Chapter 0

Prologue

Kaon barely swallowed the urge to curse. He had just been woken up by the ruthless sunlight streaming through the large window, so exceptionally bright that it would have woken just about anyone, not excluding himself.

He tried to block it out somehow.

The hands he used to cover his face weren’t enough, and neither was his summer blanket, thin and utterly useless against the light as it was.

Alas, even as he tried to bury himself further into the bed, the sun was simply demanding his attention.

‘The curtains were left open again.’

Finally, Kaon got up and stared resentfully at the bare glass panels and neatly tied velvet curtains. It was obvious who the culprit was.

‘Try me, Alessia.’

Jaw clenched, he thought about the resident of the bedroom on the opposite side of the corridor, the woman he would eventually marry—provided that nothing drastic would happen.

***

Kaon intended to have a serious conversation today. He could no longer endure another day of his curtains being left open when he only had afternoon training. Such days were few and far in between, and therefore extremely valuable to him. What greater happiness was there than sleeping in?

Alessia Ingelos had been cruelly stealing that happiness from him for a whole month now. He had brushed it off the first few times, thinking that it was a coincidence, but now it was crystal clear. She was definitely doing it on purpose to interfere with his simple desires.

“Madeleine, you don’t have to help me all the time.”

The voice Kaon heard as he went down the stairs was soft, seemingly regretful and gentle at the same time. The sound of it made him stiffen.

“What are you talking about, Miss Alessia? You always do so much for the Ferdinand estate. Giving you these snacks is the least I can do.”

“Oh, come now, people might think I’ve done something big. If you keep talking like that, it might go to my head.”

‘Wow.’

Kaon swallowed his dumbfounded laugh at the show of humility.

The maid continued her praises, “You deserve to think a little highly of yourself, Miss. You’ve been surveilling the monster-infested forest for a whole week; if that’s not a big deal, then what is? The Ferdinand family regards sincerity as the highest virtue, and you are inimitably sincere.”

“It is very encouraging to hear that. I only do what I can… Thank you so much.”

“As a part of the estate, I should be the one thanking you. How much help do you… Oh?” Madeleine, who was fully immersed in the conversation, suddenly noticed Kaon standing in the middle of the staircase. “Young Master! Are you up?”

Alessia also turned slowly to see him, as if she had only just noticed his existence. Her eyes, which seemed to harden for a moment, smoothly curved into graceful crescents. “Kaon? You woke up early today.”

“Indeed. The young master never comes down at this time on afternoon training days… Why did you wake up so early?”

The expression that began crumpling at Alessia’s greeting became fully sour at Madeleine’s comment. That was because the maid’s inner wonderings about what could have happened to the lazy young master were inadvertently revealed.

Her thoughts weren’t wrong, but it didn’t mean Kaon liked being perceived as such.

“Because a certain someone forced me to wake up,” he answered bluntly, poking his opponent to see if she even had a conscience.

“Who would…?”

“It must be me, Madeleine.” Alessia didn’t even blink. “I woke him up by pointlessly trying to make repairs this morning. Yesterday, my favorite clothes got a little torn, so I had been looking at them earlier,” she mumbled pitifully.

“Oh no! Come to think of it, you did mention that something happened during your inspection, so it turned out that even your clothes were damaged. How upsetting! I’ll mend your clothes at once, Miss.”

“I’m sorry, I was planning to throw it away, but I just felt so regretful. If you don’t mind, may I ask you to help me?”

“You don’t need to ask. I’ll be there anytime,” Madeleine said determinedly to appease Alessia, glaring at Kaon in the next moment.

He flinched.

Even though she didn’t open her mouth, it was clear to him what the maid wanted to say.

Something like, “Grow up, Young Master. Someone’s out here getting engaged to their enemy and still making an effort to be of assistance, but now we have someone making a fuss because they woke up a little early?”

From those fierce eyes, Kaon could read everything he didn’t want to know.

“I’m sorry, Kaon. I’ll be more careful the next time.”

He was already annoyed, and now Alessia was apologizing for something she didn’t have to be sorry for. Her attitude and mild tone made her look so mature, which meant that he looked even more childish in comparison.

‘The only reason why I woke up was that the curtains were left open on purpose!’

Kaon reined in his fury. He didn’t need to tarnish his reputation even further.

However, Alessia turned her head subtly and stuck her tongue out from the corner of her mouth that was angled away from Madeleine.

His patience cracked. “Hey!”

“Young Master!” Madeleine reprimanded.

He could only watch as the victor of this round shrugged cheekily.

***

Kaon attacked the wooden figure with frightening speed. His practice sword—also made of wood—moved in a clean arc and struck the dummy’s head, arms, legs, and waist one after the other.

‘That annoying girl. Does she perhaps have a split personality disorder?’

This was the first time in his neither-short-nor-long seventeen years of life that he had encountered something like this.

Even if a person acted differently from how they looked, there was often at least a certain degree of overlap. That girl, however, was different. She almost—no, not almost… She definitely had two personalities.

‘However, do the people who have such an identity disorder possess the capability to switch between their personalities at will?’

In terms of medical knowledge, he was no expert, but he did know that such conditions were not characterized by symptoms that one could arbitrarily control. That description did not apply to Alessia.

So what was it? Why did she act that way? How could he understand the girl who smiled and laughed like an angel around other people, but acted mischievously only in front of him?

‘Why is she so confident at doing that?’

Alessia Ingelos was a swindler.

She wasn’t even a mage, yet there she was pretending to be one, pretending that she was protecting the Ferdinand estate…

These weren’t light charges, but unfortunately, Kaon couldn’t put her in prison. That was because he was the only one who knew her secret, and he wasn’t in the position to disclose it.

At the end of his rope, he let himself yell in frustration, at which point he also heard a voice—

“Excuse me… Young Master?”

“What is it?”

“I’ve called you eleven times already, but…” Joseph, his aide, trailed off as he tiredly pushed the frame of his slipping glasses up his nose.

Eleven?

Kaon straightened. It seemed that he had lost track of his surroundings in the heat of his angry training. Whatever the truth to the mystery of Alessia, it was clear that she would not be of any help in his life.

“Why did you call for me?”

“Young Master, hemp is strewn all over the training grounds. May I suggest moving to a different place to avoid giving the poor servants more work?”

“What…” He looked around with a slight frown on his face, dropping his sword.

Just as Joseph said, bits of pieces of hemp were scattered everywhere. Some bits were still in the air, slowly floating down like dust. The rope used to secure the dummy had loosened due to the force of Kaon’s attacks, and so it was eventually hacked into ruins.

Actually, the aide was a little surprised that his master had been able to cut through the rope despite not focusing on a single area, but he decided not to say anything about it. He knew Kaon well enough to know that the young man would dismiss any admiration by attributing it to luck.

Instead, he wanted to find out the motivation behind the obsession with training.

“Did Leo scold you?”

“Why would my older sister do that? Do I look like the type of person who gets scolded out of boredom?”

One of the probable causes was eliminated. Thus, Joseph naturally moved on to the next candidate.

“Ah, you fought with Miss Alessia.”

“Fought!? She’s always the one doing the provoking!”

Judging by the violent reaction, that was the right answer.

He nodded carefully, wondering what had happened this time. These incidents occurred fairly often, but it wasn’t much of a concern because it was usually just Kaon who did the huffing and puffing.

Joseph normally would have let it pass, but his curiosity was piqued at the moment.

“Didn’t you two get along at first? True, it was a little awkward, but I remember you agreeing that she was very pretty and nice.”

“Nice? Her? Alessia Ingelos? As if!” Kaon denied indignantly, thinking that if that was considered being nice, then practically everyone in the world was.

“Think back to the day she first came to the mansion.”

“At that time…” Kaon paused, his momentary speechlessness providing an opening for his aide.

“It’s all in the past now, so there’s not much point to discussing it further.”

Still silent, Kaon Ferdinand picked up the practice sword again.

Truthfully, Joseph’s assessment was correct. It wasn’t like the relationship between the two was bad from the beginning. Contrary to expectations that it would be terrible, it had been quite nice.

‘It was like that at first.’

There was a reason why their petty antagonism had reached this point, and it all began half a year—perhaps even a full year—ago.