* * *
Were my expectations too high?
“I’m still not quite sure.”
Locke placed the orange back on the table.
At the same time, my shoulders slumped forward.
As if he didn’t find my disappointment pitiful at all, he heartlessly turned his back to leave.
Watching him grab the doorknob without a hint of regret, I couldn’t help but let out a sigh.
At that sound, Locke looked back at me.
“Do you have anything else to say?”
“No. I just thought my orange looked lonely.”
Just as I was about to get lost in the sight of his long eyelashes casting shadows over his eyes, he spoke in a clear voice.
“If the day ever comes when I can truly understand your heart, Young Master… I would prefer grapes over oranges.”
“…Huh?”
I wanted to ask what he meant. But the door had already closed.
As soon as Locke left, the strength drained from my legs, and I flopped down onto the sofa.
“Sigh, was it too soon to ask him to be on my side?”
I should have approached him more slowly.
I suppose I got impatient because it looked like he was finally starting to open up.
“This is hard. No, but I gave him an orange and he asks for grapes?”
I stared bitterly at the lonely orange on the table.
Feeling a tightness in my chest from the frustration, I picked it up and pressed my thumb into the peel to crack it open.
‘Did he think I’d lose heart just because I was rejected once?’
Ha!
I snorted and split the peeled orange in half.
Then, as if the fruit were Locke himself, I stuffed the oversized pieces into my mouth and chewed them aggressively.
Just you wait!
‘I’ll make you mine no matter what. And then I’m going to live a long, healthy life just to show everyone!’
I glared at the closed door for a long time, munching and swallowing the juice-filled fruit.
A room hung with the hideous bones of monsters.
Dozens of glass cases stood between the luxurious furniture.
Inside them, extravagant weapons embedded with mana stones shone, looking out of place in the eerie atmosphere.
It looked like a museum displaying ancient artifacts.
A man sat cross-legged on a sofa covered in monster hide, wearing a bored expression.
Cassian Allure Hestian.
He was the eldest son of the Hestian family.
He lazily stLocked the mane of a Bael Wolf—a monster he had tamed by force—before suddenly furrowing his brows.
“Don’t you think it’s a bit wrong for me to be looking up at you?”
Even though he hadn’t given a direct order, two knights kicked the back of Locke’s thighs from both sides as he stood straight.
When Locke didn’t bend his legs, they ruthlessly pressed down on his shoulders, forcing him to his knees.
“Do you know why I brought you here?”
Cassian asked with a twisted expression.
When Locke didn’t answer, he thrust his clenched fist toward Locke’s face.
When he opened his hand, a chain clattered as it fell through the air.
Cassian looped the string around his finger, dangling a necklace with a jade pendant.
Only then did focus return to Locke’s dull golden eyes.
“I can’t just let a little rat run free, can I?”
Cassian tilted his head, saying he would show what happens when a mere servant touches a noble’s belongings.
Upon his signal, the knights harshly shoved Locke’s head and shoulders down.
“Cut off two of them so he never touches his master’s things again.”
As Cassian gave the order, the knights forced open Locke’s clenched fist.
“I never touched it.”
Locke finally spoke.
In a situation where his fingers were about to be cut off, shouldn’t he be crying and begging for his life?
Cassian was displeased by Locke’s calm attitude.
He thought of his younger brother, whose defiance had grown recently, and thought to himself:
‘So even a dying patient is still a noble, is that it?’
Choosing to grab onto a rotten rope… how foolish.
“My brother’s item was found in your room, and you expect me to believe that?”
“The Young Master gave it to me.”
“Why?”
“He said it would help with my wounds.”
“Ah, so a begging beggar felt like someone special just because a noble looked after him? So what, were you trying to sleep your way up? Is a man on his deathbed a good enough stepping stone for you?”
“I don’t quite understand what you mean…”
Crash!
A vase flown at Locke’s feet shattered with a loud explosion. In the center of the broken glass shards, rose petals lay scattered pathetically, unable to withstand the impact.
Locke’s eyebrows twitched as he realized where the vase had come from.
“I can see it very clearly from my room. The rose garden you crawled out to every dawn. You’ve been putting quite a bit of effort into that dying brat, haven’t you?”
Cassian was certain his sickly brother would never become the head of the family.
However, there was always that annoying one-in-a-million chance.
Therefore, he planned to isolate his brother until death by cutting off all his “limbs” so he couldn’t even dream of the position.
And then this cheeky thing showed up.
The servant didn’t even blink, boldly making excuses in front of a noble.
“The Young Master seemed to have no energy lately, so I simply placed something with life near him, hoping it might help even a little. There was no special meaning.”
Locke spoke calmly, but Cassian’s expression did not soften. He hated everything about Locke.
“Oh, really? But will Father think the same? That your gift of pink flowers was ‘just to help’?”
Count Hestian was a man of high nobility who valued his family name and reputation above all else.
If he heard rumors of a scandal between his son and a servant, he would surely kick Locke out regardless of the truth.
Locke gritted his teeth for the first time.
He hadn’t found what he was looking for yet.
Until he got his hands on “that,” he couldn’t leave the mansion.
“Hmm. Or how about this? Since I am the generous eldest son of the Hestian family, shall I give you a choice?”
Cassian spoke as if he were doing a great favor.
“Let’s go hunting together. If you catch even one monster there, I’ll overlook this incident. I’ve personally selected and locked up some very gentle and weak ones. Well? Not a bad deal, right?”
Asking a regular person to face a monster was madness.
It would be better to return to being a beggar with all his limbs intact; asking him to face a monster was no different from telling him to die.
Despite this, Locke accepted the proposal immediately.
“I will do so. Please let me know the departure time. I must match it with the Young Master’s medicine schedule.”
At the unexpected response, the corners of Cassian’s mouth, which had been turned up, dropped instantly.
“Arrogant…”
Cassian stopped his hand, which he had been raising to tear Locke’s throat apart.
No. It shouldn’t end this easily.
Quickly regaining his cool, he suppressed his annoyance and gestured toward the door.
“I’ll send the time through a servant. Now get out.”
Crash!
As soon as Locke stepped out of the room, he heard the sound of something hitting the door and shattering.
It was likely the medicine container Cedric had given him.
He stared at Cassian’s door with a heavy expression before turning away.
Through the window, he could see the edge of the mountain that cradled the Hestian estate.
The Allure Domain.
A forbidden area that no one could enter without the Hestian family’s permission.
“…This is turning out easier than I thought.”
Locke whispered softly and turned his steps.
The mountains and forests surrounding the Hestian house were called the “Allure Domain.”
It was a place where massive mana was concentrated, and only those with the family’s blood could open the barrier.
As the white horse Cassian was riding reached the entrance of the domain, the air shimmered like waves and the barrier opened.
“Wow, no matter how many times I see this, I’m impressed. What’s the principle behind it?”
“Don’t know. Only the head of the family knows the secret of the domain.”
Cassian cut off Aiden’s excitement.
Wooo. Whish, wooo.
The further they went up the mountain, the steeper the terrain became, and the cries of beasts changed.
Occasionally, a faint mana could be felt where bushes shook as something passed by.
They had entered the monster territory.
Cassian threw a longsword embedded with a red mana stone to Locke, who was following behind the knight’s horse.
“You need a magic tool to catch a monster. Don’t you?”
Locke caught it quickly with his left hand and stared at it, his shoulders rising and falling heavily.
It was because he felt absolutely no mana from the sword that was supposed to be a magic tool.
Whish.
A damp wind blew and clung to Aiden’s cheeks.
“Are you sure it’s not going to rain today?”
He asked, looking up at the cloudy sky.
“I told you, Largo’s eye color hasn’t changed.”
The Bael Wolf “Largo” that Cassian raised changed eye colors depending on the weather.
Aiden simply accepted that, but Locke was different.
It was definitely going to rain today, and this was clearly a scheme to trap him.
Giving him a fake sword with a regular stone disguised as a mana stone proved it.
It was a pathetic plot. It was so hollow that he felt embarrassed even to pretend to be fooled.
The four of them scattered to their own areas to catch monsters.
No—it only looked that way on the surface; in reality, two people were moving secretly from behind.
Using a shortcut, the knight headed straight for a cave near the valley.
* * *
