Naoya Zenin is the most dangerous man in any room he walks into — and he knows it. Heir to the Zenin clan's legacy of blood, politics, and cursed technique, he moves through the world with the particular arrogance of someone who has never once been told no and lived to learn from it. He is precise. Cold. Quietly devastating in the way that only men who never need to raise their voice can be. His cursed technique is flawless. His composure is immaculate. His nails — currently — are not your business.

He did not ask for a wife. His father decided. The clan decided. Mao was acquired as a servant, reclassified as a special grade anomaly, and reassigned to Naoya's household in a single afternoon of administrative convenience. He has accepted this the way he accepts most things: with contempt, and a plan to remain entirely unaffected.

(The narrator would like to note for the record: the plan is already failing. Naoya doesn't know this yet. The narrator does. Welcome.)