Tamed A Blackened Slave Man

‘Converse? This late at night?’

Even if we truly only held a conversation, would others also think that way?

No. Absolutely not.

A lady who’s of age to marry, spending a night at the Grand Duke’s mansion. Just that talone would be enough to attract the attention of countless gossipers.

It was likely that this was what Damian wanted.

‘To completely isolate me and monopolize my healing ability.’

I was relieved that I hadn’t completely healed Damian’s heart condition. Whether it was in my past life or the current, all he wanted to do with me was to use me.

Shaking my head, I expressed to him my refusal.

“I’m afraid I cannot.”

“Why is that so?”

“Because it’s become too late, Your Grace.”

Slipping my hand out of Damian’s grasp, I pointed towards the darkened window. He must not have liked my answer, as one of his eyebrows arched up.

He had always made that expression when he wasn’t pleased. Maybe it was because of the lamplight, but the green eyes staring at me felt especially bright.

“Then, what about tomorrow?”

Damian continued to persist while buttoning up his shirt.

To be honest, I didn’t expect my healing abilities to have been this effective of a card. After pretending to think for a moment, I intentionally answered slowly.

“Yes.”

“Then tomorrow, as soon as the sun rises, will you come visit me again?”

How different his attitude was now, from those threats to send me back home as a corpse to this.

“Alright. Then I will return tomorrow morning.”

“If it is fine with Milady, I can guide you to another mansion within my territory.”

“I would feel like too much of a burden if that happened. Your Grace is already so busy, are you not?”

Sasha and Tuule were most likely worried by now because I hadn’t come out for a long time. Not to mention, there was no reason to spend the night at this mansion and risk my life.

“Everyone must be concerned that I have not yet returned this late into the night. I appreciate the offer, but I’m afraid I will need to turn down this generosity.”

“A noble worried about their maid and slave. How kind you are.”

“Aside from their status, they are people I care about.”

You may think that you are the noblest person in the world, but you merely look like a black crow blinded by the sparkling crown to me.

In the end, it was also just luck that had provided Damian with the status of Grand Duke. But what that greed was worth was that it did not only annihilate a peaceful kingdom, but it also pushed a person’s life to the brink of death.

Even after doing all of that, you likely did not feel a hint of guilt. Would you even remember the faces of the ones you killed?

“Then I will return here tomorrow morning.”

“…Very well.”

Damian puckered his lips as if it were a shame, then kindly guided me back to the entrance of the mansion. His attitude was the complete opposite of what it had been before.

Because it bothered me that I hadn’t seen Kindel, who was usually always on standby next to Damian, I asked him right before I boarded the carriage,

“Does Your Grace not have a servant you often call for like I do?”

“……”

“I know this is rude, but it bothered me that Your Grace was doing what a servant would usually do instead, like turning on the lamp.”

His eyebrows furrowed a bit at my question, and then he opened his mouth,

“…There is a servant whom I often call.”

“Yes?”

“But they are currently not at the mansion. They are on an errand far away.”

But I have close to no memories of Kindel leaving Damian’s side from my past life. This was incredibly odd.

“I see.”

Thinking that something was strange, I bowed to him and was just about to board the carriage.

“Miss Serkia.”

When Damian suddenly called to me, I turned my head and responded,

“Yes?”

“Why haven’t you brought your younger brother with you?”

“……”

“I thought he would have come with you, seeing how close you two were stuck together at the banquet hall.”

Was he testing me? Or did Damian not know yet that Cassadin had run away from our home?

‘Does that mean Cassadin didn’t come here? Or maybe he intentionally asked that to confuse me.’

The answer to Damian’s interrogative question wasn’t that hard.

“My younger brother is also away from home at the moment.”

“Away from home, you say.”

“Yes.”

With a bright smile, I added on.

“He will be returning soon.”

“……”

“It has always been that way with that child.”

“…Is he not a little too big to be called a child?”

With a meaningful smile, Damian continued calmly,

“Very well then. I will be expecting to meet you tomorrow morning.”

“Yes. Farewell then.”

“May you have safe travels back, Milady.”

Clack.

“Let’s go to a well-known inn nearby.”

The doors to the carriage closed, and it was finally just Sasha, Tuule, and me. The carriage holding the three of us started toward its destination.

When I glimpsed behind me, I found Damian still standing there and staring at our carriage instead of heading back in. How intent his stare was as he looked at us.

Anyway, I succeeded in approaching Damian without much difficulty.

‘Now, it’s either kill or be killed.’

It was going to end with one of those two.

---

Only after confirming that the carriage that Aren was in had completely left his sight did Damian head back into his mansion.

For a moment, he stopped walking and stared up at the sky. As if a black curtain draped over it, the skies didn’t show even a single star that night.

If it hadn’t been for the thin crescent moon’s dim glow, it would have been hard for him to see at all. Under the night sky, Damian reached up to touch his chest.

It had been only a temporary relief even when he had drank the commoners’ blood, and it always felt like there was a heavy block of lead weighing down his heart.

But, after Aren had come into contact with his body, the block of lead disappeared, as if his heart really had become better. The constant, irregular beat of his heart was now normal.

‘It’s the ability of Gods.’

Kindel’s warning to Damian not to approach Aren was useless. Damian had finally found the person who was able to cure his damned heart disease.

‘It had been eight long years.’

For eight years, he lived with this heart condition.

There hadn’t been a single thing he hadn’t tried to cure this condition. If what Aren had said was really a lie, he truly planned to kill her for tricking him.

But what Aren said was not a lie. It was true that she had healing abilities.

‘I thought she was a mere woman who had gone mad, but she was, in fact, a goose who lays golden eggs.’

Damian’s mind was caught up in a flurry. Even in the darkness, his emerald green eyes glowed brightly.

‘Your Grace has done something to the food.’

Damian recalled what Aren had said back in the living room. What he had served her was, in fact, incredibly normal food. Without any poison or tricks.

He had just acted like that in order to test whether the woman would eat the food or not. Seeing as how Aren hadn’t eaten the food, Damian was able to know that she was a careful woman.

She was of the same breed as he was, but oddly different somehow. Damian did not trust anyone aside from himself.

He could say that Aren was similar to him in the fact that she did not rashly trust others, but she was different in the fact that she opened herself up to those she judged to be her people.

‘Boundary Of Good and Evil. Who knew she had all of the scriptures memorized.’

Aren even had his favorite book completely memorized. She couldn’t be any more unexpected than that.

Damian accepted the truth. He and Aren had many things in common.

‘I must make that healing ability mine. At all costs.’

To think that the imperial family had that precious ability just for themselves. That made him furious. It felt like his intestines were becoming twisted and tangled.

“That ability is now mine.”

He muttered quietly to himself. There was a look of madness in Damian’s eyes after witnessing the healing ability with his own eyes. It was the first time that the crow had become greedy for the hawk’s nest.

---

‘So it has wilted.’

Crown Prince Leon peered sadly at the forget-me-not flower held in the vase.

It had already been several months since Aren had shown him her healing abilities through that flower. Even the healthiest of flowers would naturally have wilted by now.

After promising to return to the palace, Aren hadn’t given him even a notice that she would come after leaving the banquet hall.

That made Leon incredibly displeased. It wasn’t like him to just sit and wait. And because of his impatience, he decided to sneak out of the palace.

He was changing clothes when a familiar voice reached his ears.

“Leon.”

Hearing the voice call his name, Leon turned around. At some point, the Emperor had entered his room and was looking down at him disapprovingly with his wrinkled face.

“Where are you heading out to this late into the night?”

“Does it matter to Your Majesty where I am going out to you at this time of the day? I didn’t know of this until now.”

Leon’s sharp response, in return, caused the Emperor to sigh deeply.

“To think that my only son is in this state.”

“If you really do not approve of me this much, then you should have had many spouses like the previous Emperor. Then you could have had a lot more children than just me.”

“How could you dare to say that!”

“When my mother had been dying from solitude, where was Your Majesty?”

The Emperor’s fists trembled. Though he was elderly, the glare that the Emperor gave to Leon was still as sharp as a sword.

“Just what is an Emperor’s dignity that it becomes more important than the woman he loves?”

“……”

It was an arranged marriage intended for political relations.

Though it started as an arranged marriage, the Emperor and Empress truly loved one another.

But the Emperor was a man who prioritized work over love, and the weight of the crown was heavy. Because of that, the Empress always came second.

Worn out from the loneliness, the Empress had become sick from a heart illness and passed away. Leaving just Leon.

One could call a healer to cure diseases, but even they were unable to heal the illness of her heart.

So, ultimately, it was mostly the Emperor’s fault that the Empress had passed away. And that had also become his weakness.

“I will not live like Your Majesty.”

“……”

“If you do not have anything more to say, I will now take my leave.”

The Emperor was receiving the costs of his harsh treatment of his son. Blaming himself internally, he asked Leon with another deep sigh.

“…May I ask who it is you are going to see?”

Hearing the Emperor’s question, Leon stopped and opened his mouth.

“I am going to see Lady Serkia.”