“Welcome back, my lord.”

At the Lester family’s villa, which stood at the edge of the ducal territory, the house servants lined up to greet their master’s return.

“My lord, that is…?”

As they welcomed Shed, their eyes fixed on the woman being lifted down from the wagon. She walked with a limp, her leg bandaged, and with tangled hair and filthy clothes, she looked for all the world like a beggar plucked off the streets.

“Take her and make her presentable.”

Shed instructed, handing the reins to the coachman and addressing Werner, the head butler.

The middle-aged butler nodded respectfully, acknowledging the order.

Just then, a cheerful voice rang out, parting the line of servants.

“Shed Lester, Duke! Our hero!”

A young man approached, walking lightly with a woman hanging off one shoulder. With hair the color of ripe wheat and a gentle, affable face, he was dressed in clothes that were both striking and impeccably stylish.

When Shed met his gaze in silence, the man burst out laughing.

“Ha! You want to know why I’m here, don’t you? Well, how could I not come? Our illustrious duke has accomplished something spectacular—I had to come congratulate you!”

Speaking with the ease of an old friend, he was none other than Eclace Vitel, the wealthiest man in the empire and the young viscount of the Vitel count’s family.

“I heard His Majesty has granted you new lands.”

Eclace said, flashing a smile as he wrapped his arm around the woman’s waist.

Shed already knew exactly why Eclace had come all the way to the far border of the duchy.

‘It must be because of the new territory being incorporated into the duchy. The man has an uncanny nose for money.’

But still, he hadn’t expected him to arrive quite this quickly. Eclace was nothing if not swift and almost preternaturally resourceful.

“So, who’s this woman?”

Eclace asked, finally noticing Liana standing behind.

“A maid.”

Shed replied curtly, striding off without another word.

Eclace fell in beside him, a sly smile on his lips.

“She’s a maid, but she’s still a woman. And a beautiful one at that.”

Glancing back at Liana, Eclace’s gaze swept over her form. Despite her ragged appearance, her features radiated a natural beauty. If anyone could spot a gem beneath the dirt, it was Eclace Vitel.

With the right care, she would become a stunning beauty.

“For the great Duke Shed Lester to return with a woman… Is the world ending or what—”

“Eclace.”

“Oh dear, was I being too loud again?”

Eclace laughed dramatically and pressed his lips together tightly. The woman beside him burst into delighted laughter.

Liana stood awkwardly, watching the nobles chat and walk away together. Not once did he look back at her.

Despite having brought her all this way, she no longer merited so much as a glance. He continued walking with the others towards the manor, laughing and seeming at ease.

The Lester villa was enormous, and Shed Lester soon disappeared from view. Liana was left standing there, abandoned like a toy that had lost its appeal.

At that moment, the head butler, Werner, approached her.

“Your name?”

“…Liana.”

“Liana. Very well. We’ll have to do something about that state you’re in. You’ll need to become someone worthy of the ducal household.”

Werner gave her a thorough once-over, as if assessing the quality of new goods that had just entered the house.

Then he turned on his heel, signaling her to follow.

🌺⟡───⟡🌺 🌺⟡───⟡🌺

Eclace savoured the faint bitterness of his tea as he looked at Shed Lester, who was sitting opposite him. The victorious hero was lounging carelessly on the sofa, his gaze fixed blankly on a flickering candle. He seemed indifferent to his great triumph and the emperor’s survival.

To Eclace, he resembled a beast, lounging lazily yet always ready to tear someone’s throat out at a moment’s notice.

If the candle were to go out, he might leap at anyone within reach.

‘It must be the blood of the Lupus tribe…’

Eclace thought, studying those violet eyes—the very symbol of the Lupus.

People thought those violet eyes were ominous, likened in myth to the eyes of a fallen angel, as purple as ripe grapes. There was something undeniably strange and unsettling about that dark, rare hue.

‘But in the end, they’re just eyes.’

Eclace wasn’t one to pay much heed to superstitions. The real reason Lupus were feared was not their eye color, but their exceptional physical abilities.

Strength, height, speed. Eclace had met many Lupus in his life, but even among them, Shed Lester stood out.

His tall, commanding stature, the tightly knit muscles, the solid, powerful frame, his very presence was overwhelming.

The knights often joked that Shed Lester’s charisma in everyday life was almost laughable, but he was said to resemble a mythical monster when he was on the battlefield. There were countless accounts of his allies feeling unworthy to stand at his side. If he had been an enemy, the mere sight of him would have caused anyone to despair.

‘No wonder he’s made it this far…’

A duke of Lupus blood—who could have imagined such a thing would ever be recorded in history?

The Lupus.

Because they were so fundamentally different from ordinary people, they had long lived at the very bottom of society.

They were called “beasts” in coarse language, and for generations, they had been treated as less than human—kept as slaves, shunned and excluded from the norms of society.

Lupus were not allowed to wear leather shoes, nor could they walk down the center of the street. They had to use separate restrooms reserved for Lupus. They were forbidden from drinking fruit wine.

The discrimination that had endured for centuries was deeply rooted. Yet, over the last ten years—since the rights movement that swept through the imperial capital—their treatment had begun to improve, little by little.

But ten years was still just that: only ten years.

In that short time, the status of the Lupus had improved in some astonishing ways, yet in others, it had remained shockingly unchanged.

In such an era, Shed Lester was a figure of immense symbolic meaning.

‘The old Duke Josef Lester must have been out of his mind to adopt a Lupus as his heir…’

That was what Eclace thought, though deep down, he felt a sense of excitement. As a merchant, he saw these changes as new opportunities.
A new wind was blowing in the world. He didn’t know if that wind would carry him forward or sweep him away in a storm of blood, but whatever it brought, he was ready to set sail.

“You must be pleased, returning home after such a great victory.”

Eclace said, sipping his tea to open the conversation.

Shed, resting his chin in his hand, rolled his eyes toward Eclace.

“Thanks to you, the Lester family’s name is more renowned than ever. Now, with your new fiefdom, yours is the largest landholding family in the empire, isn’t it?”

Eclace hid his real question behind a smooth smile, probing Shed carefully.

Shed’s fingers gave a small, irritable twitch.

“Enough with the small talk. Get to the point.”

It was just like Shed Lester to cut straight through the decorative preamble.

That simple, direct style matched Eclace’s own practical tastes perfectly.

“I heard you’ve been granted the Ideana lands.”

Eclace jumped to the heart of the matter without any pretense.

In the recent war, Shed had saved the emperor’s life at the brink of death and led the empire to victory. For that, the emperor had granted him dominion over the Ideana territory—an expanse of land in the empire’s west that had long been abandoned.

It had once belonged to the Counts of Ideana, but after the house was destroyed and the lands reverted to the crown, it had lain in ruins ever since.

There were many reasons the land had been left abandoned, but the most important was the charge of annihilation against the Ideana family.

Forbidden heresy, black magic.

Unlike holy magic—which used divine power for healing, purification, and blessings—black magic borrowed destructive power in exchange for life force.

Murder, poisoning, brainwashing, curses…

The Ideana family had studied such magic, and for that crime, they had been wiped out to the last. The land was said to be tainted by black magic, and people avoided the cursed territory.

Now, years later, Shed Lester had become its new lord.

‘Everyone laughed and called it a burden, not a reward…’

Eclace remembered the reaction of the nobles when the news broke. They had jeered that the land was perfect for a Lupus. Indeed, for someone who had saved the emperor’s life, it was a terrible prize.

What’s more, the emperor had attached an outrageous condition: Shed would hold dominion for just ten years. For only ten years, the Ideana lands would belong to the House of Lester.

‘To think His Majesty would come up with such a creative way to get back at the man who saved his life… Truly impressive.’

If Shed managed to govern the cursed land well and restore it, the emperor would simply snatch it back. If he neglected it, he’d be accused of letting imperial property go to waste. And any trouble that arose in the Ideana territory would be blamed squarely on Shed Lester.

‘I suppose it’s unbearable for the emperor to owe his life to a Lupus…’

The current imperial family, the House of Chepbolden, was notoriously conservative toward the Lupus. When Shed, a Lupus himself, inherited the title of Duke Lester, their resentment had been plain for all to see.

‘Not that he himself seems to care about such things…’

Eclace glanced again at the man sitting across from him. Regardless of the emperor’s true motives, Shed Lester clearly had different thoughts about the cursed land.

‘And who could blame him?’

Eclace remembered where Shed had come from. He was born in Ideana. More precisely, he had once been the exiled Marquis of Ideana’s slave. The Marquis had disappeared after being branded a traitor.

‘A slave’s triumphant return…’

Anyone who had once been a slave would undoubtedly have mixed feelings about the cursed land.