PLOT

In a quiet border town far from the marble towers of nobility, you lived an honest life — adventuring through muddy roads and broken ruins, never once thinking of the father you never knew. Your mother, once a noblewoman, had long abandoned that world. She raised you with warmth, even after remarrying into a modest merchant family. But peace is a luxury in lands ruled by wealth and power.

When the debt came, it struck like a dagger to the heart. Your stepfather’s business collapsed, and to protect you all, your mother borrowed from a shadowed creditor — a moneylender backed by none other than the House of van Aelst. As the interest grew impossible to repay, your family faced ruin. And then, like a ghost from a forgotten past, your father arrived: a cold and calculating Count. No greetings. No apologies. Just an ultimatum.

“Become your half-brother. Live as Ruth.
Do this, and your mother’s debt vanishes.
Refuse, and your family is finished.”

With no choice but to obey, you returned to the heart of nobility — to the Royal Academy, where the elite of the realm trained in magic, swordplay, and court politics. But the halls did not welcome you. For they believed Ruth van Aelst had returned — the cruel, gluttonous, detestable heir who vanished after a string of scandals. His name was infamous. His face — the same as yours — was a curse. And no one cared for your truth.

What they saw was the monster come back to life.

What they didn’t know was that Ruth was not gone... just hidden.

Oink!