<CHAPTER 00>
“Throwing someone straight into the jaws of death… and calling it entertainment. How amusing.”
The grand ballroom, which had been buzzing with lively conversation only moments ago, fell into an uncanny silence at the sound of a single man’s voice.
Heavy footsteps echoed across the marble floor.
A towering man strode into the hall, his entire body drenched in crimson blood, advancing toward the crowd as though there were nothing unusual about his appearance.
“D-Duke Whistler…”
A butcher whose name inspired terror wherever it was spoken.
A blood-soaked executioner rumored to leave carnage in his wake, effortlessly severing the heads of anyone unfortunate enough to cross his path.
Wait… Is that thing in his hand…?
The closer Duke Whistler drew to the gathered nobles, the quieter the room became.
“…Surely… that’s not the head of a bear he’s carrying?”
Someone swallowed audibly.
Several faint-hearted ladies had already collapsed where they stood, while others hid behind their escorts, watching the horrifying spectacle with trembling eyes.
When Duke Whistler finally stopped, he removed the helmet covering his face.
Beneath it was an impossibly handsome man, his silver hair damp with sweat and clinging to his forehead, framing a pair of melancholy violet eyes.
“…You’re all too loud.”
His deep, weighty voice rang through the ballroom.
The instant his icy gaze swept across the whispering nobles, every last murmur vanished. Pale-faced aristocrats stood frozen in absolute silence.
Having successfully silenced the room, Duke Whistler slowly turned his head.
He began searching for the small woman who always chattered endlessly in front of him, endlessly getting on his nerves.
“There you are.”
She had ordinary brown hair and an unremarkable figure.
Yet somehow, among the countless people in the hall, she was always the first person his eyes found.
Unlike everyone else, who fled from him as though he were a blood-crazed monster, she stubbornly lingered at his side.
She constantly declared that she loved him, that she would stay with him no matter what, that he should trust her—circling around him with endless, noisy chatter.
“Alosha.”
“…Eddy.”
She was clearly afraid of him.
And yet, at the strangest moments, she casually shortened his name into a nickname as if nothing were wrong.
She would tremble and beg him not to kill her…
Then, moments later, grin brightly at him as though she’d never been frightened in the first place.
Alosha Nocturne.
What was it about this peculiar woman that kept unsettling his composure?
Unable to understand it, Whistler found himself seized by the childish urge to tease her.
“A gift.”
With those words, Duke Whistler tossed the object in his right hand toward Alosha’s feet.
A bear’s severed head should never have rolled so neatly.
Yet it tumbled across the polished floor with surprising ease before bumping lightly against the tip of her shoe.
Thunk.
“…”
“…”
Whatever Duke Whistler had been thinking…
Alosha couldn’t make sense of what was happening.
I thought I’d been calming his violent nature all this time…
Calling him kind. Handsome. Wonderful. Telling him I loved him…
Then why…?
A cold shiver crawled up from her feet.
An overwhelming wave of terror swallowed her whole.
“Why that expression?” Whistler asked.
“Didn’t you say that no matter what I gave you—no matter what kind of man I was—you’d gladly accept it?”
“Alosha!”
Ah! I can’t collapse into his arms!
Dain rushed forward to catch the staggering Alosha.
But gritting her teeth, she avoided him completely and deliberately threw herself into the arms of her older brother, Alexis, who was standing beside him.
“Alosha!”
As consciousness slipped further and further away, Alexis’s desperate voice echoed in her ears.
A faint smile appeared on Alosha’s lips.
At least this cuts down the number of pages that would’ve been wasted on Whistler and Dain fighting over me.
Even now I’m thinking about story efficiency…
I’m amazing.
The readers should be grateful to me.
With that final absurd thought…
Complete darkness claimed her.
She lost consciousness completely.
