As soon as the teleportation magic circle opened, Sia immediately ran and hid behind the legs of the Empress.
“Sister, me too…!”
As if he had never cried, Bell, who had been playing with Icaros, quickly followed his sister and hid behind his father.
No, this wasn’t it? Bell quietly observed and clung tightly to the leg of his eldest sister, Lu. Seeing what her younger sibling was doing, Sia hugged Hayden’s and Lu’s legs with both arms.
“Kkwoong!”
Icaros quickly turned his head and approached the person who emerged from the teleportation magic circle. Therefore, that person was momentarily obscured from view, blocked by Icaros.
“Yes, hello, Icaros.”
There was a hint of impatience in the calm voice. The sound of hurried footsteps quickly followed.
In an instant, with two children hanging onto her legs, Lu couldn’t avoid them. Living in a shabby shack that was much larger than Icaros, who bowed his head once and then raised it.
The person who came by, stroking the boy’s chin once, appeared to be a slim beauty in her late 30s.
With dark brown hair and green eyes, she was remarkably youthful. In fact, she was looking at the latter half of her 40s.
“Your Majesty.”
She was wearing a sword at her waist, and light armor on her shoulders and upper body. Upon first spotting Hayden, who was taller than others, she gave him an unconditionally warm reception.
“Countess, the report can wait. Your daughter first.”
Hayden nodded and gestured for her to look at Lu first, and then tried to slip back, but paused. Sia was clinging to one of his legs for dear life.
Well, even if he didn’t sneak away for a family reunion, Countess Plache Milene Gennes was already looking at her eldest daughter.
With a face just like her father’s, and hair and eye colors that perfectly resembled herself, the daughter stood awkwardly.
“Mom, I found my sister.”
Worried that Mom might get angry, Sia spoke up first. But Mom wasn’t looking at her second daughter. Lu saw her mother’s eyes fixed on her, scrutinizing her closely.
Filled with shock and worry, her mother’s hand trembled as she refrained from approaching hastily. Mother wore the same expression as Lu.
As if to defy anyone who might say they weren’t parent and child, they worried for each other and hesitated to meet, fearing that they might become stumbling blocks to each other or their daughter. It was the same for both. With great hesitation, Lu smiled. No, she tried to smile.
“Mom.”
“Lu.”
Even their voices calling each other overlapped.
“You still look the same, Lord Gennes. Neither aged nor less handsome.”
“Is that what you have to say to your mother after 11 years?”
“How old am I?”
Either getting angry or laughing at trying to catch up with her mother, Milene Gennes suddenly burst into loud tears, tightly embracing her longlost eldest daughter.
The eldest daughter, who failed to keep her mother from crying, had no choice but to cry along with her.
“You, you grew up all alone…”
As if it was unbearably unfair, Mother stroked Lu’s face repeatedly and cried bitterly.
Startled, Bella and Sia looked up at Hayden, sobbing. Shh, it’s okay. The Emperor kindly made eye contact with the children, comforting them.
“Look here, let me see our daughter’s face.”
Countess Plache’s clothing, like Lu’s, was stained with blood. She had taken a brief break from monster hunting to come here.
Being from Kaleta and surviving in Peruseta must have been hard. With extreme prejudice and even more rejection. So even though her husband was a count, and she herself held the title of viscountess, she would willingly go to the more directly dangerous battlefield.
Now 25, and standing on the front lines of politics and diplomacy, all of that was clear to Lu, and she couldn’t help but cry.
Ashamed of her situation, the daughter who felt unworthy to approach her parents found that her mother had come to her first.
“My goodness, you’ve grown so much… You grew up all alone, without Mom and Dad.”
Fourteen years old, and now boasting about being admitted to the Knight Academy, she was so resentful and angry about being dragged to Perseta beyond the barrier, leaving her daughter behind.
In fact, she was even more furious when she realized that Carlos had been deceiving them.
“Carlos tormented us like that, Mom’s sorry.”
“Why is Mom sorry, what did you do wrong……. You didn’t do anything wrong, Mom, why…….”
Lu’s tears flowed uncontrollably, and she couldn’t even speak properly.
But at least she could clearly say that her mother hadn’t done anything wrong. But the guilt that had settled in her mother’s face for 11 years was terrible.
“It’s not Mom’s fault, I’m, I’m sorry. I’m inadequate, I made it like this…….”
In front of her mother, the dark and thick emotion that had been inside her, the honest heart she wanted to hide, burst out. But the words were immediately cut off.
“What did you do wrong!”
Milene Gennes yelled.
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.”
