Didn't Plan to Become a Companion (Completed Main Story) - Chapter 15
“You remember our Ricardo’s childhood?”
I let out a sharp cough at the sudden voice.
“Yes… I do.”
“I know that Lady Fennel helped Ricardo with his manifestation. Thanks to you, he was able to return quickly to the ducal estate. I’m very grateful.”
Although there was no fixed time for a Rochester’s manifestation, tradition held that it most commonly occurred around the age of twenty. The time required afterward for full awakening varied greatly from person to person. In any case, once he survived until manifestation, hardly anyone could touch him anymore.
After all, both the gods and the Rochester lineage would protect him.
“Duchess, if I may be so bold, might I ask you a question?”
“Go ahead.”
“How can you be certain it was I who aided his manifestation? It could have been someone else.”
Of course, I had struck his forehead, causing light and darkness to alternate and engulf the world—but it might have simply been a rare natural phenomenon.
The Duchess stared straight into my eyes and let out a soft chuckle. For a moment, Ricardo’s face overlapped with hers, making my heart jolt.
“You sound rather hopeful that it wasn’t you.”
“Oh—no, that’s not it. It’s just…”
“Different from the legends passed down through generations?”
Hearing her gentle voice, an intuition suddenly struck me—that the Duchess, more than Ricardo himself, could resolve my doubts. With that certainty, my trembling finally ceased.
“Yes, exactly. I’ve heard that, throughout Imperial history, every Rochester who receives divine power is assigned a Saintess and destined partner from birth. Of course, Ricardo—I mean, His Highness—manifested right before my eyes, but perhaps there was another Saintess nearby… or maybe someone far away aided his manifestation from a distance… something like that…”
“…”
“That couldn’t be, could it?”
“Absolutely not.”
With her beautiful face, she crushed my fragile hope and then elegantly took a sip of tea.
“I heard that after Ricardo’s manifestation, Lady Fennel fell gravely ill—so severely that you nearly lost your life. That’s the proof. It confirms you were the one who aided Ricardo’s manifestation.”
Just then, a maid entered and whispered something into the Duchess’s ear. I thought I saw her frown slightly, but her expression quickly softened. Immediately afterward, the drawing-room door opened.
“My dear.”
I turned toward the person the Duchess addressed as “my dear” as she rose to her feet.
And there I faced the master of this estate. At the sight of him, my barely stilled trembling resumed. I bowed deeply and stepped back, and the Duke’s warm laughter reached my ears.
“Oh dear, oh dear. It seems I’ve intruded while you were entertaining a guest. Please, lift your head. Anyone seeing you bow so deeply might think the Emperor himself had arrived.”
Is there truly that much difference, Lord Ricardo’s father?
I obeyed and raised my head, and the Duke smiled broadly, his eyes crinkling at the corners.
Jet-black hair, jet-black eyes. Would Ricardo look like that in twenty years? No—he certainly resembled him in appearance, yet their auras were entirely different. So Ricardo inherited his father’s face but his mother’s temperament? Something like that, perhaps.
“My dear, didn’t you say you were playing pallium with the guests today?”
Pallium? Did I hear that wrong?
Pallium was a fiercely intense sport where competitors raced to pull up a stake driven into a designated spot—something you’d usually only see in village fighting arenas.
“Then why on earth did you come here?”
Was it just my imagination, or did the Duchess seem to grit her teeth?
“Oh, right. But Jeremy broke his arm, so we finished early.”
He sat beside the Duchess. His low voice as he said, “Everyone, please sit,” sounded remarkably like Ricardo’s.
“What were you two discussing?”
I had braced myself to answer who I was, expecting that question first, but he asked something else instead.
“My dear, this young lady is Ricardo’s guest—the Lady of House Fennel who aided his manifestation.”
“Oh, I see. Is that so?”
As I tried to stand again to greet him properly, both he and the Duchess gently stopped me.
“Stay seated.”
“I’m honored to meet you. I am Lienne Loi Pernelle.”
“My dear, we were just talking about Ricardo.”
“Ah, so you must have spent your childhood together with our Ricardo, then. Is that right?”
The Duke fixed his gaze on me with a gentle smile. I didn’t know whether he himself had manifested the Rochester power, but somehow his eyes seemed deep and piercing enough to discern every truth.
“Yes.”
“What was our Ricardo like as a child?”
Just that single question tangled countless thoughts in my mind. Ricardo, who had been exiled to the duchy after receiving a prophecy that he would kill his father and become Emperor.
Could it be that even the Duke feared him for that very reason? But why did his seemingly indifferent gaze strike me as sorrowful?
Moreover, House Fennel had kidnapped Ricardo. Didn’t that make me—their daughter—his enemy?
What on earth could I possibly say to ensure my survival?
“He… drew many pictures.”
“Pictures?”
“Yes—landscapes… many drawings of birds and trees.”
“Landscapes? He never draws those anymore. These days he only…”
At his quiet murmuring, I could only respond with an awkward, “Ah…”
“But really, your face is just so…”
Just then, the Duchess lightly kicked the Duke’s foot. She probably assumed I wouldn’t notice, but with my head slightly bowed, I saw her action clearly. It was unmistakably a signal for him to stop talking.
“How lovely! Hahaha, you’re quite beautiful.”
“Y-you flatter me too much.”
Their behavior, so utterly unbecoming of their noble dignity, made me doubt my own eyes. I tried hard to refocus on my seat.
After casting a brief, sidelong glance at the Duke, the Duchess turned back to me with a gentle smile.
“Our talk might go on too long, so let me get straight to the point.”
“Yes, please tell me.”
“I summoned you to explain why Ricardo brought you to the ducal estate.”
Was it really going to be this straightforward? Unconsciously, I gripped my teacup so tightly my knuckles turned white.
“The Emperor Dermayer has issued an order to eliminate every remaining member of House Fennel.”
“What?”
My teacup slipped from my hand with a clatter, shattering sharply against the floor.
“And the Saintess’s star has risen again.”
The same star that had appeared alongside Ricardo’s birth—the star of the Rochester’s destined partner—had remained hidden in darkness all this time. Now it had begun to shine once more, albeit belatedly, after Ricardo had already completed both manifestation and awakening.
“But what does the Saintess’s star have to do with my family?”
“You may not have been born under the Saintess’s star, but you did aid Ricardo’s manifestation.”
“…”
“We’ve kept this secret meticulously until now, but the Emperor has learned of your existence. I don’t know how the secret leaked, but the very first prophecy—which has never once failed—has now been broken.”
“Oh…” I forgot I was in front of the Duke and Duchess and covered my face with my hands. Memories flooded back—all I’d done to protect him, even the moment I’d struck his forehead with a wooden sword.
“Thus, you are now the Empire’s greatest source of instability.”
Seeing my distress, the Duchess gave me a moment to calm myself.
“The Emperor fears Ricardo. I can’t explain exactly why, but more precisely, he fears Ricardo becoming whole.”
Throughout her explanation, the Duke remained silent. Rochesters inherit their title upon marriage. Once that happened, all Rochester power would belong solely to Ricardo. It was that absolute, unstoppable power—the very thing that could completely upend the Emperor’s position—that he truly feared.
“We know it was Ricardo who moved you and your family to your current location. Ricardo doesn’t remember it, but that was precisely when he awakened—right after he met you again.”
“Oh…”
“That’s why I believe you were also the one who brought about Ricardo’s awakening. So, though you’re not the Saintess, you’ve fulfilled the Saintess’s role for the Rochester.”
“Me… bring about his awakening?”
“Yes.”
I squeezed my closed eyes even tighter. Forgotten dreams echoed once more in my ears.
〈How dare a witch presume to take the Saintess’s place—that is a grave sin.〉
So it had come to this after all. I’d learned to read and write, nothing more. Until now, I’d stubbornly ignored it, but I had indeed become the witch who took the Saintess’s place. Did that mean my only fate now was to burn at the stake?
“Then… where is the Saintess now?”
“She’s also in the Resotia Duchy. We haven’t met her yet ourselves.”
From birth, she’s protected by both the Rochester lineage and the Hadema Temple. Only they know of her existence and whereabouts, so she remains safe. Until the Saintess’s star rose again, however, she was meaningless to them.
“The Emperor will surely try to eliminate her as well—just as he intends to with you.”
“…”
“To be honest, you’re also a source of uncertainty for the Rochester. But protecting you comes first. That’s why you’ve been brought to the ducal household.”
Now that the Saintess’s star has risen, she—the soon-to-be most noble woman in the Empire—will soon arrive at this very estate. Ignoring the heavy ache pressing against my chest, I lifted my head proudly.
“If what you’ve just said is true… you brought me here to protect me.”
“Yes.”
“In other words… there’s no way I can save my family myself.”
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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