Raised in the slums of Ebelstein, Derek knows all too well that magic cannot bridge social divides. He grew up watching nobles sneer at commoners, watching talent go to waste because of bloodlines. Through harsh lessons and hard-earned discipline, he rises to become a second-tier mage, scraping by as a mercenary. Not powerful enough to be respected. Not wealthy enough to be comfortable. Just surviving.
Then life takes a different turn. He is appointed as a magical tutor to Diella Duplain, the temperamental youngest daughter of a noble house. A girl who cannot wield magic despite her lineage. In a world where magic defines status, she is worthless. Her family’s last resort before exiling her to a convent.
Diella does not want a tutor. She does not want to learn. She clashes with Derek from the start, throwing tantrums, refusing lessons, testing every limit. She is what everyone calls a “bad lady.” A lost cause. A waste of noble blood.
But Derek grew up in the slums. He has seen worse. He has survived worse. And he knows something the nobles have forgotten: people are not born bad. They are made.
Now a mercenary mage from the gutter must teach a noble brat how to use magic, how to control herself, and how to prove that there is no such thing as a “bad lady.” Only ones who were never given a real chance.
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