Chapter 1: A Noble Ambition

"Damn, it's starting again."

I muttered quietly behind my fan.

He was approaching me, attracting the piercing gazes of the young nobles filling the ballroom.

Duke Kaidel's eldest son, Duke Rocard Kaidel. Handsome in appearance, excels in both civil and military affairs, with a remarkable background, erratic personality, lack of conscience, and more...

While I was searching for four more letters to describe him, he was standing in front of me.

He's unnecessarily tall, so if I want to look him straight in the eye, I have to tilt my chin up, which I find annoying.

Every single strand of his smoothly brushed black hair seemed to be showing off. His purple eyes, fixed on me, were so full of passion.

There's only one word to explain those shining eyes situated on such a perfect face. Unfair. God is unfair.

Before he could open his mouth, I winked and whispered with a smile.

"Would you please go away?"

"Duke Rocard..."

This guy, look at him pretending to be hurt.

I straightened my fan to hide my sneer.

Then the heat that hooked from behind him. It was the jealous flames coming from the eyes of the nobles who were pretending not to watch us.

Ah. That's it.

This guy is trying to kill me by burning me in those flames without dirtying his hands.

I know his dark intentions. The reason he's putting on this act right now.

Though my tone was incredibly rude and chilly, he took a step closer with a serious face, as if he would cherish even the wounds I gave him.

I glared at him as if to say, 'Stop right there!' but then I met his moist eyes.

Such a pitiful face, making me the trophy of the empire's nobles.

I don't know if he's charmed the whole empire with that overwhelming expression, but I'm not going to fall for it.

By the way, where can you buy such an eye expression? Good grief.

When I momentarily lost my focus, he made his move.

"Duke Rocard, I wanted to ask you to dance, but if I have offended you, I apologize first. However, if there's a misunderstanding, I want to clear it up. May I ask for a moment of conversation?"

Apparently, he doesn't listen when told to go away.

"What kind of conversation would someone with bad hearing want?"

Then he answered, puffing out his chest.

How irritating his shining self esteem and confidence must be to someone like me, he probably doesn't even realize it.

"Duke Rocard, why don't you give me a chance...."

I cut off his words and whispered venomously so only he could hear.

"You think I don't know your scheme, you devil?"

Mom, I am a bad child. When I was little, I thought the village kids were the bad ones, but now I see it was because I was bad that they threw rocks at me.

I pondered. Should I accompany him with a little drink to lubricate his mouth, or should I pretend to comply with his request, take him to the balcony, and kick his shins?

But both were difficult. If I dared to publicly insult the first lion of the empire, Duke Kaidel's only son, the repercussions would reach my father, Count Roar. Because he's a count's daughter in rank.

Nor could I accompany him to the balcony without public testimony that I had fallen for him.

The people watching us now wouldn't believe that a woman who spent time alone with Duke Rocard Kaidel didn't fall for him.

This guy knows that too. That's why he's doing this. He will rub my singed shins, laughing at being rejected.

I scanned the piercing gazes directed at me and then spoke quickly and softly.

"Go back now. In everyone's eyes, you're the victim, Duke, that's enough, isn't it?"

Then he smiled thinly and said,

"They say that in matters of emotion between men and women, the one who feels more loses. So maybe you're right, Duke Rocard."

"Ah. Yes."

He must have picked that up somewhere. It's really funny.

"Even though we serve different masters, it doesn't mean we can't be close. Duke Rocard... Would you open your heart if I were to kneel?"

"Oh my."

I approached him closely before he attracted any more attention, carefully controlling my movements as I felt enveloped by his broad embrace.

"Even with heels, I'm too short, so look down," he said, bending slightly at the waist. Only then could I bring my lips near his ear.

A faint perfume mingled with expensive fragrance caught my breath. Must he brag about being wealthy even with his scent? It smells good, though.

I whispered quickly.

"Don't you realize that no one else is dancing right now? They're all watching us! Could you please stop showing off?"

He immediately showed his true colors. His malicious and playful breath grazed my ear.

"Dinner in town? If you accept, I'll leave immediately."

"In a fancy restaurant crowded with idle aristocrats in the middle of the day?"

"Of course. Étranger would be nice. I'll send a carriage."

"So you want rumors to spread that I, the princess's maid, have betrayed her and fallen for you?"

"That's fine. Or it's good because it's an opportunity to expose your trickery."

"Oh, such evil words! Someone might misunderstand, Duke Kaidel."

"Call me Rocard. Say my name out loud. So that everyone can hear. It's okay if you do it angrily. I like the emotions in your voice."

"Ha ha ha. Enough with the perverted talk."

I just barely resist telling him to shut up loud enough for everyone to hear. I hold it in. And hold it in again. He was like a walking gauge of my patience.

But then Duke Kaidel, who I thought would retaliate, was looking down at me, his face slightly flushed.

Even though we're at war, did I go too far? My heart sank as I met his quiet, purple eyes filled with silence.

"Did you just call me a pervert?"

His voice had grown heavy.

But I sensed it. Especially now, I couldn't back down. This wasn't just my fight.

I put strength in my belly, and spoke as calmly as I could.

"You do have good hearing, Duke Kaidel."

After a brief silence, an unbelievable sound came.

"Snort."

His face turned red as he held back laughter, looking off into the distance to compose himself.

Then, he suddenly took my hand and kissed the back of it. His lips, whispering a secretive murmur, tickled my hand as they brushed against it like a feather.

"The Second Prince does not call me Tagaru's cub lion for nothing, Lorisha Roar. I will definitely bring you down."

I fanned myself, fluttering like a butterfly's wing, and smiled with my eyes.

"If you can, then try."

[Star icon]

Deep Mountain Spring

My mother was a herbalist. We lived in a small cabin in the Tunbar Mountains near the border.

When my mother went to the mountains for a few days to gather herbs, I stayed alone, waiting for her.

People said that the Tunbar Mountains disliked people and would often consume them, never to return them. That's why there were so many accidents and mishaps.

I was worried about my frail bodied mother climbing the mountains and feared she might encounter a bear or a wolf.

But Mom always promised me.

"Lorisha, Mom will definitely come back to you. If the mountain path is broken, I may be a few days late, but I'll definitely return to you, Lorisha. Will you trust me?"

Then I would nod vigorously and reply.

"Yes, Mom!"

When Mom came back and prepared the herbs, I would take them to the herbalist in the market and bring back the money.

Running errands and seeing the market was always interesting. The unfamiliar people, goods, haggling, and the occasional fights.

But the journey back home through the village was never easy.

The children in the village below would gang up on me, yelling that a monster from the mountain has come down, or poking me with sticks, calling me fatherless.

Perhaps that's why I never felt curious or longing about my father. 'Father' was a word only mentioned in the most dreadful situations.

One day, when I went home with blood on my forehead from a stone thrown by the village head's son, my mother looked at me crying, her face seeming about to explode.

I thought my mother was terribly angry with me, and I cried even harder out of fear and sorrow. But later, when I looked out and saw my mother was not at home, she was crying outside.

She did not cry loudly like me, but muffled her voice as if she were scared.

I then realized how wrong I had been.

My mother was my only family, my talisman, and my blanket. And she was my mother. But I had made her cry like that.

I then made a resolution. I would never do anything bad to my mother again.

The next time I went to the herb shop, the village head's plump youngest son again surrounded me with the village children.

He poked me with a stick and shouted,

"The monster from Tunbar Mountain has come down! The monster born without a father."

I clenched my mouth as I watched the children giggle. I could not take a beating and go in today.

"Hey, damn it! Aren't you going to put that away?"

At my shout, the children looked at each other with wide eyes. I must have been seven or eight at the time. Children that age were still afraid of harsh swearing.

My first curse was so shocking that it stuck to my ears.

The village head's son was startled and hesitated, and I seized the opportunity and poured out curses.

All the various curses, scorn, contempt, and insults I had heard in the market poured out like a waterfall.

Cursing is curious, and the first time you do it, it feels like you are breaking the scariest taboo in the world, like even your soul is corrupted.

But once you break the ice and ride the flow, it comes bubbling up from deep within the soul, effortlessly.

That day the village children ran away crying.

Afterward, whenever I went to the market, I remembered well the haggling and verbal jousting of the adults, and especially if a fight broke out, I would run and study.

Fighting is about momentum. As long as I cursed first, I did not hear that I was a child without a father. I may have been more severely pointed at behind my back, but at least there was no one in front of me making the sound my mother hated the most.

So cursing was magic that protected me and my mother. In fact, I was a little proud that I was good at cursing.

But that peace was suddenly shattered one day.

One afternoon, instead of my mother who had gone to pick herbs, the village head came to my house.

"Come down to the village with me."

I burst into tears then. Something must have happened to my mother.

------------------------------

This novel has been translated up to chapter 100.

To read ahead, join my Patreon, it's totally free.

Find my Patreon in the synopsis of this novel.