As he handed over the sword embedded in the corpse to his subordinate, the rest of the waiting soldiers began to move.

“What, is it the young lord?”

“Running away from home, and he chooses a place like this? Why did it have to be the demon’s realm? Is he trying to exhaust us?”

The Schwarz Duchy, known as the Shield of the North, owned a knighthood on par with the royal family. The dispatched search party from this duchy was a group of renowned troublemakers in the North.

“So what? Thanks to that, the captain is venting his pent-up frustrations.”

Their leader, a crazy man. Roderick Schwarz, the captain of the Duberk Knight Order, known as the Black Reaper, set out to find his younger brother, the heir to their family.

Leaving behind just a letter, Roderick’s face crumpled helplessly due to his disappearing younger brother.

If caught, he’d lock him up in the tower and make him work until he received the ducal title.

Blood’s curse aside, the monsters that incessantly appeared to disrupt his mood were perfect prey for him.

Thanks to this, his subordinates easily followed him without getting their hands dirty. Not that they were any less skilled than him.

“Hey, rookie.”

A young man, barely an adult, stood awkwardly among them, trembling.

“Yes? Yes! What can I do for you?”

The youth hurriedly approached them, suddenly alert.

“Are you scared?”

“No, no sir!”

One of the subordinates clicked his tongue seeing the startled youth.

“Why do they always send these new guys to us for initiation?”

“If they can’t handle this, they’re useless to Schwarz. He’s the only one left after all the weaklings were weeded out.”

“This batch is tough.”

“If they can stand up to our captain without wetting themselves, isn’t that a pass?”

Amid the snickering conversation, the youth was sweating profusely.

Roderick Schwarz, despite being the eldest son of the Schwarz Duchy, had given up the heir position to his younger brother.

The reason? To wander battlefields, driven by a thirst for blood.

Was the rumor true? The youth glanced at Roderick with a shiver.

Unarmored, wearing only a light outfit with a heavy uniform jacket slung over his shoulder, Roderick’s casualness was not arrogance.

He was a man whose mere presence was intimidatingly unapproachable.

Terrifyingly scary. More frightening than the fierce monsters. The youth longed to escape this place.

I sincerely want to go home. Why am I even here?

“Move out.”

At his irrefutable, deep voice, the group started to move.

Caw! As if understanding his command, the crow flew in the direction it had come from.

“Halt.”

In front of a majestic castle, the search party was at a loss for words.

“My word.”

“What is that?”

They had ventured deep into the demonic forest, only to find a castle standing tall and alone.

In a place where even a small hut would be suspicious, the presence of such a massive castle was astounding.

“Does this make sense?”

One of the men whistled as he looked up at the castle.

“Is this where a witch lives?”

“It’s enormous.”

The youth, struggling to keep up, gaped at the castle, as grand as a ducal annex.

An ancient structure, standing alone in the Black Forest without any outer walls or fortifications.

The sight of the castle, alone in the dark forest, sent chills down their spines despite it being just a building.

“Maybe the young lord got kidnapped by a witch, not just run away?”

“This guy and his witch stories.”

“Think about it logically. It’s impossible for a castle like this to exist here. It’s not something the current level of magicians could create.”
“It’s unlikely that witches exist. This level of grand magic would have been used by the royal family.”

“That’s impossible.”

The royal power couldn’t have reached the otherworldly wilderness.

The cowards in the capital are too busy pushing dirty and hard work to the North. There’s no way those high and mighty folks would come here.

Despite looking around with torches, no entrance was visible.

The solid stone wall showed no doors. If it stayed like this, they might have to camp outside without being able to enter.

“Hey, crow, are you sure it’s here?”

Caw

“What’s the use if you can’t see anything to enter? There are no visible doors, and the high windows are all blocked. Who even threw the jewel?”

Caw!

“Ouch! That hurts!”

The ill-tempered crow pecked at the subordinate’s head, expressing its dissatisfaction.

“Ha, even the crow ignores you.”

While the subordinates chattered nonsensically, Roderick, sweeping his hand across the castle stones, frowned.

Thump. Thump. His heart started to beat unruly without warning.

‘Kill them. Kill them all.’ As a devilish whisper-like temptation surged, urging bloodlust, Roderick gritted his teeth.

He thought he’d be fine for a while after seeing the monster’s blood. The curse was still greedily craving for more blood.

His madness, a curse passed down through his family, was getting uncontrollable.

When scheming men desperately battle for her favor in the male harem

This one’s also on my reread list! The rivalry, scheming between the men in the imperial harem are just as intense and thrilling as in classic palace drama novels, where concubines fight to the death. Give it a read, girls! I promise you won’t be disappointed.

Synopsis:

“I am not worthy of her… but I still want to be by her side, even if only as a loyal dog…”

Those were the painful whispers of Yue Guanyi – the proud Crown Prince of the Great Qi, who was torn between deep love and a guilty conscience. Despite holding the supreme power of the Imperial Guard, he still could not forget the dark past when he was sold into a brothel.

Fate played a cruel twist when Qiu Shuzhi – a young female official who had just passed the imperial examinations with top honors – stepped into his life. She did not know that she was the one who had saved him from a tragic fate many years ago. And now, her heart was the target of pursuit for both Yue Guanyi and the powerful Empress Dowager Qin Qing.

While Yue Guanyi only dared to silently care for and protect the one he loved from afar, the  Empress Dowager Qin Qing openly expressed his feelings and did not hesitate to take advantage of his power to approach Qiu Shuzhi. The covert struggle between the two most powerful forces in the imperial court began…

Trigger warning: All men in this novel are yandere style.

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