Sister, I'm the Queen This Life (330 Chapters Left to Complete) - Chapter 1
Thud.
The golden-haired crown prince collapsed limply onto the floor.
Just moments before, he had trustingly accepted and taken a large bite of the spongata di vitello Araghnade had offered him.
This was the consequence of trusting her.
Ariadne nodded and handed Crown Prince Alfonso’s person over to the soldiers who had been waiting on standby.
Thus, the ruler of the kingdom changed in the most anticlimactic manner.
“I’m sorry, Your Highness.”
Ariadne murmured softly. She knew full well that what she had done was wrong. But she had someone she needed to protect.
Ariadne walked through the palace as if it were her own home and entered the king’s bedchamber. During her stroll through the royal palace, no one dared stop her.
Inside the king’s chamber, he was there—her blind love, the object of her devotion, her perfect fiancé.
Caesar de Como.
The king’s bastard son. The king’s child who could not become a prince. He shouted hoarsely,
“How did it go?!”
“…I have secured Crown Prince Alfonso. I’ve handed him over to Pisano’s soldiers.”
Upon hearing those words, the tension vanished from Caesar’s sculpted face, replaced by a radiant smile.
It was as if every candle in the room had been lit at once—the world brightened and grew warm.
Yes. This was enough.
Caesar leapt down from the royal throne upon which he had been perched and grasped Ariadne’s hands. Feeling the warmth of his touch, Ariadne shivered as his joy and affection seemed to spread through her.
“Well done. Once I’ve taken that wretch’s life, I’ll make you the noblest woman in the kingdom.”
“Caesar…”
“Father won’t last beyond today or tomorrow. It wouldn’t be surprising if he passed away at any moment.”
With the old king bedridden and Prince Alfonso now removed from power, no one remained who could stand against Caesar de Como.
“Thus begins our era.”
She cared nothing for this new era. If only he was happy, and if she could stay by his side, that was enough for her.
[This is the timeline separator]Caesar de Como, margrave of the Etruscan Kingdom and ‘cousin’ to Prince Alfonso, immediately raised his border troops and seized the royal capital as soon as King Leo III fell ill. His justification was that Prince Alfonso had attempted to poison King Leo III.
No one truly believed this claim, but no one dared voice complaints before Caesar’s private army filling the capital. And almost overnight, Prince Alfonso’s corpse was hung upon the walls of the capital city, San Carlo Castle. Caesar’s side announced that Alfonso had been captured at the border while attempting to flee to the rival kingdom of Galico.
“Behold! Prince Alfonso was a treacherous traitor who conspired with a foreign power to poison His Majesty the King and seize the throne! I, Caesar de Como—no, Caesar de Carlo—shall ascend as Regent Duke to safeguard the Etruscan Kingdom and protect the King! Citizens, trust in me and follow my lead!”
[This is the timeline separator]Even after his coup succeeded and he became Regent Duke of the Etruscan Kingdom, Caesar spent nine more years consolidating his position.
During that time, Caesar needed a woman by his side to help govern the palace. Since King Leo III’s queen had long passed away, the highest-ranking woman in the kingdom was Caesar’s fiancée, Ariadne.
When she first entered the palace, Ariadne’s reputation in high society was pitiful.
“She’s only twenty-two, they say?”
“I heard she grew up on a farm as a child. Supposedly, she has no refinement.”
“I saw her at a party—couldn’t even dress properly. Raised without proper upbringing, I suppose.”
Ariadne had become the symbol of all things unjust—the mistress of the king’s bastard who’d ousted the rightful prince. Herself the illegitimate daughter of a cardinal, a clergyman. She and Regent Duke Caesar weren’t even formally married yet, and her own refinement was far from exceptional.
She devoted her whole heart to Caesar, yet because she had nothing else to offer, she was mocked as a woman clinging desperately to a man. Naturally, ridicule toward the Regent Duke himself only grew louder.
One day, when the atmosphere of disrespect reached its peak, an incident occurred at a formal tea party hosted by her.
An elderly countess from the prestigious capital loudly broadcasted the secret of Caesar’s birth. Though this was common knowledge among the central court nobility, it remained obscure among provincial nobles who held lands on the frontier.
“I hear Regent Duke Caesar isn’t truly the prince’s cousin—but actually King Leo III’s illegitimate son?”
The central nobles had never approved of Ariadne and Caesar from the start.
Yet to brazenly blare Caesar’s story so loudly, right in front of Ariadne, crossed a line.
Her grip tightened sharply on her fan.
“Is it true?”
“I’ve heard that rumor as well.”
“An illegitimate child is the unclean product of a union not blessed by the Heavenly Deity…”
They had fully turned their backs on Ariadne, seated at the head of the tea table. From Ariadne’s seat, she saw only the noblewomen’s backs—a grand formation centered on the countess, treating Ariadne as if she were invisible.
Their posture screamed:
Even if you dislike it, what can a half-bred noble like you do—bastard daughter of a cardinal who clings to that unholy power?
“Surely it can’t be true. If that were the case, how could anyone possibly accept such a man as king?”
“But I heard a reliable account… about his mother…”
Ariadne bit her lip. Caesar was the purpose of her life, the object of her devotion. He was noble, strong, and had endured great suffering. She could tolerate others insulting her, but she would never allow anyone to slander Caesar.
“Only a clean birth record proves royal lineage or lack thereof. Regent Duke Caesar is clearly of unclean birth—unfit to become king.”
At the end of the conversation, the countess who had started it all declared her conclusion as if she were a chief justice.
Her decisive verdict echoed through Ariadne’s reception room.
Snap!
Ariadne thought she heard the sound of her patience snapping.
In that instant, she leapt over the table like a wild beast and seized the countess by the hair.
“Retract it!”
Ariadne shook the countess by her hair and growled like an animal.
“You know nothing! Without a shred of evidence!”
There must have been ways to win this fight using the capital’s refined noblewomen’s methods—but Ariadne, barely in her early twenties, poorly educated, and raised among maids on a rural farm, did not know those ways.
Yet she had to do something. She couldn’t bear the thought of her beloved Caesar becoming the laughingstock of these pretentious wretches.
“Retract those flippant words about Caesar—now!”
“Aaah!”
The countess shrieked loudly, her hair disheveled. Dessert trays and snacks flew through the air. The other noblewomen, who had been chattering like greenhouse flowers, froze like ice and stared at the scene.
Ariadne grabbed the countess’s hair with both hands and screamed,
“Just because you have a hole in your face doesn’t mean you can say anything! Correct yourself and apologize right now!”
“Unrefined! So utterly unrefined!”
The two women’s fierce screaming pierced the ceiling, but otherwise, an icy silence ruled the reception room.
This situation was unprecedented. The noblewomen didn’t even dare intervene in a hair-pulling incident right in the middle of palace high society.
Suddenly, the heavy stomping of men’s military boots shook the entire room.
Thud! Thud!
Royal guards marched in with disciplined precision and halted. Behind them, an exceptionally handsome man in formal military uniform entered calmly and stopped.
Tall yet slender, with movements slightly slower than normal, exuding an elegant charm—he was so strikingly handsome that eyes naturally gravitated to him even in a crowd of ten thousand. It was Caesar.
“Caesar!”
A smile spread across Ariadne’s face. It felt as if an army of heaven had descended.
‘He came to save me in this very moment.’
It was perfect timing. She hoped the flawless prince, descended from the heavens, would scold the enemy for the sake of his devoted, delicate woman—and deliver righteous judgment upon the wicked group who had dared disrespect them both.
She released the countess’s hair and sprang up like a squirrel, scurrying behind Caesar.
“They—!”
“What on earth is going on here?”
Caesar swept his auburn hair back and turned to Ariadne.
His voice was gentle and languid—but…
His lips were icy cold, and his eyes held no affection—only a hint of weary annoyance.
“Ariadne. Explain. What is this commotion?”
“It’s just that they were saying things about you—!”
“Good heavens! Countess Marquez!”
Caesar couldn’t hide his feigned surprise as he quickly, yet warmly, extended his hand.
“Countess, please take my hand and rise.”
Even the countess herself, whose hair had just been yanked, hadn’t expected the regent to take her side. She seized the unexpected opportunity. After giving Ariadne a slow, appraising glance, she took Caesar’s offered hand a beat too late.
“Unlike that girl, your manners clearly come from royal training, Regent Duke.”
Once risen, the countess immediately shook off Caesar’s hand and briskly dusted the part of her dress Ariadne had touched. She fixed Ariadne with a direct glare and scoffed loudly.
“Hmph!”
Other central nobles swarmed around the countess, asking after her well-being.
“Countess Marquez, are you alright?”
“Are you injured anywhere?”
“Your fiancée the regent truly overstepped her bounds!”
Ariadne wanted to shout back, ‘Who overstepped first?!’—but she bit her tongue at the sight of Caesar’s irritated, no, furious glare.
Just as expected, Caesar gritted his teeth and hissed quietly at her,
“What do you think you’re doing, laying hands on a central noble?”
He tried his best to keep his voice low, but couldn’t fully conceal his simmering anger and exasperation.
“Don’t you understand I need their support? Are you out of your mind, attacking someone from House Marquez?”
‘Just because I grovel before someone who treats me like dirt doesn’t mean they’ll become my friend, Caesar.’
Ariadne’s thoughts never left her lips. She merely bowed her head, cowed by Caesar’s imposing presence. In truth, if she talked back, he would surely throw a fit.
She never wanted to show the capital’s noblewomen a scene of herself fighting with Caesar—or worse, him belittling her. But he crushed her hopes without mercy.
“That woman is far more useful to me than someone like you.”
His low, gritted words cut through the noise in the reception room. Everyone present heard him clearly.
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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Chapter Comments (4)
Inline Comments (8)
“Let’s say you wanted to ask me to dance, Your Highness.”
Wah! Isabella is very cunning. Perfect fit for Cesar.
“My sister and I are so close that she herself insisted we match colors—she aske
Wow! Isabella’s impudence knows no bounds. We’ll pretend to believe you this time.
– “Didn’t that older lady make her cry?”
Every time Isabella amazes me with her cunning. Smart at turning the situation to her advantage. ( ◐ o ◑ )
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Ari realmente é incrível. Cada capítulo mostra o quanto ela é inteligente e sempre um passo à frente de todo mundo. Mal posso esperar para ver até onde esse plano dela vai chegar.
I’m still curious of what Alphonso meant by the last chapter
I’m still curious of what Alphonso meant by the last chapter