Prologue
“Ha…”
Just waking from sleep, Kaon barely swallowed down the curse rising in his throat.
He had just been roused by the unusually bright morning sunlight.
The merciless rays pouring in through the large glass window were bright enough to wake anyone from a deep slumber, and Kaon was no exception.
He tried to shield his face with his hand to block the light, but it was no use. Even covering his face with a blanket didn’t help. The summer blanket was too thin and the light passed right through it.
Kaon, who had tried to doze a little longer in bed, was eventually defeated by the sunlight and sat up.
“Left the curtains open again, huh.”
His annoyed gaze turned to the bare window. The velvet curtains that should’ve been blocking the light were neatly tied up. He didn’t even have to guess who the culprit was.
“Alesia Ingelos, you’ve done it again.”
He ground his teeth and thought of the name—the owner of the bedroom connected by a shared hallway, and unless something drastic happened, his future fiancée.
Kaon was determined to say something today. He couldn’t tolerate the nonsense of someone specifically leaving the curtains open on the days with only afternoon training.
A day with no morning drills and only afternoon training came just once a week—a precious time for Kaon. What could be more blissful than sleeping in?
Alesia Ingelos was a scoundrel who had robbed him of that happiness for a whole month.
He’d dismissed it as coincidence once or twice, but it was clear now. Alesia Ingelos was doing it on purpose—to disturb his simple joy.
“Madeleine, you really don’t have to do this every time.”
Kaon was grinding his teeth as he came down the stairs when he heard a soft voice. She sounded apologetic, kind, and gentle—but Kaon immediately frowned upon hearing her.
“Oh, don’t be silly, Miss Alesia. You’re always working hard for Ferdinand. I can always prepare some snacks for you.”
“If someone heard you, they’d think I’ve done something amazing, Madeleine. If you keep praising me like that, it’ll go to my head.”
Oh, please.
Kaon swallowed a dry laugh. The way she feigned modesty was so natural, a stranger might think she was genuinely humble.
But Kaon knew it was all an act, and it annoyed him to no end. The head maid Madeleine, however, seemed moved, continuing her praise.
“You should get a little full of yourself. You patrol the monster forest all week. If that’s not a big deal, then what is? In Ferdinand, diligence is the highest virtue. And you are the very image of it.”
“Hearing that really encourages me. I only did what I could… Thank you, Madeleine.”
“As someone serving Ferdinand, I should be the one thanking you. You’ve been such a great help—oh! Young master! You’re up?”
Madeleine, caught up in her own little world with Alesia, suddenly noticed Kaon standing halfway down the stairs and called out.
Alesia, who had her back to Kaon, finally turned to look at him. Her eyes froze for a moment, then curved gracefully as she smiled.
“Kaon, you’re up? You woke early today.”
“Indeed. The young master never comes down at this time on days with afternoon training only. What’s the occasion?”
Kaon’s face, already beginning to sour at Alesia’s sweet greeting, twisted completely at Madeleine’s follow-up.
It was clear what she meant: “What’s up with our lazy young master waking up so early?” It wasn’t untrue—but definitely not something he wanted to hear.
“Thanks to someone waking me up.”
“Who would—”
“It’s probably my fault, Madeleine.”
Kaon deliberately spoke curtly, hoping her conscience would sting. But Alesia didn’t even blink.
“I must’ve made a fuss getting ready this morning and woke Kaon up. I was checking a favorite outfit that got torn yesterday in the forest…”
Instead of feeling guilty, she murmured pitifully, just loud enough to be heard, appearing all sad and downtrodden.
“Oh my, you said something happened in the forest yesterday, didn’t you? And you even damaged your clothes! That must’ve been so upsetting. I’ll repair them right away, miss!”
“I was just going to throw them away because I felt bad, but I couldn’t stop thinking about them… If it’s okay, could I ask you to mend them?”
“Of course, anytime!”
As Madeleine reassured Alesia, she glanced at Kaon. The look in her eyes wasn’t exactly kind, making Kaon flinch.
“Grow up, young master.”
Even unspoken, Kaon could read what she wanted to say.
“One came to marry into an enemy family and is trying so hard to be helpful, and the other, born into this house, is throwing a tantrum for being woken up a bit early?”
The contempt was almost palpable.
“I’m sorry, Kaon. I’ll be more careful next time.”
As if Kaon wasn’t already fuming, Alesia’s absurd apology made it worse.
Her willingness to back down for something that wasn’t even her fault and her gentle tone made her seem even more mature—and made Kaon look like an immature brat.
Kaon felt a surge of anger but swallowed it down.
If he shouted “You opened the curtains on purpose just to wake me up!” now, he’d look like an irresponsible, lazy fool who blamed others.
And he didn’t need another negative image stacked on top of that.
But then, Kaon’s patience snapped. Alesia, with her back to Madeleine, smirked and stuck her tongue out at him.
“Hey!”
“Young master!”
Unable to hold back, Kaon shouted, and Madeleine, startled, tried to stop him. He could only watch, seething, as the victor smugly shrugged her shoulders.
Kaon slammed his wooden sword into the training dummy with furious force. The sword moved in clean arcs, striking the dummy’s head, arms, legs, and torso in succession.
“Annoying little witch. What kind of person is even like that?”
In his 17 years—not short but not long either—he had never met a girl like that. There’s being two-faced, and then there’s that. She was practically a split personality. No, definitely one.
But were there split personalities that one could control at will? Kaon didn’t know much about psychology, but if you could control it, it wasn’t a disorder.
And since split personalities were disorders, Alesia didn’t qualify.
“Then what is she?”
The problem was, if she wasn’t sick, then it was just her nature. And if her nature was like that?
There were no better words. A girl who smiled like an angel around others but acted like a menace only around him—how else could you define her?
“Why is that scammer so proud of herself?”
Worse yet, Alesia Ingelos was a fraud. A scammer deceiving the entire Ferdinand household.
Pretending to be a mage when she wasn’t. Pretending to protect the territory…
The list of her crimes was long. Unfortunately, Kaon couldn’t imprison her. No one else knew the truth—and he couldn’t reveal it.
“Ugh!”
“Um, young master?”
So once again, Kaon was the only one stewing. As he let out a roar of frustration, someone called out to him.
“What is it?”
“I’ve called you about eleven times now, sir… did you notice?”
It was his aide, Joseph. Rubbing his tired face, Joseph adjusted his glasses and asked in a dead voice.
Eleven times?
Kaon finally stopped. He’d been so caught up in his furious training that he hadn’t heard a thing. Typical—nothing about Alesia Ingelos was helpful.
“Why were you calling me?”
“There’s thread and fluff flying all over the training ground. Unless you’re trying to give the servants more work, perhaps you could move to another spot?”
“What the…”
Kaon frowned at the bizarre statement, then finally noticed his surroundings. Just as Joseph said, bits of thread were floating in the air like dust.
The dummy he had beaten up was now falling apart, its ropes shredded, scattering fibers everywhere.
Landing consecutive precise hits wasn’t easy, and Joseph was mildly impressed, though he kept it to himself.
He knew Kaon would just brush off praise like it was luck anyway.
Instead, Joseph tried to figure out why Kaon was so riled up.
“Did Lady Leo scold you?”
“Why would my sister scold me? Do I look like someone who gets yelled at for fun?”
That ruled out one major suspect. Joseph smoothly moved to the next.
“You fought with Miss Alesia again.”
“‘Fought’?! She picked a fight with me, completely unprovoked!”
Kaon exploded. That confirmed it. Joseph calmly nodded.
So that’s why the young master is all fired up again…
It wasn’t a rare occurrence. Usually, Kaon was the only one storming around, so it wasn’t much to worry about.
Joseph could’ve just left it at that—but he was suddenly curious.
“Weren’t you two getting along at first? I mean, she comes from a rather questionable background, but even you used to say she was kind and pretty….”
“Kind? Her? Alesia Ingelos? Ha!”
Kaon scoffed loudly. If she’s kind, then who in this world isn’t?
“But think back to the day she first arrived at Castle Ferdinand.”
“That day…!”
Kaon paused, caught off guard. Joseph raised both hands in triumph.
“…Forget it. What’s the point? That’s ancient history.”
After a long silence, Kaon picked up his sword and moved to a new spot.
Truthfully, Joseph was right. Things hadn’t been bad from the start. In fact, contrary to expectations, they’d gotten along surprisingly well.
“At first… yeah.”
Things only went downhill from there—and to explain why, one would have to go back six months, or perhaps a full year.
