I Tried To Be The Male Lead's Ex

I thought my first love was just a thing of the distant past that ended miserably.

 

“We’ve finally met.”

 

“……?”

 

“I’ve been searching across the continent for a year to find you.”

 

He came to me with a story I couldn’t even understand.

 

It had been so long.

 

I thought I’d forgotten all about the silver hair and red eyes.

 

The way the corners of his mouth would twist to one side when he smiled.

 

“Oh, my God.”

 

I opened my eyes wide. For a few seconds, My mind was spinning.

 

He was Callion Vlysias.

 

The only son of the Empire’s only Grand Duke, and heir to the title.

 

Archduke Vlysias.

 

And My first love at the Academy!

 

……But what kind of bullshit is this?

 

I once attended the same academy as Callion.

 

That was a long time ago.

 

After graduation, I became a simple commoner on one side of the country and he was a high Imperial noble on the other.

 

More importantly, I don’t even have a lover yet!

 

‘Besides, my first love was a complete failure!

 

At the time, Callion had a fiancée of his own.

 

I had long since given up on the idea of being the daughter-in-law of an archduke, as I was not even a member of the nobility.

 

A first love was just a first love, and a lot of time has already passed.

 

I think I’ve got the wrong number…….

 

“By the way, I’m not the only one here.”

 

“What?”

 

“I brought my kid.”

 

“What.”

 

I was embarrassed.

 

I hesitated and looked down at the boy peeking out from behind him.

 

No more than four or five years old at most.

 

He was clutching his trousers and rolling his eyes at me, and I couldn’t help but think, “He’s adorable.”

 

‘Cute…….’

 

He looks a lot like Calion, so I assumed he was his son.

 

Ha, but that’s not the point!

 

I had a different question to ask.

 

“Why did you bring him?”

 

The two of them came to me, and I said, “What the hell?

 

They just barged in here and asked to live with me?

 

“Because he’s your child.”

 

“What?”

 

“He’s ours.”

 

Uh…… what?

 

“Louise Bartlett, no, Louise. You married me, we had a child together, you stayed by my side, and then one day you just disappeared.”

 

“What?”

 

“Of course, judging by your condition, it’s not enough that you’ve wiped the memories of everyone who’s ever known you, it seems you’ve suffered from amnesia yourself.”

 

He smiled wryly.

 

“You’ve got to be kidding me. Did you hate me that much?”

 

So much that you wiped your own memory, and ran away from me?

 

His eyes were blood red, and he had an ominous gleam in them.

 

It was all too much for me to understand.

 

Was I married to him?

 

Have children with him?

 

Even erase my own memories-?

 

“Hey, I’m not married!”

 

“You’d think so because you erased your memory.”

 

“Oh my god!”

 

The view turned upside down.

 

“Let’s go and listen to the desperate story because your husband has suffered quite a bit from the long search.”

 

He picked me up like I was a bag of hay, not as a princess, and walked ahead towards the carriage.

 

In the midst of that, I was worried about the swaying skirt, so I stripped off my uniform and wrapped it around my legs.

 

“Suddenly what!

 

I opened my mouth in disbelief, my gaze fixed on the ground for a moment.

 

‘Boo, that’s not fair!

 

This was a clear kidnapping!

 

“What are you doing, won’t you let go of me?”

 

“Uh, mom-.”

 

“Let go of me!”

 

“Hold still, you’ll hurt yourself if you fall.”

 

What was this, on such a nice day……!

 

We arrived at our destination shortly after getting into the carriage.

 

I stood in place, dumbfounded, looking up at the large mansion reaching to the sky.

 

“Congratulations, Louise.”

 

“…….”

 

“You are finally back where you belong.”

 

Overnight, I was the wife of an archduke.

 

That, and the Mother of my first love’s son.

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

At the risk of being cliché, let’s start from the beginning.

 

My name is Louise Bartlett.

 

My father was the eldest son of Viscount Bartlett.

 

He earned the title of viscount decades ago when an oil business he took a chance on became a huge success.

 

But my father, Dorendar Bartlett, was a pure man.

 

“He had no greed.”

 

He loved my mother, who was not of noble birth, but of unknown origin, more than anyone in the world.

 

 

 

[Our meeting, Louise].

 

[It was like a destiny from heaven].

 

 

 

Destiny……. Yes.

 

Maybe it was fate for me.

 

My parent’s story began when they met on the street.

 

It was said that my mother, who was lying down covered in a lot of dust without knowing why, was rescued by my father.

 

She didn’t even know her proper background and status.

 

A worn-out clothes.

 

Tangled hair.

 

Even the place where she collapsed happened to be in front of a poor village, was the only one who received my father’s love.

 

Bartlett’s family members were shocked.

 

The end of the two of them was tragic.

 

My father lost his inheritance and status of Bartlett and was driven out of the street with my mother, and the rest of the business was taken by the second son of the family.

 

And yet he took it all for granted.

 

 

 

[I just need you]

 

[You don’t know how lovely your father was when he said that, right? he was a blessing I’ll never forget. We weren’t afraid of any future.]

 

 

 

But it was all in the past.

 

 

The past memory.

 

Fragments of memories that now have no evidence.

 

‘There’s no other meaning.

 

My father left me and my mom.

 

And she never loved me.

 

She spent a lifetime of resentment, and in the end, she did the same.

 

‘……I wasn’t happy.

 

That was my short story.

 

My father, Dorendar Bartlett, was killed in a carriage accident.

 

He started a new business to make up for the position he lost to his uncle, but he had to die before he even started it.

 

He was going to check out the stuff imported from overseas with his own eyes instead of just relying on his attendance but ended up getting into an accident on the way.

 

My mother was in full-term labour at the time, and after hearing the news, I came into the world in her sad tears.

 

My life was like a single road.

 

My mother was also sick, but when I was 11, she followed my father.

 

From then on, I was taken to an orphanage, where I grew up in a bloody competition for food and all manner of neglect.

 

I was a commoner.

 

The bastard child of Viscount Bartlett, the only surname allowed under my grandparents’ will.

 

An illegitimate child of the Bartletts.

 

Lewis Bartlett in name only.

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

Whoo!

 

“Wow, How can you avoid this once?”

 

“…….”

 

” look at her eyes. You want to hit someone, huh? You want to hit someone really hard?”

 

“Oh, yes, you lowly filthy piece of shit of a Bartlett family!”

 

“If you were born a lowly hybrid, know your place, and if you have any sense, get out of my sight.”

 

Coming into the Capital Academy, bullying by my cousin who’s been beating me for years already.

 

I brushed my knees with dust as if I didn’t hear the low whispering voice.

 

I thought I’d make a bunch of friends when I left the orphanage, but I never expected to find Viscount Bartlett’s son here.

 

“You’re done with your shit, now.”

 

“Ha! What?”

 

“You’re not going to stop even if I tell you to, and you’re going to do it again tomorrow, and the day after that, and the day after that, right?.”

Margosia Bartlett.

 

He’d met me on the day of the Academy’s entrance ceremony when I was called up from the list of new students, and he’d started spreading rumors all over the Academy.

 

That there was an illegitimate child who dared to take the name of Viscount Bartlett.

 

That his father was an unworthy member of the family, and that I had the dirty blood of a mother of unknown origin.

 

In other words, Lewis Bartlett was a lowly, disgraceful wretch.

 

“Dude, you’re hilarious. How am I supposed to stop when you’re standing right in front of me like this?”

 

“…….”

 

“I’d rather you die, go somewhere and bite your tongue and die. It’s a sin for a human being like you to be alive, don’t you know?”

 

“…….”

 

“You’re making my day suck and you’re driving me crazy! Do you know that?”

 

This time, He slapped her.

 

Her vision blurred as her feet stopped touching the ground.

 

“Die. Just die. Get out of my sight right now!”

 

“Cough, ugh……”

 

My vision blurred. It happened every time.

 

Margosia bullied me like in the Academy, and everyone casually accepted it, never stopping him.

 

No one, not once, not ever.

 

It was natural to them, every time.

 

That thought I deserved to be bullied, that deserved to be humiliated, and that I deserved to die.

 

Maybe I secretly deserved it too.

 

‘Make it quick.

 

Please.

 

‘Please, quickly…….’

 

I want this moment to pass.

 

I repeated, squeezing my eyes shut.

 

Pretending to be unmov

ed by the repeated harassment, pretending not to be hurt at all, even though I was deeply hurt.

 

Yes, this was what I deserved.

 

I can’t help it until I graduate.

 

I don’t have the strength to fight back, I tell myself all the time……..

 

“‘You’re both so ridiculous.”

 

There was one person who came for my help and made me shine.