When Pride Falls at Your Feet (19 Chapters Left to Complete) - Chapter 6
“It’s fine. You can keep watching.”
“No, I’ve seen enough.”
“Right. Anyway, we made quite a racket on performance day—so much so that we even got scolded.”
“Mm, that’s probably why it stuck in my mind.”
“Now that I think about it, I’m getting curious too. I’ve heard quite a bit about him offering sponsorship, but no one seems to know the exact conditions. Normally, rumors would leak out bit by bit, yet this is too thorough. Could it be…?”
“Could it be what?”
“Is he asking for something strange?”
Giuliana slightly covered her mouth with her hand, her eyes widening in surprise.
“They say some nobles occasionally demand bed favors, after all.”
“You don’t think… Maybe he’s just sponsoring you purely out of goodwill?”
“Well, that’s possible too. Hmph. It’s just surprising that someone so renowned would be so unclear about things—I blurted out whatever came to mind. If his intentions really are pure, that’d be fantastic for the one receiving it.”
Pure intentions… Emilia gave a bitter smile and shook her head slightly. Enrico had only asked her to dance, for now—but from the very start, proposing a contract using her parents as leverage hardly seemed pure at all.
What should she do? Should she attempt to run away again? Or should she go tomorrow to submit her application to the Avaliante Ballet Troupe? He’d only given her two days to decide. Time was running short.
Emilia gazed out the window with troubled eyes. By now, sunlight had pierced through the clouds and cast itself into the room.
[This is the timeline separator]Perhaps because so much had happened in such a short time, she’d forgotten the most important thing.
“What is your relationship with Duke Michele?”
Emilia suppressed a deep sigh as she looked at Giorgio Este standing before her.
Had she really lost her mind? She’d fled in the dead of night just to escape her uncle, yet all she’d been thinking about was Enrico Michele. If she got dragged back now, the whole situation—contract and all—would become even more complicated. She’d been far too careless.
Moreover, instead of sending a servant as she’d expected, Giorgio had come to the academy himself. Since everyone here assumed she was from a distant, impoverished branch of the family, his sudden appearance was inevitably awkward.
“At least it’s holiday break.”
She’d quickly pulled Giorgio to the secluded path behind the academy’s back gate before anyone saw them—but now she wondered if that had truly been the right move, considering she might end up being dragged off anyway.
But still…
“Duke Michele?”
She was taken aback by his abrupt mention of Enrico Michele—his first words were entirely unexpected.
“Yes. His counselor came to see me this morning, offering to invest in one of my ventures.”
The deserted alley felt desolate. Evening hues blazed in the sunset before twilight began to settle, yet her eyes, already adjusted to the dimness, could clearly read Giorgio’s expression.
“…A venture?”
“I’d been struggling to find investors, but he showed up already knowing everything—or rather, that’s none of your concern. Anyway! The reason I’m asking is because you’re included in his investment conditions!”
Giorgio narrowed his eyes, his mustache twitching slightly, scrutinizing her as if searching for the slightest hint of deception. Even without lamplight, his oil-slicked brown hair and moss-green eyes gleamed noticeably.
“Could you explain in a bit more detail, please?”
“He said he’d invest on the condition that I don’t interfere with your ballet career. That sly fox—since when has he been taking secret payments behind my back? And here you are, talking about marriage? Did you plan to keep it all to yourself?”
Emilia’s expression grew perfectly calm. She’d wondered why he was so agitated—if an investment was coming through, he should’ve been happy—but clearly, his real worry was that she’d pocketed secret payments all by herself, which was why he’d rushed over personally.
Knowing his obsession with money, she wasn’t surprised. What startled her more was that the investment came with specific conditions—as though everything had been meticulously prepared in advance.
Suddenly, she recalled Enrico Michele summoning her in his carriage the other day. Come to think of it, from their very first meeting, he’d seemed to know something about her.
From waiting in his carriage near the academy that late night, to the knowing look in his eyes when he saw her carrying her luggage—it was possible he already knew exactly what Giorgio Este had demanded of her.
If that last thought was correct, perhaps his mention of this now was part of a plan to control Giorgio in the future. Yet it seemed less about buying her time and more about assuming she’d sign the contract, freeing him to manipulate her without restrictions.
After a brief hesitation, Emilia shook her head.
“…We’re not involved like that. I only met him for the first time at the performance the other day.”
“He’d come to me talking about you, despite having no relationship with you at all? Are you playing word games with me now? So after pretending to be obedient, you’re going to stab me in the back? Typical—just as I’d expect from a group of unprincipled people who probably learned to sway their bodies lewdly before they learned proper dance.”
“Uncle!”
“How dare you look me straight in the eye like that?! You owe me money in place of your parents. You should be grateful that I’ve kept your worthless, penniless family afloat. Huh? If it weren’t for that money, I would’ve—ahem! Ahem! In short! You must earn money. Remember, no matter how grown you claim to be, as long as you’re part of this family, you’ll never escape me. But really—sponsorship? Do you honestly think that paltry offer would satisfy me?”
Giorgio grabbed her arm and shook her so hard that Emilia swayed like a tree branch in the wind. She glared at his plump hand clutching her arm, then tightly shut her eyes.
“I’ve had enough…”
She should have just run away. Regret surged over her like a tide.
She wanted nothing more than to immediately snap at him to apologize—or better yet, slap him across the face. But a chilling dread crawled up her spine: she likely wouldn’t escape him until the day she died.
It choked her—this reality where he treated not only the family name but even her own body as his personal property, and she could do nothing to stop it.
“So I’m asking again—what’s your relationship with the Duke?! Can’t you give me a straight answer?”
Even her certainty about escaping had now crumbled. The thought crept in: even if she left, she’d inevitably be dragged back to this hell. Was she truly destined never to possess anything—not even until death?
Her parents, ballet, even herself—all of it was being crushed beneath the weight of these demons who seemed determined to take everything from her.
“This isn’t just the same place—it really is hell.”
Fleeing one person who wanted to sell her, only to run toward another who’d use her parents as leverage to turn her into a wind-up doll—how could this reality not be hell itself? Her last glimmer of hope flickered out, and belated realization slowly extinguished what little light remained in her heart.
Emilia’s delicate eyelashes, lowered like flower petals touched by rain, trembled faintly. The corners of her eyes reddened like flames, and her deeply drawn breath shuddered as it escaped her lips.
“…If I can’t have anything in this life anyway, perhaps at least learning the truth about my parents’ injustice could give me a reason to keep living.”
That was, of course, assuming Enrico Michele’s words were truly honest. If he was merely exploiting her parents for his own ends, then at least she wouldn’t be the only one suffering alone in hell.
Giorgio, growing impatient with Emilia’s prolonged silence, had already begun spewing vulgarities. When she finally lifted her head, her ears—previously muffled as if underwater—cleared just enough to see Giorgio, growing even more agitated, through her hazy vision.
“It really isn’t like that.”
Expressing her emotions wouldn’t solve anything, and provoking him further might cause such a scene that even passersby would be drawn in. After all, he was less than an animal—he had no sense of shame.
“I met the Duke only after the performance ended. That’s when he first proposed sponsorship to me.”
Emilia forced herself to regain composure, but a weary sigh still tinged her words. With her free hand, she grasped Giorgio’s wrist to pull his grip away—and to her surprise, his hand released easily. She quietly returned her arm to her side.
“What kind of sponsorship? You didn’t just take it all for yourself, did you?”
“No. I’ve only received his proposal and haven’t given my answer yet.”
“What? He’s already investing in my business just from a proposal? So if you accept his sponsorship, then even more…? Ahem. But why didn’t you accept it right away?”
His voice, now slightly softened, echoed his question a half-beat late.
“…Because I am an Este. Any benefit to the family through me must be known to you, Uncle. I intended to consult you first—but it seems Duke Michele has already acted.”
“Yes, that makes sense. I should know. But would the Duke really show such interest in you? Hah… So what do you plan to do?”
“I’m not sure. You said many offers might come after the performance, but would Duke Michele really compare to other nobles? Of course, marriage might take priority—but if his sponsorship greatly benefits you as well, wouldn’t it be worth considering?”
“Hmm…”
Giorgio stroked his narrow mustache, eyes tightly closed. After a brief silence, he slowly spoke again.
“…Well, one can hardly dare refuse a proposal from His Grace the Duke.”
When yandere male lead believes she loves him — but she never did
“How dare you!”
“How dare you make me love you, only to cast me aside as nothing more than a friend?!?
“I will never accept that.”
“I will never let you return to him.”
“Even if I have to burn myself to ashes.”
“Even if I must shatter my purity, my dignity, my very soul.”
“I will never let you escape me!”
This was the first novel that introduced me to the matriarchal genre. I’ve read it three times already!
At first, the male lead despised the female lead. Later, he misunderstood that she liked him, so he condescendingly and reluctantly reciprocated her feelings.
Then, he suddenly discovered that she was kind to everyone in the same way, and there was already someone she cherished in her heart, and that person was not him.
The male lead couldn’t believe it, he became angry and crazy. He was determined to capture her body and heart by any means necessary.
Synopsis:
Want to see how a green tea bitch male lead falls in love with the female lead?
Want to see how he flirtatiously pursues the female lead?
Want to see how he gets slapped in the face repeatedly?
The male lead is a green tea bitch, a poisonous lotus, jealous, ruthless, unscrupulous, with a venomous heart, and he’s also a delusional maniac.
The female lead is righteous, positive energy-filled, kind, a holy mother.
Let’s see how two people with extreme personalities come together~
_____
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