When Rude asked, half-closing one eye and then opening it again, to tell the story that once stirred up the kingdom.

“Then doesn’t that mean she’s going to be the queen? What about the current royal bastards?”

“Unfortunately, the detailed contents of the prophecy have not been passed down.”

“What the hell are you doing, raising expectations? You said it’s the power of prophecy. If that’s all you prophesy and that’s it, then anyone can be a prophet.”

“It’s not his fault. The royal family called it a prophecy with the intent of treason and exterminated his family, so he couldn’t finish the prophecy.”

“…Exterminated? They killed them all?”

Rude let out a hollow laugh, asking if they were crazy, if it made sense to exterminate a family over a single prophecy.

Looking at him like that, Merche spoke calmly.

“That is their way.”

These are things she learned over the shoulder while receiving successor education from Genovefa.

How the master of a powerful figure ends things when handling matters.

How many lives die like flies.

It was a position fundamentally incompatible with Merche.

She felt that fact over and over again while living as a successor candidate after entering the Lupinus castle.

– It doesn’t suit you. You really don’t suit the position I’m in, Merche.

Genovefa’s words were right.

This place does not suit Merche. From the beginning, it was not her place.

Suddenly, she raised her head and saw Rude mumbling curses.

A face just like Genovefa’s. The purple eyes, the symbol of Lupinus. A power qualitatively different from her, who wielded wolves like breathing.

Originally, this was Rude’s place. The moment it became undeniable, the lingering obsession that she only wanted to hold on to finally fell away.

Merche exhaled deeply. With each breath, she gradually erased the time of her past 20 years.

The pitiful days of wandering alone collapsed like a sand castle swept away by the waves.

Several days passed, filled with relentless education.

In the meantime, Rude achieved such remarkable results that he was evaluated as being quite close to a nobleman.

“Ah… I’m dying. Damn it.”

It was a night after spending an undoubtedly intense day.

Rude flopped down on the bed and looked at the ceiling.

A servant approached him with thinly sliced cheese and wine for the exhausted Rude.

After gently massaging his arms and legs and putting cheese in his mouth, Rude quickly devoured it and slowly sat up with his knees raised.

“Hey.”

“Yes, young master.”

“They said nobles can marry each other, right?”

“Yes, that’s right. Honestly, as long as they’re not slaves… these days, almost anything is possible.”

There’s a slave-born right in front of you, you clueless idiot.

He was about to curse, glaring with his eyes, but stopped.

From the moment he learned to speak, curses had been his constant companion. But now he couldn’t do that.

– Son. Nobles don’t utter vulgar words.

That’s what Genovefa, who checks Rude’s condition once every five days, said recently.

In other words, it meant to fix his way of speaking.

If he reacted with his usual temper, it was obvious that the threat of mentioning Merche would come out again, so he gritted his teeth and answered, “I’ll try to fix it.”

Anyway, it was a point that various teachers commonly pointed out, so it was definitely something that needed to be corrected.

The problem was that it was damn difficult.

When he encountered someone he wanted to smack on the forehead, like now, curses would well up from his stomach, but he managed to endure it with unprecedented patience.

“…So anything goes as long as it’s between nobles?”

Although he was a slave in the past, that past was erased by that bastard of a father, and now he was a nobleman.

He asked, having made up his mind to assume himself as a nobleman.

Then the servant glanced at him and said,

“Yes. That’s right, but… Why do you keep asking about that? Do you have someone you want to marry?”

There is someone, but it doesn’t seem like she would accept.

Rude recalled the cold eyes of a certain woman who was always calm and raised his lips fiercely.

So what? Since when did he have the noble consideration of respecting the other person’s will? If there’s something he wants, he just needs to have it.

“I’m a pretty good match, aren’t I?”

“…Of, of course. Absolutely, young master.”

“My face is tolerable, and my body isn’t too bad either, right?”

“Oh no. It’s not just ‘not bad’.”

These days, the servant was allowed to attend to Rude’s bath, so he had seen his young master’s naked body several times.

Especially that part. In other words, the part that men boast about as their pride…

The servant, recalling the extremely shocking memory, swallowed a gasp.

Our young master’s pride is unrivaled. Yep.

“Later, I’ll have this castle too, and I’ll become the head of this family. Being by my side is a good enough condition.”

Rude muttered as if his mind was elsewhere.

In fact, his mind was truly elsewhere. All his thoughts were directed towards Merche.

Merche’s position was like a half-melted sorbet.

It crumbled with Rude’s appearance and would continue to crumble in the future.

At least under the name of Lupinus, there was nothing Merche could have.

If he offered her a place by his side in such a situation?

Isn’t it quite an appetizing position? Merche, who has lost everything anyway, wouldn’t have a sweeter proposal than this.

“But young master… You do know, right?”

“What?”

“The bloodline of Lupinus can only marry their imprinted partner. You heard it from the head of the family, didn’t you?”

“Why does that matter? If I bring the woman I want and have her sit next to me, that’s it.”

“No! Young master! …That, that’s really not the case. It’s not!”

“Shut up. If I say it’s right, then it’s right.”

Rude downed the wine in one gulp and lay on the bed.

The servant who quickly followed pulled back the blanket, and the raised purple pupils looked up at him fiercely.

“Are you crazy?”

“Please, young master. Just answer one thing for me.”

“I told you to shut up. Put down what you’re holding and get out.”

“The talk about marriage and all, you’re not referring to Lady Merche, are you?”

“……”

“Young master-!”

Rude threw a pillow at the servant who shouted. He tried to roughly chase him out, telling him to get lost before he goes deaf.

Still, the servant clung to him and knelt down, reciting in a pale face.

“It can’t be. It really can’t be. She is your relative. You know that, don’t you?”

“…Relative?”

“Yes. Incest is an unforgivable sin according to the Lupinus family law. The head of the family will not allow it either.”

It was a fact he had forgotten. …No. In fact, he had intentionally pretended to forget it.

Why are Merche and I relatives? We don’t resemble each other at all.

Rude stood still like a wooden doll with a terrifyingly hardened face.

Seeing this as an opportunity, the servant hastily added.

“Anyway, the lady is not your partner. You know that, right? If the lady were your partner, her eyes would have already turned purple, but they haven’t. The lady is not your partner and cannot be your partner.”

It was something he had heard before.

The story of the Lupinus bloodline and their partner.

Like the black wolf, the divine beast of the family, those who inherit the blood of Lupinus imprint on only one person in their lifetime.

Imprinting is determined by instinct, and the partner imprinted in such a way cannot be changed afterward.

Also, those with Lupinus blood are meant to blindly love only their partner.

While imprinting can be felt by the parties involved through instinct and doesn’t need to be confirmed, there is a way to visually verify it.

When the Lupinus bloodline imprints, their partner’s eyes change to the same color as theirs.

For example, Elizabeth’s eyes were also purple.

“……”

Rude clenched his fists so hard that his nails dug into his flesh.

He had just met Merche today. So there was no way he could misremember or be mistaken.

Merche’s eyes were still the color of a blue sapphire.

A blue color that resembled the sea, far from his purple.

When Rude remained silent, the servant took it as an acknowledgment and let out a sigh of relief.

He tried to comfort his master, saying,

“Don’t be too heartbroken. Why, don’t they say that when the body is distant, the heart becomes distant too? The lady will leave the castle soon, so your painful love will also soon…”

Before he could even finish the sentence.

Rude’s eyes flashed, and he kicked the bed, getting up like lightning.

“Leave? Why would she? For what reason?”

It was sheer madness.

A burning red flame blazed in his elegant fox-like eyes as if fueled by oil.

The servant, overwhelmed by him, took a staggering step back.

“When, when you hold the successor announcement ceremony… then, then she’ll have no reason to stay here…?”

“Don’t talk nonsense. She’s not leaving here.”

Just for that reason. I can’t let her leave for such a thing.

Thoughts were intermittently cut off as if someone had set fire to his mind.

In the midst of a tangle of thoughts like a knotted thread, Rude obsessively pursued only the pretense of making it impossible for Merche to leave.

You saved me, didn’t you? You healed my beggar-like body and damn eyes, and you didn’t push me away when I held you. You did that. You did it for me.

‘…Really?’

Was it really for you?

Suddenly, a voice mixed with a sneer asked him.

He should have countered, saying that it was, that it couldn’t be otherwise. Out of nowhere, Merche’s voice whispering an apology on the day he woke up in a doctor’s clinic after being abandoned in the forest brushed past his memory.

Merche’s blind younger brother who couldn’t see what was in front of him.

The apology, guilt… and pity that filled her blue gaze whenever she looked at him.

“…Don’t make me laugh.”

It didn’t matter even if it was just sympathy.

If he blocked all the holes to escape and held on, that would be enough.

Rude, who had arbitrarily reached a conclusion, glared at the servant.

“Merche won’t leave me.”

The moment he put strength into the pronunciation by moving his tongue, there was a sound like a thin thread snapping.

It was a strange feeling. Clearly, he was standing with his feet on the ground. But it felt like he was being sucked into the abyss with each step, as if walking on sand.

Rude denied even that feeling, rejecting everything that sharply irritated his nerves.

He let out a chilling laugh without expression.