The morning sickness was more severe than expected.
I heard some people eat like crazy, but thankfully that wasn’t my case. But my relief was short-lived.
I felt my whole body drain of energy from the nausea that came without a moment’s rest.
“Betty. Did you wear perfume by any chance?”
“Oh, no? I don’t usually wear perfume, you know.”
“Really? Then what did you spray while cleaning?”
I couldn’t even lie down properly and had to leave the room because of non-existent perfume smells.
“Your Highness. Please try this. You like it, don’t you?”
“Ugh…, take that away…..”
Even foods I normally liked made me nauseous if they came close.
“Betty. Can everyone step back three steps today? I’m really struggling……”
“Um…. But then we can’t attend to you, Your Highness.”
Even human scent became repulsive.
The midwife said ‘Usually these things take after the mother,’ but with my mother gone and no wet nurse, I had no source of information to find a solution.
In the end, I had no choice but to struggle through each day without any remedy.
Of course, I made sure to keep it secret from Leoprick.
At least it was fortunate that Leoprick’s closeness wasn’t so repulsive.
I glared at Betty, who was rambling on about such facts, and sighed.
“It’s much better. Compared to the beginning.”
“Much… better, you say? This?”
At my words, Leoprick frowned as if to say it was nonsense.
Saying there’s no way it could be getting better when I’m sick and struggling, he sighed with a face full of worry.
“Amelia. You need to eat well, if only for your own sake.”
“I know. But……”
But what can I do when I can’t eat?
I swallowed my words and smiled awkwardly.
The midwife, and the doctor, said I must eat well no matter what.
Eat even when I don’t want to, and eat more when I do want to.
But in the month since finding out I was pregnant, there wasn’t a single moment I wanted to eat, nor did I force myself to.
Whenever I tried to force myself to eat, nausea would inevitably rise.
I could barely even drink water properly, and was sustaining myself on herbal tea and simple finger foods, as that was all I could manage.
I glanced at him with an apologetic face, and saw him deep in thought.
I hope whatever it is, it’s not as bothersome as when we first learned of the pregnancy.
Just as I was secretly sighing, he spoke up.
“This won’t do.”
He opened his mouth with a resolute expression.
“What won’t?”
He seemed full of determination, but why did that expression make me so uneasy?
Feeling an ominous premonition, I carefully observed his expression.
“You just rest well. I’ll take care of everything.”
“What? Your Majesty. What do you mean you’ll take care of……”
What is he going to take care of? What, what?
In any case, it’s about me, so please just tell me too.
He had been taking care of everything ‘on his own’ from the moment of pregnancy until now, from doctors to midwives to people and objects alike.
What more is he going to handle here?
I looked at him with desperate eyes, but he stood up abruptly without even glancing at me.
“Don’t worry about anything, Amelia. I’ll consult with your father and resolve this.”
“What? With Father?”
Resolve? What?
How is he going to resolve morning sickness himself?
Moreover, how is he going to do anything when he doesn’t have any information himself?
As I stared at him with an incredulous face, he smiled at me.
“Just wait a little, Amelia. I’ll make you feel better soon.”
And with that, he left the room.
Watching his back as he left without even looking back once, I couldn’t help but let out a hollow laugh.
“Betty, do you understand what he’s talking about?”
“Um…. It seems His Majesty has missed the point somehow……”
Like me, who could only laugh in disbelief, Betty also seemed quite flustered.
Right. Who says they’re going to solve morning sickness now?
From what I heard, even Father made quite a fuss about it.
……I hope he doesn’t bring back something absurd.
[This is the timeline separator]“Betty. Still no word from His Majesty?”
I put down the documents I was reading and let out a hollow laugh.
Leoprick’s confident face, which kept popping into my mind even while working, was making my head spin.
Is it strange that I find it somewhat unsettling?
“Umm, yes. There’s still no contact from him.”
After letting out a deep sigh, I asked Betty, who nodded with an awkward smile.
Earlier, after Leoprick had left like that, I had told Betty to bring him back.
But he had disappeared so quickly that he was already nowhere to be found, not even in his office, she said.
Betty, who had searched every corner of the palace annex but couldn’t find him, had left only a memo.
It had been almost three hours since she left that memo, but he was still nowhere to be seen.
“Where on earth did he go?”
“Um, I’m not sure…. I heard the aide went with him too.”
With Arnold tagging along as well, there was even less chance of knowing his whereabouts.
It was too ambiguous a situation to send out knights to search.
And I couldn’t very well leave the palace myself to look for places he might have gone.
“What about Father? Is Father in the palace?”
“No. I heard he left the palace early today.”
To make matters worse, Father wasn’t at his post either.
Recalling Leoprick’s words about consulting with his father-in-law, I had sent someone to Father as well, but he wasn’t at his post today either.
“What on earth are they planning that neither of them is here?”
The more I think about it, the more annoyed I get.
I slammed down the documents I was reading with a bang and fumed.
Is it okay to make a pregnant woman this anxious?
The two of them had been making all sorts of fuss ever since they found out about the pregnancy.
Father had a history of it, and Leoprick was still excessively dramatic even now.
Thinking about it, how could I not be anxious?
I slammed my hand on the desk again with a bang and took deep breaths in and out repeatedly.
“Go find His Majesty and Father right now.”
“Uh…. Right now?”
“Yes, now! Who knows what scheme they’re cooking up together. I’m already tired and struggling enough as it is.”
Even in the midst of all this, my stomach was still churning.
It seemed like my stomach was feeling even worse from all the stress.
I got up from my seat, patting my chest due to the relentless morning sickness.
“Before I start moving myself, go find them quickly. Tell them they’re banned from my room for days if they don’t come right away.”
“Yes, yes! Your Highness!”
Betty jumped up from her seat and hurried out.
I watched Betty’s retreating figure while catching my breath, then slumped back into my seat.
My body suddenly felt drained after shouting like that.
Sprawled out like that, I couldn’t even think about properly examining the documents on the desk.
[This is the timeline separator]“You say Her Highness is suffering from severe morning sickness?”
At that time, Leoprick was indeed meeting with Duke Vermerian, just as Amelia had guessed.
And not at the Vermerian mansion, but at the Jenit Guild.
“Yes. Her morning sickness is so severe that she can’t keep anything down except herbal tea. It seems she’s struggling because she can’t find anything she can eat, nor does she have the will to look for it.”
So I came out, Leoprick said with a determined face.
“Please try to recall as much as you can. What did the late Duchess enjoy eating most when she was pregnant?”
Leoprick spoke with a face full of resolve, as if facing an enormous task, looking at Duke Vermerian and Hayley beside him.
As far as he knew, the people who had been closest to Amelia’s mother, Lady Jenit Vermerian, were Duke Vermerian and Hayley, the vice-head of the Jenit Guild.
Hoping to find some clues through these two, Leoprick’s eyes shone with expectation.
“Hmm….. I don’t think Jenit had very severe morning sickness.”
“……Pardon?”
“I remember it the same way. The madam didn’t eat much to begin with, so even during morning sickness, she didn’t particularly crave anything.”
“No, that can’t be……”
Leoprick’s face fell at their words.
According to the midwife, daughters tend to have similar constitutions to their mothers.
It’s especially prominent during pregnancy, so if anything is needed, we should ask Amelia’s mother.
‘The severity of your morning sickness is probably because you take after your mother a lot. Normally, the mother should be here to take care of such a body……’
But while the daughter’s morning sickness was so severe, the mother barely had any?
Leoprick let out a hollow laugh and looked back and forth between the two.
“Then are you saying the Duchess had no discomfort at all when she was pregnant?”
“Umm. From what I saw, that’s how it was. Even then, she would work when there was work to do, and just say let’s rest a bit when she was tired.”
Hayley nodded and answered.
Saying there really was nothing at all.
If there had been morning sickness, even if no one knew about it, surely there must have been some method she used.
Leoprick truly felt like he was grasping at straws.
If Amelia kept suffering like this and couldn’t eat anything, it seemed that even the long-awaited baby’s arrival might not be very welcome.
He sighed and rubbed his forehead.
“Then wasn’t there really any medicine or anything she took at that time? Surely she couldn’t have been perfectly fine without anything at all?”
“Morning sickness is a problem that resolves with time, but I don’t recall Jenit ever struggling that much either.”
Duke Vermerian answered with a perplexed expression.
Then, is there really no solution?
As Leoprick was looking completely dismayed and discouraged, it happened.
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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