Lady Greta, from far away, was humming and spreading heavy fabrics. The rustling of the fabrics that will generously be used on the dress moved loudly. Only Lu could hear Milene’s whispered words.
“I don’t wish you to sit in the highest position in this country without consideration, after only suffering, shedding tears, and giving birth to children you can’t even properly hold.”
Lu cleared her suddenly dry throat. She knew very well what she should say at times like this.
“Mom, I don’t even dream of such things. Besides, I’ve earned my achievements. It’s only natural for His Highness to pay attention to me at this party. It will just be this time.”
Lu knew very well what her mother was talking about. That’s why she had decisively cut off Hayden. She wished it didn’t sting and hurt to say such things, but that wasn’t the case.
“If it’s not marriage, then it can’t be.”
“Mom, are you listening to me…?”
“Childish dating games are even less permissible, understand? I’m telling you this because you might think, ‘Then it’s okay to just date!’ since I said I didn’t want you to sit high.”
“I understand……”
Milene treated Lu as if she was a fourteen-year-old, even while saying no.
“In a relationship like this, only you will get hurt and only your honor will suffer. If you think it’s enough to cleanly sort out your emotions and look after your own interests and wealth, then that’s fine. But in your mother’s opinion, you’re not that kind of person.”
“……If our home lacks money, I can do whatever it takes to earn it.”
“Ugh!”
Ultimately, Mom slapped Rue’s back with a look of frustration.
“Ah, Mom, it hurts! It’s really hot! Ow!”
What do you expect when a lifelong knight strikes someone who can’t even qualify as a squire? Rue furiously rubbed the area her mother had hit. Ouch, our Countess, you do have a hot hand.
“We have money. Enough to pass down to you and your siblings and still have leftover! Your mother and father earned that money by risking their lives to kill monsters, so take it and grow it wisely.”
“I could pass it on to Shia instead of me, so what’s the point…”
Milene looked at her daughter as if she were speaking nonsense.
“Besides……, someone born here is better, right? I’m also from the Imperial Knights…”
At the low mumbling about her lack of qualifications, her mother’s eyes grew even scarier.
“Weren’t your mom and dad also from the Imperial Knights?”
Rue quickly and politely responded.
“Yes, I was wrong.”
“Aren’t you our daughter?”
“Yes, I was wrong.”
At twenty-five, the age when Mom is the scariest. In the Gennes family, it’ll always be like that.
“Mom would feel sad if you said such things.”
At her mother’s sorrowful eyes, Rue bowed her head. She couldn’t allow her mother to be more saddened. Therefore, Hayden had to be cut off. No, this miserable heart had to be cut first.
“Let’s live without envy. Don’t attach a label and live as befits a knightly family. Your father and I never wished for you to earn money.”
Milene shrugged her shoulders.
“I just hope there’s no more pointing fingers at you.”
The words pierced Rue’s closed wounds. Her mother, who knew of her escape momentum from Calletta, must have felt what she was saying.
Memories and feelings are of course important. But sometimes you have to momentarily forget them in the face of greater troubles involving many people. She knew that. Despite the shaking, she knew she had to do this.
“It was just a fire I should pass.”
From the beginning, it was clearly a fire that would burn not only her but the entire Gennes family if she went any further. A fire, yet she felt like crying.
“Don’t worry.”
Rue answered sincerely.
“I know, and I don’t want to burden you any further.”
After the ball ends and she leaves the palace, she will distance herself further from Hayden. He was a thankful and important person, but not more important than family. She should never have accepted him from the start.
Rue habitually blamed herself and felt pain.
Being hurt means you’ve taken it deeply to heart.
But she had to cut it off. Behind her dry eyes, she even held back tears.
[Star Icon]“Don’t kill?”
Eliza Barkova questioned Aldwin’s words after secretly going to Catat with a look of disbelief.
“Yes. It’s an order.”
“……Understood.”
If it’s an order, no need for many words. People from Calletta didn’t need much. Eliza accepted and nodded before turning away.
“Ah, but keep tracking their location and gather surrounding information.”
“Of course.”
Eliza knew well. She had to continue watching the media and even dig up rumors from the slums. She started gathering information again, thoroughly understanding the Perseus Empire.
‘It’s a different country in many ways compared to Calletta.’
The media daringly glorified and criticized the social circle, and the Eastern media subtly criticized the Emperor without crossing a line. Such things would be unimaginable in Calletta.
After Being Cheated On, She Picked Up a Treasure (Female-dominant)
One-line summary: The husband I married on a whim had been secretly in love with me for a long time.
On the day when Jun Shao finally obtained the imperial decree for her marriage, Lan Qu, the person she had admired for six years, defied the decree and ran away.
Her gentleness and devotion, her promise of a lifetime together, were all disregarded by him. Instead, he dreamed of entering the palace to serve the Emperor’s sister as a sixth-rank attendant.
News of this incident spread throughout the capital, and the alleys in front of and behind the Lan mansion were crowded with people who came to watch the commotion.
Jun Shao should have been embarrassed and angry.
But someone stepped in to protect her dignity.
The figure was in a miserable state, yet still possessed an undeniable elegance and handsomeness.
The young lord struggled to climb the wall of the Lan mansion and shouted to her, “If he won’t marry you, I will!”
So, Jun Shao took advantage of the situation and married the person.
She thought the young lord did it to save the Lan family from the crime of defying the imperial decree, but never imagined that from beginning to end, what he coveted was her.
*
After the wedding, Jun Shao felt like she was living in a dream.
Her Wife-master was as beautiful as a fairy in a painting, skilled in the six arts, well-versed in poetry and literature, capable of being gentle and attentive, and also grand and dignified. Most importantly, she was the only one in his heart and eyes.
Jun Shao didn’t know how Lan Shiwu, as a illegitimate son without a father and blessed with beauty, had managed to preserve his purity, recklessly escape, and use his last ounce of strength to ruin his own reputation, all because of his love for her, just to stand before her.
She could only see him gazing at her with eyes full of love, and when she bestowed a name upon him, his eyes shone like stars.
“You have come to me like a weary bird perching on a branch. I shall call you A Qi.”
