I Just Needed Someone to Hate - Episode 1

1931, Daatro Empire

Even after a world war, Vivianne Mergoville lived a life of luxury, befitting the daughter of a prestigious noble family.

She was raised to be a fine noblewoman, and her narrow world was soon to be owned by her fiancé. Her fiancé was the second son of the Rex family, a family at the pinnacle of the nation’s judicial power. The fact that she would become the daughter-in-law of this family, envied by all, was Vivianne’s pride wherever she went.

‘Where did it all go wrong?’

Was it because she could no longer endure the man’s infidelity and violent, sadistic nature? Or was it because she couldn’t bear her situation, where she had to pretend to be happy even though she knew? Because of this fake life and the skepticism about the life of a noble….

Perhaps it had been irreversible from the moment she left the mansion one night, resolving not to live as her parents’ good daughter any longer. From the moment she spoke of breaking off her engagement with that beast-like fiancé.

‘So, I decided to go find that man.’

The Daatro Empire was a parliamentary cabinet system, and judicial power belonged to the House of Lords, the upper house. Whoever held the House of Lords held judicial power. Her fiancé’s father was the chairman of the House of Lords.

To get out of her fiancé’s sphere of influence, which extended throughout the empire, there was only one option.

‘Extraterritoriality.’

People jokingly called the underworld forces of the Daatro Empire that. It was because of the rumor that they had the empire’s judicial power under their feet. In other words, someone even the Rex family couldn’t touch. She decided to go to her fiancé’s distant superior.

One might think that there were various forces in the underworld, and as many leaders, but in this empire, there was only one.

To borrow the words of a foreign country across the continent, that one and only underworld boss was ‘Capo di tutti capi.’ In the imperial language, it meant the boss of bosses. There were many who were called bosses because they were under him and led their own forces, but they didn’t have a strong presence.

In the imperial media and among the top officials of government ministries, the only boss they considered a problem was one who didn’t even reveal his name to the public and named his organization ‘Daatro Family’ instead of a family name, a monster.

Her fiancé’s distant superior.

His boss.

The man she was trying to persuade.

But when she realized that this empire’s one and only monster was actually a gentleman, when she realized why people couldn’t even guess whether he and the rumored boss were the same person.

Vivianne regretted her choice. He was a man she should never have touched in the first place. A man she should have left to live his perfect life. A disaster she shouldn’t have dragged into her misfortune.

A hand gripping her wrist as if to crush it and a cold voice brought Vivianne back to reality.

“That high and mighty act you put on for your fiancé, try it on me too.”

With a bloodless face, he arrogantly muttered. He was the head of the underworld, and as the son of the empire’s prime minister, he was called Edmund Hiad Colt. Yes. The shell of that political powerhouse was the problem.

“…….”

Vivianne bit her lower lip and looked up at him.

“Try it.”

Who on earth would think that the prime minister’s son was hiding the identity of the underworld boss?

He seemed angry, but all that flowed from his lips was a monotonous voice, like a threat.

At one time, that man, who was also the son of the empire’s prime minister, was her hope. If there was the House of Lords, the upper house, in the empire, there was the House of Commons, the lower house, on the opposite side, and the head of the House of Commons was the prime minister of this country. The prime minister wanted to suppress the power of the House of Lords and check their corruption.

‘And my fiancé’s father is the chairman of the House of Lords.’

But when the prime minister’s son unexpectedly approached her, she was relieved.

‘It was as if the prime minister’s son was a messenger sent to ruin the House of Lords on their behalf.’

She believed that the evidence that her fiancé’s family was colluding with the underworld forces would be safe in his hands.

She thought she would work harder to find a fatal clue to destroy the underworld forces and hand it over.

That way, she might have been able to get the freedom she had promised in return, and the safety of her family. The plan to meet the head of the underworld and gain his trust was the same, but the purpose had changed.

Rather than making her usefulness known to the head of the underworld and making a deal to get a broken engagement, she thought it would be more profitable to collude with the empire’s prime minister and wipe out her fiancé’s family itself.

But….

The truth was cruel.

The prime minister’s son shouldn’t be the head of the underworld.

She didn’t realize this truth until after she had leaked information about the underworld forces to him.

“Vivianne.”

At that voice, Vivianne read that his patience was running out and said.

“…If I remain Ludwig’s fiancée, my father will leave me alone. Because he’s a violent man, he won’t bother to touch me and take the risk, and I’ll live in that bastard’s halo. Safely, like this, forever.”

At Vivianne’s words, which seemed to have resigned herself to everything, Edmund’s lips twisted.

“But there’s no reason for me to play around with you and throw away my only shield.”

“Shield?”

Edmund came closer to Vivianne. When his hand grabbed Vivianne’s chin, her lips contorted.

Suppressing the strong urge to smoke a cigar, he looked at Vivianne’s eyes. It seemed like he could see the bruises hidden under the thick eye makeup.

“You shouldn’t call that bastard a shield in front of me.”

“…Let go.”

“I’m getting, angry.”

Whether she believed that man was an intelligence agent who had approached her to dig up her fiancé’s corruption, or whether he was really the prime minister’s arrogant son.

Whatever his shell was, she cherished him dearly. But if he was the head of the underworld, things were different.

Her fiancé and her fiancé’s father were ultimately nothing more than this man’s subordinates, so reporting that to this man and his father, the prime minister, was not salvation but suicide. She had finally found information that could destroy the underworld, but even if she told this man, the message would not be conveyed to his father, the prime minister.

The difficult moments she had endured to get here flashed by. It was an unbearable deception and unbearable emotions.

This man’s cruelty was beyond words, so the longer she stayed by his side, the more her body and mind would be burned.

Was that all?

A scandal with this man would be nothing more than playing around with the empire’s darling, the prime minister’s excellent son, while having a fiancé. Such disgrace would banish Vivianne from noble society.

A horse that has lost all its cards cannot move on the board. So Vivianne endured her fiancé’s violent attitude, and this one couldn’t stand her.

Or maybe he didn’t want to warm the bed with a noble lady who had been trampled on, ignored, and tattered.

Serves her right. She guessed that he would look at her with such eyes, but the worst was not contempt or indifference.

“I’ll marry you.”

Such a half-hearted sincerity.

A pathetic pity.

“If you want, I’ll let you live as the Duchess of Senovick, or as Mrs. Colt.”

The Duke of Senovick was his maternal uncle, and Prime Minister Colt was his father, so what he meant was obvious.

He would live as the son of his father, the empire’s prime minister, without revealing his identity, and become a duke by receiving his maternal uncle’s title. It was an arrogance as if there were no other collateral relatives of the maternal family in the first place.

At the moment when the grip restricting her chin weakened the most with sweet words, Vivianne shook off his hand.

“Go to your father and tell him that I don’t know anything more and I won’t in the future.”

Vivianne’s light crimson eyes looked straight into Colt’s blue eyes.

His father, the empire’s prime minister, had said that in exchange for divulging the core secrets of the underworld, following how rotten the House of Lords, the upper house, was, he would give her a place next to his perfect son.

“It’ll be a good thing for you.”

His silence was an affirmation. He was the one who was above that corrupt House of Lords and controlled the underworld. If his father had his way, he would lose his disguise as a son of a political powerhouse.

“As you can see, I won’t fall for your pretty-boy tactics anymore, and I know my place well. I have the brains to judge smartly, so don’t kill me.”

“…….”

“You know it’s cheaper not to.”

Vivianne lowered her head and muttered.

“It means that it’s more profitable for you to believe in my silence than to go to the trouble of eliminating me and wiping out our family.”

“…….”

“It also means that I won’t belong to anyone, and I won’t be anyone’s mouthpiece.”

The two perfectly see through each other’s disguises. Vivianne’s shoulders are clearly trembling. She’s bold like a Mergoville lady, but it must be hard to say things like the annihilation of her family while sober.

What to do. Edmund, who had thought that far, felt dizzy.

It was stimulating. The woman an inch away pierced his heart.

“Eat before you go.”

Her body is emaciated and she’s screaming. She glared at him with fearful eyes even at the given kindness. What did he think he was going to feed her? He sneered inwardly.

“Not mine, a meal. You haven’t been trying to put anything in your mouth lately.”

Edmund leaned over and whispered in Vivianne’s ear. It was a word meant to tease the other person, but rather, he felt a throbbing in his lower abdomen. He had to be kind today, so this was a problem.

Before Vivianne’s hand, which was trying to push the man away, could reach him, he turned his back and headed towards the dining room of this Royal Suite.

While Vivianne pecked at her meal, their eyes often met in the air.

It was mostly Edmund who was looking, and Vivianne was the one who was surprised and avoided the gaze. Eventually, it was she who broke this implicit tension.

“Do it.”

Vivianne said across the table.

It was a word that made him aware that she was not only a snitch, but also had a bad relationship with him from a year ago. She wasn’t stupid, and she knew the meaning of this man’s gaze that followed whenever her fiancé treated her badly. From the moment she walked into this place at his words, it was her defeat.

In fact, she came to express her refusal of that excessive attention, but if the other side didn’t respect it, it was a meaningless resistance. And no matter what the inside story was, in the end, she looked the same in the eyes of others.

She would be a woman who had walked into the Royal Suite where this man was staying on her own two feet, and the shield of respect for a noble lady was only up to that point.

And she knew the winner of this game. What he wanted too.

“Let’s cut the crap and get to the point.”

Vivianne glared at the table as if it were disgusting. It was an invaluable wine and a great meal that she wouldn’t even be able to enjoy in her own mansion. Even the considerate act of bringing it out in bite-sized pieces for easy eating now seemed like a deception.

“You get what you want, and I walk out of here before dawn.”

“You’re leaving?”

When the man finally opened his mouth, Vivianne felt her lips dry. When she nodded, her long, jet-black hair shook finely.

With a creak, Vivianne’s shoulders flinched at the sound of the chair sliding. The moment she lowered her head, she heard footsteps. And before she could even grasp his movements….

“……!”

Vivianne shuddered at the strong grip that suppressed her head. But it was nothing more than a meaningless resistance.

An inch. An inch away was his crotch. His elegant and handsome thing.

If he put more strength into his hand, her forehead would touch the buckle at any moment. The rough knuckles gently stroking her hair made her skin crawl. Without even raising the veins in his hand, he got what he wanted.

“If that’s what I wanted, I wouldn’t have bothered to choose this place.”

“…….”

“Don’t act like a whore, Vivianne.”

The voice was so soft and sweet that it caused a sense of incongruity. Vivianne awkwardly chewed on the word she had just heard.

What melted the frozen thoughts was the hand that slowly stroked her head. The hand grabbed her hair, put it down, and straightened her shoulders.

“I coveted your time.”

“You crazy bastard.”

Vivianne, who had lost her mask from her hand due to his sudden actions, spat out her thoughts without filtering them. Fortunately, Edmund enjoyed it.

“If you’re smart, you have to prove that your time is more valuable than anything else.”

“…….”

“It seems like that’s a better move than making yourself a prostitute.”

Vivianne bit her lower lip and raised her glass. It wasn’t a skillful posture. Her expression was as angry as if she had given up a move.

“Drink.”

Edmund commanded.

“Until you feel like telling me what kind of music you like.”

When Vivianne didn’t open her mouth in the end, a crooked smile hung on Edmund’s lips. Sitting down, he said elegantly.

“Isn’t that so-called shield that you talked about already lost a long time ago to be stubborn now?”

To me, he continued casually.

It felt like he was referring to their first relationship, so Vivianne couldn’t raise her head while holding the fork and knife.

“This time, you’ll have to run away from me too, so are you going to spread your legs to change people and ask for help? If you want something, you have to do what you’re told, Vivianne.”

Vivianne picked up the food with a fork, but she couldn’t swallow it because she felt like she was going to choke. She thought about the day this disaster rolled into her life. When it started.

It was a year ago, when she ran away from home. When she couldn’t stand her fiancé, Ludwig Rex, the second son of the chairman of the House of Lords, and ran out and walked aimlessly on the cold night streets.

That’s when this man approached her.

And then he made her believe that he was an agent from the intelligence agency. He gave her a reason to live, a way to live, and then he didn’t betray her like this? But when she met his eyes, it was as if she was the one who was trying to betray him.

On his infinitely cold face, the face of the man she had been one-sidedly in love with overlapped.

She had first met him a year ago.

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