Trapped in the Mad Duke's Snare (Completed Main Story) - Chapter 2
“How could someone be so adorable?”
“You’re like an angel.”
“Genes really are something else.”
Ji Hye Kim regained consciousness to the sound of these conversations. She was certain she’d been in a traffic accident.
When she came to, Ji Hye Kim was nowhere to be found—instead, unfamiliar women she’d never seen before were gazing down at her.
‘…Where on earth am I?’
“Poor dear, this nursemaid will protect you in place of your late mother.”
“Even His Lordship the Marquis, as cold as he is, must surely be captivated the moment he sees the young lady’s face—yet he hasn’t come to visit even once. How indifferent…”
Marquis?
Hearing such words—straight out of a novel—made Ji Hye blurt out, “Abu.”
‘Huh? Why did that come out like this?’
Startled, Kim Ji Hye reached out her hand.
Then she saw a tiny hand reaching into the air before her—so short and small it barely qualified as fingers.
It was the hand of a newborn.
“Oh my! Our young lady is awake!”
The woman who’d called herself a nursemaid abruptly stopped speaking upon hearing the baby’s babble.
As time passed, Ji Hye gradually realized she herself was the tiny infant in the cradle.
‘Reincarnation, then.’
Though she didn’t know why, Ji Hye seemed to have been reborn into an era clearly not her original South Korea.
From the conversations between the nursemaid and maidservants, she gleaned a great deal of information.
A week passed in this manner.
Click. At the sound of the door opening, Ji Hye turned her head.
She assumed it was another chatty maid—but contrary to her expectation, the heavy footsteps approaching were certainly not those of a servant girl.
‘Who is it?’
Her curiosity lasted only a moment.
The approaching figure spoke in a dry, expressionless voice.
“Is this the one?”
Soon, a shadow fell over Ji Hye, who still appeared as a newborn.
“Yes, my lord Marquis. Isn’t the young lady just beautiful?”
His hair and eyes held no trace of color—only a flat, uniform gray. Though utterly devoid of vibrancy, his sharp features lent him an enigmatic presence.
Ji Hye was about to gape at his astonishing beauty—
“Adeline Credion. That’s the child’s name.”
Severus Credion. Despite the girl being his blood daughter, the man never once held her.
He merely left behind the name by which she would henceforth be known—and departed immediately.
‘Credion?’
That day, Ji Hye gained a new name.
Having never known parents in her previous life, Adeline felt no particular emotion toward the indifferent marquis.
She merely wondered where she’d heard the familiar surname “Credion” before.
Thus, born as the only daughter of House Credion, Adeline eventually learned this land was the Solatarius Empire.
‘Solatarius Empire.’
The imperial name sounded oddly familiar, as did the noble house—both evoked a strong sense of déjà vu.
It wasn’t long before Adeline understood the source of her unease.
She recalled it was the exact romance fantasy she’d seen moments before her death.
Only after realizing she’d been reincarnated into that very web novel—whose summary she’d skimmed before closing—did her memory return.
The Adeline into whom Kim Ji Hye had been reborn…
‘Young Lady of House Credion.’
The third fiancée of the mad Crown Prince.
A minor character destined to die at the tender age of twenty-four, slain by her own fiancé in that deranged novel.
[This is the timeline separator]House Credion had not originally been a prestigious noble family.
After the previous Count Credion’s passing, the current Marquis Severus ascended as head of the house and was elevated to marquisate.
Suddenly emerging in the capital and swiftly amassing tremendous power, House Credion was now known throughout the empire.
For generations, every member of House Credion bore cold gray eyes.
So chilling was their gaze it could freeze onlookers—but everyone agreed:
They were surely descendants of a fallen angel.
Their beauty was known not just among nobles, but even commoners recognized their striking appearance.
This held true not only for the Marquis Severus himself, but also for his only child and heir, Adeline.
This life offered wealth, high status,
and, thanks to her inherited looks from the marquis, stunning beauty—truly the perfect trifecta.
Yet Adeline was always uneasy.
The line from the novel that had seared itself into her mind just before death:
Despite her family’s infamous reputation, she—a mere background character—was fated to die at the prime age of twenty-three. She knew this was her future.
Not knowing the novel’s full plot, Adeline found that single remembered line deeply unsettling.
“I can’t just die like this.”
Determined to avoid the possible future she foresaw, Adeline began preparing.
She had no intention of staying in the marquisate if her death was already written.
She resolved that, if necessary, she would leave the house and live on her own—and started building personal assets in preparation.
Thanks to her second life, she easily grew her allowance and valuable accessories into a solid personal fortune.
Meanwhile, she diligently worked to understand the rules of this novel’s world.
To this end, she recalled comments she’d read in her past life and jotted them down.
People had raged about how the Crown Prince could possibly be the male lead. If the one who would kill Adeline was indeed the Crown Prince—
‘I must avoid engagement with the Crown Prince at all costs.’
She couldn’t remember every comment she’d read.
But among countless complaints, one stood out:
□□□□□□(xxxx* * *) Even if it’s some remote village, how can a duke’s estate have no permanent staff? The wounded duke dying from excessive blood loss makes no sense. Clearly the male lead is the duke—if he dies, the novel’s completely ruined.
Though the username was fuzzy, that comment stood out amid the sea of Crown Prince hate.
Because that commenter had speculated the male lead wasn’t the Crown Prince—but the duke.
‘The duke in this novel is…’
There was only one: Duke Torpeo.
Adeline decided to trust that comment.
If the duke might truly be the male lead, perhaps saving him could change her own fate.
According to the novel, her death was scheduled for her twenty-fourth birthday.
Until her proposal arrived, Adeline stationed people near Duke Torpeo to keep watch.
She had no idea when exactly the duke would be injured and left dying in his villa.
She believed that if someone simply guarded his safety, that would be enough.
But life rarely followed Adeline’s plans.
One week after her late debutante ball at age twenty-three—
perhaps because her beauty was impossible to conceal—
the Crown Prince’s second fiancée died under suspicious circumstances, and one month later, the fateful letter arrived.
[This is the timeline separator]The Marquis had been indifferent to Adeline since the moment of her birth.
He never cared how much she spent or what she did.
Even their only shared moment—their evening meal—was spent in mutual silence across a long table, never speaking beyond necessity.
And this remained unchanged even now that Adeline had come of age.
Only the clinking of cutlery broke the silence in the dining hall.
Father and daughter sat facing each other across the vast table—their relationship so distant it hardly resembled that of parent and child.
Today, as always, was no different. Adeline quietly continued her meal—
“Adeline.”
It was Marquis Credion who broke the stillness first.
“Yes, Father.”
Their eyes, which hadn’t met even once since she entered the room, finally locked.
Seeing the Marquis’s emotionless gaze, Adeline swallowed hard.
“A proposal letter has arrived from the Imperial Palace.”
Adeline dropped her cutlery upon hearing news of the proposal she expected only at twenty-four.
Like a broken machine, she murmured to herself,
“That… that can’t be.”
A proposal from the Crown Prince? It shouldn’t arrive for another year—why now?
Her eyes darted about, unfocused.
But the Marquis, seemingly unconcerned with her reaction, simply extended the letter.
“His Highness the Crown Prince wishes to become engaged to House Credion. The engagement will take place at month’s end. Prepare accordingly.”
With that, the Marquis dabbed his mouth and left the table.
‘Why is the proposal arriving now?’
There was still a full year left until the scheduled time.
Adeline sighed.
From the Marquis’s tone, it was clear her own wishes held no weight in this arrangement.
He and the Imperial Palace had likely already settled the matter in advance.
She couldn’t die like this.
Not after being given this new life.
In her hands, the proposal letter crumpled mercilessly.
Before she could even save the duke, Adeline herself now seemed destined to cross the River Styx.
She made her decision.
‘Right, I’ll run away first.’
If she waited, the duke might eventually arrive injured at his villa.
So if she fled now and hid there, she might someday encounter Duke Torpeo.
For now, that was her best option.
Overwhelmed by the fear of death looming ever closer, Adeline hastily packed her belongings and fled under cover of night.
Male lead is reincarnated to save his wife
I’ve also read this one twice already. The female lead is kinda soft and gets embarrassed easily—not really my type, but the plot is definitely worth reading. Hurry up and read it, y’all!
Intro
When Shen Yuan encountered Su Jin again in his previous life, she had already become the Prime Minister of the current dynasty. As for him, the former top young master of the capital, he had long since fallen into the abyss, becoming a singer on a pleasure boat.
After a song ended, he was redeemed and sent to the Su Residence.
Su Jin respected and cherished him, gave him a roof over his head, and bestowed him with warmth. Shen Yuan fell deeper and deeper, but before he could express his feelings, Su Jin passed away.
Shen Yuan died to follow her in death, but instead, he returned to when he was fifteen years old.
At that time, he was not yet engaged, and Su Jin was just a poor scholar.
Shen Yuan gritted his teeth, casting aside all his pride, and thought of ways to coax and entice her every day.
The colder and more indifferent Su Jin was towards him, the more proactive Shen Yuan became.
He was not afraid of being mocked by the world, only wanting to marry his Wife-master early, to hold her hand and never let go for a lifetime.
[Note: This story will not specifically point out the male lead’s reincarnation time point; it’s all in the details. Whenever you feel that the male lead is acting strangely, he has most likely been reincarnated.]
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MANGA DISCUSSION
3 Comments
Chapter Comments (84)
Yeah know, she successfully ran away from home. Why didn’t she just go as far away from the kingdom as possible? Why bother going to this Duke guy based off of one comment? Sometimes I wonder about why these characters just don’t run away for good and change their identities.
I wonder if the Crown Prince and Duke are indistinguishable. Like what if this isn’t actually the Duke she’s getting tangled up with but the Crown Prince who is lying?
Let me guess, cp and duke were the same person? Both were mad and has same features. And the comment said ‘if the duke death, it will end’ hmmmmmm
Inline Comments (38)
Behind it, set into the wall, was a door leading underground.
This girl is way braver than me. Exploring an abandoned house and going into a dark secret tunnel along doesn’t sound like something I could do. 😂😅
Last night—
I always wonder about these types of tropes. Like, how strong is the FL that she was able to move the Duke to the bed?
[This is the timeline separator]
The Crown Prince’s name is Trashi? 😂🤣 So he’s a trashy ML. Got it.
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Miioo
Why run away now? She had plenty of time. It would have been better if she had run away before her coming-of-age ceremony.
Blairwoods
From the prologue, seems like cp and duke are mad characters 😂
Artemtisforaday
Here’s hoping she is successful in her escape plan!