I Had the Enemy's Baby (Completed Main Story) - Chapter 1
“Marriage to ‘Vermonde’! What a disgrace to our ‘Temnes’!”
A voice saturated with the stench of alcohol boomed through the banquet hall, where a wedding celebration was in full swing.
At once, people all around slammed down their wine cups with indignant thuds and rose from their seats, surging toward the head table.
“How can this be acceptable? We are Temnes!”
“Because of a few meaningless words from that puppet king of Oberon, we’ve been made into laughingstocks.”
“My lord! Please say something!”
Kai An, Lord of Rowen, looked down from the head table at the drunken mob and, instead of giving them the words they longed to hear, simply tilted his wine cup.
His icy expression revealed no emotion, as rigid and unyielding as a stone statue.
Beneath his neatly combed raven-black hair, crimson eyes glimmered sharply as they surveyed the clamoring blood relatives of House Temnes.
Despite his refined beauty, his towering height—seeming a head taller than other men—and broad shoulders exuded such overwhelming presence that anyone would normally be struck speechless before Kai An, head of House Temnes.
Yet in this pitiful banquet hall, where lavish delicacies lay untouched while emptied wine barrels rolled about, many drunken dogs had gathered around their master, barking noisily.
“The blood of those vile and cunning wretches mingling with ours? We will never accept it!”
Clang.
The moment Kai An set down his wine cup, the previously chaotic hall fell instantly silent.
“Shut up.”
At that single utterance, even the drunks who had been ranting clamped their mouths shut.
“Are you seriously trying to teach me now that Vermonde is the sworn enemy of Temnes?”
The cold radiating from Kai An seemed ready to freeze the moisture-laden air, already damp from the drizzling rain.
“Ha! Of course! The Duke would never truly treat that lowly Vermonde as his wife!”
Someone, interpreting his words favorably, lifted his cup into the air to lighten the mood, and soon the crowd, forgetting the earlier incident, resumed raucously drinking and mocking Vermonde.
“Excuse me, my lord.”
At that moment, Baron Colon, the steward of the manor, approached with a troubled expression.
“The bride’s carriage is stuck on the drawbridge due to the torrential rain and cannot get across.”
“The bride?”
Seeing Kai An repeat the word mockingly, the steward lowered his head as if he hadn’t noticed.
“What should we do?”
Kai An rose from his seat and walked toward the terrace.
His eyes caught sight of five carriages lined up in the pouring rain, stranded helplessly in the middle of the drawbridge.
Among them, only two plainly marked ones were from the North.
One slightly larger carriage seemed to have sunk diagonally—its wheel apparently caught in the gap of the drawbridge.
Kai An sneered.
“So she’s a bride unwelcomed by Temnes. She’d best know her place and walk in on her own feet.”
A few retainers who had been listening to his words came out onto the terrace to look—and, seeing what was happening at the gate, joyfully jeered.
“Even Rowen Manor refuses to let Vermonde set foot inside!”
“Hahaha!”
Ignoring the clamor behind him, Kai An brushed off the raindrops from his shoulder and turned away.
[This is the timeline separator]It was a dreadful downpour.
The carriage, which had traveled nonstop for half a month from the North, was exhausted—both horses and people.
Adding to the misery, the carriage wheel, worn thin from the long journey, had caught in the center of the rain-soaked drawbridge, spun uselessly, and finally broken.
“Are these people mad? Do they think they can treat our lady like this and still keep their heads?”
Worse still, the canopy—soaked through—had long lost its function, allowing thick streams of rainwater to drip steadily inside.
Within sat Clodel, a bride drenched by rain.
She had rented an inn in the gate city just half a day’s journey away, changed into her wedding attire, donned a floral crown and white veil, and boarded the carriage.
Yet the rain had long since ruined the flowers, and her thin white veil, soaked along with her red hair, clung stubbornly to her neck.
Beneath her round forehead, rainwater trickled down over her lowered eyes—golden orbs tinged with amber.
Despite her striking beauty, preserved as though vividly inked onto her form, she appeared strangely fragile on the very day she should have bloomed most radiantly—pale-skinned, thin, and delicate.
Only her maid Hanna, seething inside, had been shouting at the guards stationed at the gate for the past two hours as if ready to brawl.
Soon, the steward, who had gone to report to the lord, reappeared—and Hanna brightened.
“Hey! What did the Duke say?”
But his reply disappointed her.
“Ahem… uh… His Lordship instructed that she step out of the carriage and walk in.”
“What?”
As Hanna nearly leapt in fury, the steward averted his eyes.
“Are you sure you delivered the message correctly? Is this how Temnes welcomes its new mistress?”
“I—I did ask properly.”
“And he really said that?”
The steward felt sweat trickle down his already rain-drenched back.
‘She’s a bride unwelcomed by Temnes. She’d best know her place and walk in on her own feet.’
Even though he’d softened Kai An’s actual words, they were still insufficient to quell the fierce maid’s anger.
“Hanna. Enough.”
“My lady.”
“These clothes are cumbersome. I’ll get down—give me your hand.”
“No, my lady! That’s absolutely outrageous!”
Before Hanna could finish speaking, Clodel stepped out of the carriage into the pouring rain.
“Come. Lead the way.”
At Clodel’s words, the steward quickly cleared a path.
Splash. Splash.
Her thin silk dress, soaked through, clung to her legs and ankles. Her ceremonial slippers, adorned with pearls, were utterly drenched—no longer offering any protection from the rain.
Some said a lady walks on flower-strewn paths in fine shoes.
Her husband-to-be, Kai An, had come to her family’s estate, Valmont Castle, fifteen days ago for their wedding—but citing urgent business, had returned alone to Rowen immediately after.
Usually, the groom would escort his bride, but Clodel took it as a clear sign that Kai An did not accept her as his wife.
During the final three days of the fifteen-day journey from Valmont to Rowen, she’d ridden in a rain-leaking carriage—so the downpour soaking her now felt almost routine.
Yet the more her sodden clothes clung heavily to her feet, the more each step toward Rowen Manor felt like sinking into a muddy quagmire—filling her with dread.
The coldness toward her continued even after she was led inside the manor.
“Please prepare a hot bath for the Duchess. She’s been outside long and must be chilled—also light a fire in the hearth.”
But the servants and maids within the manor all pretended not to hear Hanna’s words.
“Isn’t Valmont supposed to be the Ice Castle?”
“The wench from the frozen wastes complains of cold just from a bit of rain?”
The servants snickered loudly within earshot, mocking her.
“Don’t you know your place?” Hanna exploded.
“Place? Who’s this stray rock rolling in to talk nonsense?”
“A stray rock?”
“A country bumpkin like you—do you even know where you are? Coming from a failing estate like yours…”
“Hey! Are you done talking?”
Just as Hanna, erupting in fury, reached to grab a maid’s hair—
“Hanna. Please prepare some dry clothes for me.”
Clodel’s quiet voice floated from the open bedroom door down the hallway.
“You’re lucky. Just wait—I’ll deal with you later.”
Hanna returned to the room, arms crossed, still glaring at the maids who showed no intention of drawing a bath.
Meanwhile, Clodel had found a towel herself and was dabbing the water from her drenched clothes.
Yet her bridal headdress and veil remained untouched—soaking wet as before.
“Sigh… what are we going to do with this?”
Seeing her lady’s state, Hanna sighed despairingly.
“The Duke is supposed to see the bride…”
“He’ll only be upset seeing me like this. It’s better to just take it all off.”
Eventually, Hanna removed the headdress and, sighing deeply, lifted the white veil.
“They say no man dislikes beauty. You were truly stunning earlier.”
“Enough, Hanna. I’m fine.”
Clodel shook her head at her loyal maid’s well-meaning reassurance.
In the end, after the manor staff continued to ignore them, Hanna stormed all the way to the kitchen and, after much scolding, finally got steaming hot water poured into the tub.
After washing, her body—long robbed of warmth—finally began to feel comfortably warm again.
As Clodel exited, she glanced at her reflection in the bathroom mirror.
Pale, lifeless skin; an emaciated frame with no trace of plumpness.
Tangled red hair and yellow eyes.
Hanna’s words had been merely pitying flattery.
True feminine charm usually included liveliness and fullness, didn’t it?
Her complexion was so pale it verged on sickly; even her lips lacked redness, showing only a faint pink.
In short, she looked like a patient.
At the wedding, Kai An hadn’t spared her a single glance.
No matter how many treasures the family vault yielded to adorn her, Clodel—thin as a dry twig—was never going to catch his eye.
That man stood at the pinnacle of the kingdom’s power.
He was the Duke of Temnes who had brought greater prosperity to the house than any of his predecessors—a man who lacked nothing, so brilliant that even the king felt compelled to restrain him.
And that was why he’d been forced into this marriage with her.
Everything she’d experienced in Rowen Manor that day felt like a grim preview of what lay ahead during her stay.
A heavy, suffocating emotion pressed down on her chest.
Clodel couldn’t even draw a proper breath under its weight.
[This is the timeline separator]Kai An was quite drunk.
Tonight was their wedding night.
A meaningful evening symbolizing the union of two houses.
Yet merely recalling the red-haired bride filled him with revulsion.
If anyone in the entire House of Temnes—whose power had grown even greater under his rule—hated Vermonde most fiercely, it was undoubtedly Kai An himself.
“When you meet a Vermonde, leave not a single one alive.”
That had always been the foremost principle in the heir’s education of House Temnes for generations.
Better to let an enemy soldier live than to spare a Vermonde.
Kai An, who had once led the vanguard in war, had never had the chance to personally slay a Vermonde.
And now, for the first time, the Vermondes he faced were his father-in-law and his wife—enough to make him speechless with disbelief.
Knowing he couldn’t possibly consummate the wedding night in his right mind, he had—uncharacteristically—drunk heavily.
“You must give us clothes!”
A sharp female voice echoed from the bedroom.
“You people are inhuman!”
The maid, who had been tearfully furious, suddenly fell silent upon seeing him enter.
The bride, drenched by rain, now wore only a thin undergarment.
Given the state of the carriage in such a storm, it was clear she’d asked for dry clothes to change into.
But of course, there would be no garments in this manor meant for a Vermonde.
Kai An tilted his lips into a sardonic smile.
“Since you’ll be taking it off anyway, there’s no need to bother finding clothes to put on.”
At his words, the maid gaped in shock—until Kai An barked,
“Get out.”
Flustered, the maid fled the room and shut the door behind her.
Flickering candlelight cast the figure of his soon-to-be wife into silhouette. The woman, who had been sitting on the bed, slowly rose.
She was small and slender.
Kai An, deeply dissatisfied with this marriage, had returned immediately to his domain after the ceremony and hadn’t exchanged a single word with her until now.
What could he possibly say now?
To a wife whose body he would join before they’d even spoken?
Then she spoke first.
“Shall I take it off?”
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.
[Touch the gear icon in the bottom right corner of the screen to move to the next chapter if you want.]
MANGA DISCUSSION
2 Comments
Chapter Comments (2)
Isn’t the ML name supposed to be Cain ?
Every time I see the FL, I feel like crying! Also, I laughed so hard when I learned about the emperor’s feelings for the ML; I expected their relationship to be brotherly. It’s funny how he hates him.
Inline Comments (123)
‘What the hell. There’s no need to worry that much about Vermonde.’
I thought he would grasp that it’s wrong to force yourself on someone clearly unwilling but it seems like that was wrong…
Yet seeing that she hadn’t accepted his gift had wounded his pride deeply.
I am sure there was a scheme behind all of this. I hope it will be resolved early…
“As you wish.”
Arghhhhhhh how hateful. I am sure he will regret it when it’s almost too late
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.
Joy Lean Cañete
I like this. The FL sounds a baddie. I hope the ML will beg under his kness
VKotaku28
How are these MLs, when they take it out on weak FLs