“What?”
As Gerard turned around, a noisy sound suddenly came from outside.
And not long after, a group of people appeared.
In the midst of them was Leona, whom he had been waiting for.
“Your Majesty the Emperor.”
Leona lightly approached and embraced Gerard.
“Ah.”
Gerard held Leona and exhaled deeply.
It felt as if all the pent-up frustration had flown away in an instant.
“Where on earth have you been?”
Leona gently stroked the emperor’s back.
“I have to avenge Princess Kelita, Your Majesty the Emperor.”
“Revenge, yes. We must do that.”
“Imagine how arrogant Lakrahan must be, thinking Bercheria is in his hands now.”
“That bastard Lakrahan.”
“Exactly. We must crush Lakrahan properly this time so that no one will doubt Your Majesty’s ability.”
Leona’s downcast eyes met Kelita’s.
“Now, please go and prepare to avenge poor Kelita, my Emperor.”
[Star Icon]“Let’s get married.”
Lying on the library table, Lakrahan covered his face with the book he was holding.
As soon as he closed his eyes, Bercheria’s face appeared, as he had seen her in the square.
Hair fluttering in the void and skin that seemed to be sprinkled with stardust.
“I don’t want to think about what has happened to you, or what you will have to take responsibility for. I want to marry you and regain all the power and prestige.”
Bercheria had spoken as if she had concrete plans and thoughts about this marriage to Wyatt, but in truth, all that filled Lakrahan’s mind at the time was her safety, and nothing more.
‘I intend to use you.’
Lakrahan abruptly set the book aside and rose to his feet.
Her decision to use him was actually a good thing for Lakrahan.
If doing so awakened her, then he could protect his people through this transaction.
Stopping the deaths of his people in the capricious northern weather.
That was what mattered.
It should have been only about the people.
“Ha.”
Yet his thoughts continually flowed not toward his people, but toward Bercheria.
“Laureny…”
If Prince Deransis had not been present, he might not have even known what he was feeling.
The presence of the prince who had unexpectedly interfered was irksome, and Bercheria’s gaze upon him was even more irritating.
“Ha.”
Lakrahan lay back down and looked up at the ceiling light.
As he gazed at the faint orange light, her face came to mind again.
“Why is this happening?”
Lakrahan covered his eyes with his arm.
He vividly remembered the emotions of the moment he had discovered Bercheria, swept up in the wind as hail rained down.
The thought had crossed his mind that she could die right there.
Lakrahan could precisely describe the emotion he had felt at that time in one word.
Fear.
It was a clear fear.
A feeling as if his heart was dropping to his toes and the world was collapsing.
He had felt this way a few times in the past.
When he lost his father, when he lost his brother, and when he saw his mother waiting for him as a corpse.
In those moments, Lakrahan had felt a terrible fear.
So he realized instantly.
I am afraid of what might happen to that woman.
I am scared.
“……”
He had vowed never to feel this way again.
For nearly a decade, he had avoided women, living his life in fear of taking responsibility and forming bonds under the name of ‘family.’
He had thought that it was enough to live only caring about his knights and his people, shaking at the mere thought of a woman.
He had thought Bercheria was also keeping her distance, thinking their relationship was out of necessity.
“I was the one losing my senses.”
His lips whispered, holding a bitter smile.
Lakrahan touched his lips that had met Bercheria’s.
A thoughtless kiss haunted him as he lay in bed that day, and the next, catching him off guard in completely unexpected moments.
The touch from that time, the sound of breathing, even the temperature of the air he breathed in and out.
At first, it was because it was my first kiss.
I guess I was a man after all.
He had tried to dismiss it as something that happened due to instinctive desires.
But as time passed, far from abating, the symptoms only worsened every time Bercheria appeared before him.
He couldn’t tell this to anyone.
The Duke of the North, a man past marriageable age, who leads countless knights and governs his people.
And to think he spent the whole day pondering over a kiss, one that was not even out of affection, but to transfer ice attributes.
“Crazy.”
Lakrahan covered his face again with a book and focused all his energy on clearing his mind.
‘Marriage.’
She was using him to recover her abilities, and he had chosen this as a means to protect his people from natural disasters.
So he shouldn’t attribute any meaning to it right now.
Only he would suffer more if he did.
He prayed to hasten their wedding ceremony and for Bercheria to regain her abilities.
So that this feeling would not grow any further and pass.
So that he could meet a happy ending where her terrible mother would kneel and apologize.
The current Lakrahan was only dreaming of such modest hopes.
[Star Icon]“Lakrahan.”
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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