MBYS 01

Chapter 1

Buy Me (1)

The woman trapped inside the mirror was a stranger.

A pale complexion and dry, lifeless silver hair. Her empty gray eyes wandered aimlessly through the air before belatedly meeting the gaze of their owner.

Ah, that was me.

As though observing someone else’s life, a dry realization slowly swept through her mind.

Every time she breathed, the stays of her corset tightened painfully around her ribs.

There was no mercy in the maids’ hands. The red lipstick painted over her pale skin looked grotesquely out of place, while the extravagant jewels choking her neck were nothing more than ornate shackles.

Creak—

The door opened, and the overpowering smell of strong liquor violently invaded the room.

“Get out.”

The maids hurriedly bowed their heads to the man who had entered and fled the room as though escaping.

A black shadow loomed over Eveline’s shoulder as she stared into the mirror.

Heavy footsteps dragged across the floor, accompanied by rough breathing that polluted the air. A sticky gaze coiled around her from behind like a snake.

Gustav Roa.

By blood, he was her father.

But to Eveline, he was worse than a stranger.

“You’re ready, aren’t you?”

A rough hand pressed down on her shoulder.

Of all places, it landed directly on the spot that had been bruised by a candlestick yesterday.

Despite the stabbing pain, Eveline did not even blink.

Her lifeless reply scattered from between her dry lips like dust.

“Viscount Visconti is expecting you.”

The Count’s hand slid down from her shoulder.

Damp.

Lukewarm.

“If you run away again or act like an idiot, I won’t let you off by simply locking you in the basement.”

Every breath she drew was filled with the nauseating stench of alcohol.

Suppressing her urge to vomit, Eveline clenched her fist beneath the folds of her dress. The pain of her nails digging into her flesh stabbed sharply into her mind.

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

“You’d better. You’re a member of our family too, aren’t you? If you want to repay your debt, shouldn’t you at least make an effort?”

The hot breath of a beast whose desires had been satisfied dispersed behind her.

Step.

Step.

The sound of retreating footsteps echoed through the room.

When the door closed and the shadow disappeared, only then did Eveline’s frozen throat finally loosen.

“Haaah……………”

When she exhaled roughly, a metallic taste of blood lingered inside her mouth.

Eveline clasped her trembling hands together and struggled to pull open the drawer.

Clatter.

The sound of glass bottles rolling around inside the drawer broke the silence.

Eveline poured two white pills into her trembling palm.

The pills slid down her dry throat, scraping roughly against her esophagus.

The bitter taste lingering on the tip of her tongue was strangely similar to the aftertaste of her miserable life.

Tonight.

Viscount Visconti.

A newly risen nobleman infamous for his cruel nature.

Tonight, she would be sold to him.

And that meant being used as a plaything in his sadistic bed before meeting a miserable death.

When she raised her head, she saw herself trapped inside the mirror.

Silver hair like burnt ash.

Empty gray eyes.

But from the depths of those eyes, an unfamiliar emotion slowly raised its head.

Do you want to live?

Her dry lips moved slightly.

If she had so little time left anyway, she did not want a life in which she merely continued breathing.

Even if only for a little while… I want to be someone who is needed by another person. Like that………………

Eveline stared at the woman in the mirror.

No.

She stared at the desire rising from the depths of those eyes.

Above her head, the chandelier scattered razor-sharp rays of light.

The dazzling brightness made her brow furrow.

The pungent perfumes vibrating through the air mixed strangely with the overwhelming scent of flowers, turning into a nauseating stench that stabbed deep into her lungs.

Music.

Loud laughter.

The clinking of glasses.

Everything in this place was tearing apart Eveline’s mind.

“Lady Roa looks like a corpse again today.”

“Is she even breathing? How ominous.”

The mockery drifting from behind the ladies’ fans reached her ears, but Eveline had no intention of explaining herself.

She leaned her back against the cold wall.

Perhaps the painkiller was wearing off.

Her vision began to blur, everything smearing together, while her fingertips started trembling uncontrollably.

It was precisely when she wished she could simply faint and escape it all.

“Oh my, look over there. Isn’t that Grand Duke Demian?”

“My goodness. The man who hates banquets is actually here today?”

Whispers poured out from all around her.

But the man continued walking indifferently, as though the surrounding noise did not exist.

Kailus Demian.

The lord who ruled the North.

The man known as the “Mad Dog of the Empire.”

There was no one in the Empire who did not know the legend of how he had conquered the North by slaughtering a thousand monsters all by himself.

“I heard he was banished to the North because of his cursed bloodline.”

“They say his magical power is so overwhelming that even the Imperial Family can’t control him. Apparently, he’s a monster.”

Unlike the whispers of the people around her, the man reflected in Eveline’s eyes looked completely different from the rumors.

Beneath the dazzling lights, the air seemed to scream every time he moved.

People recoiled from the overwhelming killing intent and instinctively stepped backward.

But what appeared within Eveline’s vision was something entirely different.

It wasn’t killing intent.

It was fragments of agonizing pain, terribly vivid, erupting from a body being torn apart from within.

Red eyes wandered through the empty air.

There was no madness in them.

Only a deep emptiness.

And a scream.

Only Eveline, who had been conditioned by pain throughout her entire life, could hear the silent cry collapsing inside that powerful body.

Pain………………

Before she could even think, her body reacted first.

The senses she had developed from accepting the pain of others all her life became sharply focused on him, as though drawn by a magnet.

I can……………… swallow it.

An inexplicable certainty flashed through her mind like instinct.

She could take all the pain pouring out of that man upon herself.

If it’s that man……

If she absorbed his pain and remained by his side…

He would become the most brutal yet perfect sanctuary imaginable—one that Count Roa or Viscount Visconti would never dare to lay a hand on.

“Eveline.”

A voice came from behind her.

There was no time to avoid it.

A damp, unpleasant palm, wet with sweat, slipped around her waist like a snake.

At the same time, a foul, fishy stench stabbed her nose.

“I heard the story from the Count. Apparently, there’s something important we need to discuss at my estate tonight?”

Eveline turned her head.

Greedy, glistening eyes swept over her as though devouring her with their gaze.

It was Viscount Visconti.

The hand rubbing her waist began moving blatantly downward toward her backside.

A wave of disgust washed over her, so intense that it felt as though her skin were rotting from within.

Rather than being dragged away by a beast like this……

Why?

At that very moment, when she had been driven into a dead end, Kailus’s face suddenly came to mind as if by some miracle.

Her body reacted before her thoughts could.

Eveline violently shook off the Viscount’s hand that had been gripping her.

“I’m sorry. I’m feeling unwell. Please excuse me.”

What had possessed her?

In that fleeting moment, instinct pushed Eveline forward.

Only that overwhelming man could turn this horrifying situation around.

The thought completely consumed her mind.

I have to catch him.

Following the terrifying trail he had left behind, Eveline threw herself into the crowd as though fleeing for her life.

Where is he?

An unfamiliar atmosphere flowed through the air, completely different from the suffocating heat of the banquet hall.

An icy chill brushed the tip of her nose.

Cold that penetrated all the way to her bones.

And the faint scent of blood mixed into the air.

Eveline stopped walking.

“Urgh……”

A suppressed groan reached her ears.

She took a few more steps forward.

And there he was.

A man groaning in agony.

Her breath caught.

Even simply standing nearby made her feel as though an invisible force were tightening around her throat.

The marble railing he was gripping had cracked beneath the force of his hand.

I’m scared.

Her instincts screamed at her to run.

But there was nowhere for her to go back to.

She forcibly swallowed the breath rising in her throat as her heart pounded wildly against her chest.

One step forward.

Crunch.

The sound of gravel breaking beneath her foot rang out loudly.

His reaction was immediate.

Kailus twisted his head at an unnatural angle, his gaze snapping toward Eveline.

His blood-red eyes were filled with nothing but the murderous instinct of a beast that had lost all reason.

“…What?”

His low voice was unbearably rough.

And terrifying.

“Get lost.”

Killing intent swept through the air like a storm.

“If you don’t want to die, disappear from my sight. Now.”

In an instant, a dark-blue current of magic wrapped around his entire body and swallowed the surrounding space.

Unable to withstand the savage force, a marble planter shattered in midair with a deafening crash.

“Ugh……!”

One of the sharp fragments flying in every direction grazed her cheek.

Her cheek burned as though it had been sliced open.

A moment later, hot blood trickled down along her jaw.

Her survival instinct screamed at her to run immediately.

Eveline bit down on her lip and forced herself to suppress the urge to step backward.

Instead, she deliberately placed strength into the tips of her feet, standing her ground as though nailed to the spot.

“I’ll help you.”

At Eveline’s reckless proposal, a twisted smile appeared at the corner of Kailus’s mouth.

“Help me?”

His what?

“You?”

He staggered as he forced himself upright.

His blood-red eyes had lost all reason, filled with nothing but an overwhelming urge to destroy.

He looked ready to snap her neck at any moment.

Even so, Eveline approached him.

“Yes……………… I………”

Her cautiously extended hand covered the back of his.

The instant they touched—

A tremendous force unlike anything Eveline had ever experienced crashed into her.

Pain.

Agonizing pain that made her entire body feel as though it were burning alive.

“Cough! Khack………………!”

The strength drained from her legs, and she collapsed onto the floor.

She felt as though she were going to die.

Just enduring it for a single moment felt as though her soul were being torn to shreds.

I have to endure………………

Eveline gripped Kailus’s hand even tighter.

And then—

The killing intent that had been crushing the air vanished as though it had never existed.

The beast-like breathing stopped at once.

Eveline desperately forced her blurred vision into focus and raised her head.

The man was staring blankly down at their overlapping hands.

The deep furrows in his brow, carved there by pain, had smoothed out.

The madness had disappeared from his red eyes.

They were strangely calm.

Yet within that gaze, a deep confusion flickered.

As though he could not understand what had just happened.

“Haa………………”

Eveline wiped the sweat gathered at the tip of her chin with the back of her hand.

Without even furrowing her brow, she lifted her head.

Her cold gray eyes did not avoid his overwhelming killing intent.

Instead, she met his gaze head-on.

“………………Buy me.”

Her voice was hoarse, making a sound like metal scraping against metal.

“Buy me.”

Gasping for breath, she forced the words out one by one, staking her very life on them.

“I’ll take that hellish pain of yours……………… away from you.”

Every time she breathed, it felt as though her lungs were being torn apart.

Her field of vision narrowed.

Soon, darkness began closing in around her.

“Please……………… save me.”

As she whispered those final words with the last of her strength, Kailus bent down and approached her.

His red eyes filled her entire field of vision.

With the madness gone from them, a strange curiosity flickered within his gaze.

Cold fingers brushed across her flushed cheek.

Strangely enough, the cool sensation felt sweet.

“………………Interesting.”

His low voice sank into her ears.

Eveline did not hear what came next.

She lost consciousness.

Just before her consciousness faded completely, something firm and solid caught her body, preventing her from falling.

A sturdy warmth enveloped her.