Witnessing Adrian’s unusual reaction, Lilburn quickly opened the carriage window to check outside.
“Just hold on a little longer. We’re almost there.”
Adrian, not hiding his discomfort anymore, leaned against the carriage wall and nodded.
The rattling noise of the carriage, unnoticed during their conversation, now seemed unbearably loud, adding to his discomfort. Fortunately, the carriage soon halted at their destination.
Shrugging off Lilburn’s overzealous offer of assistance, Adrian entered the temporary residence he had arranged in the Kingdom of Filmer and headed straight to his room.
After changing clothes with the help of his valet and lying down on the bed, he blankly stared at the ceiling, revisiting the conversation from the carriage.
“The problem is, they plan to kidnap Prince Cedric.”
“Your Highness, what if the plan also includes assassinating the King of Wessex?”
If the king is assassinated before even two generations, the nation would surely disintegrate.
“If Wessex falls like this… it might truly face extinction.”
If Isabel’s scheme led to this, it would be a grave issue. Wessex’s fall into Fitzroy’s hands would completely derail his plans in Filmer. He might have to rely on luck and chance.
‘I’ve waited years for this…’
It was more than just a year or two’s wait.
For over a decade, Adrian had been patient, waiting to reclaim Laila.
The Emperor, knowing where his heart lay, didn’t outright forbid him from dreaming of a union with Laila. Instead, he diverted Adrian’s attention elsewhere.
He was made to fight countless monsters as his duty, sent on several months-long educational journeys to foreign lands empty-handed, and even made to govern a distant region for years, all to distract him.
But his heart couldn’t be swayed.
Then…
The news of Laila Wessex’s engagement to Reynard Filmer
The moment he found a line in the daily report about neighboring countries stating that Laila was to be engaged to the seventh prince of Filmer, he thought he’d lose his mind.
Reynard Filmer was notoriously known as trash even beyond his kingdom’s borders.
He couldn’t wait any longer. Ignoring his father’s disapproving glares, he rushed here.
The Emperor couldn’t exile him for this, as he was the obvious successor to the throne.
Suddenly, he remembered Laila’s recent figure, sitting in a corner.
Her face was a mess with tears, though she might not have realized it.
Her trembling hands and shoulders, her eyes filled with terror, clearly indicated what Reynard intended to do to her.
‘If it weren’t in the palace, if Laila hadn’t seen, I would have killed him.’
For Adrian, who easily slaughtered monsters ten times his size, taking a human life was all too easy.
He restrained his impulse for the sake of his social standing and to avoid startling Laila, who would have been shocked by such violence.
At least for now, he’d remain calm.
“Forget useless thoughts and take good care of Princess Wessex. Otherwise, in the name of Adrian Pinter Rains, I’ll ensure you face the most terrible morning… like waking up to find the building you slept in collapsing, impaling you on a spire, for example.”
“…….”
“Of course, right now I’m just a nobleman from Hankin wanting to sell you a ship, so don’t spread any nonsense elsewhere. No one would believe you anyway since I look different. This face isn’t just a flimsy mask.”
With that warning given, he could rest assured for the moment.
Lost in thought, Adrian irritably pulled off his tight cravat and tossed it onto the floor.
With a sharp snap, the cravat and its jewel decoration bounced several times on the ground.
Just as he finally lay down on the bed, someone called him from outside.
Adrian sighed and sat up, just when he thought he could finally rest.
“Who is it? What’s the matter?”
“I apologize for disturbing your rest, Your Highness, but a carriage from the royal palace has just arrived outside the mansion. What should we do?”
Adrian ran a hand through his hair and strode towards the door, his muscular legs stretching out with each step.
Upon opening the door abruptly, he saw his aide Lilburn standing there, looking extremely troubled.
“Could it be… you’ve revealed your identity?”
Adrian’s violet eyes narrowed.
He had a bad premonition that a headache-inducing situation was about to unfold, and in such matters, Adrian was rarely wrong.
After Milley’s departure, the engagement party finally ended. People drifted away like a receding tide, and Laila returned to her room with Reynard.
Though she didn’t know what Reynard had discussed with Milley, he had been uncomfortably close to her since then.
Was it jealousy because she was with another man?
However, Reynard’s hand on her bare shoulder, given the open-shoulder dress she wore, and his glances towards her neck were exceedingly uncomfortable.
As they walked through the dimly lit corridor, lit by scattered candles, the sound of her heels echoed loudly, perhaps due to the silence. The tension caused by Reynard’s presence did not ease.
Feeling the gaze of the servants trailing them, Laila tried to divert her attention by striking up a conversation with Reynard.
“Reynard?”
“Do you have a question for me, Laila?”
His response was prompt, as if he had been waiting for her to speak.
Laila, taken aback, looked up at him and then gripped her clasped hands tighter.
“I was just wondering about Milley. He is from the Empire, right?”
“…”
Aiming for a light topic to discuss until they reached their room, she brought up Milley, but Reynard’s lips tightened into a straight line.
Laila, thinking she might have asked something inappropriate, tried to retract her question.
“You don’t have to answer if it’s difficult.”
“No, it’s okay. You might be curious. As you guessed, he is a duke from Hankin – Adrian Milley. In fact, I’ve been trying to buy a ship from him…”
Laila hadn’t heard of the Milley surname before and had thought he might be a baron at most. But a duke was a much higher title than she had anticipated. Was he a newly elevated noble?
As she pondered this, Reynard unexpectedly shared more information than she sought.
“He’s asking for too high a price, making negotiations difficult. He keeps proposing various deals to finance it, which is tiring.”
“That must be troublesome…”
Laila had suspected as much from their earlier overheard conversation.
But the situation seemed worse than she thought, and she didn’t know how to respond, especially as Reynard tightened his grip on her shoulder again. Startled, Laila flinched, and Reynard, curving the corners of his eyes, spoke in an ostensibly affectionate tone.
“That’s right. By the way, Laila, maybe he’ll be more generous with you, being from the same region and all.”
“That’s…”
It had been quite a while since their countries had split. Laila was about to respond that it was a stretch to think there was any connection left when Reynard, glancing behind as if checking their surroundings, whispered closely in her ear.
“…That guy seemed quite interested in you. The way he looked at you earlier was quite intense.”
His tone, laced with annoyance and starkly different from his louder conversation moments ago, sent a chill down Laila’s spine. The coarse language he used was unsettling.
Furthermore, what Reynard said sounded odd.
Talking about someone being ‘quite interested’ or having an ‘intense gaze’.
It was almost like…
Laila intentionally stopped her train of thought, but Reynard, far from helping her dismiss these unwelcome ideas, only fueled them.
“Why? Don’t you want to help me? You’re going to be my wife, after all. Shouldn’t you be willing to do that much for my benefit?”
Laila’s eyes widened in shock.
“What are you talking about?”
She asked, almost in denial, hoping that what she understood wasn’t the implication he was making.
However, Reynard calmly retorted. Gently pushing up Laila’s chin with the back of his hand, he twisted the corner of his mouth in a sly smile.
“Of course, before that, I’ll have to prove that my fiancée has truly become mine.”
Ex-husband Wants Reconciliation
One-line summary: Chasing the wife to the crematorium (making an effort to attract someone who has become indifferent), the female lead doesn’t look back, the second male lead takes the position.
Intro:
To repay the kindness of the older generation, Su Mu crossed into a female-dominated world and became a live-in daughter-in-law of the Yan family, single-handedly saving the Yan family from fire and water.
But her husband, Yan Jiyue, the eldest son of the Yan family, treated her with sarcasm and never showed her a good face.
It wasn’t until after Su Mu’s death that this pampered and arrogant young master shed a few fake tears and pretended to want to die for love.
This life’s kindness was enough. If there was a next life, she would definitely kick Yan Jiyue away.
Who knew that the heavens would be so kind as to allow her to be reborn, returning to the time when she had just married into the Yan family.
Su Mu glanced at the Yan eldest son, who still spoke coldly to her, and threw a divorce letter in front of him.
“Let’s divorce!”
***
Yan Jiyue never imagined that he would be reborn. He happily went to find Su Mu, wanting to make up for the mistakes he had made in his ignorant youth.
Wasn’t the reason the heavens allowed him to be reborn to let him reconcile with Su Mu?
But when he pushed open the door to Su Mu’s room, the person lying on the bed was another man.
Su Mu’s personal attendant, Xie Yi.
Yan Jiyue hated him so much that his teeth itched. In front of Su Mu, Xie Yi was a gentle and considerate whisperer of sweet nothings, but in reality, he was vicious-hearted and deliberately sabotaged their husband and wife relationship.
In the previous life, it was he who secretly hid in Su Mu’s coffin and committed suicide, stealing a step ahead of him to be buried with Su Mu.
Yan Jiyue’s eyes were filled with hatred as he cursed, “What kind of thing are you? Your background is lowly, what right do you have to occupy Su Mu?”
Xie Yi looked at the sleeping Su Mu and no longer pretended to be a whisperer of sweet nothings.
He proudly stuck out his belly, “I have the right because my belly is capable of giving the Wife-master a daughter.”
***
Yan Jiyue was consumed with jealousy. He spread rumors that Xie Yi had once been branded with the mark of a “harlot” on his chest.
But on the night Xie Yi cut off the flesh bearing that mark, Su Mu suddenly realized something was amiss.
“How did you know the exact moment I was poisoned? And why did you show up a month early?”
Xie Yi remained silent, blood from his wound soaking through his robes. His sapphire eyes brimmed with anguish – or was it just a flawless act?
Between a once-arrogant husband now seeking redemption, and a gentle soul willing to die for her – who truly held the darkest secrets? And could it be that Su Mu and Yan Jiyue weren’t the only ones given a second chance at life…?
[Reading Guide]
1. True divorce, chasing the wife to the crematorium, the female lead doesn’t look back, the male lead is Xie Yi.
2. The ex-husband did not cheat, he just realized too late and didn’t realize that he liked the female lead.
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