I Abandoned the Male Lead Who Cheated with the Villainess - Chapter 229

In reality, Clive wasn’t the purely innocent and compassionate person that Ivonne saw him as.

If anything, he fit better into the category of being gloomy and sinister. His insides were, frankly, so filthy that it was almost unbelievable. While the darkness within him was different from Herix’s, if you were to compare the two based on their color, Clive’s would easily be the more intense of the two.

The root of Clive’s darkness lay in his childhood. He was born into a family that wasn’t wealthy, and grew up in an ambiguous position with four older brothers and two younger sisters.

His four older brothers were all outstanding and had been the pride of the family, lighting up their home for years. In contrast, his two younger sisters were lacking, but not to the extent that they could be called inadequate. If you compared them to the average, they were actually quite remarkable.

‘The problem was, the brothers were so exceptional.’

As a result, Clive’s role in the family was naturally to manage the middle ground between his high-achieving brothers and his younger sisters, who were trying to follow in their footsteps but were inevitably left behind.

It was as if fate had placed him right in the middle of his older brothers and younger sisters, with the right amount of ability to keep him from being swallowed by their greatness. His parents were well aware of this. So he often heard their mother, who had had her youngest daughter late in life, telling him:

“You have to do well. Your brothers are so great that they won’t understand your sisters, and your sisters will never be able to catch up to your brothers. So you have to do well. You’re in the middle, so you have to be the bridge. You have to be the string that holds us together and keeps the family from falling apart.”

Be the bridge, be the string, be the one in the middle, do well—these words made Clive an expressionless child, unable to speak up for himself.

It wasn’t that Clive wasn’t affected by his brothers’ exceptional qualities or his sisters’ shortcomings. He grew up never once expressing this frustration, quietly rotting inside while caught between his brothers and sisters, surviving on indirect glances and scraps.

So it was inevitable that Clive’s insides would become so dark and tainted.

It goes without saying that this twisted nature would only strengthen his rebellious streak.

So, the reason Clive came here today as part of the delegation to the Sortenic Empire was solely due to his rebellious nature.

The current precedence of the Ortensia Republic is so immersed in peace that they willingly wants to become a vassal state of the Sortenic Empire.

‘What’s the point of unity, and what’s the point of compromise?’

Talking about how much was wasted on food and taxes when the the Sortenic Empire’s delegation visited the Ortensia Republic last time, would be hard to describe. They didn’t bring much, either.

Yet, the president of the Ortensia Republic sent the Sortenic Empire’s delegation off with an extravagant display, even repeatedly asking them not to cause any discomfort to the Sortenic Empire. Watching this made Clive’s rotten insides churn. Even as the Foreign Minister, the rebellious streak that had been suppressed slowly resurfaced.

And that’s why Clive was here.

‘Hope it all goes to hell.’

With a thoroughly impure and clear goal in mind.

The first step to achieving that goal was targeting Empress Ivonne’s preferences based on information he’d obtained through secret routes. He heard that Ivonne had an infatuation with Herix’s body.

He thought that the mutual attraction between lovers and spouses was natural and considered it irrelevant information. But the following sentence caught Clive’s attention.

‘She likes big chests.’

Chests on a man are almost like useless organs, so how big could they really be? But it wasn’t an entirely nonsensical idea. Moreover, Clive, who had maintained regular exercise and weight management, was particularly confident about his upper body.

His thick chest and firm pectorals could be considered a ‘big chest.’ And when Clive saw Herix, he realized that the information he’d obtained was not a lie. He truly had a perfect body, even from a man’s perspective.

‘No matter how many layers of clothes you wear, you can’t deceive the eyes of someone who takes care of their body.’

Every movement, every wrinkle in his clothing was different. Herix was that kind of man. It wouldn’t be strange at all to hear that the Empress was completely enamored with the Emperor’s body.

And with just that appearance, he was the one who made the presidency of the Ortensia Republic swoon.

‘It would be a lie if I didn’t feel some jealousy.’

At least Clive, with his rebellious nature, also harbored feelings of inferiority.