Stop Coming On to Me (Completed Main Story) - Chapter 5
The road in front of the famous high-end restaurant was bustling with elegantly dressed people. From the restaurant, the light flowed out more beautifully than the smell of food.
Those who came out after dining were laughing as if they were happy. I felt I could never laugh like that.
I walked past them aimlessly.
I took pride in how tough and mean I could be. The only thing I could rely on, the only thing that kept me alive, was just that, but even that had its limits.
I hated that people thought of my mother as a harlot. I swear it wasn’t because of the insult I felt.
When I was young, I heard such words more than once or twice. Such insults naturally followed a woman who bore a fatherless child.
But that and this are different. Words spewed to provoke me and words spread under the assumption of truth cannot be compared.
I couldn’t let my mother face such insults. To keep hating the mother who abandoned me so irresponsibly and cruelly, I couldn’t create reasons to feel sorry for her.
The count was also a problem. The debauchery of nobles is hardly news, but it was different if the person involved was Count Roar. He was respected even among nobles as a clean and upright man.
If a rumor spread that such a man had a child with a cheap harlot, it could even shatter His Majesty the Emperor’s trust.
Even if I ignored all this and graduated from the academy, the countess was waiting for me. I didn’t doubt for a moment her words that she would do everything to block my path.
In the end, my efforts were nothing from the start.
Since when had the countess been thinking like that? Had she quietly watched me study without sleep for months, waiting until the very last moment…?
“Darn it. Struck by lightning and falling flat…”
“What did you just say?”
A man’s low, fierce voice suddenly rang out.
Lifting the edge of my hood slightly, I saw a noble my age.
Only then did I take in the scene unfolding before me.
Black hair and tall stature. A well-built, overly handsome man was holding a commoner woman’s wrist. The woman looked terrified.
I had happened to curse while passing between them.
I didn’t know why such a young lord was wandering alone, but I was too tired to explain that my curse wasn’t aimed at him.
Besides, looking at him, it seemed I could keep cursing.
God had sent a villain before me, giving me a chance to vent the anger and helplessness eating away at my bones.
The woman whose wrist was held said tearfully,
“I don’t know why you’re doing this. Please let me go, young lord. I’m begging you!”
Looking so decent yet harassing a stranger on the street.
Such guys get into the academy and ruin the empire’s future. It wasn’t my concern anymore, though.
It wasn’t my concern, but I couldn’t help the boiling rage inside me.
I was so reckless that I thought even if I caused trouble, the count would handle it. In the empire, few could outrank the count.
In a terribly broken state of mind, I said defiantly,
“Curious about what I just said?”
The man’s fine, thick eyebrow twisted sharply on one side.
The moment I saw him, I thought I had made it in life. The village chief’s son who bullied me as a child was like a sack of filth, but this villain before me was on another level.
His tone was insufferably smug, though.
“Don’t meddle in others’ affairs and go your way.”
“I love my neighbor as myself, so it doesn’t feel like someone else’s business. Hey, are you okay?”
The woman answered tearfully,
“I was just passing by…!”
“Let go of her hand and talk.”
“I see what you’re thinking, and your courage is admirable. I’ll forgive your crude words, so leave now.”
What made me explode wasn’t anything else but the word “leave.”
These wretched noble brats!
The density of lofty nobles around me was suffocatingly high. How could anyone breathe like this!
“That jerk’s wrist…”
“…What?”
The man’s eyes widened like lanterns.
“Do your parents know you’re acting like this on the street, young lord?”
“Now…”
As I opened my mouth to give him a proper tongue-lashing, the woman shook off his grip and bolted. She was as fast as the wind.
The man shouted at me,
“You let her get away!”
“…!”
Startled by the force in his shout, I flinched, causing my hood to slip off. I quickly pulled it back on.
At that moment, a knight appeared from the direction the woman fled, blocking her path. She collided with him, and he grabbed her arm, causing a money pouch to drop from her grasp.
At a glance, it was a noble’s money pouch.
“Gasp…!”
I swear, in that moment, my jaw dropped and snapped back. All the curses I’d held back surged up, but I couldn’t utter a single one.
So, this noble man had caught a pickpocket, and the pickpocket had used my sympathy to try to escape.
Treating such a person like a creep, my life was already in ruins, now shattered further…
The man turned to me with an arrogant smile, as if asking if I’d seen clearly.
I had no choice.
Time to run.
As I started sprinting, the man’s urgent shout quickly faded.
“Stop right there!”
Following the knight, a man appeared, his face hidden under a cloak hood. As the knight tried to drag the woman away, he said,
“Let her go.”
“But…”
The black-haired man who first grabbed her, Rocard Kaidel, approached and said,
“The money’s recovered, so let her go.”
“Know you’re lucky.”
As the knight released her, the woman fled into the crowd without a word of thanks.
Rocard said to the cloaked man,
“Let’s head back, Your Highness.”
“You ruined my mood.”
“But the meal was delicious, wasn’t it? Right, Sir Falcon?”
The knight laughed and replied,
“Your legs are so fast, I barely kept up, Lord Kaidel.”
“I’m like that.”
The cloaked man, the Second Prince Greyan, found it odd that Rocard was staring intently not at where the pickpocket fled but at the opposite street.
Noticing Greyan’s curiosity, Rocard grinned playfully and turned.
“Then, let’s go back.”
I hurriedly returned to the count’s estate. Sprawling on my bed, I laughed hollowly.
For a bastard like me, even time to grieve wasn’t allowed. Even on the day my future vanished, I had to cause absurd trouble and flee.
Naturally, I’d never mingled with nobles. Even on the night Misha threw a lavish debutante with piles of money, I stayed in my room.
The count had said it was fine to attend, but I refused. It wasn’t just because of the countess, who seemed ready to devour me if I showed even a shadow. I didn’t know how to dance and didn’t want to enter a room full of haughty true nobles.
So, my only chance to meet nobles was academy admission, but since that fell through, I wouldn’t run into that tall black-haired guy again.
Since graduating from the academy to become a tutor for a noble family was now unlikely, the chance of even accidentally meeting that tall black-haired guy was slim.
My life was just slim.
Tossing and turning until dawn, I pondered how to tell the count I was giving up on the exam and fell asleep.
The first thought in my head upon waking in the morning was, “Don’t tell him!” I’d go to the exam hall, pretend to take the test, and slip away elsewhere.
Then the count would think I failed, and after some time, I’d say I was too tired to take next year’s exam, and that’d be it.
I was still young, and solving all the world’s problems with my own strength was overwhelming. It wasn’t even possible.
With that resolve, I felt a bit more bearable. I lazed in my room, hearing Misha’s hysterical screams now and then.
The imperial law notebook I hadn’t fully memorized irritated me, but I ignored it.
When the night before the exam arrived, the count visited my room. He looked at me with pity as I jolted up from bed. He believed I was resting from studying.
Somehow, I couldn’t meet his eyes.
“Are you ill?”
“No, no!”
I quickly tidied my hair and stood.
“Just do as you always do tomorrow. Don’t worry about the results.”
“Yes, of course, Count.”
“…”
The count looked at me as if he had something to say.
Since he wasn’t one to hesitate, I felt uneasy. I got scared, wondering if he’d noticed I was deceiving him.
“You’ll soon be of age.”
“Ah…”
“We should hold a debutante before the academy entrance ceremony. It’s late, but better than not doing it. It’s a fierce social scene, after all.”
As expected, the count assumed my admission was certain.
I instinctively lowered my eyes. I bit my teeth, afraid a curse I couldn’t voice would slip out.
“…If I pass. But I’m not confident. If a kid like me could get in, the academy wouldn’t be the academy, would it?”
The count smiled and patted my head.
“Sleep. You’ll need to wake early tomorrow. I’ll take you to the exam hall.”
I slipped back under the covers. The count left only after seeing me lie down.
My conscience ached. My conscience ached, and my heart ached.
When scheming men desperately battle for her favor in the male harem
This one’s also on my reread list! The rivalry, scheming between the men in the imperial harem are just as intense and thrilling as in classic palace drama novels, where concubines fight to the death. Give it a read, girls! I promise you won’t be disappointed.
Synopsis:
“I am not worthy of her… but I still want to be by her side, even if only as a loyal dog…”
Those were the painful whispers of Yue Guanyi – the proud Crown Prince of the Great Qi, who was torn between deep love and a guilty conscience. Despite holding the supreme power of the Imperial Guard, he still could not forget the dark past when he was sold into a brothel.
Fate played a cruel twist when Qiu Shuzhi – a young female official who had just passed the imperial examinations with top honors – stepped into his life. She did not know that she was the one who had saved him from a tragic fate many years ago. And now, her heart was the target of pursuit for both Yue Guanyi and the powerful Empress Dowager Qin Qing.
While Yue Guanyi only dared to silently care for and protect the one he loved from afar, the Empress Dowager Qin Qing openly expressed his feelings and did not hesitate to take advantage of his power to approach Qiu Shuzhi. The covert struggle between the two most powerful forces in the imperial court began…
Trigger warning: All men in this novel are yandere style.
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How sweet are they!! I’m curious how well our ML will come to know Roba. I have a feeling he’ll know more about her than she does herself. And we finally get to hear about the princess Roba will come to support. Roba will be the “little lion cub” she raises. I wonder if she has the intention to rise to the throne. Or if she really has no familial bond to the second prince. I think Roba will come to believe the princess hold romantic feelings towards ML and try to avoid him. ML knows the princess just wants him as a shield and will openly pursue Roba, Roba will just this he’s trying to get her in trouble with the princess. And the princess wouldn’t support ML courting Roba because she using her as protection. And ML wouldn’t like that cause only he can protect Roba, Roba can protect herself tho. This is my guess, I wonder to see if this is accurate or not. They are so cute hhehehe
How sweet are they!! I’m curious how well our ML will come to know Roba. I have a feeling he’ll know more about her than she does herself. And we finally get to hear about the princess Roba will come to support. Roba will be the “little lion cub” she raises. I wonder if she has the intention to rise to the throne. Or if she really has no familial bond to the second prince. I think Roba will come to believe the princess hold romantic feelings towards ML and try to avoid him. ML knows the princess just wants him as a shield and will openly pursue Roba, Roba will just this he’s trying to get her in trouble with the princess. And the princess wouldn’t support ML courting Roba because she using her as protection. And ML wouldn’t like that cause only he can protect Roba, Roba can protect herself tho. This is my guess, I wonder to see if this is accurate or not. They are so cute hhehehe
There is an error!! I spent more than half the chapter trying to figure out who the “earl” was—> it’s her father, “the count”. I’m a little confused, is she back countdom or back in the village? The duke seems very kind. I wonder if the prince will want Roba as an apothecary, and will make the ML bring her to their side.