Raven Nox Margrave, head of a vampire margrave house, has spent eight years burying every emotion behind a mask of ice. To him, a fiancée is nothing more than a contract—a blood-sealed arrangement for the sake of the house, renewable every three years, dissolvable only by the council of the Seven Blood Covenant families. Love has no place in it.
But on the night he rides out to receive his bride-to-be, an ancient contract vanishes from the archive without a trace of tampering. A wolf howls from
Fiancé Before Dawn - The Fiancé Beyond the Door — Quiet Eyes and a Quickening Heartbeat
The carriage wheels bit into the cobblestones, and that sound alone split the silence of the night.
Raven straightened the collar of his black high-collared coat and peered out the window. His Nightwatcher's eyes picked out the road ahead with perfect clarity, far past where the moonlight reached. The fields spreading out on either side of the highway, the low hills rising in the distance—everything stood out in pale, bluish outline.
(Almost there.)
He traced the old family crest carved into the back of his left hand, once, with his fingertip. The raised pattern caught faintly against his cold skin. With this hand, he was about to welcome a person into his house. For the family's interests. For the contract. Nothing more.
And yet, for a while now, a small tremor deep in his chest refused to settle.
Raven's brow started to furrow—then he stopped it. Don't show emotion. Don't think. Do your duty. That was the proper way for a head of house to be.
Eventually the carriage turned off the highway onto a narrow side road. The cobblestones gave way to packed earth, and the sound of the wheels softened. After a while, a single light appeared, floating in the dark.
(That's it.)
A human's house. Small compared to a stone manor—a wooden door and two little windows. Warm lamplight spilled from them. Yuu, a young man of nineteen. The one he would take into his house as a blood-medium for the next three years.
The carriage stopped. The driver opened the door, and Raven stepped down into the night air.
He smelled earth. Grass, night dew. And faintly, smoke—someone had a fire burning inside.
"Wait here."
He gave the driver that brief order and walked alone to the front of the house. He stood before the door and raised a hand.
But before he could knock, the door swung open from within.
Light poured out.
And in that light stood a young man.
Light brown hair glowed gold where the lamplight shone through it. His bangs fell naturally across his forehead, and beneath them, amber eyes looked straight up at him. A small beauty mark sat at the nape of his neck. Nineteen, just as he'd been told. Young, with soft contours.
The moment Yuu saw Raven, he went completely still.
His mouth had started to open, but no words came. His amber eyes grew wider and wider.
(...)
Raven met that gaze head-on.
Near-black dark brown hair swept back, and reddish eyes glowed quietly in the darkness of the night. Tall—six foot two. Broad chest and shoulders. Beneath the high-collared black coat, a muscular body was unmistakably there, visible even through the fabric. He stood like a statue with no expression. A stillness like the cold night air.
Yuu had no idea what was happening to him.
Something deep in his chest was pounding violently. His breathing grew shallow. His fingertips felt hot.
(What... is this person?)
Some part of his mind managed the thought.
(What is this—person?)
The same words surfaced again. No other words would come at all.
Raven watched Yuu's reaction without changing expression. He noticed he was being stared at, spellbound—and said nothing. He simply let out one breath, then quietly gave his name.
"I am Raven, head of the Nox Marchlands. I've come to fetch my fiancé."
It was a low voice. Like water flowing at the bottom of the night—quiet, cold, a voice that lingered in the ear.
At the sound of it, Yuu finally came back to himself.
"Ah—um, yes, that's—yes...!"
His voice cracked. He was flustered enough that even he could tell. His heart was still racing. His face was hot.
(What am I doing?)
Yuu hurriedly threw the door wide and invited Raven inside.
"P-please, come in! It's, um, small, but...!"
Raven nodded silently and stepped inside.
The interior was warm, a stark contrast to the cold air outside. A fire burned in a small hearth, bathing the whole room in soft orange light. One wooden table, two chairs. Against the wall, a few bundles of luggage sat gathered together.
"Um, so—my name's Yuu! I'm nineteen! It's nice to meet you!"
He said it all in one breath, fast. A bright voice, mixing polite speech with casual. The ends of his sentences bounced a little.
"Mm."
Raven answered briefly and walked to the table. From inside his coat he drew out a folded document. The contract. Dense lines of small print covered the heavy paper, and in the margin was stamped the seal of the Seven Bloodline Houses.
"Final confirmation of the contract. Sit."
Yuu scrambled into a chair. Raven sat across from him. The contract was spread open on the table.
(So this is really it.)
Yuu stared at the open document. A sworn engagement—a system that guaranteed a bond between houses by contract. The term was three years. Renewable. The contract required a blood seal, and its annulment required the approval of the council of heads of the Seven Bloodline Houses. Family interests took precedence over personal love. That was the common sense of the Kingdom of Vermilion, and his parents had told him so again and again.
(I know that. I know it, but—)
Yuu stole a glance at Raven's profile.
A straight nose. A firmly set jaw. The reddish eyes moved quietly across the contract. His lashes were long. In the lamplight, his skin looked almost translucent, pale as porcelain.
(...He's handsome.)
Again, something pulsed deep in his chest.
(Why is my heart racing like this? This is a contract signing.)
"Sign here. The blood seal goes in this position."
Raven's voice brought him back.
"Y-yes!"
He took the pen. His fingertips trembled faintly.
(Calm down.)
He breathed in deep, then out. He set the pen tip to the paper and wrote his name carefully, slowly.
The whole time, his gaze kept trying to drift toward Raven on its own.
(No—I have to focus.)
He finished writing his name and set down the pen. Next came the blood seal. He took the small knife Raven offered, made a tiny cut in his fingertip, and pressed the welling blood onto the designated spot.
Slowly, the blood soaked into the paper.
"With this, the contract is binding."
Raven said it quietly. He picked up the document and checked the position of the blood seal. His movements were astonishingly businesslike, without a single wasted motion.
(To him, this is just routine.)
That was what Yuu thought.
(I wonder how many fiancés like me he's taken in. Or am I the first?)
There were so many things he wanted to ask. But Raven's air didn't allow it. That stillness, like cold night air, held Yuu's words back.
"Your luggage is that, then."
Raven's eyes went to the bundles by the wall.
"Ah, yes! Um, there are three! This one, and this one, and that one over there!"
As Yuu pointed, Raven rose and walked over to the luggage. He set a hand on the largest wooden crate.
"Heavy."
"Oh—I'll carry that! It's fine!"
Just as Yuu rushed over in a panic—
Raven lifted the crate one-handed, without a word.
"Wha—"
Effortlessly. As if it were an empty box. The muscular arm supported the crate with unmistakable strength, visible even through the coat.
(No way. That thing's heavy.)
Yuu knew exactly how heavy it was from lifting it himself. It was packed with books and clothes—heavy enough that carrying it with both arms nearly made him stagger.
(He really is amazing.)
Again, something pulsed deep in his chest. His face was hot.
"You carry the rest."
"Y-yes!"
Yuu gathered the remaining bundles and followed after Raven.
Outside, the night air stung his skin all at once. His body, warm until a moment ago from the hearth fire, cooled rapidly. The carriage lamps lit the dark road.
Raven loaded the wooden crate onto the back of the carriage, then the rest of Yuu's things one after another. His movements were, again, without waste, and silent.
"Get in."
Raven opened the carriage door and held out his hand.
Yuu looked at it.
Large, bony, with prominent knuckles. On the back of the left hand, an old family crest was carved. The reddish eyes watched him, expressionless.
(Take his hand?)
For an instant, he hesitated.
(I want to. But somehow, taking it is embarrassing.)
His heart was still racing. His fingertips felt like they might tremble.
"...Thank you."
Yuu said it in a small voice and took the hand.
Raven's hand was cold. The same temperature as the night air. But beneath that coldness there was definite strength. It closed firmly around Yuu's hand.
(Cold.)
(But I don't want him to let go.)
The moment he thought it, his heart jumped again.
Yuu climbed into the carriage with Raven's help. When he sat on the leather seat, a cool sensation spread across his thighs.
Raven climbed in after him and closed the door.
The carriage began to move, slowly.
The lights of the house receded outside the window. The home he'd lived in for nineteen years. His parents' faces. His own room. All of it dissolved into the darkness of the night.
(What's going to happen from now on?)
Yuu thought that as he watched out the window.
(I'm going to his house. I'm going to live with him for three years.)
He glanced at Raven beside him.
He was looking out the window. Expressionless—impossible to tell what he was thinking. But that profile was, again, so finely made that Yuu's eyes were drawn to it no matter what.
(I keep looking at him.)
(Well—because he's handsome.)
Yuu was bewildered by the speed of his own heartbeat.
(This has never happened before. Meeting someone and having my heart pound like this.)
Raven had noticed Yuu's gaze.
Even facing forward, his Nightwatcher's eyes caught Yuu's movements at the edge of his vision. How many times the young man had looked his way. How each time he looked away, then looked back again.
(...Don't say anything.)
Raven murmured it in his mind.
This was his contract partner. Nothing more, nothing less. There was no need to give anything back to this young man's gaze.
The carriage traveled north along the night road.
After a while, the trees along both sides of the road grew denser. The outer edge of the Mistwood. The habitat of the mist wolves, spreading north of the Nox Marchlands. Beneath the moonlight, the shadows of the trees stretched long across the road.
That was when it happened.
From somewhere far off, a low growl.
(...So they've come.)
Raven peered out the window.
In the darkness, eyes glinted—many of them.
A pack of mist wolves.
"Wh—what is that...?"
Yuu's voice shook.
"Stay back."
Raven gave that brief order and opened the carriage door.
The instant he stepped outside, cold air and the smell of beasts hit his nose.
Five mist wolves in all. About two meters long each. Their gray fur rose faintly in the moonlight. Baring sharp fangs, growling low, they crept closer to the carriage, step by step.
Raven stood before them, expressionless.
"Raven, it's dangerous...!"
Yuu's voice came from inside the carriage.
Raven did not turn around.
(To protect is to keep one's distance.)
The old creed surfaced in his mind.
(But now—)
Raven pressed the fingertips of his right hand to the crest on the back of his left.
"Bloodline Art—"
He murmured it low.
Power gathered in his fingertips. The crest began to glow—red, hot.
(To activate, a drop of one's own blood.)
Raven drew the fingers of his right hand sharply across his left wrist. Skin split; red blood welled. As if drawn to the light of the crest, the blood rose into the air.
"—Shadow Chains."
With the words, the drops of blood became countless black chains.
The chains writhed like living things and lashed out toward the mist wolves.
"Gyanh!"
The first was caught in the chains and slammed to the ground.
"Guooh!"
The second lunged.
Raven evaded it with the smallest possible movement and worked the chains to cinch around its neck.
The third and fourth attacked at once.
Still expressionless, Raven split the chains in two. One swept the legs out from under the beast on the left; the other struck the beast on the right across the body.
A dull thud.
The mist wolves yelped and rolled across the gr
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