The Male Leads Were Stolen By The Extra [EN]: Chapter 1

“I’ve come to love Grace. I’m sorry, Celonia.”

Celonia stared blankly at her fiancé’s face as he confessed his affair.

He didn’t flinch, meeting her gaze without a change in expression.

“I hate to say this so soon after you’ve woken up, but I want to break off our engagement as quickly as possible. I want to hurry and marry Grace.”

“……”

Celonia, who was sitting propped up against the headboard, was truly experiencing the feeling of being speechless.

After teetering between life and death for months, her fiancé, whom she thought was visiting to check on her, suddenly confessed to cheating.

And why was this man so confident, maintaining a blank face throughout his request to end their engagement?

His unwavering blue eyes held no hint of apology or guilt.

She doubted whether this man before her was really the same person she had shared life and death with for six months.

“I’ll make sure the settlement is generous.”

When there was no response, Ian spoke again. Already, wrinkles were forming on his brow.

He clearly wanted to wrap this up quickly, as if it were a bothersome task.

“You……”

Celonia closed her parted lips, having read the annoyance on his face.

Her chest stung, beyond just a prickling sensation.

Ian Cherville.

He was her fiancé.

Though their marriage was arranged by their families, Ian loved her, and she liked him too.

Of course, she didn’t love him romantically, but she did like him as a person.

She especially admired his confident attitude and courage, which never wavered in any situation.

‘I never imagined he’d be this confident even in this situation.’

She didn’t hear wedding bells when they shared their first kiss, but she thought she could spend her future with him…….

To think she’d be stabbed in the back like this.

“Ugh, Celonia. You’re not usually this pathetic.”

Ian sighed, looking utterly bored.

It was an indifferent attitude and gaze she had never seen in the half-year they had been together.

Seeing it, she fully faced reality: his heart had completely left her.

“Fine. Let’s break off the engagement.”

A firm voice escaped her red lips.

There was no need to hesitate further.

She would refuse a rude man who demanded a breakup without even asking how his fiancé was doing after she had nearly died.

“Good. Then I’ll process it when you send the annulment papers.”

Ian replied quickly, his face brightening. Celonia, dumbfounded by his reaction, parted her lips.

“Instead, I’ll take what I want as the settlement. So wait until I make my demands. And leave a written vow.”

“What?”

“Why? Shouldn’t I get at least that much, considering I’m the one being dumped?”

Celonia lifted her head proudly. Ian frowned, clearly not expecting such a demand.

He probably wanted to gloss over things and settle the settlement quickly, but no way.

She would take the biggest thing she could from him, no matter what. Enough to make this rude man writhe in agony.

“I didn’t know you were such a greedy person.”

“How unfortunate that you didn’t.”

She shrugged at him with a brazen expression.

“Where’s the paper?”

“It’s in the drawer over there. Take it out and use it.”

She gestured to him, not bothering to hide her annoyance.

Ian opened the drawer next to the bed with a disgruntled hand and took out paper and a pen.

Then, he scribbled something down.

Watching him, Celonia bit down hard on the tender flesh inside her mouth to hide her trembling lips.

To think she had trusted a man who was worth so little……. She was utterly foolish.

She hated him, not just for betraying her, but for making the six months they had spent together, enduring dozens of near-death experiences, meaningless.

But she would never show it. She didn’t want to reveal any emotional turmoil in front of a traitor.

He would never have any influence on her life.

Never.

“Are you satisfied now?”

Ian crumpled the finished contract roughly and threw it at Celonia. The white paper fluttered and fell onto the blanket.

A written vow stating that he would provide what she wanted as the settlement, along with his signature.

She quietly grasped the vow.

The price for the year she had spent with him was just this piece of paper.

“Ah, and one more thing.”

Celonia stopped Ian as he was about to leave without a second glance.

It wasn’t enough to just let him go like this.

“Ha, what is it now?”

Ian’s eyebrows twitched. He looked as if he was already furious.

“Can you come closer?”

“……”

“It’s the last time, after all.”

Celonia reached out to him with a pitiful expression.

Ian seemed to interpret it as a request for a final handshake, so he sighed and approached.

Just before his hand touched hers, Celonia stretched out her hand.

Thwack.

With a loud smack, Ian’s head turned to the side.

More stinging than she thought?

She looked down at her fist.

Her fingers were red, as if she had put her heart into it.

“What the hell was that for!”

Ian, suddenly slapped on the cheek, lost his temper. His face was filled with surprise, displeasure, and even anger, as if it was the last thing he expected.

Like an idiot. Did he really think she would offer a graceful handshake?

“I’m a little pathetic, you see. You deserved to be hit, and I have the right to hit you, right? Surely you’re not such a narrow-minded man that you’d take revenge for something like this?”

Celonia threw the words she had received back at him.

Ian, unable to respond, turned away with a red face.

“I’m leaving. You don’t have to come to my wedding.”

“Goodbye. I won’t see you off.”

Bang.

The door closed, and Ian’s back disappeared completely.

Celonia stared at the door that wouldn’t open again and clenched her fists tightly.

“You bastard……”

Tears welled up, but she didn’t want to cry. She didn’t want to waste tears on such a jerk.

But the betrayal and bitter emptiness kept blurring her vision.

Today was the second day since she had woken up after being in a coma for over three months.

It was also the day that marked nine months since she had transmigrated into the body of the heroine in the novel.

* * *

is, as the title suggests, a novel about defeating the Demon King, who is known as the strongest villain in the story.

Although the title suggests a fantasy novel, it is actually a romance fantasy novel where romance accounts for 80 percent of the story.

Celonia Besian.

At 21 years old, she was the only daughter of Duke Besian and the female protagonist of the novel.

Celonia, who resembled her late mother, was a healer with healing abilities, one of only a few in the empire.

She had a fiancé who had been arranged since her grandparents’ generation, and that was Ian Cherville.

Duke Ian Cherville.

The male protagonist of this world and the leader of the Imperial Moonlight Knights at the young age of 25.

The two, who met through an arranged marriage, had gone on a few dates, but they didn’t really develop feelings for each other.

An incident occurred that changed their feelings 180 degrees.

The sudden resurrection of the Demon King.

For some reason, the seal stone that had been sealing the Demon King broke, and he was resurrected after 100 years.

The empire suffered enormous damage from the war with the Demon King 100 years ago.

The emperor, judging that they could not experience the same nightmare again, made a decision.

This time, they would kill the Demon King, the axis and source of all evil, once and for all.

Thus, an elite unit was formed.

Among those chosen by the emperor were the male lead, the female lead, and the second male leads.

Ian Cherville, the knight commander with a righteous personality, accepted the emperor’s order and willingly set out to defeat the Demon King.

The female lead, who was a healer, also declared that she wanted to work for peace and began her adventure with the male lead.

The two developed feelings for each other as they headed to the Demon King’s castle, and they met two companions during their endless adventure.

The holy knight Reyev Hechell and MacRyan, who inherited the blood of a dragon. They were the second male leads.

The two liked Celonia, the female lead, but realizing the existence of her fiancé, Ian, they did not try to get her attention.

They simply devoted themselves to helping the female lead and worked to defeat the Demon King.

In this way, the four joined forces to defeat the Demon King, and complete peace came to the empire.

The female lead and the male lead swore their love, which had blossomed in adversity, and had a happy wedding, and the novel ends.

“Yes. It should have ended that way for sure…….”

Celonia pressed her temples, her head throbbing.

It was good that she had transmigrated into the body of Celonia Besian.

But she had such bad luck…….

She didn’t even get to experience the luxurious life of a duke’s daughter and transmigrated to the starting point of going to subjugate the Demon King, enduring all sorts of hardships.

If there was a living hell, it would be here.

For six months, she passed through the harsh monster forest and climbed the castle.

During that time, she died and came back to life several times, and she was injured large and small by the monsters dozens of times without being able to wash or eat properly.

After suffering so much and defeating the Demon King, she collapsed with an unknown pain on the way back.

Just when she thought she was going to be used and die like this, she miraculously opened her eyes, and three months had passed.

Anyway, she was alive, so she thought that all that was left was a flowery path…….

But what was this?

Ian Cherville, the male lead and fiancé in the original story who was supposed to have a happy ending with her, demanded a breakup, saying that he had fallen in love with someone else.

That had already happened a few days ago.

“Lady Celonia?”

“Ah……. I’m sorry.”

Celonia snapped out of her thoughts at the sound of another voice beside her.

“I heard, Reyev. You visited me often while I was unconscious. Thank you.”

She expressed her gratitude to Reyev, who was sitting across from her in the drawing room.

He was Reyev Hechell.

A holy knight with noble and pure blood and one of the second male leads who had a crush on her.

“I’m glad you’ve recovered, Lady Celonia.”

“……Reyev? Are you okay? Are you sick somewhere?”

Celonia asked, puzzled, as she watched Reyev looking only at the tips of his shoes without making eye contact with her.

He was always someone who looked at her with straight eyes, but he was strange today.

“……I heard. About you breaking off your engagement with Duke Ian.”

“Ah, that…….”

Celonia’s mouth felt bitter.

As soon as she sent the annulment papers to Ian the day before yesterday, the annulment proceeded smoothly as if he had been waiting for it.

Since she hadn’t particularly hidden it, the news of her and Ian’s annulment was featured prominently in today’s newspaper.

“That’s how it turned out.”

Celonia hid her emptiness and took a sip of tea.

The relationship between lovers and comrades who had shared life and death for six months was destined to end with signing a single piece of paper.

“……I’m sorry to say this to you when you must be having a hard time, but I would like to call off the knight’s oath I made to Lady Celonia.”

“Cough! Cough! Wha, what are you saying……?”

Celonia forgot herself so much that she spat out the tea she was drinking in surprise and opened her eyes wide.

“There is another lady I wish to serve for the rest of my life.”

Reyev couldn’t meet her eyes as if he was ashamed and was only fiddling with his teacup with his head bowed.

At that moment, Celonia’s pupils shook greatly.

This sense of déjà vu that was creeping up from her toes.

No way, no way…….

“I will make an eternal vow to Grace Bennett.”