The priest with a pierced heart fell towards Irene, and blood terribly stained her dress. It happened to be silver, so the red bloodline stood out vividly.
Her wideopen golden eyes trembled in vain. Irene covered her mouth with both hands and stumbled back.
However, she could not back away far before something struck her back, and she had to stop.
“……!”
Irene looked back in more astonishment than when she saw the priest’s heart pierced. The first thing she saw was a broad shoulder. As she lifted her head higher, she saw the expressionless face of Carlos.
Could he have heard the conversation between the priest and me?
So he killed the priest? Because he promised to help him escape…
“What were you doing here with that dove?”
From his question, it seemed not to be the case. Irene sighed deep inside, partly wondering what to say.
If she told the truth, Carlos might misunderstand her.
If his surveillance tightened due to this incident, escaping would become utterly impossible, so she hesitated to tell the truth even more.
“Why aren’t you speaking?”
The longer the silence lasted, the deeper his suspicious gaze grew, so Irene had to open her mouth.
“I was on my way back to the bedroom when that priest suddenly appeared… he said he had something to say, so he asked to talk for a moment.”
So far, she had spoken the truth.
What should she do next? In a brief moment to catch her breath, Irene quickly made up her mind.
“He apologized for what happened earlier… he said that from the beginning, he didn’t think I was a witch, and he had opposed the witch trial, repeatedly apologizing.”
She decided to tell the truth. She was not good at lying, and she didn’t know what lie would be beneficial.
“He offered to help me escape from the Duke’s grasp as an apology.”
However, she did not mention that she agreed with the priest’s offer to escape.
That was something she should never speak of, so she didn’t bring it up at all.
“But I refused!”
So far, Irene’s voice had been as faint and weak as an ant crawling, but when she said she refused, it was loud and clear.
So Carlos would not misunderstand her.
“I said I don’t need help, that I’m fine. I really did refuse! Honestly!”
Irene clenched her fists and emphasized again. She looked up at him with desperate eyes, hoping he would believe her.
“…….”
Carlos was folding his arms, looking down at Irene without a movement. His purple eyes were inscrutable.
As she thought back to Carlos’s actions so far, she guessed he was angry, and frightened Irene was about to insist on her innocence again when:
“That’s enough, Master.”
A stranger appeared from behind Carlos.
“The lady is terrified.”
The man, who was attractive enough to be liked by anyone regardless of age or gender, was a complete stranger to Irene.
So even though the man winked at her and behaved amicably, Irene tucked her neck in like a turtle and looked away.
“My word.”
The man seemed hurt by Irene’s attitude and exhaled deeply, putting his hand on his head.
“To think a lady would dislike my wink. Truly, the world is vast, filled with people of unique tastes. Or perhaps she’s too young to know the allure of men?”
“Enough with the nonsense.”
Carlos coldly cut him off and asked Irene,
“Where is Jessie?”
Irene blinked slowly.
“I don’t know either…”
Carlos’s eyes narrowed sharply.
“Didn’t he come to pick you up?”
When Irene nodded, Carlos sneered, running his fingers through his hair.
“Didn’t you notice anything strange about this priest?”
Strange?
Irene inadvertently looked down at the priest lying on the floor and, startled by the bloody and unblinking corpse, quickly averted her gaze.
Then she met eyes with a cruel beast. Unlike when she saw the corpse, Irene couldn’t avoid it. Her thoughts froze at the same time as her gaze.
“Was there something strange?”
Her frozen mind began to work again at the repeated question. Irene fumbled through her memories. It was strange that the priest had suddenly offered to help, but the strangest thing was……
“……the eyes.”
It had been a fleeting moment, and she had been surprised and forgotten the fact when the priest was pierced through the heart and fell immediately afterward.
“The priest’s eyes……changed to purple for a moment.”
At her words, Carlos’s face became cold.
The slightly smug smiling man, Zerdin, also realized the gravity of the situation and wiped the smile off his face.
“Master, this is…….”
Carlos signaled for silence with a look and slightly closed his eyes. Then the long shadow stretching at his feet vanished in an instant.
When Carlos opened his eyes again, he called his loyal knight.
“Deus.”
No sooner had the words fallen than Deus jumped out of the darkness. The magiclike scene startled Irene, but Carlos and the man remained impassive.
Carlos gestured towards the priest with his chin.
“Get rid of him.”
“Yes.”
Deus, who had picked up the fallen priest, disappeared as soundlessly as when he had appeared.
Carlos wrapped his arm around Irene’s shoulder and turned.
“Let’s go.”
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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