“Blindingly beautiful.”
The old emperor opened his mouth as he stared at the woman seated in the bedroom.
The woman possessed an exceptionally delicate beauty.
She had soft silver hair that seemed it would melt into one’s touch, and clear green eyes. Her pale, flawless skin appeared to glow, and her lips were as red as freshly bitten pomegranate seeds.
Even the emperor, who had seen countless women in his life, was entranced by her beauty, his mind growing hazy.
His admiration lasted only a moment. Impatience overtaking him, the emperor moistened his dry lips with his tongue and reached his hand toward her dress.
“You’re twenty-one this year. The age when a woman is at her most beautiful.”
Watching him fumble to undress himself, Celia Brillion felt as though the food she had eaten yesterday would rise up into her throat.
Seventy years old, yet bringing a twenty-one-year-old into his bedroom.
Celia faintly smiled, watching the emperor who would rather die than sleep without a young woman in his arms.
It seems lust doesn’t fade with age, she thought, catching sight of his erect member pointed toward the ceiling, and a faint sneer curled at the corner of her lips.
Her family, blinded by money and power, had sent twenty-one-year-old Celia into the bed of an emperor known for his lust.
After all, they weren’t truly family—no blood tied them together.
‘The day I wandered the streets, they took me in solely to sell me for a high price.’
Celia laughed silently.
Beasts wearing the mask of family. They would probably never understand.
Even if they did, pretending ignorance and obedience had all been for this very day.
“Rumors don’t even reach the tips of your toes. I thought your face alone was beautiful, but your figure……”
The emperor roughly yanked down the thin dress Celia wore, then licked his lips.
“What else could be hidden beneath this chemise? Truly exciting.”
Seeing Celia clad only in a white chemise, the emperor grinned, revealing his teeth. His dark, wrinkled hand slowly traced her cheek, her slender neck, and collarbone.
Celia smiled sweetly. Enchanted by that smile, the emperor leaned in to kiss her, but Celia turned her head away, refusing the kiss.
“……How dare you defy me?”
Celia gently shook her head, her eyes slightly narrowed.
“How could someone as lowly as I ever dare defy Your Majesty?”
Her soft, gentle voice sent a shiver through the emperor’s mind. Even the siren’s song, luring sailors to their deaths, would sound like unbearable noise compared to this beautiful woman’s voice.
“You understand your position well. Then show me, can you satisfy me?”
To the emperor’s arrogant and haughty words, Celia gave a small nod.
Smiling faintly, Celia gently pushed the emperor onto the bed. She leaned over him, lowering her face, and placed one hand on his chest.
Feeling the small hand pressed against his bare skin, and looking up at Celia gazing down at him, the emperor exhaled a hot breath.
Celia brought her hand to her hair ornament. As she loosened the floral-shaped accessory, her lustrous silver hair cascaded down, tickling the emperor’s wrinkled forehead.
At the same moment, a strong scent of hyacinth suddenly filled the room, enveloping it completely.
The emperor’s eyes, burning with desire, instantly lost focus, growing hazy as if nothing had happened.
Celia looked down at him, a faint smirk tugging at one corner of her lips.
“Your Majesty, I have waited only for this day to meet you.”
A small clicking sound rang out. It came from the hair ornament in Celia’s hand, but the emperor, entranced, did not hear it.
Celia opened the hand holding the ornament. What she held was no longer a hair accessory.
Though barely smaller than a palm, it gleamed sharply—clearly, it was a blade.
The finely sharpened edge tapered to a point sharp enough to claim a life in a single stroke.
Without hesitation, Celia brought the blade in her hand to the emperor’s throat.
The dazed emperor, even with a knife at his neck, made no resistance, merely gaping stupidly.
Disgust darkened Celia’s face.
“You should feel pain, even as you die.”
Celia murmured softly, then abruptly pulled back the hyacinth scent that had filled the room. As the fragrance vanished, focus returned to the emperor’s vacant eyes.
“……G-guards! Guards!”
The emperor finally called for help, but Celia’s hand moved faster than the guards could burst into the room.
Thud!
With a slashing sound, red blood spurted from the emperor’s neck. Bright crimson blood soaked Celia’s entire body.
The emperor trembled helplessly, watching Celia cut his own throat with a face devoid of any smile.
“G-guh… gahhh!”
The emperor spat out red blood, his eyes rolling back as he died. Confirming the emperor’s death, Celia blankly stared up at the golden ceiling.
She had finally killed that detestable emperor with her own hands. How many years had she spent bowing her head, hiding her true self?
The miserable days, worse than death, flashed briefly through her mind.
‘Wouldn’t it be better to lie in the emperor’s arms than become the wife of some insignificant nobleman?’
The words of Viscountess Hariel Brillion echoed in her ears.
To be embraced by the enemy she wanted to tear apart and kill—did she even realize what she had said?
“Pfft.”
A mocking laugh slipped from Celia’s lips.
Hariel had always tried to squeeze every ounce of value, even from the soul she despised, trading it for money. Celia didn’t know how much she had gained from the dead emperor, but surely, by now, the woman’s mouth was stretched to her ears.
Unaware that Celia would kill the emperor, she probably still clung to the foolish hope of regaining the viscount’s affection as in the old days.
Hariel had dark blue-tinged hair, while Celia had silver hair.
The viscount always chose silver-haired women when he visited brothels—yet his wife was the only one who didn’t know.
And was the viscount alone? His two sons, who inherited his filthy blood, also looked at Celia with eyes full of lust.
Even though not a drop of blood connected them, they were truly repulsive family members.
In fact, one of the viscount’s sons had once picked the locked door and broken into Celia’s room while she slept.
Had Celia possessed no abilities at all, she might have suffered unspeakable things that night.
After that incident, Celia developed insomnia. She rarely slept deeply—only a handful of times.
Celia had never once forgotten her true identity or purpose. Being humiliated by beasts worse than animals was unbearable.
And…… Gabriel.
That woman, the youngest daughter of the viscountess, was the biggest problem. It was surely Gabriel’s influence that led Hariel to sell her to the aging emperor.
But there was one thing they absolutely did not know: Celia had been counting the days, eagerly awaiting the moment she would kill the emperor.
Standing before the emperor’s corpse, Celia burst into a soft, eerie laughter.
Amid her clear laughter, the sound of angry footsteps approached. Soon, the door burst open with a loud crash, but Celia didn’t even glance toward it.
In the blood-soaked room, only Celia’s cool, ringing laughter echoed fully.
“……How dare you.”
The voice was icy cold. Bone-chilling and sharp, it carried unmistakable murderous intent.
At that voice, Celia ceased laughing and slowly turned her head.
A man entirely clad in black from head to toe. His hair and uniform were so dark it seemed as if darkness itself had taken human form.
“…….”
Following the sharply defined jawline and sharp nose, a pair of eyes as red as blood came into view.
Vivid crimson eyes.
Having seen countless people, this was the first time she had encountered a man with such striking features.
But he would be no different from other men. Even priests who had sworn lifelong chastity had lost their senses to her smile.
Celia smiled serenely at the man.
“…….”
Even her enchanting, soul-capturing smile failed to move the man, who only stared down at her with a cold expression. If anything, the murderous intent in his gaze seemed to deepen.
The man standing at the doorway stepped closer, radiating a vicious aura.
His face looked as if he would tear her apart at any moment. He snatched the bloodied dagger from Celia’s hand and flung it to the floor. A metallic clang rang through the room.
The man grabbed Celia’s collar with his blood-stained hand. The woman before him wore only a chemise, nearly bare, yet he seemed completely oblivious to it.
“Why did you kill the emperor?”
The man’s voice carried unmistakable fury. Celia responded only with a faint, mocking smile.
Abelon had destroyed her kingdom first—this was merely the fitting price to pay.
Every time she closed her eyes, the anguished cries of her people and the blood-stained faces of her family flashed vividly before her.
‘Such a fool, enraged over the death of a worthless emperor.’
But if this man truly grieved for the emperor’s death, wouldn’t he have moved to tend to the body first?
Celia sensed he was being hypocritical.
Celia narrowed her eyes, sizing up the man before her.
The man, feeling not remorse but her probing gaze, furrowed his brows sharply.
Almost simultaneously, as the man opened his mouth in frustration, Celia’s lips parted.
“Cough!”
Celia spat out a bloody cough. Seeing the fresh blood pooling at her lips, the man’s expression stiffened.
Yet the one who had coughed blood didn’t change her expression at all. She looked as if she had done it countless times before.
Feeling the grip on her collar loosen slightly, Celia spoke in a calm voice.
“The emperor tried to force himself on me.”
“…….”
“I killed him only to protect myself.”
Dietrich Calypso did not believe a single word Celia said.
The fact that she had concealed a blade and entered the bedroom meant she had intended to kill the emperor from the start.
Celia smiled gently at Dietrich, whose face remained cold. Her eyelids slowly closed, and her body tilted to one side.
“Damn it.”
As her frail body swayed, Dietrich cursed and caught Celia in his arms. Her body was feather-light. Moments later, arriving knights discovered the emperor’s corpse and cried out in horror.
Dietrich glared down at the unconscious woman in his arms as if he wanted to kill her. The knights, following their commander’s gaze, nearly lost their senses for a moment.
The woman cradled in the captain’s arms was the woman known as Brillion’s angel. Even drenched in blood, her beauty was so striking it sent chills down their spines.
Dietrich Calypso, the emperor’s closest confidant and captain of the Imperial Knights, gave an order to the stunned knights.
“Announce across all of Abelon. His Majesty has passed away.”
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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