Villains Behind the Curtains

Description

She has long lashes, radiant crimson eyes, and silver hair like an angel’s... but she’s no angel—she’s the villainess Syriana Malforte... and I’ve been isekaied into her body! The House of Malforte has many gifted mages, but none at the level of Duke Azester. My evil mother brainwashed him into falling in love with me, and I coldly used him until his final breath. But with this second chance, I vow to set him free and return him to a sound state of mind. But how? And my heart aches to know… will Az still love me once he’s free?

Original Webtoon:
Daum, KakaoPage

Official Translations:
English, Thai, Indonesian, S.Chinese, T.Chinese, Japanese, German

Type

Manhwa

Associated Names

I Lost the Leash of the Blackened Male Lead

I Lost the Leash of the Yandere Male Lead

Ich ließ den besessenen Herzog von seiner Leine

Limerence d'un comploteur de l'ombre

เมื่อฉันทำสายจูงตัวร้ายหลุดมือ

无法抵抗的，来自恶女的诱惑

親手放走幕後黑手

黒幕の首輪を外したら

흑막의 목줄을 놓쳐버렸다

Groups Scanlating

Destiny Scans

Tartali Scans

Latest Release(s)

c.22 by Destiny Scans 3 years ago

c.8-10 by Tartali Scans 4 years ago

c.7 by Tartali Scans 4 years ago

Search for all releases of this series

Status in Country of Origin

83 Chapters (Complete)

S1: 43 Chapters (1-43)
S2: 40 Chapters (44-83)

Completely Scanlated?

Yes

Anime Start/End Chapter

N/A

User Reviews

N/A

Forum

0 topics, 0 posts

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User Rating

Average: 6.4 / 10.0 (76 votes)

Bayesian Average: 6.36 / 10.0

12%

17%

18%

14%

11%

Last Updated

July 5th, 2025 12:42pm PDT - 1 week ago

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Genre

Fantasy Josei Psychological Romance
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Categories

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Category Recommendations

Odebu Akujo ni Tensei Shitara, Naze ka Last Boss Ouji-sama ni Shuuchaku sareteimasu

A Simple Guide to Surviving as a Stepmom

The Villainess's Princely Predicament

Becoming a Family With the Duke and His Dear Son

This Life, the Way I Want

Recommendations

N/A

Author(s)

Artist(s)

Year

Original Publisher

Serialized In (magazine)

Kakaopage (KakaoPage)

Kakao Webtoon (Daum)

Licensed (in English)

Yes

English Publisher

Tapas

Activity Stats (vs. other series)

Weekly Pos #612

(-195)

Monthly Pos #1601

(-359)

3 Month Pos #2806

(-400)

6 Month Pos #3843

(+346)

Year Pos #4112

(+944)

List Stats

On 354 reading lists

On 144 wish lists

On 71 completed lists

On 31 unfinished lists

On 193 custom lists

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Forum Posts Click to view the forum

User Comments [ Order by usefulness ]

So confusing, uneven art and bland chars

by StellaStar1
1 month ago

Rating: 3.0 / 10.0

Gave up after about 10 chaps, and was so dissapointed! I adore yandere manhwa, but this was too much! The translation was bad, the story was very confusing, and everything looked to cliche... While I agree that the manhwa probably picks up pace and becomes more "yanderish" later, I just could not! Skip!

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To be avoided, messy plot and no explanation. More questions than answers.

by Cereris
2 months ago

Rating: 4.0 / 10.0

I wanted to give this manhwa a chance even though the reviews did not recommend it...and they were right. The story is complicated, 99% of the mysteries are not explained, characters appeared only because they do...a delirium.

CHAPTERS: 83 It is not remotely possible in 83 chapters to finish the main story, with no real ending. Definitely very few!

DRAWING: Particular though very simple/not too detailed. I have honestly seen worse.

STORY: FL reincarnated into a novel and wanting to free the ML from the brainwashing her mother has done to him since childhood, going forward with the plot there are many plots because of the mysteries that are revealed.

CRITICS: This entire section contains spoilers.

1- The ending doesn't make sense, ML brings FL back to life and everyone leaves for home, giving no real ending.

2- Egelto (elf), from the beginning seems to be an important character for the unfolding of the plot, then slowly disappears. His story also has no end. It is not known whether what he wanted to know is enough, and there is certainly no certainty that he has returned to his family.

3- Caron, FL's brother, why is he the only one of the 4 children who has an olive complexion? Since he is Maxion's twin brother we are sure that he is not an illegitimate son and even going forward with the plot it is confirmed that all 4 sons have the same mother and father...so why? I know it didn't matter for the plot, but seeing everyone with very light skin and light hair and then only Caron like this I was taken aback...even a hint of something was fine, since generally in these kinds of products they use similar features to make it clear that certain characters are related.

4- Who are the “Libertes” and how come they are so rare? Why do they have this unique ability to keep absorbing power without a limit? When they were introduced I admit that I did not understand much.

5- The "holy relic" although very vague at least one story was given, but if it is true that every time a relic appears the dark mages increase, how come this time it did not happen?

6- The clear magic what is it to the actual? If what throughout the storyline is considered dark magic is the actual light magic, what is the actual light magic?

7- The protagonists in the novel read by FL who seemed so important to the plot, what happened to them? Especially Juliana who was left alone while she was being kidnapped...did she manage to come back?

8- The character with blue eyes and light hair who cooperates with the dark magicians (can't remember the name) who is he? Why does he cooperate with them? He shows up, you see him for a few scenes and then that's it, he disappears as if nothing happened. So does the other one who is always with him with dark hair.

In the end I was left with more questions than answers...which is not usually supposed to happen at the end of the main story. I'm not saying they had to explain everything, but at least the important things and the characters they introduced. There are currently no side stories planned...hopefully they will make sense of this debacle with those.

Would I recommend this manhwa? Absolutely NO ❌.

Would I read it again? No ❌.

... Last updated 2 months ago

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Eeeh...

by lancergashinda
5 months ago

Rating: 5.5 / 10.0

(time of writing: completed) Confusing and convulted. I trust people saying the novel was easier to follow.

Art: It's ok. I don't see why people call it ugly. It's not breathtaking or anything, but it's passable and didn't really distract my readings. Though I feel like the artistic choices don't help in making the story any clearer. Romance: Probably the adaptation's fault, but even to the end it's still confusing what the ml really feels for the fl and why. He spends really little time not un-brainwashed and then I didn't really understand his goal and what he was trying to do (you'll see what I mean when you get to it) Lore: Bad. Really didn't follow the 'show don't tell' rule, lore is kind of dumped on you. Characters: Actually they're fine. I appreciate the way they're fleshed out with their own goals and past to explain their behavior. Which is bare minimum but not every manhwa do it lmaoooo

TLDR: Meh. You'll probably have a better time reading something else.

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I was looking so much to read but didn't like it at all.

by Selene_N
7 months ago

Rating: 5.0 / 10.0

I hoped it would become better, but plot was pretty confusing. There was almost no romance.. Male lead isn't a yandere, he is just very traumatised and confused. And every character is traumatised as well. I had a feeling that i was reading about when and how someone got traumatised. And then the end, which was very rushed.

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Different ending

by Winter.Rose928
7 months ago

Rating: N/A

A different ending than the novel, and much happier too

... Last updated 7 months ago

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uh...if he's "the most powerful dark mage"

by TiredandDeadInside
2 years ago

Rating: N/A

How is he so easy to manipulate? Someone of his prestige and background should have had an education to deal with that kind of thing...

Then again, I have that question whenever these so-called "very powerful" characters get used and abused and have to depend on the FL.

This one, where the ML is "powerful" but equally helpless, was done even more clumsily than most in this story. I can plow ahead most of the time despite these very irritating plot devices but I can't with this one.

Dropped.

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deserved a better artist

by Snoopy219
3 years ago

Rating: N/A

novel is way better, manhwa didnt do it justice by making it so confusing.

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Confusing translation

by IAmLilith_09
3 years ago

Rating: N/A

Bad translation

... Last updated 3 years ago

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There's not a lot of choices for translation

by hoBRO
4 years ago

Rating: 7.0 / 10.0

And it makes the story seem more confusing than it already is.

Is it fun? Well, after reading 24 chapters, there's sort of a progress in the main character's goal, but not really. Story is so-so so far.

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Awful art

by noobzilla
4 years ago

Rating: 5.0 / 10.0

Most deceptive webtoon cover of the century. Art is so awful it makes reading the story painful, which is just okay.

... Last updated 4 years ago

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