The Male Lead’s Fake Sister

There was nothing she could do except rack her brain from the beginning.
Herod’s involvement in Tidwell’s plan to seize Leontine was already written in the book.

In the book, Herod didn’t even intend to wait until Tidwell fully took over Leontine.

‘Since Orpheus is considered weak in the aristocratic world, he decided to use Leontine to gain power.’

Whether there was a specific reason or not, Herod needed Tidwell to possess Leontine as soon as possible.
So he shared detailed information of the Dark Flower with the emperor.

[A drug called Dark Flower has been distributed recently, and the person who distributes it is Leontine’s adopted son, Tidwell.]

The Emperor agonized over this.
There was a need to use the Dark Flower to control the situation, but he shouldn’t be hasty in handling this circumstance.

‘If things go wrong, I might have gotten on Leontine’s bad side.’

Leontine was the only family who stood firm even when many noble families fell due to the famine a few years ago.

A very influential family who was also a loyal servant of the emperor.
Other families may not have mattered to him, but the emperor couldn’t discount Leontine for sure.

So as a last form of his affection toward Leontine, the Emperor summoned Duke Leontine to leave the choice to him.

He was giving Duke Leontine consideration to uncover the truth about the Dark Flower and let him make a choice after knowing the truth by himself.

Either cut Tidwell off from the family or embrace him, which could lead to Leontine’s extinction as a whole.

Eventually, [His and Her Spring] proceeded without any twist.
Duke Leontine, who definitely said that he went to the outskirts for inspection, was seen around the production site of Dark Flower.
So Tidwell killed him without hesitation.

Tidwell’s next victim was obviously Ravia.
And she recalled him saying to her, ‘Your assassination attempts were all useless.’

But this time, Ravia already knew how things would progress.
After her father dies, she’ll be next.

So she was determined to announce her marriage before her father left for inspection.
That is, only if she didn’t notice Tidwell’s feelings.

So what she needed to worry about the most at this moment wasn’t her life, but how to escape Tidwell’s evil grasp.

Krrt-

The fence Ravia was holding onto began to rot and break very quickly.

The fall ability: corrosion.

It was proof that Herod was emotionally affected by what Ravia said just a while ago.

When he moved his hands a little, he could clearly see the tip of his gloves getting worn.

‘If I hold onto my power just a little bit longer, I’ll hurt my hand for sure.’

A lot of problems would arise if he was unable to control his ability like this every time.

However, unexpectedly, the fall penalty was physically and visibly destructive, which was easier to control than other abilities’ penalties.

Especially if the person was very good at controlling emotions like Herod.
He only needed to focus his attention elsewhere and ignore his emotions.

Tuk-

At that moment, Ravia flicked her fingers lightly and said.

“Get a hold of yourself.
Unless you mean to threaten me.”

“I didn’t mean to threaten you.”

“Yeah, I could see that you were struggling.”

“But now I think threatening people isn’t such a bad idea, after all.” Herod said coldly, raising his head.

He frowned with a smile, looking a little bit dejected, but also looked amused by this situation.

It was both, so to speak.

He found it rather hilarious that Ravia saw through his slyness, and he was surprised that Ravia brought more than he had expected.

Although he seemed a little dejected, Herod approached Ravia with a smirk on his face.

“I didn’t know someone who knows about my identity and ability can be so brave to meet me so defenselessly,”

‘I could easily use force if things don’t go in my favor.’ Herod added inwardly.

Herod slowly grasped Ravia’s shoulders.
As the grim shadow covered his face, he whispered menacingly.

“Chunhee.
Did you expect me to be some sort of gentleman?”

“…I know that you are someone with a warm personality.”

“I wouldn’t be here right now if I were merciful to people who tried to take me down.”

“Same goes for me.
I wouldn’t be here right now if I was someone who put myself on stake for uncertain things.”

(TL/N: She implies that she isn’t someone who is willing to take a risk unless she knows what she’s doing.)

“Then I’d appreciate it if you could tell me why I shouldn’t break your ankle right now.”

“I think you’re mistaken, Herod.
I said I wouldn’t marry you, but I never said that I wouldn’t make a deal with you.”

As if she was displeased by this situation, Ravia creased her forehead and slowly grabbed Herod’s hands on her shoulders.
Herod’s complexion changed slightly due to Ravia’s hushed yet firm tone.

He recalled that Ravia said she wouldn’t marry him and immediately assumed that she’d rescind their agreement altogether.
Their deal was only revolving around marriage, after all.

‘Appearance is often deceptive.’

Herod mulled over Ravia’s words and laughed coldly.
If Ravia was willing to make a deal with him, Herod didn’t need to take a drastic measure or careful approach in order to avoid Tidwell.

Herod stepped away from Ravia and said with a frown.

“You’re toying with me perfectly.
Though, I don’t really mind getting toyed by you-”

“I didn’t know you had that kind of fetish.”

“It’s always good to have uniqueness, you see.” He shrugged.

He was smiling brightly as if he didn’t have such ferocious energy earlier.
He returned to his usual playful self.

It was the indication that Ravia’s plan had come to its final stage.
She was running out of time.

Then the man asked with a smile.

“Now, Chunhee, shall we hear about the deal? What do you want me to do?”

Ravia began to lay out the details.
The deal was settled pretty quickly.

Creeak-

When the door opened, Rette poked her head inside.

Standing on the terrace girded inside a luxurious iron fence that was decorated with flowers in glass pots, a man turned back upon sensing Rette’s presence.

A man with eyes as red as blood smiled brightly under the moonlight.

“Ah, Rette.
You’re here?”

“….Yeah.
It seems like you’ve done talking.”

“We’re done talking.
She already went back for quite a while.”

“That’s why I’m here.
I’m afraid if you break something here.”

“Just get to the point, Rette.
You didn’t care about that, you only care about your angel.”

Herod leaned against the fence with a smirk.

“Usually, you won’t even spare a glance at me for the whole month if you caught me deceiving you like this.
There must be a reason why we’re interacting normally now.”

And Herod knew very well that the reason was not him.

Herod smiled gently, so Rette couldn’t help but admit.

“You’re right.
I was a little worried about *unnie, so I come back…You’re not doing something dangerous to my unnie, right?”

(TL/N : Unnie- Older sister)

“What kind of dangerous thing could I possibly do to her, Rette?”

Fraud? Extortion?

She stared at the air as if thinking about it seriously, but then Herod opened his mouth first.

“It’s been a long time since I thought of my brother.”

“Enoch?”

“Yeah.
He was the only one who could drive me into a corner.”

He couldn’t help but think of his brother.
As if irritated by Herod’s murmurs, Rette laughed coldly.

“How dare you act all thoughtful about Enoch? You killed him, didn’t you?”

“So what? You helped me do that, Rette.”

Haha.

“Hey, you fooled me into doing that.”

“Still, it doesn’t change the past.”

Herod provoked her with a smirk, and leaned comfortably on the fence.
Looking down at her stiffened body, Herod continued.

“Rest assured.
I didn’t do anything dangerous to her.
Rather, it was fun.”

“Did you say it was fun?”

“Yeah.
She pulled out cards that I’d never thought of before.
She knew everything about me even when I never showed her my cards.” He recalled his conversation with Ravia.

Herod bent his lower body to hug Rette.
It was to match their gazes that were far apart.
Herod smiled, touching the tip of Rette’s nose.

“If you’re scared that I’ll use you again to kill her, then you don’t have to worry, Rette.”

“…How can I believe that? You just took advantage of me today.”

“To be honest with you, I had thought to eliminate her after using her enough.” Herod admitted lightly.