Rolling in Bed with the Male Lead

Damn it. This is a disaster.

Richard couldn’t hide his displeasure for even a moment in the face of Cailus’s abrupt, unexpected action.

Richard gritted his teeth.

I’m ruined. But he couldn’t simply sit still.

Swallowing his anxiety, he opened his mouth.

"It seems you are misunderstanding something, Your Highness."

"Misunderstanding?"

Cailus retorted as though the very notion were absurd. "What exactly am I misunderstanding?"

"..."

Richard deliberately bit down hard on his lower lip. "I..."

He recalled the past that had repeated itself so many times. The day he confessed to Lady Daphne.

"Your Highness... I love you."

The day she rejected him, every single time.

"Do you truly not know... how deeply I care for Your Highness...?"

"..."

"How could you..."

Richard’s eyelashes trembled faintly. His gaze dropped pitifully to the floor.

"...say such a thing to me...?"

Looking as though he were about to cry, he raised his eyes to Cailus.

As though he were truly the wounded one.

"..."

However, it had absolutely no effect on Cailus.

"Hah."

He let out a short, incredulous laugh and asked, "Right. You truly love me?"

He didn’t even bat an eyelash. It was the look of a man who had already seen through Richard’s deception.

"If that’s the case..."

The hand gripping Richard’s jaw fell away.

Sliding smoothly downward, the pale hand caught the hem of Richard’s cloak and slowly began to undo it.

"...!"

Richard stiffened as his chest was suddenly laid starkly bare.

"Can you truly submit beneath me?"

The corner of Cailus’s mouth twisted as he stared mockingly at Richard.

"..."

Richard barely managed to hold back the curses threatening to spill out.

Can I submit?

Of course...

I can’t!

How could I possibly spend the night with someone like Cailus for real?

Especially with me being the one pinned down!

Richard disliked Cailus.

No, he hated him. He despised him more than anyone else in the world—the man who had made her unhappy forty-nine times.

"..."

Though he was screaming internally, Richard smiled softly without letting any of it show.

"Being tied up isn’t to my taste."

"So that’s your game."

Cailus released Richard and stepped back.

"Bring it."

He gave the order to the knight on his right.

"Yes, Your Highness."

The guard knight respectfully presented him with a silvery, shimmering object.

"...!"

Richard’s watery blue eyes widened.

The Basvalrica fruit. While he had been unconscious, the fruit had already fallen into Cailus’s hands.

"You seemed to be pursuing this quite fervently."

Holding it by its bluish stem, Cailus lifted one corner of his mouth.

"From now on, you would do well to answer truthfully."

He walked toward Richard, who was bound to the chair.

...!

Richard turned his head, following his movements.

"If you continue to lie..."

Cailus stopped at the edge of the cliff—the dizzying precipice where Richard had only just obtained the Basvalrica fruit.

"...something unpleasant might happen."

His arm extended straight out.

The Basvalrica fruit dangled in the air, poised to fall into the dizzying depths at any moment.

"...!"

Richard’s eyes churned violently like a ship caught in a storm.

That... I went through so much trouble to get that!

Whether he knew how Richard felt or not, Cailus moved nonchalantly along the edge of the cliff. He circled back to stand before the wooden chair to which Richard was bound.

"Richard Friedrich."

He spoke in the same unwaveringly cold voice.

"I’ll ask again."

"..."

"What is your true objective?"

"..."

Richard’s face twisted for a moment.

It’s a threat.

If I don’t answer him properly, he means to throw the Basvalrica fruit off the cliff.

But...

After a brief silence, he opened his mouth.

"To marry Your Highness."

Richard was no fool.

Even if he told the truth, there was no guarantee Cailus would return the fruit.

Besides, no matter how important the fruit was, obtaining it had, broadly speaking, been part of the process of seducing him.

He could not abandon his objective itself for the sake of a single fruit he might never recover.

"Hah..."

Cailus let out a sharp sigh and pressed a hand to his forehead.

Things did not seem to be going his way.

"Richard Friedrich."

He moved again, approaching the chair.

"Whatever your objective may be, it is futile."

"..."

Richard stared silently at Cailus.

Their gazes tangled in the frigid northern air.

"You must have seen and understood that I am courting Lady Daphne."

"Yes."

Cailus let out a heavy sigh and parted his lips.

"I..."

"..."

"...truly love her."

Hah.

Richard laughed hollowly inside.

"Although I caused her great pain, not a single day has passed without my regretting it."

"..."

"I want to win Lady Daphne’s heart again... and I will make her happy."

His voice sank heavily. Cailus slowly lowered his gaze as though lost in thought.

"..."

In contrast, Richard’s lake-blue eyes grew cold.

This son of a bitch...

I understand what he means.

He loves her that much, so he’s telling me to stop trying to seduce him, whatever my objective may be.

Fine. That’s fine. But...

You want to make her happy?

How laughable.

How many times did she take her own life because of the man named Cailus le Regnantia?

Because of him, Lady Daphne...

"..."

Before he could think better of it, a question abruptly burst from his lips.

"Does Your Highness believe you can make Lady Daphne happy?"

You think you can make her happy?

It was not a question he should have asked. Richard had to pretend that he loved Cailus.

Nevertheless, Cailus’s claim that he wanted to make her happy was utterly ridiculous.

"Of course. No matter what."

Cailus answered with an unwavering gaze, as though he sincerely meant it.

"..."

Richard’s lake-blue eyes flickered and widened.

Should I just kill him?

The man before me is so detestable that I can hardly bear it.

I pity her for believing his words and marrying him.

Forget the objective. Right now, I want to seize that pale neck before me and snap it. ...Are there only two guard knights? Then I’ll just kill—

No.

Richard barely clung to his senses.

Don’t you know it’s useless?

The moment the male lead dies, the "plausibility" of this "story" collapses.

No matter how many times I kill him, the "story" will endlessly return to the beginning.

"Therefore, whatever your objective may be, give it up now."

Cailus looked at Richard with eyes that had turned cold.

The image of snapping his neck flashed through Richard’s mind once more, but he quickly suppressed it.

It was nothing more than a meaningless fantasy.

"Don’t you love her as well?"

Well, of course I do.

I love Lady Daphne.

I love her with a depth and boundlessness you could never dare to measure.

"You do not love me."

And of course that’s true too.

How could I possibly love someone like you sincerely?

You should be grateful I’m not tearing you apart right here and now. I want to butcher you, body and soul.

"Right. Even now."

Cailus, who had been staring into Richard’s lake-blue eyes, gave an enigmatic smile.

"What?"

Richard asked.

Cailus roughly swept back his hair as though he were going mad.

"You claim with your own mouth that you love me, yet aren’t you looking at me right now as though you want to kill me?"

Was I?

I thought I had concealed it perfectly...

"..."

Why...?

His lake-blue eyes wavered.

I was so thorough in my acting and deception. So why...

"Although I cannot know your objective..."

Cailus looked directly down at Richard and spoke.

"You... dislike me."

His crimson eyes held no trace of uncertainty.

At some point, he had become certain.

"It is clear that you have no intention of spending the night with me. The same goes for your claim that you want to produce an heir."

Ah.

A faint laugh slipped through Richard’s lips.

Right. That’s it.

Now I understand how he noticed.

I dislike Cailus.

I dislike him, the male lead. I hate him to death for taking her from me every single time.

The man who makes her unhappy is the most despicable being in this world.

My hatred for you is simply too great...

No matter how hard I try to suppress it or conceal it, it endlessly spills over.

Like a river flooding beneath a downpour.

"Haha, ha..."

Richard bowed his head. For no discernible reason, uncontrollable laughter seeped through his teeth again and again.

It seems I...

hate you far more than I thought.

No matter how thoroughly I tried to deceive you or dress it up, a lie is still a lie. In the end, everything shows. Everything is revealed. Just like now.

Then...

wouldn’t the unvarnished truth be better than a carefully crafted lie?

"...?"

When Richard suddenly began to laugh, Cailus furrowed his brow.

Only after a long while did Richard’s laughter subside. He raised his head, his platinum hair fluttering in the cold wind.

"You’re wrong, Cailus."

He gladly tore away the wrapping.

What’s the point of hiding something that has already been discovered?

"I will spend the night with you and produce adorable descendants."

Maybe I was wrong from the very beginning. Did I truly need to pretend that I loved him?

As long as I can somehow bind him through marriage, isn’t that enough?

"But you were right about one thing."

Richard bitterly raised one corner of his mouth.

"...?"

He saw Cailus’s face stiffen.

At the edge of the northern cliff, where a frigid wind cut like a knife...

Beneath a sunset drenched in crimson, the gazes of the male lead and the second male lead locked. For one brief instant, time seemed to stop.

"What..."

Looking at the damned male lead...

"Cailus."

Richard smiled radiantly in the red sunset.

He gladly revealed the card he had kept hidden.

"Yes. I hate you."

He kicked off against the ground beneath his chair.

The chair tipped over the edge of the cliff.

His figure vanished into the sunset.

And thus...

The fall.

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