Chapter 2
Talking about the academy was one thing.
But when they started going on about a handsome guy with no conscience, Smokey gave Kiss a dazed look. Still, since it oddly didn’t put him in a bad mood, he didn’t bother to refute it.
Nina, staring at the two grinning men with a confused expression, soon moved on to her next question.
“Where’s your boss, mister?”
Ding—ding—ding.
Just then, the distant sound of bells rang out.
It was the chime signaling midnight—the start of the new year.
The two criminals decided to pretend they hadn’t heard her because of the noise.
“Ahem, welcome to the Handsome Man Academy—”
“Take me to your boss. I want to talk to him.”
Thud.
Kiss, now fully demoralized, slumped down to the floor like he had lost the will to live.
Not only had they been downgraded to “mister,” but now they were being treated like nothing more than grunts. What man wouldn’t feel wounded after such a relentless attack?
Smokey, whose skin was even thicker than Kiss’s, regained a bit of composure.
“I’m the boss.”
“Liar.”
“…Why do you think that?”
“Because the boss wouldn’t show up this early.”
“Ahaha, that’s convincing. But I really am the boss.”
Smokey’s effort was valiant, but Nina was cold as ever.
“Liar. The boss has red hair. You’re bald.”
Smokey’s eyes met Kiss’s flustered gaze.
The identity of Anubis’s boss was shrouded in mystery, known only to a select few in the organization.
Of course, there were rumors floating around.
Still, it was strange that this little princess, who shouldn’t have met him, knew the boss’s hair color.
Even stranger was how calm she was, considering she’d just been kidnapped.
Did the royal family already figure this out?
A sinking feeling spread in Smokey’s chest, as if the entire kidnapping plan had already been seen through—and was even deliberately allowed to happen.
But he forced a smile.
“You’ve never seen him. How do you know that?”
Nina simply looked at her kidnappers with her big eyes.
“I saw him. In a dream once.”
“…”
Neither Smokey nor Kiss was the type to get sentimental over royal blood.
Of course not—especially not with their boss.
Yet somehow, hearing those words from this delicate, doll-like child, it felt oddly persuasive. Even magical.
“Why the hell would you dream about a guy like that…”
Smokey sighed and sat down next to Kiss.
Nina, naturally, didn’t understand their reaction.
She just thought, They look exactly like I remember them.
…At least in appearance.
In the dream, they both seemed more serious and intimidating. That contrast left her confused.
Brown hair was Kiss. Bald one was Smokey.
Saying she saw it in a dream wasn’t a total lie.
On that lonely birthday night, the vision that came to her truly felt like a dream at first.
The ability to glimpse the future—prophetic vision—was an extremely rare trait among royals, considered little more than legend in modern times.
But that night, Nina saw her fate.
It was vivid, as if time itself had rewound.
I won’t go down without a fight.
While her kidnappers were distracted and discouraged, Nina clenched her small fist.
Her big blue eyes burned with determination.
She wouldn’t sit still and take it.
Even after realizing her parents, who always seemed to love only her little sister, had no affection for her at all—not a single tear fell.
Maybe she had cried so much in that cursed dream that she’d dried out completely.
I’ll take everything I can. And I’ll protect that person.
That, in the end, would be the greatest revenge.
* * *
The bar was a complete mess from last night’s party.
Empty bottles, cigarette ashes, vomit—there were even bloodstains on the floor like a fight had broken out.
Do they know how much that rug cost?!
“Who the hell did that? If I find them, I’ll skin them alive.”
Kiss snarled and shuffled through the chaos, nudging aside trash with his toes. Yet no one even stirred.
Nobles and street rats lay tangled together in various states of unconsciousness. Maybe this was the true neutral zone. A utopia.
“Hey, Boss. Open your eyes.”
Anubis’s boss, Lavian, was sprawled across the new pool table, dead asleep.
Beside him, curled up like a cat, was a woman Kiss recognized.
He hesitated, then picked her up and tossed her onto a couch in the back.
A fierce curse came flying back.
“You bastard!”
“Love you too, Lady Jenny.”
“Drop dead, you pervert!”
“Should I bill the count’s estate for the pool table?”
Jenny, apparently passing out again, went silent.
“Boss, wake up already. Where the hell did that bastard Mercy go—”
“I’m here.”
A voice came from the balcony, followed by the appearance of a silver-haired man parting the curtains.
Sunlight flooded the room, and groans erupted from every direction.
Kiss scowled at Mercy’s polished appearance.
“Why were you out there?”
“I was hiding.”
Mercy, with his soft golden eyes and aristocratic aura, looked nothing like a criminal—let alone a co-conspirator in the First Princess’s kidnapping.
Rumors ranged from him being the illegitimate child of a noble to actually being Lavian in disguise.
Kiss, with his classic villainous looks, always fumed at such rumors, calling them elitist trash.
Still, no one denied that Lavian shattered any romantic ideals of noble bloodlines.
“Hey, you bastard…! Get rid of the damn light!”
Of course. This was the guy who told them to kidnap his niece, then partied all night while his subordinates were out risking their lives.
Kiss sighed as he looked at Lavian.
Bright red hair. Eyes that were more savage than fierce. A body covered in tattoos and muscles.
It was flashy, sure—but the kind of flashy that felt dangerous and unwholesome.
Who would believe this thug was the princess’s uncle?
“Get up. There’s a problem with the ‘Diamond’—”
“Shut it.”
“You’re dead meat.”
Kiss’s black eyes began to glow with a cold blue light.
Sensing that things were serious, Mercy stepped in and began ushering the others out.
“Alright, everybody out. Lavian’s completely out of it.”
The half-dead crew, groaning like undead soldiers summoned by the first emperor, staggered out one by one.
“Damn, he’s a real necromancer.”
“Better to freeze to death in the street than stay with our wreck of a boss.”
“True that.”
Lavian didn’t bother scolding them for the insults.
His head was about to explode from the hangover anyway.
“Uuuurrrghhh…”
As Lavian slowly sat up and swore at his own past self, Mercy sweetly tossed him his jacket from the floor.
His shirt was nowhere to be seen.
“Jenny, why are you still here?”
“What the hell do you care?!”
“Boss, can you make her leave too?”
“Jenny, get out.”
“Screw you too—kyaaah!”
Jenny suddenly shrieked and scrambled to cover herself, shocking everyone.
Wondering what the hell had gotten into her—she never cared who was watching—they all turned to look at the door.
“Pardon the mess. You may come in.”
