It may not be magical, but these people are certainly being controlled by something.
Eve judged it that way.
But if it’s not magic, there’s a limit to what she can investigate.
For the time being, she had no choice but to observe the situation, respond accordingly, and find the cause and countermeasures.
“Well, if you dislike it that much, it can’t be helped.”
“…”
Illia still seemed confused.
She was still muttering things like ‘I… why…’
“I’ve hated you all since I was young.”
Eve suddenly began talking about herself.
Her face seemed to be looking at some distant place.
“Loving family, and our Riel who is more lovely and cute than anyone else.”
When she brings up Riel, her expression is truly overwhelmed with happiness.
“The servants too all diligently served us, and at that time, saying it was happy is inadequate.”
And suddenly, a coldly frozen expression
“But then that guy appeared, Allen Ludwig.”
“……”
Allen’s name that sprang from Eve’s mouth.
When that name emerged, Illia reacted.
And Eve didn’t miss that reaction.
“At first, well, I thought it could be because he’s polite and his face is decent.”
Illia’s body was slightly convulsing.
“But, as if everyone had gone mad, they seemed to have forgotten who their master was?”
Eve’s gaze turned towards Chloe, who had fainted with a distorted face.
“Even Chloe, who loyally followed me.”
Eve’s teeth grinding.
She then approached Illia, sat in front of her eyes, and made eye contact.
“With just the strength of a child, my beating was nothing, and I was afraid to use magic because I might kill them…”
Eve brought her face close to Illia.
Eve’s hand moved to Illia’s swollen face, and a bit of magical power began to be released from that hand.
“Being still young, it was hard to meet my father who was outside the house, and when I tried to report by letter, they diverted the letters among themselves.”
The magical power released from Eve’s hand was healing Illia’s face.
But Illia showed no reaction, with a blank expression.
“Well, in the latter part, I misunderstood and gave up on my own… but even now I’m trying to correct it.”
Illia was muttering something small with a blank face.
Eve, seeing that, slightly tilted her ear towards Illia’s mouth.
“Allen…Allen…Allen…Allen…Allen…Allen…Allen…Allen…Allen…Allen…Allen…Allen…Allen…”
“……”
Eve looked at that sight with an expression that said ‘as expected’.
Chloe too had shown such a reaction when Allen’s name came up.
It must be Allen Ludwig without a doubt.
What is that guy doing?

She can’t know his means, and she can’t catch the evidence.
It felt like her insides were burning.
Her insides were boiling with indignation.
…Then, she should release it.
Slap!
Eve struck Illia’s face once more after the healing was complete.
With that shock, Illia seemed to come to her senses and looked at Eve.
“Huh…? Huh huh…?”
“…Like Chloe, you’re really not in your right mind, are you?”
Eve unfastened the handcuffs on Illia’s body.
Though the handcuffs were unfastened and Illia was free, she only trembled, watching Eve’s pressure.
Eve grabbed her nape firmly.
“I understand that you don’t want to leave the duke’s family.”
“Y…yes…”
“Then, I’ll have to make you want to leave.”
So, Eve firmly grabbed Illia and began to drag her somewhere.
Illia was being dragged along, unable to judge how the situation was unfolding.
“Wh…what exactly are you trying to do…?”
“You know, I’ve fought quite a lot since joining the magic corps?”
Illia looked at Eve with a blank expression at her sudden story.
“Basically, I faced magical beasts, but there were also many cases of facing people… like bandits or wanted criminals.”
Eve was smiling.
It was certainly a gentle-looking smile, but for some reason, Illia was fearful and scared of that smile.
“So, I’ve come to know by feel how much burning it takes for a person to die.”
“Su…surely not…?”
“Chloe endured for quite a while before ending up like that, but I wonder how long you can endure?”
Illia could only scream and struggle.