Chapter 1 (Part 5)

Sienna sprinted up the hill and reached the dormitory, then dashed up to the third floor where her room was. When she flung the door open, fortunately, there was no sign of anyone inside. A sense of relief washed over her along with the faint taste of blood in her throat.

On one shelf, she gently placed Mandrago’s Sigh and then rolled up her sleeves to quickly start tidying the room. With little time, she had to focus on making at least the surface appear presentable.

She threw all the erotic novels with explicit illustrations and scattered clothes into a box under the bed and used a cleaning magical tool to roughly sweep the dust that had settled on the shelves.

After tidying the room to some extent and opening the window for ventilation, Sienna quickly turned her head at the heavy knock coming from behind her.

“C-come in!”

With a small clunk, the dormitory door swung open. In her trembling dark green eyes, a large man as big as the door was reflected.

Eden Felice, the Emperor’s nephew and one of the only two Dukes in the empire, had indeed come to Sienna’s dormitory.

“Are you Sienna Onyx?”

His voice was sweet as he spoke, barely moving his straight eyebrows. Grasping her heart that seemed to resonate with his deep voice, Sienna barely managed to nod.

“Ah, yes…”

Sienna stared blankly at Eden, forgetting even to show the proper courtesy to a grand noble.

With eyes as transparent and red as pomegranates, hair as black as if woven from the midnight sky, and sharply chiseled nose and jawline, he was a perfectly handsome man, as if a god had painstakingly sculpted him stitch by stitch.

Meeting him up close, she finally understood why the women of the capital went wild at the mere mention of Duke Felice. If they had met under different circumstances, she might have also lost her senses and fallen in love at first sight, chasing after him.

In the cold aura lingering in his red eyes, Sienna nearly let her heart run wild, but she pressed it hard with her fingernail. As the sharp pain spread to her chest, it seemed to bring her back to her senses.

Late in realizing, Sienna hastily bent her knees and bowed deeply to show him respect.

“I-I greet Your Grace, Duke Felice. I am Sienna Onyx!”

A brief silence passed in the room. As Sienna, who was bowing, heard nothing from him, she curiously lifted her head slightly. The Duke, who was raising his eyebrows with a slightly bewildered expression, slowly opened his mouth as he met her eyes.

“First, I’d like to get this off and then talk. They say it can only be undone by your touch because of the contract.”

Sienna’s eyes, which had been fixed only on Eden’s face, finally moved downward. She saw his hands bound behind him with handcuffs, just like at the auction, and hurriedly approached him in a fluster.

“H-how do I do this?”

“Just place your hand on the handcuffs.”

Following his instructions, Sienna carefully placed her hand on the handcuffs. The coldness of the metal was felt beneath her palm, and at the same time, with a click, the handcuffs unfastened and hung loosely around Eden’s wrists.

As soon as he confirmed the handcuffs were undone, he tore them off. The handcuffs, made of solid iron, crumpled like a toy in his veined grip. He tossed the loathsome metal piece into a corner and ran his hand through his disheveled hair.

“Hoo…”

With a sigh that expressed both anger and bewilderment, Eden glanced at the woman before him. Perhaps instinctively sensing his displeasure, she had been fidgety ever since he entered the room.

‘After calling out 300 million Er, now…’

Seeing the small woman who couldn’t even make proper eye contact and was awkwardly bending at the waist, a small chuckle escaped him without realizing it. 

Where did the brazen spirit that confidently raised the price go, and why was she showing a more bewildered and uncomfortable attitude than me?

Well, it might not matter. It could be better than being won by Alicia Franz.

Marquis Franz, who persistently tried to attach his daughter to him, and Alicia Franz, who hovered around him at every ball, were annoying. Perhaps believing in the old superstition that a kiss under mistletoe would lead to love, she had passionately gazed at him while carrying a bundle of mistletoe at last winter’s banquet.

Rather than being forced to endure the unbearable sight of being surrounded by them for two weeks, it might be better to be won over by a commoner woman who found him intimidating. No matter who won him, he couldn’t break the promise made to His Majesty the Emperor.

‘Hahaha! Who would’ve thought!’

It felt as if the Emperor’s voice, mocking him with great excitement, echoed in his ears. The image of him pointing at him from within the video sphere was vivid.

After playing all sorts of pranks, it seemed he didn’t realize he was going too far. His consciousness drifted back to the time before the auction started, when he was conversing with the Emperor.

‘Ah, is that you, Eden?’

In the video sphere, a man with blond hair and golden eyes, who seemed both like and unlike him, was peering into the screen. Eden fixed his gaze on him, his lips tightly pressed.

The young man, who confirmed Eden and beamed a broad smile, was Gustav Eloire, the Emperor of the Eloire Empire and Eden’s young uncle.

‘…Your Majesty. What on earth is all this?’

The words he chewed out were grim, with both arms bound by magical restraints.

Having been summoned by the Emperor, he had entered the palace, only to be met by the Imperial Knights in the audience chamber. Before he could even be surprised, he was presented with a magical contract along with the word ‘Imperial Decree,’ leaving him unable to resist and thus bound by restraints and dragged all the way to the academy.

He had to muster all his patience to endure this absurd behavior, but seeing Gustav’s face smiling broadly in the suddenly presented video sphere seemed to drain away the composure he had struggled to maintain.

‘What do you mean, what is this? Look. Didn’t you promise?’

Whether he knew his voice was more grim than usual or not, Gustav just chuckled while shaking something. The paper, which the knight commander had handed over in the morning, was now being waved in Gustav’s hand, having been returned at some point.

‘You vowed with your own hand. That you would grant me one thing I desire unconditionally!’

At Gustav’s triumphant voice, Eden’s red eyes sank even further. He ground his teeth, staring at the magical contract he had crafted and signed with the Emperor.

Once, he had deliberately lost a chess game to Gustav. Gustav had visibly sulked, saying he would become the unfortunate monarch who never defeated his nephew in a chess match until his death, and Eden had felt a pang of sympathy for his uncle that day.

And it was then that he promised to grant the Emperor one request of any kind as a wager, never imagining that the insistence on even writing a magical contract had such intentions behind it.

At most, he thought it would be going to the battlefield, being ordered to subdue monsters, or, in the worst case, getting engaged to a woman chosen by Gustav. He was indifferent to everything and didn’t care about anything, so it was a mistake to create a magical contract as the Emperor insisted.

Who would have thought the Emperor of the empire would go this far? Eden regretted the magical power used in such an absurd and ridiculous prank.

‘…So, was your desire to kidnap me like this?’

The Emperor of the empire having such a bad taste to kidnap his nephew as a joke. At Eden’s sarcastic words, Gustav shook his head and smirked.

‘No, no. What I want, Eden, is for you to participate in the auction held there!’

‘If it’s just participating in an auction, you could have simply ordered me.’

‘You’ve heard of the Slave Mate event that used to be held at the academy auction, right?’

As the Emperor continued to explain, Eden’s face gradually hardened. So, he was to become the slave of an academy student, whoever that might be, for two weeks.

‘…This joke has gone too far, Your Majesty.’

‘Ahem, don’t look at me like that, it’s scary. A promise is a promise, after all.’

Whether Eden’s fierce spirit was felt through the video sphere or not, Gustav shrank back a bit, hesitating and moving away. Still, he steadfastly waved the magical contract.

‘Anyway, it’s an Imperial Decree, so know that. I’ve already written my wish on the magical contract!’

At Gustav’s words, Eden’s eyes turned to the contract in the video sphere. Looking again, a faint red light subtly shimmered around the magical contract. He closed his eyes and let out a sigh. Once the contract was activated, there was no way out.

Thus, he had no choice but to step onto the auction stage. Because he had signed a magical contract with the bidder’s signature line left blank, he was in a state where he didn’t know who might win him.