At that moment, as if sensing the gaze, Marchioness Ratse looked up.
When her eyes met the Empress’s, Marchioness Ratse startled and blurted out.
“It, it’s almost finished, but if it’s urgent, shall I report on the progress?”
As she spoke, she tried to stand up, holding the documents she had been reviewing until just now.
“No. Let’s check after a thorough review.”
“…Understood.”
As the Empress gently shook her head, Marchioness Ratse lowered her gaze back to the documents. However, she seemed unable to concentrate immediately.
After saying something to the lady-in-waiting beside her, Marchioness Ratse soon stood up and left the office.
The Empress, who had been watching this, also stood up shortly after.
The young lady of Duke Blatnik, who was bringing newly brewed tea to her desk, looked at the Empress with a puzzled expression.
But she paid no mind and walked to Marchioness Ratse’s seat. Then she casually asked the lady-in-waiting next to her.
“Where did she say she was going?”
“Ah, she said she was going to the powder room because her makeup seemed to have smudged.”
“I see.”
The Empress nodded slightly and immediately left the office.
[This is the timeline separator]Upon arriving at the powder room, Marchioness Ratse muttered quietly while checking her reflection in the mirror.
“Oh, really! My face feels like it’s going to burn through…”
Marchioness Ratse had long since noticed that the Empress’s gaze towards the ladies-in-waiting had been unsettling for some time.
She also knew that the Empress was giving different information to each lady-in-waiting.
Marchioness Ratse was well aware that this was part of a procedure to see if the ladies-in-waiting communicated well with each other.
Hence, she tried not to mingle with the ladies-in-waiting as much as possible and avoided talking to them.
But contrary to her expectation that the suspicion would soon be withdrawn, the Empress’s symptoms of suspicion only worsened day by day.
While touching up her lips, Marchioness Ratse furrowed her brow at a sudden thought.
‘Perhaps I should have brought another lady-in-waiting with me after all?’
It seemed that wandering alone might arouse unnecessary suspicion.
‘No. It’s better not to mingle with other ladies-in-waiting until the Empress completely withdraws her suspicion.’
Nodding to herself and checking her appearance, Marchioness Ratse closed her eyes tightly and then opened them.
The thought of returning to the suffocating office was a bit dreadful, but it would be better than being absent for too long.
As Marchioness Ratse turned to leave the powder room, footsteps were heard from the corridor.
“…?”
Soon, a maid entered the powder room.
She was holding cleaning supplies in her hands.
Marchioness Ratse was anxious that one of the Empress’s ladies-in-waiting might have followed her belatedly, but that didn’t seem to be the case.
When their eyes met, the maid stepped aside to make way for her.
Marchioness Ratse passed by the maid who bowed deeply and stepped into the corridor.
And after taking just a few steps, she heard the maid’s voice from behind.
“Excuse me, my lady?”
Marchioness Ratse turned towards the maid. Then the maid held out a small piece of parchment and said.
“I think you dropped this.”
It had been touched by the hand that was holding the cleaning rag.
Even if she had dropped that piece of parchment, she absolutely didn’t want to touch it.
Marchioness Ratse put on a stern expression and said solemnly.
“It’s not mine.”
Then she turned and walked towards the corridor leading to the office.
It was when the maid was quietly staring at the back of Marchioness Ratse, who had already gone quite far.
Someone placed a hand on her shoulder.
“…!”
Having not sensed anyone approaching at all, the maid turned around, startled.
The man right in front of her was wearing a sword at his waist. He seemed to be a knight.
“Hand over what you’re holding.”
“Yes…”
The maid immediately handed the piece of parchment to the knight.
The knight unfolded the small piece of parchment and checked its contents, frowning severely.
“Di-did I do something wrong? I just came to clean and picked up what was on the floor.”
As the maid timidly poured out excuses, the knight said.
“You, you’ll have to come with me.”
“Pardon? Wh-where are we going…”
As the maid tried to retreat, mumbling, the knight roughly grabbed her wrist.
While being dragged by the knight, they encountered a few people in the corridor, but everyone just pretended not to see and went on their way.
The number of people who could walk around with a sword in the imperial palace was very limited.
Perhaps the Knights to protect the imperial family. So they seemed to have judged that the maid must have done something wrong.
It was when the maid, led by the knight’s hand, arrived at a large and splendid room and was looking around.
A beautiful middle-aged woman walked out from the inner room.
Although no one told her who the woman before her eyes was, the maid immediately realized.
It was because of the tiara on the woman’s head.
“…”
The maid bowed her head deeply, trembling.
The Empress, who was glaring at the parchment handed over by the knight with narrowed eyes, opened her mouth.
“Are you certain?”
“Yes. This maid is a witness. Tell exactly what you saw.”
The maid, while watching the Empress’s reaction, stuttered through an explanation of the situation in the powder room just now.
“P-Pardon? Yes. So, I was cleaning the powder room…”
[This is the timeline separator]The piece of parchment crumpled in the Empress’s grip.
At that moment, Viscount Antares entered the reception room, slightly out of breath.
“Your Majesty the Empress, you called for me?”
Being at the imperial palace to look into Duke Antares’s affairs, he was able to respond quickly to the Empress’s summons.
Without a word, the Empress handed over the parchment she had been tightly gripping.
“There’s a date and time written… Wait, this place?”
“Yes. It’s very close to the prison where Baron Cyprus is imprisoned.”
“But how did you obtain this?”
“It seems that internal information keeps leaking out, so while I was suspecting the ladies-in-waiting, I noticed suspicious circumstances surrounding Marchioness Ratse. As for how I obtained that parchment…”
The Empress added a brief explanation.
After hearing all the facts, Viscount Antares closed his eyes tightly. And he let out a long sigh.
“Hah…”
It was adding insult to injury.
Currently, Duke Antares was staying at the imperial palace under the Emperor’s control.
That was why Viscount Antares had also come to the imperial palace early.
In addition to the suspicion surrounding Marchioness Ratse, whom they had trusted as an ally, there was also the possibility that she might be working against them in favor of Baron Cyprus.
A series of events that were too much for the young Viscount Antares to handle continued, and the resulting stress was at its peak.
The thought of giving up everything came naturally, but Viscount Antares calmly collected himself.
Now, with his father Duke Antares absent, was the perfect time to prove himself worthy of becoming the next head of the Antares family.
“I will instruct to watch Baron Cyprus’s situation more closely on the date written on the parchment.”
“…Is that all you have planned?”
The Empress criticized, as if the response was inadequate.
For a moment, he felt something welling up inside him.
But Viscount Antares managed to force a smile.
“I apologize for not being able to think of an alternative that would satisfy Your Majesty the Empress immediately. But as you know, with so many things happening simultaneously…”
Before Viscount Antares could finish speaking, the Empress abruptly turned away.
“Your excuses are enough. You may go now.”
Glaring at the Empress’s back, Viscount Antares gritted his teeth.
Come to think of it, the one who always gained the most benefit was the Empress.
If his cousin Joshua ascended to the throne, the Empress would gain the greatest power.
His father, Duke Antares, had spent his entire life cleaning up after the Empress.
But the Empress had never properly expressed gratitude.
Of course, the Antares family had also benefited to some extent by relying on the Empress’s power, but he couldn’t shake off the feeling of unfairness.
The fact that Joshua was nowhere to be seen even now, when the situation was turning bad, was proof of that.
“How is His Highness the Crown Prince faring? It seems it’s been quite a while since I’ve seen him…”
The Empress stopped in her tracks and turned to look at Viscount Antares.
Judging by the sharper than ever look in her eyes towards him, she seemed to have immediately grasped the intention behind his words.
Quickly closing the distance between them, the Empress whispered softly into Viscount Antares’s ear.
“Viscount, next time, be sure to remember before you speak. Where the power of Antares comes from. And also…”
The Empress snorted softly, patting Viscount Antares’s shoulder as she continued.
“…Let’s leave it at that for today.”
And only after giving him a brief glance did the Empress turn away again.
Viscount Antares clenched his fist tightly, then released it.
Just as the Empress had immediately understood the intention with which he had mentioned Joshua’s name, he too had grasped what the Empress had been about to say before stopping herself.
That she was about to say that Duke Antares didn’t have just that one son.
[This is the timeline separator]Viscount Antares, who had come to the imperial palace again today to find out why the Emperor had confined Duke Antares, had to turn back without much result.
The sky was already darkening.
Before returning to the mansion, Viscount Antares deliberately took the path that passed by the prison where Baron Cyprus was incarcerated.
It was quite a detour, but since today was the date written on the parchment, he was concerned.
‘That person is…?’
And just then, he saw someone all too familiar in front of it.
It was Duke Ratse.
Beside him was Duke Cabelased Cardia.
Naturally, Viscount Antares’s brow furrowed deeply as he looked at the two.
When male lead is the homewrecker
“I know she doesn’t love him.”
I’ve read the novel below twice already. Girls, I’m highly recommending it to you!
The female lead? Not a good person.
The second male lead? Not a good person.
The male lead? Willingly plays the third party, breaking up the female and second male lead’s relationship despite all the warnings from his friends—so yeah, he’s definitely not a good person either.
Basically, nobody in this novel is simple-minded or without scheming.
The female lead starts off as the male lead’s secretary, but don’t worry—later on, she takes over the company while the male lead steps back to support her. He won’t steal her spotlight, overshadow her, or dull her shine.
I love novels where men are out here snatching wigs, tearing each other down, and going to war just to win the female lead’s affection. And this is exactly that kind of novel. Most of Hai Dai Ran’s works have this dynamic. You’ll see the male characters’ emotions being pushed to the absolute extreme.
There’s even a scene where the second male lead exposes the male lead online for being a homewrecker. The brotherhood immediately gangs up on him, dragging him through the mud. I find it compelling —it completely flips reality on its head, where usually, women are the ones fighting over a man and getting torn apart by the sisterhood.
For me, female leads in the novels I read should only struggle in their careers, not in love. But if the brainless romantics in the story are all men? I have zero complaints.
I’ve pretty much read all of Hai Dai Ran’s novels and even translated all of them—her works are just my thing. I’ll slowly upload everything here. One day, when my website is official, I hope I can invite her to join as one of the star authors.
Here’s the story synopsis:
One-line summary: She is his lifelong obsession, to the point where he was willing to be a third wheel, scorned by society, just to wedge his way into her relationship with her fiancé.
Cold-hearted and indifferent female lead + Scheming and subservient CEO male lead
Intro 1:
“I know she doesn’t love him.”
With blood trickling from his clenched fist, Rong Xiu gazed at the woman before him, his eyes clouded with anguish. Hidden in the wardrobe, he had witnessed Fan Xia – the woman he desperately loved – in an intimate embrace with her fiancé. Yet his heart still yearned for her, defying all reason.
Fan Xia, the elegant and composed assistant, carried something mysterious in her eyes whenever she looked at her fiancé, Wen Lan Sheng. Strange occurrences began to surface – secret meetings with the young Gu Jin Yi, an unexplained withdrawal of 5,000 yuan… Then suddenly, her fiancé’s sister, Wen Jing, violently attacked her.
In this matriarchal society, Rong Xiu had risen to become the chairman of a powerful healthcare conglomerate, breaking through gender prejudices. But for the first time, he willingly stepped into the shadows as the other man, disregarding his friends’ warnings to become her secret lover.
Because he had discovered the truth – Fan Xia wasn’t the pure angel everyone believed her to be. And perhaps, he was the only one capable of helping her execute her mysterious plan…
Intro 2:
Rong Xiu’s biggest regret in life was missing out on Fan Xia.
He secretly loved Fan Xia for 7 years.
Watched her go public with her boyfriend.
Watched her kiss her boyfriend at their wedding.
Until that man blissfully nestled in Fan Xia’s arms, obtaining everything he could only dream of.
The crazy jealousy stripped away his hidden secret love, layer by layer, burning like wildfire.
Fan Xia, how can I have you!
【Reading and Trigger Warning Guide】
1. Female dominant, male submissive, male pregnancy
2. Male lead schemes his way to the top, male competition
_____
Please help me, I want to bring you the best possible things.
If you find any chapter or novel with poor translation and editing quality, let me know by commenting directly under that novel or chapter. I will retranslate it as soon as possible.
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