“I never thought you’d be such a petty woman who would get in my way. You lack the virtue of yielding for the future of the country. How different you are from Isabella, who even gave up her match for her sister’s happiness!”
Finally, her breath caught.
It was impossible to tell whether the tears or the anger came first.
“I’m a hindrance? Isabella gave way? I sacrificed everything for you. I gave up my reputation, virginity, I even drove Prince Alfonso into a corner with my own hands. What has Isabella done all this while?”
That winter, when Prince Alfonso and Isabella had a grand wedding and Isabella miscarried the child, the fruit of their blessing, Ariadne had to chew on a leaf of birthwort, a contraceptive, every time she spent an intimate moment with Cesare.
“It’s a sin in the eyes of the Lord to have intercourse without the possibility of giving birth. I don’t want to take birthwort anymore.”
“Then?”
“…If you don’t like me getting pregnant before marriage, please marry me and take me.”
“Ari, don’t you love me? Prove it if you do. Come here.”
Her one act of courage was easily dismissed.
“How embarrassing would it be to get pregnant before marriage? A bastard’s child, born of two bastards. I hate that. Don’t make me ashamed in front of others.”
If she didn’t want to lose Cesare, she had no choice.
In the year 1129, when Cesare was sharpening his sword and preparing for a coup, Ariadne, as an unmarried young noblewoman, stealthily walked through the snowy paths every midnight, acting as a courier both inside and outside the castle. No one could imagine that she, the fiancée of a highranking man, could play an important role in military operations.
“I used to pretend to be in love with a shepherd boy while moon gazing for you every night.”
Although she chewed contraceptives because of Cesare, she covered it up by meeting other men and crossed the wall. Ridiculously enough.
The rumor that she was an unfaithful fiancée spread at that time still haunts her now, in the ninth year of Cesare’s reign.
“I threw the rightful owner of the throne to the dogs myself.”
The kindhearted Prince Alfonso, who always treated her kindly, was hung on the castle wall and became the food for crows.
“This finger! It rotted and fell off after drinking the poison for you.”
Ariadne showed her decayed left ring finger, which was shorter by one joint.
In 1132, in the fourth year of Cesare’s regency, she fell victim to the poison aimed at Cesare, and although she survived, she lost the finger she had used to detoxify the poison.
She later found out that it was Cesare who ordered her to detoxify the poison with her left ring finger.
It must have been a misunderstanding, it must have been inevitable, the left ring finger must have been the best choice.
I could do anything for Cesare, who I loved the most in the world.
Because he would love me as much as I loved him.
She was disabled because she had sacrificed herself for him, she had aged as much as the time she had dedicated to him, and compared to her young, radiant, and beautiful past, she was now weak, ugly, and broken.
Now was the time to receive his care and repayment.
However, Cesare, who was supposed to repay her, merely looked down at her with a cold expression. His tall height was oppressive, his dark brown hair with a reddish tint contrasted sharply with his statuelike facial features, which were too beautiful even at this moment.
He opened his thin, clear, and smooth lips.
“Someone had to harm Alfonso with their own hands. We couldn’t have the noble Isabella do such a thing, could we?”
Ariadne’s eyes widened.
“You don’t mean to say that you and my sister, since Prince Alfonso was alive…?”
When scheming men desperately battle for her favor in the male harem
This one’s also on my reread list! The rivalry, scheming between the men in the imperial harem are just as intense and thrilling as in classic palace drama novels, where concubines fight to the death. Give it a read, girls! I promise you won’t be disappointed.
Synopsis:
“I am not worthy of her… but I still want to be by her side, even if only as a loyal dog…”
Those were the painful whispers of Yue Guanyi – the proud Crown Prince of the Great Qi, who was torn between deep love and a guilty conscience. Despite holding the supreme power of the Imperial Guard, he still could not forget the dark past when he was sold into a brothel.
Fate played a cruel twist when Qiu Shuzhi – a young female official who had just passed the imperial examinations with top honors – stepped into his life. She did not know that she was the one who had saved him from a tragic fate many years ago. And now, her heart was the target of pursuit for both Yue Guanyi and the powerful Empress Dowager Qin Qing.
While Yue Guanyi only dared to silently care for and protect the one he loved from afar, the Empress Dowager Qin Qing openly expressed his feelings and did not hesitate to take advantage of his power to approach Qiu Shuzhi. The covert struggle between the two most powerful forces in the imperial court began…
Trigger warning: All men in this novel are yandere style.
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