“Da, who are you?”
At someone’s question, the man slightly lifted his black umbrella.
Beneath the dark hair dampened by rainwater, striking crimson eyes came into view.
Flawless smooth skin, a sharp nose, tightly pressed lips.
He was a breathtakingly beautiful man, so exquisite that one could instantly forget the cold and feel chills run down their spine.
People who met his gaze felt their hair stand on end all at once.
“Ka, Duke Calypso!”
“Duke Calypso?”
“W-wasn’t he supposed to be in prison?”
There stood Dietrich, dressed neatly in black armor, when he should have been locked away.
Seemingly forgetting that Dietrich had been stripped of his dukedom, people still addressed him as Duke.
“Your faces look as if you’ve seen a ghost.”
Dietrich’s gaze fell upon Gabriel and Hariel, whose complexions had turned deathly pale.
“You called my beloved a witch?”
Slap, slap.
As Dietrich stepped forward, people instinctively parted to make way.
He looked back and forth between Gabriel and Hariel as if observing wriggling insects.
“You claim she’s a wicked witch? Yet aren’t you the true witches?”
Dietrich’s voice, as he spoke, felt several times colder than the pouring rain.
“You lined your pockets selling my beloved to filthy men like auctioning off goods, and now you play at witch hunting.”
Dietrich ran his hand along the hilt of the sword at his waist.
The motion, as if he might draw it at any moment, left the crowd too terrified to even swallow.
At that moment, Gabriel interjected.
“Duke Calypso, I know it’s hard to believe, but my mother speaks the truth. And the public courtship event was held because Celia wanted it—this wasn’t something we arranged arbitrarily.”
Gabriel bit her lower lip, feigning a pitiful expression.
Yet not a trace of sympathy flickered in Dietrich’s eyes as he looked at her.
“Duke Calypso, don’t be deceived by her. If you don’t want to taste betrayal like I did… it’s not too late, even now.”
Gabriel gazed up at Dietrich with desperate eyes.
Just looking at him made her heart race.
His solid, broad frame, shoulders falling in perfect angles, wide flat back.
And those indifferent crimson eyes.
The same eyes that once held tenderness for Celia.
Gabriel’s heart twisted in agony.
More than being cast out of the palace, it was the way Dietrich looked at Celia that wounded her deeply.
“You can’t have him? Then neither can you.”
Thinking this, Gabriel continued softly.
“…Actually, before Celia entered our household, she survived by rummaging through trash bins in back alleys.”
Gabriel lowered her eyelids as if embarrassed to speak, then continued when she received no response from Dietrich.
“If she hadn’t been fortunate enough to join our family, she’d still be living that wretched life. Pitying her, our father took her in, but in truth… she was a wicked witch who ensnared and devoured men.”
Gabriel trembled slightly in her shoulders and wept.
“You talk too much.”
“…What?”
“Have you forgotten the law? Those who spread false rumors and cause chaos in the nation are imprisoned without exception.”
Dietrich signaled with his eyes to knights approaching from afar.
The knights who arrived bowed deeply to Dietrich.
Dietrich issued his command.
“Interrogate everyone here. Imprison anyone found guilty.”
[This is the timeline separator]While Celia lay asleep on the bed, something seeped in through the crack of the door.
Sssssss.
Tiny grains of sand pushed through the narrow gap, small enough for an ant to pass.
Sssssss.
The sand grains were Arthur.
Arthur had used transformation magic to temporarily disguise himself as sand.
A person turning into grains of sand—
a bizarre feat only Arthur could perform.
Who could have imagined it?
That someone could cross through a door crack as sand.
Surely, no one would have anticipated this.
“….”
Celia was deep in slumber. Her soft breathing, unaware of the world, could be heard clearly.
A moment later.
A dark shadow rippled beside Celia, who slept with long lashes lowered.
When the shadow completely covered her, Arthur grinned, revealing his teeth.
Perched on the bed like a reverent jeweler, Arthur gazed down at Celia.
“Haa… How can even her sleeping face be so beautiful?”
“?”
Startled awake by an unsettling voice, Celia’s eyes flew open wide.
“!”
Before her stood something she wished never to see.
Platinum blonde hair, golden eyes.
Arthur, wearing an emerald necklace, twitched his lips.
His lips glistened as if coated in oil.
“Sparkling like a gem! How can a human be born so radiant?”
“!”
Arthur tightly gripped Celia’s wrists and laughed darkly.
“Haa, I’m so delighted….”
His madly rolling eyes made Celia avert her gaze and scream.
“Let go! You madman! Release me now!”
“Even your struggling… is pure art.”
Veins bulged on Arthur’s forearm. With one hand, he pinned Celia’s slender wrists above her head.
With the other, he clamped her mouth shut.
“Mmmph! Mmmph!”
With her mouth covered, Celia could no longer cry out.
Trapped and silenced, Celia desperately weighed whether to use her power.
If the Arthur before her was, like last time, merely a clone, revealing her ability would only expose her secret.
Currently, Celia wasn’t holding the dagger Dietrich had given her, making it difficult to determine whether this Arthur was real or a copy.
Feeling Celia’s gaze, Arthur trembled slightly in his shoulders.
“Hhh… Do you know… how much I’ve desired you?”
Arthur looked down at Celia with eyes saturated in possessiveness.
“Even if you’re ruined and disheveled in my arms, you’ll still be beautiful….”
Crack!
“?”
Celia bit down hard on Arthur’s hand.
“Ohh. Aa— you’re stimulating me.”
Blood streamed from Arthur’s hand. Celia had bitten so fiercely that the bitten area swelled instantly.
Yet Arthur didn’t flinch. He merely stared at Celia with a languid, unbothered expression.
“How will you deal with the consequences?”
Arthur twisted his lips and winked one eye.
“Consequences? Can you… handle them?”
Arthur climbed atop Celia. Lowering his body, he brought his lips close to hers.
Due to Celia’s fierce bite, blood dripped from Arthur’s hand onto her face. Arthur licked the flowing blood with his tongue.
“Aa— delicious… Is it because you bit me? My blood, which should taste vile, is maddeningly sweet.”
Shivering with ecstasy, Arthur wore the expression of one savoring sweet red wine.
The touch of Arthur’s body sent unpleasant sensations crawling across Celia’s skin.
Growing even more excited, Arthur rapidly rolled his eyes and spoke.
“Good, let’s see… How shall I remake you? What form would be best? Sleeping? Opening your eyes normally to gaze at me? Or perhaps attacking me like a wild beast—yes, I like that too… Or maybe, right here and now, I could just make you mine completely…”
Celia glared at Arthur with wide, furious eyes.
Arthur slowly licked his lips while studying every lash, every single brow hair of Celia’s.
“Your resistance is intoxicatingly delightful… but I also want to see you after drinking this.”
With the hand not restraining Celia, Arthur frantically rummaged through his clothing.
Soon, a small vial appeared in his palm.
“Do you know what this is?”
A red liquid sloshed in Arthur’s hand.
Celia knew very well what potion that was.
It was the same color as the one Ileon had tried to force upon her earlier.
“I originally intended to use this… not on you, but on myself…”
Arthur, his pupils dilated, stared at Celia and uncorked the vial.
“It’s all your fault. You left me and fraternized with another man… You truly have no idea… how much I’ve protected you. Haa… When I threw that damned Reina to the monsters, I got so excited I couldn’t help myself! Haa, haa!”
Arthur groaned repeatedly, his face flushed red.
Celia looked up at Arthur, who behaved like a madman, with cold, disdainful eyes.
“I’ll make you feel good… I must see with my own eyes the heat blazing in yours…”
Arthur bit his lower lip and removed his hand from Celia’s mouth.
“I’ll preserve you… in your most beautiful form, alive, stuffed and placed in my cage. Along with your parrot.”
Muttering feverishly, Arthur brought the potion to Celia’s lips.
Click.
The sound of a door opening.
The Male lead Always Seduces Her with His Beauty (Matriarchy)
Xin Jiao Zhou is the leader of the world’s premier sect. She has just experienced betrayal from all sides, was poisoned in an assassination attempt, and faced death squad attacks while the poison was taking effect. After finally clearing out the scum from her sect, she was drugged again while trying to detoxify.
After waking up from a night of unconsciousness, she gained a “beautiful and kind-hearted” husband.
Xin Jiao Zhou: “???”
He fell ill.
She came to see him, bringing breakfast.
As she put down the breakfast and was about to leave, his hand slipped while holding the spoon. “Clank!”
She turned around upon hearing the noise.
He looked up at her, his eyebrows drooping: “My hand… has no strength.”
“Shall I… feed you?” she asked tentatively.
He opened his mouth cheerfully: “Ah—”
Thinking she was drowning, he jumped in without hesitation to save her, but nearly drowned himself. In the end, it was she who swam over to rescue him, giving him air underwater.
After emerging from the water, his ear tips turned red. He lightly brushed his cheek, tucking his sideburns behind his ear, revealing delicate, pink-tinged ear tips. He lowered his gaze, too embarrassed to look at her.
Xin Jiao Zhou: He’s truly beautiful, kind-hearted, and adorable.
A certain someone when disciplining subordinates behind the scenes: “If they don’t obey, just kill them.”
What’s that? She might already have someone she cares about in her heart? A certain someone: Find out who it is, kill them, and then there won’t be anyone.
What? She met a man by the riverside? What? That man even hurt her? A certain someone: Whichever hand hurt her, chop off his entire arm.
Love at first sight without realizing it, gradually falling in love, slowly getting closer…
Family and national grudges, schemes and desires, good and evil, crime and punishment, she and he face the future together, seeking justice with passion!
A naturally dark female lead who could accidentally destroy the world but is actually an honest person VS a weak, pitiful, and helpless but skilled fighter, beautiful white-cut black male lead
My heart is not of stone, how steadfast is your love? — Tao Yuanming “Imitating the Ancients (No. 3)”
— Reading Guide —
Cold female lead & dramatic black lotus with hidden yandere traits male lead
