Tamed A Blackened Slave Man

Though Damian had let me into his mansion, he continued to stay on high alert around me.

‘Well, considering what happened at the banquet hall, I should be thankful that he let me in at all.’

When I continued to keep quiet, he narrowed his eyes and raised his chin high. His cold, green eyes that gazed down at me seemed like they had been created from ice itself.

“It’s a bit late to pretend you are concerned, Milady.”

“……”

“I now know that when you visited my prison cell and framed me as a bastard at the banquet hall, they were all a part of your plan.”

With a twisted smile, Damian slowly shook his head from side to side.

But from those sharp emerald eyes that continued to glimpse at Tuule, I knew that the man wouldn’t kill me until the questions in his head were answered.

Since the Crown Prince promised my safety, he wouldn’t rashly attempt to harm me, but since he was ‘the’ Damian, I wouldn’t be surprised if he still tried to.

It was a dangerous gamble to step foot in this mansion in the first place.

But one has to enter the monster’s lair in order to face the monster.

One of my reasons for visiting Damian was to find Cassadin, but another was to shake up Damian’s mind.

“Your Grace was the one who betrayed me first.”

My response caused his face to crumple.

“Milady. Just what did I ever do to you?”

That selfish bastard. Who was it that tried to take Cassadin away from me, causing a ruckus about slaves and such?

“You’ve insulted my one and only younger brother. In front of many people at that.”

Although Cassadin was no longer my sibling after having his name erased from our family. But even if he had left the family, that didn’t change the fact that he was a person whom I cared for.

“…I believe we will have many things to discuss. Why don’t we move elsewhere first?”

As soon as he said that, Damian turned around and took the lead. I internally clicked my tongue and followed Damian when I realized something strange.

‘Where is Kindel?’

The old butler had always followed Damian around like a shadow. Just when I was thinking about Kindel’s strange absence, we arrived at the doors of the living room. Then he pushed open the doors.

“Let’s go in.”

As soon as the doors opened, I saw a familiar face.

‘Sister!’

The image of Cassadin calling out to me with a bright smile appeared, but then immediately disappeared into thin air.

Ah, it irritated me. I must have seen an illusion because I was so sure that Cassadin would be in this place.

“What were you expecting to see?”

All that was here was Damian, who had his eyes narrowed as he looked down at me with irritation. I felt a surge of disgust swell up inside of me, but I calmed down and walked into the living room.

When I stepped foot into the room, a clear, soft voice called to me from behind.

“Miss Aren.”

I turned around to look at the owner of the voice to see that Tuule was drumming his hand against his chest, adding on with a determined voice.

“I will be here to protect Miss Aren in case anything happens. So you may rest assured, Miss Aren.”

Before I could answer, Damian replied in a mocking tone.

“You seem to have made your way with that slave already.”

‘How is he always able to choose the perfect words to press the other person’s button?’

It looked like Damian didn’t plan to hide his true colors from me any longer. He likely considered it a waste of energy to bother hiding it when I already knew of his real side and intentions.

“Now, Milady. Please sit down.”

Damian even pulled out a chair for me to sit down. When I stared at him with a confused expression, he smirked and said,

“You are a guest ‘for now,’ after all.”

Which also meant that he would not hesitate to kill me once I wasn’t a guest.

Pretending not to understand, I bowed my head to him and sat down.

“Then, if you insist.”

Once I sat down, Damian also took his seat on the other side. We faced each other, with a long table made of marble separating us.

And as if standing guard, Tuule stood right beside me. Damian inspected Tuule’s actions, and I stared at Damian as he looked at Tuule.

Not long after, when Damian tore his gaze off of Tuule and met eyes with me, he tilted his head and opened his mouth.

“Now. Milady, why don’t we have a talk?”

“Where should we start?”

“Why the slave, whom I had certainly cut their tongue out, has it attached again, why Milady has personally come to the North all the way from the Capital, and…”

But as he requested a conversation, Damian only threw questions at me.

‘So the reason why he let me into the mansion was so that he could extract information from me without even thinking of giving me any of his information.’

I was wondering why such a calculative person had let me into their home so easily.

“What exactly was it that you wanted from me for you to act in such a way at the banquet that day?”

Especially at that last question, Damian’s already sharp eyes glimmered dangerously like a poisonous snake.

He was a man who lived for the sake of his pride, after all, so being trampled on must have made him quite angry.

Unfortunately, I had no intention of acting in the manner that Damian wanted me to.

Honestly, would I hand over the information I had when one wrong word could end up with my heart pierced? Did he think I was an idiot?

“I’m sorry, but I’m terribly bad at understanding, so I don’t know what Your Grace is talking about right now.”

I said as I shrugged my shoulders. Damian closed his eyes for a long moment as if attempting to control his anger, then swept his black hair with his hand.

His neatly combed hair was so well maintained that it shone in the sunlight. If his inner state were just as clean as his extravagant exterior, then I wouldn’t have died in my past life.

“I recommend that you quit acting dumb already.”

Opening his eyes back up, Damian muttered coldly. His vertically ovular irises and sharply inclined eyes made it easy to mistake the man for a personified snake.

“And start talking when I’m still asking nicely. Whatever you know that is.”

“……”

“I beg you to remember that you are currently in my mansion, Milady.”

It was funny how he tried to threaten me when he was the one who opened the door for me. Maybe it was because I already knew that this was the true nature of this man, but my mind was impressively quiet.

I responded in a calm tone. Calm, but with a little hint of hurt included.

“I ask this because I truly cannot understand, but why do you speak in such a manner?”

“……”

“Even if it is Your Grace… is it alright for you to treat a guest that has come a long way to visit like this?”

Damian’s eyebrow twitched slightly. As someone who knew him much too well in my past life, I’ve seen that expression often. It was Damian attempting to suppress the fury building up inside of him.

Maybe it was because of the absence of Kindel, who was basically Damian’s right-hand man, but it wasn’t that difficult to aggravate the man.

Since things have already come this far, I decided I was going to act dumb and be impossible to communicate with.

It was a better idea to seem like an idiotic bundle of weaknesses to Damian rather than act smart.

But if I acted only like an idiot, then he might ignore the Crown Prince’s promise and just try to kill me. So, I needed to act like an incredibly useful idiot.

“Yes. Now that you mention it, I didn’t act as a proper host to Milady.”

After saying that, Damian rang the bell located on the table and called his servants. Soon after, several servants opened the door and entered, to which Damian waved his hands at them and placed an order without even looking at them.

“Go prepare some supper. A delicacy if you would.”

As soon as their master finished speaking, the servants bowed forward 90 degrees and hurriedly left the room.

Clack.

When the door closed, Damian curled up the corner of his lips at me.

“Are you satisfied now?”

Was he going to poison me with the food? It bothered me that he added the word ‘delicacy.’ Seeing that I didn’t respond, Damian rested his chin on his hand and spoke,

“I won’t do anything to the food, so you may rest assured.”

It was even more suspicious that he would say that. When I continued to look at him with suspicion, Damian added on in an irritated voice.

“You suspect me for serving you as a host but complain when I don’t. What do you want me to do?”

“Like Your Grace has said, since this is Your Grace’s home, isn’t it possible for you to hide the fact that I was poisoned?”

“…One may mistake that there’s a blade pointed at Milady’s throat if they hear that.”

‘You didn’t just point it at me. You actually stabbed my heart and killed me.’

Though the Damian of the past and this current Damian were technically the same person, he was also a different Damian from the one who killed me.

But that didn’t mean that he wasn’t evil. Whether it was now or then, he was the same vile bastard.

I stared straight at the man, who leisurely had his chin resting on his hand. When I did so, Damian glared as if he were offended.

“What are you watching so intently?”

“May I speak the truth?”

“You may.”

“I was looking at your handsome face.”

“……”

Damian’s caution towards me changed to perplexity and bewilderment at my strange behavior.

On his face, which had been displaying displeasure and wariness, a new emotion called disgust was added.

It looks like I succeeded in seeming insane.