HSTYM 01

Chapter 1

Herace opened the door she was now tired of seeing and walked inside. As soon as she saw the man in front of her, she suddenly handed him a bouquet of flowers.

“Congratulations on your recovery.”

“What is this?”

“A gift.”

She had considered bringing a drink or some kind of energy drink, but this was the day she was finally putting an end to their three-year relationship. So she wanted to finish things in a somewhat elegant way and chose flowers.

“What’s with the gift?”

The man smiled as he turned the bouquet around and looked at it from different angles. He seemed amused.

“Just something for your recovery.”

After saying that much, Herace glanced at the man. More precisely, she was watching his reaction.

“It’s a farewell gift.”

“……”

That was the end of the peaceful atmosphere.

The man sitting on the edge of the bed, Xenon, instantly lost all expression from his face. Without answering, he stared at the bouquet for a while before slowly getting up.

Herace unconsciously took a few steps backward. He seemed far too big as he slowly approached her, one large step at a time.

“What did you say?”

A crooked smile appeared around his lips, as if he really disliked what Herace had just said.

“Uh… Young Master, let’s calm down first.”

“I’m calm right now.”

At the same time, there was a loud crack from the flower stems he was holding, as if something had snapped.

No, you’re not. Your eyes already look completely messed up.

But if she could have said something like that so easily, things would never have gotten this bad in the first place. Giving up, she quickly continued.

“I just said that I need to find a way to live on my own now. I can’t stay by your side as nothing more than your companion forever, can I?”

Herace sighed while holding out her hand as if to stop him. At the same time, Xenon’s firm chest pressed against her palm.

Because of that, she unexpectedly felt how fast his heart was beating.

Xenon asked again without wiping the smile from his lips.

“Do you think you’ll be able to live after disappearing now, after saving the eldest grandson of the Lianeric family?”

“……”

“Do you really think my uncle will let you live if you run away now?”

“……You never know unless I try.”

“The moment you leave my arms, you’ll die.”

My lovely Herace. How can you still know so little about the world?

Xenon covered her hand resting on his chest with his palm while holding back the laughter that was about to escape him. Unlike his rapidly beating heart, Xenon’s face was now completely still.

Herace frowned and argued back.

“That’s not true. I have the power to fight back too.”

She said it, but even she wasn’t confident about it. Herace’s power had a lazy nature and refused to appear unless the situation was extremely urgent.

Xenon, who knew that very well, spoke as if she were saying something ridiculous.

“It doesn’t appear whenever you want it to.”

It was frustrating, but she couldn’t deny that it was true.

Herace still didn’t know exactly how to control that power. Until now, she had lived a life where she didn’t need to know.

If she hadn’t ended up in a situation like today, where her life was threatened by Marquis Velks, she could have continued living without ever knowing.

“……This happened because of you, and you can still say something like that?”

“Then let me take responsibility for you.”

The end of Xenon’s sweet whisper trembled slightly.

What is he talking about now?

Herace’s fingertips curled inward.

“You said it yourself. That I’m all you have now. Those words were true, Herace. You’re all I have left.”

That’s not what I meant when I said it!

But Xenon’s gentle voice, so unlike the fierce Xenon from not long ago, mixed with the sound of his wildly pounding heart and confused Herace’s mind.

“Hm?”

There was a subtle pressure hidden beneath his gentle prompting.

What’s wrong with this man again?

Herace recalled the past with a pale face.

I had only possessed the body of an ordinary extra in a novel. How did things end up like this?

Yes.

Everything began when the man standing before her, Xenon Lianeric, was given a death sentence.

Herace had originally been born as the only beloved daughter of the Viscount family of Lorca.

In other words, until she became a captive of a strange young master, she had also been a precious daughter of a family in her own way.

She had fairly bright blonde hair and large brown eyes like a puppy. She was beautiful and cute, but that was all. She was an ordinary viscount’s daughter.

Herace had grown up without lacking anything, thanks to her family’s enormous wealth, so she had no major complaints about her life.

That changed one day when she was fourteen.

It began around noon, when she was returning to her room after attending an embroidery lesson that was so boring it made her want to throw up.

“Herace! Come see your father for a moment.”

Herace, who had just finished lunch and was heading upstairs, stopped on the stairs and spoke.

“What is it?”

“Where are you going right now?”

“To my embroidery lesson.”

“Why don’t you come talk to your father?”

Herace slightly furrowed her eyebrows.

Whenever her usually blunt father spoke so sweetly and gently, it was usually bad news. It was the kind of gentle tone he used only when he wanted something and was trying to persuade his daughter.

“Just tell me from there.”

What difference would it make if I came closer?

Herace answered while remaining on the stairs, slightly wary.

The Viscount of Lorca let out a small sigh and stopped pretending to be a gentle father. His words became direct.

“Listen carefully, Herace. Your teacher isn’t coming.”

“Why?”

“You have somewhere else to go from today.”

Her father lowered his voice with a serious expression.

“And just so you know, this is a secret from your mother.”

From that moment, Herace had a bad feeling.

“What is it?”

“First of all, your embroidery lessons three times a week are suspended.”

“What?”

“Instead of taking lessons, you’ll meet and play with a new friend three times a week. Sounds great, doesn’t it?”

“……”

Her father said it with a bright expression, as if some great fortune had come their way, but Herace wasn’t happy at all. She simply rested a hand on the stair railing and stared down at her father.

Because when she first heard those words, she was more afraid that her family had become so poor that they could no longer afford her embroidery lessons than she was happy about finally getting rid of the tedious embroidery.

What would happen if even the one thing our family has—money—disappeared?

But what came out of her father’s mouth was completely unexpected.

“But don’t misunderstand. You’ll spend time with him like a friend, but more accurately, he’s someone you’ll be serving from now on.”

“Ah.”

The moment she heard that, Herace roughly understood what was going on.

The children of important people usually had one or two “playmates.” There were even children around Herace who went to the homes of high-ranking nobles to serve as playmates, but that was only possible if their families had some connections.

In other words, Herace’s family, a viscount family that had absolutely no great power, had never been in a position to do something like that.

Of course, Herace’s family hadn’t always been completely powerless.

The problem was that her father had simply chosen the wrong side to support.

Herace quickly put her mind to work and tried to guess which new connection her father had made. She named a few families that were at least close enough for the Viscount family of Lorca to have connections with.

“Do you mean the daughter of Marquis Jaiben? Or the young master of the Donar ducal family?”

“What are you talking about, Herace? Have you forgotten which family we serve?”

“What? But……”

But the Lianeric ducal family that her father served still had no heir.

No, to be exact, they did have one.

The problem is that he’s an abandoned heir……

Herace looked at her father with pity.

He still hasn’t given up on the Lianeric family.

Had her mother also agreed to this decision to send her daughter to the Lianeric heir?

Herace could clearly imagine her mother clutching the back of her neck and staggering around.

Xenon Lianeric, the only son of the Lianeric Duke and Duchess who had died in an accident, was the legitimate heir of the ducal family. Yet despite that, he had been deprived of his position by his uncle for more than ten years.

According to Marquis Velks’s claim that the ducal family could not be entrusted to an heir who had not even reached the age of five after his brother’s death, almost all of the Duke’s authority had been transferred to Marquis Velks, the younger brother of the previous Duke.

And Herace’s father, Viscount Lorca, had been excessively loyal to his deceased lord, the previous Duke of Lianeric.

Perhaps he simply couldn’t bear to watch the legitimate young master of the ducal family grow up abandoned and without a single friend.

Feeling sorry for Xenon, who had lost his parents in an accident, he seemed to have decided to send his own daughter to be his playmate.

“Wouldn’t the young master have plenty of other playmates?”

“They’re all children without any perseverance! I believe our Herace will be different.”

Since the young master of the Lianeric family was practically like a kite with its string cut, it was obvious that everyone had treated him carelessly.

But even so, how had it come to be her turn, when he was the son of a duke?

Herace tilted her head and tried to come up with the most likely answer.

“You mean they all ran away?”

“Ahem.”

Her father answered with a cough.

Just how terrible is this young master’s personality that everyone ran away?

She shouldn’t have been happy just because she didn’t have to attend those boring embroidery lessons anymore.

Most of all, judging by her father’s attitude, it seemed like she had no choice in the matter.

That was right.

Xenon was a bomb that the vassals of the Lianeric ducal family kept passing around to one another.