How The Sub-Male Lead’s Stepmother Teaches Love

“Give me some blood.”

“That’s not what we need. It is to express a pattern on the body of the princess, so please don’t suspect us that we are trying to use noble blood for personal matters.”

“Aren’t patterns inherited through blood? That’s why we need your blood.”

‘I thought I wouldn’t have to give blood anymore once the pattern was manifested. But after the pattern manifested, they demanded more blood.’

They explained that because artificially expressed patterns are dangerous unlike natural patterns, they will disappear if she doesn’t take a specific drug periodically.

Artificially: through human intervention, not naturally.

“If you don’t believe us, you can dismiss us as blasphemous, but princess, we cannot be held responsible if history records you as the first Princess to lose her pattern.”

With those threatening words, Mariette realized that there was no turning back now.

However, what to do with that? 

Now she will be a princess with the pattern.

Her goal is to confidently obtain the right to inherit the throne and compete with that filthy illegitimate son to claim the throne.

‘If only I could kick that filthy blood out of this palace.…’ 

It was none of her business to know what unknown people were doing with her blood.

As the first contract, they manifested the pattern in her.

—Tak!

When she opened her eyes, she glared at the bedside lantern and flicked her index finger, a flame naturally occurred and stuck to the wick.

With the flame burning quietly in her eyes, Mariette closed her eyes.

‘When I become the princess with a pattern, the first thing I will do is.…’ 

Unlike her busy mind, Mariette’s body quietly fell asleep.

Mariette’s cheeks were as pale and murky as the dried birch trees in a winter forest as she let out a breath.

There was only one small lantern that soothed her as if it was looking after her.

* * * 

An enclosed space where not a single ray of light could penetrate.

In a room where only a single lantern hung on the wall illuminated the outline of the gloomy room, someone with the hood of her robe moved back and forth nervously. 

The tip of her chin was all that was visible beneath the shadow of the hood, but that was enough to guess that person’s gender.

The motion of her non-stop fiddling with her hands showed her deep anxiety. Finally, she stomped her foot in place and shouted.

“Why haven’t you come yet!”

Did he even hear her?

As if waiting, one side of the wall creaked and cracked in the shape of an elongated square, and then it moved with a heavy sound.

Appearing silently from within like a shadow was a man in a black robe with long red hair that reached his waist.

“Oops, I’m a little late.”

He smiled without a word of apology, adjusted his glasses on the bridge of his nose, and sat down on a chair in front of the table in the room with leisurely steps. 

Then, as he shamelessly takes out a cigarette from his pocket and puts it in his mouth, the woman raises her voice in disbelief.

“A little late? You’re an hour late.” 

“It can’t be helped, I’ve always understood the Marquis, so the Marquis will understand too, right?”

White smoke flowed from his smirking lips.

In the bitter medicine that began to spread from him, the Marquis covered the front of the hood with her sleeve and gnashed her teeth.

“Didn’t I tell you not to call me that?”

“You are also very careful. Who listens to what is being said here.” 

“you—!”

“Yes. I’ll make it up to you today, please have a seat.”

The man who exhaled a long puff of white smoke pointed to the other side with a chuckle.

The Marquis, biting her lip hidden by the hood’s shadow, controlling her anger, sat where he pointed.

The red eyes behind the transparent glasses were looking at her with a pleasant light.

Perhaps because he was hit hard on the back of the head, those eyes, which are usually pleasant, felt like poisonous snakes today.

The Marquis calmed down her voice so that her emotions wouldn’t be revealed.

“All right. Now tell me.”

“What do you mean?”

“What do you mean? You must know, you have something to explain to me!” 

bang! 

The table where the fist was struck made a creaking sound and shook loudly.

‘If I had been a little stronger here, he would have collapsed with one leg broken.’

The red-haired man whistled lightly, wondering where all that blood was going.

The response sent fever to the marquis’s head.

“How dare you show such an insolent attitude in front of me, not enough for breaking the contract?”

“I admit that I am a stupid person who grew up without knowing anything, but you’re being a little unfair. You’re the one who broke the contract in the first place.”

“What?”

“In exchange for helping you with everything you want, we just wanted blood, and you said you’d give it to us. But when was the last time you gave blood? Do you remember?”

“Didn’t I say I would give it to you! Since it’s precious blood, I asked you to wait a little longer…”

“There is someone who gave that precious blood and gave it freely. Aren’t we mongrels who drool over whoever throws a bone at us?”

A chuckle came from the man’s mouth accompanied by white smoke. 

“Speaking of which, I think that’s the end of our relationship. and you won’t be seeing me out here in the future, even if you contact me separately, and of course, I won’t be responding to you.”

“Ha! You approached me first when you needed to, seduced me with all kinds of sweet talk, and now you’re going to throw me out? You think you’re going to get away with it?”

“Yes, I think we’ll get away with it. Because if we don’t, you won’t either.”

Amidst the white smoke, the red-haired man smiled deeply. The man, who had abandoned his usual servile attitude, was looking at her with such arrogant eyes that she wondered if he was the man she knew.

“Even if he is a prince who is favored by the emperor, it will be a little difficult, right? If it turns out that the monsters that attacked the capital and the imperial palace were actually his doing.” 

“Well, do you think His Majesty would believe such slander?”

“He will believe it. If these documents are delivered to the imperial palace anonymously.” 

After rummaging through his arms, the man threw down a rolled-up paperwork on the table.

With a shocked face, she hurriedly reached out her hand to check the contents of the document.

“you…when did you—!”

“Just so you know, it’s a copy, so it’s useless even if you damage it.” 

The documents the man presented were none other than ledgers and reports.

The details of what the Marquis of Calvin invested in. A report that the group that sells herbs to medical centers in the eastern and southern parts of the empire, including Kereis, was actually a group of unknown magicians, ‘Onyx’, and that the group has created a synthetic monster called Chimera.

Moreover, one of those Chimeras is a monster with the poison of the Stone Snake that attacked the imperial palace.

Even more than that.

There were papers proving that the wizards of Onyx had used special magic to create the pattern on the body of the first prince and that they had done the same for the Second Princess.

It was something that would have a huge impact when it was revealed to the outside world.

Even the main culprit of the monster incident was the second prince and she had already manipulated countless documents and witnesses, leading the Emperor to make a wrong verdict!

“You, you, what the hell, why this!”

Her face turned pale, let out a terrifying scream, and tore the stack of papers to shreds.

Marquis Calvin, who was breathing heavily, glared at the red-haired man with bloodshot eyes.

However, as if he wasn’t afraid of the double-edged sword that was about to slit his throat, he leisurely lit a cigarette in his mouth.

“In addition to the letters we exchanged, the secret promises we made….There are so many things that would be troublesome if exposed. I never die alone, and I would never commit treason so unprepared.” 

“You, what the hell…. what do you want.”

“Didn’t I tell you? We’ll end our contract cleanly, and then we’ll be strangers, right?”

Marquis Calvin didn’t answer.

However, the red-haired man pulled his chair back and stood up as if he had already heard the answer.

“This space will be closed from now on. Even if you come to the entrance, it will be blocked …so if you have any further business with us, do your best to find us..”

“you….”

The surface of the table was dented in the shape of a finger as the Marquis of Calvin pressed her hand.

The face exposed under the hood was contorted ferociously.

Marquis Calvin glared at the red-haired man with fierce eyes.

“How dare you disobey me?”

A flicker of red flashed in Marquis Calvin’s scarlet eyes, but soon he became dizzy as if he were dancing.

“Sure, I dare.”

However, the idiot who was helplessly defeated by that power no longer existed. 

The red-haired man smirked and laughed happily. With the cigarette in his hand, adjusting the glasses on the bridge of his nose.

“Your power doesn’t work on me anymore.” 

It was just as it was said.

The man whose expression would normally have relaxed the moment their eyes met, nodding yes, yes, yes as she asked, now looked at her with disdain.

It was a power that worked only half a year ago. Marquis Calvin could hardly believe the change that had taken place.

“Uh, how…!”

“It’s been a hundred years since we’ve been digging through monster corpses. All we need is a sample, and I can make an antidote with my eyes closed.”

“Antidote? It’s not like it’s poison!”

“Do you want to say enchantment,  descendant of a succubus? No, should I say barbarians?”

The moment the identity she had been hiding all along was revealed, Marquis Calvin’s body hardened like a stone.

The white face was very pleasing to see. The red-haired man watched the reaction with great pleasure and emitted white smoke.

“You better behave yourself, Marquis Calvin. If you make a mistake, I’ll expose all the facts to the men you’ve been using for your own good.”

“…..”

“Hah, that’s all I’m asking for, holding on for dear life. You should be glad your children are so weak…”

The man casually brushed off the ashes from the cigarette. Then he turned his back while enjoying the bewildered face of Marquis Calvin.

“I wish you good luck, my former partner. Goodbye.” 

Leaving only giggles behind, the man disappeared into the passage he had entered.

After he left, the stone door closed again with a heavy friction sound. As if it had been an ordinary wall from the beginning, there was no trace of the door left on the stone wall.

Marquis Calvin, who had been sitting there for a while with a bewildered gaze on it, finally started pounding his fists on the table.

“How, how…!”

From the moment she realized her power until now, there hasn’t been a single man who had not fallen to her charms.

Wasn’t even that emperor mesmerized by her charms and giving her everything she wanted?

Even the previous Marquis of Ajas!