“Lady Estella, the master is calling for you. He says there is something important to discuss since you are an important guest.”
The servant who came fetched the girl away.
The butterfly that lingered near the girl disappeared in an instant. Riandro stood in the garden as if waking up abruptly from a sweet dream.
“Your Grace, why are you in this garden?”
“Who is that girl?”
Riandro prodded the hesitant servant to get the answer he wanted. The answer he received was truly shocking.
“In fact, Miss Estella passed away from an incurable disease some time ago. The person Your Grace just saw is the newly adopted Estelle in Libertan.”
“But why was the engagement between Libertan and Felcis maintained?”
“…It’s a union between families, isn’t it? Perhaps His Grace wishes to continue the engagement with Miss Estelle, even in place of the late Miss Estella, for the sake of the union.”
A shocking death of the first love, and now a girl appearing to replace her.
“Why would you have such a dreadful thought.”
“I’m sorry. Miss Estelle was quite greedy…”
Riandro felt repulsed by himself for confusing Estella and Estelle. So, even for a moment, he couldn’t believe that the excitement he felt was like true love.
But the emotions that had risen strongly once were not easily erased.
“…Perhaps she pretended to be Estella on purpose.”
Come to think of it, Estelle was wearing the dress Estella had worn in the past. Thinking that way, Riandro’s confusion between Estella and Estelle was somewhat understandable.
“It was a trap to deceive me.”
She had deliberately pretended to be Estella to that extent, and that’s why he mistook Estelle for Estella.
“Did she want to secure the engagement with Estella to that extent?”
Even Estella’s death was kept a secret, maintaining the engagement. Riandro found all her actions, even beyond the grave, repulsive and contemptible.
“It’s insulting the deceased beyond the limit.”
As if justifying Riandro’s feelings, Estelle was notorious as Libertan’s wicked woman.
“She’s a woman I can’t forgive at all.”
Now, looking back, Riandro hadn’t confused Estelle and Estella. The more he reflected, the more he realized that the two were entirely different people.
He had simply fallen in love with the pretty girl he saw at the moment he met Estelle.
He couldn’t admit that he fell for the girl admiring the butterfly in the pink roses.
“What I, what I wish for you is.”
Riandro’s eyes reddened. His lips trembled.
“I want to ask one thing. If, at that time, I hadn’t broken off the engagement, if we hadn’t, would you and I be different now?”
If he had tried to confirm the truth by calling Estelle ‘Estella.’ If he had tried to meet her again before Estelle married Viscount Blanchett.
Many assumptions about the past kept piling up.
“Now, even though we have nothing between us, still, if it had been like that, we would have—”
“We wouldn’t have had anything between us.”
“We wouldn’t have! If we hadn’t broken up, we would have naturally married.”
Estelle smiled, the same look in her eyes as when she crushed his rose.
“Even if something had changed, the relationship between you and me would have remained the same. Then and now, you are the same person.”
Riandro couldn’t understand Estelle’s words. Estelle looked at Riandro’s puzzled face and chuckled.
“See, you don’t understand anything, right? That’s why you’re not suitable.”
Riandro replied, biting his lips.
“I can’t understand. You never gave me a chance to understand you, did you? At least you should have given me a chance…”
“But I don’t want to.”
Estelle smiled as if mocking.
“You never cared about my circumstances either.”
“I[—]”
“Viscountess Felcis. Do you still think your son is in good condition?”
Estelle called the nearly fainting Viscountess.
“In the future, it would be better for the Viscountess to educate her own children well before advising others. Honestly, look at yourself now.”
Estelle, looking kindly at Viscountess and Riandro, spoke.
“You’re pathetic.”
Estelle left the venue with the returned Diana.
“Viscountess Felcis, are you okay?”
The ladies approached the messy Viscountess after the situation was somewhat sorted out.
Her wretched son had gone out in a daze, and when she came to her senses, Viscountess was left alone in this place.
‘Experiencing such a big disgrace…’
Viscountess, who had never suffered a disgrace in the social circle, was furious. She forcibly combed her hair to appear cultured, but it was already too late.
‘How will everyone look at me now?’
Thinking about what had happened today, her head was already dizzy.
While it was okay to make any noise behind the scenes in the social circle, making a reputation-disrupting move in an official place resulted in great ridicule.
Viscountess had already been exposed through her son’s mouth.
“But ma’am.”
One of the ladies who held Viscountess’s hand gently scratched her innermost feelings.
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
