The Contract Marriage for Attilenta's Revenge - Chapter 1

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Atilenta’s Contract Marriage for Revenge – Episode 001
Atilenta, I love you.
There is no one in this world who loves you more than I do.

* * *
“Atilenta. It’s time we divorced.”
When Antonio, the man I believed was mine alone, appeared with another woman on his arm.
My heart shattered into a thousand pieces.
At the very triumph celebration where he had promised to make my accomplishments known far and wide.
I had never crumbled before.
Not when my mother fell ill and died in my childhood. Not when even the servants held me in contempt as a baseborn creature. Not when the King tried to sell me to some aging nobleman under the guise of a virtuous princess.
Not even when I underwent the strange wedding ceremony and the wedding night with Antonio, who had requested me from that very King.
Not when he brought me to the battlefield because he said he needed my Ability.
“Continuing the family line is the most important matter, after all.”
Antonio spoke in a cold voice—a tone I had never heard from him before.
“That’s… so sudden… what—”
My legs trembled so violently I could barely stand.
Even when the rumors spread far and wide that I was a Barren Woman—unable to conceive despite our regular relations—I had not crumbled.
“Atilenta. You understand, don’t you? Like always.”
Selena, pressed close against Antonio, offered me a tender smile.
In that moment, the entirety of my past life shattered as well.
Selena—she had been my pillar.
When my mother died, I still had my nursemaid Jaema and her daughter Selena. After I finally achieved victory, Antonio even told me it was thanks to them. I had never doubted that my strength came from their support.
But it was all a delusion.
“What? Atilenta. Answer me. The King commanded it—I couldn’t refuse.”
What are you saying, Selena?
“Don’t worry. I’ll manage the Duke’s Household succession just fine.”
But you said at first that His Grace was uncomfortable with—
“Atilenta. Honestly, your Ability is far too dangerous, isn’t it?”
Selena whispered to me in that honey-sweet voice of hers.
Ah, Selena, my only friend.
“But you said… you needed it…”
I forced out a fractured sound. I had poured so much of my Ability into countless battles, knowing full well it would exact a terrible cost—all for him, my husband.
Even as I stared at him with hollow eyes, his expression remained unmoved.
It felt as though someone had struck the back of my head; my ears rang with numbness.
“A—Antonio. I… I thought I was… needed…”
As I stammered like a child, Selena’s fan rose to hide her mouth as she cast a peculiar look in my direction.
“My goodness.”
I recognized her gaze in an instant.
Atilenta, what are you misunderstanding? Of course it meant your Ability was useful.
“I’ll advise His Majesty alongside His Grace. It’s the right thing to do.”
Antonio pulled Selena close, wrapping his arms around her waist. She buried her chestnut hair into his broad chest.
“Return to your quarters, Atilenta.”
The two of them, with their clear, crystalline eyes, looked like a painting as they stood together. I felt the gaze of everyone in the banquet hall upon me.
To them, I was nothing more than a base woman who dared obstruct this perfectly matched couple.
Once, my place had surely been between them.
“Sel… Selena…”
Seeing the two of them pressed so close before me, the reality of it crashed down all at once.
“Enough, Atilenta. You must maintain your dignity. People are watching.”
A woman of station and bearing that could never compare to Duke Antonio’s.
“Hah… hah…”
I gasped for breath, clutching at my chest.
“I do not deny that you have served my House well. But as Selena says, I cannot refute that your Ability might pose a threat.”
How can that be your House alone? When have I ever once threatened you?
“Now then, Atilenta. Return to your chambers. I’ll visit you from time to time. Like when you were young.”
Selena placed a tender smile on her lips and pushed me away from her shoulder. My vision blurred as tears threatened to spill—and through that haze, I saw several members of the Royal Guard approaching me.
Without hesitation, they dragged me away. The people around us pretended not to see.
I could not even cry out.
I was locked away once more in the prison of childhood, in the chambers where I had spent my days as a princess.
It was a dilapidated room in a remote corner of the Royal Palace, with only a single window.
All the years I’d struggled to leave this room dissolved into nothing.
The room remained unchanged. The bed where my mother had lain ill before she passed was as worn as ever.
Tears suddenly spilled down my cheeks. I made no move to wipe them, only a soft whimper escaped my lips.
“……Have I misunderstood something?”
I was told this was a victory celebration for me—for us.
‘Atilenta. Your Ability is truly remarkable, so precious and valuable. For now, let’s keep it between us. Do you understand?’
Selena, who had shown such concern and respect the moment she discovered my power. Antonio, who had praised it so highly.
‘Because of you, we’ve won this triumph, so now we must announce it before everyone. Look forward to that day, Atilenta.’
I turned their words over in my mind again and again, but I could not find an answer.
The solidly built Antonio and Selena, who embodied the grace of a refined beauty—the image of them together, a perfect pair, was all that remained in my thoughts.
All I had was the red hair, proof of my status as the bastard child of this kingdom’s king. Proof that others whispered was the mark of a witch.
In that moment, I saw my mother lying on the bed like a withered leaf.
“M-Mother…….”
My mother, who bore hair as vivid as the sunset—that deep crimson—had been the king’s mistress. She’d said I was born from a single encounter.
A woman carrying the king’s child could not simply flee the palace. And the king had never truly cared for us.
A simple medicine would have cured the fever she suffered. Yet he had not looked after her—that king.
‘Ah, Atilenta……. I can’t……breathe…….’
Now my memory painted the image of my mother gasping through high fever.
I could not bring myself to face that phantom, and I turned my eyes from the bed toward the window.
Dusty as it was, the window revealed how brilliant the world outside had become—the light was vivid against the grime.
Tonight’s victory celebration was a grand affair that would continue until dawn.
Jewel-bright, rainbow light and the scent of wine drifting even to this isolated place, with solemn music echoing through.
Yet in truth, none of it reached here.
This colorless, odorless room—this was my ‘proper’ place, as Selena had said.
I sank down slowly.
‘What was I thinking? Atilenta. Had you forgotten what Mother told you about not trusting others too easily?’
Someone whispered to me.
My gasping mother, the cold Duke, kind Selena.
Yes, I had forgotten. Foolishly.
“Ah, ah……. They deceived me for this day alone.”
I had learned the truth far too late.
When I was young, I could not understand the king who had turned away from us, nor the mother who had spent a night with such a man.
Now I understand my mother completely. Our circumstances are the same.
Like my shattered heart, my words crumbled and tumbled forth.
“……Mother was, perhaps, foolish too.”
There had been rumors that my mother was a strange witch from a foreign land. How had the king come to know her?
My mother had told me many stories, but she always avoided speaking in detail about the king. Even up until the moment she died.
“How could you have spent a night with such a man…….”
As I shut my burning eyes, I heard my mother’s voice.
‘Atilenta, the reason I was called a witch was, above all, because my Ability did not align with the Temple Magic that this royal house pursues.’
With hands so thin and frail they seemed ready to snap at any moment, Mother had gripped me.
‘So my child, do not let your secret be discovered. Now, take this Keepsake…….’
‘A Keepsake—hic, don’t, don’t, please…….’
I could do nothing but weep uncontrollably.
‘……If anyone learns your true nature, someone will try to exploit it. Such people—do not trust them easily.’
‘But then, what of my nurse Jaema? My friend Selena? She was so concerned about Mother…….’
Ah, foolish Atilenta.
‘If someone is kind to you, you return their kindness. But Atilenta, are you prepared to return malice with malice?’
‘I…….’
The meaning of that faint smile Mother had worn then—I think I finally understood it now.
She had failed in that task, so she left her daughter words carved into bone—a lesson for survival.
Atilenta’s Revenge Through a Contract Marriage
A Novel by Seo Hui-ji
Author
: Seo Hui-ji
Publisher
: Kwon Tae-wan, Woo Cheon-je
E-book Release Date
: 2026-08-10
Price per Volume
: 100 won (Episodes 1–5 provided free)
Provided
: CL production
Address
: 62 Digital-ro 31-gil, Guro-gu, Seoul; Ace Artis Forum, Room 203
UCI
G720:N+A014-20260721061
This ebook has been published by KWBOOKS in accordance with a contract with the copyright holder.
Unauthorized reproduction or copying of the contents of this book is prohibited by copyright law without permission from the publisher.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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