One year earlier.

“After him! The Crown Prince’s carriage is over there!”

A carriage tore through the forest, with a group of pursuers racing madly behind it.

Clutching the reins, Damon drove onward, ignoring the screams erupting behind him. His entire body was drenched in blood, but he gritted his teeth and held tightly to the reins.

Strength kept draining from his body.

His vision blurred, and his consciousness began to fade.

It had only been a few months since he became Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Conwell.

He had been returning from a gathering held at the estate of Viscount Herbert, a short distance from the capital.

Viscount Herbert, newly appointed to the House of Nobles, was one of Damon’s staunchest supporters.

The trouble had begun at the gathering he hosted, when Damon emptied a teacup someone had discreetly handed him.

The moment the liquid slid down his throat and spread through his body, a chill burrowed deep into his bones.

Inside the carriage on the return journey, Damon, his mind clouded, hurled himself outside without hesitation.

He immediately seized a horse’s reins and mounted it roughly, only for a razor-sharp wave of murderous intent to descend upon him.

Murderous intent.

Damon bit down hard on his bloodied lip.

‘If they catch me now, it’s over. Someone drugged the tea I drank.’

Clenching his fist, Damon lashed the horse with the reins. He gritted his teeth so hard that his jaw went taut.

‘Who is it?’

‘Who wants me dead?’

‘Could it have been one of the members of the House of Nobles?’

‘No. Surely not.’

Neighhh!

Just as Damon’s thoughts began to wander, the horse screamed as though struck by an arrow and collapsed.

With a deafening crash, the carriage overturned and rolled across the ground.

Damon instinctively threw himself from the saddle. Gasping harshly, he rolled once across the earth to absorb the impact.

The smell of dirt assaulted his nose.

Then the pain came crashing over him all at once.

“Ghh…!”

Damon curled in on himself, gasping for breath.

But his body no longer obeyed his will. Once it had slammed into the ground, it began to stiffen little by little, as though the poison were spreading through him.

His limbs grew heavy, and his senses dulled.

—Whizz!

An arrow flew through the air and pierced Damon’s shoulder with perfect accuracy.

“—Kgh!”

The impact of tearing flesh made Damon stagger.

Clutching his shoulder, he instinctively stumbled backward. Hot blood streamed between his fingers as the shadows of the approaching men slowly swallowed his vision.

“Capture him! He must die!”

The group that had fired the arrow shouted from behind him.

Pushing aside every branch within reach, Damon fled deeper into the forest.

A drug that paralyzed the human body.

There had definitely been something in the tea.

Dragging his unresponsive body onward, Damon ran as hot blood poured down from beneath his shoulder.

Then, after forcing his way through the forest, he faltered to a stop.

A cliff.

Far below, the sea churned with deep blue waves.

“Ha…”

Damon pressed his teeth into his lower lip.

Pursuers in front of him.

A sheer cliff behind him.

And below, dark blue waves gaping like a black maw.

Searching for a way out, Damon swept his gaze around him. But the masked men advancing toward him as he retreated had already nocked their arrows.

“Come quietly, Crown Prince.”

The man with the chilling gaze aimed an arrow at Damon and released the string.

“Ugh…!”

With half his body already paralyzed, Damon had no chance to dodge.

The arrow struck him squarely in the chest, and blood once again streamed down his body.

The pain constricted his breathing, and Damon dropped to one knee as though bracing himself.

The masked man dismounted and approached slowly. Seizing Damon by the hair, he raised the sword in his hand to drive it through his heart.

“Ah!”

The masked man faltered.

His eyes wavered briefly behind the mask.

Damon’s eyes.

Those cold, vivid blue eyes, like the sea and ice, stared directly into his.

‘D*mn it.’

The blue eyes prophesied to bring prosperity to the Conwell royal family.

There was an old saying passed down in the northern Kingdom of Conwell: when an heir to the royal family with blue eyes appeared, the Kingdom of Conwell would once again become wealthy and prosperous.

Of course, no heir with blue eyes had been born since Caius I, the forefather of the Conwell royal line.

While the man hesitated, Damon reached up with a bloodstained hand and tore away his mask.

“You…!”

After seeing the face beneath it, Damon drew in a sharp breath and went still.

“Now that you’ve seen my face, I can’t let you live any longer.”

Viscount Herbert’s round eyes narrowed into serpentine slits.

The cold-blooded face of the man Damon had believed to be on his side.

Behind him stood a small figure whose shoulders were trembling uncontrollably.

The invitation to the viscount’s estate, the audacity to slip a paralytic drug into the Crown Prince’s tea—every part of it had been a carefully laid scheme and trap.

The figure quaking behind the viscount held a bow, his face drained white.

Damon’s half brother, who shared his blood.

Joseph.

“Viscount Herbert and my half brother Joseph. I’ve been had.”

At Damon’s self-mocking sneer, Herbert tilted his head.

“…I’m not naive enough to place my faith in a crown prince with no power base, Crown Prince Damon.”

“You truly believe that fool of a half brother of mine can become the ruler of Conwell?”

“I’m not putting my faith in Joseph. I’m putting it in the person who planned all this.”

At the viscount’s sly words, the pain from the arrow drove deeper into Damon’s lungs with every breath.

“That is no ordinary arrow. The poison will slowly seep through your body.”

The viscount twisted his lips into a sneer.

Beside him, Damon’s half brother Joseph stood with his arrow lowered, trembling violently, all color gone from his face.

“You must k*ll him. Only then will your mother live.”

At the viscount’s warning, Damon’s naive half brother, who had never killed anyone before, looked ready to wet himself at any moment.

“K-k*ll him? You never said anything about that!”

His feeble shout was swallowed by the crashing waves.

Still half-kneeling, Damon glared at the two of them with a smile spreading between his bloodied teeth.

“A traitor who drugs his victim before attacking, and an idiot half brother who fires two arrows and then trembles in fear. I’m disappointed that this is the best my father’s mistress, Marchioness Catherine, could manage.”

“Damon!”

Realizing that neither the dim-witted viscount nor his half brother Joseph could have devised the scheme, Damon let out a self-deprecating laugh.

Pushing the dazed Joseph aside, the viscount brought his fist down on Damon’s head.

Unable to control his body, Damon could not resist.

“Ugh!”

Blood streamed from Damon’s forehead with the cry.

The betrayal of someone he had trusted and relied upon.

His half brother’s treachery.

And the true mastermind behind it all—his father’s mistress, Marchioness Catherine.

‘She must eliminate me to make her son the heir.’

‘I have to survive.’

“Joseph. Give your precious mother a message.”

Spitting blood from his mouth, Damon pierced Joseph with his blood-soaked gaze.

“Tell her I will return.”

“…!”

“And when I do, I’ll wipe every last one of you out.”

“…!”

“You’ll regret failing to k*ll me today.”

While the viscount and Joseph hesitated, Damon threw himself backward over the cliff.

“No!”

The viscount urgently reached out, but the dark blue sea had already swallowed Damon.

Only then did Joseph squeeze his eyes shut and place a hand over his chest in relief.

“He was struck by poisoned arrows and fell from that cliff. He must be fish food by now. Let’s go back, Viscount Herbert. Mother is waiting.”

The viscount frowned at the simpleminded Joseph and shook his head.

“You must not underestimate the blue-eyed heir. We need to confirm the body. If we leave things like this, that man will return. He will come back and turn us, the ones who betrayed him…”

His voice dropped.

“…into a sea of blood. Without fail.”

* * *

Several months later.

After the bloody incident in the north, rumors that the Crown Prince of Conwell had died after falling from a cliff swept across the continent for some time.

Some said he had been caught in a struggle for power and sacrificed. Others claimed that, because no body had been found, he was still alive somewhere.

There were three kingdoms on the continent of Ailpesas.

In the north stood the Kingdom of Conwell, which commanded bands of mercenaries.

In the south was the Kingdom of Vendels, which held supremacy over the continent through its fertile lands and immense wealth.

Between them lay the Grand Duchy of Conrad, ruled by Denerion III, the Grand Duke of Vendels and sovereign of an independent grand duchy.

It was the day of the weekly auction in the Grand Duchy of Conrad.

From early morning, Villes Market, located in the bustling district of Conrad’s capital, Amparin, was so crowded that there was barely room to set foot.

The market alleys rang with the voices of merchants buying and selling their wares. Yet the main attraction was the sl*ve auction, which was prohibited by law in the Grand Duchy of Conrad.

Amid the market crowd, the hair of a lady wearing a purple hood could be seen.

Honey-blond locks flowed over her shoulders.

Her curious green eyes darted from place to place, and Yvette could not contain her excitement at visiting an auction house for the first time.

“Please, Lady Yvette. I’m begging you to stay right beside me.”

A tall man with a long sword at his waist grumbled as he tugged down her purple hood.

Yvette Clovis, the Grand Duke’s second daughter.

Because her father, the Grand Duke, was a member of the Vendels royal family, some addressed her as Grand Princess, while others called her Princess.

Yvette, however, preferred simply to be called by her name.

Felix Eskert, deputy captain of the grand ducal guard and the man who had pulled down Yvette’s hood, frowned.

“Are you truly going in there?”

At the place Felix pointed to, an auction packed with people was about to begin.

Yvette lifted the edge of her purple hood and nodded.

“Of course! Let’s go see what sort of people are waiting inside!”