Seducing the Tyrant Instead of My Favorite (Completed Main Story) - Chapter 9
It wasn’t a stalker or a spy who’d burrowed through the hawthorn hedge.
Just a boy who looked barely ten years old.
“Who are you?”
“…….”
“Don’t you know you’re not supposed to come in here? Didn’t the knight uncles warn you?”
The boy, wearing a worn-out hunting cap pulled low over his brow, gave no answer.
He only looked up at me with lime-green eyes that shimmered almost golden in the sunlight.
His gaze was defiant, yet the boy was as beautiful as an angel from a Raphael masterpiece.
His cheeks were flushed rose-pink, and his eyelashes were long and neat like a doll’s.
Despite his noble appearance, the boy wore an aqua jacket and pants fit only for low-ranking valets.
Had he inherited them from an older apprentice?
Black ink was smeared messily on his loose, oversized cuffs.
But what caught my eye even more was the boy’s battered hands.
Small hands, swollen and red.
‘Is he a valet apprentice? Has he been beaten or bullied?’
Memories of my own childhood—too painful even to call happy in polite fiction—rose to mind.
“They say your parents were philanderers? That they abandoned you and ran away?”
“My mom told me not to play with kids like you!”
“Don’t act so high and mighty. You’re just an orphan!”
People say children mean no harm?
That they don’t know any better?
All nonsense.
Children weren’t as innocent as adults liked to believe.
They knew exactly who was rich and who was poor.
They knew whom they could torment, and how to make it more fun.
Take my word for it—I’ve lived it.
“I’m sorry for startling you, little one.”
I reached out my hand toward the boy, who reminded me so much of my past self.
He narrowed his eyes sharply, clearly displeased at being called “little.”
“Who are you, woman?”
“You speak so rudely right off the bat? Can’t even greet an elder properly?”
“Cut the nonsense and just answer me.”
“Aren’t you going to get in trouble acting like that?”
Though I spoke gently, the boy held his head stiffly high.
His impertinent tone hadn’t changed a bit.
“Answer me, woman. Where are you from, and what does your father do?”
“Little one. I don’t hold it against you, but this is my room, and you’re an uninvited guest. Why should I answer such a rude question?”
“You’re as stupid as you look. Of course you’ll answer—because I asked.”
“What?”
“Woman. Just whose permission did you get to be in this Canary Room?”
My temples throbbed instantly.
But nothing was more foolish than getting seriously angry at a child.
What was needed now? A proper lesson!
I grabbed the impudent boy’s cheeks with both hands.
“Let go of me!”
He was thin, but his cheeks felt delightfully soft and chewy—like rice cakes.
Perfect for stretching sideways.
The boy squirmed, tears welling in his eyes.
“It hurts!”
“Little one, when you’ve done something wrong, you apologize first. Or beg.”
“How dare this lowly woman try to teach me!”
I’d grown up without parents myself, but now I finally understood how the saying “I wonder what my parents looked like” came to be.
“Little one. You don’t have any friends, do you?”
I crouched down in front of him and rested my chin on my hand.
The boy, wary I might pinch his cheeks again, flinched.
“How can anyone want to play with you if you’re this rude to someone you’ve just met?”
“I have lots of friends!”
“Don’t. Lie.”
The boy’s lime-green eyes trembled faintly.
For the first time, he looked like a child his age.
“Just because you play together doesn’t make them real friends. A true friend helps you when you’re really struggling and stays by your side no matter what.”
“What are you even talking about?”
“You don’t have friends, so you dig holes like this and sneak in just to pick fights, don’t you?”
“Who said I dug a hole? This place was originally mine—!”
The boy clamped his mouth shut.
He either had secrets he couldn’t share or simply didn’t want to say more.
His pale face tilted upward defiantly.
“I don’t need friends.”
“Same here. So will you please just leave?”
“You’re kicking me out right now?”
“I never liked kids much to begin with—and especially not ill-mannered brats like you.”
I gave him a cheerful grin.
The boy looked genuinely shocked.
“I’ve never met a woman as bluntly honest as you. Most people pretend to adore children even if they hate them—just to avoid gossip.”
“You sure know a lot for a kid. Anyway, will you just scram?”
“I’ll do whatever I want here. No one can stop me.”
The boy planted his hands firmly on his hips and shot back.
He looked less like a valet and more like a young tyrant.
“Heh. You’re exactly like a man I know.”
“Who?”
“A thoroughly nasty fellow—bad-tempered, foul-mouthed, and loves tormenting others. The worst of the worst.”
“How dare you compare me to such a person! Unforgivable!”
The boy swung a tiny fist at me.
Unlike his sharp tone, his punch was weaker than a kitten’s paw.
Beads of sweat glistened beneath his hunting cap.
‘The weather’s cool—why is he sweating? Now that I look, his face is awfully pale too.’
I reached out and touched his forehead.
He had no fever—in fact, his skin felt unnaturally cool, which worried me.
The boy jerked my hand away roughly.
“Don’t touch a man’s body so carelessly!”
“Me… a man?”
“Unmarried men and women must keep their distance. Don’t you even know that?”
He was probably just parroting what he’d heard, but I was briefly moved.
‘So Confucian ideals still live in this world too. Bravo—men and women shouldn’t share quarters after age seven!’
Feeling a rare pang of homesickness, I pushed myself up from my slouched position.
Waving my hand as if shooing flies, I said,
“Fine, I get it. Now go. If you don’t, I’ll call someone.”
“Are you threatening me?”
“You look like you’ve run off, abandoning your duties. Won’t you get in trouble if you’re caught?”
The boy flinched again.
But once more, he refused to back down.
“I have every right to be here. And I still have questions for you!”
Tired of this pointless argument, I cleared my throat loudly.
Then I called out at the top of my lungs,
“Hellooo, knights! We’ve got an intruder here!”
“Can’t you keep quiet?!”
“Oh my! There’s even a hole here! Oh, how frightening!”
“I told you not to!”
With a pouty face, the boy clung desperately to my leg.
Armored knights pried off the insolent koala.
“I’ll never forget what happened today, woman!”
Even as the knights carried him away, the boy shouted furiously.
I beamed and waved him a cheerful farewell.
“It was nice meeting you—let’s never see each other again.”
After the boy left, I inspected the hole.
Sadly, it wasn’t big enough for me to crawl through.
“What’s this? Trash?”
I found a torn scrap of paper in the hole.
When pieced together, it revealed a monster drawn in black ink.
The skill was extraordinary—its vicious fangs and glaring eyes rendered with remarkable precision.
Though torn, the drawing felt too precious to simply discard.
I gathered the fragments and returned to my room.
I thought my encounter with the boy had ended there.
[This is the timeline separator]Two days later.
Nikolai, having decided to accept Kares’s brilliant strategy, came looking for Elizabeth.
As before, a bronze lock hung on the doorknob of the Canary Room.
Nikolai felt both aimless fury and immeasurable longing at once.
If he opened this door, Laila would surely greet him with a bow.
He’d dreamed this same dream many times.
Sometimes it felt like a dream that she no longer existed in this world.
“Nicky. Promise me—you won’t forget me. And you’ll protect our Pinch.”
Laila’s dying voice briefly settled in his ear before vanishing without a trace.
A sharp ache rose from beneath his sternum.
What expression would Laila wear if she knew he hadn’t seen Franz in so long?
Pushing aside his thoughts, he unlocked the door.
“Elizabeth?”
Elizabeth lay on the bed, turned away from him.
She must have heard the door open, yet she didn’t stir at all.
Not only had she been kidnapped, but her last hope—the marriage to Marquis Nettleton—had also come to nothing.
In front of her, Nikolai had threatened to reduce her fiancé to a servant of the imperial household and take her younger sister as his concubine.
‘It’d be strange if she weren’t angry. I deserve her contempt.’
He was used to being despised.
But this time, he wanted to avoid it.
To be honest, he wanted to explain.
To say there were reasons he couldn’t help it.
But an emperor wasn’t someone who sought understanding—he was one who gave commands.
No matter how unreasonable or stubborn, Nikolai’s words became law.
Yet why did his mouth keep drying up?
The deepening cherry blossom scent only doubled his tension.
“Have you gotten used to life in the palace?”
He’d meant to sound indifferent, but his voice cracked slightly.
Elizabeth still didn’t move.
She seemed determined to ignore Nikolai completely.
And for some reason, that made his heart sink.
“How long will you pretend not to know me?”
He reached for her shoulder but hesitated.
Only then did he realize she’d been asleep.
Curled up, Elizabeth frowned in her sleep.
Was she having a nightmare?
Her hidden eyes darted rapidly beneath her lids.
Her fine eyelashes revealed her emotions even more delicately.
Pain, terror, anxiety—an urgency beyond all three combined.
Her full lips parted, and a half-muffled voice slipped out.
“D-don’t do this… Please, just once…”
Save me.
Her lips clearly formed those words.
“…No! Stop!”
Elizabeth gasped and flailed her slender arms through the air.
Nikolai noticed the red bruises still lingering on her wrists.
He squeezed his eyes shut.
His own knights had inflicted those wounds—so they were his own doing, really.
He wanted to beat those knights to death for handling Elizabeth so roughly.
He nearly had.
A wave of emotion surged within him—too complex to be called mere guilt.
Since meeting Elizabeth, an unfamiliar, unpleasant vibration had refused to leave him.
If it were only unpleasant, he wouldn’t be so unsettled.
Nikolai grasped Elizabeth’s wandering hand.
It was small, soft, and warm.
And so, without thinking, he murmured,
“Don’t be afraid. As long as I’m here, no one will harm you.”
Elizabeth had much to do for the empire and the imperial family.
Nikolai had every duty to protect her.
Thus, it was only natural he’d want to burn away all her fears and eradicate the source of her anxiety.
No matter how he dressed it up, it was still deception.
‘I’m the one who humiliated Elizabeth’s fiancé and locked her in this beautifully crafted prison. I’m the man she fears—and the one who harms her.’
Nikolai swallowed a bitter smile.
Fortunately, Elizabeth didn’t seem to have heard his words.
Nikolai clapped his hands sharply once.
“Aaah!”
Elizabeth jolt upright like a spring.
He felt a little guilty for waking her so roughly, but showed nothing.
Blinking sleepily, Elizabeth looked up at Nikolai.
On her drowsy, half-awake face bloomed a delicate smile, like a flower kissed by spring sunlight.
It was a smile that would brand itself onto Nikolai’s heart—but he never expected to overhear her inner thoughts as well.
“What? It’s that tyrant wrecking everything!”
“?!”
“I thought you were Ladia for a second.”
Elizabeth clicked her tongue and tried to drift back to sleep.
Nikolai’s thick eyebrows shot sharply upward.
He couldn’t possibly endure any more.
Turns Out He’s Been Secretly in Love with Me
One-line summary: He acts like he doesn’t like her but is actually playing hard to get.
Synopsis:
Xu Muzhou like her. He has liked her for a very long time, and through repeated schemes, he finally closed the distance with her.
But this is still far from enough.
He wants to be the one who stands out among her many suitors, to fight for her attention, and to make her take the initiative to pursue him.
_____
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.
[Touch the gear icon in the bottom right corner of the screen to move to the next chapter if you want.]
MANGA DISCUSSION
1 Comment
Chapter Comments (88)
Hahaha, what? It’s obvious that the one who will fall in love first is Emperor Casanova.
Oh, what is this underworld flower? The emperor is a vile scoundrel. Why does he neglect the child like this?
What?! Emperor Casanova, you’ve fallen under Elizabeth’s spell! 🤭💗
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! 🥺🤭💗
YOUR COMMENT
2. Inline comments are now available. Tap the end of any line in a chapter to share your thoughts instantly.
Log in to comment.
Miioo
Hahaha, Elizabeth is so sweet when she wakes up. The best thing about her is that she’s honest.