“If, if there was such a danger, we would have noticed…! Fi-first, I will ask the priests to find out if there are any other heretics left!”
Dietrich spoke with a solemn expression.
“My lord!”
At that moment, a knight rushed into the room.
Sched raised his head like a vigilant mountain beast.
There was only one case where he allowed the knights to open the door and enter without his permission.
“The body of a woman with brown hair was found by the Reche River.”
The knight, who stopped in front of Sched, reported urgently.
At that moment, his blood ran cold.
“Take me there right now.”
Sched got up from his seat, leaving behind Dietrich, whom he had seated as a guest.
It seemed that Dietrich’s presence was no longer visible in his eyes.
[This is the timeline separator]Sched rode his horse through the darkness, following the knight.
With each gallop, pain arose in various parts of his body that had not yet fully healed.
But he didn’t care about such things.
His whole body was as alert as if he were in a state of awakening.
His mind, which hadn’t slept for days, was strangely clear, and his heart was pounding as if it would burst.
But damn it, his hands kept shaking.
‘No. It can’t be.’
Sched shook his head.
‘She couldn’t have left me just to die like this.’
Even if he tried to brainwash himself like that, he became short of breath.
It felt like his head was going to explode.
The last image of Riana that he had seen came to mind.
The look in her eyes, as if she hated him, as if she resented him, was etched in his mind and couldn’t be erased.
His last moment with her couldn’t end on that day.
But the more he denied it, the more regret piled up.
That feeling that had been suffocating his chest had now risen to his chin, blocking his breath.
Indeed, he shouldn’t have left like that on that day.
Why did he leave her behind like that?
‘You cowardly bastard….’
The reason he hadn’t held onto her that day, no, couldn’t hold onto her, was because of fear.
It seemed that unbearable words would spill from the lips of the resentful her.
He was afraid that words of hatred would pour out.
He was afraid that she would turn her head away with a cold face despite any persuasion or pleading.
He couldn’t ask any more questions for fear that the night he spent with her would be the reason for their parting.
Yes. In fact, he knew everything.
Even the fact that he had left an indelible scar on her.
So he avoided it.
He, who was called the invincible hero and had never shown his back on the battlefield, ran away like a coward in front of her.
‘Damn it…’
Sched’s jaw clenched as if it would shatter.
Did he run away like a child, knowing that nothing would be solved by avoiding it?
He should have held onto her.
Even if her resentment was fearsome, it couldn’t be more frightening than losing her.
If begging didn’t work, he should have put a leash on her so she couldn’t run away.
His head felt like it was going to explode with regret and self-blame.
After the heretic hunt, his life had been falling into an endless abyss.
All he had gained from the heretic hunt was a curse that had ruined his body, the murder of his brother Parmen, and the loss of her.
Both his body and mind were shattered.
Nevertheless, the reason he was enduring without going insane was because of his single-minded determination to find Riana.
But if Riana was found dead, he couldn’t predict what would become of him.
If she had really left this world.
Perhaps, if she had taken her own life out of resentment for his sins…
He gripped the reins with trembling hands, twisting them with all his might.
He wanted to strangle and kill Sched Lester.
[This is the timeline separator]When they arrived at the Reche riverbank that the knight had mentioned, there was a corpse covered with a white cloth stained with dirt above the reeds.
Sched slowly stopped his horse and approached where people had gathered.
“My lord.”
The knights and soldiers who recognized his arrival lined up around the white cloth.
His black boots stepped off the horse, trampling the fallen reeds as he slowly approached.
His legs felt like they would give out at any moment, unable to muster strength properly.
His vision alternated between blurry and clear.
The long stretch of white cloth gradually drew closer.
“The body was retrieved from the water, so it is severely damaged and difficult to identify.”
Brown hair, wet from the water, flowed out from beneath the white cloth.
His heart was beating wildly, and his body wouldn’t obey him.
His stomach churned. The air mixed with the smell of decay was sickening.
Time seemed to flow strangely.
It felt like an instant, or like an eternity, or as if time was rewinding to the past or rapidly flowing into the future.
He slowly came to a stop in front of the corpse.
And for a long time, he stood there like a tombstone, unmoving.
“Your Grace.”
Carlyle called out to Sched, who had a pale face.
Inside his sunken eye sockets, his bloodshot eyes stared unblinkingly at the brown hair of the corpse.
He couldn’t muster the courage to lift that white cloth.
He had always faced his fears head-on and survived, but now he had no confidence to face this terror directly.
Thud, his knees buckled, and he knelt on the muddy ground by the riverbank.
The smell of death, indicating the depth of decay, pierced his nose from the nearby corpse.
His bloodless fingertips slowly reached for the cloth covering the corpse.
He slowly lifted the white cloth as if he were opening a cursed book.
The decayed face hidden by the white cloth was gradually revealed.
His eyeballs felt like they would shatter due to his heart beating too wildly.
And the moment the hidden face was revealed, the white cloth fell from his trembling fingertips with a thud.
“No.”
The breath that had been stuck in Sched’s lips finally escaped.
Although the face was decayed and difficult to recognize, he could tell at a glance.
It wasn’t Riana. It wasn’t Louise.
The wildly beating pulse slowly subsided with relief.
His eyes felt hot and throbbing.
A mixture of relief and unease swirled in his mind.
Sched rubbed his face and closed his bloodshot eyes tightly before opening them again.
‘…So where is the real Riana?’
He wearily rolled his eyes, which had been awake for several nights.
While it was fortunate that it wasn’t Riana, in the end, nothing had changed.
Once again, he was back to square one.
[This is the timeline separator]A few days later, a messenger came to Sched, who had been chasing after Riana’s trail.
The messenger presented an imperial decree stamped with the seal of Emperor Chevollden III.
“It is an imperial order to swiftly enter the Imperial City of Harmen.”
Sched looked down at the imperial decree he had received, pressing his lips tightly together.
‘Ah, what is His Majesty the Emperor thinking again….’
He wearily pressed his forehead.
He knew the emperor well.
No, it was a well-known fact. The emperor looked unfavorably upon the duke from the Lupus family.
Nevertheless, there was only one case where the emperor personally summoned that duke.
“…Is it war again?”
Sched muttered in a fed-up tone as he unfolded the imperial decree.
With his red, bloodshot, and sticky eyes, he read the neat handwriting on the letter.
‘The damn emperor seems to have no intention of leaving Blankas alone.’
Sched’s expression turned grim, causing the imperial messenger to unknowingly shrink back.
The content of the imperial decree was, as always, a deployment order.
The reason was that Blankas had violated the terms of the peace treaty first and detained the empire’s ships, and the royal family continued to make anti-imperial remarks.
However, Sched thought that those reasons were merely pretexts for war.
How long had it been since the war with Blankas ended, and now they were telling him to go out again?
‘Did they forget the memory of being held hostage last time?’
He recalled the emperor who had been stupidly pushing forward with only military force without any strategy or tactics, falling into a trap and being miserably captured.
It was a battle that had caused immense damage to the empire.
If they had failed to rescue the emperor, the foundation of the empire would have been shaken.
And now they wanted him to go as the vanguard commander?
Who dared to wage war as they pleased?
‘I don’t have the leisure to be distracted by such things….’
Sched raised his eyes to look at the messenger.
The messenger flinched in surprise and closed his lips tightly.
“Tell them the Lester family will not participate.”
“Ye-yes!?”
“Tell them to wage this war without the Lester family.”
“Bu-but if the Lester family does not participate…!”
“It hasn’t even been a year since the damn war ended, and they want to start another war?”
He had spent most of his time on the battlefield for the sake of the empire.
He had shown enough loyalty to the empire and gained enough merit.
So now it was time for him to make a choice for himself.
But the messenger clung to Sched, sweating profusely.
Although he was just a messenger, he knew the position Sched Lester held in the empire.
If the Lester family withdrew from the war, the empire’s military power would be reduced by half.
Putting the military power aside, the Lester family had Sched, the best swordsman in the empire, and numerous outstanding knights who followed him.
Without them, not only would the morale of the imperial army plummet, but other families were also likely to abandon the war effort.
Moreover, if the news spread that Sched Lester was not participating in the war, Blankas would also look down on the empire.
Therefore, the messenger had to bring Sched Lester to the Imperial City at all costs.
“Your Grace, please reconsider once more…!”
“Didn’t I say I won’t go to war?”
Sched glared at the messenger clinging to him with murderous eyes.
At that moment, a short knocking sound penetrated between the two.
“Your Grace, a reply has arrived from the Bitel family.”
The head butler, Werner, hurriedly entered with a letter in his hand.
Sched pushed the emperor’s imperial decree to one side of the table and tore open Eclas’s letter.
He had sent a letter to Eclas a few weeks ago.
The Bitel family was well-informed.
They might know the whereabouts and information about Riana.
If necessary, he could seek the assistance of their intelligence network.
The reply to that letter had just arrived.
Sched read the letter with eyes more serious than those he had for the emperor’s decree.
And as he had hoped, her name was written in the letter.
— Although we cannot hastily conclude, it has been confirmed that a person presumed to be Riana Serpens boarded our family’s merchant ship, the Fedica.
His heart sank at that one name.
She had boarded a ship of the Bitel family?
Brown hair, green eyes, and the testimonies of a few people working for the Bitel merchant group perfectly matched Riana’s description.
Male lead is a Destined Young Husband (Female-dominant)
One-sentence summary: Wife-master, listen to my explanation!
Li Ruantang, a young lady from a prestigious family, stumbled and fell. When she woke up, she saw a noble and beautiful young man sitting by her bedside, wiping away tears.
The young master had slightly reddened eyes, and his every move exuded charm.
The sight made Li Ruantang’s eyes hot and her heart flutter. After all, she had made a bet with the young master Meng from the neighboring family. If she couldn’t marry a husband before the end of the year, she would have to admit defeat and give up the jade she had worked so hard to obtain.
Outside the window, the flowers were in full bloom.
Rather than losing the bet, the jade, and her face, Li Ruantang calculated that it would be better to seek marriage with the young master in front of her, killing three birds with one stone.
…
Meng Jun never thought that an accident during a spring outing would lead to them rolling down a cliff and into a river, yet still survive.
Now they were trapped in an unknown village, and Meng Jun had overheard that the family who had rescued them had their own intentions.
After all, it was Li Ruantang who had lost her mind and sought marriage first. He was only trying to protect himself!
Glancing at Li Ruantang, who was listing her own merits, the young husband’s voice softened, and he blushed as he lied, “W-wife-master, Wife-master, don’t you remember me?”
The young husband’s voice was clear and handsome, coaxing Li Ruantang’s heart to be soft and sweet, and she spared no effort to protect him.
It wasn’t until they returned to the capital that Li Ruantang suddenly remembered.
When they had fallen off the cliff, in order not to implicate Wei Yunruo, whom he secretly admired, the young husband had instead pulled her, who was slightly farther away, down the cliff with him…
Short summary by Yuushi L: Initially, the male lead (ML) liked another girl, while the female lead (FL) liked the ML. Both fell off a cliff. The FL temporarily lost her memory, and the ML, fearing others might take advantage of him, claimed FL was his wife while they were staying in a village. Later, when they returned home, the FL regained her memories and remembered that the ML liked someone else, so she kept her distance from him. However, during their time living together in the countryside, the ML’s view of the FL had completely changed. From this point, his pursuit of the FL begins.
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