A brief revelation escaped her lips, accompanied by a shudder. She couldn’t tell whether it was the thrill of glimpsing hope or the dread of facing a poisoned chalice.

If her deduction was correct, she could strike a deal with Decan’s Crown Prince.

In other words, she’d found a way to save Netty and Milla. If she played her cards right, she could drive a blade into her damnable uncle’s throat. Life began to return to Ajean’s eyes.

“This will be my last chance.”

Bang!

The moment her muttering ceased, the door to the cramped room flew open. The flimsy door shrieked an unpleasant noise under the violent impact.

Midday sunlight shattered through the doorway, revealing Kaiden’s silhouette. Up close, he was far more massive and imposing than she’d expected.

Ajean reflexively smoothed her dress while scrutinizing every inch of Kaiden with careful eyes. His expression, his clothing, even his scent—everything could be a clue. She couldn’t afford to miss a single detail.

Tall stature, a well-defined nose bridge, a chiseled jawline sharp as sculpture, predatory eyes, a flawlessly handsome man.

But exhaustion was evident around his eyes, and his tone carried the urgency of someone being chased.

“There’s no carriage. We’ll have to ride on horseback. I just sent word to Decan, so there’ll be an escort waiting when we reach the Hinesis River.”

Seeing the Princess lost in thought with no response, Kaiden felt the need to remind her of her position. His tone took on a sadistic quality, as if addressing a beast he owned.

“You’d better behave and do as you’re told. I paid a steep price to acquire you.”

His gaze fell on the vulgar dress Ajean wore.

The white dress, vaguely resembling bridal attire, emphasized her cleavage to a ridiculous degree. Designed to incite all manner of lewd imaginings in the men of the auction house.

The very picture of a pitiful woman driven to the edge.

Kaiden closed the distance between them. Struggling to keep her wits about her, Ajean parted her red lips.

“……I’ll behave. I’ll do as I’m told. But I have a condition. Save my nanny and my maid.”

Ajean’s voice was firm, carrying a momentary flash of imperial dignity.

Yet she’d been put up for auction.

Judging by her spirit, she wasn’t a woman to be easily handled. Pressed for time, Kaiden decided on the fastest and surest method.

He slowly ran his hand along Ajean’s pale nape.

His touch traveled upward along her soft skin, then plunged into her lustrous black hair. After briefly enjoying the silk-like texture, his fingers probed her scalp.

The woman’s scent hit him unexpectedly. Kaiden’s brow twisted oddly, then a smirk escaped as he saw Ajean’s frightened expression—like a bird fallen from its nest.

Of course. What could a fragile imperial woman do?

Meanwhile, Ajean trembled reflexively at the unfamiliar sensation. His touch was her first from a man, and she could no longer bear the tingling in her toes.

Her breathing grew irregular. Her pronounced cleavage moved up and down, her entire body testifying to her innocence. This was different from fear. Somewhere between displeasure and bewilderment.

The moment she tried to stop him, instead of protest, a pained scream tore out.

“Aah.”

Kaiden seized Ajean’s hair with brutal force, wrenching her face mercilessly toward the ceiling.

A chillingly cruel voice echoed through the cramped room.

“Don’t be absurd with your conditions. Don’t mistake the situation. I bought ownership of you. That means I could drag you around like a dog and no one would stop me. Understand?”

Ajean’s eyes reddened slightly, but she showed no sign of being cowed.

Kaiden’s lips twisted faintly. A mouse trapped in a box could act defiant all it wanted. It was still just a defiant mouse.

A vile expression settled on his handsome face, and the atmosphere of the room instantly fell under his dominion.

“You know full well what ownership from an auction house means.”

Kaiden’s gaze moved languidly. His arrogant golden eyes traveled down Ajean’s curves from top to bottom, slowly.

Bewilderment spread across Ajean’s beautiful features. The cold sweat trickling down her back became vividly apparent. Kaiden’s blatant stare. She couldn’t think of any clever response to deflect it.

Right. Her courage was admirable, but what could she really do?

Watching Ajean’s confusion with indifference, Kaiden continued. He deliberately chose crude, explicit language solely to remind this audacious Princess of her wretched position.

“It means I could f*ck you however I want, and no one would save you.”

The brutality of his words sent chills down her spine, horrifyingly realistic as they were. A splitting headache struck. Breath rising to her chin, Ajean felt her throat burning.

Observing the once-defiant mouse, Kaiden added:

“What a pathetically pitiable woman.”

Kaiden stroked Ajean’s cheek with one hand. Such inappropriate warmth against her pale skin.

His hand moved slowly downward—to her small, round shoulders, to her br*asts that swelled just enough to look quite pretty.

“Ah…!”

Kaiden groped Ajean’s br*ast as if touching something that naturally belonged to him. She flailed her hands in instinctive rejection, but it was meaningless.

Before she could stop him, the dress was yanked down, and Ajean’s pale br*asts spilled out as if they’d been waiting.

The curves were more beautiful than expected. Enough to evoke ancient goddess statues sculpted only from the torso up.

Something resembling emotion surfaced in Kaiden’s impassive expression. But that emotion was clearly different in nature from what one should feel upon seeing beautiful nakedness.

He recalled a hunting trophy he’d once killed with a single arrow through the throat—a rare albino deer. That beautiful carcass overlapped with the pitiful mouse before him.

“……Your… Your Highness……”

This wasn’t part of her calculations. The situation was beyond anything she’d imagined, and Ajean’s mouth fell open like someone who’d lost their senses. Her voice barely emerged.

A pathetically pitiable mouse’s desperate attempt to escape crisis.

“I… I may have been put up for auction like some common wh*re…… but Your Highness is a noble personage. So you shouldn’t f*ck me in this shabby room.”

An attempt to invoke his status, hoping he’d restrain his vile thoughts.

But his next words were so despairing they shattered what little self-respect she had left.

“An auction house woman playing ridiculous word games. Should I call this cute? Or pathetic?”

Kaiden’s hand groped Ajean’s br*ast without mercy. The fierce grip seemed to chew rather than caress, devoid of any l*st. Like marking a dead hunting trophy with clinical precision.

“Hah…!”

The pale flesh squeezed between his fingers moved pliantly. Being kneaded so obediently regardless of its owner’s struggles.

Ajean twisted her body involuntarily, then raised her hand and grabbed Kaiden’s neck. The vigorously pulsing blood flow felt so vivid that she had to painfully acknowledge this was reality, not a nightmare.

Regardless. Mocking her feeble resistance, Kaiden flicked her n*pple with his index finger. More mockery than molestation.

Her docile n*pple grew as flustered as its owner, then instantly transformed into a point of pleasure.

“Hah…… haah……”

Ajean miserably released breaths indistinguishable from m*ans. The desire surged to twist the Crown Prince’s neck with both hands, but somehow her grip wouldn’t tighten.

“How adorable.”

Vile mockery emerged from his nobly straight lips.

“You know how to get hard. You won’t be completely useless.”

He bit down on Ajean’s earlobe. Then, as her owner, he taught her a lesson.

To the mouse no longer capable of defiance.

“Remember this. Buying ownership of you means exactly this.”

Hot breath tickled her nape. Feeling her back arch like a bow without her realizing, Ajean shuddered with self-loathing. The thought that such movements might look lewd, as if she wanted him, made everything go dark. Would she have to service him in bed? This wasn’t in the plan. She’d never done this before.

She’d definitely read books like 『*ntercourse Between Men and Women』 or 『The Art of Love』 in the library. Since Netty and Milla wouldn’t teach her such things, Ajean had diligently studied the books. The embarrassing passages she’d read then noisily ransacked her mind.

Various positions a dutiful wife supposedly used to satisfy her husband in bed—those mortifying descriptions were vivid in Ajean’s memory.

Then a passage from those books suddenly burst from her lips.

“……An aroused man’s c*ck surges powerfully like waves for penetration, his pupils cloud hazily like mist, and his breathing grows precarious as a cliff’s edge……”

The moment she finished speaking, Ajean’s lips twisted just like Kaiden’s.

The small puzzle pieces were finally forming a complete picture. She became certain he wasn’t acting from l*st, but merely using base tactics 「to break her in」.

Ajean’s red lips stretched sideways into a clear sneer.

This level of threat should have broken her spirit, but look at this? Kaiden’s brow furrowed with displeasure.

“Ah, now I understand. You must be quite pressed for time.”

Ignoring Kaiden’s silence, Ajean poured out what she had to say.

“F*ck me, you said? Your Highness’s eyes are cold and clear, your breathing utterly composed. Not the attitude of a man who truly intends to f*ck me. Just a pathetic method to instill fear…… I’m not an idiot.”

Kaiden’s dry gaze instantly fixed on Ajean’s lips. The woman too small to even reach his chin had audaciously gotten under his skin.

“The cards have passed to me. If you won’t grant my request, Your Highness will see my cold corpse. On the road to Decan, I’ll die by any means necessary.”

Ajean had no intention of conceding in this negotiation. Though to Kaiden’s eyes, it looked like absurd bravado.

“Are you testing my patience? Has Decan’s Crown Prince’s notoriety not yet reached Aisha?”

As if.

The god of war, a demon, a mad dog who swept away everything on the battlefield without discrimination or reason.

The blood of enemies Kaiden had killed stained Decan’s borders red, and resentment reached the heavens.

“I know. That Decan’s Crown Prince is the mad dog of the battlefield.”

“Do you also know the rumor that this mad dog has no patience?”