My Husband's Cinderella (Completed Main Story) - Chapter 2
The moment Chloe returned to her room, her legs gave out beneath her. Sliding down the wall by the door, she finally collapsed onto the floor.
It felt as if her breath was being choked off.
Chloe gagged, clutching her throat. The harder she tried to breathe, the more her breathing quickened.
Clear liquid poured from her eyes, nose, and mouth. Only when she, utterly exhausted, gave up even the will to breathe did her body finally find peace.
‘…How on earth.’
She couldn’t forget it.
Even afterward, the face of the man spouting declarations of love remained vividly clear.
‘You know very well how much I love Helena. I’ve played the role of your husband flawlessly for the past year—now let me live my own life.’
He might as well have shown some remorse.
If he had, Chloe would have had no choice but to understand him helplessly.
Kalis’s smug demeanor, boasting as though he’d honorably fulfilled his husbandly duties, was utterly detestable.
Could he truly not remember his own actions over the past six months?
After ‘that incident,’ Kalis treated Chloe as if she didn’t exist in the mansion—even rallying the estate’s residents and members of the ducal household to do the same.
Only at social gatherings did she barely receive human treatment. Had she possessed no power at all, she would have been reduced to the status of an insect.
Moreover, Kalis left the mansion for several weeks and then refused to share a bedroom. The room subsequently assigned to her was smaller than an attic.
And that wasn’t all. When she fell severely ill with a cold, unaccustomed as she was to the North’s chill, and when monsters invaded the mansion and she was injured and bled—he turned a blind eye both times.
Yet Chloe couldn’t bring herself to rebel at all, burdened as she was by guilt toward him.
She had endured the personal insults spewing from his mouth because she wanted to ease his anger.
She’d hoped their distant relationship might someday improve. She’d wondered if he, so deeply furious, might one day forgive her.
‘It was all utterly pointless.’
But her efforts were rendered meaningless by yet another insult.
Many factors led to Chloe and Kalis’s marriage.
The crucial fact was that neither of them had wanted it.
It all began three long years ago, when war suddenly broke out with the Empire.
An unexpected proposal arrived before the peaceful Ballont Kingdom.
The proposal: to merge with the Empire and become part of it.
Since war would be declared if the kingdom refused, it was effectively an ultimatum.
Accept the proposal. Reject it. Amid countless conflicting opinions, the king ultimately chose rejection.
“Though joining the Empire might benefit both nations’ progress, I cannot betray my homeland. The Ballont Kingdom refuses to become a vassal state of the Frihid Empire.”
Upon confirming the king’s stance, the Empire predictably declared war.
To minimize casualties, the war began on the barren wasteland of the Lian River, which divided their borders.
Compared to the Empire, the kingdom was merely a weak state. Yet its knights fought valiantly, even sensing inevitable defeat.
They fought to protect their families, friends, lovers, and homeland.
Among them was Princess Chloe of the royal family.
Born frail, she couldn’t wield strength like the knights. Instead, she secretly took it upon herself to nurse them, caring for them day and night.
But even their sweat and tears couldn’t alter the harsh reality.
Soon, the number of knights available to fight dwindled to nothing.
Finally, the kingdom’s knightly order decided to deploy their last resort: sending one of their own into the Empire’s camp.
The knights sent to the enemy infirmary had one of two missions:
Assassinate the Emperor or successfully negotiate with him.
It was a mission bordering on impossible. It would be a miracle if the knights dispatched for the operation returned alive.
Ten days after this absurd mission began, thirty-one knights had been sent—twenty of whom never made it back.
“Successful negotiations with the Empire—Empire finally declares armistice…”
When the twenty-first knight returned from the Empire’s barracks, the war came to an end.
Astonishingly, he had succeeded in negotiating with the Emperor.
“Which knight succeeded in the negotiations?”
The twenty-second knight, who saved the kingdom, was none other than Kalis Arhen.
Everyone was shocked by the unfamiliar name. How could someone so utterly ordinary in both intellect and swordsmanship have saved the kingdom?
Moreover, wasn’t House Arhen steadily declining under the mountain of debt left by their ancestors?
“‘Kalis Arhen,’ the century’s hero who saved the kingdom!”
But that insignificant past vanished completely before Kalis’s brilliant achievement.
Kalis Arhen! Our hero!
His name spread throughout the entire kingdom. Bathed in dazzling spotlight, he became nothing short of a god worshipped by the realm.
At first, even the royal family held Arhen’s feat in high esteem, bestowing upon him treasures and even a noble title.
But when his fame surpassed that of the royal family itself, the king recognized the gravity of the situation.
The royal family’s dignity would surely plummet. Moreover, the risk of Kalis rebelling couldn’t be entirely dismissed.
King Ballont XV, searching for a way to rein in Kalis, soon arrived at the perfect solution.
Marry his own daughter to Kalis, thereby tethering the hero’s feet to the royal family.
By accepting him as a royal family member and granting him boundless benefits, they would ensure he could never covet the throne.
The ideal candidate to become the hero’s wife was the Third Princess, Chloe.
The elder princesses already had betrothals arranged, and the younger ones were too young, having not even undergone their coming-of-age ceremonies—making it unethical to arrange marriages for them.
Chloe was originally meant to marry the most noble man. Though some objected that she deserved a more suitable match for a princess, binding the century’s hero was considered a shrewd calculation.
Ballont unilaterally informed his daughter that her marriage had been decided, deliberately withholding the fact that her groom was Kalis, just in case.
The century’s hero, Kalis, surprisingly accepted Ballont’s arrangement without hesitation.
The title of Duke, the vast territory a duke could govern, and the monthly stipend from the royal family—such immense rewards were impossible to ignore.
In truth, Kalis had never intended to plot anything as troublesome and headache-inducing as rebellion, so this unexpected windfall suited him perfectly.
On the long-awaited wedding day, Chloe met the man who would become her husband.
The man receiving blessings before her—her future husband—was, surprisingly, the century’s hero.
According to her father, he had fallen for her at first sight and proposed.
Then, had the hero—who saved not only the kingdom but also her peace—truly fallen in love with her?
‘The hero himself proposed because he likes me.’
A marriage proposal from the hero who saved the world—surely nothing could be more fantastical.
For Chloe, who had always idolized heroes, falling in love was practically inevitable.
Their honeymoon was fine. Though Kalis, who had supposedly proposed to her, showed no active affection, it puzzled her slightly.
‘You truly are an intelligent woman. Thanks to you, the ducal house has grown this much. My lady, you are both my wife and my benefactor.’
She believed that trusting and supporting each other was also a form of love.
Both the ducal household and the estate’s residents treated her kindly. Thus, Chloe, who had always lived solely within the palace, quickly adapted to married life.
Peaceful days seemed to continue.
Until that incident occurred.
Around the time they’d been married for half a year, a massive scandal shook the kingdom.
“The Tragic Cinderella”
Million Paper, the kingdom’s largest newspaper, published an article about Kalis’s former lover.
It told the story of a woman who had always been selfless toward him but was pitifully abandoned the moment he became a hero.
It was the first Chloe had heard of it.
The man who supposedly fell for her and proposed—had he actually been in a long-term relationship with another woman?
But Kalis had left the mansion the instant the article broke, leaving her no chance to ask.
His response came the next day, through another article published by the same newspaper.
“The Tragic Hero, Following the Tragic Cinderella?”
The article read as follows:
“It is true that I had a long-term lover before and even after I joined the war.
But I never intentionally abandoned her—this was entirely the royal family’s doing.
The royal family forced the marriage with the princess, a demand someone like me, virtually a citizen of the kingdom, couldn’t refuse.”
‘What is this…? Didn’t Father say His Highness proposed to me himself?’
Reading the newspaper, Chloe couldn’t suppress her confusion.
But that was only the beginning.
Million Paper, the kingdom’s foremost newspaper, paid no heed to the royal family’s sensitivities. They spread the scandal surrounding the ducal household even further.
Kalis, too, relentlessly continued his exposés.
Since he hadn’t violated the clearly stipulated terms of the contract—which forbade disclosing its contents—royal support, in principle, wouldn’t be cut off.
To make matters worse, public sympathy arose following subsequent articles about Duke Arhen. People claimed the century’s hero had been sold to the royal family like a prostitute, and condemnation poured toward the palace.
‘How could you possibly do such a thing to His Grace…!’
Meanwhile, within the ducal household, Chloe became the target of blame.
‘Darling, could we talk for a moment…’
‘Darling?’
‘……’
‘I suppose you have no idea how repulsive it’s been, spending the past six months with you. Don’t call me that anymore, Chloe Ballont.’
Kalis, who had maintained a cordial relationship with her for half a year, now rebuked her.
Seeing her husband declare their marriage life dreadful, Chloe couldn’t even ask whether he’d ever loved her.
Only much later did she realize that everything she’d believed was a complete lie.
In the end, all that remained was the love she alone had nurtured so diligently.
Male lead is reincarnated to save his wife
I’ve also read this one twice already. The female lead is kinda soft and gets embarrassed easily—not really my type, but the plot is definitely worth reading. Hurry up and read it, y’all!
Intro
When Shen Yuan encountered Su Jin again in his previous life, she had already become the Prime Minister of the current dynasty. As for him, the former top young master of the capital, he had long since fallen into the abyss, becoming a singer on a pleasure boat.
After a song ended, he was redeemed and sent to the Su Residence.
Su Jin respected and cherished him, gave him a roof over his head, and bestowed him with warmth. Shen Yuan fell deeper and deeper, but before he could express his feelings, Su Jin passed away.
Shen Yuan died to follow her in death, but instead, he returned to when he was fifteen years old.
At that time, he was not yet engaged, and Su Jin was just a poor scholar.
Shen Yuan gritted his teeth, casting aside all his pride, and thought of ways to coax and entice her every day.
The colder and more indifferent Su Jin was towards him, the more proactive Shen Yuan became.
He was not afraid of being mocked by the world, only wanting to marry his Wife-master early, to hold her hand and never let go for a lifetime.
[Note: This story will not specifically point out the male lead’s reincarnation time point; it’s all in the details. Whenever you feel that the male lead is acting strangely, he has most likely been reincarnated.]
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MANGA DISCUSSION
1 Comment
Chapter Comments (5)
How did you even love such a duck??? I am more docked with you Chloe
I am still not convinced that he is the heir who stopped the war. I would more easily believe if he sold out the kingdom.
Despite the warm atmosphere, I am 100% certain they won’t help with the divorce
Inline Comments (36)
The problem, however, was that her dress matched exactly the one worn by the eve
Well done girl. Direct hit in the middle of the forehead.
He tried to rush into his next words, but shock left his mouth hanging open.
Yes, she is your mistress who revealed the secret. Helena proves stupid, but the Duke, as usual, will forgive her after two tears.
He tried to rush into his next words, but shock left his mouth hanging open.
Yes, she is your mistress who revealed the secret. Helena proves stupid, but the Duke, as usual, will forgive her after two tears.
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VKotaku28
What incident? Please tell us. I am just glad that the jerk is not the ML