ATHO Chapter 43

Chapter 43 – Lien: The First Life (Part 1)

Lien: The First Life, Part 1

Novel Title: 嫌われ者の俺はやり直しの世界で義弟達にごまをする (As the Hated One, I Flatter My Stepbrothers in a World Where I Get a Second Chance)

Author：赤牙 (Akakiba)

Art：古澤エノ (Furusawa Eno)

Translator: K (@kin0monogatari)

Protagonists: シャルル (Charles -MC), リエン (Lien -ML1) & ジェイド (Jade -ML2)

*Please read at novels.space, the original site of translation. TQ*

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“Did you dream about Charles Nii-sama’s first life?”  

“Ah… I think so.”  

Jade’s deeply troubled expression suggested he was preoccupied with something. When he said he had dreamed of what Charles Nii-sama called his ‘first life’, it sounded so absurd that I thought it must be a joke.  

“Hey, hey! What kind of dream was it? What was he like in his first life?”  

When I asked out of curiosity, Jade’s expression visibly darkened.  

“…It was hell.”  

“Hell…”  

His tone was so serious that I involuntarily held my breath.  

“I don’t remember much about Charles Nii-san. My memories of it are already vague, and they’re fading more and more over time.”  

“Is that so? Why don’t you write it down in a journal or something?”  

“…No, I’d better not. If Charles Nii-san were to see it somehow, we might lose him again.”  

Jade’s face looked haggard. Seeing him so distressed, I couldn’t bring myself to say it, but part of me wished I could experience such a dream too…  

It seemed that God, in all His grace, wasted no time granting my frivolous wish.  

***  

When I first met Charles Nii-sama, he glared at us with an expression filled with anger.  

Charles was terrifying… and yet, he was so breathtakingly beautiful.  

When he wasn’t angry, he was quiet and standoffish. I often watched him secretly from a distance. His large, pale blue eyes sparkled like jewels. Even though I struggled to get along with him, I adored those eyes.  

I wished that someday Charles would smile at me.  

I wanted him to call my name, his beautiful eyes shining with warmth.  

As a small child newly arrived at the estate, I kept that unattainable wish locked in my heart.  

Charles, however, didn’t like my tearful nature and often bullied me.  

He once locked me in a small, dark cupboard. He also threw the pendant containing my late father’s photo into the lake.  

Whenever I was bullied to the point of tears, Jade would always be there to comfort me.  

“It’s okay, Lien. I’m here for you…”  

When Jade stroked my head, my tears would stop. I adored my kind older brother.  

To avoid Charles, Jade and I spent most of our time holed up together in a room. Even though we didn’t do much, simply being together brought me happiness.  

But deep down, I wanted to get along with Charles too.  

Despite all the awful things he did, he somehow still occupied a place in my heart.  

Five years passed at the estate, yet Charles never once smiled at me. No matter how much I longed for him, he never returned my feelings.  

Frustrated by his constant cruelty, I once muttered in my heart, “I wish Charles would just disappear.”  

But the ones who disappeared were not Charles—they were my parents.  

When we were told they had been murdered, Charles forced us out of the estate without explanation, and we went to live with our uncle. Though I should have been grieving, we were too busy trying to survive to dwell on our sorrow.  

Our aunt and cousin looked at us with disdain. To maintain our place in their home, we had to endure and curry favor with them.  

No matter how difficult things became, I had Jade. He was my only family. I thought as long as we had each other, we could be happy.  

As we grew older, our circumstances changed, and no one dared to oppose us anymore.  

These past few years had been free of hardship, and I was truly happy.  

But Jade wasn’t.  

Jade’s heart remained ensnared by Charles Nii-sama. Even though his feelings were filled with resentment and hatred, I loathed how Charles continued to dominate his heart.  

Driven by vengeance, we orchestrated Charles’s downfall by saddling him with a crushing debt.  

At our mother’s gravesite, we commanded Charles to kiss the top of our feet as a symbol of his submission. Watching him kneel and reluctantly obey was deeply satisfying.  

The night we reduced Charles to a slave, Jade and I basked in a sense of ‘happiness’.  

There was no one left to torment or bind us.  

Ah, now Jade’s heart will finally be free from Charles.  

Finally, Jade would only have eyes for me. The thought filled my heart with joy.  

But reality didn’t align with my desires.  

When Jade hosted his first soirée as the new lord, we discussed the guest list.  

“Jade, is there anyone else you’d like to invite?”  

“Let’s invite the two from the Meidel Trading Company,” Jade said, showing me the list. Among the names was Marianne, Charles’s former wife.  

I had a bad feeling and objected, but Jade reassured me with a smile. “I just want to talk to her briefly. Don’t worry.”  

Still, I couldn’t shake the worry that Jade might start thinking about Charles again.  

On the day of the soirée, Jade was busy attending to the guests. While I supported him, time flew by. I couldn’t keep an eye on Marianne the entire time.  

When I stepped away for a moment, Jade and Marianne had already crossed paths. By the time I arrived, they were glaring at each other, and Marianne’s brother was trying to mediate.  

“Jade…”  

I approached him after the situation calmed down. When Jade turned to me, his face was disturbingly cold, though I could tell he was shaken.  

After the soirée ended, I visited his room out of concern, but he dismissed me with a curt “Leave me alone…”  

Frustrated by my inability to help, I went to a brothel to calm my nerves.  

Spending the night with Tiana, my favorite courtesan, eased my frustration somewhat. After we finished, I lay my head on her lap as she gently held me.  

“Lord Lien, thank you for coming again today.”  

Tiana said this with a cheerful smile, her pale blue eyes gazing at me with gentle warmth. I loved those eyes of hers.  

For some reason, meeting Tiana always brought back memories of Charles.  

“Hey, Tiana… Can I talk to you about something?”  

“Of course, Lord Lien.”  

As I twirled a strand of her soft black hair around my finger, I began recounting memories from my past, ones I had never shared with anyone else.  

I talked about how Charles tormented me, the cruel things he said. Most of my stories were just complaints about him.  

Yet, Tiana listened attentively, nodding along the whole time.  

“That must have been really hard for you.”  

“Right? He’s just the worst…”  

“I suppose so. But… I can’t help feeling a little sympathy for Lord Charles.”  

“…Huh? Why?”  

I frowned while Tiana, with a faint smile, continued.  

“Maybe he was lonely. Losing his mother so early, and then feeling like he lost his beloved father to you and Lord Jade… It might have driven him to lash out because of his loneliness.”  

Charles… lonely?  

I blinked in surprise and stared at Tiana.  

“I think he didn’t know how else to handle it. That doesn’t make what he did to you right, of course.”  

I didn’t know how to respond.  

I’d never once thought of Charles as pitiable.  

Seeing me fall silent, Tiana seemed to think she had overstepped. Her expression turned apologetic.  

“My apologies, Lord Lien. I shouldn’t have spoken out of turn…”  

“No, it’s okay. Hey, Tiana, if we’d tried harder to face Charles back then, do you think we could’ve gotten along?”  

“Perhaps. You’re very kind, Lord Lien, to even think that despite everything.”  

“I’m not… kind at all…”  

I’d always believed we were the victims.  

That’s why, when we took Charles down, I felt it was nothing but justice. But if Tiana was right, that meant Charles had been hurting too…  

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*GLOSSARY: 

• Nii-san/Nii-sama/Onii-san = (Big/Elder) Brother

☝🏻I’ll be using these throughout my translation. Jade would call Charles ‘Nii-san’ while Lien would call him ‘Nii-sama’.

Next update: 2025.10.06

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