I Became the Assassin Family's Foster Daughter (Completed Main Story) - Chapter 1
“Is there a god?”
Agnes, aged nineteen, shed tears.
The salty tears stung as they touched her split, bloodied lips.
Was it only stinging?
Her body, already torn open with shredded muscles, hurt everywhere.
“Agnes. My ‘Ltiom.’”
Duke Gerwer, descending into the cellar, called out Agnes’s name.
Inside, Agnes instinctively shrank back.
That vile stench of blood.
He must have used his power again.
From the depths of memory, that voice—once thought kind—now served only as the harbinger of pain for Agnes.
Ten years ago, Agnes had rolled around the floor of a slave market like cheap, unsold merchandise.
Duke Gerwer had picked up the child, treated like an animal for being “filthy” and “unsellable.”
“You were born for me.”
Agnes had believed salvation had finally come to her dark life.
She wasn’t a pest like her mother or uncle had claimed; her existence held meaning.
She received a clean room free of mold and insects, and soft bread instead of hard crusts for meals.
Agnes was happy.
For exactly half a year.
“It hurts… it hurts so much…”
“Purify it!”
On Agnes’s ninth birthday, as winter began, the Duke ordered her to purify his power.
A sickening sensation twisted inside her—flesh grinding, muscles writhing in horror.
The kind Duke changed the moment Agnes refused to purify.
Amid unbearable agony, Agnes attempted escape.
Several escapes, and several captures.
Each time she was recaptured, her confinement grew smaller.
From the mansion to a room, from a room to a prison, from a prison to a cage…
Confined in ever-shrinking space, her muscles gradually lost function. For three years, Agnes had been unable to do anything but lie collapsed inside her cage.
Agnes’s tiny world had only two visitors: Duke Gerwer and a blind, deaf maid.
“Used a lot of power today. Barely survived. That damn Rodwick—if only it weren’t for him…”
Duke Gerwer ground his teeth in frustration, then grasped Agnes’s hand fixed between the cage’s iron bars.
‘No.’
Agnes’s lips trembled.
‘Don’t hurt me.’
But even uttering those words aloud was too exhausting. She lacked the strength to resist purification.
Lying on the floor like a broken doll, Agnes’s body trembled faintly, sensing what was coming.
“Purify.”
“Aaah…!”
Pain surged like a knife stabbing into festering wounds.
Through her grasped hand, Duke Gerwer’s murky energy flowed into her body, burning as if set aflame.
‘Why must I suffer?’
‘Was my birth a mistake?’
‘I don’t want to hurt anymore.’
As always, Agnes sank into despair.
No one ever rescued her from this torment.
“War is coming.”
Duke Gerwer stopped visiting Agnes one day.
Agnes sensed it—her time was running out.
If the Duke never returned, perhaps a brief peace would finally grace her life.
But as if mocking that fleeting hope, unfamiliar footsteps echoed down the stairs, shaking the cellar.
“You’re really taking this thing?”
The maid who discovered Agnes in her cage wrinkled her nose and covered her face.
The accompanying servant approached with a bundle of keys, hurriedly trying each one against the cage’s lock.
“The valuable stuff’s already gone. With House Gerwer losing the war and all its members dead, we’ve got to secure our own retirement.”
“How could this filthy thing be worth anything?”
“What do you mean, ‘worth anything’?”
Agnes breathed faintly. Through fluttering eyelids, she saw the servant beyond the bars.
“Are you stupid? This is a ‘Ltiom’! Dukes light fires in their eyes searching for one! Rodwick, Hibetsman, Serdia—any of them would pay a fortune!”
Greed dripped from the servant’s shouting voice.
‘No.’
Agnes’s blood-caked lips moved slightly.
A voice no one would hear.
‘If I go to the dukes, it’ll hurt. Just like it always has.’
The four ducal houses needed Ltioms.
To purify the curse-like energy accumulating in their bodies each time they used their powers.
And purification would surely plunge Agnes once again into unbearable agony.
She had to escape.
‘How?’
Just then, the servant found the right key and stepped inside the cage.
He unlocked the device binding Agnes’s hand and seized her arm with rough force.
“Come here!”
Her wounded, emaciated body scraped across the filthy floor.
Cough.
As they neared the cage’s exit, Agnes’s body jolted with a sudden cough.
The servant halted and turned back.
“What—what’s wrong?”
Agnes’s old, bloodstained shirt. From her limp hand, the cloth she’d used to cover her mouth tumbled to the ground.
“She’s coughed up blood.”
The maid holding the candlestick trembled.
“What?”
“She just vomited blood! Like someone about to die…!”
Her body, rotten to the core, had reached its limit.
Agnes’s vision flickered—blurry, then clear—as she overheard their exchange.
Then—
A cold wind blew from somewhere. Before the maid and servant realized it, they froze solid, never to move again.
Gasping for breath, Agnes turned her eyes toward the source of the wind.
The power to command cold.
Someone from another ducal house had come for her.
“Oh, Agnes. Now only I and the young heads of the other houses remain as power-wielders.”
Among the three hereditary dukes, the one with this ability was clearly…
‘Ah.’
Agnes stopped thinking. She realized contemplation was meaningless.
Thud. Thud.
Three men descended the stairs.
Though strikingly handsome, Agnes couldn’t tell.
All she saw were three massive, heavy, sticky masses—ominous beyond measure.
All three dukes had come for her.
Their cursed auras had swollen so large she couldn’t even see their faces.
The tangled, viscous energy writhed as if ready to devour her at any moment.
‘…You’ve come to have me purify you.’
Agnes twisted her bloodied lips into a smile.
Whether it was a triumphant grin at dying before they could capture her, or a bitter laugh at the wretchedness of her end—
Even she didn’t know.
The first duke to descend reached for Agnes, saying something.
But perhaps from blood loss or ringing in her ears, she couldn’t make out his words.
Her eyelids grew heavier, harder to lift. Amid fading consciousness, Agnes prayed.
If there is a god…
Please let this suffering end.
[This is the timeline separator]Agnes loved sleeping.
Every waking moment brought only pain, so she preferred losing herself in sleep, feeling nothing.
But today was different.
‘Huh…?’
Awakening, Agnes stared blankly at the ceiling.
It was old and smelly, yet she was covered with a blanket—on a bed, no less.
That wasn’t all that was strange.
‘It doesn’t hurt.’
Her usual hell began with throbbing pain.
Not hurting at all—this unfamiliar sensation she couldn’t even recall experiencing.
The surroundings also differed from usual.
A ceiling of rotting wood, mold-speckled wallpaper.
The musty smell was unpleasant yet oddly nostalgic.
Like the attic where she’d spent her childhood.
‘The attic?’
Agnes rose and stood on the floor.
Her thin, small feet creaked on the wooden planks. Her tiny hands.
Her stained dress hung loosely, revealing her calves and forearms.
Her silver hair, reaching her waist, was tangled and coated in soot and dust—like a giant gray furball.
This appearance…
“Hey!”
Startled by an irritated woman’s voice, Agnes whirled around.
Seeing the woman leaning against the door, Agnes couldn’t hide her shock.
Purple hair, upturned eyes, a mole by her lips.
Nora—her uncle’s lover, who’d lived with them when Agnes was young.
‘Is this a dream?’
But she’d never had a dream this vivid.
Nora waved her hand in front of Agnes’s blank face.
“Still wandering around like a ghost since your mother died? You didn’t even make breakfast today. Now I had to climb up to this stinking place.”
“…Did my mother pass away?”
“Yes, your mother died yesterday.”
She’d repeated this many times already. Nora replied with clear annoyance, as if dealing with a drunkard asking the same question over and over.
Slowly turning her head, Agnes murmured blankly into the air.
“Mother…”
Nora clicked her tongue at the sight.
She’d thought the child sane even if the mother was mad—but now, driven mad by her mother’s death. Just like her after all.
Contrary to Nora’s assumption, Agnes felt indifferent.
“That disgusting bug! Horrible! How could I have…!”
Hearing “mother” brought only fragmented memories.
The sharp slap striking her, the raised voice with veins bulging in the neck, the cruel words piercing like needles.
Once, she’d longed for even a grain of affection from her—but that feeling had dulled long ago with time.
Instead of recalling her mother’s forgotten face, Agnes estimated her own age.
‘If Mother died yesterday, I’m seven years old.’
She still wondered if this was a dream—but she stood on two feet, unshackled.
Freedom, regained after years, felt this vivid.
‘Even if it’s a dream, that’s fine.’
How many times had she replayed the past while lying on Duke Gerwer’s cold floor?
When had things gone wrong?
When had pain—worse than childhood abuse—taken root in her life?
She’d thought about it thousands, tens of thousands of times. Her answer was always age seven.
“To sell the child. One hundred dergel? That’s not even enough for two days’ worth of drinks. …Tch, fine. I’ll take it.”
It began the day her mother died and her uncle sold her to the slave market.
And now, in this attic—she hadn’t been sold yet.
‘Can I start over?’
Agnes’s heart fluttered faintly.
Even if trapped in a dream of unknown length, she wanted to live a new life.
Perhaps only in a dream could someone like her have this chance—
To live an ordinary life, smiling like everyone else.
‘Then…’
She had to change the past.
Just then, Nora, tired of waiting, stated her errand.
“Hey! You’re going to the market tomorrow with Mr. Tamber, right? Do me a favor before you go.”
“The market…”
“What’s wrong? Are you so out of it you can’t even understand ‘market’? No wonder you won’t fetch a decent price…”
Nora bit her tongue, realizing her slip—but Agnes had clearly heard the words “decent price.”
Tomorrow, then. The day she’d be sold.
‘Tomorrow…’
Agnes wiped the sweat from her small palms onto her stained skirt.
[This is the timeline separator]“Hah… hah…”
Agnes ran, holding her breath as it rose to her chin.
Moments ago, she’d seized Tamber’s momentary distraction during his talk with the slave trader and fled.
“Damn girl!”
Her uncle, Tamber, finally snapped and chased after her.
Agnes ran—and ran again.
Leaving the alley behind the slave market, she entered the ordinary marketplace.
The daytime market bustled with people. Agnes desperately pushed through the crowd.
Luckily, as a small child, she could weave nimbly between people, but adult Tamber couldn’t.
Still, she couldn’t relax. A child’s stamina had limits.
‘I can’t get caught.’
The future after entering the slave market was bleakly predictable.
Nobles preferred pretty, well-groomed children. Filthy, smelly her would surely go unsold again.
And eventually, she’d meet Duke Gerwer.
‘Even if I hide that I’m a Ltiom, the Duke will recognize me.’
Duke Gerwer’s golden eyes flashed in her memory.
His power to see through one’s essence.
He would surely discover she was a Ltiom.
‘I won’t let them catch me.’
But contrary to Agnes’s resolve, the crowd thinned.
From dozens to a dozen, then a few, then just one or two…
Behind her, Tamber’s furious voice grew clearer.
‘Please…!’
She didn’t want to be caught.
Gritting her teeth, Agnes sprinted with all her might—then collided with someone’s leg and fell flat on her backside.
Not now.
Swallowing the surge of despair, Agnes looked up.
“Aaah…”
A man stood silhouetted against the sun, gazing down at her.
When male lead is the homewrecker
“I know she doesn’t love him.”
I’ve read the novel below twice already. Girls, I’m highly recommending it to you!
The female lead? Not a good person.
The second male lead? Not a good person.
The male lead? Willingly plays the third party, breaking up the female and second male lead’s relationship despite all the warnings from his friends—so yeah, he’s definitely not a good person either.
Basically, nobody in this novel is simple-minded or without scheming.
The female lead starts off as the male lead’s secretary, but don’t worry—later on, she takes over the company while the male lead steps back to support her. He won’t steal her spotlight, overshadow her, or dull her shine.
I love novels where men are out here snatching wigs, tearing each other down, and going to war just to win the female lead’s affection. And this is exactly that kind of novel. Most of Hai Dai Ran’s works have this dynamic. You’ll see the male characters’ emotions being pushed to the absolute extreme.
There’s even a scene where the second male lead exposes the male lead online for being a homewrecker. The brotherhood immediately gangs up on him, dragging him through the mud. I find it compelling —it completely flips reality on its head, where usually, women are the ones fighting over a man and getting torn apart by the sisterhood.
For me, female leads in the novels I read should only struggle in their careers, not in love. But if the brainless romantics in the story are all men? I have zero complaints.
I’ve pretty much read all of Hai Dai Ran’s novels and even translated all of them—her works are just my thing. I’ll slowly upload everything here. One day, when my website is official, I hope I can invite her to join as one of the star authors.
Here’s the story synopsis:
One-line summary: She is his lifelong obsession, to the point where he was willing to be a third wheel, scorned by society, just to wedge his way into her relationship with her fiancé.
Cold-hearted and indifferent female lead + Scheming and subservient CEO male lead
Intro 1:
“I know she doesn’t love him.”
With blood trickling from his clenched fist, Rong Xiu gazed at the woman before him, his eyes clouded with anguish. Hidden in the wardrobe, he had witnessed Fan Xia – the woman he desperately loved – in an intimate embrace with her fiancé. Yet his heart still yearned for her, defying all reason.
Fan Xia, the elegant and composed assistant, carried something mysterious in her eyes whenever she looked at her fiancé, Wen Lan Sheng. Strange occurrences began to surface – secret meetings with the young Gu Jin Yi, an unexplained withdrawal of 5,000 yuan… Then suddenly, her fiancé’s sister, Wen Jing, violently attacked her.
In this matriarchal society, Rong Xiu had risen to become the chairman of a powerful healthcare conglomerate, breaking through gender prejudices. But for the first time, he willingly stepped into the shadows as the other man, disregarding his friends’ warnings to become her secret lover.
Because he had discovered the truth – Fan Xia wasn’t the pure angel everyone believed her to be. And perhaps, he was the only one capable of helping her execute her mysterious plan…
Intro 2:
Rong Xiu’s biggest regret in life was missing out on Fan Xia.
He secretly loved Fan Xia for 7 years.
Watched her go public with her boyfriend.
Watched her kiss her boyfriend at their wedding.
Until that man blissfully nestled in Fan Xia’s arms, obtaining everything he could only dream of.
The crazy jealousy stripped away his hidden secret love, layer by layer, burning like wildfire.
Fan Xia, how can I have you!
【Reading and Trigger Warning Guide】
1. Female dominant, male submissive, male pregnancy
2. Male lead schemes his way to the top, male competition
_____
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.
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MANGA DISCUSSION
1 Comment
Chapter Comments (31)
It becomes even better now. The interest in the story is building up! 👍🏻
Oh.. so they needed a play mate for the boy with a hard character. I wonder how she’ll manage the situation. Through the pity or with the strength? I hope for the later one.
So.. they’ll win her over through kind treatment and she will promptly fall for it?
Let’s see…
Inline Comments (40)
‘These aren’t just an ordinary child’s eyes.’
That’s why I like regressors. They hit as different and people get unexpected reactions towards them.
“Tuariche Rodwick. It suits you well.”
That felt unexpected though. I thought she would hide her reading skills, for safety reasons. Also the new status came really fast!
Deon turned his head, his voice annoyed, as if asking why she dared call him bro
Woow. How did she learn manipulating skills with the life she led?
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Kitsune
Ooh.. a regressor <3.
And such an adrenaline from the start!
Sounds great.