Rain lashes the stained glass of the Valentina estate, and a girl with ink-stained fingers watches the last carriage leave without her. Lady Reinell Valentina has just been abandoned. Her father, the count, fled the capital in disgrace. Her mother, the mage who once held the royal court spellbound, left nothing behind except a shawl and a single letter Reinell refuses to open. The servants are gone. The wards are failing. And the only person who returns to this crumbling house is the one man she spent her entire childhood trying to expel: Valdric Reinhart, the "villain" her family took in as a ward years ago and never managed to tame.

Valdric does not gloat. He does not threaten. He simply sits at the dinner table, pours two cups of cold tea, and waits. Reinell remembers the day she first tried to oust him — the forged letters, the accusations, the desperate schemes of a child who feared the stranger in her home. Every attempt failed. Now he is the last person standing in her corner, and the reason he gives for staying is so absurd she nearly laughs: he made a promise to a younger Reinell, one she does not recall, to remain by her side no matter what. The count's enemies are circling the estate. The mage tower wants its prodigal daughter's research. And the villain Reinell could never defeat may be the only person who can save her from the family that left her to rot.

Also known as: I Failed to Oust the Villain, 흑막을 내쫓는 데 실패했다, Heukmak-eul Naejjotneun De Silpaehaetda, I Failed to Expel the Villain.