Chapter 01

Prologue

“Come here.”

A languid voice—like a pleasant afternoon nap in late spring—echoed through the well-kept garden.

Su raised her head and looked at the man snapping his fingers to call her.

Damn it.

Seeing him tilt his face slightly to the left with a faint smile made yesterday’s omelet threaten to come back up.

That ridiculously handsome face.
She had always wished she could smash it just once!

“Come here. Don’t make me repeat myself.”

Despite the angelic face, his personality was quite cruel—something Su had learned painfully well.

She stopped hesitating and walked toward him.

The closer she got, the stronger the scent of roses surrounding him became.

The cloyingly sweet fragrance made Su wrinkle her face.

“Smile.”

The duke gave the command the moment he saw her expression.

Su immediately changed her face into a radiant smile, as if she owned the entire world.

Like a newly married bride.

Managing expressions was easier for Su than breathing—but that didn’t mean she enjoyed doing it.

No one would believe it, but she preferred honest people.

At the very least, she had wanted to marry an honest, straightforward man.

A sigh slipped from her lips—one she hadn’t even tried to hide.

Why did I end up doing something like this?

No—how had she even met this devil of a man in the first place?

Still smiling, Su began to recall her memories.

It hadn’t even been a month since she met the duke, yet so many things had happened at once that it felt as if a whole year had passed.

“Lift your head.”

The duke looked at the back of Su’s bowed head and quietly ordered.

Su realized those were the exact same words he had spoken the first time they met.

Do you remember that too?

He probably did.

Not because the memory was precious or meaningful—

but simply because his brain was ridiculously good.

01. The Swindler Lady and the Duke

The city of indulgence, Ardel, was where Su was born and raised.

The nobles of the prestigious capital Baha often looked down on Ardel, calling it vulgar and low-class.

But Su loved Ardel.

After all, what did those nobles think fed barren Baha?

The ridiculous superiority complex of those high-blooded fools made her shake her head.

“Deal the cards.”

At Su’s words, the dignified nobleman from Baha crumpled his face in frustration.

He had already lost five rounds in a row to her.

And this was gambling with Rekat, a card game popular among nobles!

To make matters worse, he was losing to a commoner girl twenty years younger than him.

Seeing the man’s jaw twitch roughly, Su secretly sighed and deliberately played a wrong card as if by mistake.

The man’s face brightened instantly.

So simple.

Su clicked her tongue inwardly.

He didn’t even realize she had purposely refrained from betting big this round.

The gambling had started around sunset.

Now when she glanced out the window, the sun was already peeking up again.

Golden waves of light covered the white city of Ardel.

Even for Su, who saw this view almost every day, it was still breathtaking.

Even if it weren’t her hometown, Ardel was charming enough.

Pleasure, gambling—

and the golden flowers that bloomed between them.

She loved money.

More than once she had nearly given her heart to the sparkle of gold coins.

But good things were simply good.

Whether it was her nature or the harsh life she lived, she couldn’t tell anymore.

But she loved money.

“Let’s stop here for today—”

“You are all under arrest for illegal gambling!”

Su’s attempt to end the game was abruptly cut off as men stormed into the room.

The moment she saw the insignia on their uniforms, her face turned pale.

You’ve got to be kidding me.

Wasn’t the patrol supposed to be in another district today…?

Her confusion lasted only a moment.

She quickly threw off her robe and crouched behind the other gamblers.

She had done this countless times.

Besides, the guards were busy checking the nobles’ faces first.

For someone small like Su, slipping out unnoticed wasn’t difficult at all.

Brushing her silky silver hair back, she pretended to observe the guards while searching for an exit.

Damn it.

She tugged lightly at her hair.

The gambling den must have been newly established.

There was no emergency escape route at all.

Her own fault for not investigating properly beforehand.

Getting arrested wouldn’t be hard to deal with—but getting out would cost money.

And compared to what she had earned tonight, it would be a painful loss.

A chill crept through her chest.

Soon she reached out and lightly grabbed the hem of a guard’s uniform.

The dumbest and most gentle-looking one.

“E-excuse me…”

Her voice trembled like someone about to burst into tears.

The guard who had been roughly grabbing noblemen finally noticed her.

A frightened girl clinging to his uniform, trembling in fear of the large men.

Her pale, slender face.

Large brown eyes curved gently, like a puppy caught in the rain.

She looked completely unsuited for gambling.

The guard was convinced she must have wandered in by mistake.

He softened his expression as much as a rough man like him could.

“What’s wrong, little girl? How did you get here?”

“Well… I came into town with my brother… b-but I lost him… sniff…”

Anyone who knew Su—who didn’t even have parents, let alone a brother—would have collapsed laughing.

Besides, Su was twenty-four years old.

The age for crying because you got lost had passed more than ten years ago.

In fact, she hadn’t cried even when she got lost at six.

Her story had obvious holes—

yet the guard was completely captivated by her innocent face.

“So I followed someone who looked like my brother… but it wasn’t him… I tried to leave but…”

“They wouldn’t let you go once the game started.”

Another guard finished the sentence for her.

“Yes… sniff… gambling is bad, right? Since I was here too… do I have to go to prison? Prison is scary… brother… sob…”

Su grabbed the guard’s hand and burst into loud sobs.

She looked so pitiful that the kind-hearted young guard, Paul, even began to feel guilty for making her cry.

“O-oh dear. Don’t cry. We know you didn’t do anything wrong. Why would we arrest you?”

Paul gently stroked her shining silver hair.

Su raised her tearful face.

“Then… can I go home?”

“Of course. Our guards would never harm an innocent person. We are righteous—”

Before he even finished speaking, Su grabbed her robe and walked away.

She moved like a cat.

So fast that even Paul—who had once been a knight—couldn’t catch her.

For someone who claimed to be lost, she navigated the back alleys effortlessly.

It would take quite a while before the naïve young guard Paul realized something.

The silver-haired girl was the infamous swindler Roland.

And he had just let the Ardel guard’s long-sought target slip away.

*

A young man silently watching the gambling hall from upstairs noticed Su leaving the building in a hurry.

He smirked slightly.

The faint smile that lifted only one corner of his lips vanished instantly.

Women who admired him so much they would give their lives could only swallow their breath.

“Interesting.”

When his red lips parted, a sweet voice poured out—melting the listener’s ears.

Though his tone was dry, the sound was unbelievably sweet.

“What do you mean, Lord Shantak?”

The woman who spoke didn’t actually care what he found interesting.

She was simply captivated by the beautiful man before her and desperate to gain even a glance from him.

The man brushed his hair back and shook his head.

Even that small motion looked elegant.

Everyone watching him—men and women alike—felt dizzy.

It was as if every piece of beauty in the world had been gathered and crushed together to form this man.

Looking at him too long made your eyes ache.

His hair, eyes, and clothes were all dark colors—

yet he somehow seemed to shine.

Anything excessively intense became sinful.

And the beauty of the young man before them was that extreme.

His very existence felt like a sin.

Dioner Shantak del Casa Miramonte.

One of the two dukes of the kingdom.

It had been less than three years since he inherited the title.

And since the other duke was already elderly, the thirty-year-old Dioner was often considered unusually young for the position.

People still frequently called him Lord Shantak, since his reputation as a knight was more familiar.

There had been some unpleasant rumors surrounding his inheritance—

the kind idle nobles loved to gossip about.

But anyone who met the duke dismissed those rumors.

They said:

“If an angel descended from heaven, it would look like him. There’s no way Lord Shantak could have done such a thing!”

And so his brother’s death was simply accepted as an unfortunate accident.