There, her older sister died.

Hoping to bring Yuan within a year to create a new family.

There is Yuan’s new family.

A family still imperfect without Louise.

But the only lifeline to escape from terrible relatives immediately.

The grandeur of the magnificent mansion welcomed after passing through the pure white winter forest repeatedly awakened Yuan’s dulled sense of reality.

Her older sister had died, and Yuan, the younger sister, took her place.

It is a marriage that is itself a transaction between the imperial family and noble houses.

“That place will become my home now.”

Without even a wedding ceremony. As soon as she passed through the castle gates, she became the wife and family of a man.

The seventh or eighth wife of… the monster called the Dethroned Prince Clard Yufris.

***

The carriage was blocked from the entrance of the mansion.

Yuan jumped out first, watching Duke Kompani undergo inspection, then carefully followed.

A black iron fence, about two spans taller than the well-built guard, surrounded the mansion.

It must be for security or protection, but to Yuan’s eyes, it just looked like a prison.

“…”

And how about the main building of the mansion, grand enough to make one’s mouth gape.

The garden, which seemed untouched by human hands, hid its ugliness covered with snow like a blanket.

Following that pitiful white garden with her gaze, there was a black mansion with an alien and artificial color in this white world.

The mansion, like a piece of black charcoal dropped by a giant, was so grand that it made the surroundings look even more desolate.

Yuan’s eyes trembled slightly at the scale, impressive enough to take one’s breath away even from a distance.

“It really is a pitch-black mansion.”

To think that this was all she could say. But Duke Kompani, who had finished his business with the guards, quickly responded to her words.

“It was originally called the Red Brick Mansion.”

“?”

“It was once engulfed in flames around the time the Emperor ascended to the throne.”

Duke Kompani traced the mansion as if reminiscing about memories, then passed through the iron gate alone. Leaving only the words that he would report and return, so wait.

Yuan closed her mouth for a moment and slowly examined the mansion.

Now that she heard it, it felt even more eerie. A fire so big that not a single red brick was visible on such a massive mansion, and it wasn’t even cleaned up.

It must have been about 10 years since the current Emperor ascended to the throne.

Even though Clard Yufris is a dethroned prince, he’s still of imperial blood, so why leave it like this, no different from blackened ashes?

‘As if on display.’

Yuan became solemn not at the grandeur of the mansion, but at the past it might hold.

Did Louise also look at the mansion like this here?

What thoughts did she have while looking at the mansion?

***

As Duke Kompani entered the second-floor corridor guided by the butler, a pungent smell of medicine stung his nose.

It was evidence that the master of the mansion was awake.

He passed through the door that opened immediately without any separate announcement and bowed his head respectfully.

“Your Highness. How great must your grief be that the eighth princess consort has passed away.”

As expected, there was no answer.

Kompani slowly raised his head.

He saw Duke Lev nodding in greeting as he looked at him, and the side profile of a blond man sprawled in a rocking chair, not even giving a glance towards the door.

The one with his eyes closed in the middle of the day with curtains drawn almost like blackout curtains was the dethroned prince Clard Yufris.

He was the master of this black mansion.

Duke Kompani tried to speak calmly and gently, hiding his tension.

“Fortunately, her younger sister, Lady Yuan Peliesse, has been appointed as the new princess consort and has come together.”

Light leaked through the slightly parted curtains like a thick thread.

The light glinted precisely at the tip of the dethroned prince’s nose stretched towards the ceiling.

Duke Kompani, who had been staring blankly at it, added.

“She is a beauty no less than Lady Louise. She is also gentle in nature. She will surely make a good wife. She is waiting in front of the mansion now.”

Due to Clard not answering no matter what was said, Duke Lev beside him quietly cleared his throat.

Below the long eyelashes that cast shadows, dark purple eyes briefly revealed themselves.

Duke Kompani held his breath and waited for the dethroned prince’s answer.

“Waiting. For me?”

The deeply sunken voice was closer to a whisper than trying to communicate with someone.

Duke Kompani grabbed onto that faint voice as if clutching it and answered.

“Yes. Since she has traveled a long way, it would be proper for you to go out personally-”

“Wouldn’t it be better for both of us if I don’t go out?”

It was a question, but there was no great will behind it.

Leaving only words that were confusing whether they were a monologue or a question, the languid eyes that had been revealed hid back into the smooth eyelids.

The dethroned prince Clard Yufris continued speaking without giving a single smile or glance.

“If the imperial family wants to bring a new woman into my mansion, it would be better if I don’t go out. You know it, I know it, and Duke Lev here knows it too.”

Duke Kompani traced with his eyes Clard’s state, who hadn’t even closed his nightgown and had almost his entire upper body exposed, then forced a smile.

“I will report to the palace that the ninth bride has safely entered the mansion.”

Duke Kompani shifted his gaze from Clard, who still had his eyes closed, to meet Duke Lev’s eyes.

It meant that the responsibility for the new dethroned princess consort was now entirely passed to Clard.

Duke Lev nodded with his lips set in a hard line.

***

As Duke Kompani left, Clard’s eyes suddenly opened again in the darkness.

His sensitive gaze reached the window hidden by the curtains.

Although nothing could be seen, he immediately frowned.

The chilly aura he had only half shown to Duke Kompani immediately engulfed Duke Lev standing beside him.

“Bride?”

“That’s what they say, Your Highness.”

“Cut out that ‘Your Highness’ nonsense. How long have you been a jester of the Yufris, and you’re still going on about ‘Your Highness’?”

“As Duke Kompani said, there is a carriage carrying the princess consort in front of the mansion.”

“Princess consort.”

Clard repeated the duke’s words and laughed.

His thin lips twisted and stretched wide on both sides.

His white teeth gleamed in the shadows.

“In front of others, they’d call her the dethroned princess consort. It’s so predictable it’s tiresome. Well, how will the news come out this time? The violent history of women of the dethroned prince whose previous eight wives died, disappeared, or ran away – should we just watch?”

“…”

“A killing party in the black mansion. Something like that?”

“It’s not Your Highness’s fault.”

“Who said it was my fault?”

Clard, who had been sprawled in the rocking chair, shrugged his shoulders and stood up.

The old chair creaked and screamed until he stood straight.

Duke Lev waited quietly without adding any more words.

Clard went to the console opposite him and opened the first drawer.

Then he tore open a medicine packet with rough movements and chewed and swallowed it without water.

It was because of the headache he usually experienced after meeting the royal dog watching his reactions.

His long fingers with thick joints naturally pressed against his throbbing forehead.

His sensitively honed voice scattered carelessly in the space.

“Just tell them to start looking for the tenth dethroned princess consort from now, Uncle. How about preparing a coffin or divorce papers in advance? So my wife can choose.”

“Don’t you have any intention of trying?”

Duke Lev asked, watching Clard tear open another medicine packet. His voice was dripping with regret.

“Even if you can’t live honorably. You can live happily.”

“Here we go again. Is that your idea of happiness, Uncle? Embracing a woman, seeing children. Laughing and chattering while playing the role of husband and father?”

Duke Lev closed his mouth.

Clard, with bloodshot eyes clearly visible, spread his arms towards him and laughed like a clown.

“Look at my state, Duke.”

“Your Highness…”

The half of his body that had been shrouded in shadow was fully revealed to Duke Lev.

Clard’s smile was very brief, as if he disliked showing his body to even a single ray of light.

His bloodshot eyes quickly hid in the shadows, gleaming like a wounded beast.

“Who would want a husband like me?”

Duke Lev politely clasped his hands together and swallowed.

Before him stood the young man who was once called the most beautiful youth of Yufris.

The opposite side of his stunningly beautiful half-face was horrific.

Skin that seemed to have hardened in the shape of thick blood vessels bulging and intertwining like animal entrails.

That area, which looked rough and hard as tree bark if touched, was hideous beyond description, as if it had suffered a terrible burn.

The traces of that dreadful day extended not only to his face but also to his exposed upper body and below.

In other words, exactly half of his body was vertically split, damaged and hideously mangled.

The cruel curse was even more heartbreaking because the intact half of his body was so white and beautiful it dazzled the eyes.

Duke Lev carefully examined Clard before him and closed his eyes.

Even though 10 years have passed, time has stopped here.

When the previous emperor died, his older brother, Grand Duke Igor, tried to kill his young nephew to usurp the next throne, and failed.

Instead, he left a terrible mark.

Somehow, his whole body, which had been horribly cut, turned pitch black as if rotting and festering.

He suffered from excruciating pain every night that made his hands and feet curl up, and during the day he became extremely sensitive due to the aftereffects of pain and insomnia.

Even foreign magicians were called in and every effort was made for treatment, but the beautiful prince eventually had to give up half of his body.

Clard Yufris, who became the dethroned prince when his uncle Igor Yufris ascended to the throne, confined himself to this black mansion.

He didn’t even come out of the bedroom, so it was like being in prison.

That time was 10 years. A full 10 years.

It was too much for a 14-year-old boy who hadn’t even gone through puberty to handle.

No one could understand his feelings and pain.

Duke Mosan Lev opened his eyes, grasping his numbing heart.

Clard’s eyes, sensitized by pain, were still staring at him intensely.

With a face that seemed to know exactly what he was thinking.

“Who would want a father like me?”