Tamed A Blackened Slave Man

As he roughly grabbed hold of my chin, Damian’s eyes were bloodshot. Those were the eyes of a man blinded by the desire to cure his heart disease.

He’s likely done everything he could do to cure it already.

“Are you saying that you, Milady, are able to cure my heart disease?”

“…And what if it’s true?”

To my answer, he stared directly into my eyes and added.

“If Milady is lying right now, then it will be difficult for you to make it out of here alive. No, you will beg me to be killed instead of the pain I will instill in you.”

His voice had sunken deep into the abyss that was as dark as his hair.

“Miss Aren!”

And to protect me from him, Tuule slapped away Damian’s hand from me and shouted,

“Don’t do that to Miss Aren!”

“Both you and him. All of these damned slaves.”

Rubbing his wrist after the abrupt movement, Damian cocked his head and took out a dagger from his suit jacket.

“I should be able to test if what Milady said was true if I cut your tongue again.”

Just like he had been in the past, Damian was still below human. And I was relieved by that fact.

I rose from my seat and walked up to Damian and his dagger without any hesitation. Seeing me approach him, Damian’s eyes narrowed as he tested me.

“I may stab Milady with this dagger.”

“If you do, then know that I will not, under any circumstances, heal Your Grace’s heart disease.”

When I responded assertively, the look in Damian’s eyes changed a bit. If he had been looking at me like an intruder just a moment ago, now he seemed to be considering me with interest.

“Did you know, Milady? That not a single person has been able to cure this damned heart. No matter how well-known doctors I visited, they weren’t even able to lessen the pain that this condition brought. And you are saying that you can cure this? Just how?”

It wasn’t that hard to make Damian believe me. I just needed to cure his heart disease.

But, unlike when I had completely cured his disease in my past life, I had no intention of ‘completely’ curing his heart condition this time.

I was only going to ‘pretend’ to cure him. Though I may not seem like much, I’m the greatest healer in the empire. I’ve been called to the palace for my abilities since my youth. Even the Emperor has acknowledged my healing abilities.

And there was one more ability I had that nobody else knew. It was likely that not even my father knew of this.

That was the ability to manipulate all diseases intricately.

The first time I learned of this ability was at this very mansion in my past life. When I had been making a withering flower bloom again, I closed my eyes and thought to myself.

I had commanded it, ‘After five days, you will return to your original state,’ and exactly five days later, the flower withered.

I’m not only able to slow down the spreading of the disease in animals and humans, but also able to meticulously change everything about it, such as how much pain they feel.

Some might call this the ability of the Gods, but this ability had only been made for others.

Because I am not able to heal myself. Though I’m able to heal the uncurable diseases of others, I couldn’t heal a single small scratch I gained.

And currently, this ability was yet another blessing to me, which I didn’t know back then.

The ability that I thought was never to be used again was going to save me from Damian and become the key to his downfall.

The reason I came into this mansion without the protection of guards was all for this moment.

To seem like a person who really came to apologize and to cure his heart disease.

I was going to make it seem like his heart disease had been cured, but the effects were only going to be temporary. He would continue to suffer from it and look for me.

To make it so he couldn’t live without me. To endlessly desire my healing abilities.

“You don’t seem to believe me, Your Grace.”

I took another step toward Damian, and he instinctively stepped back.

“You said you were curious how Tuule’s tongue returned when you surely cut it off. I will show you the answer right now.”

Hearing that I was going to answer him, Damian closed his mouth shut and quietly peered down at me.

I leaned my face closer to the now quiet Damian and neatly curled up my lips into a smile.

“It’s because I healed Tuule’s tongue.”

---

A worn, abandoned house that hasn’t been tended to for years.

Inside that house that reeked of must, mold, and blood, Cassadin was sitting against one of its walls.

He took a short glance at Kindel and found him to be asleep. Within the quiet house, a single window high up on the wall brought light into the building.

Gazing up at the crescent moon shining brightly far above, it naturally reminded him of Aren.

It had already been several days since Cassadin last saw Aren. Every time he longed to see her, he habitually took out the dagger she gifted him and stared at it.

The dagger that was the size of his hand and had a small bell attached to it had originally been his. Because he lost it on the day his kingdom fell, he thought it was destroyed in the fire.

Even the one who returned his treasured dagger to him was Aren.

He was going mad from his desire to see her. It killed him that he couldn’t hug her small, fragile body in his arms.

A heated breath escaped his mouth just by thinking of her snow-white skin or the blue eyes that gazed at him.

This made him feel like he was no different from the other men who longed for her.

He felt like an animal. But the emotions that he already could not control were overflowing to the point where they were out of his grasp.

After confessing his feelings to Aren, Cassadin no longer had the confidence to treat her like a normal person. So he decided to leave the family on his own two feet.

It was true that he left the family so that he couldn’t become her weakness, but that wasn’t the only reason. He was already envisioning a larger picture.

For Aren, no. For him, who wanted Aren.

Was there ever a time he desired something so much? He was nervous, and the anxiety was making him go mad. What if someone else snatched her away while he was gone? What if those damned flies approached her?

To him, every single minute, and second felt like an hour.

‘Sister. Please stay safe until the Founding Day. It is not long until then.’

Just until then, he would do everything he could to withstand that time.

He counted the days. There was about a week left until the Founding Day.

If there was one thing that the smart Cassadin did not take into consideration, it was that he didn’t think that Aren would boldly come to Damian’s mansion in order to find him.

It was that single thing.

---

Damian’s eyes glittered greedily at my answer.

“So Milady is the one who healed that thing’s tongue.”

“Yes.”

Damian threw his gaze at Tuule for a moment, then turned back to me and murmured ominously.

“Is what Milady saying actually true?”

“Yes.”

“If it’s not……”

“Why would I dare lie when I’m in such a position?”

My bold answer caused Damian to return the dagger to his jacket, and then he spoke,

“Alright then. Let us do this.”

“……?”

“If you are able to relieve even a bit of my heart disease, then I will believe Milady. But if you can’t…”

A meaningful smile appeared on Damian’s face as he continued. One that meant he would slit my throat if he felt like it.

“Then you will leave my mansion as a corpse.”

“Alright. Let’s do so.”

He must not have expected me to comply so easily, as the look in his eyes changed completely.

What took the place of his wariness was an innocent curiosity… and a single invisible string of hope that couldn’t be seen if not looked for.

“Not a single moment of hesitation, even when your life is on the line.”

I peered up at Damian’s glittering eyes as he murmured to himself. Just as I had bet my life on the line, I should also add a condition of my own.

I should guarantee the safety of Cassadin using Damian. Since he had always been waiting for a chance to reel him in, I planned to use my healing ability as an excuse to monitor him.

‘…I can’t exclude the possibility that Cassadin has betrayed me.’

After leaving the house without saying a word to me, it wouldn’t be strange for him to do otherwise. If I met him, I wanted to grab him by the collar and demand that he tell me why he did that.

I never planned to completely cure Damian’s heart condition in the first place. Then how could I break down this man’s caution?

‘While leaving the disease within him there, I’ll remove the pain he feels so that he will gain false hope. Then, set the period until the pain is completely gone to several days. And when the pain ensues, I’ll have a reason to come visit Damian’s mansion anytime I want in order to heal him.’

But because I couldn’t let Damian realize this plan, I needed to use the excuse of an ‘apology’ to come here.

“Since I have put my life on the line, I would also like to set up a condition.”

“…Let me hear it.”

“If I heal even a bit of Your Grace’s heart disease, and if there isn’t any sign of the disease or pain from it for the next several days after I do heal Your Grace.”

Purposefully pausing for a moment, I grinned at him.

“Let us forget about the past and reconcile.”

“……”

Damian’s eyes sparkled with curiosity. He remained silent for a while, then finally opened his mouth.

“Very well.”

“Ah! Your Grace, I forgot that I have one more condition.”

His eyebrows crumpled at the news of one more condition.

“What now?”

“I ask you to keep it a secret from others that I have this healing ability.”

“…And why is that?”

“Because my healing ability is closely related to the imperial family.”

I bothered to mention this so that even if Damian knew about my healing ability, he couldn’t rashly do anything to me.

As someone with a severe inferiority complex toward the imperial family, Damian would want to try and use me somehow rather than tell others about my ability. He wouldn’t foolishly spread the news.

To you, who thinks your heart condition is your only flaw, my words would surely sound like a sweet temptation.

“It was also me who healed His Highness when he was poisoned.”

“…..!”

Damian’s eyes visibly widened. His expression held a mixture of surprise and shock.

“Is that true?”

“Yes. I’ve actually made frequent trips to the imperial palace since my youth. What do you think the reason for that is?”

As he heard my proud response, Damian brought his hand to his mouth and smiled. I’ve likely just gone from a useless person to a useful one in his calculative mind.

“Ahh. So that’s why you frequently went to the palace.”

“Yes.”

“…I see. Then.”

The smile wiped off of his face. He firmly took hold of my waist with his hand and continued.

“Let me see that almighty healing ability of yours. Right this instant.”