CH 30

Aren’s father, Earl Serkia, was in an incredibly good mood. He had just finished his long territory patrol and was on his way to visit his daughter.

In his hands were a handful of various local specialties. It was because he insisted to the servants who offered to hold them that he would take it to his daughter himself.

Golden honey. It was produce that was hard to obtain due to its high demand. Of course, the nobles were no exception. In order to obtain the honey for his daughter, who had a sweet tooth, he waited for three hours in the raging sunlight.

He had also gotten the brooch from a famous designer, who was known to have a waiting time of over a year to buy from, and had a limit of one per person. Inside this surplus of gifts were also books and herbs, which Aren had liked ever since she was young.

The Earl believed he could do anything if it were for his beloved daughter.

Knock knock.

“Aren. May I come in?”

He knocked on the door to his precious one and only daughter’s room. Clearing his throat, Earl Zigen awaited Aren’s response.

Concerned that he might look too cold from his lack of expression, he practiced smiling several times, imagining how joyful his daughter would be once she received his gifts.

“Aren?”

His daughter would definitely answer if she were inside. When he heard nothing, Earl Zigen cracked the door open in concern.

Creaaak.

“…?”

Thud.

The possessions in Earl Zigen’s arms fell to the ground.

“…!”

When he opened the door, he found a tan, beast-like man without a shirt lying down on his daughter’s bed. Not only that, but Aren was collapsed on top of his exposed chest.

“Aaaaahhhhhhh!”

Earl Zigen yelled out as he charged forward with a decorative sword.

“You bastard…! How dare you touch my daughter?!”

It felt as if his vision was blacking out, and his mind was in turmoil. But the one who was even more confused than him was the man on the bed.

“…?”

‘So I’ll get him washed and a change of clothes.’

‘You’re my one and only younger brother. So you don’t have to make such an expression.’

Cassadin didn’t like that Aren brought a new slave.

Seeing those deep blue eyes directed toward someone who wasn’t himself, he felt as if he couldn’t breathe properly.

That green-eyed man whom she fell in love with at first sight, the Crown Prince, the slave.

Why did his sister have so many men around her?

Cassadin pretended to be nonchalant in front of Aren, but he felt the complete opposite on the inside.

The fact that this was happening in itself didn’t make sense to him. He felt unbelievably petty that he had these thoughts in the first place.

He was confident that he had abandoned his emotions. It wasn’t just by luck that he survived that long in that damn arena.

But these days, he felt like he wasn’t himself.

As if someone had lit a fire inside of him, his internal thoughts were all simmering and shredded into chaos. He continued to reaffirm himself every day of his goals, but oddly enough, his anxiety washed away when he saw Aren’s smile.

Seeing her plump lips curl up into a smile and her eyes fold into crescents, he could feel the unease within him become purified.

It agitated him to see those eyes and that smile directed toward someone who wasn’t him.

He didn’t like that Aren was giving attention to a different slave. He felt he might have done something to the slave had he stayed there.

In order to calm down his noisy thoughts, Cassadin took a moment to go outside.

But….

“Aaaaaahhhhhh!”

He heard the voice of the Earl, who he heard was out on territory patrol, ring out in the direction of the mansion. Hearing what was close to a wail come from the Earl, who always maintained his composure, he realized something was very wrong.

Cassadin immediately ran in the direction of the voice. He was positive that the voice had come from Aren’s room.

When he arrived, he saw Earl Zigen about to kill someone with a decorative sword.

“Father?”

Because it was his first time seeing Earl Zigen in such a state, Cassadin was incredibly shocked. But seeing what was beyond him, Aren was lying on top of a basically naked man.

As soon as he saw that, Cassadin landed a punch on the man’s face.

Pow!

The man, who had been trying to get up from the bed, had to receive a beating right after he had woken up for some reason he didn’t know. He didn’t know what other expression to make than confusion as Cassadin attacked him.

“…I’ll kill that man.”

Eyes narrowed, Cassadin spoke with a voice filled with bloodlust as he clenched his fists again. Next to him, Earl Zigen picked up his unconscious daughter.

“Was Cassadin your name? I tend to hold high value in a person’s life, but I will permit murder just this once.”

With that final statement, the Earl quickly carried his daughter out of the room.

“My goodness! What is this mess?”

“Kyaaa!”

The maids screamed in horror as they witnessed the bloody fight. Though it was far too one-sided to be called a fight.

“…How dare you?”

Cassadin muttered darkly.

Having no moment to prepare himself, the defenseless man had no idea what was going on.

Cassadin growled just as he was about to kick the man. In this current situation, it was clear that this tan, muscular man was the one in the wrong.

“How dare you use the short moment I was gone to attempt such a thing.”

“Wh-what do you mean? And who are you?”

Suddenly, the man brought his hands to his mouth as if surprised.

‘I can… speak?’

Inserting a finger in his mouth, he realized that he had a tongue.

‘But my tongue was cut off?’

“Is there a reason for me to tell you my name if you’re going to die anyway?”

While the man was busy being surprised, Cassadin slowly approached him with the expression of a demon who had come up from hell. With his long life as a top-tier gladiator, Cassadin knew with one glance.

That this man was also like him.

“…Uh, shouldn’t somebody stop him?”

“Sir Cassadin is furious…”

“Ah, what should we do…?”

The maids were all sweating nervously, not knowing what to do. With the Earl’s permission, Cassadin really seemed like he was going to kill this man.

Earl Zigen hurriedly brought his daughter to a different room and laid her down. The servants quickly moved as they awaited Earl Zigen’s orders.

After collapsing from consuming too much energy at once, Aren thankfully regained her senses quickly.

“Father?”

The first thing she saw after opening her eyes was her father’s worried face.

“Aren! Are you alright?”

The Earl let out a sigh of relief, his face letting go of its concern.

“F-Father. When did you return?”

To Aren, Earl Zigen didn’t seem to look well. The servants behind the Earl were all looking at her with concerned expressions.

“…?”

Not to mention, the room she was in right now was not hers.

“Aren. I’m so terribly sorry… It seems I have not paid attention to you enough in these recent days.”

Earl Zigen’s eyes watered up, almost as if he were about to explode into tears.

“Are you not hurt?”

“Yes, I’m fine.”

“This foolish father had not known that a beastly man had crawled into your room.”

“What?”

Aren’s eyes shot open.

When Aren hurriedly ran to the scene of the incident, she found Cassadin and the unnamed man rolling around on the ground.

“…!”

The room was already in shambles, which was only natural with two large men rolling around as such.

“Stop!”

Hearing her voice, Cassadin and the man both turned to Aren.

“What exactly… is going on here?”

As she spoke, Aren slowly approached the two scuffling men.

“Sister, this damned beast had dared to place its hands on you.”

The man said with an incredibly bewildered expression that it wasn’t true, but it seemed Cassadin didn’t believe him one bit.

“It’s positive that he had taken off his clothes to allure you. If I had been even a little later, something terrible might have happened.”

“Wh, that’s not…”

Flustered, the man waved his hands to express that this was a misunderstanding. But he himself also could not understand why he had been lying on the bed. Especially without any clothes on.

“Cassadin.”

When Aren called his name, Cassadin stopped.

“Yes. What is it?”

He answered, his eyes still glaring at the man in front of him.

“That person didn’t do anything wrong.”

I explained what had happened. Since Cassadin was not yet fully tamed, I couldn’t tell him about my healing powers, so I fabricated a different explanation instead.

“So you were unable to sleep well last night and were so tired that you fell asleep on his chest?”

His excuse was completely ridiculous, even to my ears, but I just smiled at Cassadin and nodded repeatedly.

Cassadin peered at my face, then let out a soft sigh as he said,

“…If you say so, Sister.”

“Cassadin.”

“But what will you do with the man now?”

“I plan on keeping him in the mansion for the time being.”

I had been planning to ask the slave about Damian’s duchy. Then I approached the man, who was sitting blankly on a chair with swollen cheeks, and asked him,

“What exactly happened to you all this time?”

The tan-skinned man grimaced and let out a groan at my question. He cocked his head as if to think hard about it, and when his mouth finally opened, I was happy that he might give the answer that I wanted.

“I’m sorry. I cannot remember anything.”

But shamefully, the man had amnesia.