“Uncle said he would take Gardwell…”
As Sched got angry, Eve sobbed, trembling her lips.
It was Sched who broke the promise, and Eve only wanted to get the precious wish she had been saving.
“Eve, if you beg the Duke like that… Ah!”
As Louise tried to comfort Eve in a fluster, Gardwell suddenly stretched out his head and rubbed it against Louise.
Sched was surprised and pulled Gardwell’s reins, but Gardwell stretched his head to the sky as if he was in a good mood, then approached Louise again and acted cute.
Louise was startled by the horse’s head, which was as big as her torso, approaching her, but then carefully raised her hand to stroke Gardwell’s face as he acted cute.
As she stroked the soft, black fur, Gardwell exhaled with a playful sound, as if feeling good.
“Gardwell…!”
Sched and the caretaker looked at Gardwell with surprised eyes.
“Good boy…”
Louise smiled as she stroked Gardwell, who was approaching her affectionately.
It took the caretaker over a month to get close to Gardwell.
Because he didn’t like being touched by human hands, he would run away or viciously bite and thrash around when he saw strangers.
But that beast-like fellow was the first to offer his head?
The caretaker felt a deep sense of betrayal from Gardwell, whom he had been with for many years.
“Look at that. Gardwell is nice!”
Eve saw Gardwell playing well with her mother and hit Sched’s shoulder with her cotton fist.
Sched watched Louise and Gardwell a little longer.
He was worried that Gardwell might suddenly change and bite Louise’s hand, but contrary to his worries, Gardwell followed Louise wherever she walked.
“Well, really…”
The caretaker just sighed in disbelief, shaking his head back and forth.
“Uncle!”
“…Okay.”
In the end, Sched nodded.
Since he had agreed to grant her wish, he had to at least try.
“We’ll only try it once, and you’ll get off if it’s dangerous.”
“Okay!”
Sched held Eve and gripped the reins, focusing Gardwell’s attention.
Upon receiving a serious signal, Gardwell, who had been playing with Louise, immediately raised his head and took a well-trained posture.
“Hold on tight.”
At Sched’s low warning, Eve gripped his collar tightly with her little hands.
Calmly assessing the situation, Sched nimbly jumped onto the saddle while holding Eve.
Gardwell skillfully adjusted his posture in rhythm with Sched.
‘He’s not acting wild or showing dislike…?’
Sched was surprised by Gardwell’s attitude, which was different from usual.
Even when moving the injured on the battlefield, he would roughly act up and cause trouble…
‘Is he in a good mood today, or is it because Eve is light?’
He fastened Eve to his body with a leather belt so she wouldn’t fall off, feeling a little surprised.
Eve took a deep breath in and out from the excitement of riding high on a horse.
“Uh, Mom…! I’m riding a horse!”
Excited but remembering that Gardwell disliked loud noises, Eve whispered to Louise in a small voice.
Louise nodded, congratulating Eve on her first horseback ride.
Despite her excited heart, Eve’s body was stiff, probably because she was quite nervous.
That tension was transmitted to Sched as well.
She seemed fearless, but had quite a cute side.
“Don’t move and stay still.”
“Okay!”
Sched drove Gardwell slowly into the field.
Louise stood on the hillside and quietly watched Sched and Eve riding away on horseback.
Beyond them, Lecherdam Castle and the Leche River sparkling with the evening glow could be seen in the distance.
The sound of the wheat field rustling in the wind brushed past her ears, and the birds, full from the autumn sunlight, were singing.
The land of Ideana, and Sched.
Paradoxically, despite being surrounded by things she had desperately wanted to escape from, she felt completely present here.
The reason for this indescribable contradiction was probably because she had once loved them the most.
Louise slowly walked up between the cypress trees and inhaled the cool autumn-scented air.
Gardwell, who had already gone quite far, could be seen leisurely descending the ridge at a walk.
Louise stopped walking and stared at the scene endlessly.
Sched’s hand, holding Eve protectively, caught her eye.
The sound of Eve’s laughter could be heard from afar.
At that moment, a sudden feeling of happiness overwhelmed her.
It was a scene she had never imagined.
In Ideana, that Eve would spend time with Sched like this…
Louise gripped her chest at the deep happiness that made her heart sting.
Can I be this happy?
What if Sched finds out the truth?
If he finds out that he is Eve’s biological father…
Strength entered the hand placed on her chest.
The longer she stayed with him, the unspoken secrets piled up like sand in an hourglass, weighing her down.
“Uncle, faster!”
Meanwhile, Eve had already forgotten her initial tension and was urging Sched with a bright smile.
Sched looked at the child hanging quite skillfully in front of him.
The child was holding the loose reins in the middle and maintaining balance well without getting in Sched’s way.
After a moment’s hesitation, Sched tightened the belt to make Eve completely adhere to his body.
At the same time, Gardwell, receiving Sched’s signal, increased his speed a little more.
Eve’s body bounced up and down following Sched with the sound of trotting.
Eve’s hair fluttered lightly in the wind.
“It’s fun!”
As the speed increased, Eve enjoyed the scenery with delight.
Despite the considerable rebound, Eve seemed to have quickly grasped the rhythm of the horse, relaxing her body in time with the canter.
Sched looked at Eve’s stable expression and thought.
‘Is it because she inherited black magic…?’
Ordinary children would have quickly become frightened or lost balance and swayed.
Eve’s physical abilities were definitely better than her peers.
‘Like when she climbed the tree last time…’
Her innate physical abilities kept bothering him.
He calculated the time when Eve was born.
It’s not exact, but if, just if, the child was conceived that night?
If Eve is perhaps my child?
Sched thought, looking at the child in his arms.
In fact, he had been suspecting it all along.
That night, he immediately left for the heretic hunt, and Louise would have gone straight to Sizlon with Eclas, so there was definitely a possibility of the child being his.
Moreover, the child calls Eclas “Dad” and was living with him.
But why do I suspect that this kid might be my child?
Is it intuition that this child was born from that one night of passion?
If this child, who resembles Louise’s childhood, is her and my child…
Sched shook his head.
It’s just a projection of the wind.
If this child is my child, it would be the perfect excuse to tie her down.
He thought about the similarities between Eve and Eclas.
Externally, well. No matter how much he looked, Eclas’ appearance didn’t really come to mind.
They were similar in that they both had two eyes, one nose, one mouth, and two ears.
Come to think of it, there was one thing that Eve resembled Eclas in.
Eve was sociable and talkative like Eclas.
Moreover, she was born with the talent to melt people’s hearts and gain favor.
So, even though she’s that jerk’s daughter, she’s this cute.
Even when she causes trouble, cries, and throws tantrums, she’s not hateful.
Sched, if she were his own daughter, she probably wouldn’t have had such talents.
Sched felt the warmth of the small life felt in his arms and thought.
The two, who had a refreshing ride across the wide field, soon returned to where Louise was waiting.
Sched got off Gardwell and untied the belt that had secured Eve.
“Did you have fun, Eve?”
Louise asked as she straightened Eve’s hair, which was disheveled by the wind.
“It was fun! Mom, you should ride too!”
Eve, who had gotten off the horse, pulled on Louise’s skirt with a flushed face.
She seemed eager to share the new and exciting experience she had with her mother.
“No, Mom can’t ride horses.”
“No! Eve did it too! Mom can do it too!”
Eve tapped Louise’s legs, saying that if she could do it, her mom could too.
Louise shook her head with a somewhat troubled face.
She was already grateful that Sched had given Eve a ride, and she couldn’t bother him further.
But Gardwell tapped Louise’s shoulder with his nose.
When she turned her head, Gardwell was playfully touching her.
“Would you like to ride?”
Sched, who was riding on Gardwell, held out his hand to her.
Louise took a step back and shook her head.
“No, Your Grace. I… Oh!”
Gardwell approached Louise and her body floated up.
Sched lifted Louise like a kidnapper abducting a princess and sat her in front of him.
Gardwell let out a long neigh and waited quietly for Louise to get settled.
“This is really… strange.”
Sched, who had been tightly holding Louise’s waist in case Gardwell acted up, slowly loosened his grip.
“It seems like he recognizes Ideana natives.”
Louise turned around at the voice coming from behind her back.
She turned her head back to the front with a startled look.
He was too close.
If she turned her head, his white shirt would touch the tip of her nose.
“Hold on tight. If you don’t want to fall off.”
At Sched’s warning, Louise grabbed the front of the saddle.
Then Sched quietly placed the reins in her hands.
“How are you going to hold on by grabbing the saddle?”
“I’ve never ridden a horse before…”
Louise glanced down.
Gardwell’s height felt much higher than she thought.
Her body stiffened, fearing that Gardwell might act up if she moved even a little.
“Relax.”
His exhaled breath brushed past her ear.
Male lead is a Divorced Husband
She said to him: “Tell me, what makes you like me? I’ll change it!”
Liu Changning transmigrated into a female cannon fodder character in a female-dominant novel.
After reading the first half of the novel’s plot, the first thing she did upon transmigration was to divorce the Pan Jinlian-style male protagonist she had just married.
She indulged herself, pretending to be ugly and poor.
But as time passed, the way that man looked at her became more and more unusual…
Liu Changning was dumbfounded: Tell me, what makes you like me? I’ll change!
――
This lifetime, Pei Yuanshao was rejected by the same woman twice!
The first time, she drove him away. Forced by the situation, he endured the waves of anger in his heart, yielding and humbling himself.
That person lay slanted on a rocking chair, her sallow face emotionless: “If you don’t want a divorce, go cook!”
Pei Yuanshao’s face was dark and gloomy: “You!”
The second time, after the crisis in Jinling City was resolved, the new emperor sent someone to pick him up. He turned around, stammering: “I… I have to go. If you keep me…”
That person lay on the kang bed, her back to him, as if she had long anticipated this day, crisp and clear: “Goodbye!”
Pei Yuanshao was so angry his fingers trembled: “You… you!”
The mission of family and country made him restrain himself, averting his eyes and turning to leave this broken household.
Two years later, they met again. Seeing her ethereal face, his body shook like a sieve.
“She was originally a ‘she’!”
At the Qionglin Banquet, the top scholar of the imperial examination, a talented person with exceptional speech and conduct, all the unmarried young gentlemen from aristocratic families looked at her with shy and timid eyes.
The peerless imperial official Pei Yuanshao felt the anger in his heart erupt. He pointed at the woman surrounded by the crowd at the Qionglin Banquet, his thin lips slightly curled: “Little sister, I wants that person to be the wife-master of my Mingde Prince Manor.”
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