Love Me Just Once (Completed Main Story) - Chapter 5
His words were so gentle that Ophelia nearly spilled everything to the boy without realizing it.
In truth, she was not the cherished princess he believed her to be; Mahanas and Dares saw her only as livestock to be sold at a high price.
But if she had said so, Haslen would surely break off their engagement and seek out a girl of greater worth—so Ophelia couldn’t bring herself to utter the words that rose to her throat.
Her response was already decided.
“Go away. I don’t want to see your face today.”
And Ophelia couldn’t help but let out a small sob. Her face, after all, had never fully dried.
Haslen said nothing more to her. When she heard his footsteps retreating and silence finally settled around her, Ophelia assumed he’d left.
It was for the best—she couldn’t bear meeting him in such a pitiful state—but the moment she thought she was truly alone, an unbearable chill and sorrow overtook her. Wiping her face hastily, she turned to look behind her.
Yet the spot she expected to be empty held the boy instead. Ophelia’s eyes widened at the sight of him standing slightly apart from her, turned away.
Noticing she’d looked back, Haslen spoke softly.
“I thought… if I faced away like this, it wouldn’t count as seeing your face, so maybe it would be alright.”
At those words, Ophelia could no longer hold back her tears. Hearing her sobs, Haslen stiffened slightly but didn’t turn around.
After quickly wiping her tear-streaked face, Ophelia asked,
“Why did you come back so early?”
The boy hesitated briefly before answering.
“Because your birthday is coming soon.”
Indeed, her birthday fell at the end of the seventh month, so his words were true.
“…You didn’t have to go out of your way.”
“But I wanted to.”
His words were simple, yet so tenderly spoken that Ophelia couldn’t bring herself to say anything—afraid that speaking might shatter the fragile moment.
Haslen gently continued, as if letting her know she didn’t need to reply.
“To be honest, I thought I wouldn’t get to see you today. You hadn’t promised in advance to meet me, and I’d also heard you weren’t feeling well…”
Hearing this, Ophelia thought to herself: It would’ve been better not to meet. Strangely, the words refused to leave her lips.
As she remained silent, the boy gave a small, awkward cough.
“So I just… came to the garden you took me to last time, and there you were—as if it were a lie.”
“…”
“May I turn around? I have something I want to give you.”
She should have said no. She should have told him to leave without looking back.
But her lips wouldn’t move, and she missed her chance to reply—so the boy slowly turned to face her.
Seeing his emerald-green eyes widen, Ophelia instinctively stepped backward, pulling her shawl tighter over her face.
“D-don’t look. It’s ugly…”
But this time, Haslen wouldn’t let her run. He strode forward and, voice trembling, asked,
“Who did this to you?”
Ophelia felt the boy’s fingertips brush against her cheek.
With careful hands, Haslen lifted the shawl that covered her face, revealing her swollen, tear-streaked features fully exposed.
In that instant, Ophelia realized she could no longer deceive him. Gripped by fear, she stammered,
“Will you… break off our engagement now?”
Terror seized her—now that he’d seen her in such a wretched state, surely Haslen would choose someone better than her.
Haslen looked at her with an expression that seemed to say he didn’t know what to say. To Ophelia, his silence felt like years.
The longer he stayed quiet, the heavier her anxiety grew—until finally, when the boy spoke, she braced herself for the worst without even realizing it.
Yet once again, Haslen’s words defied her expectations.
“No.”
In a quiet but resolute voice, the boy declared,
“I will marry you.”
Then, ever so gently, he brushed his fingers across her cheek. Despite his delicacy, Ophelia winced as his slender fingers grazed her inflamed skin.
“Did you apply medicine?”
“…Yes.”
Though the ointment had surely been washed away by her tears, she didn’t add that detail.
After gently dabbing at her damp eyes for a moment, Haslen asked,
“Could you tell me who did this to you?”
“…”
“It’s not that I dare to interrogate you, Your Highness. It’s just… your injuries are so severe, and I feel so upset…”
Haslen couldn’t finish his sentence—because she suddenly burst into tears and threw her arms around him.
The boy seemed startled, but without a word, he simply held her in return.
That day, Ophelia clung to him and wept for a long while. The knowledge that someone cared about her wounds kept her eyes burning with warmth.
Haslen waited patiently until she’d cried enough, yet he never lost sight of the matter at hand.
In the end, Ophelia had no choice but to confess the truth.
“My brother did it.”
Though she still feared Haslen might leave her, she could no longer keep her feelings locked inside.
Mahanas had pushed her beyond endurance, and Ophelia truly needed comfort from someone.
Once the truth began flowing, it came out in a steady stream.
“It’s not the first time. My brother has been like this since a very long time ago…”
And then Ophelia realized she’d been complicit all along—lying alongside them to deceive others. She apologized.
“I’m sorry. I’m not the princess who grew up surrounded only by love, like you thought.”
For years afterward, Ophelia vividly remembered the fear she’d felt in that moment. Haslen had promised he wouldn’t abandon her, yet she’d still been terrified he might break off the engagement.
But the boy, as always, defied her expectations and ended her anxiety with a single sentence.
“I’m so sorry. I had no idea you’d been enduring such things all this time.”
What an incredibly kind boy he was.
In that instant, Ophelia knew with certainty that no one else in the world could ever make her feel the same way. Just as nothing could ever replace spring, so too was he irreplaceable.
[This is the timeline separator]That day, the boy placed a ring embedded with a deep blue gemstone on her finger. He said he’d bought it while traveling abroad with his father, thinking of her.
After briefly holding her ring-adorned hand, the boy whispered softly,
“One day, I’ll give you a ring far more splendid than this—under the golden cassia tree.”
His words were effectively a marriage proposal. In Reden, it was customary for the groom to place a ring on the bride’s finger beneath a golden cassia tree on their wedding day.
Ophelia remembered even the faint blush that colored the boy’s cheeks as he spoke—because she’d wanted so badly to believe him that she’d etched the memory deep into her heart.
Yet the boy’s promise never came to pass.
Ophelia remembered vividly how their story ended.
Several years later, when she turned twenty-one, Haslen Lakmata died. Her cruel older brother had him executed—officially for assaulting royalty, merely because he’d stepped forward to block her brother from striking her cheek.
The Lakmataga family had struggled desperately to save their heir, but their influence had sharply declined due to repeated business failures, rendering their efforts ineffective.
Not a single person whom the Lakmatas had once helped came forward. Ophelia couldn’t understand why.
The Lakmatas had aided countless people—taking in orphans and paupers neglected by the state, and openly opposing the king and prince whenever they sought to raise taxes for their own luxury, something other nobles dared not do out of fear.
Yet when the Lakmatas fell into crisis, everyone turned their backs on both her and Haslen.
Having nothing but her own body, Ophelia begged before her brother’s palace—kneeling, prostrating herself on the ground, and bowing her head like the lowliest servant.
Her body soaked through from rain and morning dew, she remained perfectly still even as her soft flesh grew raw. Her limbs froze solid like ice, yet she never once shifted her posture.
Mahanas pressed his foot against her head and mocked her.
“A worm begging to save another worm.”
Haslen had never been anything like a worm—in fact, it was her brother who resembled vermin—but Ophelia said nothing in reply.
She would endure anything if it meant saving Haslen. Even if told to crawl through mud or sleep in livestock pens, she would have done so willingly.
But her endurance proved useless.
That day, Ophelia realized even begging had its weight.
The knees of a princess with nothing to offer held no value at all.
In the end, Haslen was executed—the very day the prolonged rainy season finally ended and the sun rose for the first time in weeks.
Determined to witness her fiancé’s final moments, Ophelia climbed the palace watchtower with her battered body. Far in the distance, the execution grounds were barely visible.
When the head of the young man who had once promised her the golden cassia vow fell, Ophelia collapsed where she stood, screaming his name like a madwoman.
But the tower was too high—her cries never reached the ground below. Just like her desperate will to save him, her anguished shouts simply died unheard.
Sitting slumped on the cold stone, Ophelia watched clearly as the capital’s citizens hurled stones at her fiancé’s severed head mounted on a pike. Though blood vessels in her eyes had burst and her vision blurred, she never looked away—not for a single instant.
When scheming men desperately battle for her favor in the male harem
This one’s also on my reread list! The rivalry, scheming between the men in the imperial harem are just as intense and thrilling as in classic palace drama novels, where concubines fight to the death. Give it a read, girls! I promise you won’t be disappointed.
Synopsis:
“I am not worthy of her… but I still want to be by her side, even if only as a loyal dog…”
Those were the painful whispers of Yue Guanyi – the proud Crown Prince of the Great Qi, who was torn between deep love and a guilty conscience. Despite holding the supreme power of the Imperial Guard, he still could not forget the dark past when he was sold into a brothel.
Fate played a cruel twist when Qiu Shuzhi – a young female official who had just passed the imperial examinations with top honors – stepped into his life. She did not know that she was the one who had saved him from a tragic fate many years ago. And now, her heart was the target of pursuit for both Yue Guanyi and the powerful Empress Dowager Qin Qing.
While Yue Guanyi only dared to silently care for and protect the one he loved from afar, the Empress Dowager Qin Qing openly expressed his feelings and did not hesitate to take advantage of his power to approach Qiu Shuzhi. The covert struggle between the two most powerful forces in the imperial court began…
Trigger warning: All men in this novel are yandere style.
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Cowardice? Bitch you barely even look at him or speak to him 😦😡
Finally! Put her in her place!!! She should treat you better 😡😡😡
That caught him by surprise 😭🥺🤣 that he almost choked