When Resban mentioned that he was the wanted boy in Hasetz, Shupert’s eyes widened in surprise.
Though brief, Shupert had also seen that boy who was with Esika.
He had even offered bread to the boy who looked hungry before he was caught by the soldiers, but the boy refused.
Shupert marveled at this incredible connection several times.
“There was a real destiny, Esika!”
At Klaus mansion, Esika smiled thinking of his reaction she saw at yesterday’s engagement party.
“The Grand Duchess of Heinz… has come.”
It was then.
Hans reported to Esika with a troubled expression.
The sound of an argument seemed to be heard from afar.
“I first told her that the lady was not feeling well, but she insists…”
“Let her in.”
“But she seemed to have a strong grudge…”
“It can’t be helped. Since I sowed the seeds, I should sprout them and make them bloom? The fruit… will bear on its own.”
As Esika shrugged, Hans sighed softly and went out.
Soon after, the door of the reception room opened and the Grand Duchess of Heinz entered, panting with her hands on her hips.
Her eyes were bright red as if she hadn’t slept all night.
Unlike her initial momentum when entering, the Grand Duchess of Heinz couldn’t shout loudly when she met Esika’s eyes.
It was because the threatening words Esika had said before remained in her mind.
But she began to question in a clear tone.
“I heard everything that happened at yesterday’s engagement party.”
“…”
“You… no, Her Highness the Crown Princess sent an invitation to His Highness the Second Prince, and since then unfavorable rumors about His Highness the Second Prince have been spreading. Really… ha…”
The Grand Duchess of Heinz continued with an angry expression.
“I can’t help but think you’ve declared war on me!”
Esika’s expression was indifferent as she looked at the flushed Grand Duchess of Heinz.
She listened to that story without even getting up from her seat, then gestured for the Grand Duchess to sit down.
The Grand Duchess seemed even more angry at that insincere gesture.
“No matter if Your Highness the Crown Princess will become my superior, it would not be wise to provoke me like this and ignite a war between brothers. I won’t just sit back and take it.”
“Grand Duchess.”
When Esika called her after listening to her words, the Grand Duchess flinched despite her anger.
There was a subtly oppressive power in Esika’s voice.
“I understand well enough why you’ve come to me, but let me ask one thing.”
Esika’s blue eyes were cold and calm like shining sapphires in a well.
“Am I really the one you should be angry at?”
For a moment, the Grand Duchess’s shoulders twitched at those words.
Esika’s gaze was looking at her with cold eyes as if piercing through the essence.
The Grand Duchess’s lips trembled.
“W-What do you mean? Of course, since it’s a trap set by the Crown Princess…”
“Do you really think inviting your husband’s younger brother to an engagement party is such a grand trap?”
At those words, the Grand Duchess’s eyes wavered.
The Empress always allowed her to meet the Second Prince only on the days she set.
And saying it wouldn’t look good for the Grand Duchess to attend the engagement party alone when Brighton was not feeling well, she sent a letter telling her to rest.
“You know. What the Empress is hiding from you.”
“…”
“The intelligence of the Grand Duchy of Heinz shouldn’t be at such a shallow level.”
There’s no way she wouldn’t know how much of a scoundrel the Second Prince is.
The Grand Duchess clenched her fists.
And a moment later, she opened her mouth with cold eyes.
“His Highness the Second Prince’s womanizing is only a thing of the past.”
“From what I saw yesterday, it doesn’t seem to be just a thing of the past anymore.”
“Your Highness the Crown Princess!!”
Unable to hold back any longer, the Grand Duchess of Heinz glared at Esika angrily.
It was an issue she had been trying hard to avoid thinking about.
The rumors about Brighton, the Second Prince, were not good.
No matter how much the Empress tried to hide the flaws, he was a man who lived so promiscuously that it reached people beyond those shields.
“There was a time when I believed he could be fixed. That people can change, for instance through true love. Something like that.”
The Grand Duchess of Heinz flinched at Esika’s words.
It was as if Esika was reading her mind.
But… ‘there was a time when I believed’?
Only after a moment’s thought did the Grand Duchess realize that it referred to Esika’s past, and her eyes wavered.
“But men are not children. Fixing a nature that has hardened for over a decade? Even if by chance there is a man who corrects his bad habits after meeting a good wife, thinking that it will be my husband is arrogance.”
The Grand Duchess shook her head.
She didn’t want to accept Esika’s words.
That the Second Prince’s womanizing won’t be fixed even after marriage?
But Esika stood up from her seat and approached the Grand Duchess.
Her cold eyes contained past wounds, experiences, and wisdom.
Everyone knew about one of the reasons for Duke Callian Klaus’s divorce.
“I’m different from you. My married life won’t fail.”
“Do you really think so?”
Though she just asked back, it felt like her heart was cracking.
The Grand Duchess of Heinz couldn’t answer.
She heard that Brighton appeared drunk at the engagement party, left in the middle with some women, and spent the night with one of them.
The Grand Duchess’s clenched fist trembled.
“The success of a royal marriage is an achievement for the family. I am the Grand Duchess of the Grand Duchy of Heinz, and I can’t irresponsibly back out when the marriage is just around the corner.”
As if no longer hurt, she tried to regain her composure.
Even if Brighton was an unchanging playboy and there was no possibility of her married life being happy, it couldn’t be reversed at this point.
“I am Aria Heinz, the Grand Duchess of the Grand Duchy of Heinz. The responsibility I have for my family is incomparably heavier than that of the Crown Princess, who is the daughter of a baron family.”
Also, accepting and crumbling here would mean losing to Esika.
Then Esika’s voice was heard.
“From the first night of marriage, when I found out that my husband had done such things with a prostitute, I realized I had stepped in wrong.”
Esika’s gaze calmly turned to the window outside.
The Grand Duchess’s heart sank.
Esika continued her monologue as if she wasn’t talking to her.
“It’s already too late. That’s what I thought.”
“…”
“But it wasn’t too late. Looking back now.”
It is widely known about what Esika went through in the Klaus Duke’s family.
Her husband had an affair with his childhood friend and got her pregnant, and her mother-in-law not only severely abused her but even tried to kill her, her daughter-in-law.
Esika had continued her tragic married life for three years before divorcing.
Of course, Aria Heinz knew that her married life would be less painful than that.
Because she had the Grand Duke of Heinz behind her back.
But seeing the Empress’s attitude of just trying to cover up Brighton’s womanizing without any will to correct it, there would be no one on her side in the imperial family.
Biting her lips tightly, she continued.
“…It’s too late. I…”
“Divorce is better than living with a broken heart for a lifetime.”
“…”
“And divorce in your newlywed days is better than divorce in the twilight of your life.”
Esika cut off her words.
“And if you go back further, breaking off an engagement is better than divorce. Because the time wasted… doesn’t come back.”
The Grand Duchess’s eyes wavered.
Breaking off a royal engagement, a topic no one could dare mention.
But Esika spoke as if it was no big deal.
“Whether you’re the daughter of a grand duke or a baron, don’t we have the right to be happy?”
At that moment, the Grand Duchess thought.
Perhaps, Esika was never an enemy from the beginning.
Aria Heinz knew that she could never be happy through this marriage.
But the reason she didn’t think of turning it back was because of her pride.
Her honor as the Grand Duchess of Heinz and her family’s expectations.
But are such things more important than lifelong happiness?
“…”
Yes, from the beginning, the one she should have been angry at wasn’t Esika.
It was the Second Prince Brighton, who seemed to have no intention of correcting his playboy ways despite being engaged to her,
The Empress, who despite clearly knowing about such incidents, only demanded gifts without a word,
And herself, who was clinging stubbornly to this marriage with a predetermined future!
“…You’re really cruel.”
The Grand Duchess of Heinz, with her head lowered, moved her lips.
Esika was answering her with a calm gaze.
Truth is bitter but good medicine for the body. Only the wise can discern its value.
The Grand Duchess of Heinz is not wise, but she’s not stupid either.
“…”
The Grand Duchess of Heinz turned around.
The shadow had fallen so her expression couldn’t be seen, but Esika could feel her emotions.
Soon after, the Grand Duchess of Heinz left the reception room, and Esika stretched.
The words she said to her were also words she wanted to say to her past self.
**
Five days later,
“Breaking off an engagement is better than divorce, huh.”
Resban, who had been looking into the distance, moved his lips.
A bright red sunset was covering the world.
Esika was sitting on the sofa, reading a book and sipping wine, and Resban, who had been watching the sunset, shifted his gaze to Esika.
Her blue eyes looked mysteriously purple in the light.
“Do you really think so?”
At Resban’s words, Esika made a hmm sound as if thinking for a moment, then closed her book.
“No matter what choice you make, you can’t avoid regret. But knowingly drinking something, whether it’s wine or a poisoned cup.”
It was three days after the Grand Duchess returned that the Grand Duchy of Heinz expressed their intention to break off the engagement to the imperial family.
The Grand Duke of Heinz personally apologized to the Emperor, and the Emperor was displeased but accepted his wishes.
With the grand duchy that was worth being cautious of gone, the malicious rumors about Brighton began to run even more rampant.
The Empress… immediately fell ill, they say.
“It’s a foolish act. The Grand Duchess of Heinz made the right choice.”
Resban sat across from Esika and looked at her.
Even Resban hadn’t anticipated that inviting Brighton to the engagement party would progress this far.
He was curious. About Esika’s next plan.
Resban reached out and wrapped his arm around her waist.
Esika’s gaze slowly meets Resban’s eyes.
His low voice was heard.
“The right choice, huh.”
His deep gaze binds her as always.
“Then I want to ask you.”
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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