Aesha turned around in surprise, and in that moment, a man with red eyes, who resembled the past Karaf, threw the flower vase on the floor with a malicious expression.
It was the Karaf from the past.
The glass shattered into sharp pieces, filling the room with a piercing sound.
Sonia, standing behind them, was startled and covered her mouth.
However, he didn’t stop there. While glaring at Aesha, he mercilessly trampled on the lobelia flowers on the floor so brutally that their shapes became unrecognizable.
The violet tears flowing from the flowers stained the red carpet like blood, and at the same time, tears began to well up in Aesha’s violet eyes resembling the lobelia.
Although she looked beautiful even when crying, in the past, he detested her for not showing him a smile.
So, with a malicious expression, he uttered harsh words.
“…How dare someone present a bouquet to my Baroness with impure feelings. What a nerve this guy has.”
He stared at Aesha, who was crying without saying a word, then abruptly walked out of the room.
The current Karaf, standing at the door with an unbelievable expression, looked dazedly at another version of himself piercing through his body.
“Could it be that I’m having another nightmare now…?”
He came to see Aesha’s smiling face but ended up witnessing her crying. Moreover, it was due to an illusion that looked exactly like him.
“That’s fake… It’s not me.”
Karaf shivered in place, his eyes widening.
In the past, he separately summoned the Violet Marquis, who presented the bouquet, and removed him from the marquisate.
The charges were ridiculous, falsely accusing him of disrespecting Bannetza and tarnishing the honor of the imperial family.
The pitiful marquis, who had fallen from nobility to commoner overnight, clearly hadn’t been well-informed about the news from the palace, living on the outskirts of the empire.
He must have genuinely admired Bannetza, who symbolized his family with the lobelia flowers cultivated and raised for generations, wanting to present them as a gift.
Unaware of the flower language, ‘innocent love, think of me,’ contained in the lobelia flowers, and without knowing that the emperor would be greatly angered by it…
The current Karaf, like a bystander, was silently observing the scene right next to Aesha.
In the midst of this, even though the crying sound seemed to be echoing to someone outside, he felt the sound of sorrow coming from the fragile Aesha, who was silently crying with her hands covering her face.
Aesha buried her face in her hands and trembled. Karaf placed his hand on her slender shoulder, but his hand passed through her as if she were a ghost.
He couldn’t interfere with this situation as if he had become a ghost.
Behind him, Sonia’s hand appeared to comfort her.
Karaf stood in place, not knowing what to do. Somehow, he felt a chill running through his body.
Simultaneously feeling the desire to stop that crazy man who looked exactly like himself, Karaf, even if it meant hitting him, he also understood the emotions of that man because it felt like their minds were one and the same.
As if they had become one.
No, in fact, it was as if he and that man were one body….
“No… That’s not me. I wouldn’t make her sad. Unless she wants me to make her happy somehow….”
Karaf swallowed his dry saliva and continued to watch the unfolding scenes.
In Aesha’s room, now, no flowers other than black roses could enter.
Even the atmosphere in the funeral parlor wouldn’t be as gloomy.
The news that the marquis was dismissed for presenting flowers to Bannetza spread rapidly throughout the empire.
Some thought he had indeed made an indecent joke along with the bouquet, but those who knew the marquis’s character well behind the scenes cursed the emperor for punishing him unjustly.
His obsession with butterflies was truly famous.
Since that incident, no one dared to approach Bannetza or engage in casual conversation with her, fearing they might incur the emperor’s wrath.
No one knew what trick Karaf might use to retaliate.
Aesha gradually became isolated within the palace.
Although it wasn’t Karaf’s intention, he was the one who provided the cause.
Even at the ball, the nobles murmured, seeing her abandoned alone.
Aren’t they the empire’s worst flower and butterfly in history, they said.
The talk reached his ears, making him incredibly angry.
He firmly believed that in history, there was no emperor who loved Bannetza as much as he did.
Rather, it was her who didn’t love him, not himself.
He was confident that his love for her was unmatched by anyone else.
No matter how inadequate, he boasted that he was much better than the previous emperors.
His chaotic father left his butterfly mother and frolicked with other women.
In contrast, he was a hundred or a thousand times better, concentrating only on one woman.
However, as the days passed, Aesha seemed to wither away and her expression darkened.
Despite eating the best food in the palace, receiving top medical care, and enjoying the best conveniences, she seemed to be getting sicker.
The past Karaf bit his nails in anxiety and restlessness.
The Male lead Always Seduces Her with His Beauty (Matriarchy)
Xin Jiao Zhou is the leader of the world’s premier sect. She has just experienced betrayal from all sides, was poisoned in an assassination attempt, and faced death squad attacks while the poison was taking effect. After finally clearing out the scum from her sect, she was drugged again while trying to detoxify.
After waking up from a night of unconsciousness, she gained a “beautiful and kind-hearted” husband.
Xin Jiao Zhou: “???”
He fell ill.
She came to see him, bringing breakfast.
As she put down the breakfast and was about to leave, his hand slipped while holding the spoon. “Clank!”
She turned around upon hearing the noise.
He looked up at her, his eyebrows drooping: “My hand… has no strength.”
“Shall I… feed you?” she asked tentatively.
He opened his mouth cheerfully: “Ah—”
Thinking she was drowning, he jumped in without hesitation to save her, but nearly drowned himself. In the end, it was she who swam over to rescue him, giving him air underwater.
After emerging from the water, his ear tips turned red. He lightly brushed his cheek, tucking his sideburns behind his ear, revealing delicate, pink-tinged ear tips. He lowered his gaze, too embarrassed to look at her.
Xin Jiao Zhou: He’s truly beautiful, kind-hearted, and adorable.
A certain someone when disciplining subordinates behind the scenes: “If they don’t obey, just kill them.”
What’s that? She might already have someone she cares about in her heart? A certain someone: Find out who it is, kill them, and then there won’t be anyone.
What? She met a man by the riverside? What? That man even hurt her? A certain someone: Whichever hand hurt her, chop off his entire arm.
Love at first sight without realizing it, gradually falling in love, slowly getting closer…
Family and national grudges, schemes and desires, good and evil, crime and punishment, she and he face the future together, seeking justice with passion!
A naturally dark female lead who could accidentally destroy the world but is actually an honest person VS a weak, pitiful, and helpless but skilled fighter, beautiful white-cut black male lead
My heart is not of stone, how steadfast is your love? — Tao Yuanming “Imitating the Ancients (No. 3)”
— Reading Guide —
Cold female lead & dramatic black lotus with hidden yandere traits male lead
