Lou watched from a distance as Ophelia laid flowers at the tomb for the last time.
Quiet, observe. Ophelia is from the West, Dragonlord Melpheus from the East, and Emperor Hayden from the Center.
Carlos Arthur Ingram was from the South, and the Sage of the North disappeared 430 years ago, so essentially those present were the remaining Sages of Persecta.
“I remember all these children.”
Ophelia muttered.
“Especially the ones who were weak from birth, the youngest ones.”
“So, they just died in the lab as if they fell asleep.”
Hayden mumbled, staring into the distance. Ophelia stood silently, ramrod straight. A northerly gust swept into her tearful eyes.
“At least it would have been a peaceful death.”
Otherwise, they would have been subjects in the lab or, like Hayden, would have been drafted to fight at the barrier. It would have been one or the other.
Lou shut her eyes tightly, recalling the sharp tools scattered haphazardly in that lab. They were the sort of tools one would use in a forge.
“Is that so? Your Highness, you’ve opened the barrier, so you won’t send the army for a while?”
Army? Lou looked at Dragonlord Melpheus. He was standing with his hands on his hips, looking at Hayden.
“The Lord has been sending the Calletan army for hundreds of years.”
Ah. Lou’s expression changed as she heard the word ‘army.’ Had she been fighting Dragonlord Melpheus’s army all this time?
“That’s correct.”
Melpheus nodded.
“If it hadn’t been for that, the East would have declared independence from Persecta a long time ago, or would have fought each other for the title of Emperor.”
The Dragonlord, who understood the structure of human nations very well, kindly elaborated for Lou.
“Sending an army for the sake of the country is as important as paying taxes.”
Meaning, Dragonlord Melpheus had prevented the nobles who respected him in the East from seceding from the empire for over 400 years.
“That’s right. It’s important.”
The obligations of the army and taxes to the royal family were pledges of loyalty. Lou nodded, her heart heavy. What had become of those armies?
“Also, as you are well aware, Your Highness, the only way to catch Carlos Arthur Ingram, that thief, is by using force.”
Melpheus’s vertical pupils narrowed. He made a very aggressive statement.
“During the 400 years that I’ve held on, all I could do was barely bring people from the South over the barrier.”
So the many knights of the Calletan Empire and those who loitered around the barrier were kidnapped by the monsters that crossed it. Lou solved the doubts she had been harboring for a long time.
“Even though the sacrifices were immense, we had to constantly remind that scoundrel that we haven’t forgotten.”
Hayden nodded at this.
“That’s true. We absolutely must.”
“Up to now, we’ve sent 100,000 people to the barrier, Your Highness, 100,000.”
At the word ‘people,’ Lou lifted her head suddenly, as if slapped.
“People?”
Melpheus looked back at her.
“Yes.”
Lou’s face turned pale from shock.
“People, Your Highness? What kind of monsters did you see?”
“Melpheus.”
Ophelia tried to stop Melpheus, but he relentlessly hurled the truth at Lou.
“Those from Calleta who come here call our army that crossed the barrier ‘monsters.’ They say we even look like horrible monsters.”
Lou’s green eyes lost focus for a moment. Hayden glared sharply at Melpheus, and Ophelia also had a troubled expression.
It had to be a shocking revelation for Lou. She had always believed that the attackers coming across the barrier were monsters, not humans.
The barrier created by Carlos Arthur Ingram is quite a peculiar thing. Difficult to cross, and if you do get through, you appear as a monster in the eyes of the people of Caleta.
“He was originally skilled in illusion magic.”
Ophelia muttered. Ru just stood there, lost in thought, listening.
Hayden scrutinized her carefully, but she didn’t falter or wobble. As he expected, Rustica Gennes had always been strong. She simply swallowed the harsh truth, her face pale.
“It wasn’t just one or two spells he was good at.”
Melpheus shook his head.
“Judging by the fact that for centuries the same story circulates of monsters coming from beyond the barrier, it seems he cast a sophisticated spell on the barrier itself to make people from Perseta appear as such. Probably something that mimics the appearance of monsters.”
His sharp golden eyes swept over Ru once more. A knight prodigy, quick to adapt, indeed.
Killing a monster and killing a person are two different things. There were Imperial Knights who consoled themselves that they hadn’t killed people, and those who were shocked upon realizing the truth, but Ru wasn’t one of them. She knew the weight of a sword well.
‘They weren’t monsters; they were soldiers.’
So that was it. Hence, even the Caleta Emperor had dispatched Imperial Knights. Given that Melpheus’ army was anything but poorly trained.
Ex-husband Wants Reconciliation
One-line summary: Chasing the wife to the crematorium (making an effort to attract someone who has become indifferent), the female lead doesn’t look back, the second male lead takes the position.
Intro:
To repay the kindness of the older generation, Su Mu crossed into a female-dominated world and became a live-in daughter-in-law of the Yan family, single-handedly saving the Yan family from fire and water.
But her husband, Yan Jiyue, the eldest son of the Yan family, treated her with sarcasm and never showed her a good face.
It wasn’t until after Su Mu’s death that this pampered and arrogant young master shed a few fake tears and pretended to want to die for love.
This life’s kindness was enough. If there was a next life, she would definitely kick Yan Jiyue away.
Who knew that the heavens would be so kind as to allow her to be reborn, returning to the time when she had just married into the Yan family.
Su Mu glanced at the Yan eldest son, who still spoke coldly to her, and threw a divorce letter in front of him.
“Let’s divorce!”
***
Yan Jiyue never imagined that he would be reborn. He happily went to find Su Mu, wanting to make up for the mistakes he had made in his ignorant youth.
Wasn’t the reason the heavens allowed him to be reborn to let him reconcile with Su Mu?
But when he pushed open the door to Su Mu’s room, the person lying on the bed was another man.
Su Mu’s personal attendant, Xie Yi.
Yan Jiyue hated him so much that his teeth itched. In front of Su Mu, Xie Yi was a gentle and considerate whisperer of sweet nothings, but in reality, he was vicious-hearted and deliberately sabotaged their husband and wife relationship.
In the previous life, it was he who secretly hid in Su Mu’s coffin and committed suicide, stealing a step ahead of him to be buried with Su Mu.
Yan Jiyue’s eyes were filled with hatred as he cursed, “What kind of thing are you? Your background is lowly, what right do you have to occupy Su Mu?”
Xie Yi looked at the sleeping Su Mu and no longer pretended to be a whisperer of sweet nothings.
He proudly stuck out his belly, “I have the right because my belly is capable of giving the Wife-master a daughter.”
***
Yan Jiyue was consumed with jealousy. He spread rumors that Xie Yi had once been branded with the mark of a “harlot” on his chest.
But on the night Xie Yi cut off the flesh bearing that mark, Su Mu suddenly realized something was amiss.
“How did you know the exact moment I was poisoned? And why did you show up a month early?”
Xie Yi remained silent, blood from his wound soaking through his robes. His sapphire eyes brimmed with anguish – or was it just a flawless act?
Between a once-arrogant husband now seeking redemption, and a gentle soul willing to die for her – who truly held the darkest secrets? And could it be that Su Mu and Yan Jiyue weren’t the only ones given a second chance at life…?
[Reading Guide]
1. True divorce, chasing the wife to the crematorium, the female lead doesn’t look back, the male lead is Xie Yi.
2. The ex-husband did not cheat, he just realized too late and didn’t realize that he liked the female lead.
_____
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