The wardrobe of King Gallie the 5th of Planus, Arien’s father, had never been so dark and deep.
Princess Arien, who had been hiding in a huddled state, was swallowing a scream that was trying to burst out.
She should have shouted and called the royal guard immediately, but she was frozen and couldn’t do anything. She would be killed if discovered.
‘Don’t come out!’
Gallie the 5th, as a father, seemed to think that the only thing he could do was protect his daughter, so he was sending a desperate look towards Arien with all his might.
Arien’s vision was wavering due to the unending flow of tears.
Although sweat was clearly running down her face, her shoulders were shaking like a willow tree.
What brought her back to her senses as she was stifling her breath in the dark wardrobe was the cry of a man wrapped in a black robe.
“It’s a rebellion! The princess has killed the king!”
It was the moment when she, who had been hiding to give her father a birthday present, was being branded as a bastard who killed her own blood and a traitor to the Planus Kingdom.
From a month before the birthday of King Gallie the 5th, Arien had been seriously thinking about a gift for her father.
Choosing a special gift for him, who lacked nothing, wasn’t easy, but it was a pleasure for her alone.
Arien, who thought she had come up with something quite cool, stayed in her room drawing blueprints until lunch.
“I’m done!”
Arien’s face lit up with a smile as she held up the blueprint and turned it this way and that.
She had missed lunch, but she had to rush to the royal forge to meet Batonie first.
If the nurse Marka found out, she would have to hear an endless lecture on ‘the virtues of a princess.’
Then she couldn’t work in secret, so she was in a hurry.
Arien rolled up the blueprint, held it in one hand, quietly opened the door of the room, and looked out into the palace corridor.
Fortunately, everyone was too busy preparing for the king’s birthday banquet.
As she walked the glittering marble corridor at a brisk pace, the clattering sound of her shoes seemed particularly annoying today.
At the age of twentyfive, her father’s unusual love for his only daughter had always been consistent.
From a young age, Arien grew up under the tutelage of the best teachers at the Planus Academy, learning not only healing magic and medical knowledge, but also mechanics, theology, astronomy, alchemy, music, art, ancient languages, swordsmanship, and more.
But no matter how used she was to dressing up, these palmsized shoes always made her feel frustrated.
The clattering shoes seemed to prevent the wearer from running freely.
She tried to walk lightly by putting all her strength into the balls of her feet, but she couldn’t help but put strength into her legs because she was in a hurry.
‘Shall we run again today?’
With a playful expression on her face, Arien looked around, quietly took off her shoes as if she was used to it, and hid them neatly behind a large Monstera pot in the corner of the palace corridor.
Then she ran towards the royal forge, her voluminous ashcolored dress swaying significantly.
“Batonie! Batonie! Please take a quick look at this.”
Batonie, who was grinding in the corner of the forge and constantly wiping his sweat, came walking with a frown on his face.
To him, Princess Arien was like a sparrow that comes during harvest time and incessantly pecks at the grain.
Arien always handed him a hastily drawn blueprint and asked him to make it exactly the same, and she often bothered Batonie, the head of the royal forge, by nagging for the failed daggers or pieces of iron that came out of the royal forge and taking them to her room.
“Princess, there are many blacksmiths other than me, so you can talk to someone else. I have a lot of work today.”
“No! I’m sure there’s no craftsman in the continent who can make this except Batonie, so please do it for me.”
Batonie, who sighed, took the blueprint from Arien’s hand.
It was a sword longer than a dagger, but shorter than the longswords of the knights, an unusual length. He thought it was fortunate because there was nothing special about it if it was a sword.
But his gaze stopped uncomfortably at the part where the material of the sword was written.
‘Sword blade: Lanidium’
“Are you now determined to send me to the underground prison?”
“Why would I do that? It’s a royal birthday present. I want to give at least this. His Majesty already has a Bosword. I decided to give this sword for this birthday. Do you know how much effort I put into designing it?”
Ignoring Arien, who was spewing words as if she was boasting, Batonie answered bluntly.
“Lanthanum cannot be used without the permission of the Elector. It would be better to simply capture me,” Bartony grumbled, his face filled with dissatisfaction.
Arien, who had been watching Bartony’s disgruntled expression, finally let out a chuckle that she had been holding back.
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
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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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