In This Life, I'll Assist You - Chapter 3

The assassin in a white cloak who vanishes like a butterfly after murder.

I am the assassin called the White Butterfly.

I killed anyone Lahert ordered me to.

What I did was simply take a few lives, but those lost lives became a great storm that brought down the North.

The Northern Duke, who lost his power, was framed as a traitor by Lahert Duke’s silver tongue and met a miserable death.

The beginning of it all was 6 years ago today, a month before I turned twenty.

I successfully responded to the duel, and the Bug judged that I had grown enough to kill Arcadia Nugent.

Because I had done well in this duel.

Even if this was within my remaining resentment, I didn’t want to be driven to the fate of having to kill someone again.

“The day after tomorrow, Northern Duke Sion Belfast is coming to Lahert. How can you, who will become Lahert’s dog, and moreover, the young lady’s confidant, not know this?”

The Black Bug’s voice was colder than the north wind in midwinter.

Blood trickled down my cheek. That hot sensation immediately froze in the cold wind brushing my cheek.

Yes, such a vivid memory.

In fact, I didn’t want to kill anyone.

Swoosh-

Without warning, the Black Bug’s sword was drawn toward me again. As if he didn’t care even if his sword cut me in half.

I pretended to stumble and fumble just enough while avoiding his sword only enough not to die.

He tilted his head.

“What’s this? Was your movement earlier just luck?”

I wanted to do things differently from then, even if only in this memory. I didn’t want to be selected for the task of killing the Northern Duke’s confidant.

After threatening me a few more times with his sword imbued with killing intent, the Bug finally withdrew his sword, seeming disgusted by my constant fleeing.

“With this kind of mindset, you can’t kill even a single soldier from the Northern Knights, let alone the North.”

“My skills are not yet sufficient.”

I glared at him. He snorted in response.

“Just by avoiding my sword, you’ve proven your skill, Bug.”

“!”

“But if you’re so reluctant to be deployed in actual combat, you’d fail even if deployed. Return to your room and wait for your punishment.”

The words that he wouldn’t deploy me.

I found myself ridiculous for feeling relieved at those words.

After all, I was dead, and this past unfolding before me must surely be something like the final dream of a dead person.

***

The underground of the Duke’s main castle.

In front of the door of that old, narrow place I had left after becoming a butterfly from a caterpillar, there was a piece of withered bread.

The food that was usually given to me.

Swallowing bitterness, I opened the door, went in, and lay down on the bed. I closed my eyes.

If I could fall asleep again, maybe this hell I’ve returned to would end.

At that moment, noble footsteps were heard from outside the door. Thin, high heels approaching where I was at regular intervals without faltering. I could tell just by the sound.

Medeia Lahert.

As soon as I recognized this, all the hair on my body stood on end. My lungs, which had been pierced by her hand, remembered the pain from just a few hours ago and again made a whistling sound. I instinctively suppressed my quickening breath.

[The truth is, you are the Emperor’s real granddaughter.]

That fact, which had been pressing down on me since I opened my eyes, stabbed my heart again. Lucella’s blade, turned golden, flickered before my eyes.

Her footsteps stopped in front of the room door.

“Who put this kind of food out for my Bella?”

Her sharp rebuke like an ice pick. It was the voice that could be heard when she was truly angry.

“How many times do I have to say it before you’ll properly take care of this child? The person in this room is my friend before being my subordinate.”

Her passionate and dignified voice was full of frustration.

Ah.

Once, that voice was the only comfort in my life. The words she uttered were a lifeline that prevented me from drowning in loneliness and isolation.

But that woman outside the door killed me. Even though she knew I was the Emperor’s only blood relative.

And she lied that the blood I shed was her own, saying she would become the Emperor’s biological granddaughter, not an adopted one.

Medeia did not stop her anger.

“Bella? Has Bella returned?”

“Yes. She came, no, she arrived just now.”

Then the sound of the door opening was heard. And again the clicking of high heels.

With her entrance, the scent of purple jasmine that could only be smelled in a spring forest filled the room. The perfume she liked, made by the Empire’s best perfumer just for her.

My skin crawled at the familiar scent, but I gritted my teeth and pretended to be asleep. For me, who had been a Sword Master, controlling my breathing and heart rate was no big deal.

I calmed my breath as if I had fallen into a deep sleep.

“She’s sleeping peacefully.”

Medeia murmured softly. Her long, elegant fingers brushed up my hair that had fallen over my distorted cheek.

I wanted to open my eyes right away, grab her, and ask why she did it. But I didn’t. Because it felt like if I opened my eyes now, this dream would end.

Then I would enter an endless sleep without finding out anything.

“She’s in a deep sleep.”

“I’m sorry, Miss. I’ll bring better food right away.”

It was the new maid I had seen before going to the training ground. But Medeia’s voice became colder.

“You’re new here, aren’t you?”

“What? Ah, yes. I apologize.”

“It’s your choice to bring good food, but if you do, I might kill you.”

“What?”

Medeia let out a faint laugh at the confused other party.

“It seems the handover wasn’t done properly. I’m telling you not to give good food to this child. If you don’t know something, ask your former senior. Ah. Come to think of it, your senior is dead. Oh, that’s right. I happened to see her making a face that looked like she was sympathizing with this monster.”

“……”

“Now, are you going to throw away that twisted bread and bring new food? What will you do?”

“……”

The maid prostrated herself on the ground.

“Please spare me, Miss.”

“What are you saying? I’m asking what you’re going to do.”

“I won’t bring it.”

“Then what will you say when this child wakes up?”

“Please, just give me orders.”

“How foolish.”

Medeia let out a low sigh.

“You’re too incompetent. You must have become a maid to torment me.”

“Sh-should I just say that you came to check on her and left?”

“……Now you’re finally starting to understand. You must never get close to this child. I should be the only one who can get close to her, the only one who treats her well. Do you understand?”

“Yes, yes!”

“If you don’t understand, make sure to ask next time. I’ll explain kindly. But I don’t like mistakes, so don’t make any.”

“Of course. I’ll obey your orders.”

Only then did Medeia leave. The sound of the door locking is heard.

I quietly opened my eyes.

This is your true nature.

For a while, I couldn’t get up from the bed.

The first memory of my life was Medeia’s face. I was five years old then.

The place where I came to my senses was on a bed in a room so splendid it dazzled my eyes. A doll-like white and pretty girl was looking down at me.

When I regained consciousness, half of my face was already distorted. And I had no memories from before I was five years old.

The being who first showed kindness to a newborn beast became the beast’s entire world. Without knowing the malice that being possessed, I lived my whole life as its dog.

I pressed my eyes tightly with my hands. But no tears came out. Only an empty groan leaked out.

Why did I only learn the truth now?

Only after committing numerous evil deeds on behalf of Lahert.

***

That day, after confirming it was night, I got up.

I sneaked into Medeia’s bedroom.

The place where she stays is the entire floor just below the highest floor of the main castle. The bedroom is in the inner room at the very center of that floor, where you can overlook the vast Rea Forest at a glance.

There was something I wanted to find.

Because this unbreakable dream now felt like God’s last consideration, I had to move.

My birth mother’s dagger.

The only relic of my mother, whom Lahert Duke killed.

They must have killed my mother just before bringing me to this mansion. The dagger would have been in their hands since then.

I was certain that my mother’s belongings were hidden here in the main castle of Lahert territory, not in the secret room of the Duke’s capital mansion.

Because Medeia always keeps things that are important or secret to her close by.

The nighttime forest, devoid of people, was filled with trees so tall they seemed to touch the sky. I climbed one of them and stepped onto the window sill of the outer wall of the floor where Medeia stays.

A window that wouldn’t open could easily be opened with an assassin’s technique. After descending into the corridor, I sneaked into the inner room like the wind, avoiding human shadows.

As I had sensed, there was a triple-locked jewel box in a ruby drawer right next to Medeia’s bed.

The dagger was inside.

In the dark room, there was only me and the moonlight coming through the window.

I stared blankly at that dagger. The dagger in the moonlight was the same as the one I saw just before dying.

A dagger about three spans long with a faint green glow. The blue mineral forming the handle shone mysteriously like the Milky Way in the moonlight.

Something hot stirred in my heart.

My mother’s relic.

The saint of national ruin who seduced the crown prince to abandon the empire. The crown prince who abandoned the empire for a foolish love and fled to the north. The crown prince and saint who eventually died together in a great fire. And their daughter who disappeared.

That was all I knew about how the bloodline of this Delfast Empire came to an end. That saint was my mother.

‘Medeia, you killed me with poison on my mother’s dagger.’

Before stabbing me with Lucella, she wounded my cheek with this dagger. The poison must have entered my body then.

Pure white anger blurred my vision.

At that moment, someone entered the inner room with the sound of the door opening. I put the jewel box containing the dagger back in its original state and went out the window. Then I stood on the window sill and watched the room.

The ones who entered were Medeia and Duke Lahert.

“Insolent bastard, asking for a victory celebration when he should be bowing his head as the son of a criminal.”

A husky high-pitched voice, it’s Duke Lahert.

“But he’s not completely stupid, it seems. Is he now expecting to receive treatment for the achievements I’ve made?”

It was Medeia.

“Hmph, what achievements. It was all thanks to me calling that guy and his army that you were able to achieve victory.”

They’re talking about Sion Belfast, the Northern Duke.

I immediately understood what the two were talking about. In life, the barbarians just below the southern border of the empire had greatly troubled the empire.

They secretly crossed the border, plundered southern produce, set fire to vast granaries, and slaughtered the people.

And around this time, a famine had struck the empire. The barbarians crossed the border and killed the already suffering people, plundering an enormous amount of stored grain.

But Lahert, the Southern Duke who should have protected the people, shifted his responsibility to the North.

He claimed that because the Northern Duke took massive military funds to protect the empire, there was no strength left to protect the South, and yet the Northern Duke was just watching the South’s suffering.

It sounded plausible at first glance, but in reality, it was nothing more than cowardly evasion of responsibility. Most of the enormous taxes collected were used for the central and southern regions, not the North.

Moreover, with part of the illegally diverted taxes, Southern Duke Lahert was secretly mass-producing an army. No one in the empire, not even the Emperor, knew this fact.

Yet the Southern Duke blamed the North for the security of the South, which was his own responsibility. And the foolish Emperor believed Lahert’s words.

Halta le Shak.

An ancient word meaning ‘snake’s tongue’. It was a code word referring to Duke Lahert.

Male lead says he’s pregnant — and it’s  her child

Something seems a bit off about this world.
Wang Zhao thought as she watched a pregnant man walking towards her…

Intro

Female lead finds herself in a world where the men who possess the ability to bear children.

As she navigates this unfamiliar reality, she is caught off guard by the sudden appearance of her boyfriend, who reveals that he is pregnant.

Is this truly her boyfriend?

Why can’t she recall any details about their time together?

She begins to doubt whether the child her boyfriend is carrying is even hers.

Is there a hidden reason behind her amnesia, or could it be a side effect of her sudden arrival in this strange new world?

Just when it seems the protagonist’s life couldn’t become any more entangled, her ex-boyfriend makes an unexpected appearance, raising questions about the protagonist’s past.

Link to read

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