Prologue
“Your Majesty has always cherished and loved me.”
“I don’t know why you’re speaking in the past tense, but my love for you remains unchanged. It will never change in the future. So let’s go back, Lorencia.”
Lorencia couldn’t believe the love he spoke of, knowing that his desperate gaze and sweet voice were lies.
“Your Majesty, I have no intention of returning to the Empire.”
“You’re saying you won’t come even though I came here personally? Lorencia, you’ve always been a good child who listens to me. Why are you doing this?”
“No matter what you say, I can no longer stay by your side, Your Majesty.”
You unhesitatingly handed me a poisoned cup.
Foolish as I was, I drank it joyfully even knowing it was poisoned. I firmly believed it was love.
“I will not leave.”
“Lorencia, why are you being so stubborn?”
“It’s not stubbornness.”
Silence fell after Lorencia’s reply. Realizing that this silence wasn’t a good sign, his expression began to show signs of anxiety.
And it was Lorencia who first broke the silence.
“I cannot return to the Empire because I have found a future where I can survive.”
For the sake of the only future where I can give you a poisoned cup instead of receiving one from you!
“You may not know this, Your Majesty, but I have made sacrifices greater than my life to create this moment.”
“What are you talking about? Create? What sacrifices are you talking about! Surely not?”
What do you think could be a sacrifice greater than my life?
“Lorencia. You haven’t lost your ability to see the future, have you?”
This foolish man who thinks the ability to foresee is a sacrifice greater than life.
“What if my foresight ability is gone? So I’m no longer useful to you. Is that why you think I’m not returning to the Empire?”
“Don’t joke around.”
“Do you know what your expression looks like right now? You look like someone who has lost everything.”
“What are you saying! Lorencia.”
His expression, as he approached slowly with a deep sigh, clearly showed what he was thinking.
“I gave up my ability to survive. I can no longer be of help to you. So please return to the Isuter Empire as you are.”
“Even if your ability is gone, my love for you remains unchanged.”
“Did you just speak of love to me?”
“Yes. I love you, Lorencia. My Roa.”
Once, I believed in the sweet love he spoke of. And I received pain in return, twice as much as I believed.
“I’m serious. Let’s go back. And become my only queen.”
“As a lowly illegitimate child, I cannot become queen.”
“Don’t worry. You’re the only one who can be my queen, Lorencia.”
“But… you know, the love I’m thinking of…”
Lorencia bit her lower lip hard to hide her trembling lips. She couldn’t stop the corners of her mouth from rising at the story she was about to tell him.
“I think it’s in the same context as a delusion, Your Majesty.”
Until her dying breath, she believed in his love. That’s why she never questioned her own death.
His last words were enough to break down the self that had overcome even the fear of death because of believing in love.
Love eventually makes people cry, and sincerity drives people mad.
With his words, I fully understood my death. And I realized that dying for love is not a reason for death.
“Your words of love keep sounding like ‘Don’t be deluded’ to me.”
“Lorencia. How…”
“I told you.”
Lorencia said with a smile of utmost satisfaction as she watched the mask of a desperate man clinging to love slowly peel away.
“That I chose the option where I could live.”
*＊＊
Chapter 1. Love is in the same context as delusion.
A compelling voice echoed from the lips of the priest dressed in a pure white uniform.
“In the name of Goddess Ella, we pray for protection. Grant us the holy power of the goddess to overcome the wickedness of evil ones.”
At the priest’s nod, the knights approached Lorencia. Lorencia struggled and resisted as much as possible against the approaching knights, but she was dragged in front of the priest with both arms restrained. Lorencia’s long hair, which fell to her waist, began to be cut off.
Her body shrank in terror as death approached her. Her teeth chattered involuntarily, and her jaw trembled.
“Lorencia.”
Lorencia, with a bewildered expression, met eyes with the man sitting in a chair between the priest and the knights, looking down at her.
“Emperor Ruans…”
Emperor Ruans, who had been watching Lorencia’s suffering, slowly approached her after rising from his chair. His face looked miserable and pained to anyone who saw it. But Lorencia saw it. His eyes showed joy. Her head bowed involuntarily.
“Don’t bow your head. My Roa.”
Ruans placed his hand on Lorencia’s chin and lifted her head.
“Your Majesty! You must not touch the witch carelessly!”
The priest cried out urgently to Ruans.
“It’s alright. This witch loves me too much to curse or kill me.”
Tears began to roll down Lorencia’s cheeks at Ruans’ words. Ruans stared blankly at the crying Lorencia. It was then that Lorencia knew for certain. He had abandoned her.
“It can’t be helped, Lorencia. I can’t save you, a witch.”
“I’m not a witch.”
“Lorencia, there’s no way you’re not a witch. Think about it. The evil deeds you’ve done… You killed all my family members, and not satisfied with that, you started a war and killed many people.”
“That was to help Your Majesty… and…”
Lorencia tried to speak. But before she could, the priest who had approached closely sprinkled water over Lorencia’s head.
“Your Majesty, step back. You might be enchanted by the witch! Although she won’t have any power now that holy water has been sprinkled, she’s still a dangerous being.”
“That’s right. She’s an evil being who might tell any kind of lie.”
At the priests’ words, Ruans stepped back. One priest struck Lorencia’s face and head several times with hands soaked in holy water.
Lorencia squeezed her eyes shut. The inside of her mouth was torn and blood flowed out. She could feel her skin swelling more and more with each hit. It was quite painful. But what was more painful was Ruans’ action of toying with her feelings.
“It was you who said you could die for me, Lorencia.”
Ruans whispered softly in Lorencia’s ear and stood up from his seat.
“Then I trust the papal office will wrap up the witch trial well.”
“Yes, Your Imperial Majesty. Once again, I thank you for reporting the witch in the name of Goddess Ella. The papal office will never forget this fact.”
“Reporting a witch is only natural. Even if she was a woman I once loved…”
Ruans looked at Lorencia more poignantly than anyone else.
“I will pray in the name of Goddess Ella that in her next life, she will be born as a person who is not a witch.”
After Ruans left, Lorencia’s torture began. Due to the severe torture, she couldn’t speak, and her consciousness was not clear. Then she was dragged to the trial venue composed only of the high priest and the popes. They all said that Lorencia was a villainess and witch who would go down in history.
“I am not a witch!”
“If you haven’t even started menstruating at that age, you must be a witch.”
“It’s too much to conclude that I’m a witch just because I haven’t menstruated. I’m wronged. I’m not a witch.”
Lorencia pleaded, but no one listened.
“Not menstruating means you cannot conceive a child, which is evidence that you are an evil witch cursed by Goddess Ella!”
“High Priest, we might be cursed if we kill a witch carelessly, so we should imprison her.”
Lorencia was locked in a dark prison where not a single ray of light entered. She thought it was fortunate that she wasn’t being tortured, but that was only for a moment. No water, no food, no one came to the prison. She wailed in hunger. Her eyelids grew heavier and heavier, and she had no energy to do anything. Her whole body felt heavier and heavier like lead. In her hazy mind, what she thought of was not Ruans, whom she had trusted and loved, but a warm ‘potato soup’ with steam rising from it.
‘Why did it turn out like this? Where did it go wrong?’
[This is the timeline separator]Ruans was the only person in the world who cared for Lorencia the most. From the beginning, he enjoyed taking care of her. Lorencia, too, had never been cared for in such a way since birth, so whenever Ruans took care of her, she felt her heart filled with happiness. But when was it? When that happiness no longer remained in her heart…
The Male Lead’s Obsessive (Female-dominant)
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.
Synopsis:
Cold-hearted and indifferent female lead + Scheming and subservient CEO male lead
Summary:
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
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