Prologue 1

It was a room in a certain building in the commercial district.

The room was surrounded by furnishings, and while it was obvious the items were expensive, every last one of them was somehow tasteless and vulgar.

A newly rich upstart, made wealthy overnight, flaunted his financial power—violence by money. Amid furnishings so blatant you could practically see the price tags shining through, a single young man sat small on a wooden chair, as though afraid of something.

Normally he had a strong will. He might frighten others, but he himself did not get frightened. People said eyes spoke louder than words, and in his case that was exactly true—his eyes had always proclaimed his arrogance.

“…What do I do… What do I do…”

But now there was not even that twisted confidence left in his gaze; it was dyed through and through with anxiety.

“Father… he was serious.”

What lingered in his ears was a certain set of words.

It wasn’t intimidation meant to force submission, nor was it abuse. If you judged only by the tone, it was so gentle you might even feel calm.

And like sickly sweet poison, it slowly invaded him from within.

It wasn’t that he was seized by a violent impulse—he was simply terrified that the poison would fully spread. Even so, he knew how to detoxify it.

And fortunately, the poison’s advance was slow, giving him more than enough time to take countermeasures.

“…I believe life is precious. Needless killing is wrong. But when your mother conceived your younger brother—or your younger sister, it meant you would receive House Sobi’s curse, you know? Hmm?”

Remembering it, he—Darius Sobi—shuddered again.

Behind Darius, the door opened slowly and a woman entered.

“Oh my, Lord Darius? If you’re cold, shall I bring you some warm tea?”

She addressed Darius with polite language, but the way she spoke so matter-of-factly held no respect for him at all.

“No, fine… The tea I drink is decided. I doubt someone like you has it. It would only be a waste.”

The woman gave a small laugh at the sight of a young man, younger than her by about a year, speaking out of prideful self-esteem even while trembling in fear.

To her, Darius’s state of mind was completely transparent.

“Indeed. Any tea leaves I have are cheap, compared to House Sobi’s—cheap beyond cheap. No different from weeds by the roadside. Not something a young master would ever drink.”

With that, she set a single cup in front of Darius and sat across from him.

Darius peeked at what was inside. The woman tipped another cup to her own lips, swallowed it down, and only then answered.

“Just water. I did bring purified water, but if House Sobi insists on the water’s place of origin, there’s nothing I can do.”

Shrugging, the woman set her cup down.

Ignoring her, Darius quietly began drinking the water as well.

“…So even House Sobi doesn’t insist on the water’s origin, it seems.”

The woman smiled with a hint of cynicism as she watched Darius.

After wetting his throat, Darius paused, then spoke.

“Now then—why did you call me here? You called for me, the eldest son of House Sobi, so you must have something worth saying.”

The fear that had colored his eyes earlier was already hidden again, and he glared at the woman’s face.

She answered as if she didn’t care in the slightest.

Small talk to deepen our relationship seems unnecessary, so—she began.

“It seems you’re in some trouble, Lord Darius? I’ve heard that lately the people around you have been dragging you down.”

For a moment, Darius was startled that the woman in front of him knew his current situation, but he immediately agreed with her words.

“…Y-yes. That’s right. It isn’t my fault. But—”

“But unfortunately, it means your ‘surroundings’ have been moving in a direction that’s bad for you, Lord Darius, isn’t that so?”

Her gentle voice wrapped Darius in warmth.

“…Yes. And as a result, Father’s evaluation of me has fallen all the way to the bottom.”

Darius drooped his head as he recalled Talidge, and from there, how his father Zoin’s assessment of him had plummeted as a consequence.

“But there’s nothing you could do about it, is there? It was something outside your control. It only happened to work against you, through sheer bad luck.”

Before Darius, slowly lifting his head, was a woman speaking as if she had seen through everything.

“…Nothing I could do?”

Reflected in Darius’s eyes as he stared straight at her was a woman with well-shaped features. Perhaps because of makeup, her plump lips were vividly red as they moved.

Darius’s head was lower than hers, naturally putting her at an angle where she looked down at him—but he felt no discomfort from it.

She didn’t give off an air of looking down on him.

If anything, her eyes even seemed to hold tenderness directed at Darius.