Kaelan

My consciousness slowly returned, as though rising from underwater.

The irregular vibration of squeaking wheels rolling along a dirt road.

The sound of horseshoes striking steel.

I tried to open my eyes to assess the situation, but all I could see was pitch-black darkness.

Both my legs were tightly bound, and when I reached out with my bound hands, I felt a rough wooden wall.

‘A confined space. Judging by the sound of hooves and the vibrations, I’m inside a carriage. Judging by the sensation around my wrists, my hands are enclosed in steel.’

In this state, escape was impossible—and even if I did escape, I wouldn’t survive.

I retraced my last memories.

One by one, they rose through the fog.

The voice of the nobleman who had ordered them to bring me to him.

The knight who stabbed me with a sword and dragged me away.

And… and.

And someone whose body had been growing cold.

The sensation of blood pouring over me.

His final words, cut off as he coughed up bloody froth.

The weight of him growing cold atop me.

Noah.

The moment his name surfaced, neither tears nor screams came.

I simply curled up in the darkness.

It felt as though everything inside me had been pierced by that cold blade and died with him.

I slowly moved my hand and felt the wound in my side.

Though my flesh had grown back smooth and unblemished, the sensation of the sword that had pierced both him and me remained vivid.

That sensation was my only proof that he had died.

My sorrow was soon buried beneath guilt.

‘If only I had been stronger.’

‘If only I hadn’t said those needless things to him.’

‘If only I… had made sure to leave him in the ossuary.’

He had died protecting me.

He, who had been weaker than me, was the one I should have protected.

And Father.

‘If only I had held on to him more tightly.’

‘If only I had escaped with him that night without Father knowing.’

He had died fighting on a perilous battlefield for my sake.

In the end, I had protected no one.

I felt the wheels pass from sticky mud onto gravel.

My guilt soon turned into anger.

Anger at my own weakness.

Kyle’s emotionless gaze as he slit Noah’s throat and looked down at me.

The arrogant smile of Marquis Beaufort, who had ordered all of this.

The flag of the Kingdom of Lumidia, which had sown the seeds of this tragedy by sending Father to his death and taking Noah’s life.

A cold, seething hatred for all of it.

Only then did the tears begin to fall.

The hot tears could not run down my face; they were all absorbed by the cloth wrapped around my eyes.

In this place where even my tears had been taken from me, I carved the images of Father and Noah into my heart.

A quiet funeral of my own, with neither mourners nor corpses.

In the darkness, I quietly stroked the ring on my middle finger.

I remembered Father’s final warmth, his farewell, Noah’s final weight growing cold above me, and his last voice lingering beside my ear.

So that I would not forget.

So that I would never forgive.

‘This time, you protected me, but from now on, Noah… I’ll protect you.’

Your death.

Your final courage.

And all the burdens Father had carried.

From everything that had trampled them so mercilessly.

Sorrow turned to ash and vanished, leaving behind only a cold blade called vengeance.

______

A season had passed since Noah’s death.

The vibration and sound of the carriage that had carried me to the marquis’s secondary residence that day gradually faded, and at some point, all that surrounded me was a cramped space that left no room to move and the smell of old wood.

My hands and feet were bound as they had been then, but I could see.

Unlike the carriage, I could escape from this place, but I did not resist.

Even if I broke out of the box, I could not escape with my hands and feet bound.

And I had been handed a new opportunity.

Holding my breath, I waited in the darkness for the box to stop.

As I waited, the memories I wanted to forget rose like dust drifting through the box.

The education the marquis ordered for me was not normal.

They were not trying to break me and turn me into a pretty doll and nothing more.

They were merely polishing my exterior.

After arriving at the estate, I was given nutritious meals every day.

My hair was tended with expensive oils.

My skin was smoothed with bathwater infused with herbs and flower petals.

They fattened me up and cared for me meticulously, as though I were livestock being prepared for shipment.

Whenever I used profanity, spoke in a masculine manner, violated dining etiquette, or failed to walk like a woman, a whip came down immediately.

The pain tore through my flesh and reverberated through my bones.

Regardless of my screams, they immediately treated my wounds.

The wounds touched by the priest’s hands stopped bleeding, and flesh grew back over them.

They left me with nothing but the pain and erased the wounds as though they had never existed.

I obediently went along with their efforts to prepare me as a gift for someone, while making several attempts to escape, but every one of them was stopped in advance.

I changed my plan when escape offered no hope.

My beauty, which had been exceptional to begin with, was gradually blossoming further under their systematic care.

All I had left now was this body.

The fact that the marquis was educating me meant that I had a use.

A gift to be sent to someone.

‘Let’s use this beauty, this body, as weapons and as an opportunity for revenge.’

Revenge was all that remained, and my body no longer mattered to me.

I would use the beauty and body the marquis had cultivated as weapons, seduce whoever took possession of me, and win my freedom.

And somehow, I would take revenge on Kyle, Beaufort, and the Kingdom of Lumidia.

After that, I changed my plan and obediently followed their education.

I pretended to be the perfect doll they wanted.

However, their education was bizarre beyond comprehension.

Even when I attempted to escape or swung a blade I had secretly obtained, they merely restrained me and did not punish me.

There was not even a trace of anger in their eyes.

Only bored, emotionless gazes.

Rather, whenever I played the obedient doll, disappointment flickered in Kyle’s eyes.

He provoked me by bringing up Noah.

When his endless insults put a murderous glint in my eyes, a satisfied smile spread across his lips.

“Yes, those eyes. Never forget them from now on.”

They did not seem to want my anger or murderous intent to subside.

I realized.

This was not meant to tame me.

It was the process of filling a beautiful vessel with lethal poison.

Before I entered this box, Marquis Beaufort, who had returned after conquering the capital, said to me as I sat quietly bound.

“Come, girl. Act as your heart desires. Do as you please and take what you want. Resist, hate, and dream of revenge.”

“…Why should I?”

“Because he will find it more beautiful.”

I mulled over those words and steadied my heart.

I had to seduce such an abnormal, bizarre man.

The thing carrying the box came to a stop.

“The item Marquis Beaufort sent to Lord Kaelan Daker has arrived.”

“Understood. Come in.”

The box rose into the air.

Judging by the way it swayed, it seemed that people were carrying it inside.

After the swaying stopped, I was set down somewhere.

“A gift from Marquis Beaufort.”

“…A gift from Marquis Beaufort. And he sent it directly to me without even going through the count.”

“Very interesting. Open it. I need to see what it is.”

A bored, languid voice, yet laced with inexplicable delight.

The man who would be my master, the man I would have to seduce.

The lid of the box opened, and dazzling light poured in.

The box’s side panels unfolded in all four directions.

I simply sat quietly with my head lowered, without frowning, just as I had been taught.

I saw the tips of a man’s expensive leather shoes.

He slowly bent down and gently lifted my chin.

It was a slender yet calloused hand, hardened by training.

Our gazes met.

At that moment, time stopped.

Navy-blue eyes.

‘…Ah.’

My first death.

Those pleasure-filled eyes that had looked down at me like an insect on a blood-soaked battlefield.

Cruel, beautiful navy-blue eyes.

It was an unexpected reunion.

However, I felt none of the fear I had felt before.

Only revenge mattered to me.

Even if he was the knight who had killed me, seducing him would be enough.

That was what I thought.

Kaelan’s hand gripping my chin trembled faintly.

“…Ah. This is… Ha… haha…”

“The slave was captured in the last war, so whatever you do, there will be no problem.”

“The marquis must be desperate. He sent me a very appealing toy.”

Kaelan did not reply to the man, as though the man’s words—that slaves were not human—were stating the obvious.

After that exchange, the hand gripping my chin spread across my entire cheek, and I felt it tighten.

I reflexively tried to pull my chin away, but it did not move an inch.

The other fingers of the hand holding my chin moved toward my eye.

“Don’t move. I have to make this perfect moment eternal.”

I felt his fingertips touch something.

Something deeper than skin.

Excruciating pain erupted in my face.

A place no one had ever touched before.

The unfamiliar pain nearly stopped my breath.

A hot, wet membrane slid out through the opening.

The light on one side went out.

Afterimages burst like sparks, scraping across my brain.

Everything tilted and tangled together.

I could not even scream.

Only then did I realize.

It was impossible to seduce this man.

To get my revenge, I had to escape from him somehow.