Two hours before the party began.
Gerard, who had just returned to the palace, was listening to the reports from the palace officials in a tired state.
It felt like a wave of accumulated fatigue from the north had rushed in.
As the reports concluded and he tried to stand up, Prime Minister noticed Gerard’s mood and hesitated, looking at him cautiously.
“Why like that?”
Knowing that poking Gerard when he wasn’t in a good mood could lead to unnecessary sparks, the cautious Prime Minister had a more careful expression.
“Um, Princess Kellita requests an audience with Emperor Your Majesty.”
“Oh, later…”
Gerard was about to say it was unnecessary, but he recalled the words Kellita said before collapsing in front of the portal.
‘Rakrahann.’
There was a sense of anticipation that a decisive story related to Rakrahann might come out from her mouth.
“Come in.”
“Ah, yes.”
Entering as if she had been waiting, Kellita looked more robust than usual, not paler.
“Emperor Your Majesty.”
“Yes, speak. Is Rakrahann the one who made you like this?”
Kellita lowered her head.
“No, Your Majesty. I’ve come to request permission to marry Rakrahann.”
“What did you just say?”
Gerard looked at Kellita in astonishment.
His younger sister, who used to laugh heartily in front of him, was now staring at him with wide eyes as if she had suddenly become someone else.
It was absurd.
“Please announce our marriage at the party, Your Majesty. And the wedding should not be delayed. It should be conducted a few days later.”
Gerard frowned and habitually looked at Leon, who was sitting beside him.
“…Leon.”
“Yes? Oh, yes, Your Majesty.”
Normally, Leon would have stepped forward on his behalf, but he was looking at Kellita with a dumbfounded expression.
“What are you doing now?”
“Huh? I’m not doing anything. I’m just here to support Emperor Your Majesty.”
Gerard stared at Leon with more irritation than when he looked at Kellita.
‘It’s time to end things with this woman. I’ve been dragging it out for too long.’
To appear more dignified, he swept away his ruffled beard.
Since returning from the north, there had been many things that irritated him strangely.
Sometimes, Leon, who used to make him uncomfortable by being excessively noisy, became quiet as if he had lost his mind. And Kellita, who had always been silent, was babbling like someone else.
‘It’s driving me crazy.’
Thinking of his usual Empress, Lawrence, who did her work silently without a word, Gerard frowned.
‘She may have a chubby face, but there’s nothing annoying about her.’
Gerard leaned forward again, muttering.
“Kellita.”
When he called her name, Kellita, who used to startle like a baby rabbit, now looked at Gerard’s throne with a shameless face.
“The position of the emperor is not a place for a princess to make requests lightly.”
The reason he chose to spare Kellita among his siblings was not that she was useful or intelligent.
Rather, it was because she was immature enough not to cause harm to anyone.
“While you were briefly unconscious and seemed to have forgotten, let me personally tell you that you are not in a position to demand such things from me. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
If it were the usual Kellita, she would have shed tears at this point, replying, ‘Yes, Emperor Your Majesty.’
However, she stood tall this time, without avoiding Gerard’s gaze, and spoke.
“Emperor Your Majesty, if Duke Rakrahann marries Bercheria, wouldn’t you be able to oppose the united two rather than the two of us separately?”
“…What?”
“That’s right. Since the two enemies become one, it wouldn’t be good for Emperor Your Majesty.”
Gerard’s expression changed as he was bewildered by Kellita’s words and antics.
“But what if Duke Rakrahann marries me?”
Kellita paused for a moment, as if suggesting he think about it.
“Emperor Your Majesty would gain control of all the forces in the north.”
“The Knights?”
“Yes.”
Gerard recalled the Imperial Knights he reluctantly handed over to the war hero Rakrahann.
The Knights, numbering only a thousand at that time, had now grown into a disciplined organization with tens of thousands.
It exceeded the number of troops a vassal kingdom could possess.
However, since he himself had allowed it, he couldn’t raise objections now.
“Wait a moment. But this is too strange.”
Gerard widened his eyes and glared at Kellita.
“Why are you suddenly obsessed with Rakrahann? Even when I asked you to bring back the marriage approval, you didn’t react like this.”
“…!”
“But you’ve already been rejected. Why can’t you give up?”
For the first time, Kellita’s expression changed in front of Gerard.
She clenched her fists and shouted.
“Because I love him!”
“What?”
Kellita was breathing heavily, as if confessing love for the first time in her life.
“I love him. Duke Rakrahann.”
“Love?”
“Yes, love. That’s right.”
Kellita’s eyes, filled with madness, were flickering towards Gerard.
“It’s been like that since the first time we met.”
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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