Edmund frowned fiercely as he pretended to look at the documents again.

“When did you change the way you address her?”

“When you were away, Edmund, I walked in the garden and chatted with the maids. They all say Etrisha is so witty, you know? Mari laughed so hard, I’ve never seen her laugh like that before.”

Ha, Edmund snorted sharply.

Etrisha had been gradually expanding her territory in the mansion while his eyes were elsewhere.

“Don’t get too attached. She’s going to leave.”

“I know… that she’ll leave once she finds a place to stay.”

Lirien pouted and grumbled, then sighed deeply as she glanced at Edmund, now engrossed in his work.

She felt sorry and upset for him, locking his heart away and not allowing anyone but his sister in.

The siblings lost their parents on the same day.

The Duke was just and respected by his vassals, while the Duchess was kind and beloved by the people of the territory.

Their sudden disappearance was due to monsters that attacked in the stillness of dawn.

The monsters killed the servants in the mansion and devoured the Duke and Duchess.

The Duchess, pushing the two children into a crematorium storage while wearing a twisted smile and shedding tears, said, ‘Both of you hide here until an adult comes to get you, can you do that?’

The door closed, and the face of the terror-stricken Duchess disappeared in the narrowing vertical strip of light.

After calming down Lirien and leaving the storage first, Edmund witnessed something amid the horrific corpses and pools of blood.

At the trial related to the incident, Edmund testified:

“It’s true! Please believe me! The monster transformed into a human and disappeared!”

No one believed the tearful testimony of the young boy in court, dismissing his statement as a hallucination from the trauma.

Initially, the Duke and Duchess’s reputable standing garnered belief in the boy, but eventually, under his uncle’s schemes, he was stripped of his status as the head of the family.

The only one who believed him was Lirien, who had been at the scene.

His uncle tried to auction off his young sister in the marriage market, and the boy had to take up arms to desperately protect the only kin who believed in him.

‘If only I had falsely testified that I saw it too, it would have supported Edmund’s statement… He wouldn’t have received such a terrible scar and distrust in people.’

Lirien felt a pang of guilt and regret, thinking about how Edmund had lived the past nine years, wary and testing people. She felt too comfortable by comparison.

Living in constant tension, unable to trust anyone, must be a terrible feeling…

Lirien, closing her eyes as if horrified, then opened them and spoke with an unstable voice.

“I know you can’t trust people because of that incident, but Etrisha is…”

Lirien, meeting Edmund’s emotionless eyes, shook her head and stood up.

“No, never mind.”

She couldn’t find the words to convince him. To start explaining how loving and warm Etrisha was, she would have to reveal her own shameful secrets that Etrisha had advised her to keep.

She didn’t want to worry Edmund, who had consistently served the family for the past nine years.

After Edmund left for Jeder Forest, the letters from her uncle, who had been pressuring her to marry before she even had a debutante ball, suddenly stopped.

She knew even without keen insight that it was thanks to her younger brother. That’s why she wished he would no longer sacrifice or care for her.

Glancing at Edmund, focused on his work, Lirien decided not to bother him anymore and quietly prepared to leave, then paused, remembering something.

“Oh, right, I’m going to look around the dress shop with Etrisha tomorrow.”
“Countess Biuel and you, alone?”

Edmund’s eyes narrowed slightly as he lifted his gaze sharply from the documents.

Lirien flinched at his look, intimidated.

“Why, why? It’s the end of the social season, and with the palace banquet, all the dress shops and jewelers in the city are running empty. I want to gift Etrisha something fitting before it’s too late.”

Edmund almost let slip a remark about her unworthiness of such gifts and sighed shallowly. To do so, he would have to reveal the assassination contracts, which would irreparably wound his sister.

He briefly considered sending Rail but decided against it, as Rail, not being a noble, would be restricted in movement. He opted for a slightly more inconvenient approach.

“I will accompany you.”

“…You?”

Question filled Lirien’s face. She was somewhat aware of the quiet civil strife starting in the ducal domain to expel the relatives. She hadn’t dared to ask, pretending ignorance out of fear.

She also knew about the mountainous pile of documents being delivered to the ducal domain’s most trustworthy vassal.

Having seen the documents stacked higher than his height on his desk, she was astonished. How could he be planning to accompany her when he was so busy? Doubtful, yet deep down, she hoped for the two people she liked to grow closer. Opportunities like this were rare.

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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