“Damn it.”

The Marquis spat out a curse and approached the door. And just as he was about to grab the handle, the door opened with a harsh noise.

Pushed back by the strong force, the Marquis rolled on the floor. As he lay sprawled on the ground, he raised his head with a groan of pain, and a familiar armor appeared before his eyes.

It was the Silver Wolf, Vicheravali’s knight order.

“You, you bastard……”

Aiden, one of the most renowned members of the Silver Wolf, pressed his foot on the Marquis’s neck. While doing so, he leaned his upper body toward the Marquis. The pressure on his neck intensified.

“Sa, save me……”

“You dare touch our young master and Miss?”

His gaze was piercing as he spoke coldly.

“……Pl, please……”

“You want to live? What big dreams.”

Spitting out curses, he kicked the Marquis’s side with all his might. Then he turned around and ordered.

“Take him away.”

“Yes.”

As the knights dragged the Marquis away, Aiden stared at the man sprawled on the floor in the room.

He was someone who had been imprisoned in the Duke of Vicheravali’s castle dungeon until recently. His crime was attempting to kidnap Royan and Reibella. Though he rightfully should have died or remained in that prison until death, they had deliberately released him.

Since the suspected mastermind behind the kidnapping was a relative, they needed solid evidence. As a result, the man who escaped from prison had indeed headed to Marquis Pueblo as expected.

Aiden approached the man and searched his pockets. What he held in his hand was a magic stone.

Though the small magic stone couldn’t facilitate large-scale movement like the imperial warp gate, it was sufficient for transporting a few people.

Having retrieved what needed to be recovered, he ordered.

“Take this one away too. Put him back in prison.”

“Yes.”

“Gather everything suspicious. We will present it to the Emperor.”

With all the trash taken care of, the only thing left was to clean up. Aiden stepped on the Marquis’s portrait that had fallen to the floor and began searching through the documents as well.

It was time to demonstrate a wolf’s nature of never letting go once it bites.

Around the time Aiden began looking for evidence of tax evasion, outside, the servants, bewildered by the unexpected raid, were being dragged out by the knights while trembling violently.

The same was true for the Marquis’s wife and children.

“Please spare us!”

“We, we are innocent!”

Their desperate cries and trembling appearance made them look like victims to anyone watching.

Observing this scene, Royan gave a faint sneer.

Because these people who had trampled on and ignored a helpless child were now acting as if they were the victims. They were seeking generosity and mercy from the very person they had tormented so much.

“Ro, Royan……!”

The Marquis, who had been dragged out by now, spotted Royan and called out to him with delight. His expression was like seeing a savior.

“You’ve come. Quickly, order them to release me. Hurry!”

The Marquis commanded as if he were still his master, as if he still held Royan’s leash.

It was a truly pitiful sight. It was pathetic to see him shaking off the knights’ hands, kneeling, and crawling towards him.

Royan watched the approaching Marquis indifferently and asked his father, who stood beside him and looked exactly like him.

“Did you want to know what happened to me?”

When Cassius nodded, Royan drew his sword and approached the Marquis. The tip of his sword pointed at the Marquis’s hand.

“With this hand, I was slapped and my head was slammed against the wall.”

He lightly cut the Marquis’s hand.

“Aaaagh!”

At the same time, the Marquis’s scream echoed. Groaning in pain, he leaned his upper body backward in terror as Royan took a step closer.

“With those feet, you kicked my stomach, back, and thighs. As if I were a ball.”

He swung his sword again.

“Ro, Royan, pl, please……”

“With that mouth, you insulted Vicheravali, my mother, and my father. And…”

Royan approached the Marquis, who was pleading for his life with a pitiful expression.

Standing before him, Royan placed the tip of his sword against the Marquis’s mouth.

“Because of the kidnapping order that came from that mouth, my sister was hurt. Not me, my sister.”

“I’m, I’m sorry, truly sor……”

“I will not forgive you. The members of this family will all suffer the same fate and stand by the Marquis’s side.”

“Ro, Royan!”

Royan concluded the situation as if he didn’t want to hear any more. Then he shook the blood dripping from his sword and sheathed it.

“You will be thrown into the deepest, darkest, and dampest place in the Imperial Palace. You will live a life where you lick the moisture pooled on the floor, and the only light you see is the occasional torch of passing knights.”

“Do, do you think I’ll just sit back and watch?”

When the Marquis retorted angrily, Royan scoffed.

“You’ll understand when the time comes.”

He was someone who couldn’t do anything anyway. The barking of a loser was simply pathetic.

As Royan turned around, the Duke of Vicheravali, who had been watching silently, asked.

“Didn’t you want to take revenge yourself?”

“I did.”

In truth, Royan wanted to carry out all this revenge with his own hands. He believed that clearing away a shameful past was something one should do oneself.

That’s why he had worked harder and achieved results quickly, wanting to inherit the title as soon as possible.

But something more precious than revenge had emerged.

Family.

There was a time when he thought what meaning could such a thing as family have for him. After losing his mother and being persecuted by his uncle, he had lived believing that he didn’t need family.

But looking back, even in moments he dismissed as nothing, he had longed for the existence of family more than anyone.

If that hadn’t been the case, his heart wouldn’t have ached when he saw his uncle and his family who tormented him so much, and he wouldn’t have desperately repeated to himself every night, ‘I don’t need such things.’

And it was Reibella who showed him that he needed the existence of a family that would accept and welcome him as he was, without having to forcibly put on an appearance.

Thanks to Reibella, his sister, he no longer turned away from his feelings like a child, and he was able to regain his precious family.

The thought that someone had hurt such a precious gift was infuriating. Though killing him immediately wouldn’t be satisfying enough, he wanted to make him suffer more. He should die slowly so that he could regret hurting Reibella for a long time.

“This is enough for me.”

Because he had avenged Reibella.

Because there would be no more danger because of him from now on.

Royan took in the scenery of the Marquis’s mansion with an indifferent expression.

Just imagining how he would feel if he came back here made him angry, and he was seized by the urge to sweep everything away…… but now that he was actually seeing it, he felt nothing. It was true that painful memories surfaced sporadically, but regardless of the past, someone’s voice kept echoing in his ear, shouting that he now deserved to be happy.

So he just laughed.

He just wanted to go back quickly.

“I need to greet Reibella when she wakes up in the morning, so I’m going back now. Handle the rest as you see fit.”

His steps as he turned to leave were light.

As Royan walked a few steps away, his gaze turned somewhere. It was in the direction of the Imperial Palace.

‘I wonder how Her Highness is doing.’

Though he wanted to go and meet her right away, it wasn’t the time yet. He didn’t want to meet her looking like a child.

He quickly withdrew his gaze and turned around without lingering.

It was time to go home.

* * *

“Let me introduce myself again. I am Kieran, the chief butler who oversees all the general affairs of the castle.”

“I am Jeranov Romnal, Commander of the Silver Wolf First Knight Order and Deputy Commander of the Silver Wolf.”

“I am Aiden Clopenta, Commander of the Silver Wolf Second Knight Order, Miss.”

“I am……”

When news spread that Reibella had received Vicheravali’s castle, the castle’s members flocked as if they had been waiting and arranged a formal introduction.

Reibella said there was no need for this since she had already been staying for over a month and knew everyone’s names, but they all insisted, so she couldn’t stop them.

“Miss. From now on, I will be in charge of your escort.”

As everyone finished their greetings and left, Aiden, who had introduced himself first, stepped forward again and knelt on one knee before Reibella. He looked extremely excited.

In contrast, Cleo and Tony standing behind him looked glum.