The Male Lead’s Father Refuses to Break Off Our Engagement

Chapter 1 Prologue 

 

Evelia swallowed dry saliva and looked at the man in front of her.

Cassis Adelhard, a man with black hair and red eyes, was glaring at her as if he were looking at his enemies.

‘An enemy?’

It had to be.

Evelia’s father, Count Venion, caught Cassis’s weakness and betrothed Evelia to him.

Who would be kind to a fiancée who was forced to get engaged because of threats?
Besides, Cassis has a reputation for being ruthless.

‘This is why I need to stay alert.’

As Evelia’s eyes narrowed, Cassis spoke first.

“What are you doing here without contact?”

As soon as Evelia heard his voice, she almost slumped to the floor.

His voice was objectively low and nice, but it was full of hostility.

It was almost strangled.

Evelia barely managed to squeeze out a voice that didn’t come easily, skipping over both the introduction and the main body of the story and only speaking at the conclusion.

“Let’s break up.”

For a moment, Cassis’s expressionless eyes widened. But then his expression returned to normal, and he asked.

“… What are you talking about?”

“The Duke hates me too. Neither do I want this marriage. Therefore…”

Evelia spoke again, one word at a time.

“Let’s break off our engagement.”

 

* * *

 

Just a week ago from now. Han So-yoon, an ordinary college student, became Evelia Venion.

She didn’t know why she became Evelia. On her way home, she got into a car accident, and when she woke up, she was in a strange world.

‘I can’t believe I’m possessing a book that everyone else is saying….’

Is it because I read a lot of romance fantasy novels with the theme of possessing books? So-yoon quickly adapted to this world.

No, to be precise, there was no time to deny reality and tear my hair out.

Because the future that lay ahead of her was pretty awful.

Who was the ‘Evelia Venion’ I possessed?
The future ‘Evelia Adelhard’ was the stepmother of Lucius Adelhard, the male protagonist of the original novel ‘Aria of Light’.

‘That was also the vicious stepmother who bullied young Ruth because of her inferiority complex.’

‘Evelia’ was the illegitimate daughter of Count Venion. And Lucius or Ruth for short, was also the illegitimate son of the Adelhard family.

‘Evelia’, who had lived as if she were dead as an illegitimate child, was jealous that Ruth, an illegitimate child like herself, was being treated and raised as the heir to the Ducal family.

―You should live with the same treatment as me!

Her ugly jealousy soon led to abuse.
At first, she was simply harsh with Ruth, but gradually she began to physical abuse the child.

If that wasn’t enough, she starve him, lock him in a dark room, and humiliate him in front of the employees…

The list of Evelia’s misdeeds was endless.

‘Then she was kicked out after all her evil deeds were discovered.’

After being kicked out like that, Evelia wanders the streets with nothing and meets a miserable end due to an epidemic in a monastery.

The miserable end. Made readers cheer as they watched her end.

So-yoon was one of them. She even commented on Evelia’s death, which she didn’t usually do.

[She harassed our cutie Ruth, and she died well! She was dirty together and let’s never see her again, our Ruth walked in flowers!]

Maybe it was because of that comment that she became ‘Evelia’ among many, many characters.

‘There were many other comments besides me, so why did I… I shouldn’t have commented.’

However, the regret was too late, and she had already become ‘Evelia’.

Han So-yoon, no, Evelia calmly grasped the situation after that.

Fortunately, she was not yet married to Cassis Adelhard.

I’m engaged to Cassis, but I’m not married.

‘Yes, it would be easier to break off the engagement than divorce.’

Unlike the original work, I knew that if I simply wanted to avoid a miserable death, I would have to be nice to young Ruth.

Then, as Duchess Adelhard, she would be able to live happily without lacking.
But the problem was Cassis.

‘I don’t want to marry someone who hates me. Even if I don’t have to worry about eating and living. My life would be like hell.’

So I decided.

‘Let’s break off the engagement and go find my life. Stay away from the original work!’

That’s how she came to Cassis Adelhard today to break off the engagement.

However, Cassis’ reaction was not good. He seemed surprised for a moment, but then he took care of his expression and asked.

“Is that the will of Count Venion or the young lady?”

Evelia wasn’t too surprised by his reaction. She already knew that Cassis wouldn’t break off the engagement lightly anyway.

“I mean. Count Venion… No, my father doesn’t know.”

“Ha, then I have nothing more to say. I’ll pretend I didn’t hear it, so please go back now.”

“Wait.”

Evelia grabbed Cassis’ hand as he tried to open the drawing room door.

Then.

Slap!

As if Cassis had touched something dirty, he roughly slapped her hand. He seemed taken aback by my actions, but didn’t apologize.

Instead of arguing with his rudeness, Evelia touched her tingling hand and quickly opened her mouth.

“I know why the Duke is betrothed to me.”

“……”

“My father must have asked for marriage in exchange for the information the Duke wanted.”

The words were ‘Information‘, but in reality Cassis was being threatened by Count Venion.

That’s why I got engaged without even thinking about it.

For once, Cassis was more vicious than before. Apparently, he thought she was in league with Count Venion.

“… Does anyone who knows about it discuss breaking off?”

Evelia stared into Cassis’ red eyes.

‘Of course, he won’t break the engagement with just that.’

Cassis desperately needs the information from Count Venion. And Evelia, who came from outside the book, knew that information.

“I will give the information to the Duke instead. In return, please break off the engagement.”

“How the hell does the young lady know that information?”

“But I can tell you that the information didn’t leak outside the Venion. My father and I are the only ones who know this information.”

“…..”

“What would you like to do?”

Chapter 1. The Male Lead’s Father Refuses to Break Off Our Engagement

“I understand what you mean, lady. However, it is not something that can be answered right now, so I will contact you later.”

With those words, Cassis left the room. He opened the door to the parlor and didn’t see me off.

‘No matter how much you hate me, isn’t it too much to not see me off?’
It was when Evelia walked down the hallway alone, muttering to herself.

“Excuse me, lady Evelia”

She heard a child’s voice that didn’t suit this mansion, and then a black-haired kid shuffled toward her.

Evelia stopped and looked at the child in front of her.

Red eyes with black hair. The child, who looked about seven or eight years old, looked exactly like the Cassis I had just seen.

Evelia immediately recognized who the child was.

‘Lucius Adelhard.’

Nickname is Ruth. He was the male protagonist of ‘Aria of Light’ and the illegitimate son of Cassis.

In the original story, Ruth was as cold-blooded as Cassis. He has an expressionless face and a fierce look that will kill anyone at any moment.

It was the original Lucius who cut through the silence without blinking an eye.

He was probably the same as Cassis, not only in face, but also in personality.

But maybe it’s because he hasn’t experienced the storms of the world yet? Or is it because it was before being abused by ‘Evelia’? Ruth in front of me was just a cute kid.

‘Rather, it seems a bit timid, right?’
Evelia recalled the contents of the original novel and soon understood it.’

He said he noticed a lot when he was young.’

The life of an illegitimate child would be quite monotonous. Didn’t Evelia grow up being treated like a bug in the Venion family?

Cassis announced Ruth as the successor, but people didn’t think that Ruth would become the successor easily.

First of all, they suspected Ruth’s bloodline.

—Young master’s mother must have been a commoner. Or maybe she’s worse than that.

―Oh, why do you think so?

―Due to the Duke’s personality, wouldn’t you have dared to marry her even if that person was only a fallen nobleman? However, the fact that he only brought a young master it means that the young master’s mother has a lowly status.