It was no small matter. To travel to the Eastern Continent, one had to eat and sleep on a ship for over a month, and she was not confident that she could endure such a long time on board.
However, there was no alternative route to the Eastern Continent. The only path connecting the two continents located at the ends of the world was the sea route where marine monsters roamed.
Diana put down her quill pen and sat on the bed, lost in thought.
‘I have no choice but to overcome it… It will be scary at first, but if I keep practicing, I’ll get used to it. Right now, I’ve only been on a ship once, and that memory was so cruel that I’m feeling fear… If I continue to accumulate experiences of safety, someday I’ll be able to board a ship without fear. Of course, that someday can’t come too late…’
Diana believed that prejudices and deeply ingrained fears that people possess could be dulled through positive experiences.
‘Look at Raoul. If he were human, he would have been trembling, but now he’s even made knight friends, and with me… his heart…’
His heart… Diana, who had stopped thinking, shook her head and roughly slapped her cheeks with both hands.
“Why, why am I thinking about Raoul again? He left my side much earlier than in the original work… It’s not an appropriate example…”
Diana de Arnel, this foolish woman, needed to come to her senses.
Now that Raoul had joined the rebels as in the original work, Diana had to be most wary of her own heart.
In the end, if everything flowed according to the original work, it was unknown when Diana, who had deviated from the original, would also be swept away by that flow.
“Let’s never get carried away again. To forget the fear of death while being so conceited… Never, never do that again.”
Diana muttered as if praying with her hands clasped over her chest. As if she could throw her heart into the depths of the pond if only she could detach it.
[This is the timeline separator]The swirling cold wind at the beginning of winter brought a cold wave after several months.
Diana was sitting with Lu on her lap, gazing at the snow piled up thickly in the front yard.
The temperature of the floor touching her bottom was cool, but with Lu sitting on her lap, her heart was as warm as it could be.
The child’s round cheeks puffed up as she grinned and lifted her chin.
“I like snow!”
“Aren’t you cold?”
“No! It’s refreshing!”
“To find this weather refreshing, Lu is truly a lycanthrope.”
Diana said as she brushed the snow off the child’s hair. Until a moment ago, the child had been playing excitedly, and her whole body was damp.
She wanted to take her inside and change her into a clean tunic, but the child whined that she wanted to play more, so Diana brought out a blanket to warm her up for a bit.
Meeting the optimal environment, Lu ran through the snow like an excited baby wolf.
The snow-covered front yard was crisscrossed with long trails made by Lu.
Lu had been wagging her excited tail, tickling Diana’s chin.
“I like playing with Mommy even more. I’m so happy to see the snow with Mommy…”
“Me too. I’m so glad I can spend this winter with Lu.”
It was true. Lu filled the emptiness in her heart left by Raoul’s departure.
The more time she spent with the child, new life sprouted in her tattered heart.
When Lu would dive into her arms like into a cradle and nuzzle her face, it sometimes felt like the child she had lost in her previous life had returned to her rightful place.
Of course, Diana knew well that it couldn’t be. She was just emotionally shaken by being called Mommy.
Still, Diana didn’t want to dismiss this encounter as a mere coincidence.
They were both alone in the world with no one to rely on, and if Lu was okay with it, Diana wanted to be the child’s support.
‘Even if the caste system changes due to the rebellion, deeply rooted prejudices won’t disappear overnight. Discrimination against other races is much less severe in the Eastern Continent compared to the Western Continent, so it’s a much better environment for Lu to grow up in.’
Thinking so, Diana kissed the round top of her head, and Lu happily stretched out her ears.
“Mommy, give Lu another kiss!”
“You kiss monster…”
“Hurry, hurry!”
When Diana playfully tickled her side, Lu laughed and kicked the blanket.
As Lu slid off her lap and lay on her stomach on the floor, Diana quickly turned the child over and rubbed her belly clockwise.
“You shouldn’t lie like that. Does your tummy hurt?”
Diana lay down facing Lu and covered her with the blanket, and the child raised her little hand to stroke Diana’s cheek.
Then she wrapped her fluffy tail around Diana’s wrist, twitched her ears, and said,
“When my tummy hurts, if Mommy rubs it, it gets better…”
“Did Mommy rub it a lot when you were in pain?”
“Yes! …But I was in a lot of pain last time because Mommy wasn’t there.”
“When?”
“In the cave… I was alone. When I woke up, Mommy was gone. I was so scared, I kept crying… When I cried, I got hungry. So, um, so… I went to the pond to catch fish… But a snake bit me hard and it hurt. It hurt a lot.”
“Oh my, how old were you?”
“When I was a baby… After Mommy disappeared… I kept looking for Mommy… I kept looking because I was scared.”
Diana moved her startled lips, but seeing Lu sobbing, her heart ached and she quickly hugged the child tightly.
“You must have been scared. Mommy is sorry. I won’t go anywhere now and will stay right by Lu’s side…”
“Really?”
“Yes. Sometimes Mommy might be late, but that doesn’t mean I disappeared. It just means I’m a little late. In those times, you should wait nicely. Okay?”
“Okay. I can wait!”
Lu howled towards the sky like a brave baby wolf! At the adorable cry, laughter automatically burst from Diana’s lips.
She told Lu to wait, but in fact, Diana was the only one who could open the doors to enter and exit this house.
She had witnessed several times how stones thrown by the child outside the wall would bounce back inside.
Therefore, there was absolutely no way for Lu to escape alone.
Knowing that fact, Diana still cautioned the child just in case of any unforeseen danger.
“You must never go outside, okay? Understand?”
“Yes!”
Lu readily agreed without any protest and snuggled deep into her bosom.
The little hand gently grasped Diana’s long, shiny hair.
Inhaling the scent of the hair, Lu laughed and pressed her round nose between the hollows of Diana’s collarbones, as if intoxicated by the soap scent.
Sniff sniff! The adorable action of following the familiar scent was so lovely that laughter automatically spilled from Diana’s lips.
“I like Mommy’s smell.”
“I like Lu too.”
When she was with Lu, she didn’t need to restrain her emotions or worry about being disliked.
She could just express her love as she felt it, and Lu would absorb only the good parts like a sponge.
The child was pure, blind, and didn’t think twice or thrice about what others said.
She had lived constantly censoring words or actions that might displease others.
So even when she wanted to say something, she often held back. But Lu gave Diana confidence.
This small and lovely child was a being who wouldn’t despise her, turn away, or hurt her even if she poured out her love.
If she took Lu with her to the Eastern Continent, she would have twice as many worries, but at least her heart wouldn’t be lonely.
She pinched the soft cheeks and kissed the round forehead.
[This is the timeline separator]Diana gave Lu three instructions before leaving for the castle early in the morning.
“Let’s go over the three promises you made with Mommy. First, the first one.”
Lu shouted loudly with a determined expression.
“Never ever start a fire!”
“That’s right. Mommy told you to never go near the furnace, right? If you get cold, just cover yourself with a blanket in the bedroom and wait for a day. No matter what, you must never go near the furnace. Understand?”
“Yes!”
She gave Lu the perfectly ordinary reason that fire is dangerous, but in fact, what Diana was worried about was the possibility of getting caught.
‘The search party has never come this far, but if smoke rises, they will definitely try to determine the cause of the smoke to avoid liability. We need to act carefully.’
Fortunately, the child obediently followed Diana’s instructions without much complaint.
Diana extended her index finger and continued,
“The second one is?”
“Food is three times a day! Take out Mommy’s packed lunch from the snow and eat it!”
“That’s right. Mommy told you, right? What to do if the meat gets cold?”
“Put it in here and fold your fingers six times and eat!”
“Correct. Very smart. Don’t bring it inside beforehand because it might spoil, and warm it up each time you eat. Okay?”
“Yes!”
The child was holding a round silver tray. It was a heat-retaining dish purchased from a magic tool store some time ago.
Diana asked seriously, with a much sterner expression than the previous instructions,
“Good. Now the third one. What did Mommy say?”
“Never answer anyone other than Mommy! No matter what anyone says!”
“That’s right. You must never ever answer. Even if someone comes and knocks on the gate, you have to pretend no one is there and stay quiet. Understand?”
“Yes!”
In any case, Lu can’t open the door. But being exposed was a great danger in itself.
The servants wouldn’t rashly report a hidden space within the castle or a nameless child. This was the Arnel Duchy. It was the castle where Duke Carlyle, known as the dog of the empire, resided.
In the past, all the dirty tasks such as imprisoning or killing low-ranking knights or nobles from the frontier who had fallen out of the emperor’s favor were handled by the Arnel ducal family.
This was a well-known fact that no one in the empire was unaware of, so the servants did not carelessly spread what they saw and heard. Who would want to lose their head by accidentally learning something they shouldn’t know?
What she was worried about was Commander Vaihar.
He still hadn’t given up on Lu and was turning the village upside down.
Because of his persistent pursuit, Diana had no choice but to teach Lu strictly.
“It’s just one day. If you stay alone tomorrow, Mommy will be back the next evening. Okay? So be good and wait. Okay?”
Startled by the serious expression, Lu blinked her eyes at attention, then nodded vigorously and spread her arms.
Diana waved her hand towards Lu, then pulled her hood down deeply.
It was tomorrow. The prayer meeting she had been postponing was being held again.
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.”
