Author's Note : All of the original dialogues were re-translated into English by me from the Indonesian translation by our director, Arie Wijaya. Some words were also taken from Sparknotes' modern English version.

"Your mistress? What kind of mistress do you have?"

I grunted in frustration. "Your wife, master. My mistress," I emphasized every word. "She and her sister are at The Phoenix. They are waiting for you for lunch. They also pray for you to come back."

"What?" my master exclaimed, throwing back my frustration at me. "I've told you not to tell jokes to me right now. Now you take this! And this!"

"Stop! What are you doing?" I said as I dodged his first two blows. I expected another high blow when he suddenly threw himself at me. That was new. I could evade the unusual attack, but it had been so sudden that I had to let myself crouch on the ground. Before I could turn around to anticipate the next attack, my master was already on top of me, throwing some more blows on my head, just by my right ear. "Ouch! Stop, sir! For God's sake, stop this!" I cried as my master hit me.

Using the unusual same pattern over and over again, I could see my master's next blow. I thanked God for my life-long-lesson of dodging my master's punches, though his fist wasn't as firm as usual this time. I caught his wrist right before his fist landed on my head, and with one swift move, I bit it, just hard enough to make him yelp in pain and shock. Successfully bringing his guard down, I could push him and finally get away from him. "Fine!" I finally stood up. "I'll go away from you."

I finished my line dramatically, acting as if I was the victim—oh, wait, I really was. I took some unnecessary heavy steps before I heard Master Antipholus stood up and threatened me with nearly throwing a rock and made me run.

Huh. Using a rock as a weapon. That's also new.

I hated the fact that some merchants, who had just arrived here, had witnessed our stupid fight. Some of them must have heard what master had said. They must have thought that I was some kind of fraud, who had gone away with my master's gold—I could only pray that none of them would call a guard. I didn't want to be seen as a liar. But more important than that, I would get even more blows if I got into the prison. It was either because of my master would have to pay for me, or my mistress would be even angrier that I didn't come back, or both.

Now somebody was approaching me.

Damn.

When this foreigner started to talk with a weird accent, I had just realized that my ear was ringing because I couldn't really hear what he was saying. I had to pretend to not understand what he was saying instead of honestly saying that my ear was ringing. Oh, now I was a liar.

I left the old man and walked away as I was still rubbing my right ear. And I had just noticed the ache in my head—and the growling of my stomach. Oh, if only master hadn't disappeared this morning.

What the hell was wrong with my master anyway?

He had looked somehow different just now. It was like he hadn't been joking. It was as if he hadn't been my master. He hadn't been standing as straight as my master usually did and his blow had even felt different.

Hell. I even memorized how his blows felt by my heart.

Though he hit me every day, I was sure I didn't deserve what he had just done to me. I was sure I hadn't done anything wrong this morning. I had just gone to the market to find the best leather for Luce, but I wouldn't have gone if he had told me not to. I had certainly spent some extra time finding the leather—just a couple of hour, I was sure, but master hadn't given me any task today! Let alone giving me one thousand—one fucking thousand marks.

My master never gave me anything more than a little money, beside five to ten ducats twice a year, on Christmas and my—our birthday. Though sometimes he would give me some money if I asked—sometimes to buy clothes, leather, or something else necessary. Since our moving to The Phoenix, master was even more careless about money. He would throw away anything he thought was unnecessary anymore. It was easier for me to get some extra pennies—and it was very convenient, since now I had Luce. Well, the things with women. Sometimes I wanted to buy her something, or sometimes I just wanted to impress her while going out together in our free time. Sometimes I could even save those extra pennies to buy a nice stuff. But I always had to be careful with the timing. I could only just end up being beaten if I asked my master when he was in bad mood.

As I reached the last corner before the street where The Phoenix was, I realized that I had failed the task my mistress had given me. Now my mistress would beat me, too. How could I convince her that I had really looked for Master Antipholus for the whole hour? I had thought that he would be at The Porcupine, or The Tiger, or maybe at one of the shops he often visited. The owner of the leather shop I had visited this morning said that he saw my master with some rich merchants about half an hour ago. I then had expected that he might have been on his way to have lunch and I had decided to go back to The Tiger. But instead, there he had been, curiously standing near the harbor.

Now how could I say those all in three seconds—the limit my mistress had to listen to someone else's story, before she lashed out?

Oh, I wished I could tell Luce to cover me, so I wouldn't be seen. I hope someday one of the inventors would create a device that could make us talk from a distant place. Or maybe—maybe I could just sneak out and silently go inside and straight to the kitchen, without going through the dining hall. Making up my mind, I nodded to myself as I realized that I was already a few meters away from the house.

Wait. I stopped right in front of the door, just five steps away. But my mistress would surely hunt me down if I didn't show up as soon as possible, let alone deliberately avoiding her. I turned back and took two steps just to do the same thing so that I went back to my original position. I messed my hair in frustration, accidentally scratched my bruised head in result. With a loud sigh, I finally took the last steps and reached for the door handle. Right before I touched the handle, the door burst opened. I jumped backwards as I saw Miss Luciana holding the door from the inside. My eyes flickered several times before she closed the door again.

I cursed as I really had to go inside now that Miss Luciana would surely tell Mistress Adriana that I was here. With one final sigh, I opened the door, facing my judgment for today.