Nadia, who had thrown herself into the situation recklessly, violently resisted in Michael’s grasp.
“Let go! I’ll kill that bitch and die myself!”
“That’s not an option.”
Michael spoke firmly, twisting Nadia’s arm to force her to the ground.
He kicked away the dangerous dagger, sending it clattering into a distant corner of the basement.
“Phew, what a relief. That was really scary.”
Zero rubbed his tiny stomach.
I, too, was considerably startled, and I managed to exhale the breath I’d been holding with trembling hands.
‘I was really scared I’d get stabbed, too…’
“Huh, you looked so calm and collected when you fired; I was actually impressed.”
‘It’s survival acting, survival acting.’
The sense I had when I was trying to catch up to the villainess, Elizabeth, hadn’t rusted.
‘There was some intentional provocation, too.’
I also had faith that Michael and Rus could sufficiently restrain Nadia’s impulsive actions.
Even though she held a knife, the count’s daughter Nadia’s wrists were as slender as any other noble young lady’s. Comparatively, she was an easier target to subdue with two adult men on our side.
Nadia, who had been thrashing around like a live fish sold at a seafood market, stopped when she recognized the faces of Michael and Rus.
“Sir Knight Michael? And Rus Kritechern, the strong candidate for the next master of magic?”
“Yes.”
“Yes.”
They knew Nadia’s face from her harassment of Siena, so they were familiar with it.
They responded tersely and stared at Nadia with cold, contemptuous eyes.
Nadia’s shoulders involuntarily shrank under the gaze mixed with disdain and loathing.
“Uh, ugh…”
She recognized that she had no chance of winning. It was game over.
Realizing this, Nadia, who had been stone-like, soon started to shed tears in sorrow.
“I did nothing wrong. It’s all because of that woman! Because of Elizabeth Keaton, I’ve become like this…”
“…”
Though she looked pitiable, we three, who had already witnessed her wielding a knife like a madwoman, had nothing more to add.
‘I admit she’s holding a grudge for being socially ostracized, partly due to Elizabeth.’
But that was all the understanding I could offer.
Nadia, who had been a minor villain, had tormented Siena in every possible way.
Even without ‘Elizabeth’s’ orders, she had done things like spilling wine on perfectly good dresses or spreading false rumors just for the fun of it.
‘There’s plenty to be upset about.’
It was a mere excuse to claim that Nadia’s miserable state was entirely due to Elizabeth Keaton.
Michael spoke without releasing his hold on Nadia.
“Even so, we can’t excuse Young Lady Rutree for wielding a knife.”
At that, Nadia, who had just been shedding tears, abruptly stopped crying.
Her face, which had looked so pitiable moments ago, suddenly transformed into a ferocious expression.
“You’re the same… The strongest knight, and yet, how can you side with that wicked woman?”
“I’m not taking sides. You’re the one who attempted murder.”
Nadia’s expression turned even more hostile at Michael’s calm reply.
“You’re joking… The world’s falling apart and you’re still going on about attempted murder?”
She gritted her teeth and glared at me as if she wanted to tear me apart.
“It’s either being devoured by monsters outside or dying from starvation. Isn’t it better to die at the hands of another human?”
Madness flashed in Nadia’s blue eyes.
Looking at her, I frowned as I felt my past self overlapping with her.
Those eyes were too familiar. They were the eyes I saw in the mirror every day after my parents passed away.
It was the look of a person with nothing left to lose.
“Looking closely, she seems like she hasn’t had even a sip of water or food for a few days.”
‘How long?’
“Two to three days, maybe? That’s probably why she can’t make rational decisions.”
Certainly, Nadia’s lips, revealed through her tangled blue hair, were terribly cracked. From the way her body trembled, it seemed she was exhausted from hunger.
Maintaining distance from Nadia, I squatted down to meet her gaze.
Her defiant blue eyes glanced at me.
“What are you looking at?”
‘Ah… despite me being older, she’s being very informal.’
Something about her complete disregard for decorum made me smile.
Nadia became even more enraged.
“Laughing? You find it funny? You dare mock me?”
Not even a zombie, but the veins in her eyes were alarmingly red. It seemed she had been through quite a bit.
“Nadia Rutri.”
“What!”
“How long have you been starving? Two days? Three days ago?”
「She’s using the information I gave her.」
‘The information you know is the information I know.’
「Uh-huh, sure.」
“….”
Nadia’s mouth, which had been noisily squawking, clamped shut like a clam.
‘Ah, silence at last.’
Finally, a real conversation could begin.
“All the food stored at Count Rutri’s is already gone, isn’t it? That’s why you’ve given up and come to this basement with even a dagger.”
The Rutri Count’s family had produced many excellent warriors.
‘That’s also because the amount this family eats is no joke.’
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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