"Your Grace, where shall I take you?"
At the coachman's question, Clayton leaned back against the backrest and spoke.
"Take me to Cavern House."
"Yes."
Cavern House was a place created by the men of influential noble families, and it was not a gathering that anyone could join just because they were a noble.
Among those who gathered there, Clayton was the one with the highest rank after the royal family, but his attendance rate was low.
Normally, he wouldn't have thought of attending the meeting today, but he felt like something might happen if he stayed at the mansion any longer, so he decided to go and get some fresh air.
Clayton, who had been looking out the window, shifted his gaze and looked at his right hand.
It was because he felt uneasy about having slapped Dahlia's hand away earlier at the mansion.
'So why…'
On this particular day when he was sensitive due to a nightmare, of all places, it had to be in that forest, and of all things, she had to appear with a cat.
Tsk.
He clicked his tongue irritably. He couldn't figure out the source of the rising irritation inside him.
Dahlia's face, smiling while holding the cat in the forest, came to his mind.
And soon, in her image, he saw the version of himself from his childhood.
Twelve years old.
The self who had been holding a kitten that had lost its mother.
He couldn't forget the days when he had arrogantly thought, "I will be different. Only I can overcome this curse."
'I don't have a mother like you either.'
He was happy when he accidentally found a stray cat that had lost its mother while playing in the forest.
Having no family to rely on or friends to confide in, he felt a strange kinship with the cat that had become alone.
He secretly raised the cat in the forest, avoiding his father's disapproving gaze.
He would secretly bring the food placed in front of him and feed it to the cat, and like him, the lonely cat followed him well.
From then on, Clayton would always spend time with the cat after his lessons.
Although it was just an animal, to him, it was family, and more than a friend. But he didn't know at the time.
He never imagined that the thing he cherished and valued would be destroyed by his own hands.
After his stepmother's death, he refused to drink blood, determined to overcome the curse.
"I am different from my father. I swore that I wouldn't drink my wife's blood, or the blood of the daughters of the Hertz family, who are sacrificed like offerings."
But until then, he hadn't known. That it was his arrogance.
The Duke family's curse was terribly potent, and the child was too innocent.
And when he realized that fact, what was in his hands was the mutilated corpse of an animal, beyond recognition.
A hunger that felt like he was losing his mind suddenly took over, and when he regained his senses, everything was over.
The thing he had promised to protect and cherish was dead in his hands, and that day, he became a monster.
At first, he was frustrated and despairing at the fact that he had become a monster, but soon, he gave in.
He drank the blood provided by the family and the blood of the women from the Hertz family.
While performing the actions he utterly hated and despised, he made a resolution: he would sever the Seyer family's curse with his own hands.
That resolution remained unchanged, and everything was progressing according to plan.
But there was one thing.
'Dahlia...'
Dahlia. Except for that one person.
Had he been lost in thought for that long? The carriage slowly started to slow down, and then it came to a stop.
With the coachman's voice announcing their arrival, the closed door opened.
Then, an old building, boasting traces of its long history, came into view.
Located in the heart of the capital, Cavern House appeared to be a place for political gatherings for the future of the empire, but in reality, it was one of the entertainment venues for the men of influential families.
The walls were filled with works by famous artists whose names everyone would recognize, and luxurious carpets from the East Continent covered the entire floor. This place was the epitome of luxury.
Clayton, who had just entered Cavern House, walked down the wide corridor.
With each step he took, the regular sound echoed quietly through the corridor.
And just as he was about to place his hand on the door handle to open the room where people were gathered,
Someone, perhaps forgetting to close the door, had left it slightly ajar, and through the gap, a familiar name could be heard.
"Was her name Dahlia? The woman who recently became the Duchess of Seyer. She was an incredible beauty. Why hadn't anyone noticed her until now?"
It was his wife, Dahlia.
The men inside, unaware that her husband was listening from outside, began to chatter excitedly.
"I've seen her a few times at parties. She was wearing a dress that looked like something from over a decade ago, and she was crouching in the corner, so she had no presence. Who would have paid attention to a woman from a fading family?"
"Unlike insignificant us, the extraordinary Duke of Seyer paid attention to her, didn't he?"
When someone spoke sarcastically, everyone burst into giggles and laughter.
It was ridiculous to see those who couldn't say a word in front of him now talking loudly behind his back.
Clayton, twisting the corner of his mouth, thought about whether he should go in now and reached for the door handle.
"By the way, did you hear the story? About the black carriage that's been coming and going at the Duke's mansion."
He stopped what he was doing as the conversation continued.
"I heard it was the hot topic at the last party of the Landrofil Marquis family. And I also heard rumors that the owner of the carriage is a woman..."
"Jackson. Are you saying the Duke has a mistress? Didn't you just say that there were widespread rumors in Landrofil that the Duke is a devoted husband?"
"You naive fool. Being kind to one's wife and having a mistress are obviously separate things. What man in the world can be satisfied with just one woman? Especially a man like Duke Seyer. It wouldn't be surprising if he had ten mistresses."
"That's true. I've also heard that some people have seen him with the Hertz family's young lady."
What had started as a conversation about Dahlia gradually turned into a scandal about Clayton and the noble young lady.
"I've heard about the Hertz Count's young lady. Doesn't everyone know? That the Duke of Seyer's mistress is Rose Hertz."
"What an unlucky guy. He's holding flowers in both hands, isn't he?"
"There's no rule that says he can only hold the Duke. Who knows, maybe the Duke's wife has something in both of her hands too."
As the conversation continued, the language became more and more vulgar until it crossed the line.
"Then, should I offer her my thing in one of her hands..."
Just as the lewd conversation about Dahlia was escalating,
Suddenly, the door burst open, and all eyes turned toward it.
And upon seeing Clayton's face as he entered through the door, the men's mouths froze in stiff silence.
"D-Duke Seyer...!"
"..."
The men, who had been lounging comfortably on the sofa, jumped to their feet in shock.
Clayton casually scanned the faces of the men, who looked like they had seen a ghost, and naturally sat down in the vacant seat of honor.
Once he sat down, one of the men, who had been eyeing each other nervously, finally gathered the courage to speak.
"We didn't know you were coming, Your Grace. It would have been nice if you had given us a heads-up."
"Does it seem awkward that I've arrived?"
"Not awkward, not at all! It's just that if we had known you were coming, we would have gone to greet you ahead of time, that's all."
The audacity with which they had been chatting about Clayton just moments ago had completely vanished, and now they looked like herbivores standing in front of a carnivore.
Clayton picked up the cigar and cigar cutter from the table, glancing at Jackson, who was nervously eyeing him.
"Are you curious about what I've heard?"
"...Yes?"
"Where did it start... Was it when the eldest son of the Devon Count family mentioned giving something into my wife's hand?"
Snip.
At the same time, Clayton used the cigar cutter to snip the end of the cigar.
The falling cigar felt cold, as if it were a piece of his own flesh.
"Ah, no, it was actually when the second son of the Ricksha Marquis family said I had a mistress."
Clayton, now holding the cigar in his mouth, lit it and took a deep drag.
He relaxed further into the sofa, exhaled the smoke he had been holding in his mouth.
"As I kept listening, it got more and more interesting. Why don't you keep going? Wouldn't it be more exciting with the person in question right here?"
He slowly scanned the faces of the idiots who couldn't even make eye contact with him.
'The eldest son of the Devon Count family, the second son of the Ricksha Marquis... The Earl of Stanbird and the Baron Troy...'
He quietly muttered the names of the people in the room under his breath, mentally repeating them.
From now on, these were names that would be etched in his mind.