The Runaway Female Lead Doesn't Run Away (13 Chapters Left to Complete) - Chapter 6
No, wait. Madam Dowager.
Why did the conversation suddenly go in that direction?
Stunned by the unexpected turn of the topic, I couldn’t even deny it.
“Poor thing.”
Misinterpreting Dahlia’s silence as affirmation, the Dowager Duchess’s eyes began to well up.
She turned her head away like someone unwilling to let others see her tears and quickly wiped them away.
“I once thought just as you do.”
The Dowager Duchess murmured in a choked voice,
recalling her own past—how she’d been married off almost like a commodity as the third wife of Duke Seyear.
“Although I entered the household as a second wife, I truly loved my husband. I desperately wished for a child—any child—even a daughter—as long as she resembled him. And I thought that dream would soon come true.”
The Dowager Duchess’s gaze, fixed on Dahlia, drifted downward. Then, with a deeply bitter expression, she gently touched her flat stomach.
“But I valued myself more than the child who hadn’t even been born yet. Had I known the truth earlier, I might have swallowed wolfsbane myself. Yet you… you already knew, and still… you love Clayton that much?”
Huh?
The Dowager Duchess seems to be misunderstanding something.
“Yes, I’ve made up my mind, Dahlia.”
“…About what?”
Dahlia stared uneasily at the Dowager Duchess, who had suddenly gripped her hands with resolute eyes.
“I’ve decided not to leave the manor.”
“Pardon?”
“I originally planned to leave for the southern villa under the pretext of convalescence. But I’ll stay here and stand by your side.”
Uh… um…
Excuse me, mother-in-law.
It’s perfectly fine with me if you go ahead and leave.
[This is the timeline separator]After meeting the Dowager Duchess, Dahlia returned to her room and slumped onto the sofa with a sigh.
“Looks like I’m stuck with mother-in-law troubles I never asked for.”
Why does everyone in this household keep making assumptions and judgments on their own?
I’m absolutely exhausted.
“I’ll just stay put in my room and rest for the rest of the day.”
Even though all she’d done since waking up that morning was visit the Dowager Duchess in the annex, Dahlia was already mentally and physically drained.
Just as she closed her eyes to unwind from her fatigue, the butler arrived at her door.
Once Dahlia granted permission, the butler opened the door and bowed politely.
“My lady, the dressmaker has finished the alterations you requested. Would you like to try it on now, if it’s convenient?”
“The dress?”
“Yes, the one you left for adjustments to wear at the picnic.”
“The picnic…?”
Ah!
Dahlia’s eyes suddenly sparkled as she remembered something important.
‘Right! The picnic!’
The annual spring picnic held at Cadwell Park was the first social event of the season, where nobles who’d spent winter in their estates returned to the capital.
Outwardly, it was meant for enjoying boat rides among blooming flowers, but it also served as a venue for discussing shifts in domestic and foreign affairs during the winter months.
Moreover, noble ladies exchanged stories from their estates—usually trivial gossip, though occasionally sparking inspiration for new business ventures.
Thus, no noble ever missed the Cadwell picnic.
And in the original story, this picnic episode held significant weight.
Because it was during this event that Clayton, the male lead, first openly showed interest in the female lead.
‘Clayton used to hate being out in daylight.’
He was uncomfortable in sunlight.
If she recalled correctly, he’d once said that under the sun, he’d suffer unbearable thirst and become extremely irritable.
Therefore, unless political obligations demanded his presence, Clayton usually spent his days inside the manor.
However, the spring picnic was one event he absolutely couldn’t skip—so he’d attend together with Dahlia as a married couple.
There, he’d realize that when he was with the female lead, neither the thirst nor the irritability came over him—and from then on, he’d always take her along whenever he had to go outside.
Proximity breeds closeness. Starting from the picnic, his attention toward her gradually turned into genuine affection.
Recalling the plot, Dahlia lifted her head.
“When exactly is the picnic?”
“In four days.”
“Four days…”
Her eyes sparkled as she secretly clenched her fists, careful not to let the butler notice.
‘On that day, I’ll absolutely charm the male lead!’
[This is the timeline separator]Four days later.
The carriage’s jolting motion gradually softened before finally coming to a stop.
“We’ve arrived.”
At the sound of a man’s voice, the carriage door opened. Dahlia stepped down carefully, escorted by Clayton, who had already alighted.
She looked around, greeted by a refreshing breeze that welcomed her to the scene.
As if to prove it was spring, the park hosting the picnic was beautifully adorned with yellow forsythia and white cherry blossoms.
For a brief moment, Dahlia was entranced by the long-missed breath of spring—then she glanced sideways at Clayton, standing just a step ahead.
‘He seems fine for now.’
It was 10:30 a.m. when they arrived at Cadwell Park for the picnic.
The sun wasn’t yet scorching.
Though it was spring, it was still early spring, and the weather remained pleasantly cool—so Clayton appeared no different from his usual self.
‘Staying close to him right now wouldn’t make any difference.’
Since he wasn’t feeling uncomfortable, her presence wouldn’t yield any noticeable effect.
He wouldn’t start feeling the strain until around noon.
‘Then I’ll drift away for now and sneak back beside him at noon.’
Her plan was to approach him softly just as the sun grew fiercest and his patience and irritation reached their limits.
In the original story, the moment the female lead’s skin touched his, all discomfort vanished as if a cool breeze had swept over him in midsummer.
Thus, he’d surely welcome her presence like an oasis in the desert.
Resolved, Dahlia naturally stepped away from him and said,
“I’ll go mingle with the other ladies for now. I’ll see you later.”
Since the main event wouldn’t begin until members of the royal family made their appearance, Clayton didn’t feel the need to hold her back.
Or so she thought.
“Do you have something you’d like to…?”
Caught off guard by the man’s gaze, which seemed to suggest he had something to say to her, Dahlia trailed off.
But just as quickly, Clayton averted his eyes.
“…Nothing.”
Then, without hesitation, he walked away.
“What a letdown.”
Dahlia shrugged her shoulders, having tensed up unnecessarily over nothing.
Around the same time Dahlia headed toward where the noble ladies were gathered,
her arrival drew furtive glances from the women, who had been chatting in small groups.
Yet none approached her warmly; they merely fluttered their fans and exchanged unreadable looks.
‘Yes! I’m alone.’
And that fact pleased the female lead greatly.
Given her already ruined reputation in high society, any clumsy attempt at conversation would surely drag her standing even deeper underground.
‘I’ll just stay quietly in a corner until the male lead starts feeling unwell—then I’ll act.’
Just as Dahlia began moving toward the shade of a tree,
“Well, look who it is!”
A sharp, youthful voice stopped her in her tracks.
“It’s been a while since the wedding, hasn’t it… older sister?”
The girl, with ordinary brown hair and green eyes, called her “older sister” in a falsely affectionate tone—but her disdainful gaze and mocking smirk betrayed no sincerity.
“True. How could you not send even a single letter after getting married?”
An older woman stepped smoothly to the girl’s side and added her words.
The two shared the same brown hair, and anyone could tell at a glance they were mother and daughter.
Only then did Dahlia recognize them and let out a short breath.
‘Ah—they’re the original female lead’s stepmother and younger half-sister.’
Orly, Dahlia’s stepmother, had become Baron Molden’s second wife, bringing along her five-year-old daughter Sophie.
Outwardly, she pretended to treat Dahlia as her own—but reality was far different.
‘Orly hated seeing Dahlia do better than her own daughter Sophie.’
Unlike Sophie, who had ordinary brown hair, Dahlia had mysterious silver hair,
and as she grew more beautiful—increasingly resembling her late mother—Orly tried harder to belittle her, unable to tolerate Dahlia receiving anything better than Sophie.
It would have helped if her biological father, Baron Molden, had shown her some attention.
But sadly, due to her father’s indifference and the torment from the two, Dahlia endured a miserable childhood.
“Even if I didn’t bear you myself, how can you be so indifferent?”
Orly deliberately spoke loudly to draw attention—
a tactic she often used to ruin Dahlia’s reputation,
painting herself as a devoted stepmother and Dahlia as an ungrateful daughter of the first wife.
Dahlia regarded Orly with indifferent eyes.
‘Now that I think about it, it was this woman who started the rumor that I was barren.’
Unless someone deliberately spread it, there’d be no reason for an unmarried maiden to be labeled barren.
‘And there was absolutely no way that truth could have been revealed.’
Dahlia had believed herself barren because her menstruation had stopped long ago.
Of course, that was actually due to the stress caused by these two—but Orly didn’t see it that way.
Because she believed she’d made it happen herself.
‘But what exactly did Orly do to me?’
What had she done to the female lead?
While Dahlia was lost in thought, the mother and daughter assumed she was cowering and pressed on gleefully.
“Exactly, older sister. Do you know how worried our mother has been about you?”
“Yes, Dahlia. Do you realize how much anxiety you’ve caused me lately? I’ve been losing sleep, worrying you might be mistreated at the ducal manor because you’re barren.”
‘Orly definitely fed me something…’
Ignoring their words, Dahlia focused on recalling the original plot.
‘Ah, that’s right!’
Suddenly remembering, Dahlia clapped her hands.
Unaware of Dahlia’s realization, Orly continued,
“What on earth did you do as a child to end up unable to bear children…?”
She couldn’t finish her sentence.
“Didn’t that woman feed me wolfsbane?”
The thought slipped out of Dahlia’s mouth before she could stop it.
And that explosive statement instantly silenced the previously bustling crowd around her.
When yandere male lead believes she loves him — but she never did
“How dare you!”
“How dare you make me love you, only to cast me aside as nothing more than a friend?!?
“I will never accept that.”
“I will never let you return to him.”
“Even if I have to burn myself to ashes.”
“Even if I must shatter my purity, my dignity, my very soul.”
“I will never let you escape me!”
This was the first novel that introduced me to the matriarchal genre. I’ve read it three times already!
At first, the male lead despised the female lead. Later, he misunderstood that she liked him, so he condescendingly and reluctantly reciprocated her feelings.
Then, he suddenly discovered that she was kind to everyone in the same way, and there was already someone she cherished in her heart, and that person was not him.
The male lead couldn’t believe it, he became angry and crazy. He was determined to capture her body and heart by any means necessary.
Synopsis:
Want to see how a green tea bitch male lead falls in love with the female lead?
Want to see how he flirtatiously pursues the female lead?
Want to see how he gets slapped in the face repeatedly?
The male lead is a green tea bitch, a poisonous lotus, jealous, ruthless, unscrupulous, with a venomous heart, and he’s also a delusional maniac.
The female lead is righteous, positive energy-filled, kind, a holy mother.
Let’s see how two people with extreme personalities come together~
_____
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MANGA DISCUSSION
1 Comment
Chapter Comments (20)
Yes!!! Slap her back. Loving your cool attitude!!!
I don’t think it has any effect, but at the same time he didn’t seem to be suffering from sunlight?
Is the curse about you being vampires without out the need for blood?
Inline Comments (67)
Clayton murmured with a cold, sharp smile.
You ignored her first. To me ,you don’t have rights to anything about her
And so, unintentionally, Dahlia ended up ditching Samantha and Daniel yet again.
Noo. They won’t trust you again girl. Anyway I am still mad at Clayton
Unlike the Duke, who didn’t even care whether his own wife was being humiliated
Yes. So I want you to become male lead. Clayton did a lot of mess. But there is bot a chance for you🥲
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VKotaku28
Yes…. Just inadvertently let slip the truths… this is so refreshing