After Linking the Villainess and Male Lead (5 Chapters Left to Complete) - Chapter 5
In truth, many men had held Adelia in their hearts.
After all, Adelia was a stunning beauty who would immediately catch the eye no matter where she was.
Thus, it was only natural that so many would come to admire her.
Among all those men, however, the reason I remembered Lucas Aiker was because of the confession incident he caused.
Two years ago, on Adelia’s eighteenth birthday, Lucas Aiker prepared an enormous event to confess his feelings to her.
Yet his passionate declaration met only with her icy response, ending in utter humiliation and complete failure.
It was bound to fail—Adelia had already fallen head over heels for Calix at first sight.
To her, any man other than Calix was less significant than a passing pebble, and she had no emotional space left, consumed as she was by her unrequited feelings for him.
‘Still, things turned out well enough after that.’
Back then, even though I was fully aware of all the circumstances within the story, I secretly hoped Lucas Aiker’s confession would succeed and that he and Adelia would end up together.
The Aiker family stood equal to the Lavellions, and if things had worked out, Adelia wouldn’t have needed to take such a difficult path.
So, though I never gave direct help, whenever we met at the academy, I’d strike up conversation to help her feel at ease.
But Lucas Aiker’s confession failed miserably.
Having witnessed the entire scene from start to finish, I felt sympathy and guilt, and comforted Lucas Aiker several times afterward.
Fortunately, being of a positive disposition, Lucas recovered quickly from his heartbreak.
After the confession, he completely let go of his feelings for Adelia and treated her purely as a friend.
‘So Kaern knew about it too.’
At the time, Adelia had instructed the servants not to breathe a word of it to Kaern, insisting it was nothing serious.…
He hadn’t been in the capital when it happened.
Though he’d tried his best to return in time for his only younger sister’s birthday, unforeseen matters kept him away.
Adelia, though she understood his reasons intellectually, was deeply saddened by the absence of her only family on her special day.
Because of that, the memory remained vividly etched in my mind even now.
‘Well, from an older brother’s perspective, a man who fancied his sister wouldn’t look kindly upon at all.’
Just as I nodded inwardly, trying to understand Kaern’s position, his next words left me utterly stunned.
“Lucas Aiker had feelings for Adelia?”
“…Huh?”
Flustered, I stared up at him with my mouth agape and eyes wide.
“So… you mean… you didn’t know?”
Kaern slowly nodded his head from top to bottom.
‘Ah….’
Then why had his expression been like that?
He’d mentioned Lucas Aiker with such a grave look that I naturally assumed he knew about the confession incident.
Yet he didn’t…
No, that wasn’t the issue now.
The real problem was that I’d just spilled something Adelia had explicitly told me not to say.
A wave of guilt and regret crashed over me for betraying her trust through my careless words.
“Then why….”
No.
I shouldn’t be saying this to him, nor was it his fault.
This entire situation was entirely of my own doing.
I’d rashly assumed his thoughts and jumped to conclusions—this was the outcome.
“Duke.”
I quickly pulled myself together and addressed him with quiet resolve.
“Could you please forget what I just said? Adelia doesn’t like talking about this.”
Of course, asking him to forget something he’d already heard wouldn’t erase the incident, but it was the only thing I could say.
Overwhelmed by self-reproach and mental anguish, I instinctively raised my hand to smack my head—only for Kaern, who’d somehow moved right in front of me, to catch my wrist.
“It’s not because she received a confession that I’m acting this way.”
“Huh?”
I blinked at him in confusion, unable to grasp his meaning.
“You….”
I looked up at Kaern with puzzled eyes, waiting for him to continue.
But after a long silence, no further words came from his lips.
After a brief moment, he let out a soft sigh and gently released my wrist.
My wrist still felt warm and tingling from his touch just moments before.
So absorbed was I by this unfamiliar sensation that I didn’t even notice he’d boarded the carriage until I heard his voice.
“I’ll come pick you up before heading to the imperial palace.”
From inside the carriage, Kaern repeated the same words as earlier.
“You just wait comfortably.”
With those words, the carriage bearing him swiftly departed from the mansion.
I stood there, dazed, watching it disappear into the distance for a long while.
[This is the timeline separator]Ever since graduating from the academy, my daily routine over the past year had remained nearly identical.
In the mornings, I tended to the garden surrounded by my favorite flowers, then handled affairs concerning my house.
In the afternoons, I continued my longstanding duty of managing gardens, and only afterward did I finally have time for myself.
Most of that personal time, naturally, was spent with Adelia—sipping tea, chatting, or watching plays in the bustling district.
After my parents passed away and I was left alone, I knew I had to find some way to uphold my family’s name.
There wasn’t much a young me could do.
Even if Kaern repaid the debts left behind, I still needed to secure funds to maintain the household.
Back then, I was still attending the academy, and holding regular employment to earn a scholarship each semester was simply unthinkable.
Thus, I had to seek work I could do during holidays or breaks—and fortunately, years of botanical study had given me a talent for arranging garden flora in harmonious, captivating ways.
Truthfully, I owed this discovery more to Adelia than to myself.
Once she learned I’d designed my own garden, she immediately entrusted me with the Duke’s estate garden.
Moreover, whenever attending balls, soirées, or hosting tea parties at the manor, Adelia always made a point of telling everyone that I designed and maintained the estate’s garden, constantly praising me.
Noblewomen of the Loyden Empire greatly valued having gardens that drew admiration from others.
Consequently, ladies from numerous households desired my skills to transform their own gardens.
Not all nobles were like this, but at least those residing in the capital possessed immense vanity—and more than enough wealth to indulge it.
Thanks to Adelia’s word-of-mouth and merchants introduced by Kaern, I rapidly elevated my garden-related venture into a thriving enterprise.
Thus, by leveraging my unique talents, I repaid my debt to Kaern and managed to sustain my family line until now.
Initially, my business involved visiting noble estates to select suitable plants and flowers for each garden, then meticulously instructing on placement and care.
During breaks, this was manageable—but while attending the academy, visiting estates in person was difficult, limiting my earnings.
So, I introduced an additional product line: selling teas and sachets made from garden-grown flowers and herbs.
Since I could teach servants how to produce them, this venture allowed me to work even while studying at the academy.
Beyond income, this business unexpectedly aided my botanical research and thesis preparation.
Surveying and cultivating plants and scents favored by capital residents naturally accumulated research data and care techniques.
Moreover, collecting customer reviews—much like in my past life’s modern society—meant I no longer had to wait endlessly for results like other researchers, as I could test outcomes directly.
Anyway, today, after finishing my morning tasks and having lunch, I was returning from tending the garden at Count Heyan’s estate.
Gazing out the carriage window, I saw we’d just passed through the bustling district.
Every corner of that area brimmed with memories of Adelia.
When scheming men desperately battle for her favor in the male harem
This one’s also on my reread list! The rivalry, scheming between the men in the imperial harem are just as intense and thrilling as in classic palace drama novels, where concubines fight to the death. Give it a read, girls! I promise you won’t be disappointed.
Synopsis:
“I am not worthy of her… but I still want to be by her side, even if only as a loyal dog…”
Those were the painful whispers of Yue Guanyi – the proud Crown Prince of the Great Qi, who was torn between deep love and a guilty conscience. Despite holding the supreme power of the Imperial Guard, he still could not forget the dark past when he was sold into a brothel.
Fate played a cruel twist when Qiu Shuzhi – a young female official who had just passed the imperial examinations with top honors – stepped into his life. She did not know that she was the one who had saved him from a tragic fate many years ago. And now, her heart was the target of pursuit for both Yue Guanyi and the powerful Empress Dowager Qin Qing.
While Yue Guanyi only dared to silently care for and protect the one he loved from afar, the Empress Dowager Qin Qing openly expressed his feelings and did not hesitate to take advantage of his power to approach Qiu Shuzhi. The covert struggle between the two most powerful forces in the imperial court began…
Trigger warning: All men in this novel are yandere style.
_____
Please help me, I want to bring you the best possible things.
If you find any chapter or novel with poor translation and editing quality, let me know by commenting directly under that novel or chapter. I will retranslate it as soon as possible.
[Touch the gear icon in the bottom right corner of the screen to move to the next chapter if you want.]
MANGA DISCUSSION
1 Comment
Chapter Comments (7)
I don’t know why she has so many theories, when the only and simplest one is that Kaern likes her, and that’s the exact one that doesn’t even cross her mind. I feel like hitting her with a chair.
If there is a person checking these comments. Can you please add a word/letter count to the bottom. Also sometimes the comments don’t stay within the chapter you read but throughout the whole book, please fix that glitch. Another, per book- hour limited to how many comments can earn cookies – it’s better you write that somewhere or give a notification to the commenter about that. The notification about the 3/3 free reads glitch too, sometimes it says 3/1,1/3,1/1 or not work. The cookies glitch sometimes too, id have 10 but when I try to unlock chapter it keeps saying I have none. Love yalls work!
If there is a person checking these comments. Can you please add a word/letter count to the bottom. Also sometimes the comments don’t stay within the chapter you read but throughout the whole book, please fix that glitch. Another, per book- hour limited to how many comments can earn cookies – it’s better you write that somewhere or give a notification to the commenter about that. The notification about the 3/3 free reads glitch too, sometimes it says 3/1,1/3,1/1 or not work. The cookies glitch sometimes too, id have 10 but when I try to unlock chapter it keeps saying I have none. Love yalls work!
YOUR COMMENT
2. Inline comments are now available. Tap the end of any line in a chapter to share your thoughts instantly.
Log in to comment.
Rahzel Everlasting
Well, the female lead made a huge mess of things, and on top of that, Kaern wasn’t even aware of it. He was just jealous that she had mentioned another man and told him he didn’t need to accompany her hahaha. This woman is seriously missing a few lightbulbs.