Chapter 2

Genoa put down the newspaper he was holding with a thud.

“The kingdom will be in an uproar.”

“Yes, a slave auction house in the capital. If it weren’t for this fire, no one would have known.”

“I hear Marquis Trixia is starting a major crackdown on illegal slave traders today.”

“The Kingdom of Raon officially prohibits buying and selling slaves. It seems they’re using this incident to conduct a thorough investigation.”

“It says those who purchased slaves will also be severely punished.”

Genoa lay down on the table, resting his cheek. Though it was an undignified action, Bane didn’t frown. Even this posture was beautiful, as if divinely arranged.

Silver hair flowed down, covering Genoa’s coolly sunken eyes. In that state, Genoa only opened his lips.

“Marquis Trixia is a fanatic of the Ivanstein ducal family. He’s not someone who would move easily without the Duke’s will.”

“Then do you think this was orchestrated by the Duke, young master?”

“Isn’t it obvious?”

Genoa asked, still not lifting his cheek from the table.

“Did you check the food supplier?”

“Yes, as you said, cheap ingredients that we wouldn’t normally handle have been coming in. Chef Marshal was furious and caused quite a commotion, ordering them to be thrown away.”

“Haha.”

Despite Bane’s rather serious words, Genoa laughed aloud as if pleased. The corners of his mouth curling up like a flower’s petals unfurling was beautiful. As he slowly raised his head, a red mark from being pressed spread on his cheek. Stroking that cheek, Genoa said,

“That’s right. They should be thrown away immediately. Who threw them away?”

“It was Jimmy, who manages the western garden.”

“I seeeee.”

Genoa drawled, rising from his chair. The way he stretched his stiff body resembled the movements of a languid cat.

“I should go take a look.”

“It’s dangerous!”

As Bane tried to stop him, Genoa’s eyes flashed coldly for a moment.

“I’m not asking for permission.”

“I apologize, but!”

“I’ve got a lead on the testing ground, if I don’t do anything, I won’t survive there.”

“……”

“They’re all aiming for my neck first, so I’m the most likely to become a corpse first.”

Bane quietly looked at Genoa’s smiling face. Unlike the corners of his mouth pulled up in a smile, Genoa’s eyes had never once shone brightly. The darkness visible in the amethyst-like purple seemed as if it would swallow everything.

His mother was murdered right after he was born, and his life was threatened. But he survived every crisis. All that was left for Genoa now was to solve the problems given to him insensitively. The problem given to him now was survival.

But Bane couldn’t tell whether what his master truly desired was the duke’s title, survival, or revenge.

“The moon is beautifully up. On a night like this, the western garden forest must be beautiful.”

“……I’ll accompany you.”

“No, I want to go alone.”

“Young master.”

“Don’t be so clingy. It’s not attractive, Bane.”

At Genoa’s joking words, delivered with a grin, Bane reluctantly stepped back.

He was already fulfilling his usefulness sufficiently just by understanding Genoa’s intentions. And that was exactly the extent of usefulness Genoa allowed. A servant trying to prove usefulness not permitted by the master is unnecessary. No matter how much it was for the master’s sake, it couldn’t be helped.

“Then I’ll be going.”

Genoa opened wide the large window in the room. The night air, which had become quite chilly now, circled coolly inside the room. Taking a pleasant deep breath, Genoa wrapped a black cloth around his head.

“Report that I’ve gone to bed.”

“Yes.”

Bane obediently bowed his head in submission, and Genoa smiled happily. Then, without a moment’s hesitation, he jumped out the window. It was a familiar escape method.

It was dangerous to wander inside the mansion at this hour. The Duke’s eyes and ears were attached to every wall and ceiling in the Ivanstein ducal residence. So he had to crawl like a rat along the walls and through the grass.

“……Haa.”

Genoa landed on the ground, hearing the deep sigh Bane let out above his head. His room was quite high up. But stepping on the windowsills in the middle of the walls and sticking his fingertips into the rough spaces between the bricks to descend was something he could do in his sleep now. Thanks to the deep calluses on his hands, there was no pain.

“This is still more useful than swordsmanship for now.”

After casually making a comment that would exasperate Bane, Genoa melted into the darkness.

His destination was the western garden, the hunting ground that the Ivanstein ducal residence boasted of. Raon was not a very large kingdom. So the size of the capital was small.

In such a place, the scale of the Ivanstein ducal residence, which had a property large enough for a forest to be treated as merely the western garden, was on par with the royal palace. The power of a family with a history older than that of the kingdom was that formidable.

‘That’s why I’m going through this unnecessary hardship.’

Genoa evaluated his family to just that extent. A family that’s unnecessarily difficult to survive in. However, not surviving here was not an option for him.

He was born a noble. Nobles considered being true to one’s desires as the most noble thing. Art, love, scholarship, wealth, honor, etc. were usually the objects of desire. That’s why they craved the power to fulfill those desires, and the dignity of a noble was determined by how much they could achieve.

Genoa was born in a way that his very existence had to be a model for nobles. He had to grasp what he wanted, and he always made it his own. Genoa was confident that he could grasp in his hands everything that everyone wanted but couldn’t have.

However, he still didn’t know what he should desire, what he should survive for. So Genoa decided to start with this.

“Genoa Ivanstein. This is the name of the Ivanstein heir this time. Only one person who survives this test will be able to have this name.”

Genoa, the name of this Ivanstein heir that the teacher had told him.

Until claiming that name, all the other bloodlines were called the nth young master, the nth miss, and so on. So his external name was the thirty-second young master. It was a title given arbitrarily in order of birth.

Six more children were born after Genoa, but in the end, the number of siblings remaining until now was twelve. The rest died even before going to the testing ground. So there was no need to give them other names. After all, they were lives destined to die if they couldn’t take the name Genoa.

But Genoa called himself Genoa. After all, the owner of that name was none other than Genoa himself.

“……They’re all in the lodgings……”

“They’ll all die anyway……”

When he approached the western garden after walking for a while, he heard people talking. Genoa instinctively lowered his body and jumped into the forest. At the sound of a branch cracking underfoot, the voices of the people talking in the distance suddenly stopped.

“Didn’t you hear something?”

“Must be a rabbit. They have to run around hard before winter comes to survive.”

“Tsk, it’s difficult to control the breeding of rabbits.”

Genoa held his breath and didn’t stick his body out. He also didn’t foolishly poke his head out of unnecessary curiosity. He quietly listened, eavesdropping on their conversation. Judging by the strangely familiar voices, they seemed to be servants who had worked at the ducal residence for a long time.

“Anyway, I felt a bit strange. When that child looked into my eyes, it was like……”

“Like what? If you start talking, finish it.”

“It seemed human somehow.”

“Haha! Of course it’s human. What else?”

“But, that child was a slave.”

“Then a slave is human, what else? A dog? A cat?”

With the sound of the servant patting his colleague’s back, their presence moved away again.

Genoa stayed in that spot for a long time without letting his guard down. Only after a considerable amount of time had passed did he stand up, dusting off his clothes.

“A slave, huh.”

Genoa recalled the contents of the newspaper he had seen today. Hearing that conversation, it seemed like part of the blueprint of the plan the Duke was devising unfolded in his mind.

“So there are slaves here?”

Excitement seeped into Genoa’s voice as he muttered to himself. His heart fluttered as if he had started a treasure hunt. There was the most precious gem in this vast forest, and only Genoa knew about it. What could be a more enjoyable treasure hunt than this?

Genoa walked lightly, deeper and deeper into the forest. And before long, he discovered cabins and tents that shouldn’t exist in the western garden forest.

Checking the inside secretly, he saw several adult men trying to sleep. There were also some people watching over them, but they were only low-ranking servants without any special abilities.

‘Easy to eliminate.’

Those who were in relatively easy-to-find places were useless. After making this cold assessment, Genoa looked around more. There were traces where tree bark had been artificially cut with a knife.

A twisted smile appeared on Genoa’s lips. Suitably sloppy.

Following those traces, pushing through gaps in trees barely wide enough for one person to pass, he soon found an area of suitable width. A cabin a little distance away from the other slaves’ lodgings. Unlike the others where the lights were out, this one had its lights on.

“……Don’t, Mother. I’m fine.”

“But my child……”

Soft voices flowed out. It was the voices of an adult woman and a young child.

“……Hmm.”

Genoa stealthily approached the window. Voices could be heard through the open window gap.

* * *