The only thing that broke her solitary rule was the day Elodie first spoke to her.
“Hello, Duchess.”
The child who had been too scared to even meet her eyes now approached and greeted her first.
Wondering what she was up to, Themis responded, and unexpectedly, Elodie even came up with an antidote, and now she even smiled quite cheekily.
Recently, she could understand why her two sons were fussing around this child, trying to talk to her at least once.
Her two sons must have been influenced by the child’s change.
“You’ll be fine since you’ve already taken the antidote. The poison wasn’t that strong to begin with.”
“I only took a sip, so I’m fine. Thank you for your concern, ma’am.”
Elodie, who politely thanked her, stood up from her seat.
“I’ve really been rude today. I’ll make sure this doesn’t happen again. See you next time, ma’am.”
“Sure. See you next time.”
Taptap.
With a brisk sound of footsteps, Elodie’s faint golden hair fluttered as she ran off.
Watching Elodie’s receding figure, Themis rested her chin.
“……I’m disappointed.”
It wouldn’t have been bad to hear her call me “Mother.”
[Star Icon][Star Icon][Star Icon]Inside the carriage returning from the Ferdia mansion to the Angelos mansion.
The Angelos mother and daughter, who had been lost in Themis’s greenhouse and were covered with pollen, were quite angry.
Especially the most excited of the two was the daughter, Dorothea Angelos.
“What’s this, Mother? We’ve come back without doing anything……! What’s this again? These strange flowers spraying powder. Huh, I feel bad!”
As Dorothea complained, Dolcinia smiled affectionately, dusting her hair with a handkerchief.
“Don’t be so angry, dear. It’s okay, we still have plenty of time, don’t we?”
“You saw it too, Mother. Elodie was laughing at me.”
“Let her laugh. She’s still an illegitimate child after all. Compared to that, our baby is the direct descendant of Angelos, who has power. There’s no comparison, right?”
Dolcinia knew exactly what her daughter, Dorothea, wanted to hear.
As she thought, Dorothea’s expression softened considerably.
Pouting her lips, Dorothea said.”
“But isn’t it strange, Mother? Today, Elodie and Lady Ferdia seemed to be getting along?”
“Hmm.”
Certainly.
It seemed strange to Dolcinia’s eyes as well.
Rumor had it that the relationship between Themis Ferdia and Elodie was not good.
Yet, playing family games with someone who is not even her daughter.
She pitied her.
‘Phew, Duke Ferdia must not want to be left out of her sight.’
To think that even the worldrenowned Themis Ferdia had to be the mother of a child born outside, it seemed quite insignificant.
Dolcinia, having alighted from the carriage, entered the mansion.
“You can rest now, child.”
“Yes. I will go up first.”
Having sent Dorothea up, Dolcinia caught a passing servant.
However, her expression twisted subtly.
As if she had seen something she shouldn’t have.
It was strange, but thinking there must be personal reasons, she asked about her husband’s whereabouts.
“My husband?”
“The master is receiving a guest.”
“A guest?”
“Yes. The one who came last time …”
“Ah. ‘That guest,’ you mean.”
Recently, Duke Angelos had been meeting a magician frequently.
They talked about an investment, and since he was an important guest, the household servants had been instructed to treat him with the utmost care.
Just as the conversation ended, ‘that guest’ and Duke Angelos were leaving the reception room.
‘He’s covering his face again today.’
Dolcinia greeted her husband’s guest briefly. The other party slightly nodded.
“I will take my leave.”
“See to it.”
“See you then.”
Dolcinia tilted her head at the magician’s peculiar voice. It was ambiguous whether it was a man’s or woman’s voice.
The guest left the mansion, and only then did Duke Angelos furrow his brow as he looked at his wife’s face.
“My Lady, what’s with your face?”
“Oh my. I’ll be embarrassed if you say that all of a sudden. Is it that pretty?”
“No, not that. Your face … Look in the mirror.”
Why was her husband acting like this all of a sudden?
Though she felt oddly uneasy, Dolcinia opened the nearby guest room and checked the vanity.
And then
Aaaah!
A deafening scream resounded through the mansion.
Bang, bang, bang!
At the same time, Dorothea ran down the hallway, crying.
“Mother, Father!!”
No one reprimanded her, despite her undignified behavior as a lady of a noble family.
The situation was too grave.
“Mother. Look, look at this. Hideous things have appeared all over my skin!”
Waaah.
The hallway quickly turned into a sea of tears.
Just as Dorothea said, her face was covered with large blisters or something similar.
Dolcinia’s face was no different.
Duke Angelos could not help but be shocked by the sudden calamity that had befallen his wife and daughter.
“What happened to your faces? Did you eat something wrong?!”
“Eat wrong”
Ah.
Mother and daughter Angelos simultaneously recalled something.
The tea.
The only thing they had consumed recently was a sip of tea that Themis Ferdia had given them.
“It must be Themis, that woman’s doing!”
After deliberately having Elodie play the role of a windcatcher and making them drink the tea, she must have finally poisoned it.
They immediately called for a poison expert and the family’s personal physician, but.
“No poison was detected.”
“What, what does that mean? Try it again!”
“No matter what you say, I cannot claim the existence of poison that isn’t there …….”
No matter which poison expert they called, it was the same.
“It’s not poison.”
“It might be a problem with living habits …….”
They all kept saying such nonsense.
To make matters worse, the family physician even showed confusion after the examination.
“금방 치료하기 어렵겠습니다. 상태가 심각합니다.”
그 말에 도로테아의 안색이 새하얗게 질렸다.
“무슨 소리냐! 최대한 빨리 치료하거라. 이 꼴로 어딜 나간단 말이냐!”
오열하며 소리치는 딸을 달래며 돌시니아는 이를 빠득 갈았다.
“테미스……!”
뛰어난 독제사인 테미스니 당연히 검출되지 않는 독을 사용했을 터.
하지만 어떤 독제사도 독이 없다고 하니 그녀의 죄를 물을 수 없었다.
‘그 여자는 교활하니, 절대 발각되지 않는 독을 썼겠지!’
그렇다고 찾아가 해독제를 달라며 빌 수도 없으니 치료에 매달릴 수밖에 없었다.
그저 망신만 주려고 찾아갔을 뿐인데, 앙겔로스 모녀는 한동안 저택 밖으로 한 발짝도 나가지 못하는 신세가 되었다.
.
.
.
그들이 지옥 같은 시간을 보내고 있을 때, 엘로디는…….
[사교계의 꽃 도로테아 앙겔로스의 두문불출, 과연 그녀에게 무슨 일이?]“풉.”
가십지를 보며 여유로운 티타임을 즐기고 있었다.
Male lead fell into her trap — and shattered when she walked away
This is also on my reread list!
This one is a slow burn, but when it burns, it burns hard.
Definitely worth a read, y’all!
The story follows a thousand-year-old seductive spirit who, on a bet, sets out to charm the male lead—a once-promising but unfortunate cultivator.
But just when she succeeds in making him fall for her, she heartlessly leaves, driving him to madness.
Determined to find her at all costs, he captures her, keeping her by his side no matter what, even if she hates him.
I love this kind of trope—I enjoy watching the male lead suffer in agony.
The ending drags a bit with unnecessary filler, but that’s fine.
As long as I enjoy the beginning, I’m good.
Intro
As an enchantress, Su Heng possesses captivating eyes and charming beauty, easily manipulating the joys and sorrows of living beings at her fingertips.
But to enchant a god, making him taste the bitterness of love’s separation, long-lasting resentment, unattainable desires, and inability to let go…
Do you dare?
Su Heng assists a divine lord in his cultivation, aiming to make him experience all the sufferings of love, so that he can attain the Great Dao.
Only after being chased down from the heavens by the divine lord, confined and completely possessed by him, does she realize how successful she has been.
The once gentle and polite youth has transformed into someone she no longer recognizes.
[Touch the gear icon in the bottom right corner of the screen to move to the next chapter if you want.]
