“Pardon?”
At first, I thought I had misheard.
“Will you grant me permission?”
But the moment I met Lord Joseph’s deep, dark red eyes gazing at me as he rested his cheek on my hand.
I could no longer think he was joking. My heart seemed to sink with a thud.
“Well…”
How should I answer? How should I react?
My mind was tangled as if I had become a broken doll.
It felt like all the parts of my body were creaking and not functioning properly. Even though this wasn’t my first contact between a man and a woman. Why am I…
Like a fool, my fingertips tingling.
“…Isn’t this contact enough, Lord Joseph?”
Don’t act like a, like a numbskull. I managed to barely pull a smile to my lips.
Then I deliberately clenched my fist lightly. It was a gesture to push away Lord Joseph’s cheek.
“No.”
But he didn’t seem to notice, or rather, Lord Joseph didn’t let go of my hand on his side.
Instead, he gently held that hand and let out a languid voice.
“You know well that’s not the kind of permission I’m asking for, don’t you?”
A rose-like smile bloomed lavishly in his gorgeous eyes.
I…
“After all, we are.”
Before I could answer, his face had already come close. His heated breath whispered seductively at my lips.
“…also to be married.”
My mind became hazy from that dizzying heat.
It was a fatal temptation that made me feel like I should just close my eyes as if dreaming.
‘Get a grip, Lieselotte. You’re not some hot-blooded youth. At your age, after all you’ve been through, does it make sense to give in to instinct?’
But isn’t giving in to temptation not such a bad thing? As he said, we’re to be married anyway.
‘Ah, no. I’m still in mourning, still a married woman!’
What married woman, what mourning period.
Is there any need to show respect as a wife to such rotten garbage that even livestock wouldn’t eat?
It felt like my inner voice was having a precarious tug-of-war, holding onto the thin spider web of reason.
And I…
“Ne, next time!”
At that moment, I blurted out a strange sound.
“Let’s do it next time, next time. Be, because there’s a lot, lot to do now…!”
I sprang up and retrieved my hand that was enveloped by his large hand, as if shaking it off.
Escaping from around the bed, only then could I exhale the breath I had been holding.
It seems I had been holding my breath without realizing it.
Lord Joseph’s red eyes, which had been laughing softly, followed me narrowly.
“Yes, then since you’ve given permission…”
“…?”
“Next time, I won’t need to ask.”
I couldn’t protest that when did I give permission.
Because it was too late to take back the words I had mistakenly said to escape that moment.
“A kiss, I mean.”
[This is the timeline separator]‘This is driving me crazy.’
The scene from just before simply wouldn’t leave my mind.
Moreover, the hot body temperature that covered my hand, and the moist breath that brushed my cheek and jaw still remained as a chillingly vivid sensation.
The shivering memory led to a palpitation of the heart.
It was truly an ominous pain. A strange sensation I was experiencing for the first time in my 32 years of life.
To be honest, it’s not very welcome. I’m not at an age or position to be swept away by instinct, am I?
Above all, I know very well that unnecessary emotions paralyze reason. So…
‘Right. Let’s think about something else instead.’
That would be better. Let’s organize what needs to be done today. There’s already so much to do.
Still, it was fortunate that I was able to pass some of it on to Lord Joseph just now. Thanks to that, my shoulders felt much lighter.
That’s right. I succeeded in getting him to take care of the aftermath of the incident.
Just before leaving his room, when I asked him to lend a hand, he readily agreed.
No, more than readily…
‘He liked it a bit too much.’
I don’t know why he was so happy about being asked to do some work, but anyway, I felt very relieved because of it.
‘When I wake up, I should distribute in advance what tasks to assign him.’
For now, I decided to let Lord Joseph, who had been looking haggard, get some sleep.
According to what Lord Joseph’s employee said, he hadn’t been able to sleep properly for a while.
He woke up every dawn, groaning in pain.
No matter how I thought about it, from my perspective, it was nothing but foolish stubbornness.
But from Lord Joseph’s standpoint, who was clinging to survival, I couldn’t help but feel sorry, thinking about how afraid he must have been of being abandoned by me to want to hide like that.
‘I should treat him better from now on.’
Since it seems like it all happened because I made him anxious.
No, wait a minute. Wasn’t I thinking about Lord Joseph again?
“My lady. Did you have a good talk with Lord Joseph?”
“Ah!”
I was startled. It was Loretta who had been waiting for me outside the room.
“Y-Yes. It was resolved well.”
By the way, why did my body stiffen on its own just from hearing Lord Joseph’s name?
“But my lady, why are you so surprised?”
“…I was just startled because you suddenly appeared.”
“Oh my, I made such a mistake! I’ll be more careful from now on, my lady.”
“It’s fine.”
I felt sorry to blame someone when I was the one who was startled.
As I brushed it off casually, Loretta, with her face covered in bandages, followed closely behind me with a bright smile.
For reference, Loretta also suffered burns all over her body due to the fire.
However, since it was a relatively minor injury, she was able to accompany me continuously from right after the accident until now.
Come to think of it, as soon as Loretta realized there was a fire, she started gathering my valuables and important documents as much as possible, and because of that, she missed the timing to escape a little and ended up with those burns.
While saying such sigh-inducing words, she had blinked her eyes at me as if asking for praise.
It was absurd, as those measly jewels were less important to me than the lives of my servants.
“By the way, about the young master. He seems really cool.”
“You mean Kardiel? Of course, Kar is handsome, excellent, and smart in everyone’s eyes.”
“That’s right. Even our lady now gets scolded by the young master sometimes.”
“What?”
Who got scolded?
“Why. You came all the way here because the young master told you to apologize to Count Alperon. To be honest, even I thought you were too harsh on the Count.”
Ah, I almost got startled again at the mention of Lord Joseph. I need to bury this topic to avoid getting caught up in it.
“…I’ve reflected on it enough, so let’s move past that issue.”
Anyway, I immediately headed to my next destination. It was the children’s room.
The space assigned to the children was at least adjacent to each other.
The first place I knocked was Euphemina’s room.
“My lady, you’ve come.”
Mrs. Therea, the children’s nanny who has recently been dedicated to Euphemina, informed me of my daughter’s condition with a gloomy expression.
“The young lady has been recovering smoothly. She’s inside too. But…”
“But?”
When I urged her, who was hesitant to open her mouth, she finally sighed and delivered shocking news.
“She has barely eaten anything yesterday and today, just covering herself with the blanket.”
“What do you mean…”
“When we removed the bandages, there were burn marks left on her arm… She was greatly shocked when she saw that. The young lady is already extremely afraid of getting any wounds on her body…”
I didn’t even have the presence of mind to get angry about why such information was being told only now.
I practically pushed Mrs. Therea aside and flung open the door to Euphemina’s bedroom.
On the bed, I could see a mound of blankets bulging up to the child’s body shape.
And on the table a little away from the bed, there was a full meal set that the child hadn’t touched at all.
It felt like my intestines were going to spill out. I could understand that feeling even more.
All children are special to me, but among them, Euphemina’s meaning was different.
It’s because she’s a girl who shares a similar growth process with me.
If Kardiel and Chersion were that man’s toys and slaves, Euphemina was a rare jewel and princess.
That person sweet-talked the child with words as sweet as cotton candy, dressed her in only the most beautiful things, and gifted her only the highest quality items.
However, that doesn’t mean he raised her with all his heart and love.
Yes, it was just playing with dolls.
It was for the purpose of decorating and showing off the beautiful doll he owned with expensive things.
I too grew up with similar experiences.
No, all girls born as noble daughters would be like that.
Lest they gain weight, lest they get hurt, lest their skin tan, lest their hair get damaged, lest…
A life where checking oneself in front of the mirror every day was natural.
“Euphi, are you alright?”
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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