The happy meal time ended only after sharing the raspberry tart.
After clearing the table, Diana picked up the basket placed on the floor.
Well-arranged azalea petals swayed in the lidless rattan basket.
“Come here.”
Diana sat Raoul at the bedside and cleared her throat for a moment.
‘Now that I’m about to do it, it’s a bit embarrassing.’
It was a congratulatory speech following the initial awakening.
If Raoul’s parents were alive, one of them would have delivered the blessing, but now there was only Diana.
‘I can’t just breeze through it, I have to do it.’ She took out and unfolded the paper that had become worn from being read many times with trembling hands.
The writing was longer than expected.
“Is it a blessing?”
“Yes. I thought it would be better to do it properly.”
“Okay. Read it to me.”
Raoul perked up his invisible wolf ears and looked up at Diana with sparkling eyes.
A blessing for just the two of them, it felt like confessing love, making Diana feel awkward.
‘This is just a congratulatory speech! Let’s, let’s read!’
Diana began the blessing with a nervous breath.
Hello. I am Diana de Arnel, Raoul’s guardian and friend. Although it’s just the two of us now, I wrote this imagining relatives were present as well. I hope you’re listening.
To briefly share Raoul’s recent news, he’s already spending his thirteenth summer. Enduring heat very different from the snowy mountains.
Despite the difficulties of early independence in a foreign land, he’s persevering without complaint. I can’t express how admirable it is.
The reason I prepared this speech today is because Raoul recently succeeded in his initial awakening.
You’re probably not surprised. You must have believed your kind and strong son would accomplish this.
Although it’s not a feast with everyone, we celebrated modestly together. Don’t worry, he wasn’t lonely.
Now, as we conclude the ceremony, I wish to bless Raoul’s future.
Originally, this would be done by the parents who brought Raoul into this world, but please allow me to act as proxy today.
Diana put down the letter and grasped a handful of azalea flowers.
“Can you close your eyes?”
Raoul quietly lowered his eyelids. Diana showered the flower petals in a circle above his head.
“We beseech the goddess. Guide the lost soul with the wisdom of the ancestors. Bestow upon this young lycan the strength to protect his family, and engrave in the child’s soul the intelligence to overcome hardships, the will to achieve, and love.”
Diana put the basket down on the floor and hesitated.
Originally, the ceremony would end with a kiss on the forehead.
‘Should I do it?’ It was just for show anyway, and there was no need to be perfect.
At that moment, Raoul, who had been waiting quietly, seemed to sense Diana’s feelings and pulled her hand.
He placed Diana’s hands on his cheeks and gently raised his chin.
“Do it.”
The first gateway to being recognized as a lycan warrior.
Raoul was waiting for the ceremony to be performed with a solemn heart. ‘Right, it’s once in a lifetime. And there’s only me here now…’
Diana closed her eyes tightly and slowly bent down.
Slowly, very slowly. So slow that others might worry she had frozen.
Raoul finally opened his eyes when he couldn’t feel anything despite waiting.
‘Ha’ He laughed involuntarily. Diana was using all her facial muscles to express tension and awkwardness.
‘I can’t do it. It’s absolutely impossible by my own power!’ The rabbit residing in her heart turned her face bright red and drooped its long ears.
He wrapped his arms around Diana’s waist with a resigned look.
“Your face looks like it’s about to burst.”
“Huh?”
“If it’s difficult, you don’t have to do it.”
“Really? But I can do it.”
“Do it later.”
Later, when? Raoul buried his face in Diana’s stomach like a woodblock print and mumbled.
“Do it later when I’m grown up.”
‘Wouldn’t that be even stranger then?’ Diana hesitated for a moment but then nodded obediently.
“Alright. Then, let’s postpone the final ritual for the future.”
She didn’t think Raoul would remember this. She thought that by the time he became an adult, Ayla would be by his side, and her lips wouldn’t be necessary. And that was a big miscalculation.
[This is the timeline separator]Diana forcibly opened her eyes to the pouring morning sunlight.
She hadn’t slept properly last night, talking with Raoul until dawn.
‘I’m tired, but it was happy.’
Diana pulled the bell rope while still lying in bed.
“Are you awake?”
“Yes. Good morning.”
Diana stretched and put on her slippers. When she opened the balcony door, the cooling summer air blew into the room.
‘Summer is ending now.’
Diana recalled this year’s summer, which was hot and utterly chaotic.
She got caught up in an attack incident and worried sick about Raoul’s unexpected departure.
But if there was anything left, it was Raoul’s successful awakening.
She was glad that she could properly celebrate the black spot that she hadn’t even known when it appeared in her past life.
However, there was one thing that bothered her.
‘Why doesn’t he speak honestly? He must have met Ayla.’
According to the original work, Ayla was taking Eledore’s test in the snowy mountains.
Proving one’s usefulness as a rebel was the first gateway that newly joined children of different races had to pass.
All the children who entered the mountain together died at the hands of the snow people, but only Dilaya and Ayla barely survived.
Dilaya doesn’t abandon Ayla, who tried to kidnap her, and saves her, spending the night together under a stone wall.
The next day, Ayla wakes up and descends the mountain with Dilaya, meets the snow people again, and awakens during the battle, becoming able to freely use nature magic.
If Raoul had rescued Dilaya in the snowy mountains, he would have inevitably encountered Ayla. However, Raoul didn’t open his mouth to any leading questions.
‘Was there really no one? That can’t be right?’
Despite Diana’s persistent questioning, Raoul kept his mouth shut to the end.
If it wasn’t a lie, what happened to Ayla? As Diana bit her lip, Angela firmly shook her head.
Something had gone strangely wrong.
Monsters that weren’t in the original work appeared, and the female protagonist who should have been there disappeared without a trace.
‘Could she have died…? No. No matter what, she’s the female protagonist. A sudden death ending doesn’t make sense.’
She hoped that Ayla had safely escaped from the snowy mountains and completed the time-limited mission.
The thought of the young girl still trapped in the snow… weighed heavily on her mind.
[This is the timeline separator]Several days passed after that. Raoul quickly overcame his injuries and frequented the training ground.
‘I guess you have to live that diligently to be a supporting male lead.’
Diana got up late, barely washed her face, and put on her clothes.
She dipped bread in the tomato seafood stew that came out for breakfast and ate it roughly, then had her hair done.
‘Nothing bad will happen. If something had gone wrong with Ayla, Raoul wouldn’t be so carefree.’
Perhaps due to losing sleep at night, her complexion was haggard. In contrast, Angela, who was unusually excited today, hummed a tune while braiding Diana’s hair into two plaits.
“Did something good happen?”
“What? Oh, no?”
No? Diana narrowed her eyes and scrutinized Angela reflected in the mirror.
“Angela, do you have a date today?”
The lips redder than usual were clearly from commercial rouge mixed with goat oil and tuber root.
‘Angela wearing makeup?’
Diana tilted her head abruptly and her eyes sparkled.
“Ah, no! It’s just meeting briefly during break time.”
“What! You tried to play it cool, but it wasn’t nothing!”
“Oh, really, it’s embarrassing.”
Angela hid behind Diana and blushed. Her ears, glimpsed briefly, were reddish.
‘This time it’s serious…’
While feeling relieved, somehow a corner of her heart felt empty.
Diana pretended to be nonchalant as she nibbled on Angela’s hand and turned back towards the mirror.
‘Why does my heart feel like this? Is it jealousy?’
Angela had always been sincere only to her.
She had never thought that someone else could become Angela’s first priority.
Unaware of Diana’s feelings, Angela pinned a ruby hairpin carved in the shape of a flower above Diana’s left ear.
“You’re perfect today too.”
Diana smiled awkwardly and stood up from the chair.
Today was the day the Duke would return to his domain from the capital residence.
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.”
