There are things they should say in response to Noel’s words.
Aeli couldn’t hide her embarrassment at the revealed truth.
Naturally, in this atmosphere, it’s not a joke, so how can one say something like, “Oh, that’s right.”?
Aeli nervously bit her lip in the face of the oncoming predicament.
“……”
Lutis, who was looking down at her intently, opened his mouth.
“Unfortunately, that’s correct.”
“Are you kidding me?”
“I know we were never close enough to joke around with each other in the first place.”
Perhaps Noel’s brow furrowed at Lutis’ words.
Lutis glanced at the empty coffin placed in the middle of the basement and the pieces of dull blades scattered somewhere on the floor nearby, then gestured with his chin.
“I have no intention of doing such a thing, and I wouldn’t make up lies about a subject like this. The Count should know that, so it’s strange.”
“……If the Duke has gone mad and was bewitched by an unknown woman, that’s a different story.”
“Well. If you really thought so, you wouldn’t have followed us here, would you?”
“……”
“The fact that you experimented with magic stones all night long already shows that you suspect to some extent that all of this is true. If you came with that mindset, at least listen without interrupting.”
If you get slightly upset and just start attacking first, there won’t be any progress, let alone a proper conversation.
There was a hint of irritation in Lutis’ voice as he spoke.
Judging by the fact that it didn’t show on his outward expression, it seemed he still had the intention to persuade Noel nicely for now.
Noel frowned and sighed upon hearing those words.
“……Go ahead.”
As Noel’s momentum deflated with a sigh, contrary to her expectation that Lutis would immediately continue speaking, he remained silent for a while.
Aeli blinked her eyes rapidly at Lutis, who seemed to be pausing as if choosing his words.
It was during that somewhat uncomfortable silence.
“……?”
Realizing that his gaze was directed at her, Aeli tilted her head slightly.
Only after a good thirty seconds or more had passed.
“……As I said, it’s not a preservation magic or black magic. I swear there was no artificial act. However,”
Lutis said.
“The body wasn’t just maintaining its appearance, it was healing itself.”
“……What? You clearly said she was dead.”
“Yes. She wasn’t breathing and her heart wasn’t beating. But even after being buried in the ground for several weeks, she was intact. Not only the skin but also the blood that should have stagnated below.”
“……”
“But the needle marks on her arms from drawing blood disappeared in less than a day.”
“……”
Aeli’s eyes widened upon hearing Lutis’ words.
‘Does that make sense?’
Of course not. That’s why Noel is still unable to shake off his doubts even as he listens to Lutis’ words now.
However, it wasn’t as if he looked completely unshocked either.
Lutis, who had been staring intently at Noel’s dumbfounded expression somewhere between absurdity and bewilderment, moved his mouth again.
Noel, whom she thought would explode in anger and rage, remained frozen.
“No matter how you look at it, it wasn’t a normal situation. It would have been right to investigate further, but the time I found out was when there wasn’t much left until the expedition.”
“……”
“The expedition was an imperial order, so even if I wanted to investigate further, there was no way at that time.”
Such a fact shouldn’t be known to the outside world either.
‘When Lutis couldn’t even contact Mason, the only thing he could do was hide my body in case of unforeseen circumstances.’
At any other time, he might have been able to come up with a slightly better method, but…
The timing was bad. There wasn’t enough time to come up with a good alternative, nor was there anyone to put their heads together and worry about it.
Crucially, considering Lutis’ behavior for a while after he saw me as a ghost, it didn’t seem like he had the peace of mind to do so at the time.
‘……Rather, it’s fortunate that he even thought of this much.’
Aeli, who was hearing the news for the first time herself, turned her head in a half-dazed state.
Lutis, who had lowered his gaze at some point, came into view.
Noel opened his mouth.
“That……”
“……”
“That doesn’t make sense. No, even if it does, how does someone who has been dead for a long time come back to life?”
“……”
“If the body was so well-preserved naturally, she would have woken up much sooner than this, even if she did wake up.”
“……”
“Even waking up after such a long time- no, in the first place, how did the corpse not decay for that long,”
“……Maybe she didn’t rot because she opened her eyes as a ghost.”
Aeli muttered as if possessed, listening to the continuing words.
Noel, who was still frowning with a disbelieving look, appeared quite confused.
‘He probably won’t believe it even if we tell him anyway.’
Aeli herself didn’t understand why she interrupted and interjected.
Was it because it hurt to be denied by blood relatives?
Even that didn’t seem to make sense considering all the situations she had experienced so far.
She tried to understand even when faced with unspeakable insults and attacks.
But strangely, now it wasn’t easy to endure…
‘Ah.’
Suddenly, Aeli’s gaze moved a little lower. The arm where red blood was still dripping without even being staunched caught her eye.
If she raised her eyes a little higher, there was rock dust all over her body from being slammed into the wall, and if she raised them a little higher, there were small scratches and cuts on her face.
‘……I’m angry right now.’
The target of her anger didn’t seem to be Lutis. Then was it Noel? That seemed to be somewhat true, but.
‘Rather than that, it’s kind of, a bit.’
……I don’t know. This couldn’t be explained in words.
Was it heartbreaking or resentful?
She felt like crying, then wanted to laugh, and then felt frustrated.
It was around the time when Aeli, who had been pondering for a while, came to the unlikely conclusion that perhaps Lutis had some dissatisfaction with Noel’s attitude despite being attacked and injured by Noel.
“What do you mean by that?”
At the sound of Noel’s voice breaking through her thoughts, Aeli turned her head.
After keeping her mouth shut for a while, Aeli clenched her fists and opened her mouth.
“I was by the child’s side as a ghost. Since I was already d-.”
“……”
“……No, I don’t know why I regained consciousness long after I fell asleep. I stayed with Adi in the annex about a month before he turned five.”
Of course, no one knew I was there as a ghost…
Aeli trailed off.
No one could see her form or even hear her voice, but the child was different. She still found it questionable as she couldn’t understand the reason.
Aeli continued.
“At first, I was happy that the child could see me, even though it was confusing.”
“……”
“But that’s not a good thing, you know……”
She knew it too. The living should live with the living, and she was afraid that staying by the child’s side might have a negative impact on him.
So, didn’t she try to leave the mansion after putting the child to sleep? Although she failed, she had put it into practice, so her feelings at that time had already been fully expressed.
“I tried to run away without Adi knowing. I tried, but,”
“……”
“When he cried, saying that if I left, he would be alone, how could I,”
“……”
“How could I ignore that……”
Aeli recalled the first time her eyes met the child’s as a ghost.
In the cramped attic of the annex, the child was breathing alone.
On that snowy day, without even lighting the fireplace, wearing clothes that didn’t match the season or length at all, with shaggy hair covering half of his eyes.
Aeli, who recalled the child who was shorter and thinner than his peers due to inadequate meals at the time, swallowed nervously as her mouth felt bitter.
No matter how you looked at it, he couldn’t be seen as the only successor to the ducal family.
“After living like that, Lutis returned, and Adi started living in the main castle again. A few months later, I visited the Ratliff estate. I was planning to stay a bit longer, but a messenger came from the imperial palace telling me to enter the palace……”
“……”
“Anyway, on the dawn of the day I entered the palace and returned, my vision went dark, and when I came to my senses, I was back in my body. That’s all.”
Aeli raised her head and looked at Noel.
“Noel asked how I could have a body that looks exactly like my dead sister and retain memories. Of course. It would be stranger if I, the person involved, didn’t know.”
“……”
“You can’t believe us? That’s understandable. I would have been the same. Who would believe that a dead person has come back to life?”
“……”
“As I said before, I know how unrealistic this is, so I won’t ask you to believe it right away. But-.”
“……”
“Noel, you said it’s the first time you’ve seen a case like this too. How is it different for us?”
Aeli buried her face in her palms and mumbled.
When I woke up, I was suddenly told I was dead, so how would I know what happened in between?
“……”
“So, Noel, you tell me directly. Tell me about events that only the person involved would know, and we even did a blood relation test with magic stones. What will you do next?”
“……”
“What should we do for you to stop attacking us? How long do we have to explain for you to stop shouting and getting angry? Do you even have any intention of listening to what we say in the first place?”
“……”
“No, no……”
“……”
“Putting everything else aside, if you do find out that we are innocent, are you confident that you won’t blame yourself?”
“……”
At Aeli’s words, Noel fell silent.
In fact, she knew. Perhaps because they grew up together since childhood, Noel and Lutis had quite a few similarities, even if it didn’t seem so.
A notable one would be that they become more sharp-tongued when they’re anxious.
“……”
“……”
And anxious feelings usually arose when they realized they were doing something wrong or were greatly agitated.
“……I,”
Noel was about to open his mouth.
Thud!
Noel, who had half-opened his mouth, closed it again at the object that flew in from somewhere and landed in his hand.
“A book?”
“I thought I would have to ask anyway, but now seems like the right time.”
If you really can’t believe it, why don’t you read that first?
Aeli, who had turned her gaze towards the object in Noel’s hand at Lutis’ words, widened her eyes.
‘That’s definitely…….’
It was the ancient book that Lutis had read while sitting under a tree by the lake when they were at the estate.
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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