“I told Father to assign you as my guard knight. He said he would consider it.”

“……Not interested.”

“Is it because of the confession I made last time? You can take your time to think about that. You’re suffering right now.”

“It’s not for you to worry about.”

“Won’t you let me worry about you…?”

The man who was two heads taller than others sighed as he looked down at the woman who came up to his chest.

The two people standing on the castle walls in the winter wind were clearly of different classes to anyone who saw them.

In reality, one was a Lycan and one was human, and from the novel’s perspective, one was a main character and one was an extra.

The woman pressed her body against the man’s arm, citing the cold as an excuse.

Even through the thick fabric, she could feel his muscles were as hard as rock.

The woman’s eyes looking up were filled with love, while the man’s eyes staring straight ahead were cold.

The scene quickly changed.

The woman lying on the bed stroked the bare chest of the man above her and gripped his shoulders tightly.

“It’s okay. Just do it.”

The man was silent. He looked aroused, and at the same time, agonized.

As if using all his strength to hold back, he just took ragged breaths without touching the woman trapped under his arms.

Blood came from his tightly bitten lips.

“Raoul……”

The woman’s gaze wavered at the sight. With her mouth turned down as if about to cry, she pushed his shoulders away with trembling hands.

The woman sobbed loudly and beat the man’s agonized chest wildly.

“You’ll die if you don’t do it! If you hate me that much, let’s at least cover your eyes, okay? You don’t even have to think of me. I won’t make a sound. Please, that would work, right……”

The woman’s voice shook thinly with tears at the end.

“Diana, undo the imprinting magic.”

“I can’t do that. You’ll die if you leave.”

Crumbling beneath the large body, the woman clenched her lips and tried not to make a sound.

Hot tears flowed down her temples.

There were no loving kisses or sweet conversations between the two. It was just a time for ‘release’.

Gasp!

The young body woke up as if having a seizure.

Lately, falling asleep was frightening.

Ever since meeting Raoul, visions of the past kept haunting Diana like ghosts.

When she dreamed, her heart felt heavy with guilt.

The terrible atrocities committed by the extra villain felt as if they were her own.

Diana rubbed her reddened eyelids and got out of bed.

Nap time was now over.

[This is the timeline separator]

“What day is it today?”

As she was about to leave the room to head to the library, she saw Angela talking with the servants.

The atmosphere in the mansion was somewhat noisier than usual.

Angela noticed Diana and came over to explain the situation.

“There was a big fight today, they say.”

“Who fought?”

“The slaves doing repair work.”

Diana flinched in surprise.

“Is that why everyone is so excited?”

“Yes, that’s right. Since interspecies battles aren’t something you can see just anywhere, everyone’s disappointed they missed out on a good show.”

Most non-humans had physical abilities far superior to humans.

They could run faster than ordinary people and had 3 to over 10 times more strength.

They were superior beings that humans wouldn’t dare to face without the power of magic.

In particular, elves and lycans were treated as precious due to their small populations.

It wasn’t strange for them to become a topic of conversation.

“I see. It’s good if it ended without any serious incident.”

It would have been better if she had just left it at that, but the behind-the-scenes story Angela added was truly shocking.

“Without incident? It was crazy – a small boy and a dwarf fought, apparently.”

“……A small boy?”

“Yes, and more shockingly, they say the boy was a lycan.”

Diana’s heart sank.

“A young lycan, where did such a rare specimen come from? I heard the Duke found out and took him to the training grounds……”

The blood drained from Diana’s face.

‘The training grounds?’

Her body moved before she could even think.

She could feel the passing servants looking at her strangely, but now was not the time to worry about such things.

When Father found a slave he liked, he would make them duel in the training grounds until they died.

Those who survived would be trained to become the duke’s loyal dogs through training, but in most cases, both would die.

‘What kind of duel is he planning with that young child?’

At the training grounds she ran to in one breath, there were many servants secretly watching.

Through the crowd, she saw the Duke holding a wooden sword and Raoul already covered in blood.

‘He’s crazy. He’s facing him directly!’

Diana swallowed hard and hesitated for a moment.

‘Didn’t you vow not to get involved anymore?’

‘Are you really confident you can treat Raoul without bias?’

As she closed her eyes tightly in distress, she heard the sound of the wooden sword being raised.

Whoosh!

There was no more time to delay.

Diana pushed through the hired hands and ran to the center of the training grounds.

“Stop this!”

Diana blocked the battered Raoul.

The Duke was momentarily taken aback by Diana’s sudden appearance, but soon narrowed his eyes and showed displeasure.

“Diana, move aside. This is not your business.”

“He’s in no condition for a duel right now.”

“The one behind you seems to think differently.”

She heard the sharp sound of teeth baring behind her back.

It was not the kind of spirit that should come from a mere 10-year-old child.

A faint smile appeared on the Duke’s cold face.

Diana was anxious, feeling like she would be chased away at any moment.

‘What should I say to cover this up?’

The Duke’s gaze looking down at her was as cold as ice. Diana decided to engage in a battle of logic instead of begging.

“The child behind me thinks the same as I do. Because he’s my person that I discovered.”

He’s a child so let him go, he’s hurt so don’t do this. Such appeals to compassion would never work with the villain.

The Duke raised one eyebrow crookedly at the sudden claim of ownership.

“That one should be the one I captured.”

Diana also responded without backing down.

“……You didn’t even know about the lycan’s existence, so why are you doing this now? I treated and revived him when your subordinate almost killed him. He’s my person since I saved someone you were about to lose originally.”

“This is the first I’m hearing of this.”

It was the first time in her life that she had talked back to her father. Beads of sweat formed on Diana’s forehead.

Although she had already lived 20 years as the Duke’s daughter, she knew nothing about the man who was her father.

Except for the fact that he was extremely cold-hearted and hated his daughter.

The Duke thought for a moment, then handed over the wooden sword with an inscrutable expression. Diana just looked up at that cold face silently.

‘Why is he giving me the wooden sword….’

When she didn’t take it and remained wary, the Duke moved one step closer to Diana’s side.

A low growl rumbled from behind Diana as the Duke moved.

It was a fierce sound as if about to pounce at any moment.

“I like his spirit.”

“Please don’t set your sights on him……”

The Duke looked down at Diana for a moment, then replied with an expressionless face.

“I’ll give you 3 days. Heal him and send him to the training grounds. If he wins, I’ll do as you say.”

“……And if not?”

“If he can’t win, there’s no reason to waste food in the Duke’s castle. He’ll be sent to the capital with the other slaves right away.”

Father was a Sword Master and at the same time a monster called the Empire’s hero.

Whether given 3 days or 3 years, the result was obvious…… Diana frowned her big eyes with frustration.

“3 days, just say you don’t want to give him to me.”

He pointed to a rough-looking man and said.

“I’ll set Ellen as the opponent. He even knocked out an adult dwarf. Isn’t this fair enough?”

Diana was dissatisfied but kept her mouth shut, grateful that it wasn’t her father at least.

‘Still, sending out an army lieutenant against a mere 10-year-old lycan?’

The Duke, thinking the conversation was over, simply gave his notification and immediately left the training grounds.

Diana sank down to the ground as if all her strength had left her.

‘A battle of wills with my birth father, how exhausting.’

She had never wished for a happy family, but it was extremely nauseating that the huge landmine lurking inside was family.

Squeak…

“Oh no, are you okay?”

A young, dying moan was heard from behind her.

How could she have forgotten about Raoul, the most important one? Diana immediately turned around to check the child’s condition.

Raoul collapsed as soon as the Duke left the training grounds.

Fortunately, Diana quickly offered her embrace from below, or he would have hit his head on the ground.

She quickly examined the wounds visible on his face and between his tunic.

It was a sight too painful to look at with both eyes open.

Between the torn cloth, there were wounds scraped by sharp blades, and yellow and blue bruises appeared repeatedly.

Raoul couldn’t even open his eyes and was breathing heavily.

Diana, who was holding his head cradled in her arms, placed a hand on his forehead and cried out in shock.

“Someone please help…!”

His fever was too high.

[This is the timeline separator]

“Young miss, do you really intend to let him sleep here?”

Angela looked down at Raoul with disapproving eyes.

The boy occupying the bed had bandages wrapped all over his body and couldn’t even open his eyes.

Even though she was from a fallen viscount family, Angela was a young lady from a proud and arrogant noble family.

There was a clear social order set by the empire, and she couldn’t understand the very idea of letting a slave sleep in a noble’s room.

“He’s still a child. Someone needs to look after him through the night.”

“How many servants do you think will move at the young miss’s command in this Duke’s castle?”

“Countless, I’m sure, but I don’t think they would care for this child as much as I would.”

Unable to argue back, Angela let out a deep sigh.

“As you saw earlier, he’s dangerous. How can he not even flinch in front of the Duke?”

“Even though he’s young, he probably hasn’t lost his pride as a lycan.”

Diana said as she changed the wet cloth and placed it on Raoul’s forehead.

Outside the window, the sunset glow was already fading.

The events of today felt like a distant dream to Diana. It didn’t feel real.

She thought she could live normally until important events occurred, since this was a life she had already experienced once.

But this hopeless unrequited love repeat offender was still an unreformable fool who couldn’t break habits from when he was 3 years old.

When danger signals that something might happen to Raoul were detected, her body reacted before her head.

Diana pondered as she looked down at Raoul who had fallen into a deep sleep.

She had managed to save him, but couldn’t predict what would happen next.

‘How did things end up like this…… If you get taken to the imperial family… what about the original story?’

The point where he started appearing in earnest in the novel was when the female protagonist, Ayla, was captured and brought to the Duke’s castle.

Therefore, if Raoul could just stay in the Duke’s castle right now, the original story wouldn’t change and Diana wouldn’t be in a situation where she couldn’t predict the future.

However, to do that, he had to win the duel against Ellen.

‘Can he win?’

As things were flowing differently from her previous life, the results were also unpredictable.

Before her regression, instead of being sent to the imperial family, he becomes the family’s property.

The circumstances of Raoul remaining in the Duke’s castle are also different from now.

In the process of grading the slaves, Benjamin, the assistant, first notices the existence of the young lycan.

Since they had already filled the quota of tribute slaves to be sent to the imperial family anyway, he decides to keep the rare specimen Raoul and utilize him as military force.

At the time, the Duke was busy preparing for the escort, and since it was a matter Benjamin processed with paperwork, he didn’t pay much attention to Raoul.

In this life too, there would be no problem if he could just defeat Ellen.

However, if there was one problem…

‘How can he win in this state….’

His forehead was like a fireball. She had applied handfuls of herbs and barely managed to feed him the potion prescribed by the doctor, but there were too many wounds.

‘They definitely said it was a dwarf.’

There was no reason to torment such a young child this severely unless it was personal grudge.

As she carefully wiped around his neck with a towel since he had sweated so much, his pained expression as he gasped for breath looked so pitiful.

‘Why are you so miserable…?’

Diana placed a wet cloth on his forehead with a guilty heart.

All of this had occurred due to the butterfly effect caused by her actions being different from her previous life.

She should have just quietly pretended not to know…!

Diana sighed heavily and stayed by his side all night.