Unrequited Love is Over, Fend for Yourselves (5 Chapters Left to Complete) - Chapter 4
“Who are you?”
“Etienne Claire.”
“…….”
She gave her name when he asked who she was, but Fernando frowned.
“Why are you here?”
“Well…”
She couldn’t say she came because she knew he’d be in danger. Just like in her previous life, she’d stumbled upon him by chance then, so she was about to claim the same this time.
But apparently, Etienne’s presence here wasn’t that important—Fernando immediately changed his question.
“Did you pull me out?”
Etienne watched Fernando press his palms to the ground and slowly raise his upper body, then pondered his question.
She understood him asking who she was, but his next question struck her as odd. Why was he asking in such a sour tone whether she’d pulled him out?
“Weren’t you just in the lake by accident?”
She’d heard before that he’d fallen in by accident. But Fernando’s phrasing now felt slightly off.
“It was an accident.”
‘Huh.’
If it really was an accident, then he ought to thank her—she’d saved him. Yet it felt like he was scolding her instead, making Etienne frown.
“I went to look at the lake and saw a person floating there.”
Etienne spoke clearly and deliberately to Fernando, carefully holding back her rising excitement, conveying exactly how she’d felt—wouldn’t anyone feel unsettled seeing something odd floating in a lake?
“So I fished you out so you wouldn’t die. What should I hear from you now?”
Her steady gaze made Fernando’s sharp demeanor gradually soften.
He didn’t say thank you, but seeing the boy who’d just been pulled from the water, he decided he didn’t want to keep pressing him further.
“Why on earth did you go into the lake?”
At Etienne’s question, Fernando looked down at himself instead of answering. Soaked through and smeared with grass and mud, he seemed utterly indifferent.
Instead, he raised a hand Etienne hadn’t noticed before. His tightly clenched fist bore deep nail marks on his palm, as if he’d been gripping something tightly ever since he’d fallen into the water.
“This had fallen out.”
Etienne leaned forward to get a closer look at Fernando’s hand.
“…Paper?”
The waterlogged paper had darkened so much she’d initially mistaken it for a stone. But upon closer inspection, it was clearly a piece of paper folded and crumpled multiple times.
“What is it?”
“Something I had to protect today.”
Fernando began unfolding the paper. Though damp, it fortunately hadn’t torn and opened smoothly layer by layer. Etienne grew curious—what could possibly be written on it that Fernando would risk his life to protect?
Mud from Fernando’s hand smeared the paper slightly, but the markings were still legible. Or at least, she’d thought they were writing at first.
But Etienne quickly realized the water-blurred characters resembled a drawing—and soon recognized the familiar emblem.
“It’s the Schupraher crest.”
“My assignment today was to protect this.”
She wondered why anyone would assign protecting a piece of paper bearing a crest as homework. It wasn’t heavy, and it was easy enough to carry on one’s person.
“Why?”
“Father said… so I wouldn’t forget who I am.”
Fernando answered readily. Etienne took the paper from his hand and held it up to the sunlight, wondering if there might be hidden messages or perhaps a map to some family treasure.
But no matter how closely she examined it, there was nothing—just the family crest, plain and simple. Lowering the paper, she asked Fernando,
“So you’re always supposed to remember you’re of ducal blood?”
Fernando nodded. Yet even after his confirmation, Etienne remained utterly baffled.
Would anyone really assign such a task just to remind him he’s of ducal lineage? Fernando resembled the Duke so strongly that anyone could tell they were father and son at a glance.
True, he’d inherited the Duchess’s beauty too, making him even more handsome—but still, his identity as the Duke’s son was obvious. So why go to such lengths just to make him remember?
“I don’t get it.”
When Etienne shook her head and spoke honestly, Fernando glanced around before replying,
“My father’s knight threw this paper into the lake.”
“So you jumped in to retrieve it?”
“Yes. The crest represents our house—so I had to protect it at all costs…”
Etienne’s expression grew even more incredulous at his explanation. He’d leapt into the lake just for a scrap of paper—and claimed that was how one protected their house?
One might call it training, but it still seemed excessive.
“You nearly died! That was dangerous.”
“I couldn’t help it. It’s always been like this.”
Fernando didn’t sound resentful at all—only resigned.
“Always been like this? What does that mean? Were all your assignments this difficult and dangerous?”
Etienne kept pressing, curious about the side of him she’d never known.
“Father said I must endure at least this much to become heir to the Duchy.”
“The Duke said that?”
Fernando answered with silence. His unspoken confirmation left Etienne even more speechless.
No matter how grand and powerful the House of Schupraher might be, to push one’s own son into such danger… And Fernando’s resigned attitude was troubling too.
‘But why didn’t I know?’
Etienne tilted her head, recalling Fernando from the past. She hadn’t known he underwent such training within his family.
‘Ah… maybe.’
Her eyes shot up as she alternated her gaze between the lake and Fernando. Back then, after pulling him out, she’d called for help and hadn’t stayed with him.
And when she returned, Fernando had been with Hana. Perhaps he’d had this very conversation with her then. Suddenly, Etienne remembered Hana’s words to Fernando.
[Fernando. You haven’t forgotten our conversation that day, have you?]Sometimes, when Fernando couldn’t hide his conflicted feelings and frowned, Hana would gently comfort him.
Then Fernando would sigh deeply, as if trying to settle his churning thoughts, and offer her a faint smile.
[I like it when you smile.]Seeing that, Hana would pat his arm as if to say, “Good job.”
Whether or not Fernando truly felt better, at least his mood always calmed. Their “conversation” must have been precisely this one.
‘So that’s why Hana told him to smile.’
Knowing Fernando lived a difficult life, she’d comforted him in her own way.
“I almost wished I’d died. I didn’t want to open my eyes again… Will my fate keep flowing like this? Is enduring like this really right?”
Fernando murmured to himself with a hazy smile. Seeing his face—so fragile he seemed about to dissolve into mist—Etienne bit her lip. She understood he wanted comfort from her now.
All she had to do was say something similar to what Hana had said—tell him she liked his smile, urge him to smile, assure him this too would pass. Yet somehow, her voice caught in her throat. After clearing it with a cough, she blurted out,
“What if you can’t endure it?”
Fernando’s eyes widened at her reply. In them, Etienne saw her own bitter smile reflected.
She could have said smiling would lift his spirits, or offered to endure it together. She should have comforted him like Hana did—but instead, even she knew her words came out harsh.
Even having returned to the past, Etienne still couldn’t speak like Hana. And having never lived that way herself, did she even have the right to tell Fernando to endure everything with a smile?
“Duke Schupraher is right. You’ll be Duke yourself someday. So you must excel above all others.”
“But…”
“It was dangerous, yes—but not wrong. And you shouldn’t try to escape through death. You have to endure, somehow.”
It was a cold thing to say—but the kindest words Etienne could manage.
Fernando’s expression darkened. She’d spoken too harshly to someone who’d wanted comfort.
The moment called for her to say the Duke had been too cruel, yet she’d acted unkindly instead. Etienne knew it well.
“Right… because this is my fate…”
“But that doesn’t mean you must endure every injustice.”
When Etienne continued, Fernando looked at her, puzzled.
“As heir to the Duchy, their expectations for you must be high. That’s why they give you such training, and you endure because you understand. But you don’t have to accept everything blindly. If you judge something wrong, break free from it. Don’t just drift along like water, accepting whatever comes.”
“Don’t drift?”
“Better to break than to bend.”
Fernando stared blankly for a moment before asking,
“Not even a little bend?”
He looked genuinely confused. Etienne let out a soft laugh.
“If you keep bending however they want, won’t your insides rot away?”
Her words struck a nerve—Fernando pressed his lips tight shut. Even without asking, his situation was obvious.
Though the sole heir to the Duchy, he couldn’t truly control everything as one might assume.
Since childhood, he’d borne heavy responsibility, constantly measured against others, pressured never to fall behind.
Everyone might say it was natural for the heir to the Duchy—but the burden he carried was far from light.
“But… I’ve never done that before.”
“That’s easy. Just act like a madman.”
“A madman? You want me to pretend to be insane?”
Fernando asked, incredulous. Etienne shrugged with a smile.
“So what? What’s the harm if you act like a madman?”
She’d done the same—openly showing her prickly side so others couldn’t ignore her.
“Want to maximize the effect? I’ll tell you how: hide your true self completely. Laugh when you shouldn’t. If needed, cling dramatically to someone’s skirt. If you suddenly snap, won’t everyone avoid you? Maybe then they won’t assign such absurd training.”
It was a side of Fernando she’d never seen in the future—but whether he took her advice or not was his choice alone.
When the male lead is punished by carrying the female lead’s child and having periods like a woman
“I’ve given birth to two children for you, yet you still think about him.
Was I nothing but his substitute to you from beginning to end?”
Synopsis:
Meng Huan, a scumbag who has dated countless girlfriends, transmigrates to a female-dominated country.
Day 1: Whether it’s female dominance or not doesn’t matter. The beauties here are passionate and amorous. Isn’t it easier to date them than in modern times?
Day 2: After a night, Meng Huan discovers the differences in the female-dominated world. Men here actually have chastity locks and menstrual cycles. This hinders his ability to perform, damn it!
Day 3: What’s wrong with sleeping around? I don’t want you to marry me. I’m meant to be a playboy. I don’t care about male virtues… What? You want to drown me in a pig cage? Marry, I’ll marry!
Day N: Meng Huan inexplicably vomits and receives the shocking news of his life… He’s pregnant.
_____
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