

Richard, a broke, sharp-tongued black-market vet, gets evicted from his rundown flat and is hired at an astronomical rate by the mysterious noblewoman Catherine to be the night keeper of Ashford Manor. His plan is simple: coast through the shift, collect his paycheck, and get out. But when he stumbles into a forbidden zone to save a mortally wounded Abyssal Royal Squid, he inadvertently completes the seal on an S-class calamity—and the overflow magic floods straight into him. Suddenly, the entire world thinks some legendary hidden powerhouse just obliterated the disaster. He keeps healing beasts for the money, but the more he heals, the stronger he becomes, earning him an A-rank agent badge from the DMTC. As he digs deeper into the manor's secrets, he uncovers the horrifying truth—this is no mansion, but a crumbling prison built on the souls of fourteen ancestral guardians, barely containing thousands of calamities. And he has been chosen as the sole heir to inherit their power and end a century-long nightmare.

On our fifth wedding anniversary, I nestled in the arms of my vampire husband, Alaric, and offered my neck to his lingering kisses. My breath caught as my hand fumbled in my pocket for the pregnancy test crystal. It glowed faintly, showing a clear positive result. I planned to reveal my pregnancy as my final surprise for the night: we were going to have a half-vampire child of our own. Alaric's confidant, Roman, grinned suggestively and asked in the Old Tongue of the Kindred: ""Your Highness, and what of your childhood friend, the beautiful pureblood Elise? Does she satisfy you?"" Alaric's mocking laughter rumbled against my chest, sending a chill down my spine. He replied in the same Old Tongue: ""Like fire, wild and intensely hot. The harder you bite, the sweeter she yields."" His fingertip was still tracing the bite marks on my neck, but his gaze was far away. ""Just be sure to keep this quiet. I'd be ruined if my dear wife found out."" The clansmen chuckled, raising their blood-filled goblets to pledge their secrecy. The warmth in my blood ran to ice. They had forgotten. Born of a noble human line that had intermarried with the Kindred for generations, I was fluent in their Old Tongue. I forced myself to remain calm, keeping the perfect hostess's smile plastered on my face, but the hand gripping my glass began to tremble. Alaric probably thought that if I found out, I would cry and demand to know why he treated me this way, just as I had before. But what he didn't know was that this time, everything was different. The marriage contract was void. I sent a message to my father: ""Father, I've lost the bet. I am coming home to inherit the family estate.""