Originally, key commanders currently working in the West and Imperial executives were supposed to attend the brief banquet held to celebrate the family reunion during the monster subjugation.
However, they decided to patrol the battlefield that the Emperor and Count and Countess Plache had arduously managed to wrap up for the time being, and to further reinforce the defenses. This was a consideration from the Emperor, and also a gesture of gratitude for the efforts of the Count and Countess Plache.
Thanks to this, the banquet, so to speak, ended up being a family meal. The only rule at the lively dinner table where the Emperor sat as the children’s godfather, in addition to the Genes family, was one: ‘Don’t cry and enjoy the meal.’
“Try this, too. You used to like it.”
Milene, who had been fighting monsters in the afternoon just to be present at this dinner, was preoccupied with checking whether her daughter was eating well and if the food suited her taste. Ethan was no different.
“It’s delicious.”
Seeing her father continually checking on the complexion of his older daughter, who had momentarily fainted from crying, Lu purposefully ate well and smiled brightly.
“You have to eat a lot. Chew thoroughly.”
“Father must think I’m still fourteen.”
Lu genuinely burst into laughter.
“Big sister is all grown up, isn’t she?”
The food at today’s banquet was not overly extravagant; rather, it was modest. The table, set with foods that he remembered his daughter enjoying, mostly consisted of nutritious and generously portioned home cooking.
Among them, Sia, her face smeared with her favorite meatball sauce, looked up and spoke. Isn’t it strange that big sister is all grown up?
“Big sister is an adult. Right, Mom?”
“She’s an adult.”
The expression on Milene’s face wavered once again. Her older daughter had become an adult while she wasn’t watching.
Even though she had never been taught the manners of the nobility, Lu had a refined way of speaking and was good at reading her parents’ moods. It was the same now. Sensing that her mother might cry again, Lu immediately interjected.
“I don’t know if I should say this, but–”
Glancing at her parents, and giving Hayden a look as well, Lu spoke to her parents, who were inexplicably attentive to her.
“I didn’t realize both of you were so fond of your nieces and nephews. To be honest, I had my doubts.”
Both Milene and Ethan turned their heads, slightly awkward as they grinned.
“Didn’t you hear anything from His Majesty? Considering he’s their godfather, I thought Mom would have told you beforehand.”
“I was told to check the ‘Noble Yearbook.'”
Hayden picked up from where Milene left off.
“Isn’t it all in there? Three daughters under Lord Genes.”
One, two, three. Extending his hand upwards as if smoothly introducing his daughters from the eldest to the youngest, he picked up a glass filled with wine. To him, Bella then displayed three fingers.
“Three.”
“Yes, three. You know well.”
“Is Bella the youngest?”
Lu, wanting to double-check, posed the question and Ethan nodded.
“Isabella is the youngest.”
“Ah.”
I see. Finding her daughter’s agreement a bit peculiar, Milene leaned forward slightly.
“Why, what were you thinking?”
“No, well, it’s nothing.”
Lu quickly shook her head. She should have just moved on, but her mom, quick to catch on, noticed immediately. So she couldn’t just let it go.
“Nothing?”
She bit her lip and avoided eye contact. A complete mistake.
“Lu?”
Ugh. Her mother called her with an urging tone. Hayden was also looking this way, so she had to speak.
“……I thought there might be one more.”
“One more? A sibling?”
“Um….”
Lu stopped there and hurriedly chewed and swallowed her food. It was supposed to be mashed potatoes loaded with smooth butter, but right now, she couldn’t taste the butter at all.
“Why? It feels a bit empty, doesn’t it?”
Milene tilted her head, but Hayden and Ethan had already caught on.
“……So you thought you weren’t included in the aristocratic lineage?”
At her dad’s sharp words, Lu lowered her head even more.
“Yes, I did.”
“Who would consider their own child nonexistent?”
Immediately, her father’s voice became stern.
“No, I thought…, since you’ve received a title.”
Milene looked at the mumbling Lu with wide eyes.
“What does the title have to do with it? If you’re my daughter, of course you’re included. Since you’re the heir, your name will be on the list next year. Did you think we would leave you out? Why?”
In the end, Lu raised both her hands.
“No, it’s not that I misunderstood Mom and Dad, I know politics too. Considering rocks are flying daily at the Kaleta consulate, I thought I wouldn’t be surprised if there were three kids besides me. I didn’t misunderstand.”
“I myself have spent a long time in Kaleta, Your Highness.”
Hayden intervened softly before the count and countess could say anything more.
“It seems people don’t see it that way.”
“I am the Emperor, after all.”
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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