“Is it true that Princess Gloria has amnesia?”
“How does she appear to you?”
“What?”
“Does she seem to be lying?”
It was a question thrown with a calm voice that bore no emotion. Arwin, who had been aimlessly counting the ceiling patterns, had no way of knowing what expression Grayan was wearing. Arwin simply raised an eyebrow in response.
“Hmm……. She seems too transparent, her feelings and thoughts too easily revealed on her face to be lying.”
Then Grayan gave a soft laugh.
The nuance of the laugh was endearing, which gave Arwin an uncomfortable chill.
“Do you think so too?”
At Grayan’s teasing question, Arwin could no longer bear it and abruptly stood from his seat.
Grayan stared at Arwin with a puzzled look. Arwin felt a sense of unknown frustration and licked his lips.
“You……. No, forget it. Didn’t you say you have a favor to ask me? Something related to Princess Gloria, wasn’t it?”
“Ah……. Yes, I did.”
As if only just remembering, Grayan, who had risen from his seat, pulled something out of his pocket.
It was a locket pendant, a piece that could hold a picture or a ring inside.
Arwin sat back down on the sofa and silently watched Grayan’s actions.
Grayan opened the locket pendant and pulled out a thin threadlike item, then held it up to the sunlight.
Just like appreciating an art piece, his silver eyes deepened gradually.
“……What are you doing?”
Arwin couldn’t help but ask. Grayan Salisbury seemed very different today.
Whether it was his playfully smiling face in front of Princess Gloria, or his laughter as if he found Princess Gloria adorable, or the way he held up that gold thread to the sunlight……
It kept making him imagine absurd scenarios, giving him goosebumps.
“This is her hair.”
“I didn’t ask that!”
Arwin jumped up like a fish out of water, yelling.
Looking briefly at him, Grayan tilted his head in confusion.
Arwin felt a headache coming on. He clenched his teeth for a moment, then asked, enunciating each word.
“What I mean is, why are you holding that up to the sunlight? And with such a dreamy look in your eyes!”
“Ah…….”
Only then did Grayan, who had murmured as if he had finally understood, sat down opposite Arwin, holding the golden hair.
Then he looked at the strand of hair in his hand with soft eyes and gave an absurd answer.
“Isn’t it beautiful?”
“…….”
Arwin, at a loss for words, glared at Grayan with his hands dropped onto his knees.
After a brief silence, Arwin was finally able to ask in a forced calm voice.
“You… are you the Grayan Salisbury I know? Has your soul been switched with someone else’s?”
“Ah, yes, the soul.”
“……?”
Grayan, who had made another outoftheblue response, suddenly became serious.
Arwin guessed that he was finally getting to the point, and waited quietly.
After a period of silence, Grayan softly opened his mouth.
“Actually…….”
This was what Grayan Salisbury thought.
Could a person become completely different just because they lost their memories?
Wouldn’t it be much more convincing to say that the soul has been replaced?
“……So, you want me to verify… whether the soul in Princess Gloria’s body… is truly her own?”
“Yes. That’s your specialty, isn’t it?”
Arwin put a hand to his forehead. In front of him was a strand of golden hair.
So he had been carrying Princess Gloria’s hair… for this absurd request.
For this problem, it was certainly his specialty.
Arwin Liventium.
Gender and age unknown.
Externally, he pretended to be a snake beastman, but his true identity was a black dragon beastman.
He was responsible for the Salisbury Duke’s fortress, but he did not pledge allegiance to Grayan.
The two had been friends since childhood. Or rather, they were more like uncle and nephew…
Arwin sighed and said,
“You’ve always been a quiet person, whether as a child or now.”
Predicting what would come next, Grayan awkwardly scratched his cheek with a smile.
“Sometimes you do such strange things. You think… Princess Gloria has been possessed by another? Do you really think so?”
“I’m not sure if she’s possessed or if she gave herself willingly. For now, let’s see if her body and soul vibrations match. If they don’t, then the ‘her’ I know… In other words, the ‘her’ I know is a different person from ‘Gloria Ainstern’.”
It was a hollow story. Anyone would think so.
However, Arwin had the original sin of having to take this absurd story seriously.
“I never told you when you were young…”
Grayan chuckled at Arwin’s murmur.
He suddenly remembered the story Arwin had told him when they were young.
“You could be possessed by a ‘predator’. Be careful.”
“A predator? What’s that?”
Arwin must have intended to scare the accidentprone young boy. But that ended up piquing Grayan’s curiosity even more.
“…A predator is just a name I made up. And it’s just… a ghost story. I’m not sure if such a thing really exists.”
“So the predator can possess a person’s body?”
“Yeah, I guess you could say it takes their whole life.”
“You’ve been chasing that predator for over two hundred years, haven’t you?”
At Grayan’s words, Arwin rolled his eyes.
He had clearly added that this predator was like one of the world’s top ten mysteries, so it was unclear whether it really existed or not.
But Grayan seemed to believe that it actually existed.
This was definitely his fault. He shouldn’t have scared the kid with unnecessary bravado.
“So you’re guessing that the predator took Princess Gloria’s body?”
“It’s not necessarily like that… It’s just a thought that it might be a similar case.”
“…What if the thing inside Princess Gloria’s body is really the predator? Then what?”
The predator is a monster.
A very old monster.
It’s not even clear when it came into existence.
It’s a monster that swallows people’s lives whole, so it’s only right to banish it.
“…”
Lost in deep thought, Grayan finally opened his mouth after a long while.
“She’s not a predator.”
“…How can you be sure?”
“It’s just a feeling.”
Grayan’s gaze, with a broad smile, was focused on a strand of golden hair.
“She’s too kind to be a monster like a predator.”
Grayan’s voice as he spoke was gentle, like a spring breeze carrying the scent of flowers.
“…”
At this point, Arwin could not help but raise the following question.
Did this kid realize?
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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