The Dark Lord Obsesses Over His Fake Wife (Completed Main Story) - Chapter 1
The woman had vanished.
“Estelle?”
The man searched for any trace of her like a madman.
But there was no reply. And that meant only one thing. He clenched his fist so tightly that blue veins bulged across his hand.
‘It’s a lie.’
She had abandoned him and disappeared.
The memory of that moment, once seeming unreal, now returned with piercing clarity. Yet even in his disarray, he scoured everywhere for her.
The room where she often stayed, the rose garden where she smiled saying the sunlight was lovely, even their private place where she’d shyly smiled at him.
‘Everything feels exactly as it was.’
Now, even her life or death was uncertain. The mere thought that she might already be dead squeezed his heart painfully.
His handsome face hardened into an expressionless mask.
‘No amount of this will bring my wife back.’
Even if she were dead, he had to retrieve her body—whatever remained—and bind it to his side. A dark madness stirred, driven by a single purpose.
‘Even if I don’t know exactly how she vanished.’
If there was a way to escape, there must also be a way to capture and confine her.
‘Estelle.’
His beloved wife, with rose-pink platinum hair that shimmered like spring blossoms and mysterious navy-blue eyes.
‘So it’s come to this.’
It was all his fault.
For causing her to lose that beautiful smile entirely.
‘But even so, I can’t do without you.’
Though dawn brightened the sky, the whole world remained as dark as night. The happiness she had given him had become fertilizer for yet another hell.
His chilling gaze fell upon his wedding ring.
An elegant platinum band set with a deep blue sapphire.
He had wanted a gemstone matching her blue eyes, while she had wished for a red one mirroring his own.
But in the end, the wedding ring was chosen according to his will.
Thus, this ring became the sole remnant of her left in his hands.
Closing his eyes, he reverently kissed the wedding band. Somehow, he still felt connected to her through it.
A faint, trembling whisper echoed in his ears.
‘Goodbye, Johan.’
He would surely find her again.
And he would lock her away—even if it meant crushing her ankles.
“We’ll stay together forever.”
The man, Johan Blanchet, opened his eyes with noble grace and held a languid smile at the corner of his lips—the very smile she had sometimes gazed at as if entranced.
“Forever.”
Estelle was an orphan adopted into the Libertan ducal household.
The reason a nobody orphan could be adopted into the prestigious Libertan ducal family was simple.
‘The death of Lady Yestella.’
Yestella, with golden hair that sparkled like the sun and deep blue eyes, was dearly beloved.
People adored the angel born into the devilish Libertan household with all their souls.
Thus, when Yestella passed away young from an incurable illness, no one could bear the emptiness. They sought something—anything similar—to fill that unbearable void.
And so, Estelle was chosen as the girl most resembling her.
Because her blue eyes reminded them of young Yestella, because they’d met “fatefully” at the orphanage, and because she looked charmingly sweet—unlike a typical orphan, more like a sugar doll.
Estelle seized an incredible stroke of luck, becoming the ducal family’s adopted daughter for a host of vague reasons. Yet no one recognized that this wasn’t true fortune at all.
The Libertan Duke and Duchess, whom she’d hoped would become loving parents, abused her after adoption.
From the start, they’d only taken her in because they needed someone to embody their memories of their daughter.
Thus, whenever Estelle acted in ways unfitting her role, they starved her for days or locked her in cramped spaces.
Perhaps to hide the abuse, they barely let her leave the mansion, disguising it all as affection.
And so it continued until the Libertan ducal house collapsed under mountains of debt.
Honestly, I knew a day like this would come.
‘We’ve really gone under.’
I’d suspected it ever since they recklessly expanded their business, but I’d known about the Libertan family’s downfall even earlier.
‘Because I read it in a book.’
Years ago, while unconscious inside a closet, I learned a shocking truth: this world was a novel, and I was its heroine.
‘No wonder my life felt so unbearably harsh.’
According to the story, a lifeline of a deal would be struck with the debt-ridden Libertan ducal house.
‘Marry me, and I’ll erase all your debts.’
The other party happened to be the Blanchet ducal house—their sworn enemies—but selling off a daughter they didn’t even care about was still a profitable bargain.
Thus, I married Duke Blanchet, unaware I was a purchased fake wife, fell hopelessly in love with my scheming husband, and was ultimately betrayed. I even tried fleeing with the male lead midway, only to be caught and killed cruelly.
‘I can’t die like that.’
Since escaping the Libertan household had repeatedly failed, there was only one option left.
‘Gain his trust, then run.’
Fortunately, unlike the original story—where I didn’t even know the villain held a grudge against the Libertans—I understood the background well enough.
At that moment, the butler burst through the door.
“Young miss. His Lordship summons you.”
The day I’d been waiting for had finally arrived—the day I’d be married off to the villain as if sold.
I kept my eyes obediently closed. The secretive villain had blindfolded me and was taking me away in a carriage.
‘So far, everything’s following the original plot.’
The Duke of Libertan, who’d suddenly called for me, had recited exactly the words I’d hoped to hear.
‘Now it’s time to repay this household’s love by standing in for Yestella.’
‘If you understand gratitude, you’ll know what you must do.’
And now, here we are.
The moving carriage came to a halt. The moment footsteps approached, the blindfold slid smoothly from my eyes.
My vision didn’t return immediately—likely from wearing the blindfold so long. As I blinked quietly, my surroundings slowly came into focus.
Right before me stood a man.
A stunningly handsome man filled my entire field of view, so breathtaking I nearly forgot to breathe.
Noble black hair, aristocratic and refined features, and above all, crimson eyes that gleamed like blood.
Johan Blanchet.
The Empire’s most eligible bachelor, who’d rebuilt his ruined ducal house at a young age and become its ruler.
Though his face blended languid charm with dignified handsomeness, his powerfully built frame radiated tension merely by being seen.
“Hello, my lady.”
When he gave a gentle eye-smile, a deep dimple formed on his left cheek. His previously cold face instantly brightened into something boyishly refreshing.
“Is this the first time you’ve seen me like this?”
“……”
“Was the journey frightening?”
His lazy voice sounded genuinely concerned. Despite myself, my heart fluttered at his striking appearance.
He truly was a dangerously alluring man.
‘It’s all an act. Calm down.’
This handsome man’s goal was to toy with me until his grudge was satisfied—and then utterly destroy me.
‘You’ll never escape.’
‘Your whole family must suffer in hell to the very end, just like mine did.’
Recalling the villain’s revenge from the original story helped me recover slightly from the shock of his beauty.
But the man didn’t stop there. His gloved hand covered mine.
His large hand completely engulfed mine with room to spare. My body tensed at the sudden contact. He whispered softly into my ear.
“Could it be, my lady, that you’re afraid of me?”
In the original, Estelle had been awestruck by her husband’s looks at first, but upon hearing those words, she’d been so terrified she burst into tears.
‘I understand.’
Even though he whispered gently, an oppressive aura emanated from him—like standing before a threatening beast, crushed beneath its weight.
“No. I wasn’t afraid.”
But I couldn’t show any sign of it. His crimson eyes narrowed slightly as he observed the reaction ‘Estelle’ would display.
‘What does the villain expect?’
I recalled how the villain saw me. Estelle was an orphan adopted in place of Yestella, the Libertan duke’s daughter who’d died young of an incurable illness.
A blessed adoptee who’d grown up happily and luxuriously under the enemy Duke of Libertan.
In truth, she’d been abused—but no one knew that. Slowly, I took his hand and gave a bright smile.
“I was just surprised to meet you for the first time.”
“Is that so?”
“It’d be strange for a wife to fear her husband upon their first meeting, wouldn’t it?”
“Strange?”
The man watching me gave a small, amused smirk.
“Many people are terrified the moment they see me. Honestly, my lady, you have more than enough reason to be.”
“Why?”
My reflection in his crimson eyes looked harmless.
“Because you were abandoned by your family and sold to me.”
He added slowly, deliberately,
“And for money, at that.”
He smiled at me with those chilling crimson eyes, like a predator eyeing its prey.
I felt his breath ghost over my nape. My hair stood on end, and goosebumps rose.
“Don’t you feel any betrayal toward your parents?”
Johan looked at his new wife.
Estelle Libertan.
To him, she was nothing more than a target for revenge.
Truthfully, Estelle—who wasn’t even the Libertans’ real daughter—had committed no sin. But she was cherished by the Duke and Duchess of Libertan as if she were their own.
That alone made her a crucial pawn in his grand scheme of vengeance.
“Hello, my lady.”
Creamy soft rose-pink platinum hair, features as sweetly lovely as a carefully crafted sugar doll. Her slightly frightened reaction was exactly what he’d wanted.
That was why he’d deliberately blindfolded her.
“Could it be, my lady, that you’re afraid of me?”
Especially since she’d just been sold for money by the family she trusted—it was the perfect state to be swayed by confusion and anxiety.
Yet Estelle’s reply was somewhat unusual.
“It’d be strange for a wife to fear her husband upon their first meeting, wouldn’t it?”
Somewhere along the way, her fearful demeanor vanished. Her eyes—clear and bright like a baby rabbit’s—stared at him with innocent curiosity.
That gaze strangely stirred desire within him.
“Because you were abandoned by your family and sold to me.”
So Johan decided to provoke her once more.
“And for money, at that.”
A faint ripple stirred in Estelle’s navy-blue eyes.
“Don’t you feel any betrayal toward your parents?”
“No betrayal… at all.”
The woman lowered her platinum-white lashes—whiter than platinum itself—and spoke carefully.
“I’m already grateful they adopted me, an orphan, and raised me all this time.”
Unexpected, yet perfectly textbook in its virtue.
“I’m past the age where my parents need to care for me anymore. It’s my duty now to fulfill my role.”
“And how do you plan to fulfill that duty?”
“I’m not entirely sure myself, but since we’re married, I’ll do my very best to be of help.”
Now Johan finally understood why she could act so naively.
‘So she really was raised gently, just as rumored.’
Because of that, she couldn’t grasp the situation properly and believed this marriage was normal.
‘Truly…’
She looked perfectly suited to be toyed with.
Johan slowly reached toward her face. His fingertips gently cradled Estelle’s cheek and brushed her ear.
Estelle flinched slightly, as if suddenly aware of his touch.
“You’ll do your best?”
He twisted the corner of his mouth into a smirk as he asked,
“But things don’t always go as my lady wishes.”
“Th-then…”
“Then?”
Johan tilted his head slightly, mirroring her unconsciously puzzled expression, and met her eyes.
“What would Your Grace like me to do?”
There was something oddly captivating in the purity of her reply.
Suddenly, he recalled the moment he’d struck the deal for her. The debt-ridden Duke of Libertan had proposed,
‘The girl is as lovely as rumored—you’ll surely be pleased, Your Grace.’
‘Do as you please until your anger is satisfied. After all, she carries the Libertan name—your hatred must run deep.’
He’d offered up the adopted daughter he claimed to have raised with love like a sacrificial lamb.
‘Does it truly not matter to you what happens to the daughter you cherished so dearly?’
‘…One must use every asset available. She’ll understand—for the sake of the Libertan lineage.’
He must have dared make that offer only because he assumed Johan wasn’t the Blanchet family’s murdered eldest son, but merely a distant relative.
Thus, the Libertans had cast her away.
They’d even handed her over personally, as if to soothe their own resentment.
A fake wife, sold off and abandoned even by her own family.
And as if to confirm those words, this fake wife showed not a trace of resentment toward them.
Her strangely devoted demeanor stirred nostalgic memories, erasing even his urge to mock her.
‘This is rather odd.’
He’d long awaited this moment of revenge.
He should be savoring this sweet vengeance to the fullest—yet something kept nagging unpleasantly at the corner of his mind.
“This really is quite a difficult matter.”
Estelle nodded and gave a shy smile.
“But I’ll do my best to be as helpful to Your Grace as possible.”
Perhaps she was even more innocent and pure than he’d imagined.
Or perhaps this girl, abandoned by everyone, reminded him of his own most miserable days.
But that was all it was.
It wasn’t enough to change his plans.
He still intended to make this foolish woman learn the sins of his adoptive parents—and then destroy her in the most wretched way possible.
The villain left me in a room of the mansion and disappeared.
Only after Johan closed the door and all traces of presence faded did I finally catch my breath.
‘I didn’t answer strangely, did I?’
Since I’d never expected anything from the Duke and Duchess of Libertan, I genuinely felt no sense of betrayal. But maybe that part seemed suspicious—I worried needlessly.
‘Still, I handled it well.’
One more reassuring thing: just like in the original, I had separate chambers from the villain.
Though following the original plot wasn’t always good, at least I could sleep peacefully at night.
Knock knock.
The moment I sat down on the bed, a maid knocked on the door and greeted me. She had brown hair and a calm-looking demeanor.
Yet she felt oddly familiar.
“Hello, Mistress. I’m Betty, assigned to serve you starting today. It’s an honor.”
‘I remember her.’
In the original, she was the maid who betrayed me on Johan’s orders.
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
_____
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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MANGA DISCUSSION
6 Comments
Chapter Comments (70)
Could Estelle be an important person? Could her family be high-ranking and have kidnapped her?
Estelle’s hair color is unique and seems rare.My dear Estelle, you are very kind.
Estelle suffered just as much as you did. Your intelligence is wrong.Estelle, eat well and grow stronger.
That’s the only action you can take in the enemy’s house.
Inline Comments (21)
Estelle was a greater villainess than even the Libertan ducal couple. Leandro al
Leandro sees himself as a chivalrous knight who will save even the wicked and bring them back to their senses. Arrogant.
‘She doesn’t understand what’s truly precious.’
What is valuable? An arrogant fiancé abandoned her.
All the composure he’d so skillfully maintained was utterly useless before such
Love works wonders. Johan is still unaware of his true feelings.
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agustus_orchid
You must assume a different identity and live under it.
If possible, you should purchase an elixir that changes your appearance.
Otherwise, you must change your hair color or eye color.
agustus_orchid
Useless people.
Harassment under the guise of love is very common.
I’m sorry about the child Estelle.
Children should only be loved.
agustus_orchid
How reasonable is it to take revenge on an adopted daughter?
One shouldn’t believe every rumor.
Johan, are you naive?
agustus_orchid
hopeless case
you need to run away from this guy right now. his eyes are not normal.
agustus_orchid
Johan, you scary crazy man.
Go bankrupt the duchy, Estelle, don’t get involved.