The End Of The Special Contract Marriage (Completed Main Story) - Chapter 1
At the end of the damp stone stairs lay the underground prison.
When the soldier handed over the silver candlestick and left, Aracila removed her robe’s hood.
Beyond the iron bars, a woman in a tattered prisoner’s uniform sat dejectedly on the floor, eyes closed, looking utterly miserable.
“Sister, it’s me.”
“…Ari?”
Hearing the familiar voice, Iris opened her eyes and slowly crawled toward the bars.
Aracila hastily set the candlestick down and knelt, meeting her sister’s gaze.
“How did you even get here…?”
“Frederick helped me. I’m sorry I couldn’t come sooner. I was held up with all the questioning.”
“No, thank you for coming.”
Through the narrow gap in the bars, the sisters gripped each other’s hands tightly. In the faint candlelight, Iris’s face became clearer.
Aracila’s expression twisted as she took in her sister’s disheveled hair, the bruises covering her emaciated body, and her pale, gaunt face.
“Oscar Vandermir, that bastard… While someone’s being tortured and reduced to this state because of him, he goes and comfortably takes his own life?”
“Aracila…”
“If that wretch hadn’t committed treason, you wouldn’t have ended up like this!”
Aracila cried out in furious rage, biting down hard on her lower lip. Blood beaded on the swollen, repeatedly bitten flesh.
Clear hatred rose over her tear-filled eyes.
“This is all his fault… No! It’s our family’s fault for forcing you to marry that man!”
“Ari, calm down.”
Iris soothed her sister with a hoarse voice. Despite having been dragged here alongside her husband on charges of treason and enduring brutal torture, she remained composed.
“My marriage couldn’t be helped. You know that.”
“Yes, I know! It was a political marriage promised before His Imperial Majesty and had to be fulfilled. But it’s not like there was no way to cancel it.”
“There wasn’t, Ari… Truly, there wasn’t…”
Iris managed a weary smile with lips swollen pale. Her bony fingers gently patted her sister’s hand.
“You didn’t know, but Grandfather, the Former Duke, had already petitioned His Majesty to bequeath his title and estate only to the grandchild who honored the marriage pact. So this union was bound to happen, no matter what…”
Hearing this truth for the first time, Aracila’s face turned incredulous.
“Are they insane? Why would they recklessly take someone else’s precious granddaughter hostage for their own inheritance? If that’s how it was, they should’ve at least raised a proper heir themselves!”
Fuming, Aracila slammed her fist against the bars—then abruptly stopped, checking on her sister.
Iris, too, had lowered her eyes, her face clouded with regret.
“If not for that, Lord Vandermir would’ve inherited the dukedom instead…”
“You mean the captain of the Red Hawk Knights, who recently left for the north because of the Duke’s treason?”
“Yes. I only found out after the wedding—that my husband had been locked in a succession struggle with his younger brother. And that’s why he married me…”
Before she could finish, Iris covered her mouth and coughed violently. Aracila worriedly rubbed her sister’s back.
“Are you all right, Sister? If I’d known it’d turn out like this, I should’ve married him myself. If it were me, I’d have yanked every last hair from that damned Duke’s head and crushed his hands so he couldn’t possibly commit treason.”
She muttered it with genuine remorse.
Meanwhile, Iris’s once-vivid green eyes—once as lush as midsummer foliage—had swiftly dulled and grown hazy.
“Ari… I have one last request…”
At that voice, barely above a whisper, Aracila leaned closer, straining to hear.
“Tell Mother, Father, and Adrian I’m sorry. And please take good care of the family.”
“Sister, I…!”
“It’s time for you to leave.”
Just then, a soldier entered, grasping Aracila’s arm. Though she resisted, her strength was no match for his firm grip, and she was dragged out despite her unfinished words.
Days later, Iris was executed as the wife of a traitor. Clutching the newspaper bearing news of her sister’s death, Aracila wept uncontrollably.
“It’s so unfair—my sister knew nothing at all! It should’ve been me… I should’ve been the one to marry him…”
She kept repeating those words.
[This is the timeline separator]Late at night, in the Marquis Hugo residence.
“—Hah!”
Aracila gasped awake, eyes snapping open. Her entire body was soaked in cold sweat.
She sat up, clutching the blanket, and looked around. Even in the darkness, she recognized the familiar contours of her own room.
‘What’s going on? I was just…’
She had been kneeling on the floor, grieving her sister’s death.
Beneath her slowly fluttering lashes, her blue eyes were dazed. Her heart pounded fast and erratically.
Glancing down at herself—dressed in her usual nightgown, seated on the bed—Aracila quickly realized.
‘It was just a dream.’
As far as she knew, Iris had never married and had no connection whatsoever to the eldest son of House Vandermir.
What had just happened had never occurred in reality.
Yet Aracila’s body began trembling as if chilled. Cold beads of sweat gathered again on her forehead.
Because she knew this hadn’t been just an ordinary dream.
‘I saw Sister’s future in my dream…’
She possessed a rare ability—the gift of foreseeing future events through dreams.
Sometimes it was something minor, like getting drenched in a sudden downpour the next day because she hadn’t known rain was coming. Other times it involved those around her—like a friend’s carriage accident months in advance.
Her visions weren’t limited to herself but encompassed people close to her as well.
The drawback? She couldn’t summon these dreams at will.
If tonight’s dream truly was a premonition, it would be her first in five whole years.
The dreams came randomly, and there was only one way to confirm whether a dream was prophetic.
‘Given how my magic is churning, this must be a true vision.’
Placing a hand over her heart, Aracila checked her internal magical state and became certain.
After a prophetic dream, her magic always surged uncontrollably, just like this.
Having skillfully calmed her magic, Aracila’s expression soon hardened with gravity.
‘But that means Sister will die soon…’
Both Iris and herself in the dream looked almost exactly as they did now.
At most, it meant this tragedy would unfold within the next few years.
‘No, I have to stop her from marrying him.’
But how could she possibly prevent a political marriage arranged with House Vandermir?
Aracila lit every candle in her room with magic and sank into thought.
Option one: Uncover Oscar Vandermir’s misdeeds and threaten him into canceling the engagement.
‘…No. The Vandermirs have the power to crush any resistance we might offer.’
If the succession of House Vandermir hinged on this marriage, they’d force it through regardless of any scandal.
Even the prestigious and ancient House of Marquis Hugo couldn’t stand against House Vandermir—the foremost of the Empire’s three pillars.
Then option two: Aracila Hugo marries Oscar Vandermir herself.
Although she’d long considered herself a lifelong single, she’d marry if it saved her sister.
However…
‘I’m just not sure I can handle it.’
She wasn’t confident she could stop herself from punching him the moment she saw his face—or worse, killing him.
She briefly imagined what punishment she’d face for murdering Oscar Vandermir.
Killing a noble carried a minimum 30-year sentence, and if the Dukedom submitted a formal plea, the penalty would be even harsher.
‘…Ugh. Even if Frederick helped, there’s no way I’d get acquitted.’
That would mean rotting in prison for over thirty years—a fate utterly unacceptable for someone with dreams she still longed to fulfill.
Finally, option three: Aracila Hugo marries the other Vandermir.
‘If not for that, Lord Vandermir would’ve inherited the dukedom instead…’
‘You mean the captain of the Red Hawk Knights, who recently left for the north because of the Duke’s treason?’
Exactly—the Lord Vandermir of the Red Hawk Knights.
‘Marrying a knight isn’t exactly appealing…’
But since there were only two Vandermir brothers, her choice boiled down to Oscar or Lord Vandermir.
After hours of deep contemplation, as dawn began to break, Aracila made her decision.
‘This is the best I can do. I’ll just close my eyes and do it.’
At breakfast, once the whole family had gathered, she announced,
“Mother, Father, Sister, Adrian—I’ve decided to marry. My fiancé will be Lord Vandermir.”
To be precise, she informed them.
The peaceful breakfast table of House Hugo instantly plunged into chaos.
“Our sweet Ari must still be half-asleep.”
“Aracila, what trouble have you gotten into now? Be honest with Mother.”
“Ari, are you feeling ill? Jackson, go fetch the family physician.”
“You can’t marry, Sister! You’re still too young!”
After a barrage of disbelief, worry, and scolding, Aracila calmly spoke up.
“Jackson, I’m not sick—don’t call the physician. I’ve been awake since dawn, so I’m fully alert. I haven’t caused any trouble either. And Adrian, twenty-one is plenty old enough to marry.”
Her serious rebuttal prompted the Marchioness to set down her utensils and adopt a more serious tone as well.
“Then why the sudden change of heart? Weren’t you the one who swore you’d never marry and gave us both gray hair over it?”
“That Aracila Hugo is dead. The one reborn now is practically dying to get married.”
Seeing her second daughter declare this shamelessly without batting an eye, the Marchioness was reminded of her behavior three years prior.
‘Mother, Father, Sister—I’m never marrying. I’ll lay my bones in the Mage Tower, so just accept it.’
Back then, she’d shocked them with a unilateral declaration—and apparently, time hadn’t changed her a bit.
“Ari, but why Lord Vandermir of all people? You’re a mage—you’ve always hated knights, haven’t you?”
“Right! You even told me not to learn swordsmanship!”
While the Marchioness sipped water to calm her boiling temper, the Marquis and Adrian stepped in.
In the Setron Empire, relations between mages and knights were notoriously poor.
The imperial family had long rotated support between the two factions, deliberately pitting them against each other.
Periodically, tensions flared into open hostility, and both sides endlessly competed for dominance.
“I’m making an exception only for Lord Vandermir.”
“Why…? Ari, don’t tell me you’ve been secretly seeing him behind our backs…?”
Faced with Iris’s plausible suspicion, Aracila shook her head.
“No? I don’t even know his full name, and I’ve never once seen his face.”
“…”
A heavy silence fell. The entire Hugo family stared at Aracila, utterly dumbfounded.
Aracila calmly finished chewing, dabbed her lips with a napkin, and gave a sweet smile.
“There’s a political marriage pact between our house and House Vandermir, right?”
“Yes… How do you even know that…?”
The Marquis and Marchioness’s eyes widened in shock. They hadn’t even discussed it among themselves yet, unsettled as they were—how could their second daughter possibly know?
“I’ll go see Lord Vandermir’s face soon. I’ll take that political marriage myself.”
“…”
“Then I’ll take my leave.”
Leaving her stunned family behind, Aracila rose and returned to her room with a light step.
There, she penned a letter and handed it to her personal maid, Audrey.
“Send this to Lord Vandermir.”
I’d like to see my fiancé’s face.
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
1 Comment
Chapter Comments (1)
Thank you for translating/sharing this. Such an adorable story!
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Clash
Well the plots seems something new will see how it goes further in the story