Perhaps they thought Lahrhert was genuinely welcoming the Northern Duke, not harboring hatred as rumored.
Hundreds started cheering and praising the Northern Duke and his knights.
I watched the rain of red flowers, then slowly lowered my gaze, only to freeze. The Northern Duke was looking up at me.
‘Is he looking at me?’
But before I could be certain, he looked down at the people.
My heart pounded.
His black horse slowly stepped on the fallen red flowers. Trampling the jasmine-lined path, the Northern Knights entered Lahrhert.
A true victory parade, unlike my previous life.
After the chancellor left, Medeia’s furious scream burst from outside the reception room. It was clear Cranell had reprimanded her.
After confirming the chancellor had fully left, I approached the reception room. Inside, gold and silver-decorated teacups were shattered.
Seeing me, Medeia grabbed my arm and yelled.
“Bella! We must catch them. Find who switched the silverbells with jasmine!”
I calmly responded.
“Understood.”
She was still agitated.
“A spy among the servants? Get everyone related to the gunpowder and flower sacks!”
Medeia ordered her maid, Countess Berg’s daughter, who would later become her confidante. She briefly affirmed. I quickly interjected.
“It was the highest tower. People saw it was originally filled with silverbells. It’s not a task an ordinary person could do overnight.”
Medeia narrowed her eyes at my composed statement.
“Not possible? Even though it was changed?”
“It must have been done by someone trained. Considering no witnesses, someone swift and skilled.”
“…”
“I’m suggesting it was someone highly skilled.”
This was the translation of the provided Korean paragraph, keeping the names and genders of the characters consistent.
I didn’t want the innocent servants unrelated to this incident to suffer or be killed. So, I spoke more coldly, knowing Medeia’s nature.
“Your ladyship’s servants are all ordinary people, born and raised here. As you always carefully choose only the most trustworthy, there can’t be any mistake on your part. So, it might have been the act of someone extraordinary. It’s not my place to judge, but I thought I’d mention it.”
“Sounds plausible. It’s just an opinion, of course.”
“Yes, it’s just a thought from someone who works with their body. So, as per your wish, my lady.”
Medeia’s voice softened after a moment of thought.
“In such matters, we must be cautious, especially with the Northern Duke so close. We can’t let them know. Understood, Bella.”
“My apologies.”
Medeia instructed Countess Berg’s daughter.
“We need to intensify surveillance throughout the estate. The culprit is surely within. If necessary, I’ll ask for assistance from my father’s men.”
“Yes.”
Countess Berg’s daughter nodded. She always responds briefly to tasks she can handle well.
“Berg, the reception room is a mess. I should change into a silver dress, resembling the snow that falls in the North.”
Medeia commented.
Medeia Lahrhert, in a way, was better than her father. She could humble herself before enemies for ultimate victory.
If Cranell Lahrhert was a snake, she, though a villainess, masqueraded as a saint.
A siren.
The sea creature that came to mind when thinking of her.
A goddess known for luring people to their death with beautiful songs. People realize only at the moment of death that she’s not a beautiful being but a demon.
In terms of undetectable hypocrisy, she surpassed her father. Even I, until killed by her, hadn’t realized her true nature.
The White Duchess.
A nickname given by the Emperor.
The thought of the Emperor made a corner of my heart ache. I saw him only once, from a distance, just before my death. A tired, aged man with white hair.
I shook my head to rid myself of these trailing thoughts.
‘Let’s focus only on the Northern Duke’s safety.’
Each time I remembered being a princess, pondering how to reveal my identity, I felt indescribable guilt.
I was a person who helped kill the only nobleman of true justice in the empire. I was a villain who assassinated his limbs.
During this visit, the Northern Duke’s right-hand man, Sir Arcadia Nugent, would meet his death because of me.
He wasn’t someone I could easily defeat at nineteen. I felt it when I crossed swords with Arcadia in my previous life.
‘He’s been poisoned.’
The Black Worm sent me as an assassin because I was unknown, and he judged that I could win after poisoning Arcadia.
How and when Arcadia was poisoned, I do not know. He didn’t change color or vomit blood. He just suffered immediately upon crossing swords and was in so much pain that his knees buckled.
I remember his beautiful platinum hair sticking to his pale cheeks with sweat.
He fell to his death from his room terrace while parrying my sword, and his death was ruled a ‘suicide.’
It was attributed to despair over his father, Herrn Nugent’s, death, who was the Northern Duke’s deputy.
Arcadia’s death shook the Nugent family, the second most prominent in the North, and initiated the region’s fragmentation.
This must not be repeated.
I alternated between watching Medeia’s office and the reception room.
At this time in my previous life, I didn’t know, but Medeia had said something to me when I was just over twenty.
“Hard to believe, Bella, but I have a garden of poisonous plants,” Medeia once said.
By then, having already taken lives, the mention of poison didn’t stir much in me. I was expecting it.
There are poisons that immediately dissolve the intestines upon ingestion, while others don’t show symptoms until days later, only under specific conditions.
She also mentioned poisons that break or weaken a person’s mind, unrelated to their life.
The reason why Medeia needed no other assassins besides me was that she possessed the weapon of ‘poison,’ capable of elevating her to desired positions with her own power.
For very important and secretive tasks, she dealt with them unknown to others, calling upon her underling who managed her poison garden.
The freshly extracted poison changes its effects depending on storage conditions and duration. Therefore, the poison garden’s keeper, who was well-versed in toxins, personally delivered it to Medeia.
He entered disguised as a dress designer, gardener, book seller, but I clearly remember his face.
Will he come this time too? Or has he already arrived?
I was worried.
Typical of Medeia, she never lets important items leave her side. So, if he had come, surely it hadn’t yet passed into someone else’s hands, considering the Northern Knight’s party arrived less than half a day ago.
The first banquet is tonight.
The knights are staying in the outer castle, slightly away from the main castle. I heard that the entire castle is being used by the Northern Knights.
“Sir Arcadia died on the second night after arriving here. When could he have been poisoned?”
I was pondering this when a middle-aged man, with a receding hairline and dressed as a servant, entered Medeia’s office. I instantly recognized him as the poison garden keeper.
The same pattern as my previous life.
This time too, Medeia will use poison against the North. And she’ll send the Yellow Caterpillar to kill Arcadia.
My heart started racing rapidly.
Male lead fell into her trap — and shattered when she walked away
This is also on my reread list!
This one is a slow burn, but when it burns, it burns hard.
Definitely worth a read, y’all!
The story follows a thousand-year-old seductive spirit who, on a bet, sets out to charm the male lead—a once-promising but unfortunate cultivator.
But just when she succeeds in making him fall for her, she heartlessly leaves, driving him to madness.
Determined to find her at all costs, he captures her, keeping her by his side no matter what, even if she hates him.
I love this kind of trope—I enjoy watching the male lead suffer in agony.
The ending drags a bit with unnecessary filler, but that’s fine.
As long as I enjoy the beginning, I’m good.
Intro
As an enchantress, Su Heng possesses captivating eyes and charming beauty, easily manipulating the joys and sorrows of living beings at her fingertips.
But to enchant a god, making him taste the bitterness of love’s separation, long-lasting resentment, unattainable desires, and inability to let go…
Do you dare?
Su Heng assists a divine lord in his cultivation, aiming to make him experience all the sufferings of love, so that he can attain the Great Dao.
Only after being chased down from the heavens by the divine lord, confined and completely possessed by him, does she realize how successful she has been.
The once gentle and polite youth has transformed into someone she no longer recognizes.
[Touch the gear icon in the bottom right corner of the screen to move to the next chapter if you want.]
