Chapter 1 - Prologue
***
“Thank you.”
“Thank you very much.”
Seria walked happily to a highly secure secret place for her hidden treasure which she just won. She spent quite a bit of effort trying to guess the sacred power from afar. She spent nearly an hour that way, and it was nothing short of exhausting.
However, when she actually held the holy relic in her hands, she felt like the fatigue accumulated was relieved.
‘Good. This is enough to deceive Lina, the Oracle, and the original!’
‘I won’t be punished!’
As Seria stepped outside, Lesche was waiting for her with his back facing her. She almost called out his name out of reflex, but remembered belatedly where they were and shouted.
“Honey!”
She ran to his side with a smile. Then she grabbed Lesche’s arm. He looked back at her and smiled.
It all happened so fast. Lesche grasped her chin and lowered his face and kissed her. A light kiss across the veil. It was just like that kiss before they entered the auction room. It was exactly the same.
“…”
Seria’s eyes widened.
“Lesche?”
She got goosebumps a beat later. The man wasn’t Lesche.
“It’s such a similarity….”
“Don’t I look like him?”
The man’s low voice was unusual. Seria mumbled as she looked at him .
“Mies?”
The illegitimate son of the previous Grand Duke of Berg.
The man, no, Mies, lifted the veil off his face. He smiled brightly. His pale face was like a mask, but the smile on his face made her feel repulsed.
“It looks like my brother told you my name.” (Mies)
“Argh!”
At the same time he laughed, Seria suddenly heard people screaming from the hallway. She looked sideways, startled, and was soon at a loss for words.
“…”
Where did they come from? The priests, dressed in black, were killing men passing through the hallway. Red blood splattered mercilessly on the walls and floor.
Seria turned to face the fallen corpses, but Mies grabbed her face and held her there. His eyes, similar to Lesche’s, looked pleased as he looked at Seria.
“It’s true what they say about the pretty trash. Seria Berg, by the way, it’s really funny. How can they think that Stern is trash? You were just a bit mean, but you didn’t even kill anyone. It’s probably because the Imperial Aristocracy has a low threshold and beautiful wives and children.”
“…”
“At the time I thought I wanted my predecessor’s Grand Duchess, but now I want this one again. Why do I want everything that Grand Duke Berg has? Too many things will tear your stomach up and you won’t live long enough.”
Mies lifted Seria’s veil up completely.The mask peeled from his hand and rolled across the floor. Mies smiled even more and leaned toward her.
“Argh!”
At that time, deathly screams rang out from behind Mies. Seria grabbed Mies’ face with her stiff hands, bringing her face close to his ear.
Mies’ hands tighten around her waist.
“You’re very aggressive, Seria.”
Seria tried to steel herself as much as possible. Then she bit his earlobe as hard as she could.
“…!”
Mies, with his earlobe severed, pushed Seria roughly with a fierce scream. Seria spat out the lump of flesh out of her mouth onto the floor, trying not to feel the flesh texture in her mouth as best she could. There was a strong smell of blood, and Mies’ blood flowed along her chin.
“You crazy…”
Mies mumbled in disbelief as he grabbed his bloody ear. His eyes immediately fluttered.
It was Abigail, who grasped his hand as Mies came close to Seria. Abigail was wearing a dress that she had obviously never worn before in her life, and she bent Mies’ arms behind his back. Under the hem of her dress, instead of shoes, military boots were shining.
“Ah…!”
It happened in an instant. The dagger that Abigail took out from her pocket pierced Mies’ hand firmly. Mies tried to fight back but it was useless.
“Grand Duchess!”
At that moment, there was a man in a dress who came running as he looked at Seria.
“Are you okay? Ah! Ah!”
He quickly peeled off the veil he was wearing and wiped his mouth. He screamed the whole time.
‘Honestly, it hurt my ears.’
“How dare you! It’s my Duchess! Ohhhh! You crazy b*st*rd!”
That’s right. This man was Linon, Berg’s chief aide. He scratched his head and roared. Then he immediately went to the suppressed Mies… Dance shoes? Linon took off the dance shoes, lifted them in his hands, and jabbed Mies in the shoulder with the pointed, thin heel.
“Wow…”
Seria didn’t know he could wear high heels so perfectly. Seria’s mouth hung agape. Mies seemed to be looking for his men with bloodshot eyes as he curled up on the floor.
But Mies’ hopes were soon dashed. For the Berg Knights had already rendered his men irresistible.
“When?”
Seria walked over to Mies and crouched down. The front, sides, and back were all her people, so she had nothing to fear.
“I was worried you would turn around.”
“When did this happen?”
Mies couldn’t believe he was in this situation.
“You think I’m crazy enough to spend that much money in an auction house? Anyway, you look like a fool. I’m angry..ah…uh….”
“Grand Duchess!”
Seria couldn’t finish her words. In the end, she couldn’t overcome the bloody smell in her mouth and threw up on Mies’ face.
***
*Alliot’s pov*
Alliot looked around at the huge auction house. It was this decadent building. It reminded him of being eaten by the naked lust that enveloped the air, making him feel more unpleasant by the moment.
“Commander!”
“We’ve taken complete possession of the east side of the building.”
“The slaves had been divided and subdued, and the sorcerers were dispatched to the Great Temple.”
After compiling the reports of the knights, Alliot went to Lesche to report. The floor was silk and the high quality shoes were tangled in a mess. The urgent report of the knight sounded like an echo in Alliot’s ears.
“The target has been captured.”
That nightmare from his childhood came to mind, and Alliot felt an inexplicable chill run through his body.
Ever since the Green Manor incident, Berg’s aides and the Knights had been working closely together in secret to capture Mies. But where did the information leak from, and they failed every time to capture Mies.
About two weeks ago, in a secret meeting where Linon only called Alliot, he hastily submitted his report.
“Your Highness! The Grand Duchess wants to buy a holy relic! I had to shout it out to the temple just to be sure!”
Alliot was a little more annoyed by the speed of Linon’s head turning than by anything else.
‘What, as soon as you hear that the Grand Duchess needs to buy some holy relics, does it make sense to make a plan like that and put it into practice?’
On the one hand, Alliot thought this was his last chance. Mies had to be caught as quickly as possible, by any means necessary. He was not worried about Lesche, but Seria’s safety. Even as a child, Mies had always wanted many things that Lesche had.
Mies wanted Lesche’s title, his parents, and affection.
That was why he wanted Lesche’s wife too.
Linon didn’t say anything, but he must have had similar thoughts.
Every time Alliot walked, he could hear the scraping of steel. He glanced through the auction house.
An auction house where slaves with sorcerers’ background were the merchandise. In other words, it was rare to find a place where sorcerers gather legally like here. Maybe Mies went to the trouble of getting more sorcerers to the slavers for today.
For every handcuff and lock there is a key that fits.
If you want to catch a tiger, you have to make a trap, and the trap has to be placed on a path that the tiger frequents. Only then will it feel safe to crawl out.
This was too perfect a place for the Mies to delude himself into thinking it was his area. A place that would allow countless sorcerers in its intricate streets. He must have thought it was perfect just because it was a dark and glamorous place that was hard for the public authorities to subdue.
If Mies was a little smarter, he wouldn’t have fallen for this trap, but no one would be held accountable if the Berg family made a disturbance in this illegal auction house, and rather gained a command of breaking the underground market.
Alliot clenched his hand and released it, thinking about the Green Manor.
Mies. The b*st*rd son of the previous Grand Duke.
He was smart, unusual, mean, and sometimes inhumane… Alliot couldn’t even call him the second young master. Because Mies was not officially admitted to Berg. Nevertheless, how bright were the eyes that kept coveting more than that?
Alliot entered the Central Control. Lesche was already there with the knights. Elliot bowed deeply.
“Your Highness.”
“Is Seria okay?”
“Yes. Knight Abigail Orienne was disguised and watching nearby, and three knights immediately overpowered the sorcerers at close range.”
“Nothing special.”
“There is no separate report. And the chief aide was there. From this point on, the imperial army will be joining, so the Grand Duchess was taken to the imperial mansion in advance.”
It was a smooth report, not bad.
It was a plan to capture Mies since they captured the sorcerers of the Green Manor alive.
Mies’ target was the circlet in the basement. For this reason, Berg had to wield the circlet in a very showy manner to attract Mies.
However, if Lesche appeared to have the circlet, Mies would not be able to approach it directly, even with his magic and manipulation. Even when he was treated as a Young Master at Berg Castle when he was a child, he pretended to look down on Lesche, but he was secretly afraid.
They needed to make Mies show up again.
So Lesche didn’t hide the fact that Seria was given the circlet as a gift and she was the Grand Duchess of Berg. It was a monster brought from the basement of the Green Manor, but if his wife wanted it as a gift, he could not help but give it to her.
Seria’s existing naughty image also played a part. She liked the circlet, and she asked Lesche to give it to her.
They put no small amount of effort into making sure that Mies was convinced of everything and showed up.
The result was that Mies was captured alive.
Lesche looked at the unconscious man on the floor at his feet. It was Mies. Lesche’s expression slowly began to change as he bent down and grabbed Mies’ chin with his gloved hand.
“Is this the man who looks like me?”