Merche pressed her rough eyes against her knees.

Trembling in fear as if the world was her enemy, she curled up in an unbearably narrow space.

“I imprinted on you.”

Lies.

All of Lupinus’s mates had violet eyes. But her eyes still remained a clear blue color.

A blue-eyed mate. Such a thing could not happen in Lupinus.

If only she were truly Rude’s mate, she could use that fact as leverage to propose a negotiation to Genovefa.

With these blue eyes, she couldn’t even harbor such hope.

In the end, all the outcomes given to her were despair.

“…Christine.”

She would have to say that she would obediently die, so please at least spare Christine’s life.

Even thinking about it to the point of headache, there was only one answer.

She would sacrifice herself, and in return, have Christine live.

To do that, she would also need to receive a vow upon the family name from Genovefa so that he couldn’t break his promise.

At least under the name of Lupinus, he wouldn’t dare speak lies.

That was the only way to save Christine’s life.

She had to return to the castle before it was too late. With that thought, she barely managed to get up.

“…!”

A strange pain pressed down on her heart. Her whole body echoed chillingly whenever her heart beat.

Staggering and collapsing, Merche hurriedly grasped the spot where the pain was felt with her hand.

At some point, a feeling of something crumbling like sand grains from the top of her head occurred, and the pain gradually subsided.

It was after the laurel wreath on her head had disappeared without a trace at some unknown time, but Merche didn’t notice it.

There was no time to trace back and ponder the cause of the pain.

Merche, who had calmly caught her breath, put strength into her legs and stood up again.

Time was running out.

She had to somehow find a way and return to the castle before Genovefa’s patience wore thin.

“Let go of me! You son of a bitch…! I’ll kill you!”

Christine was dragged out, thrashing in the soldiers’ hands.

Unable to see ahead, she stumbled over her own feet while struggling, but she persistently continued her resistance without giving up.

She called out loudly for her maid, Stella, whom other soldiers were carrying like luggage.

However, Stella, covered in blood, hung lifelessly without any sign of movement and didn’t give any answer.

“Stella! Stella!”

“Why call for the dead? Your eyes are not well, and now you’ll have problems with your throat too.”

“Y-you crazy bastard! Why are you doing this to me! Wasn’t it enough that you killed my parents? What have I done so wrong for you to do this!”

“Yes. I was going to tell you the reason for that anyway, Christine.”

Genovefa deeply lowered his head while looking at the enraged Christine.

“It’s because of your blood.”

“…What?”

“Your bloodline, the last remaining in this world. Your sister, Merche. She is the culprit behind everything that has happened.”

“…What, what do you mean? Why my sister?”

As if there was no more time to explain, Genovefa gestured to the soldiers, and Christine began to be dragged away again.

She screamed and even thrashed about, but to no avail.

Gradually, a shriek filled with resentment faded into the dark underground prison.

Someone died and someone was dragged to prison.

Genovefa, who had ordered it all, put a cigar in his mouth with a calm face.

As the hazy smoke rose, the butler gathered several portraits of noble ladies and held them out to him.

“As you ordered, I have compiled all the noble ladies of marriageable age in the vicinity. They are all from families under Lupinus’s influence, so they will come rushing as soon as the head of the family commands.”

“You’ve worked hard. Call them in one by one as soon as today’s proclamation ceremony is over.”

The order was given after flipping through a few of the portraits a couple of times.

The faces that several painters had drawn so fervently that their wrists ached.

All of these were created for the purpose of finding a mate for Rude.

Although it was true that Genovefa was trying to make Rude into a noble and place him in the position of heir, he was not unaware that the essence would not change no matter what.

His beast-like son would surely ruin Lupinus with his foolishness and brutality.

Before that, he had to see Rude’s child.

Finding a mate for him as soon as possible and having him bear offspring. And educating that child to become the head of the family in the next generation.

The procedures and processes for that were already densely arranged in Genovefa’s mind, as if they were a predestined future.

When would the imprinting take place? Hopefully, his son’s taste wouldn’t be too picky.

He was about to let out a laugh at the trivial thought.

At that moment, his loyal subordinate and guard knight approached him, who was standing diagonally by the window, and whispered in his ear.

“We have found the target.”

“Oh. Faster than expected. Then again, there wasn’t much time to go far. So where was that child found?”

“She was spotted in a downtown area located in Valt City. As ordered, she was captured immediately upon discovery. She will likely enter the castle soon.”

“Good. This seems to be the cleanest job you’ve done lately. Well, were there any unusual points or issues while bringing her in?”

The knight, who hesitated for a moment at his question, reported the contents received from his subordinate.

“…When pursuing, there was absolutely no sign of resistance, and she was excessively obedient.”

According to the subordinate’s report, Merche acted as if she had given up on everything.

She didn’t try to scream to attract attention or even attempt to escape, and was being dragged like a docile lamb, bound in a carriage.

Genovefa let out a soft laugh at the knight who expressed concern about whether she was trying to pull some trick.

“I roughly understand. She must have found out that her younger sister is being held hostage, though I don’t know how. She is indeed a wise child. In such a situation, isn’t it right to obediently follow along?”

“…But, Lord.”

“Speak. Is there any other matter to report?”

“Yes. The target had a message she wanted to convey to you. It was a request to allow her to attend the upcoming proclamation ceremony.”

“…At the proclamation ceremony, that child wants to attend?”

Genovefa, who was silent for a moment, smiled brightly, lifting the corners of his lips.

“I suppose she developed some affection after spending some time together. Well, that much I can grant. Assign personnel to monitor her and bring her to the banquet hall as soon as she arrives.”

He sent the knight away and slowly moved his steps toward the outdoor banquet hall.

The banquet hall, which almost all the castle servants had gathered to grandly decorate, was filled with lush shrubs and flowers in full bloom despite the winter.

Finally, it was today. The day when his son would finally reveal himself as the heir in this place.

‘If you don’t want to see me make a mess, make sure to keep your promise. If you lay a finger on Merche’s sister, I will also catch and beat up all the people showing their faces today.’

Rude, who returned to the castle only after dawn, warned fiercely to the end, his chest heaving. How utterly ridiculous it was to call that a threat.

Still, Genovefa cooed at him and promised to do so.

He had no intention of keeping it, but the proclamation ceremony had to end safely no matter what, so it would be better to cater to his foolish son’s whims until today.

After thoroughly checking and scrutinizing that there was not a single lacking part in the banquet hall, he put on a good-natured smile and naturally blended in among them.

With the sound of boisterous laughter spreading, the performance of the musicians signaling the start of the proclamation ceremony began soon.

The proclamation ceremony that Genovefa had painstakingly prepared went very smoothly.

Rude, who could not greatly go against his father’s temper as long as Merche’s sister was captured, silently carried out the ceremony, and Genovefa became a father who loved his miraculously recovered son endlessly, even shedding tears.

The climax was when he declared Rude’s accession as the heir.

“I proclaim my son, Rude Lupinus, as the next head of the family!”

In response to the hearty voice, the audience’s enthusiastic applause and cheers followed.

But at that very moment, the face of Rude, who was standing on the podium and receiving congratulations, hardened frighteningly, giving goosebumps.

Had his eyes gone blind again? So he was seeing a ridiculous hallucination? It couldn’t be like this if it weren’t for that.

Merche.

It was her. That face that Rude knew too well to be mistaken.

The woman with icy blue eyes was nonchalantly mixed among the people, looking at him.

Their gazes met, and all the sounds around faded away.

Why? Why are you here? He wanted to run to her right away, grab those shoulders, and ask.

What was she doing here? How on earth was she here?

But a unknown lump surging up from deep within his heart stopped all his thoughts.

He couldn’t even move a finger.

A sense of helplessness, terrifying enough, swept through his mind and threw him into a cruel pit of fire.

‘Rather than being by your side, it would have been better to be captured and die. Because I despise the likes of you so much that I can’t bear it. That’s why I’m abandoning you.’

The voice, which must have been an auditory hallucination, made him feel terribly and uncontrollably devastated.

He had never thought about wanting to die. But he couldn’t have been more desperate for death than this.

Rude couldn’t control his increasingly rapid breathing and finally panted.

At that moment, Merche’s and his gazes perfectly interlocked.

As if she were a demon who would bestow hell upon him, as if to leave a curse he would never forget. Merche smiled.

Flawlessly transparent and bright.

It was in that fleeting moment that the round arc, filled with harmless congratulations and blessings, became a blade and tore Rude’s soul into ten thousand pieces.