Tamed A Blackened Slave Man

At around the same time, Damian experienced an indescribable anger boiling up inside him.

No longer inside the banquet hall, he bit his underlip out of frustration.

Perhaps it was because he had been unable to control his emotions, a pain that felt as though his entire soul was being torn out consumed his body.

He had to stop walking and stood there for a moment, letting out light gasps of pain.

“Your Grace! Are you alright?!”

Some imperial knights who recognized Damian rushed to his side to support him, but Damian shook his head to show that he did not want their help.

Understanding his signal, the knights bowed and backed away.

However, the youngest imperial knight among them did not understand Damian’s indications and approached him.

“May I escort you back to the…?”

The young knight who had approached Damian was unable to finish his sentence. When he met eyes with the sharp green eyes of a serpent, he completely froze and turned pale with fear.

“I-I am sorry, Your Grace. Please forgive my intrusion.”

Without responding, Damian inspected the face of the young knight. He had merely looked at the knight, but the knight was completely frightened. He found it quite amusing.

“Your Grace, I am terribly sorry. I will make sure to properly educate him.”

Damian’s followers, the knights, then hurriedly ushered away the young knight, who was frozen in front of Damian along with them.

That young knight would likely never be able to hold a sword in his hand again. No, the other knights might attempt to kill him under the excuse of re-educating him.

It was incredible how loyal the imperial knights who followed Damian were to him instead of the Emperor.

Among those followers were some who had also participated in the destruction of Cassadin’s homeland, the Hyran Kingdom.

Though the knights who followed him were quite cruel, they proved useful to Damian. Even the old fox who ruled the empire would have no knowledge that Damian had planted several imperial knights within the palace for some time now.

‘Yes. This damned heart condition.’

The cursed heart disease that he acquired immediately after conquering the Hyran Kingdom showed no signs of going away. He had suppressed the pain, even going as far as drinking the blood of commoners, but that was only a temporary measure.

Damian leaned against a cold marble pillar near the fountain adorned with angel decorations outside the palace.

As he took a moment to catch his breath, the scenes he had witnessed in the palace flooded Damian’s mind.

The intertwined hands of the woman and man and the woman’s smile as she declared she would have no regrets.

Just the thought of that scene reignited the anger that had just subsided within Damian.

“Argh…….”

A pained moan escaped Damian’s lips as he clutched his heart and gazed up at the sky.

The winter sky was clear and bright, reminiscent of the Princess’s hair he had seen in the banquet hall. But when Damian looked up at the vast expanse, he was reminded of Aren.

Unlike his darkening mood, she was pleasant, pure, and had not a single cloud in her eyes.

Damian desperately desired to possess the woman who held his lifeline.

To Damian, Aren was like the sky.

Normally, this level of anger would have been enough to render him unconscious, if not worse.

But this level of pain was no longer sufficient to make Damian faint. That was because he had endured two months of torturous training.

It was true that he did not need such training, and all he had to do was ask Aren to heal his heart.

Like he had done with others, he could blackmail her, use her family as leverage, and she would willingly cure him.

‘She is quite compassionate, so threats against her family, the Earl, would cause Lady Serkia to heal Master’s heart so that she would not lose her father.’

Kindel, who could no longer use his right leg because of Cassadin’s attack, also supported his idea.

Normally, that would have been the right choice.

Damian also knew, just as well as Kindel, that this was the quickest and easiest route to solving his problems.

But he was unable to make himself do it.

Kindel gazed at his master, who completely ignored his suggestion.

‘Master. Why are you not choosing the optimal method?’

‘If I threaten Aren with her family, is there not a chance that she will never heal my heart disease?’

‘Of course not. This is the best possible method. Master, don’t you know that better than anyone else? Why……’

Trailing away, Kindel suddenly shut his mouth as if realizing something.

Kindel had aided Damian throughout his entire life. The wise butler immediately realized that his master, who boasted a calm and calculative mind, now had a crevasse in his heart.

‘……You’ve developed feelings for that woman.’

‘And it seems that you’ve become quite bold after getting a beating from Cassadin.’

Damian laughed at Kindel’s accusation, but Kindel already knew that Damian’s heart was already directed towards Aren.

Now that there was a crack in his master’s cold-blooded mind that not even the Emperor could do anything about, it was impossible for him to claim the throne.

‘Ahh…… Master.’

A single tear droplet fell from Kindel’s eye.

It pained the old butler’s heart that he could only watch as his master slowly sank into the swamp that he himself created. The swamp would slowly, little by little, pull his master in until it eventually swallowed him whole.

Attempting to stop him now would do no good, as his voice would not reach his master. It was only when it was too late that Kindel realized this.

That was because not even Kindel had expected that bright woman to have clouded his master’s sharp judgment like this.

‘I’m sorry. I’m terribly sorry, Master.’

The old butler collapsed to the ground as he silently pleaded with his master with tears.

He should have stopped him, even if it meant his own death. He should have held onto his master’s leg and made sure that he never got close to Aren, even if it could have led to his death.

But the human heart never lets one’s intentions be, even if he regrets what has happened.

It was already too late.

---

“Sir, are you the Grand Duke?”

A woman’s bright voice, contrasting Damian’s current emotions, could be heard from behind him. Damian turned his head to look at the woman who called him.

The woman’s braided orange hair was reminiscent of an autumn sunset. Under her thick eyelashes were large, pink eyes that seduced all who fell upon them.

Her pink dress revealed her milky and fair skin and neckline.

She was undeniably beautiful, a rarity even in the empire.

However, that was all.

Damian felt nothing for the woman who smiled at him.

With a cold voice, he asked her,

“I do not know you, nor am I interested in doing so.”

“……”

“It would be better for you to return to the banquet hall if you’re seeking the company of men. There is likely a mountain of men waiting to embrace you.”

For some reason, the woman did not seem bothered by Damian’s rude behavior. Instead, she brought her fan to her mouth and laughed gently.

“Unfortunately, the man I wish to be embraced by is already chosen.”

Damian smirked at the woman and turned around, as if he did not want to waste any more time.

“……I must say, your tricks are quite obvious.”

“I’m afraid to say this, but the person I want is not Your Grace. That person is Sir Cassadin, to be exact.”

Turning back around, Damian stared at the woman and growled coldly.

“Then you should hurry along to him. I don’t understand your reason for following me all the way here and bothering me.”

“……I know that Your Grace truly loves Lady Serkia. And you also likely know that Sir Cassadin and Lady Serkia are not in a normal sibling relationship.”

The woman’s statement caused Damian’s already down mood to plummet even further. Damian glared sinisterly at Lillian.

“It seems that your reason for following me is to shorten your lifespan.”

His glare should have been more than enough to scare her, but Lillian was instead smiling as she responded.

“I am not here to make Your Grace upset. I understand that Your Grace cannot trust me, who you’ve only just met. So I judged that I should just tell you the information I have.”

“If you are going to tell me useless things based on what I said at the banquet hall, then I advise you to stop there. Excessive ignorance is also prone to provoking the anger of others.”

Damian watched Lillian with a dry expression as he then added on.

“I hope that you learn to value your life while you still have the chance.”

“Your Grace, I have already known much longer than a couple of months ago that the two siblings were not ordinary. Because the brother of the two had looked at me and treated me as something worth even less than a pebble on the ground. And Lady Serkia had thrown me out of the Earl’s mansion.”

“……Thrown out?”

“Yes. When I went to the lady’s mansion, she had a large uniform jacket that did not fit her draped around her shoulders. That was likely Sir Cassadin’s, correct? Since he had been wearing only a white shirt when he appeared later on.”

What Lillian was currently saying was something that would have been difficult to learn about if she had not actually gone to Aren’s residency herself.

It didn’t matter to Damian how the woman had gotten into the residency. All he needed to know was that this woman knew the true relationship between those two people.

“……I can change Lady Serkia’s heart.”

But the words that came from her mouth caused Damian to snort. He began to laugh at her with a sneer, but Lillian continued with what she wished to say.

“It is another woman who knows the best of a woman’s heart.”

This woman was incredibly bold. The way she bet her life on the line to achieve her goals reminded him of a certain someone he knew.

‘Then you will leave my mansion as a corpse.’

When Damian said that to Aren when she visited his mansion to cure his heart disease, she responded with the following,

‘Alright. Let’s do so.’

Her voice was quiet yet clear. That voice didn’t contain any confidence or arrogance related to her ability.

What had been contained inside that calm voice was a sadness similar to a sort of acceptance. That sadness didn’t originate from the fear of death.

It held sorrow that felt as though he’d known her for a long time, as if she had been reminiscing about the past.

That was probably the first time Damian felt interested in Aren, and when he became unable to read Aren’s intentions.

And inside the ears of the man who was thinking of Aren came Lillian’s marbly voice.

“All Your Grace has to do is use me.”

“……”

“If you don’t like me, then all you have to do is turn me down. There is nothing that Your Grace will lose. How is it? Why don’t we join hands?”

If it had been the usual Damian, he would have declined Lillian’s offer right away. Not only that, but he would have also taken her life away as well.

But the suggestion that Lillian was giving him felt like an irresistible temptation to the current Damian.

Her platinum hair was braided with the light of the moon, and her blue eyes were clearer than any spring in the mountains. Her crimson red lips were tinted with roses.

“If those eyes looked at me instead of Cassadin, if I could etch my marks over the red stains that the bastard left…”

Back when he bit into Aren’s shoulder and left a mark, the one who had been more surprised than Aren was none other than Damian himself.

When he buried his face in her shoulder, there was an indescribable sweet scent coming from her body.

It was a subtle scent, but one that comforted him with its mere existence.

It was warm and cozy. It had been nice and comfortable.

That scent made Damian go mad.

On impulse, he had bitten into the woman’s shoulder. Even when he thought back to it, he looked no more than a beast in heat.

Who in this world would bite into a woman’s shoulder to test her healing abilities? That had just been an excuse made in an attempt to rationalize his trashy behavior.

The reason he avoided Aren for two months was in the hopes that not seeing her face would settle down these moronic thoughts he had.

But…

The woman’s face, which he believed would fade away over time, only became clearer as time passed.

The way she had flinched and pulled away from him when he reached out to her, the woman who glared at him with disdain after he bit her shoulder.

He could not erase her from his mind.

Just imagining the woman unraveling in front of him with his touch and his movement was enough to instantly lighten his infinitely darkening mood.

Damian was germophobic, but Aren felt like a completely pure being to him.

Thinking of the frail, fragile woman reminded Damian of the morning fog, one that dissipated the moment he attempted to touch it.

‘So, if Your Grace touches even a single hair of Cassadin’s, I’ll let you know that I will never heal Your Grace’s heart disease ever again.’

When Aren said that to him, there was evident hatred and resentment in her gaze.

Damian wanted to see that hatred change into another emotion with his own two eyes.

Just how much more did he have to push her to make those unwavering eyes turn to him, not Cassadin?

What face would she make if Cassadin died? Would she shed tears all night? Or would her hatred and bloodlust for him become stronger?

Out of all the uncertainties, the one certain fact was that Damian would do whatever it took to have Aren in his grasp.

He even, perhaps, wanted Aren just as much as Cassadin, whom he had considered filthy.

Just as things that were hard to obtain always were, they added fuel to the flame called desire.

Damian wanted it—both Aren’s body and heart.

‘Hadn’t I always claimed what I wanted until now?’

Damian, who had become completely immersed in Aren unbeknownst to himself, eagerly accepted Lillian’s offer.

If the woman standing in front of him was unable to do her job correctly, he could just kill her. So, all he had to do was utilize this woman.

“What is your name?”

Lillian curled up her bright red lips at Damian.

“I am Lillian Grace of the Viscount Grace Family.”

“Lillian Grace.”

“Yes, Your Grace. Please call me Lillian.”

And just as Lillian had done to him, Damian drew his lips thin and smiled at her.

“Yes, Lillian. Though I cannot trust you, I will put my trust in the achievements you make.”

“What results are you asking for?”

“That, you will know best as the person who first suggested it to me. If you prove your worth to me, then I will also trust you.”

With his eyes stretching into an arch, Damian added,

“So go ahead, prove your worth to me.”