Trapped in the Mad Duke's Snare (Completed Main Story) - Chapter 10
“That… that’s… too much.”
“Too much?”
“You’re just too handsome!”
Adeline quickly dropped her gaze from the duke and blurted out a sentiment far from the truth.
“It’s only because it’s been so long since you cut your hair like this. Besides, just look in the mirror—has Mel’s face ever been ordinary? It’s only natural to be flustered like this.”
Once the lie began, it flowed effortlessly.
Once again today, Adeline swiftly marshaled her wits to coax the duke.
But when she cautiously glanced up, the duke stood with his arms crossed, eyes narrowed skeptically.
“We’ve been together for quite some time—yet you avoid my eyes over something like this?”
“Well… it’s just that I’m suddenly feeling nervous.”
Of course, it was a different kind of nervousness—but wasn’t that still a kind of trembling?
“Then.”
As if satisfied by her words, a faint smile briefly touched his lips.
The duke uncrossed his arms and strode purposefully toward Adeline, then swiftly wrapped his arm around her slender waist.
“If it’s not because you dislike me, then I suppose we can share a bed tonight?”
“Y-yes?!”
Adeline was so flustered she didn’t even notice her voice trembling.
Yet the duke smiled with an unusual calmness, leading her toward the bed.
“U-um… Mel? Even so, sharing a bed like this…”
Unable to actually lie down on the bed, Adeline blinked nervously.
Leaning back against the headboard at a slight angle, the duke spoke.
“It’s an entirely natural occurrence between us, isn’t it?”
Where had gone the shy, flustered man who first opened his eyes? He’d turned into such a smooth-talking rogue.
He’d only stayed by her side when she suffered nightmares. Now, this grown man wanted them to share a bed?
And just what kind of relationship considered sharing a bed “entirely natural”?
Surely he didn’t think of her as some motherly figure due to his amnesia?
Her narrowed eyes flickered toward the duke, then she quickly shook her head.
Just as Adeline was about to speak, trying to persuade him—
“What are you talking about?”
The duke asked, genuinely puzzled.
“Well… sharing a bed like this…”
Before Adeline could finish her faltering reply, the duke interrupted.
“It’s fate, and we’re important to each other, right?”
“…Right?”
After all, they were bound by the need to save each other’s lives.
“You said I’m the only one, didn’t you?”
“That’s right.”
At this moment, Duke Torpeo was the only one who could save her life.
Adeline nodded in affirmation.
“We can’t be separated. We’re far too important to each other. And living under one roof like this—doesn’t that make us husband and wife?”
“Husband and wife?”
Adeline’s mind snapped fully awake.
Husband and wife? What on earth was this man imagining?
“Isn’t that so? If not, then what exactly are we to each other?”
The duke gazed at Adeline with striking seriousness.
For a moment, Adeline was so startled her lips parted wordlessly. As she stared back, her senses slowly returned.
She hadn’t realized her ambiguous words could be interpreted this way by him.
Trying to explain now felt impossible—she couldn’t think of any clever enough justification to surpass the fantasy he’d already built.
Besides, his misunderstanding wasn’t exactly unpleasant while they had to live together.
After all, it gave them a reason to stay close.
“W-well, yes! Not married—uh… we’re lovers!”
Faced with the sudden risk of being mislabeled a married woman, Adeline hastily claimed they were lovers.
Surely the gap between them was too wide for them to truly be husband and wife.
If the duke suddenly regained his memory, how would she ever deal with the aftermath?
But her anxiety lasted only a moment. Things would work out somehow.
Adeline resolved to treat the duke even better until the day his memories returned.
Surely then, he’d pity her enough to spare her life.
Just as Adeline concealed her dark intentions and carefully laid her plans—
“There’s only one bedroom here—how did we manage before?”
At the duke’s sharp question, Adeline’s heart sank.
“W-well… of course we shared it! You were sick, so I told you to rest comfortably and slept on the sofa.”
“I’m not sick. And how could I possibly let my lover sleep on the sofa? Come here.”
Adeline silently swallowed a sigh. Yielding to his insistence, she reluctantly approached the bed.
It seemed she’d have no choice but to pretend to be lovers with this handsome, amnesiac duke—like some kind of newlywed trial.
‘Being lovers with that handsome face wouldn’t be so bad.’
Even if his memories returned, he wouldn’t easily discard someone he’d known as his lover.
Lying stiffly on the unfamiliar bed, Adeline squeezed her eyes shut.
Just as she lay quietly, the duke’s hand intertwined with hers, and she felt the prickling weight of his gaze.
“But haven’t we signed a marriage contract yet? Normally, when people live together like this, they’re married—not just lovers. Why are we still only lovers?”
The duke voiced another lingering doubt.
Adeline was caught off guard—she hadn’t considered this part.
She’d only thought that calling themselves lovers would leave her with less guilt if his memory ever returned.
With no clever excuse coming to mind, she decided to improvise.
“Oh… we were about to submit it to the temple, but you fell ill… Ha-aam.”
Though already wide awake from the duke’s barrage of questions, she faked a tired yawn.
To cover one lie, another was needed.
Though she told these lies only to escape immediate peril, she disliked the growing guilt they caused him.
Thus, hoping to avoid further questions, she began feigning sleepiness.
“Mel… I’m so sleepy. Good night.”
Adeline chose to ignore the situation by pretending to sleep.
Silence settled, broken only by the sound of rain outside.
Counting the falling raindrops, Adeline soon drifted off to sleep.
[This is the timeline separator]At that very hour, another person lay sleepless.
Light seeped through the crack beneath the Crown Prince’s office door.
Crash!
Crown Prince Trashi hurled every object within sight at the man standing before him.
The office floor was already in shambles from everything the prince had thrown.
And the man kneeling on the floor had blood trickling down his forehead.
Clearly struck by a thrown vase, the man kept repeating his apologies.
“I’m sorry, Your Highness. We saw him fall from the cliff—he’s certainly dead.”
“‘Certainly dead’? You can’t even find a single corpse? Is this what you call a report?”
“I’m sorry.”
The man before him prostrated himself fully before the prince.
The Crown Prince was utterly furious. Who was Duke Torpeo, after all? From the beginning, the duke had always been a thorn in his side.
‘The crimson eyes marking him as a descendant of Goddess Helena.’
In the Solatarius Imperial Family, each generation always produced exactly one person with crimson eyes.
And that crimson-eyed prince would inevitably ascend the throne.
This generation’s crimson-eyed heir was none other than Crown Prince Trashi Solatarius—complete with black hair matching that of Goddess Helena herself.
From the moment of his birth, he had been designated the next emperor.
The Crown Prince was the flawless imperial candidate, beyond reproach.
—Until the day the Torpeo family produced a child with black hair and crimson eyes.
Ever since he was a prince, Cassis’s presence had forced him to endure the nobles’ whispers.
“Your Highness, standing beside the young lord, doesn’t your hair look slightly brownish?”
“Just look at Lord Torpeo’s eyes—who wouldn’t say his red eyes are far more vivid?”
Compared to Cassis’s jet-black hair, the Crown Prince’s black locks seemed faded, and his eyes lacked that same intensity.
Though such comparisons left a foul taste in his mouth, it hadn’t truly mattered—
Because he alone carried the imperial bloodline’s legitimacy.
—Until the night the Emperor collapsed suddenly.
“Prince, you must bring me the duke’s hair. Only then can you ascend the throne.”
“…”
“It’s the only way.”
That night, the Empress quietly summoned the Crown Prince and revealed a secret.
Upon learning the truth, the Crown Prince resolved to eliminate the duke, that thorn in his eye.
On the day they went hunting together,
the duke was supposed to return as a cold corpse, struck by a poisoned arrow meant for a bear.
Yet this fool before him had bungled it completely.
The Crown Prince had even personally drugged the duke’s drink with a powerful sleeping potion.
Returning to the palace without the duke’s body, the Crown Prince fabricated a story at the next day’s council meeting, claiming the duke had secretly departed on a military expedition. Who dared contradict the prince?
But this excuse wouldn’t hold for long. He had to find the duke’s body—and soon.
Even if the duke still lived, he’d kill him again.
Unable to suppress his rising fury, the Crown Prince drew his sword and drove it deep into the man’s thigh, twisting the blade.
Unfazed by the blood splattering his face, the prince spoke coldly.
“Bring me the body immediately. If you return empty-handed next time, you’ll lose those useless hands.”
With a flick, he tossed the bloodied sword aside and stormed out of his office.
Bloodshed was frequent in the palace due to the Crown Prince’s violent temper.
Yet the steward guarding the door still shrank back in unremitting fear.
When the Crown Prince was this enraged, one dared not even meet his eyes—lest that blade turn on oneself.
Just as Trashi passed the steward, whose head was bowed low,
he suddenly halted, as if struck by a thought.
He turned back toward the steward and stepped close.
“Oh, right—what’s the status of the marriage proposal sent to House Credion?”
The pouring rain made the atmosphere even more grim.
A flash of lightning and thunder pierced through the corridor’s windows.
The lightning illuminated the Crown Prince, and his murky eyes glinted sharply.
Ex-husband Wants Reconciliation
One-line summary: Chasing the wife to the crematorium (making an effort to attract someone who has become indifferent), the female lead doesn’t look back, the second male lead takes the position.
Intro:
To repay the kindness of the older generation, Su Mu crossed into a female-dominated world and became a live-in daughter-in-law of the Yan family, single-handedly saving the Yan family from fire and water.
But her husband, Yan Jiyue, the eldest son of the Yan family, treated her with sarcasm and never showed her a good face.
It wasn’t until after Su Mu’s death that this pampered and arrogant young master shed a few fake tears and pretended to want to die for love.
This life’s kindness was enough. If there was a next life, she would definitely kick Yan Jiyue away.
Who knew that the heavens would be so kind as to allow her to be reborn, returning to the time when she had just married into the Yan family.
Su Mu glanced at the Yan eldest son, who still spoke coldly to her, and threw a divorce letter in front of him.
“Let’s divorce!”
***
Yan Jiyue never imagined that he would be reborn. He happily went to find Su Mu, wanting to make up for the mistakes he had made in his ignorant youth.
Wasn’t the reason the heavens allowed him to be reborn to let him reconcile with Su Mu?
But when he pushed open the door to Su Mu’s room, the person lying on the bed was another man.
Su Mu’s personal attendant, Xie Yi.
Yan Jiyue hated him so much that his teeth itched. In front of Su Mu, Xie Yi was a gentle and considerate whisperer of sweet nothings, but in reality, he was vicious-hearted and deliberately sabotaged their husband and wife relationship.
In the previous life, it was he who secretly hid in Su Mu’s coffin and committed suicide, stealing a step ahead of him to be buried with Su Mu.
Yan Jiyue’s eyes were filled with hatred as he cursed, “What kind of thing are you? Your background is lowly, what right do you have to occupy Su Mu?”
Xie Yi looked at the sleeping Su Mu and no longer pretended to be a whisperer of sweet nothings.
He proudly stuck out his belly, “I have the right because my belly is capable of giving the Wife-master a daughter.”
***
Yan Jiyue was consumed with jealousy. He spread rumors that Xie Yi had once been branded with the mark of a “harlot” on his chest.
But on the night Xie Yi cut off the flesh bearing that mark, Su Mu suddenly realized something was amiss.
“How did you know the exact moment I was poisoned? And why did you show up a month early?”
Xie Yi remained silent, blood from his wound soaking through his robes. His sapphire eyes brimmed with anguish – or was it just a flawless act?
Between a once-arrogant husband now seeking redemption, and a gentle soul willing to die for her – who truly held the darkest secrets? And could it be that Su Mu and Yan Jiyue weren’t the only ones given a second chance at life…?
[Reading Guide]
1. True divorce, chasing the wife to the crematorium, the female lead doesn’t look back, the male lead is Xie Yi.
2. The ex-husband did not cheat, he just realized too late and didn’t realize that he liked the female lead.
_____
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MANGA DISCUSSION
3 Comments
Chapter Comments (59)
Are we about to get a kiss in only 12 chapters? 😂
She’s kind of an idiot for trying to take down that hinge thingy and being so stubborn about it. She could have asked him to do it since he’s stronger.
“Then don’t look away.”
His face drew closer as his low voice tickled her ear.
Kyaaaaaaaa!!!!!
What? Did something happen to her? Wow, the Duke seems very dangerous.
Inline Comments (29)
Not realizing how deeply he might probe, Adeline continued to fumble through her
Why not be honest here? She is in the paper & people from her house are in town.
“Hey, Mel… about yesterday… I was too sensitive. I’m sorry.”
Yay! I’m glad she apologized. I would have been annoyed if she didn’t.
He couldn’t allow anyone to take Adeline away. He needed to confirm that she bel
It’s unusual how quickly the Duke seems to have developed feelings for Adeline. These feelings appear to go beyond ‘I believe this person to be my lover therefore I treat them well’
YOUR COMMENT
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Artemtisforaday
I’ve never really understand subordinates who stay with a master who abuses them. If it were me, I would have run away to a new country and changed my name just to get away from my abusive master!
Miioo
Disgusting, filthy, vile scoundrel. I hope you fall to the bottom. Your position doesn’t mean you get to control other people’s lives and trample on them.
Blairwoods
Though they were not the same person but yes, both were crazy… poor fl