The Blackened Second Male Lead’s Wife - Chapter 1

The title of the novel I read was <The Saint Estelle>.

Being the saint is enough to make her sacred, but the female lead had too many charms.

All the handsome men mentioned in the novel were captivated by her.

Among them was Lucian Kardien, the emperor’s number one knight.

I liked Lucian, the second male lead, much more than the prince, the male lead.

“Hah! Why does a man who cuts people into pieces on the battlefield get so nervous when he meets the saint? You stupid pure-hearted bastard!”

He has liked the saint since childhood.

But he couldn’t express his feelings.

Because he was born with red eyes.

Since ancient times, red eyes have been called the devil’s curse.

No matter if he was the youngest to be a knight or how much he did on the battlefield, countless people still grumble, saying he must have borrowed the power of the devil.

So Lucian avoided the saint.

It is a great sin to even admire her for being a saint.

So he put up with his desire to get close to her again and again.

It was so hard for me to see that I became interested.

But when he found out that the saint was in love with the crown prince, his iron-walled heart fell like a grain of sand.

Desire that had been desperately suppressed burst out.

“I love you.”

But no matter how desperately he confessed,

“Please, Estelle.”

No matter how much he cried and held her, the saint did not accept his heart.

She already had another man in her heart.

Lucian was enveloped in deep sorrow and intense jealousy.

At that moment, to his surprise, the power of the real devil appeared to him.

He was really cursed by the devil.

He was blackened.

And no longer suppressing his own desires.

He killed everyone who interfered with him, hurt him, and irritated him.

Among them was his fiancee, Pernia, who despised and trampled over him all the time.

<He really is the devil! Please die!>

Those were Pernia’s last words.

“I got rid of it without leaving anything remaining.”

I looked at the man in front of me, recalling the death of Pernia I read in the novel.

The man drank tea with his eyes looking down, so gentle that his nickname of God of War was overshadowed.

But I know.

He’s a time bomb carrying a demon.

I want to break off my engagement right away, but that was also impossible. It was an engagement arranged by the emperor.

So I was forced to come out here.

Today was the first meeting between Lucian, who returned from a long war, and Pernia.

But there was no joy in the first meeting between us. There was no excitement. It was just a great deal of awkwardness.

I can’t stand the thought of the man in front of me as a time bomb.

Perhaps I shouldn’t say that. I have to be careful with my actions in fear of provoking him.

Sipping away the tea without making any noise.

I glanced at Lucian.

I was just trying to examine his mood, but I got lost without realizing it.

White skin without a scratch and fine lines of lips. Straight nose and elegant jawline. Long eyelashes and shining red eyes below them.

In short, his beauty is out of the world.

Hey, writer! Your writing ability couldn’t keep up with character!

I screamed a little as I looked at him closely.

“You’re hurt!”

The place where my gaze was directed was a small scar drawn along his neck.

Lucian covered his throat with an embarrassed look.

“It’s not a big deal. Don’t mind it.”

In fact, Lucian had a secret. He has a mysterious power that heals the wounds of his body by itself.

Thanks to his ability, he has a fair skin that has no scar even though he has been on the battlefield for a long time.

No matter how capable you are, you can’t leave it untreated like that.

I quickly snatched the pouch in my bag and took out the medical bandage.

The maid, Anne, put it in there, saying it might be useful.

Nice, Anne!

After praising Anne’s preparedness, I quickly approached him.

“Even small wounds need to be treated properly. It hurts a lot if it’s infected.”

“Ah…”

I wrapped the bandage around his neck.

I realized when I was checking if the bandage was well wrapped.

Ah. He’s too close.

It was too close for a man and a woman who had been awkward with each other.

My eyes were spinning because I thought I was going too far in the first meeting. He started talking first.

“Lady Pernia is a little different from the rumors.”

“Which rumor?”

“I’ve heard you’re… honest.”

I’m sure you’ve heard that I’m a nasty Marquis’ daughter.

You don’t have to tell me.

Because it was actually like that’s what it was.

If the real Pernia was here, not me, then Pernia would have looked at him with a look of contempt throughout this meeting.

But not now!

I’m a peacemaker, a good citizen who thinks nothing of the second male lead, who is destined to turn Yandere!

I said with the most harmless expression possible.

“Rumors are just supposed to be a provocative story made up by noisy people. It’s totally different from the rumors, right?”

Say it’s different. It’s over 360 degrees and 1,440 degrees different.

He squinted his eyes and bent gently, as if he had heard something funny.

“I see.”

Don’t laugh like that. That’s bad for my heart.

The smiling face he made just now is on a different level from his stiff smiling face.

Without realizing it, my heart starts to pound.

I was relieved anyway.

Because I felt that he was definitely more open to me than before.

<The probability of dying by the blackened second male lead as been reduced by 0.01 percent.>

Those words showed up next to him.

* * * *

Conversation with Lucian is much more comfortable from the first meeting.

Well, we didn’t talk about anything big.

It was just very trivial talk, such as the taste of a tea in a cafe, or what desserts are good.

Now that the atmosphere has been moderately loosened, I had to talk about the main point.

I opened my mouth after a sip of tea.

“You know the engagement ceremony will be held at my place in two weeks, right?”

“……Of course.”

It was two years ago that I and he were engaged, but the engagement ceremony had not yet been held.

Because Lucian was busy on the battlefield.

Upon the arrival of the victory report that the war was over, my father quickly set a date for the engagement ceremony.

That was two weeks later.

“My father prepared the engagement ceremony with all his heart. It’s Lord Kardien’s first official banquet since his victory.”

Even under the curse of the devil, Lucian was, in name and reality, the most famous knight in this empire.

Since it is a protagonist’s engagement ceremony, it was natural for it to draw attention from many people.

My father, who was so excited, used all his money to decorate the banquet hall and invited all the most outstanding people in the empire.

“All the high-ranking aristocrats of the empire shall come to the wedding…. and the saint too.”

Lucian’s eyes shook at the word saint.

Where the polite smile crumbled like grains of sand, there was only a sad face left for the viewer’s heart to ache.

“Hey, I can tell how you feel.”

Estelle couldn’t understand it, even though his feelings are very passionate.

Lucian thoroughly hid his heart in front of her.

He was afraid that she might find out how he felt, so he was avoiding Estelle.

Loyal coward.

I didn’t like how he looked.

You suppress your feelings for her like that and then blackened.

If he had expressed his feelings at all, he might not have been blackened.

So I was going to give him a chance.

“Once the saint arrives, I would like to ask you to do the dance of blessing.”

Lucian’s eyes widened.

The dance of blessing is literally dancing hand in hand with the saint.

Estelle would gladly dance with the main character of the banquet because she’s not using the healing-like power of a full-fledged saint.

The saint dances with each of the fiancées respectively at the engagement ceremony.

That’s what I was after.

“Lord Kardien, are you okay?”

So far, Lucian has deliberately avoided contact with Estelle.

But, this way, he will bump into her.

Not only can they bump into each other, but they can also make eye contact, they can hold hands, they can feel each other’s body temperature.

Wouldn’t that lead to a different development from the original?

Estelle may recognize Lucian’s hidden feelings.

If this goes well, it might be an opportunity for the joining of those two.

If not, I can score a good deal with Lucian. What a brilliant idea!

I’m trying to conceal my pounding heart as I look at Lucian.

‘Bite it! Take the bait!’

At an unexpected remark, Lucian had a face of complete confusion.

After a while, he opened his mouth with an embarrassed look on his face.

“Lady, that’s difficult.”