Fearlessly (Completed Main Story) - Chapter 2
The woman slowly straightened her body and rose.
As if utterly indifferent to this urgent situation, she moved maddeningly slowly.
Lakrahan had never been overwhelmed by anyone—until now.
But for the first time in his life, he found himself unable to move even a single finger because of that tiny woman.
The woman tore her gaze away from Lakrahan and looked up toward the ceiling.
Between the charred, gaping holes in the burned ceiling, the peaceful night sky and stars flickered faintly into view.
Kwoogwang.
From that sky, a heavy sound echoed—like the roar of a beast.
And then, almost immediately, rain began to fall.
The very rain they had so desperately longed for was finally falling.
-Rain! It’s raining!
-Good heavens! The heavens have answered us.
-Rain! It’s finally raining!
It was an immense downpour, as if the sky itself had torn open.
Lakrahan removed the cloak he had been holding up with his firm arm.
Pushing aside his wet hair that obscured his vision, he looked at the woman.
Amid the fiercely pouring rain, the woman stood gazing at him, not a single drop wetting her.
Her golden hair, cascading over her shoulders as though shielded by an invisible barrier, shimmered like the sun.
The woman, who had been staring intently at Lakrahan, suddenly collapsed like a marionette whose strings had snapped.
“……!”
Her body, about to hit the floor, gently settled into his arms as he rushed forward.
“Haa.”
Her narrow, golden eyes slowly blinked toward Lakrahan before closing fully beneath her heavy lids.
“Hey! Wake up!”
As all strength drained from her slender body, the rain began soaking her as if it had been waiting for this moment.
-Just let me go see my sister for a moment!
-Oh, come on. I told you not to be a nuisance!
-I won’t be a nuisance!
-You little rascal! Who gave you permission to wander around the castle? If you go running around everywhere like that, you’ll be in big trouble!
-Who do you think you are, mister? Just you try hitting me—I’ll tell His Grace the Archduke!
It was a drizzly afternoon.
Lakrahan’s castle was unusually lively.
Even the small room where the woman lay was filled with the echoes of that commotion.
Her brow, furrowed slightly as she slept on the white bed, twitched faintly.
Raindrops fell against the small window, casting shifting shadows onto the bed beneath.
“Hmm.”
Her eyes moved restlessly beneath tightly shut lids—as if caught in a nightmare.
Her pale face, marked by a straight nose and red lips, bore features rarely seen in the North.
Her golden hair, tousled beside the pillow, was also an uncommon sight.
-I just want to peek in and see if she’s doing okay! Oh, honestly. Melissa, Josh, stop me!
A loud crash sounded, and the door burst open as if about to break.
At that clamor, the woman’s eyelids trembled and fluttered.
“Sister!”
Tatiana beamed the moment she saw the woman lying in bed.
“Sister, are you still sleeping?”
As Tatiana, excited, waved her hand and started walking toward the bed, a large hand suddenly grabbed her by the scruff of her neck.
Tatiana puffed out her freckled cheeks.
“Oh, seriously! Ugly mister!”
Dangling in midair, she whipped her head around—and to her surprise, saw a rather handsome face.
“Your Grace!”
Tatiana threw her arms wide and hugged Lakrahan tightly.
Lakrahan smiled faintly and patted Tatiana’s back gently.
“Wow. This kid really is reckless. Hey, you! Is His Grace your friend? How dare you hug him so casually!”
Most knights living in the North were comrades who had fought alongside Lakrahan on the battlefield.
Even after the war ended, they chose not to leave but settled here in the North with Lakrahan.
“It’s fine. Let her be.”
Lakrahan softly stopped his knight and stepped into the room.
Still clinging to his waist, Tatiana turned and stuck out her tongue teasingly at the knight.
The knight, built like a bear, chuckled in spite of himself.
“Reckless little thing, isn’t she?”
When he closed the door, the noise subsided.
“Sister!”
As Tatiana tried rushing toward the bed again, Lakrahan lightly placed a hand on the child’s head.
“Shh.”
He gently stroked Tatiana’s head as she looked up at him, then nodded toward the bed.
Tatiana blinked and asked, “Will Sister be upset if we wake her now?”
Lakrahan pulled his lips into a smooth smile.
“She seems very tired.”
“Then how long will she keep sleeping like this?”
“Until all her tiredness is gone. That’s just how adults are.”
“Oh.”
Tatiana nodded, rose onto her tiptoes, and tiptoed quietly toward the bed this time.
Watching her, Lakrahan’s smile deepened.
A charming dimple appeared on his cheek as he strolled leisurely toward the window.
Meanwhile, Tatiana settled herself at the edge of the bed.
When Lakrahan turned to look, Tatiana pressed a finger to her lips—just as he had done moments before.
His dark eyes lingered briefly on the woman lying in bed before returning to the window.
Below the window lay the burnt-out warehouse, its skeletal frame exposed and abandoned.
Four days had passed since the woman appeared there.
Quite a long time to wait for someone asleep.
Keeping his gaze fixed on the warehouse, Lakrahan called to the child.
“Tatiana.”
“Yes, Your Grace.”
“Can you tell me again what happened at the warehouse?”
“Again?”
Lakrahan gave a slight, urging nod.
That night the warehouse burned, he’d heard the whole story from Tatiana.
Yet ever since, he’d asked the child to recount the events once each day.
He’d questioned the other children as well.
He knew that no matter how clever a child might be, memories could warp under the influence of emotion.
Besides, the tale itself was simply too unbelievable.
“I was asleep, but then Melissa woke up and kept crying—she wanted to go to the bathroom.”
Until recently, the children had wandered from village to village as vagrants.
When Lakrahan visited the village and saw them begging, he gathered them all and brought them to the castle that very day.
Until proper lodging could be arranged, the warehouse served as their temporary shelter.
“So I went outside with Melissa. We didn’t know where the bathroom was, so we went into the woods to relieve ourselves—and that’s when we saw this sister hiding behind a tree.”
Tatiana was a clever child; though her wording shifted slightly each time, the details remained consistent.
She hadn’t made anything up.
“What kind of adult hides behind a tree spying on us? Isn’t that ridiculous?”
“Yes.”
Lakrahan glanced briefly at the woman lying pale-faced on the bed.
“When we got closer, she was shivering from the cold—barefoot, too. ……I think this sister lost her mother, just like us.”
Tatiana had brought the woman back to the warehouse.
“And right after that, the fire started.”
All the sleeping children woke up and gathered at the spot where Lakrahan first found them.
“The fire was blazing so fiercely—we thought we were all going to die! But then Sister hugged us tightly……”
Lakrahan’s hand tightened.
“And made it rain.”
It was an unbelievable story.
Had the children not all described the exact same scene, he never would have believed it.
“Sister kept looking up at the sky, then at us, looking really anxious—and then Your Grace arrived.”
Right after that, the ceiling collapsed.
Fresh air rushed in, making the flames surge higher—yet soon after, a tremendous rain began to fall.
Had it not rained, the children would not have survived.
Moreover, if the fire had spread into the castle itself, the damage would have been unimaginable.
“But Sister’s sleeping like this—so why does it keep raining outside?”
“I don’t know. Shall we ask her together when she wakes up?”
“Yes! But, um… does Your Grace know this sister’s name?”
Lakrahan exhaled lightly and smiled.
“We’ll ask that together when she wakes up too. Alright?”
“Yes!”
Tatiana swung her short legs beneath the bed and began singing.
Leaning against the windowsill, Lakrahan sank into thought.
“A woman who can make it rain……”
He’d never heard of anyone in the Empire possessing such an ability.
‘She must be a witch, after all.’
After the war, Emperor Gerard had imprisoned everyone capable of using magic.
Thus began the so-called witch hunts.
Having barely won the war, the Emperor had ruthlessly eliminated any potential threats to his throne.
Witches and certain nobles fell into that category.
‘If word got out that she can summon rain, they’d come to arrest her immediately.’
Most witches imprisoned beneath the palace had faded away like ghosts.
That was simply the nature of the underground dungeon—
a place no living person could endure.
“Tatiana. You haven’t told anyone about this, have you?”
“Of course not! Absolutely not!”
As Tatiana shrugged her shoulders, Lakrahan tousled the child’s fine hair.
“Well done, Tatiana.”
At the northernmost borderland, a light drizzle fell.
Beneath a tall tower shrouded in mist, an ornate carriage stood parked.
Inside the solitary carriage sat two women—one seated elegantly in a chair, the other kneeling respectfully on the floor.
The seated woman fluttered her fan gently and spoke.
“Our prey has finally left the nest.”
Her crimson lips traced a smooth line beneath her black veil.
“Well then, what should we do now?”
The woman on the floor wiped her cold sweat and replied.
“We—we should go catch her.”
“Oh dear.”
As the fan-wielding hand moved forward, the kneeling woman flinched and trembled.
A soft laugh escaped from behind the veil at the sight.
“You’re still as foolish as ever, even after all this time.”
“Th-then what should we…?”
The fan tapped lightly against the woman’s forehead before pulling away.
“If you chase after her and she escapes, what will you do then?”
“Huh! Th-that’s…”
The kneeling woman grabbed the hem of the seated woman’s skirt and pleaded.
“I never want to go back to the dungeon! Please spare me! I don’t want to live eating bugs and drinking rotten water again—huh, huh—please!”
“Don’t cry. Don’t I cherish you so dearly?”
The woman raised her fan and sharply knocked away the hand clutching her skirt.
“Take this.”
The kneeling woman respectfully held out both palms.
A pair of small earrings settled onto them.
“What is this?”
“The Butterfly of Parallels.”
“……Yes?”
Long ago, before the gods departed this land for the cosmos, they scattered their belongings far and wide.
Over time, these objects gained unique powers, and whenever humans discovered them, they named and revered them as sacred relics.
The Butterfly of Parallels.
While wearing these earrings, one could transform into any person they had just encountered.
It was among the most precious of divine artifacts.
“Y-you’re giving this to me?”
“Hmm. Perhaps.”
The woman fluttered her fan and smiled.
“The prey who has left her nest will soon begin to awaken.”
“Th-then what should we do?”
“Don’t worry, my child.”
A butterfly, once aware of its own beauty, will soon begin to fly.
It will soar and soar until it finds a vast field blooming with flowers.
“Our prey will surely find the most beautiful flower and alight upon it gently.”
The woman cupped the trembling cheek in her hand.
“Now, imagine—how would that butterfly feel, watching us crush and trample that lovely flower?”
“Ohh……”
Self-destruction.
The butterfly would tear off its own wings and abandon the will to live.
“Yes. That’s precisely how one catches prey, my child.”
The eyes of the woman holding the fan gleamed with madness.
Male lead is reincarnated to save his wife
I’ve also read this one twice already. The female lead is kinda soft and gets embarrassed easily—not really my type, but the plot is definitely worth reading. Hurry up and read it, y’all!
Intro
When Shen Yuan encountered Su Jin again in his previous life, she had already become the Prime Minister of the current dynasty. As for him, the former top young master of the capital, he had long since fallen into the abyss, becoming a singer on a pleasure boat.
After a song ended, he was redeemed and sent to the Su Residence.
Su Jin respected and cherished him, gave him a roof over his head, and bestowed him with warmth. Shen Yuan fell deeper and deeper, but before he could express his feelings, Su Jin passed away.
Shen Yuan died to follow her in death, but instead, he returned to when he was fifteen years old.
At that time, he was not yet engaged, and Su Jin was just a poor scholar.
Shen Yuan gritted his teeth, casting aside all his pride, and thought of ways to coax and entice her every day.
The colder and more indifferent Su Jin was towards him, the more proactive Shen Yuan became.
He was not afraid of being mocked by the world, only wanting to marry his Wife-master early, to hold her hand and never let go for a lifetime.
[Note: This story will not specifically point out the male lead’s reincarnation time point; it’s all in the details. Whenever you feel that the male lead is acting strangely, he has most likely been reincarnated.]
[Touch the gear icon in the bottom right corner of the screen to move to the next chapter if you want.]
I have a inkling that Lione is probably Berche’s ‘Mother’?