The Taming

Upon reaching adulthood, Michele, the youngest son of a noble family from the South, found himself sent to the North for marriage, as though he were being sold off. The other party was the lord of the cold North, Ian Sheleg. In a bid to salvage his declining family, Michele resolved himself to take in a thirty-five-year-old man whose face he had never even seen as his “wife.” However, the place he arrived at wasn’t the promised castle, but a small mansion… “My name is ‘Ain,’ and I’ll be serving Sir Anatold for the next month in place of my master.” The one waiting for Michele was not “Ian Sheleg,” but a servant named “Ain.” He was informed that, for whatever reasons, “Ian Sheleg” had become entangled in urgent business and had sent a servant who resembled him in his stead, but… The North and the South were lands as different as winter and spring. It was for the sake of taking a month’s time to educate Michele, who was unfamiliar with the North, about its etiquette and culture before the marriage. “Shall I tell you more about my master, or shall I teach you the ways to win his affections?” asked “Ain,” with his black hair, blue eyes, and his cold features and voice that resembled his master’s. “…Okay! Teach me how to win Lord Sheleg’s affections!” A crossroad of choice. Michele, who had grown up being loved by his brothers like a flower in a greenhouse, now desired to be loved by his “wife” as well. “…B-but why are you taking your clothes off?” “Hadn’t I told you? I will teach you how to win my master’s affections within a night’s time.” “This was what you meant?!” And so, the training to win “Ian Sheleg’s” affections continued regardless of day and night. “Just… just as my first partner was you, I want your last partner to be me, forever.” And Michele was left to experience first love alone, something no one had taught him—not his brothers in the South, nor the “Ain” in the North… A servant who looked identical to his master. Was it a coincidence, or was it intentional?