Cassard momentarily pondered how to respond to the woman’s rather cute counterattack. If the doctor’s words were true, she was truly nothing more or less than an errand runner.
I heard it from the director of the hospital where you work. Your director manufactured a drug inducing euthanasia and sent it to my father through you.
Although he did not know how it was used, he probably noticed. Hence, he urged to meet directly without writing the contents in the letter.
But.
Shouldn’t he then let the woman, now free from suspicion, go? Disgustingly, he had no intention of letting go of the woman who still didn’t remember him. Even if it wasn’t a murder charge, there was a suspicious aspect.
Cassard simply brushed off the neatly arranged facts in his head and lightly smiled at the woman.
“Yeah. I don’t know.”
Cassard slowly rose and approached the shelf behind the woman. Following his movement, the rolling eyes seemed to almost make him laugh.
He stifled his laughter with a short sigh, opened the humidor’s lid, and picked out a cigar. Handing it to the woman, who had been staring blankly at him, he beckoned, and although she looked at him strangely, she obediently accepted.
“Do you know how to smoke cigars?”
Twitching.
Why did she accept it if she didn’t know how, he thought, but he was somehow curious to see the woman holding his cigar.
He cut the cap off the cigar she was holding with a cigar cutter, lit it with a torch lighter, and took a puff while looking at her.
As he brought the gently burning cigar to her lips, her gaze went to the end of the cigar and then back to him.
As he nodded, she pinned her hair behind her ear and cautiously brought her lips to it.
“……Slowly, only in your mouth.”
She obediently sucked on the cigar as he instructed.
Cough cough.
She coughed lightly and shed a tear. Seeing her like this, he was overcome with an urge, grabbed her chin, and made her look at him.
Perhaps noticing that his gaze was lingering on her lips, she swiftly turned her head to escape his eyes.
“No… I don’t want to.”
What does she know, refusing like that?
“……As you wish.”
Cassard took out a handkerchief and handed it to her, then returned to the chair across from her and sat down. Somehow, enjoying his cigar while watching her wipe her eyes and lips, struggling a little, was not bad.
“Why did you kill someone you had no relation with?”
Cassard, who was spinning around, looked at her sharply, and she retorted just as sharply.
“I didn’t kill anyone.”
“Really? But you had a gun.”
He momentarily hesitated to bring up the gun he had buried and forgotten about since his childhood. But there was no other way to explain the existence of the gun.
How could he explain that a commoner like himself had a gun, which even noble youngsters found difficult to possess personally?
“That is… Someone left it behind a long time ago.”
Cassard, hearing her answer, felt the taste of his cigar drop instantly.
So,
That gun, which was almost left and forgotten in her sickroom back then, was still with her. While working with the doctor who had taken his blood and transfused it to her, and while using visiting a sick person as an excuse to bring her flowers for days, she completely forgot about his existence.
He tilted his head crookedly and asked petulantly.
“Who left it?”
“I don’t remember well… I was badly injured at the time.”
“You… You’re not doing this on purpose, are you?”
“On purpose? What?”
She widened her eyes in feigned ignorance and questioned him back.
Perhaps even if the Duke were to save her life thirteen more times, he could never feel grateful towards him.
He had refused to deploy at the time of the downfall of the Kingdom of Eberen, and later seized Lindcoem and the Eberen Castle. He was Cassard de Blahnath, after all.
Seeing how he had been entangled in such absurd events as now, he thought he should never have dealt with Blahnath in the first place, whatever the errand.
The Duke let out a hollow laugh and put down the cigar, not even half burnt, into the ashtray.
“…I’m tired. That’s enough for today.”
As Cassard rose, the large eyes of the woman followed him again. Being large, the blinking was noticeable enough to be seen.
He was somehow annoyed at the moment, but he didn’t trust himself not to get angry even looking at that pretty face.
“Come here.”
[Star Icon][Star Icon][Star Icon]The Duke’s side approached, and Skaha, at the same eye level, stared absently at the sleeve garter that perfectly matched.
It felt a little forced for the Duke to request her assistance with undressing, as the servants had left for the day and it was later than usual bedtime because he had been entertaining her.
But she had no intention of flatout refusing. After all, she planned to act as cooperatively as possible to get her necklace back.
However, she hesitated a little at the thought that if she pulled the thin leather of the sleeve garter tied around his muscular arm too hard, it might tear.
The Duke, who had unbuttoned all of his vest, tilted his head down and stared at Skaha, speaking.
“When will you unfasten it?”
“So, like… unfasten the buckle like… like a normal one?”
As Cassard gave a slight nod, slender fingers grabbed the buckle and began to fumble.
Actually, a sleeve garter like this he could unfasten himself. It wasn’t even that hard. It’s just… she, who remembered everything except him, was being obnoxious and annoyingly difficult.
“It’s taking long. And you call yourself a nurse. If I were a patient, I would have died already.”
“I would have pulled it off even if it tore if you were a patient.”
“You have enough strength to tear it?”
“I’m not saying I’m going to tear it. Your arm is so firm that it’s difficult to pull the garter… ”
Somehow, it was both absurd and cute that she was retorting just like when she was little, and the fact that the only thing changed was that she didn’t recognize him was amusing, so he chuckled.
“The servants never tore it, so if it happens, it’ll be your fault.”
From the slightly biting of her lower lip with a discontented expression, it seemed that she was again angered by his words. Probably holding back, thinking of getting her necklace back. Anyway, she was a woman who was definitely fun to tease.
“Ah! Done!”
The girl who exclaimed grabbed his arm with both hands to catch the garter that was falling to the floor as soon as it was unfastened. The warmth of her body, true to its appearance, seemed to spread over the cool shirt.
“…Yeah. Well done.”
He slightly patted her head with the hand not held by her, and his expression was captured by a subtle feeling until she untied the opposite garter.
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.]
