I Was Hired by the Black-Minded Prince for My Life's Ransom - Chapter 9

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 9. Spirits, Contracts, Danger!
“Oh….”
Wait?
I opened my mouth slightly, dazed.
“Really?”
Now that Dai was dead, there was no one left to investigate my brother’s case for me.
In truth, so much time had passed that I’d already resigned myself to giving up….
It felt like receiving a gift I’d never expected.
“I can’t promise anything. My affairs will always take priority over yours.”
“That’s fine!”
I answered at once.
Well, Dai had always been the same way.
He’d constantly pushed my brother’s matters aside, claiming that other lucrative work was more important.
…And yet.
“I’m rather ignorant of how the world works….”
I hadn’t possessed the courage to investigate on my own.
Because Dai had said so.
That I was lacking, incapable of doing anything alone.
I rose from my seat and bowed deeply to Yulian.
“Please, I’m counting on you.”
“Understood.”
Yulian answered curtly, as if the matter bored him.
He wrote in the Contract: “Yulian of Ozwald shall investigate Vaniline’s family affairs.”
Not mere promises like Dai’s had been….
It felt like a dream.
After that, we moved to a different location.
He delivered me to the Imperial Prince’s Palace, then returned after establishing a perfect alibi at Geonkuk Yeon.
Then we coordinated the finer details.
“If you so much as accidentally reveal anything about me, the entire Contract becomes void. Do you understand?”
“Y-yes….”
Of course, coordination really just meant I nodded whenever he made a demand.
Hours passed as we refined the clauses, polished the language, and eliminated loopholes.
Chirp, chirp―
As dawn broke, the faint sound of birdsong began drifting in, one note at a time.
“Wake up, Vaniline.”
“Ah…!”
When did I fall asleep?
The moment I opened my eyes, Yulian was holding a seal.
“I’m applying it now.”
“Oh….”
There was no time to reread it before—bang—the stamp came down.
Golden light flowed across the Contract.
“Now my turn….”
I made a shallow cut on my finger.
Crimson blood dripped onto the paper like a flower blooming,
and—whoosh!
Light burst forth.
I felt an invisible shackle snap shut around my heart—click.
Without a word spoken, I could feel that Yulian’s spirit and mine were now bound.
“Vaniline is now mine.”
Yulian smiled and rose slowly from his seat.
It was literal.
Everything I had now belonged to him.
“On paper, you’ll be my Exclusive Maid.”
A Cream-colored Coat was pressed into my hands.
I found myself instinctively dressing him in it.
It fit him perfectly.
“From now on, only you will enter my quarters.”
As I bent my head to fasten the buttons, my heartbeat quickened without reason.
“Everything of mine is yours as well.”
Had it not been bound by contract, it would have been easy to mistake the remark for a confession.
“Follow me, Vaniline.”
Yulian fastened his coat and smiled quietly.
“Today we have a diplomatic meeting with envoys from the Neighboring Kingdoms.”
As if it were nothing at all.
* * *
“On behalf of Ozwald, I express our gratitude to the distinguished guests gracing us on Foundation Day.”
Yulian spoke softly as he drew back the bowstring.
Whip—snap!
The arrow struck the deer’s neck with perfect precision.
“A direct hit.”
“As expected of His Highness the Third Prince.”
Flattery tinged with obsequiousness poured in from all sides.
We were at the Imperial Third Hunting Ground.
When I asked why he’d chosen to hold the meeting in such a place, Yulian smiled gently.
— Hollow-headed fools can’t sit still in a conference room for long, after all.
I’d thought his misanthropy ran deep….
But seeing it now, he wasn’t wrong.
“Your Highness, might we impose upon you for your counsel?”
“Of course.”
“What must we do to expand our territory as the empire has?”
They were actually asking the empire—and a prince, no less—such a question….
Yulian’s smile deepened.
“…One must strive for the nation and its people, naturally.”
A textbook answer.
And then,
Whip—snap!
Another direct hit.
I pressed my lips together and forced a smile.
Now I understood why he’d chosen a hunting ground as the meeting place.
He was channeling the urge to scold them into hunting prey instead….
‘His own method of stress relief, it seems.’
I took my position one step behind him, as befitted my role as his Exclusive Maid.
Yet just hours ago, we had been complete strangers.
The sensation of being bound by soul was more visceral than I’d anticipated.
When he drew in a breath, my own breathing would slow without my noticing,
and when he was displeased, my mood would sway in sympathy with his.
‘I really can’t get used to this….’
It was the first time since I was five that I’d been connected to someone so deeply.
Well—first time forced into it by a Contract, anyway.
‘For now, I focus on the work.’
I’d save my idle thoughts for later.
I set myself in motion.
My role was to support Yulian.
I had to do everything in my power to ensure this gathering proceeded smoothly.
I signaled quickly to the attendants.
“Please restock the game and prepare an ample supply of fresh arrows.”
“Yes, understood.”
I arranged in advance what Yulian would need,
“Skip the wine today, please! Prepare Grape Juice instead.”
No alcohol—to keep the conversation from becoming muddled by intoxication.
“What do you mean, omitting wine from a hunt?”
If someone lodged a complaint in this vein….
“Grape Juice is said to be of great benefit to Masculinity, so we prepared it specially. Shall I have it changed to wine?”
For a middle-aged man, there was no escape—I’d respond with a respectful, courteous smile.
“…Masculinity?”
The envoy who’d voiced his complaint stiffened for a moment, then coughed awkwardly in embarrassment.
“No, no—it’s fine. Since you’ve prepared it, we’ll have it today.”
“Thank you for your understanding.”
Perfect!
I laughed brightly.
Indeed, the magic word: Masculinity.
Even Dai couldn’t budge at that one. Hehehehe.
Just as I was brushing my hair back in satisfaction, a short laugh burst from beside me.
“Really, Vaniline?”
It was Yulian.
He tilted his head playfully, lifting a glass filled with Grape Juice.
“Does Grape Juice help with Masculinity?”
“Ah….”
Oh no. This was bad.
“No….”
I mumbled, avoiding his gaze.
Was he going to hit me for deceiving a nobleman?
When I looked up at him anxiously—
“Ha-ha!”
Yulian suddenly burst into laughter.
It was an enchanting laugh, like white plum blossoms unfurling in a chain reaction across his face.
“That’s amusing.”
I widened my eyes and stared at his face.
I’d never seen it before.
Him laughing with his eyes squeezed shut like that.
‘That’s… dangerously beautiful.’
I couldn’t tear my eyes away from that fatal beauty for a long moment.
If it weren’t for that personality, he’d look just like a prince from a fairy tale.
After laughing boyishly for a while, Yulian shook his head and turned his gaze away.
“Thanks to you, those fools look ridiculous.”
The delegation, oblivious to being insulted, grinned widely at Yulian.
“Today’s schedule is proceeding far more smoothly than usual.”
He looked at me and narrowed his eyes.
A smile full of unguarded satisfaction—one he didn’t show to anyone else.
It had the force to make me believe, even if only for a moment, that I was something special.
The man let out a soft laugh and gently touched my shoulder with just his fingertips.
“Keep working hard, will you?”
With those words, he turned back into the space between the royal family and the delegation.
The hunting pace noticeably slowed from before.
No more unnecessary arrows were loosed.
Thump-thump.
My heart pounded in my chest.
‘I’ve never received praise like that before.’
Was it because I was only ever cursed at when I worked under Dai?
His words settled heavily somewhere in my chest.
I worked just a little bit harder than before, and the meeting flowed smoothly.
The delegation members, no longer drunk, finally began conversations that made sense, and Yulian exploited the opening with precision.
Gently, yet without yielding an inch.
It was a successful meeting.
‘…It’s about time this ended.’
Yulian stood from his seat with a satisfied expression, and the delegation began putting on their coats.
“Phew.”
It was just as I unconsciously relaxed the tension—
“…ct.”
“……?”
“Ozwald―!”
What? What was that?
I turned my head toward the sound.
Crash! Crash!
A stranger tore through the hunting prey and leaped from the tall grass, drenched in blood.
“The blood-debt for my parents!”
The blade caught the light with a sickening gleam.
His gaze was locked onto Yulian with lethal precision.
“……!”
My heart plummeted.
A sharp, pulling sensation seized me from deep within my chest.
The soul.
The Contract.
‘This is dangerous—!’
There was no time to think, no moment to reconsider.
I hurled myself at the intruder.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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