I Held the Leash of a Blind Beast (1 Chapters Left to Complete) - Chapter 6
“You’re finally here.”
In the solitude of darkness, Illeon welcomed Rona.
“Lord Illeon.”
Rona, lowering her voice as if flustered, hurried toward me after calling out to me. It was already past the time when the lights in the duke’s hall would have been extinguished.
She shouldn’t trip while rushing through the dark like this. Yet right now, even the sound of her hurried footsteps—eager to reach me, whom she’d kept waiting—felt welcome.
“Haven’t you gone to sleep yet?”
“You said you’d come early, yet you’re late.”
“I got lost while walking here.”
Rona helped him up. Her hands felt slightly cold, confirming her claim that she’d walked through the night.
“Why didn’t you take a carriage?”
“Oh, come on. I have to save money.”
“Doesn’t your salary from the ducal household cover that much? I should tell Bernar to give you a raise.”
He could sense Rona’s delighted laughter at those words.
“Oh, thank you so much, my lord.”
She sometimes used odd speech patterns—either when flustered or genuinely happy. Assuming it was the latter, Illeon smiled.
“Shall I escort you to your bed?”
Rona asked from the doorway.
“Yes.”
Once Illeon lay down neatly, Rona tidied his blanket.
“Then I’ll take my leave. Sleep well, Lord Illeon.”
“Wait.”
Illeon had nothing more to say.
“I’m thirsty.”
“I’ll bring you some water.”
Rona quickly returned with a cup of water.
“Is there anything else you’d like me to do?”
Suddenly, an impulsive phrase rose to the tip of Illeon’s tongue.
‘Stay here and sleep.’
I’m mad.
Scolding himself inwardly, Illeon regained his composure.
“I can’t sleep well. Read me a book.”
“Yes. Which book would you like?”
“The Palegara War Chronicles.”
“I’m still in my outdoor clothes—may I change first?”
“Do as you please.”
Illeon settled comfortably against his pillow. Soon, Rona returned, carrying the dry, crisp scent of fresh flowers—evidently having changed into freshly laundered clothes.
“Never before had so many gathered in this barren, uninhabitable wasteland.”
Rona read the book clearly and steadily.
“The armies facing each other had roughly equal numbers. Palermo’s infantry numbered approximately 11,000, with 5,000 cavalry. Six hundred cannons stood in formation along the artillery line, backed by 1,300 gunners ready to fire in rotation.”
Her voice grew gradually softer.
“Behind them stood 3,500 assault troops armed with shields… lined up, ahem. And following the assault troops were 2,000 archers. Palermo’s bows could fire two arrows at once… so a single signal released 4,000 arrows… 4,000… arrows…”
A light thud sounded as something fell onto the bed, followed immediately by Rona’s soft, even breathing.
The Palegara War Chronicles was famously known throughout the empire as a book that lulled readers to sleep. Back when he was captain of the royal knights, Illeon had never understood how anyone could possibly fall asleep reading such an exciting chronicle of war.
But seeing how it had just carried Rona off to dreamland, he felt like sending the author a gold coin in gratitude.
“Rona.”
Only steady breathing answered his call. Illeon quietly rose from the bed. Groping around its edge, he soon found the chair where Rona sat. He lifted her gently and laid her down on the bed.
She must have been exhausted from walking so late after their park outing—Rona slept deeply, oblivious to the world. Illeon closed his eyes, focusing on her breath beside him.
‘Go ahead with the butler.’
His mood had soured the moment Rona told him to return home first. He couldn’t understand why.
‘If you bring a man to a dress-fitting shop for women, everyone assumes you’re courting!’
Her single remark had pierced straight through his hidden feelings.
“Are you ashamed to go somewhere like that with me?”
He couldn’t bring himself to ask. Are you embarrassed by me? Since she’d said it so plainly, he couldn’t possibly insist any further on going together.
If he could see, he might have found a natural excuse—like offering to help pick something out or give it as a gift. But clearly, his presence would only be a hindrance.
The world was vast, and surely there were plenty of decent men. Rona had vaguely implied she wasn’t beautiful because she was “unusually shaped,” but Illeon didn’t believe that at all.
After all, everyone who met Rona always treated her kindly. Even if her looks weren’t exceptional, that wasn’t everything. If Rona truly were unattractive, she must possess other charms that drew people to her—just as Illeon himself, though blind, had come to hold her so deeply in his heart.
“I don’t care what you look like, Rona.”
He couldn’t see, after all. To him, Rona had always been exactly as she was now—and always would be.
“Am I just a blind man you’re obligated to serve? What must I do to win you?”
Illeon didn’t know what to do with his hollow heart. He could only whisper to the sleeping woman what he couldn’t say to her directly.
There had been a large bee. Near the end of the meal, Rona had taken a jam pie to apologize to the group on the opposite side—they’d come out for a stroll, three sisters together. The bee Rona had swatted away had fallen into their ice chest, where their wine was stored, and met its end.
Had that bee lived, Illeon would have appointed it a loyal retainer of the family. He sighed inwardly—without that bee’s intervention, Rona would never have ended up in his arms.
“Sigh.”
A long sigh escaped him. His chest felt so tight he thought he’d go mad.
In the end, it was his own pride that troubled him.
Rona was merely doing the job she was paid for. Though he knew their relationship was purely contractual, he still wished she’d grant him a small corner of her heart. But perhaps it had been impossible from the start? Maybe, given the difference in their stations, Rona saw him as someone from an entirely different world.
Even when he took her hand under the pretense of escorting her, or subtly pressed his arm against hers, Rona remained faithfully focused only on fulfilling her assigned duty: practicing escorting.
“I opposed loveless marriages, so I’d held out a little hope.”
He resented the creature lying peacefully in his bed, breathing calmly without even realizing who he hoped would respond to those words.
Rona both kept Illeon alive and endlessly tormented him.
Knock knock.
At the sound of someone tapping on the door, Illeon pulled the blanket higher over Rona.
“Come in.”
The door opened, and a familiar presence cautiously entered the room. It was the butler, Bernar.
He clicked his tongue upon seeing Rona asleep in Illeon’s bed, having stopped reading mid-sentence.
“Again, my lord?”
Illeon didn’t answer. He’d been resorting to petty tricks for a while now to avoid sending Rona back to her own room. In another noble household, a maid spending the night in her master’s room would have sparked scandalous rumors—but fortunately, Rona was practically the only maid working in the ducal residence.
“What is it at this hour?”
Bernar looked exasperated at Illeon’s question.
“You said you couldn’t sleep and instructed me to bring you hot tea if you were still awake at midnight.”
Illeon clearly recalled giving that order. He silently scolded his past self for burdening the butler with pointless errands two hours ago.
Watching him, Bernar spoke earnestly, with a tone of pity.
“Why not just take her as your mistress?”
“What did you just say?”
His most trusted butler’s voice remained calm.
“She’s a maid without official status—her contract differs even from that of commoner maids.”
Maids without formal status served different purposes—they were closer to beings bought and sold like slaves. That was likely why Rona had ended up in the ducal manor, where no one else wanted to work.
“My lord, you’re being far too proper.”
Bernar was right. According to rumors circulating in the capital’s social circles, it was common for household heads or junior heirs to spend the night with maids employed in their homes. In fact, many quietly hoped to catch the eye of a young, handsome master and live in comfort.
But Illeon was furious at his loyal butler’s suggestion.
“Never speak of such a thing again. I won’t forgive you, not even you.”
Bernar said nothing more and quietly withdrew.
Yet Illeon felt as if someone had just thrust a burning coal into his previously stifled chest.
“Make Rona… my mistress?”
He realized he’d unfairly lashed out at Bernar. All the interest and affection he’d denied and suppressed for so long had now inevitably boiled down to matters between a man and a woman.
As the emperor had said, wasn’t he already past the age when he should have married?
Illeon knew well how nobles his age—those who already possessed everything—lived recklessly and indulgently.
Before losing his sight, Illeon had spent seven years on the battlefield. Prior to that, he’d attended a boarding military academy, so he’d rarely interacted with ladies.
Yet whenever invited to imperial events or balls and attending with his mother, women had endlessly approached him. Though all were noble daughters blessed with both beauty and grace, in Illeon’s memory they remained an indistinct blur—none had left a lasting impression during their brief encounters.
Every day had been full and busy. As captain of the royal knights, he always had much to oversee and manage. Moreover, he constantly honed his own martial skills, driving himself relentlessly. Training and drilling the entire knight corps was also part of his duties.
Now, merely living like an “ordinary person” filled his days to the brim. Eating, washing, dressing, walking—every single act demanded unimaginable effort. And even this routine only existed because Rona had come to the ducal manor. Before that, he’d been utterly lost in a quagmire.
Whether his eyes were open or closed, whether the sun rose or set, darkness remained unchanged. In that abyss, Illeon had been terrified, not knowing what to do. The world he’d known brightened with sunrise, darkened at sunset, showed him things when he opened his eyes, and grew quiet when he closed them. Overnight, his entire world had been overturned.
His mother, Rev Oder Constance, was the current emperor’s sister. Long tired of life in the capital, she’d wandered abroad for years. He himself had lived on battlefields, so he’d had no time to miss her absence—only occasional letters exchanging greetings passed between mother and son.
While he secluded himself in the manor after losing his sight, the butler Bernar had written to Rev on his behalf to inform her of his condition. But the reply had come not from her, but from her maid, stating that Rev had fallen gravely ill with a local disease and couldn’t return home.
Even a newborn infant is held and nurtured by someone. Illeon, however, had been left trembling in endless darkness, utterly abandoned.
Thankfully, Bernar hadn’t abandoned the family and stayed by Illeon’s side—but even the butler, who managed everything from his treatment to the family’s finances, must have been pushed to his limits. Though Bernar had done everything possible for his master’s recovery, seeing no improvement in Illeon had surely plunged him into despair as well.
It was Rona who reached out a hand to pull him back into the world. Illeon grasped it and relearned everything from the beginning—how to walk, eat, wash his face, and sleep alone.
And just as a young beast blindly follows its mother, one day he realized he’d become obsessed with Rona.
“Mmmh…”
He heard Rona shift toward him in her sleep, murmuring softly.
“If it could be solved by simply making her my mistress, it’d be easier.”
When yandere male lead believes she loves him — but she never did
“How dare you!”
“How dare you make me love you, only to cast me aside as nothing more than a friend?!?
“I will never accept that.”
“I will never let you return to him.”
“Even if I have to burn myself to ashes.”
“Even if I must shatter my purity, my dignity, my very soul.”
“I will never let you escape me!”
This was the first novel that introduced me to the matriarchal genre. I’ve read it three times already!
At first, the male lead despised the female lead. Later, he misunderstood that she liked him, so he condescendingly and reluctantly reciprocated her feelings.
Then, he suddenly discovered that she was kind to everyone in the same way, and there was already someone she cherished in her heart, and that person was not him.
The male lead couldn’t believe it, he became angry and crazy. He was determined to capture her body and heart by any means necessary.
Synopsis:
Want to see how a green tea bitch male lead falls in love with the female lead?
Want to see how he flirtatiously pursues the female lead?
Want to see how he gets slapped in the face repeatedly?
The male lead is a green tea bitch, a poisonous lotus, jealous, ruthless, unscrupulous, with a venomous heart, and he’s also a delusional maniac.
The female lead is righteous, positive energy-filled, kind, a holy mother.
Let’s see how two people with extreme personalities come together~
_____
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Haha, just picturing this is so hilarious. Imagine Duke Illeon fan girling.
The real blind guy is here; calling someone else’s woman his 😂