The Extra's Role is Too My Taste (Completed Main Story) - Chapter 5
“Why? Why again, what? I gave it to you exactly like last time!?”
The Grand Duke’s expression had reverted to how it was on the very first day they’d met.
“Something seems wrong…”
Aidan, looking as if he were about to die, clutched his head and spoke to Brody.
But Brody interpreted that expression as one that looked ready to kill.
Even though she’d been watching him closely and had started to feel he wasn’t truly a bad person, she still felt terror when facing that fierce glare.
“There must be a reason he’s nicknamed Grand Duke Icewall.”
Brody bowed deeply to Aidan with a pale face, apologizing, and then frantically tried to figure out what the problem was.
“There must be a difference. There has to be a difference.”
Day one: Mesu and a night together.
Day two: Captured and passed out.
Day three: Just tea. Heard one complaint and started feeding him Mesu.
Day four: A lethal dose of Mesu and an antidote.
Day five: An appropriate amount of Mesu. Heard another complaint.
Wait—was Mesu even the answer? Then what on earth was…?
Was it the night together? Was that so satisfying? But no, that can’t be it. On days three and four, they hadn’t spent the night together, yet there had been no problem. Then what’s the difference…?
As Brody agonized over this, she suddenly realized something with a jolt.
And simultaneously turned deathly pale.
“On days three and four, I kissed him to administer extra Mesu or the antidote.”
Thus, she found the one and only variable across all situations.
“The difference… is ‘me’?”
[This is the timeline separator]From then on, Brody conducted an experiment every night.
She drugged him with an appropriate dose of Mesu and tried sleeping while only holding his hand.
“If it’s about physical contact, this should solve it.”
But it didn’t work. Brody once again apologized profusely, her face ashen.
As the Grand Duke’s expression soured, even the atmosphere among his subordinates who came and went nearby seemed to grow tense.
Feeling as if she were sitting on a bed of needles, Brody endured, suppressing her desperate urge to escape.
Next, she tried kissing him once.
It worked.
“So… I have to kiss him?”
It seemed absurd—but then again, wasn’t this a fantasy world where a plant alchemist like herself actually existed?
She supposed she had to accept that such things could happen.
After several days of drugging him with Mesu and kissing him to sleep, Brody sensed the tension in the air finally easing—and decided to attempt something else.
She let a single drop of her own blood fall into his mouth.
And the next day…
It worked!
“So it’s not the kiss itself—it’s the bodily fluids.”
But what good was knowing the cause?
“Either way, I still have to stay by his side.”
Still, she figured she could endure kissing a sleeping person—for now, at least.
Moreover, as the Grand Duke became more at ease, the soldiers’ treatment of Brody gradually improved.
Perhaps they saw her as the Grand Duke’s beloved mistress, the woman he kept constantly at his side.
Now that she was no longer fighting for her life, Brody finally had the mental space to consider other worries.
“But then… it’s not because the tea tastes good? Maybe it’s not about preference at all—could there be another reason?”
Brody observed Aidan closely.
Aidan, whether she watched him or not, left her to it.
Through repeated observation, she learned many things about Aidan—but still couldn’t pinpoint the cause.
Staying cooped up in the tent without moving was fine for a day or two, but Brody soon felt stifled.
“Your Grace.”
Aidan jumped at Brody’s call.
She had never initiated a conversation with him before.
“Why is that?”
Aidan tore his gaze from the map and looked at Brody with a puzzled expression.
“How long must I stay here?”
“Is there something you lack?”
At those words, Brody frowned slightly.
Of course she wasn’t satisfied—being confined to a tent like livestock, unable even to step outside.
He probably thought treating a “prisoner” this well was generous enough.
After all, this wasn’t a world where human rights were valued.
Surprisingly, however, Aidan seemed to notice Brody’s subtle shift in expression.
He stood up fully and approached her, asking,
“If there’s anything I can do, I’ll do it.”
Caught off guard by his unexpected response, Brody blinked and stared at Aidan.
“Your Grace, I’ve thought about it a lot… but I don’t understand what you truly want.”
“What do you mean?”
Aidan was flustered—Brody, who rarely spoke a word, was now talking fluently and boldly, without hesitation.
“Was she not awkward or tactless… but deliberately silent all along?”
And his guess was correct.
Brody had deliberately kept quiet to avoid entangling herself here—her goal was to escape.
“If you want delicious tea, I’ll give you the recipe.”
Aidan flinched.
She was offering to hand over the secret that could cure his chronic headaches?
No—more fundamentally, did she even know he suffered from headaches?
“Or… do you want to spend the night with me? Though that doesn’t seem to be it.”
This time, Aidan’s face flushed red.
Didn’t she feel any shame? How could a woman speak so casually about such things?
For her, a former modern-day person, the words came easily—but this world was different.
Yet, having lived only a limited daily life here—even with Brody’s memories—she hadn’t fully internalized those subtle cultural nuances.
“I’ve heard Your Grace takes a different woman into bed each day… ahem, clears them out every morning. But you haven’t slept with me, so you must want the tea, right?”
Brody, sensing that “clears them out” might have been too strong, softened her phrasing as she asked.
Upon hearing this, Aidan turned pale.
“You think I replace a woman every day?”
Oh no—she’d already said “replace,” even after trying to rephrase.
“Brody, you should’ve watched your words, watched your words!”
This was a class-based society. He was a Grand Duke. She was a war prisoner.
For someone who killed people daily, slitting her throat would be effortless.
Though Brody panicked, he didn’t seem angry at her choice of words.
“I’ve never done that. Not once.”
“…What?”
Seeing Aidan look not just flustered but utterly bewildered, Brody asked cautiously,
“Um… right. Not every day, of course… that was an exaggeration…”
“No—it’s not that. I mean… hm. You’re the first.”
“…?”
Aidan’s face burned crimson—not just his cheeks, but his ears and neck as well.
Seeing Aidan shyly confess she was his first, Brody’s own face flushed bright red in response.
“Wo—women did come and go, yes. They’d just enter and leave… Damn it, that River. Even when I said I didn’t want them! Could that really be how the rumor started?”
Whether that last bit was a question or a mutter to himself, Brody felt an explanation was needed, so she replied,
“Yes… People say you take a new woman each day, treat her horribly, and kill her by morning. I don’t know what your own people believe, but among prisoners—at least the women—we were terrified, convinced we’d be killed. Since none of those women ever returned…”
“What?”
Aidan’s pupils trembled.
Brody nodded at his reaction.
It was a bit awkward, but considering his usual behavior, the rumor clearly seemed like a lie.
[This is the timeline separator]Part of the rumor was false—but part was true.
Female prisoners were sent out of the Grand Duke’s tent completely unharmed, but outside, soldiers and high-ranking officers took those women away.
Those captives never returned to the prisoner tents, so among the female prisoners, rumors spread that they’d been killed.
No one inside the Grand Duke’s tent knew what happened afterward—but most soldiers likely had some idea of the fate of those women.
Chief of Staff River had deliberately ensured those rumors never reached the Grand Duke’s ears.
Thus, Aidan remained unaware.
“Must you really punish them harshly?”
Before Aidan’s furious gaze, Chief of Staff River asked flatly.
Though he’d committed misdeeds deliberately hidden from the Grand Duke, he showed no remorse or fear.
“Doesn’t military law forbid this!”
“The camp’s morale is unstable. It’s fortunate if calming things with prisoners works at all.”
“River!”
In one swift motion, Aidan drew his sword and pressed it against River’s throat.
Only a hair’s breadth away from death, River remained perfectly still.
“Kill me if you will. Either way, heading back to the capital is no different from marching to our deaths.”
“No! Going there isn’t about dying! If we were fine with just dying, we wouldn’t have taken on the stigma of rebellion! We’re going to survive—and you of all people know that best!”
“Many soldiers have already died. Those who remain no longer hope for tomorrow.”
“So we should sacrifice the even more vulnerable? If we win the war by killing those women, do you think the survivors—those who trample others to live—will build a better world? All they’ll create is a world that’s hell for women and children.”
River’s eyes twitched.
He knew—the Grand Duke spoke the truth.
But River also knew they hadn’t gone to war accompanied only by saints. To quell the volatile, explosive tension among the troops, this ugly balance was necessary.
He saw no other way.
Prepared to do anything for the North, he gritted his teeth and spoke harshly,
“If you dislike it, then kill me.”
“What?”
River’s face was utterly expressionless—no trace of hesitation or contemplation.
“We lack food to feed the prisoners. You know why this war began.”
Aidan tightened his grip on his sword.
Images of the North’s devastation—caused by the royal court’s exploitation—relentlessly tore through his mind.
“Except for five noblewomen of value among the prisoners, the rest bring no benefit to the North. Isn’t there only one solution?”
“Can’t we use them as labor?”
“What labor? We can’t even farm. The North needs food—not hands.”
“Then just release them if they’re useless.”
“Yes, certainly. A few might escape successfully—but most will be seized the moment we let them go by soldiers who’ve lost their minds. What a fine display of discipline the North will show! Or… surely you don’t mean to escort them all the way to the Central Region and release them kindly?”
At River’s words, Grand Duke Icewall roughly sheathed his sword and let out a guttural cry.
He’d resolved to die to survive—but now survival demanded countless more sacrifices.
River looked at Aidan with a grim expression.
He knew the burden on Aidan’s shoulders was cruelly heavy—but River was the one who had to urge him to bear it, not the one who could lighten it.
“Punishment will proceed.”
Aidan ground out the words.
“Then I’ll execute the prisoners as well.”
Aidan couldn’t answer.
He couldn’t starve his own soldiers to feed them.
If captivity here only meant brutal treatment and death, wouldn’t it be kinder to simply end it?
Aidan pressed a hand to his forehead in anguish.
His large hand covered his eyes.
How? Was there really no way? Even if he reduced his own rations…
No—he was already eating the bare minimum.
Though there was no solution, Grand Duke Icewall couldn’t bring himself to speak.
“Wait!”
Suddenly, a woman’s voice sliced through the oppressive gloom of the tent.
Chief of Staff River turned a cold gaze toward the voice’s owner—Brody.
This “truth” must have reached Aidan through her.
Naturally, River held no goodwill toward Brody, the one who’d stirred up the Grand Duke’s emotions.
“This isn’t your affair.”
“I have a solution!”
At her bold reply, the Chief of Staff stared at Brody incredulously.
When scheming men desperately battle for her favor in the male harem
This one’s also on my reread list! The rivalry, scheming between the men in the imperial harem are just as intense and thrilling as in classic palace drama novels, where concubines fight to the death. Give it a read, girls! I promise you won’t be disappointed.
Synopsis:
“I am not worthy of her… but I still want to be by her side, even if only as a loyal dog…”
Those were the painful whispers of Yue Guanyi – the proud Crown Prince of the Great Qi, who was torn between deep love and a guilty conscience. Despite holding the supreme power of the Imperial Guard, he still could not forget the dark past when he was sold into a brothel.
Fate played a cruel twist when Qiu Shuzhi – a young female official who had just passed the imperial examinations with top honors – stepped into his life. She did not know that she was the one who had saved him from a tragic fate many years ago. And now, her heart was the target of pursuit for both Yue Guanyi and the powerful Empress Dowager Qin Qing.
While Yue Guanyi only dared to silently care for and protect the one he loved from afar, the Empress Dowager Qin Qing openly expressed his feelings and did not hesitate to take advantage of his power to approach Qiu Shuzhi. The covert struggle between the two most powerful forces in the imperial court began…
Trigger warning: All men in this novel are yandere style.
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Chapter Comments (17)
What, Brody? Are you stupid? Why run away when a handsome, loyal, and kind person promises to protect you and live with you?
It’s so funny when a serious and sincere man meets a woman who wants to be free and plans to run away. lol
Oh my God, she’s putting so much pressure on herself. All this has negative consequences. Poor Aidan, I hope Brody can help him.
Inline Comments (29)
Reflecting on it, she hadn’t once thought about his headache during their journe
With all the events she went through, it’s very normal for her not to remember Aidan’s headache at all.
He was still kind, yes—but no longer showed that impatient yearning to have her
After the number of times she refused to marry him, now Brody was upset why Aidan changed! What exactly does Brody want?!
‘If you’ve lost interest in me, just say so—why not sleep properly? Are you avoi
Brody please don’t talk or think anymore! Her stubbornness is very annoying. Male lead, find another heroine, please! (⩺_⩹)
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Miioo
Why don’t they explain everything from the beginning? Why start a war they can’t win? Yes, royal families are always evil villains.