How to Get a Stolen Husband Back - ✿ dusk blossoms ✿

“All of it.”

“No, I didn’t tell him. Nothing at all.”

Estelle replied as she picked up her teacup.

“Of course not. Why would I say something with my own mouth that could get me beheaded if discovered?”

With a slurping sound, Estelle’s lips were hidden behind the teacup. Aristie waited for her to put down the cup before asking again.

“Then why tell me? What benefit is there in saying such things?”

“Oh my. The novel said you were quite smart, but it doesn’t seem to be entirely true.”

Estelle chuckled and then blurted out with her alluring lips.

“Because it’s only you.”

Then she elaborated further.

“You’re the only one I can safely expose my secret to, while also being someone who irritates me enough to make me want to crush you.”

‘Me?’

Aristie’s fine golden eyebrows furrowed in displeasure. Estelle’s words were brutal yet somehow enigmatic.

The desire to crush was understandable. If she truly was a villainess, it would be natural to resent the woman who clung to the man she was after as his fiancée.

Even if she wasn’t a villainess, it would be sufficiently irritating if she genuinely liked someone.

But safe to expose her secret? Why? Does she believe I won’t spread it?

‘Or could it be…!’

Her sharp mind soon found the answer. But just as Aristie was about to open her mouth, Estelle beat her to it.

“It goes without saying, but the male lead of the novel is the Emperor. And you’re nothing more than the villain who gets deposed for trying to poison the female lead that the Emperor loves in the future.”

“Poison?!”

Aristie couldn’t help but flare up.

“How insolent! How dare you utter such blasphemy? I would never do such a thing…!”

“Ah, of course you think you wouldn’t do that now. Because you haven’t realized your feelings yet. But the later you, who becomes aware of your emotions and goes mad with jealousy, is quite frightening. …So, about that.”

Estelle snapped her fingers with a click.

“How about I take on that villain role?”

“What?”

Aristie looked at Estelle with a face that said ‘What are you talking about?’

“I mean, since you’re going to be kicked out anyway, why don’t you just step down now?”

Aristie’s eyes widened in shock.

“W-What did you say…?”

“I know the ways of this world well. I’ve read the book so many times it’s worn out. Of course, I know everything about the Emperor’s hobbies, tendencies, values, and such like the back of my hand.”

“I know those things too!”

Though she cried out as if wringing out the words, Estelle merely snorted.

“No, you don’t. You have no idea how terribly the Emperor loved the female lead, what aspects of her he fell for so deeply. Do you even know what his ideal type of woman is?”

“Ideal type…?”

Aristie was honestly taken aback. She had never thought that Khalid, who had been solely focused on state affairs until now, would have an ideal type.

Did he secretly have an image of the woman he desired? One that I knew nothing about?

“It’s a woman like this. A woman like me who perfectly embodies the female lead in the novel.”

Estelle lifted her chin high. Her high-bridged nose was filled with absolute superiority.

“At first, he tried hard to deny me too. But in the end, he had no choice but to acknowledge it. How could he resist? With a woman who seems to have been born from his very soul wagging her tail beside him.”

Estelle shot back, lowering her eyes arrogantly.

“So you can never compete. Not you, who has just been standing like a scarecrow for over a decade.”

“……!”

The moment she heard those words, Aristie felt as if an arrow had pierced her. She couldn’t open her mouth at the direct words that stabbed her heart.

Khalid’s confession that she had heard earlier echoed sadly in her mind.

—Even though we had only exchanged a few words, I felt it was fate.

I see. So that’s why Khalid was helplessly swept away by Estelle.

Despite her being an evil woman who wields her tongue like a sword. Even his cold reason and insight couldn’t penetrate her true nature…

‘No! I can’t get any more involved.’

Feeling emotions about to surge up, Aristie quickly composed herself. Looking at the cooled tea, she recalled the purpose of coming here.

She had grasped Estelle’s intentions. She also knew why she had revealed her identity to her. But even so, she still couldn’t fully believe her words.

She’s a woman skilled in lying. And besides, what if she really is an actress?

She might have fabricated all these stories with her excellent acting skills for her own purposes.

“You said ‘female lead’ earlier.”

Aristie’s voice calmly resonated in the reception room. Estelle, who was picking up a chocolate, raised her eyes sharply as if to ask ‘What about it?’

“It seems to mean the main female character, but if it’s not you, who is the ‘female lead’?”

At Aristie’s question, Estelle’s eyes narrowed languidly. She pulled her upper body forward, leaned in close, and moved her lips coyly.

She looked as if she was dying to spill everything about the female lead right away.

Nevertheless, she ultimately kept the identity secret. Instead, with an expression like a cat holding a secret, she threw a teasing question.

“Curious?”

“I need to know. To believe what you’re saying.”

“But what a shame. I don’t want to tell you that.”

“You can’t say it, can you? Because it doesn’t exist.”

“That’s not it, it’s like a surprise event. The identity of the female lead.”

“If you can’t name her, I can’t believe you.”

“Negotiation failed, I guess.”

Estelle clicked her tongue and leaned back against the backrest. Her softened gaze had instantly transformed into a chilling one.

“I didn’t expect you to step down obediently anyway. Just wait and see. You’ll regret it.”

“You’d better keep your mouth shut before you regret it.”

Having regained her composure, Aristie stood her ground.

“There’s a limit to how much insolence I can tolerate. If you think you’ve been given unlimited power just because you’ve gained His Majesty’s trust, you’re sorely mistaken.”

Even if you end up in the palace someday.

Aristie swallowed the words that suddenly came to mind and continued to shoot back.

“Since you claim to know the ways of the world, you must also know what an absurdly blasphemous crime you’ve committed. If you continue to run your mouth recklessly, I’ll have you dragged out and publicly punished.”

“Oh my, how frightening! But on what grounds? Won’t His Majesty be displeased if you drag me out without any evidence?”

The response to her stern warning was mockery. Anger welled up, but Aristie couldn’t refute because it wasn’t wrong.

She knew. She knew what Estelle was relying on to act so rudely.

The conversation that had passed only between the two of them.

Without evidence or witnesses.

Knowing that nothing could be proven, Estelle could freely engage in this insubordination.

“You’re annoying, but you’re right.”

Estelle said with a face full of greed following her sneer.

“Just gaining the Emperor’s trust doesn’t give you power. That’s why I’m trying to grasp that power separately.”

As Estelle clenched her fist demonstratively, Aristie’s gaze was drawn to it. She could sense that this fist would bring turmoil to the empire.

“Soon, I’ll become a noble lady like you. Furthermore, I’ll be selected as a saintess. And ultimately…”

Her light pink eyes, coldly lowered, fixed on Aristie.

“I’ll become the Empress. After cutting off your head.”

***

“Just who are you…!”

How vicious can one person’s malice become?

At least with Estelle, there seemed to be no end in sight. Even after acting sufficiently malicious, she wore an expression suggesting this was just the beginning.

“How can you be so arrogant and insolent? If you want my position, why don’t you beg His Majesty in private! Do you think the world is so easy that everything you say will come true?”

Aristie shouted, unable to hold back anymore. However, her anger only brought a smile to Estelle’s face.

That’s because everything Estelle had said so far was meant to provoke her opponent. To stimulate the calm empress-to-be into self-destruction.

“No. You’re mistaken, I don’t think the world is easy. I just use it to my advantage.”

Estelle’s voice was filled with composure as she replied.

“Do you think I became a top actress solely based on skill? No way. You don’t know what that industry is like. The number of newcomers who met their downfall due to my machinations behind-the-scenes is more than I can count on both hands. Let alone someone like you, uh-huh.”

“I see that world is all you know.”

Estelle had succeeded in provoking Aristie. In a way that made her reveal her suppressed nature.

Aristie no longer restrained her emotions and coldly bit back.

“Are you boasting about a mere handful of people? Half the people I’ve met throughout my life have been adversaries! My task was to distinguish them and weed out the traitors.”