Seducing the Tyrant Instead of My Favorite (Completed Main Story) - Chapter 3
“Me? Surely not!”
“Then why did you come? You don’t even look brave enough to gawk.”
Nikolai slightly lifted the corner of his mouth.
My cheeks flushed hotly.
‘Get a grip, Elizabeth. You’re a bewitching femme fatale!’
I gulped down a dry swallow.
It was time to deliver the line I’d rehearsed all night.
“I have something urgent to tell Your Majesty.”
My voice was as sweet as if coated in honey.
I didn’t forget to half-lower my eyes and put on an innocent expression.
“If you wish to join in, you’re more than welcome.”
“What if I prefer having you all to myself rather than sharing you with others?”
I can’t believe I just said that!
My heart fluttered wildly, and my limbs twisted together.
Still, I succeeded in making Nikolai smile.
It was only a faint, barely-there upturn of his lips—but I couldn’t help but freeze.
‘Wow. He’s even more handsome when he smiles. His good looks just burst right through that mask…!’
If Douglas was a peach winning with sweet juice and softness, Nikolai was a beast tightly coiled with overwhelming decadent charm.
He truly resembled the world’s most handsome man, lavishly blessed by the author.
‘He has everything—beauty, wealth, power. Then why did Nikolai surrender to Claudia? He could’ve escaped with his royal guard.’
Unlike the original Elizabeth, Nikolai had been heartbreakingly serene before the guillotine.
He didn’t beg for his life, nor curse Claudia for stealing his throne.
He looked less like a tyrant who ruined his nation and more like a martyr who’d severed all worldly attachments.
‘The more I think about it, the stranger it gets. Is this character collapse? Could there be some secret backstory even loyal readers don’t know?’
I looked at Nikolai once more,
with all preconceptions wiped clean from my gaze.
But the emperor before me now was merely a flirt oozing sensuality.
“I like honest women. I didn’t know you were one.”
“Do you know me?”
“Is there any man in the Hartman Empire who doesn’t know Elizabeth?”
Not as an emperor—but as a man.
He saw me as a woman, and my stomach fluttered.
“I’m meeting Your Majesty for the first time.”
“You sold out a complete stranger of an emperor quite boldly. Didn’t you say not to mock me?”
“Did you hear everything?”
“I knew Countess Kensing was selling invitations. I merely tolerated it since she handled those tedious parties for me. How did you find out?”
Apparently, even while entertaining two women, Nikolai had kept track of everything happening at the party.
Truly, a rogue was a rogue.
“Merchants are quick with information.”
“Is that all?”
“Would there be another reason?”
“I don’t like it.”
“Pardon?”
“Be a bit more honest. You’ll taste sweeter that way.”
I couldn’t understand what he meant.
I also didn’t know why he’d brushed off the women’s hands and stepped right up to me.
The unfamiliar scent made me dizzy.
Handsome men really were dangerous, terrifying creatures.
‘It’s not you who’s seducing—it’s me.’
I bit my lip firmly.
I tilted my chin provocatively and gave a deliberate wink.
It was my confident, bewitching wink, packed with allure.
“What are you doing?”
Nikolai frowned, looking puzzled.
Huh? Why that reaction?
Panic flared. I hurriedly winked a few more times.
My eyelid felt like it might spasm.
“Why are you doing that? Did something get in your eye?”
Nikolai tilted his head in confusion.
A cold bead of sweat trickled down my back.
‘Does Nikolai also hold convictions worth dying for, like Claudia? He can’t possibly—he’s just a villain obsessed with women!’
Maybe I hadn’t put in enough effort.
Pushing aside the premonition of failure, I kissed my fingertips.
*Smack.*
A trivial, shameless sound echoed.
“…….”
An awkward, pitiful silence pressed down on the terrace.
My ultimate move had failed—it felt like the sky was collapsing.
Only one thing remained.
‘It’s now or never!’
I wrapped both arms around Nikolai’s neck as he stood tall.
Standing on tiptoe, I pulled him toward me.
Only then could I barely reach his lofty lips.
“Forgive me, but I’ll kiss you first.”
The emperor hadn’t given permission.
Not that I intended to wait—he had nowhere to retreat anyway.
I closed my eyes and took his lips.
Once lips touched and saliva mingled, even the great Nikolai would surely fall.
‘So this is how my first kiss happens.’
The regret didn’t last long.
His lips were moist and soft.
Nikolai’s breath was faint and warm.
My heartbeat thundered from chest to temples.
All my blood and nerves seemed to rush straight to my lips.
A tingling sensation sparked at my lips and raced through my veins.
The quiet, intimate sound of fully pressed flesh filled my ears.
Nikolai didn’t push me away. Nor did he roughly devour my lips.
He simply accepted my kiss without moving a muscle.
“……Thank you for your understanding.”
I slowly unwrapped my arms from Nikolai’s neck.
My strength drained away, and my knees trembled.
The women who’d been with Nikolai erupted in outrage.
“You said you didn’t want to join in!”
“You should wait your turn quietly!”
They clearly thought I’d cut in line.
“Everyone, leave.”
“Your Majesty!”
“I have something to discuss with this woman. Alone.”
Nikolai’s gaze pinned me down.
His eyes seemed to pierce through my hidden thoughts and uncover even my deepest secrets.
‘Success or failure?’
On this knife-edge between life and death, I bit my lip.
Nikolai showed none of the fervor typical of someone seduced.
He revealed neither anger nor resentment.
Before a predator scanning its prey, I couldn’t move an inch.
Then Nikolai abruptly tore off the mask covering half his face.
With the cumbersome mask gone, his wild yet sensual beauty was fully revealed beneath the moonlight.
Thick eyebrows, deep and mysterious eyes.
A high nose bridge and sensual lips—truly a work of art.
But why was he looking at me like that?
Like a man reunited with a lost lover? Or a boy smitten with his first love?
No—it was something else.
‘Think positively. My charm worked. Nikolai’s become my puppet!’
Joy and elation at having extended my lifeline washed over me.
Then Nikolai moved his lips.
His voice was chillingly rational and calm.
“Become my empress.”
[This is the timeline separator]Even while observing the two women, Nikolai’s attention remained fixed on the party.
‘I smell a strange fragrance… Am I imagining things?’
A hollow laugh escaped him.
Since his coronation at twenty-two, Nikolai hadn’t smelled any scent.
Freshly baked bread, blooming roses, even the finest perfumes—nothing reached him.
His sense of smell responded only to the foul stench of the plague known as “Deathbloom.”
His fate was to detect Deathbloom and secretly isolate those infected.
Deathbloom caused crimson rashes like flower petals, an odd fragrance, high fever—and then death.
There was no cure, no prevention.
To halt the uncontrollable epidemic, the Former Emperor sought Morasinthia, goddess of healing.
He fasted for ten days and performed a hundred-day ritual.
He also offered a thousand oxen and a thousand sheep to the temple.
Pleased, the goddess Morasinthia banished Deathbloom and bestowed upon the emperor a Wolf that could track the plague’s seeds.
Deathbloom vanished, and the Former Emperor was recorded as a sage ruler who saved his nation.
Nikolai bit his lip.
‘The Wolf only finds Deathbloom, tastes it, and suppresses it—it doesn’t eradicate it. I don’t know why Deathbloom, once eradicated by my ancestors, is resurging, or why it only afflicts young women.’
The Former Emperor’s voice echoed in his ears.
「Remember: the Wolf feeds on your desires. An emperor must not waver with lust. Do not chase personal happiness. Never let anyone steal your heart.」
As long as the Wolf of the Goddess remained near, Deathbloom wouldn’t manifest.
That’s why those carrying Deathbloom’s seeds were confined within the palace.
Since they were all young women, Nikolai had to endure rumors of being a Casanova.
Only his closest confidants knew the truth.
Even they didn’t know the twenty-eight-year-old emperor was still a virgin.
To Nikolai, women were merely endless duty and surveillance targets.
Desire had vanished along with sensation.
Today, too, he’d only followed the stench of Deathbloom.
‘A fragrance like cherry blossom mixed with jasmine and sweetberry… Not an illusion. Even the Wolf noticed.’
He placed his right hand over his erratically pounding heart.
When the source of that scent appeared on the terrace, he froze.
He swore he’d never smelled anything more enchanting.
‘Isn’t she the heiress of the Emster trading house? She used to be an ordinary, scentless woman.’
The Emster family was among the wealthiest in the Hartman Empire.
Nikolai couldn’t possibly not know Emster’s heir.
He’d also heard the rumors of her reigning as the social queen bee.
But that was all.
A woman unrelated to Deathbloom held no meaning for him.
He’d provoked Elizabeth out of intense curiosity—something he hadn’t felt in ages.
Or perhaps it was hunger?
Or maybe a desperate longing.
“You want to join in too?”
“Surely not!”
The foul stench that had filled the terrace receded, replaced by a rush of fresh floral fragrance.
His nose cleared, and saliva pooled in his mouth.
His eyes, fixed on Elizabeth, burned like a starving beast’s.
‘If those who reek taste bitter, perhaps those who carry fragrance taste sweet?’
A strange heat churned in his gut.
He wanted to taste her.
Right here, right now.
A savage desire he’d never felt before blazed fiercely within him.
‘Perhaps the goddess pitied me for only smelling stench and sent someone to save me, even briefly.’
Elizabeth shook Nikolai so thoroughly he nearly succumbed to absurd delusions—
blinking one eye spasmodically, repeatedly kissing her fingertips.
Just as he grew intensely curious about her intentions, she spoke in a resolute voice.
“Forgive me, but I’ll kiss you first.”
He couldn’t clearly recall what happened next.
Sweetness poured into his mouth.
His consciousness fled to a realm beyond control.
‘Not the heavy, artificial sweetness of chocolate cake—but a fresh, crisp sweetness. It’s as if my numb nerves are awakening.’
He focused every sense on savoring Elizabeth’s fragrance and taste.
Even a moan felt too precious to waste.
The scent of cherry blossoms, vividly embroidered with spring, churned within him.
For the first time in his life, Nikolai didn’t want to part from a woman.
He wanted to kiss longer, get closer, touch deeper.
“Become my empress.”
His heart, which he thought had frozen, pounded as if about to burst.
He feared the sweet woman might reject his proposal.
Fear? Nikolai’s thick eyebrows twitched.
She’d boldly sought out the playboy emperor and kissed him herself—she must want something.
Now that he thought of it, he’d received reports that a woman named Elizabeth intended to seduce him.
‘She won’t refuse. Who in this world dislikes wealth and glory?’
Yet again, Elizabeth shattered Nikolai’s expectations.
“I don’t want to.”
Unfathomable anger surged.
It wasn’t just because she dared defy an imperial command.
“What’s your reason?”
“I don’t care about that. All I want is to control Your Majesty like a puppet.”
“Is that how you speak to an emperor?”
“So what? You’re already deeply infatuated with me.”
Elizabeth was shamelessly confident.
Nikolai, his brow deeply furrowed, retorted,
“And if I’m not?”
Elizabeth’s expression changed as she sensed something odd.
Her eyes wavered briefly before she abruptly demanded,
“Your Majesty, could you sit down and stand back up?”
“What?”
“Try hopping like a rabbit or spinning around with your nose held like an elephant.”
Elizabeth was terrifyingly serious.
She even demonstrated, grabbing her nose and spinning in circles.
She was certain Nikolai would obey her command.
Swallowing both irritation and bewilderment, he asked,
“Why should I do that?”
“Because I’m a bewitching femme fatale!”
“You seem more like a brat who’s lost all sense of propriety.”
“I’m ruined!”
Elizabeth let out a sharp cry and clutched her head with both hands.
She finally seemed to come to her senses.
“You’d better start remembering who I am.”
“Y-Your Imperial Majesty…?”
“Do you grasp just how ruined you are?”
Nikolai snapped his fingers.
Armed royal guards stormed in.
Quick-witted knights surrounded Elizabeth.
Pale-faced, she stammered an excuse.
“I-I never meant to insult Your Majesty! It’s just… there’s a complicated situation…!”
“Insulting the emperor? That’s a grave crime deserving extermination of three generations.”
Nikolai growled lowly.
Elizabeth, who’d been so bold moments ago, now trembled violently.
“I-I’m so sorry! Please spare my life!”
She looked oddly familiar.
Nikolai had never kept pets, but he’d once seen a tiny silk mouse wriggling in Franz’s palm.
Black, round eyes. Glossy, shimmering fur.
Tiny hands and feet twitching in fear.
‘Was that called a hamster? This woman looks just like one. Elizabeth Emster.’
Swallowing the laughter threatening to burst out, Nikolai made a vow.
He would make this woman his—by any means necessary.
Male lead says he’s pregnant — and it’s female lead’s child
Something seems a bit off about this world.
Wang Zhao thought as she watched a pregnant man walking towards her…
Intro
Female lead finds herself in a world where the men who possess the ability to bear children.
As she navigates this unfamiliar reality, she is caught off guard by the sudden appearance of her boyfriend, who reveals that he is pregnant.
Is this truly her boyfriend?
Why can’t she recall any details about their time together?
She begins to doubt whether the child her boyfriend is carrying is even hers.
Is there a hidden reason behind her amnesia, or could it be a side effect of her sudden arrival in this strange new world?
Just when it seems the protagonist’s life couldn’t become any more entangled, her ex-boyfriend makes an unexpected appearance, raising questions about the protagonist’s past.
__________
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MANGA DISCUSSION
1 Comment
Chapter Comments (94)
Hahaha, poor Elizabeth! She was manipulated by that deceitful and fraudulent tyrant.
What is this? Is there a system helping her? Douglas doesn’t seem kind to me; I think he’s hiding something.
What? He’s manipulating her completely to find the other artifacts? And what is this, Casanova? Why are you doing this to my dear Elizabeth?
Inline Comments (3)
Claudia had disliked Nikolai for a very long time.
Hahaha, how disgusting! She’s been completely manipulated for their own interests. I think there’s a group trying to get rid of Elizabeth and the Emperor.
It was astonishing that such a small, delicate girl had developed a medicine eve
What kind of medicine is it? It’s making me more curious
Nikolai, dressed head to toe in black, glared at her with eyes as cold as ice.
Oh my God, the hero has arrived! Hahaha, thank God! Thank you, writer! 🥺🤭💗
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Miioo
Oh my God, thank goodness he wasn’t a womanizer, hahaha. But their first meeting was hilarious! The hero thought she looked like a hamster and her last name was Amster 😭💗🤭