Tame or Be Captured (Completed Main Story) - Chapter 001
“……Catch the butterfly!”
In the forest at sunset, a woman was desperately running barefoot, her feet covered in wounds.
Amid the forest blazing red like fire, her disheveled golden hair and white nightgown dress surged like waves.
Her clothes were torn by branches and grass, and cuts covered her slender limbs, yet she was so wholly consumed by escape that she scarcely noticed.
But perhaps because she’d been running too hastily, staring only ahead—
She failed to see a thick tree root protruding from the ground, tripped over it, and tumbled violently forward.
Her whole body felt as if it were shattering and tearing apart, but the menacing sound chasing close behind forced her to grit her teeth, rise again, and limp away on legs bleeding freely.
Her mind held only one thought: flee as far as possible from that man.
Soon, however, she reached a dead-end cliff, and Asha halted abruptly, gasping harshly as her breath caught in her throat.
Below the precipice, furious waves crashed against the rocks, sending up sprays of foam as if eager to devour her.
Her golden hair whipped wildly backward in the sea wind, tangled and disarrayed.
Just then, a chillingly low voice sounded directly behind her.
“……Did you truly believe you could escape me?”
Asha’s eyes widened, and she spun around sharply.
There stood the Emperor, draped arrogantly in a black cloak embroidered with ornate roses.
Between strands of jet-black hair, crimson eyes—cold and blood-red—pierced straight through her.
The youngest emperor in history, yet the only tyrant who failed to make a single flower bloom……
He was none other than Karaf Rode Etzheim, the Black Rose of the Empire.
Asha’s gaze flickered wildly, like a candle trembling before the wind.
Separate from his captivating features, merely meeting his red eyes filled her with terror—as if the fear were branded into her very flesh.
With every step Karaf advanced, Asha retreated one step backward.
Now, only a single pace remained before she would plummet off the cliff—a perilously narrow margin.
This had always been the distance between them.
Karaf fixed her with a glare blazing crimson with fury and spat out,
“……Dare you repay My grace in such a manner? I promised to keep you by My side and love you for life. Then why do you constantly try to flee from Me?!”
Asha met his eyes with regal composure, her violet gaze steady.
“When a butterfly chooses to abandon a flower devoid of fragrance, what is wrong with that?”
Karaf’s brow furrowed.
“I, who cannot bloom the Emperor’s flower, am already a useless butterfly. Please, let me go now.”
His red eyes flashed as he replied,
“No. That will never happen. You must learn that the more you try to flee from Me, the more miserable you become. Each time you run, I will catch you again and bind you to my side—breaking your ankles if I must, cutting off your wings if need be. You will never leave My side……!”
Seeing his obsessive, madness-laced eyes, Asha shut her own tightly.
Indeed, this man never changed.
If she returned to his side now, she would never gain freedom again.
She would spend eternity beside him like a pinned butterfly.
But a butterfly could never live grounded, dragging useless wings like mere ornaments.
A butterfly was meant to fly.
Even if its wings were soaked and ruined by storms, it must soar through the sky until its very last breath.
Asha offered him a faint smile and spoke softly,
“……Then I shall fly far away on these broken wings—to a place beyond Your reach, very, very far away.”
The moment she finished speaking, Asha took one last backward step and plunged off the cliff.
Karaf’s eyes widened as he let out a scream-like shout, but his voice was swallowed by the roar of crashing waves.
Her torn white nightdress fluttered in the wind like a butterfly’s wings.
Asha closed her weary eyes, feeling the wind wrap around her body.
Ironically, this was the first truly voluntary choice she had ever made while staying beside him.
Splash! The instant she plunged into the ice-cold water, Asha gasped sharply and snapped her eyes open.
As consciousness returned, an excruciating chill pierced her body like knives from all directions.
She lay slanted on a snowy slope in a forest blanketed in pure white.
She had surely fallen from the cliff, yet this was no seaside.
Though perhaps she’d landed in the forest by luck, it was unmistakably deep midwinter—and utterly landlocked, with no trace of the sea.
Still too dazed to grasp her situation, she lay in the sloped snowbank catching her breath when threatening male voices and footsteps suddenly sounded directly above her.
“He can’t have gotten far! Search every inch of the area!”
“Yes, sir!”
Asha’s eyes widened, and she sharply sucked in her breath.
She didn’t understand what was happening, but one thing was clear: the moment she opened her eyes, she was being hunted again.
Slowly, she turned her trembling gaze and cautiously scanned her surroundings from the corner of her eye.
Every direction was filled with bare branches and pristine snow.
Instinctively, she recognized where she was.
This was Herta, her hometown in the Empire’s northern region—where she’d lived before being captured and taken to the Imperial Palace.
Fully alert now, Asha quickly looked down at her attire.
She had clearly been wearing a white silk nightgown dress before leaping from the cliff, but now she wore leather clothing typical of the north.
However, the worn, threadbare fabric—soaked through with snow—was practically worse than wearing nothing at all.
Thankfully, she seemed unbroken, with no serious injuries, but the cold had seeped into her bones. Asha hugged herself tightly, her face pale, shivering uncontrollably.
Her teeth chattered audibly on their own.
Having regained her senses and considered several possibilities, she arrived at one profoundly unreal conclusion.
“Could it be… I’ve traveled back in time…?”
Asha let out a hollow laugh, but the vivid reality coursing through her body made her stop mid-laugh, her mouth hanging open in dumbfounded shock.
The memory of this day remained crystal clear in her mind—it was the first time she almost died, an event she could never forget.
She’d briefly left her village to gather food in the forest when bandits chased her, forcing her to hide on this very slope.
Because Karaf had issued a decree: anyone who captured and delivered a member of a minority group to the Imperial Palace would receive a massive reward. Thus, she’d been forced into a life of constant pursuit.
And she herself was one of those minorities.
Numb from the cold, Asha quickly tried to recall how she’d safely returned to her village that day.
Just then, an arrow whizzed past and struck one of the bandits.
“……Aaargh!”
All nearby bandits turned toward the arrow’s origin.
“Damn it! Who do they think they are, strutting around like stray dogs? They move in packs just like mongrels!”
“……Hey! That’s our line! Hand over everything you’ve got and scram, old men!”
A young boy leapt nimbly from behind a tree, shooting arrows rapidly. The bandits panicked, shielding their heads as they fled.
“Uh, boss! They’re getting away!”
“……Catch them.”
At the deep-voiced command, men who’d been hiding like shadows behind the trees instantly stormed out and began chasing the bandits fiercely.
Asha was utterly startled—she hadn’t even realized people were hiding there.
With agile movements reminiscent of wolves on snow, they swiftly surrounded and ambushed the bandits from all sides.
In an instant, hunters became prey.
For someone like her, who had always lived as hunted prey, this reversal held profound meaning.
In the end, the bandits were stripped of all possessions and chased off completely naked.
They trudged away pathetically, hugging themselves with both arms, clad only in undergarments—a sight both pitiful and absurd.
The men openly pointed and burst into laughter.
“Good haul today! How about a meat feast for once?”
“Sounds great!”
They cheerfully divided the clothes the bandits had abandoned, wearing them themselves, and loaded salted meat bundles onto their horses.
A boy with straw-colored light brown hair approached the apparent leader, trailing behind him.
“Boss, are you really just letting those guys go? Shouldn’t we teach them a lesson so they never dare trouble anyone again?”
“We don’t eat human meat.”
The man replied firmly without even glancing at the boy. It was a metaphor.
The boy pouted his lower lip, then bobbed his head with a “Yeah, yeah,” and shuffled back.
Asha watched all this from the slope, holding her breath silently.
This day had occurred when she was twenty—just having reached adulthood.
Thanks to these strangers who appeared out of nowhere, she’d survived and returned safely to her village that day.
The déjà vu sensation confirmed it—she truly had traveled back in time.
Though bewildered by how this could happen, she suddenly wondered if this might be the “butterfly” ability she’d never known she possessed.
An ability she’d desperately longed to understand—but only manifested involuntarily at the moment of death……
Asha felt another hollow laugh bubbling up inside her.
Meanwhile, the man called “boss” prepared to leave, stroking his horse with a gloved hand.
With deep steel-gray hair, broad shoulders like a beast, and a solid build—this was unmistakably the man rumored to have left his minority clan for unknown reasons.
After wandering since leaving his village, he’d apparently formed a new group and become its leader.
Suddenly, he glanced toward where Asha was hiding.
Their eyes met—his icy blue gaze locking onto hers, which peeked out from the snowbank like a timid rabbit’s.
Asha flinched and quickly ducked her head.
Though he must have clearly seen her, he turned away as if nothing had happened and told his companions,
“Let’s head back.”
“Yes, sir!”
In the past, Asha had stayed hidden just as she was now—failing to step out even after making eye contact—and had trembled here for a long while after they’d fully departed, waiting until not even a single footstep could be heard.
Her eyes darkened with resolve.
Just as they finished their preparations and mounted their horses—
“……Wait a moment!”
The man called “boss” turned his head slightly toward the voice.
There stood a woman with flowing pale golden hair and violet eyes tinged faintly with ash-gray.
After exhaling a few ragged puffs of white breath, Asha, though shivering violently, fixed him with a determined gaze and opened her mouth to speak.
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
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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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No way…did Karaf set up this situation with the assassin or kidnapping attempt to earn points?
Not practically, it is a form of torture. Jackel didn’t jump into the water on his own while tied to the boulder.
It seems backward that the Empress is invited to a Duchess’ tea party.