Spent the First Night with the Male Lead, Thinking I Was Terminal (10 Chapters Left to Complete) - Chapter 2
“Hm.”
Clea quietly opened her eyes and looked at the scene unfolding before her.
She recalled the words she had heard from the man lying beside her just before she lost consciousness.
He had clearly told her not to regret it.
The moment she remembered those words, a laugh escaped her.
‘Could the word regret even come up when it comes to someone like you?’
The man who would inherit the next imperial throne of the empire.
Regardless of gender, everyone longed to get close to Admon.
Clea looked down at him, a man who could not even be compared to her one and only fiancé.
At the end of his long eyelashes, he was sleeping so deeply that no one would notice if someone carried him away, and what she saw there was his neck.
Until just yesterday, that place had been as pure white as the rest of his skin, but now it was stained red in various spots.
Seeing the terrible marks someone had left behind, Clea felt a sense of satisfaction.
Because she had been the first to leave traces on a body that even the female protagonist had not yet touched.
Although at this point in time they had no relationship at all, this man would soon become Aria’s lover, just as in the original story. She had no intention of interfering with that.
She was simply grateful to Admon for giving her one last memory worth keeping.
“Anyway, this dalliance will be your last as well.”
She clicked her tongue as though regretful, but she did not take back what she had said.
The end of the original story was already approaching.
In the year they both turned twenty-two, Admon and Aria would marry. The only remaining event after that was the death of the villainess—herself.
Although the process had changed slightly, nothing essential had changed.
She smiled bitterly.
Having finished her thoughts, Clea was the first to rise from the bed.
Admon, who was sleeping as though he had fainted, showed no signs of waking.
She regarded the previous night as nothing serious.
She simply thought of it as a mistake made once under the influence of alcohol.
“Still, if I leave nothing behind, he might be shocked.”
Out of consideration, she saw paper and a pen conveniently placed on the desk in the room and left a single line.
Perhaps when he woke up and saw the note, he would fly into a rage and come looking for her to kill her, but she wasn’t particularly worried.
To someone whose life was already running out, death was not that frightening.
In that sense, the words she left were concise.
[Just think of it as being bitten by a passing dog.]With that, she stepped outside the door without any regrets. A familiar person was standing there.
Prince Obern Philip, the loyal vassal of the Crown Prince.
[This is the timeline separator]“The moment you reveal this matter, Princess, your life will be forfeit.”
“I have no intention of demanding responsibility from His Highness. So I’d appreciate it if you stopped looking at me like that.”
“Then please sign here at once.”
The instant she stepped outside, she saw Obern, Admon’s fiercely loyal aide.
The man who had always shown her only a cold expression was now glaring at her with clear killing intent.
The moment she boarded the carriage, he thrust a single sheet of paper and a pen in front of her.
‘It’s a contract stating that nothing happened last night.’
No matter how much it was for his lord, wasn’t this a bit too rigid?
Even though a considerable number of people had already seen them together at the banquet, sealing the mouth of one party wouldn’t stop the rumors from spreading.
Yet Clea signed in the signature line all the same.
The moment she finished signing, Obern snatched the contract away, but Clea didn’t care.
To someone staring death in the face, a contract was a meaningless piece of paper.
‘Death.’
Her life had an expiration date.
If you asked whether it had been that way since birth—no, it had not.
To begin with, she had possessed Clea’s body.
More precisely, she was inside the book she was currently living and breathing in, <>.
As the title suggested, it was a world where curses existed.
And originally, the person cursed was not her, but the female protagonist, Aria Herscher.
In the original story, she had eventually succeeded in lifting the curse placed upon her.
“That person is not someone who would suit a woman like you.”
“I suppose not. Not someone like me.”
Obern’s gaze hardened coldly.
Although he had only faced her a few times, Obern had already heard more than enough about her to be sick of it.
That she had repeatedly crossed the line toward Aria, the most likely candidate for Crown Princess.
To the current him, whether everything Clea had done was true mattered less than whether the master he served might be harmed because of her.
He only wished for Admon to avoid any scandal.
Under that blade-sharp gaze, she smiled as though mocking Obern, but in truth the one she was mocking was Clea herself.
Having already read the novel, she knew how to break the curse.
Yet even knowing, she could not lift the curse placed upon her.
She could only laugh at her own pitiful situation—knowing yet unable to do anything about it.
‘Love, of all things.’
Something Aria could easily achieve, yet for her right now, an impossible method.
Namely, ‘receiving the true love of another person.’
Unlike Aria, not a single person in the entire empire loved her.
Even her own family was only thinking of how to sell her off for the highest price.
The man called her fiancé was too busy staying by Aria’s side.
When she had first possessed this novel and still harbored some lingering attachment to life, she had wondered if perhaps at least one person might come to love her.
But no matter what she did, it was impossible to reverse the impression that had been cemented from the very beginning.
Even when she performed good deeds, people called it hypocrisy.
When the family was struggling due to successive failed businesses and she stepped forward to help, no one paid any attention.
Even when she lived quietly like a dead mouse, someone would somehow drag her back into the spotlight.
Years passed, yet people continued to hate her, slander her, and take pleasure in her suffering.
That was also the reason she had completely let go of any lingering regrets.
“What was it all for in the first place? Why did you aim for His Highness while abandoning the fiancé you supposedly loved so terribly?”
“I don’t love him.”
“Ha, Princess. Have you forgotten how you treated Grand Duke Lloyd all this time?”
“You’re right. Why did I do that?”
“How shameless.”
Ignoring Obern, whose expression openly showed disgust, Clea turned her gaze toward the window.
The one who had loved Lloyd was Clea, not her.
She at least knew why Clea had loved Lloyd.
While everyone shunned Clea Odoi, only the young Lloyd had not hated her.
That alone had been reason enough for her to cast aside even a princess’s dignity and try to stay by Lloyd’s side.
‘The Duke Odoi side also quietly supported it, thinking it would be good if a pawn was connected to the Grand Duke’s house.’
Somehow, she had ended up engaged to Lloyd Persy.
Yet Lloyd, furious that he had been forcibly engaged against his will, ended up hating Clea.
Clea had been shocked by that, but it was already in the past.
Afterward, Lloyd became little different from one of Aria’s devotees. Jealous of that, Clea turned into the villainess who tormented Aria.
And now, only the death of Clea, who was liked by no one, remained.
‘We’ve already arrived.’
Arriving at the gloomy ducal residence, she soon stepped down from the carriage.
The moment Clea alighted, the carriage door was slammed shut and it sped away like it was fleeing.
Clea watched it for a moment before noticing the person standing in front of the mansion.
“There seem to be especially many people frowning at the sight of me today.”
“Clea Odoi, where have you been?”
The very man she had just been thinking about inside the carriage.
Seeing Lloyd standing there like a guard dog protecting the house, Clea thought to herself.
From the beginning, almost no one ever smiled at her. Yet Lloyd’s face was particularly filled with displeasure.
He was glaring at her as if asking whether she had nothing to say to him.
Since Clea truly had nothing to say, she tried to ignore him and go inside.
“You have something to say to me.”
“I have nothing of the sort.”
“So that’s how you want to play it?”
He grabbed the wrist of Clea as she tried to pass him and enter.
She was dumbfounded by the resentment mixed in his voice. She narrowed her brows at the pain in her captured wrist.
She tried to shake him off because it hurt, but Lloyd ignored her gaze and headed into the mansion.
While being dragged inside, Clea wondered.
Why on earth had she ever liked a man like this so much?
[This is the timeline separator]The moment they entered, the servants inside the mansion had to hurriedly prepare a tea set. It was because Clea’s fiancé had suddenly appeared.
Clea paid it no mind, but since he was nominally a grand duke’s son, they bustled about to keep up appearances.
“What happened yesterday?”
“What do you mean?”
“What do I mean? Ha! Clea Odoi, are you rebelling against me right now?”
Rebelling, my foot.
Ignoring Lloyd’s words, she savored the aroma of the hastily prepared tea.
Though the family was collapsing due to successive failed ventures, it was still a ducal house—the tea they prepared was of the finest quality.
Meanwhile, Lloyd frowned in anger at Clea’s attitude.
If it had been the original Clea, she would have been terrified by his every action, but the current her was different.
She had no obligation to cater to his every mood like the servants of the Persy family.
“Fine, Clea. I’ve let you be until now. But even so, does it make sense for someone who has a fiancé to seduce another man?”
At Lloyd’s shameless words, Clea almost burst out laughing.
“Then is it fine for you to approach Lady Aria with impure intentions?”
“Why are you bringing up Aria here!”
It always ended up like this.
Clea was sick of this relationship.
If she pointed out a problem, he should at least show some effort to fix it, but the other side always responded with pure hypocrisy.
Seeing him act as though he didn’t know what he had done wrong, Clea had long since grown tired of him.
“Let’s break off the engagement.”
She conveyed her wish once more, something she had said countless times before.
Whenever he heard these words, Lloyd would frown as though furious.
In truth, Clea had thought that if she brought up breaking the engagement, he would immediately agree.
Yet every single time, Clea had been unable to end it.
The public believed Clea refused to let go of Lloyd and that was why the engagement continued, but that was a complete misunderstanding.
“That again.”
“If you’re tired of hearing it, then just stop hearing it from now on.”
“I’ll say it one more time, Clea.”
The only reason their precarious relationship had not yet snapped was solely because of Lloyd.
“I have no intention of breaking off our engagement. Even if you die.”
Clea felt a headache coming on.
She wanted to stand up right now, push him away, and be alone.
But if she did, he would probably grab her again like he had at the door.
“So answer me. Where were you last night?”
She didn’t understand why he was so angry when he didn’t even love her. Clea frowned delicately as she pondered.
‘Should I slap his cheek? Or kick him there? Which would hurt him more?’
In Clea’s mind, there was no room for worrying about how to answer him properly.
Male lead is reincarnated to save his wife
I’ve also read this one twice already. The female lead is kinda soft and gets embarrassed easily—not really my type, but the plot is definitely worth reading. Hurry up and read it, y’all!
Intro
When Shen Yuan encountered Su Jin again in his previous life, she had already become the Prime Minister of the current dynasty. As for him, the former top young master of the capital, he had long since fallen into the abyss, becoming a singer on a pleasure boat.
After a song ended, he was redeemed and sent to the Su Residence.
Su Jin respected and cherished him, gave him a roof over his head, and bestowed him with warmth. Shen Yuan fell deeper and deeper, but before he could express his feelings, Su Jin passed away.
Shen Yuan died to follow her in death, but instead, he returned to when he was fifteen years old.
At that time, he was not yet engaged, and Su Jin was just a poor scholar.
Shen Yuan gritted his teeth, casting aside all his pride, and thought of ways to coax and entice her every day.
The colder and more indifferent Su Jin was towards him, the more proactive Shen Yuan became.
He was not afraid of being mocked by the world, only wanting to marry his Wife-master early, to hold her hand and never let go for a lifetime.
[Note: This story will not specifically point out the male lead’s reincarnation time point; it’s all in the details. Whenever you feel that the male lead is acting strangely, he has most likely been reincarnated.]
[Touch the gear icon in the bottom right corner of the screen to move to the next chapter if you want.]
Chapter Comments (17)
Inline Comments (209)
“Your Highness’s lips, perhaps.”
Oooh girl…😏 She wants something else for dinner i see 🙈
At this rate, heading straight to the bedroom instead of dining was only a matte
….😏🙈 You perverts sitting in a tree k.I.S.S.I.N.G😆
He desperately wanted to shout right then and there, grab Clea’s wrist, and drag
These brute losers ….how can their duchy even functioning properly…? That’s what I wanna know
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I wonder if subconciously he knows that she is sick.
Its quite weird that his aide calls her a close friend when its quite clear that Admon barely registers her presence 🤣
Urgh …i love this …she ain’t no damsel in distress, she’s fierce….i think I’m in love