It felt as if Brenda would abandon her if she rejected her words. She wanted to help her, a fellow countrywoman.

‘But that’s not right.’

Hades’ words echoed in her ears once again.

Hades had said that one’s value is determined by oneself.

Being unable to express her opinion and hesitating in timid behavior were no different from lowering her own value.

‘Hades was right. How I act will determine how I am treated.’

Thinking of his firm and strong voice, strength naturally filled her fist.

Latifa held the wrist of Brenda, who was clutching her collar, a little stronger. And without avoiding her eyes, she said quietly,

“Brenda. I don’t want to. Just because our empire surrendered to the desert people, doesn’t mean I want to.”

“…….”

“Brenda, you’re a smart and brave woman. We don’t have to bow down to the desert people, we can get through this.”

Brenda seemed taken aback by Latifa’s small but firm voice. It was a voice filled with dignity and elegance.

Ssurrung. The grip on Latifa’s collar was weakening.

“Who, who said to surrender? Just don’t antagonize him, that’s all! Okay, you do as you please!”

‘I’m glad she seems to understand.’

For the first time, Brenda seemed to listen to her. She had always been oppressed by Brenda’s energy and couldn’t express any opinion, but today was a bit different.

‘I should have said this sooner… why was I so scared?’
Feeling a slight sense of achievement, Latifa looked out of the tent with a comfortable smile. The largest tent in the notsofar distance, belonging to Hades, still had its lights brightly on.

When the next day arrived, Latifa and Brenda were following the military convoy, riding side by side on a small brown horse with Manute’s horse.

Neither Latifa nor Brenda knew how to handle a horse, so the reins of the brown horse were elongated and connected with Manute’s horse’s reins.

Throughout the long convoy, Brenda was dozing off, leaning against Latifa’s back, gripping her waist tightly. After a long silence, Manute started a conversation with Latifa out of boredom.

“Hey.”

“Yes?”

“How did you learn the desert language? Were you really a smuggler?”

“Well… I just happened to learn it somehow.”

At Latifa’s warm words, Manute seemed frustrated.

“I’m asking about that ‘somehow’.”

At his words, Latifa hesitated for a moment. She had to be extremely careful not to let slip that she was a princess.

Not only Hades but also the man beside her seemed unusually observant.

Being close to Hades, any suspicious behavior from Latifa would surely reach the general’s ears.

‘As long as I don’t talk about the royal family.’

“Do you know a book called ‘The Heroic Tales of Harushept’?”

At that, Manute was taken aback and changed color.

“My god! The Guardian of the Books, Liber! It’s my favorite book!”

“Wow, you’ve read it?!”

“Read it?! Who at the Grand Bazaar doesn’t know about ‘The Heroic Tales of Harushept’? It’s a staple in every household!”

‘Ah, so that’s why it was so famous that it came to the royal library!’

The royal library was accessible to the nobility, and occasionally, daughters of dukes and earls would come to borrow books.

The problem was that popular novels among the girls were quickly borrowed by other nobles and princesses.

Always borrowing boring novels or plant guides made her seem pitiful, so the book ‘The Heroic Tales of Harushept’ was suggested by the library’s administrative clerk.

Just thinking of those books with beautiful illustrations and exotic scents made her heart flutter. Of course, the content was interesting and entertaining as well.

“I managed to get the translated version up to the first volume, but I couldn’t find the translated versions afterwards, so I studied.”

“It’s worth that. I didn’t know it was exported to the Empire.”

“I really read it with tears.”

“The Heroic Tales of Harushept… It’s a book from my childhood… It’s nostalgic. The author died, so it only got up to volume 3.”

3 volumes? That’s not right.

Latifa tilted her head at something odd and said,

“Eh? Only up to 3 volumes? There are 5 volumes.”

“What? No. The Heroic Tales of Harushept ended at volume 3.”

“No, there were 5 volumes in total. I’ve read it several times.”

“Huh? I must’ve read it dozens of times! The author of The Heroic Tales of Harushept was one of the wise men working at the Sultan’s palace, I even attended his funeral when he passed away!”

‘That’s strange? There were definitely 5 volumes.’

Of course, the first 3 volumes were beautifully bound, and volumes 4 and 5 were a little crudely bound, but the author was definitely the same, and there was no way that a shoddy pirated copy could’ve made it into the royal library.

“Excuse me. The last content of volume 3 was that Harushept’s lover, Suriya, was captured by the enemy, right?”

“Yeah! Everyone was depressed when it ended at that climax.”
“In Volume 4, Suriya dies and Harushept seeks revenge. In Volume 5…”

“Stop with the nonsense. It must be a fake book!”

“I don’t think so. It was a book in the library. A book authorized by the state wouldn’t have any fakes in it. Volume 4 is the most interesting.”

Of course, this was not a regular library, but the imperial library.

“That’s nonsense. It must be a fake. There’s no way you imperialists saw content we didn’t.”

‘I see……. Well, the desert people would know better.’

Learning that the book she enjoyed so much was written by a fake author, she felt a little depressed.

‘Ah, what does it matter if the author was real or fake, I enjoyed reading it.’

As she consoled her slightly hurt feelings, the head of the black horse moved swiftly ahead.

“Ah, General Hades.”

“Ah, has the general arrived?”

Upon seeing Hades suddenly appear, Latifa froze up. His expression was stern.

“Manut, what is your duty?”

“Eh? Ah! I am in charge of managing and controlling the middle of the procession.”

“I see no part of your duty that allows you to idle and chat, right?”

“II’m sorry, General!”

Manut bowed his head, completely lost. Feeling Hades’ gaze shift momentarily towards her, Latifa quickly averted her eyes.

‘He is unpredictable as they say. A mad dog.’

However, as a soldier, his charisma was perfect. No wonder they won the war so easily with a man like this.

She sighed lightly and subtly lifted her head. Hades was still looking at her, with a discontent expression.

“You seem to be at ease, considering I chose you to watch over her.”

There was no doubt that he was referring to Brenda, who was dozing off behind. Latifa quickly made an excuse for her.

“She must be tired from nursing me all night.”

“……One should extend their legs according to the length of their blanket.”

Hades, who made another strange comment, took out a small armorlike thing from his pocket and tossed it at her. From the strong smell of herbs, it seemed to be medicine.

“Apply this to your wound.”

“Ah, thank [dash]. Oh, he’s gone.”

He carelessly threw a remark and, without waiting for a word of gratitude, he turned his horse around and left.

Male lead reborn without memories — but he still falls for her.

The person he finds displeasing in this life turns out to be his cherished wife-master in previous life…

Xie Zhi and Fang Xianxing who had known each other for less than three days through a blind date sat in the same car in front of the civil affairs bureau. They had a disagreement and failed to get married.

Xie Zhi immediately took out his phone, slid through his contacts, and randomly selected the next marriage candidate.

The woman snatched his phone and hung up. Looking at his phone wallpaper, she awkwardly changed the subject: “An ancient painting, eh? It looks pretty good, it’s just that the person in the painting looks a bit like me.”

When he heard this, he sarcastically mocked her for being so delusional, completely unaware that, the person in front of him was the reincarnation of Wen Ru, the famous prime minister of Yuan Shun whom he most admired…

The female CEO who doesn’t want to get married with a divorce agreement in hand × The male archaeological researcher who will only get married if he’s sure he can get divorced