“Congratulations, Your Highness. This is great news for the North.”
Clergyman Clemens let go of my hand and bowed his head.
“Really…? Really…?”
“Yes. Since it’s still very early, you must consult with a doctor or pharmacist before taking any medicine. Think only good thoughts, and eat soft foods that are easy on your stomach and digestive system. Don’t overdo it.”
“Oh, okay…”
“I was dragged here in the middle of a wedding ceremony, so I need to get back quickly. If you need anything, please contact me anytime through Aeri.”
[Yuriella. I’ll be right back after dropping this child off, so stay put and wait for me here. Got it? Don’t move an inch, okay?]Aeri, unable to take her eyes off me, shoved Clergyman Clemens into a wind sphere.
After Aeri and Clemens disappeared in a swirl of wind and rippling air, I gently placed a hand on my stomach.
‘A baby…?’
A baby…
My head turned icy cold as if doused with ice water, and my heart pounded wildly with an emotion I couldn’t tell was fear or excitement.
My knees buckled and I was about to slump down, but caught myself in surprise and carefully stretched my legs out on the ground and sat still. I could see my hands and feet trembling uncontrollably.
‘I’m going to be…a mother? Really?’
Until Aeri threw Clemens into the middle of the temple ceremony hall and rushed back like lightning, I sat dazed in the lavender field that stretched endlessly.
[Yuriella. Yuriella!]I couldn’t even feel Aeri stroking and pinching my cheeks that had turned cold from my tears drying up.
‘Frost… I’m told I’m going to be a mother. What do I do now?’
*
− Frost.
“Yuriella?”
Frost turned his head towards the direction of the yearned-for voice.
On the moonlit beach with fine sand stretching endlessly, there was no one else around.
− Frost.
This time, Yuriella’s voice came from the direction of the sea.
Turning his head, a dazzlingly bright light was slowly spreading over the horizon. The light was rising from beyond the horizon.
Frost raised a hand to shield his eyes and frowned.
“Huh?”
The identity of the light rising from beyond the horizon was not the sun.
The source of the vivid blue color resembling Frost’s eye color was a dragon!
The mysterious creature had four legs with eagle-like talons and a pair of large webbed wings on its back. Its head alone was the size of a substantial ship.
The dragon surging up from beyond the horizon was so massive it seemed to cover the sky. However, Frost felt no fear at all.
“Wait. Wait a moment!”
Rather, without realizing it, he started running towards the sea as if he would miss the dragon soaring into the sky.
His shoes got wet in the seawater, and his legs submerged up to his thighs in the splashing waves, but he paid no heed and dashed into the sea.
“Hey! Wait a second! Wait for me!”
As if it heard his voice, the dragon slowly turned its enormous head and looked down at Frost. The dragon’s red and transparent eyes shimmered with a heat like the sun.
Frost stopped, overwhelmed, and looked up at the dragon in a daze.
As the dragon changed direction and spread its wings wide, a fierce wind whipped up towering waves that engulfed Frost.
Towards Frost who was struggling, trapped in the swirling white foam of the waves, the dragon swooped down like a flash.
At the same instant the sharp talons seemed to pierce into Frost’s body, his body was lifted into the air.
.
.
.
“Ahhh!”
Frost let out a scream and raised his body that had been slumped over the desk.
“Your Highness!”
The butler, who had been dozing off on the sofa after placing a freshly brewed cup of tea in front of his master, started awake and hastily approached him.
Frost let out a rough breath and rubbed his face.
“Did you have a nightmare?”
Alexis took out a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped the beads of sweat on Frost’s forehead, making a worried face.
Frost looked at the sunlight pouring in through the terrace window and frowned with a chilly expression.
“Bi? Was there no contact at all?”
Alexis shook his head and glanced at the green bead on the desk.
The wind communication orb that his master had not taken his eyes off all night remained silent even while the Grand Duke took a short nap.
Her Highness Bi is not usually so indifferent… Is she too busy to even spare a moment to let her voice be heard? Or could she be caught up in some unpleasant situation?
A presumptuous thought arose, and Alexis quickly shook his head.
“Please go to your private quarters and rest comfortably. I will wake you if there is any contact.”
Frost shook his head and roughly brushed back his sweat-soaked silver hair.
“Request an audience with His Majesty Lewis for a moment. Tell Leo to come as well.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
Frost got up from his seat and opened the window leading to the terrace.
A refreshing breeze carrying the scent of trees and grass gently brushed past Frost’s face that had grown even more rugged overnight.
The Grand Duke’s gaze traced the eastern sky where his wife was.
A distinct energy settled in his blue eyes that had been engrossed in the dream, and a chuckle escaped his trim lips. They say what you yearn for appears in your dreams.
Yuriella’s voice and a blue dragon. What an ill-suited combination.
Was it because his desire to find Ielro’s ice dragon spirit was so ardent? To dream of a dragon he had never dreamt of before.
‘But was the ice dragon blue? I heard it was transparent like ice.’
A short while later, Lewis and Commander Leo entered the office.
The Grand Duke, who had been making everyone around him anxious by freezing the entire office in ice while agonizing over his decision, spoke to Lewis as if he had made up his mind.
“I will be making a brief trip to the East.”
“Already… Have you decided?”
Lewis looked at Frost with a tense face.
“It’s not something to think long about. When the Emperor is willing to take off the crown with his own hands and give it to you, there’s no reason to refuse.”
“Brother…!”
“Now that it’s been brought up, we need to proceed quickly. Even without my separate instructions, Duke Greco will be running around in a frenzy.”
Leo’s head started to throb as he watched the Grand Duke even let out a light laugh. What is this?
Even without knowing the inner workings of the Emperor who is obsessed with Her Highness Bi, it was easy to guess, without asking, what price he was demanding Frost to pay in exchange for giving up the crown.
After returning from the Imperial Palace, the Grand Duke had locked himself in the office and turned vicious like a lion starved for three months. It was impossible not to know what he was agonizing over, even if one tried.
“Why…?”
Leo bit his lip and managed to spit out the question.
“Why do you always have to be the one to endure? Why do you always have to be the one to sacrifice?”
Frost tilted his head askew.
“Leo Dominici, Commander. Do you have eyes but cannot see? Do you realize whose presence you are in right now?”
“Why do you have to give up Her Highness Bi? You’re allowed to be selfish for once too!”
It was clear he had no regard for the situation. Right now, Leo’s gray eyes flashed sharply like those of a beast baring its fangs.
“You have every right to do so! If anyone says otherwise, I’ll beat them to a pulp. No, should I just kill them all?”
“Leo.”
“You’re not some dragon bone, are you? You’re just an ordinary person too! When you get hit, it hurts the same! When you lose someone you love, your heart is torn apart the same!”
He knows that Frost Ielheim is the North, and the North is his friend.
So all this time, he had just watched Frost silently sacrifice for the North. Keeping silent as if a hard pebble was hanging from his mouth and staying by his friend’s side was the only friendship and loyalty he could show.
‘But this is not right.’
The price for that long suffering is to rip out his own heart and reverently place it in the hands of his enemy.
“You should abandon everything and leave instead! The world won’t collapse without you! So what if it does collapse? Why do you have to take responsibility for all of that?”
Leo’s face flushed red as he raised his voice.
“I’ll take responsibility for myself! His Majesty Lewis can go his own way as he pleases!”
At Leo’s sharp gaze that swiveled around, Lewis flinched back and raised both hands.
“Whoa, calm down. I agree with the Commander too.”
Leo’s eyes softened slightly, but the words spilling from his mouth were not so gentle.
“Each person should bear their own share of responsibility!”
It’s absurd that he’s now become a time bomb, not knowing when the curse will flare up! He was orphaned at nine and had been lonely all this time, and now he finally has one person he can call family!
“If the world will collapse without you, let it collapse!”
“Leo Dominici, Commander.”
Frost’s voice lowered. The sound of calling a subordinate, not a friend.
Leo straightened his posture, still glaring at Frost discontentedly.
“Yes, Your Highness.”
“What is the first tenet of the Angelus Knights?”
Without taking his sharp gaze off, Leo answered sullenly.
“‘Victory in all battles with minimal sacrifice’!”
“From today, we’re changing it. Victory in all battles without giving up anything.”
“Pardon?”
“You, did you really think I would give up my wife?”
“…No?”
“Of course not. She’s not someone I can presume to give up on. She’s someone I’m just tearfully grateful for existing.”
At Frost’s answer, Commander Leo and Lewis widened their eyes.
“Then, going to the East means…?”
Frost twisted his trim lips askew and touched his chin.
“I have to go get her. She will have already heard the news through Popo. I’ll tie her up tightly so she can’t have any rash thoughts and bring her back to keep her safe and sound.”
Leo let out a sigh of relief.
“Then why did you freeze the entire household and create an atmosphere of terror yesterday?”
“Because my insides were boiling at the thought of treating that bastard who dared to spout nonsense about my wife with the respect due to an Emperor. I was cooling off so I wouldn’t go storming into the palace and smash his head in again, ruining everything.”
Lewis asked Frost with a puzzled look.
“Then what you said earlier was…?”
“Since the Emperor says he’ll give it, I’ll have to pretend to accept it. But that’s as far as it will go. The political situation will absolutely not flow as the Emperor wishes.”
The Emperor’s bombshell declaration was an unexpected variable that Frost had not anticipated.
And it would be the same for the Emperor’s supporters.
“The Emperor did not ascend to that position by his power alone. The Empress Dowager and the East will try to prevent the Emperor’s abdication by any means necessary.”
Once a person has tasted power, they can never give it up.
If they cannot stop the Emperor, they will abandon their pawn Justin and prop up a puppet replacement to protect the power they hold.
“We need to buy time. The Emperor has already set off the bomb’s detonator. We must firmly take the reins so the situation flows in our favor.”
Lewis nodded.
“I was only looking at what’s right in front of me, but you were looking several moves ahead, brother.”
Leo scratched his head with an embarrassed face and bowed.
“I was shortsighted. I apologize for being loud.”
Frost placed a hand on Leo’s shoulder and smiled faintly.
“For the time being, they’ll be too preoccupied trying to change the Emperor’s mind. Still, order the North to strengthen its alert status. Double the guard personnel for His Majesty Lewis.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
“I’ll keep the communication line open, so contact me if anything happens.”
Having said all he needed to, Frost leaped onto the terrace railing and let out a sharp whistle.
A giant black horse galloped over like a gale and neighed, welcoming its master who landed on its back.
Leo grinned as he watched his friend powerfully ride off, cutting through the widely spreading sunlight.
The Emperor will never get what he wants.
Because the man who loves the beautiful red-eyed lady never knows how to give up.
*
[Yuriella.]“Don’t say anything, Aeri.”
[But…]“I’m fine. So please, just leave me alone.”
When Yuriella frowned, Aeri pouted her small lips.
Ever since hearing from Clergyman Clemens that she was pregnant, Yuriella would put on a serious face and not let Aeri get a word in even if she just called her name.
The Yuriella who used to cry buckets at the smallest things had vanished without a trace. She would knit her eyebrows and get angry as soon as she opened her mouth. Even the tactless Aeri started to tiptoe around her.
‘Could getting irritable also be a symptom of pregnancy?’
Blanca also took a sneaky step back, mindful of her owner who had become more sensitive than usual.
Aeri tilted her head and stole a glance at Yuriella, only to make direct eye contact with the fiercely glaring red eyes.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
[Huh?]“I’m asking why your eyes are like that?”
[Why are my eyes…?]“You think I’m pathetic, don’t you?”
[No.]“Then why do you keep avoiding my eyes?”
[I didn’t avoid your eyes-. Look.]Aeri raised her hand and pointed behind Yuriella.
“Avoiding while saying it’s not-.”
As Yuriella turned her head with a frown, someone rapidly approaching while kicking up thick dust entered her field of vision.
‘Grand Duke…?’
The person she most wanted to see at this moment. And the person she least wanted to meet filled Yuriella’s red eyes.
“Aeri. You absolutely can’t tell the Grand Duke.”
[But.]“If you tell him, I’m cutting ties with you. I’ll cancel the contract with the holy sword too.”
[Yuriella.]“Please, don’t tell him no matter what. I’m begging you.”
Male lead is a Destined Young Husband (Female-dominant)
One-sentence summary: Wife-master, listen to my explanation!
Li Ruantang, a young lady from a prestigious family, stumbled and fell. When she woke up, she saw a noble and beautiful young man sitting by her bedside, wiping away tears.
The young master had slightly reddened eyes, and his every move exuded charm.
The sight made Li Ruantang’s eyes hot and her heart flutter. After all, she had made a bet with the young master Meng from the neighboring family. If she couldn’t marry a husband before the end of the year, she would have to admit defeat and give up the jade she had worked so hard to obtain.
Outside the window, the flowers were in full bloom.
Rather than losing the bet, the jade, and her face, Li Ruantang calculated that it would be better to seek marriage with the young master in front of her, killing three birds with one stone.
…
Meng Jun never thought that an accident during a spring outing would lead to them rolling down a cliff and into a river, yet still survive.
Now they were trapped in an unknown village, and Meng Jun had overheard that the family who had rescued them had their own intentions.
After all, it was Li Ruantang who had lost her mind and sought marriage first. He was only trying to protect himself!
Glancing at Li Ruantang, who was listing her own merits, the young husband’s voice softened, and he blushed as he lied, “W-wife-master, Wife-master, don’t you remember me?”
The young husband’s voice was clear and handsome, coaxing Li Ruantang’s heart to be soft and sweet, and she spared no effort to protect him.
It wasn’t until they returned to the capital that Li Ruantang suddenly remembered.
When they had fallen off the cliff, in order not to implicate Wei Yunruo, whom he secretly admired, the young husband had instead pulled her, who was slightly farther away, down the cliff with him…
Short summary by Yuushi L: Initially, the male lead (ML) liked another girl, while the female lead (FL) liked the ML. Both fell off a cliff. The FL temporarily lost her memory, and the ML, fearing others might take advantage of him, claimed FL was his wife while they were staying in a village. Later, when they returned home, the FL regained her memories and remembered that the ML liked someone else, so she kept her distance from him. However, during their time living together in the countryside, the ML’s view of the FL had completely changed. From this point, his pursuit of the FL begins.
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