“Was it true that you were in pain?”
Only after hearing Parnes Escalo’s words did Shallen Riche finally get a proper look at Kasallin Robepon.
Her complexion was subtly paler than usual and her breathing was unstable.
These were things he hadn’t noticed when he thought she was definitely feigning illness.
Parnes Escalo said.
“It would be dangerous for her to assist the Queen in this condition. But it’s awkward to send her back after coming this far. How about receiving appropriate protection from our side’s guards, who have sufficient personnel?”
“I’m grateful for your words, but this is a mistake on our part. We couldn’t possibly cause such trouble.”
“No. You don’t need to refuse. Since the King and Queen are both important guests who came to enjoy today’s event, please let our imperial family take responsibility.”
Others might not understand the deep meaning behind Parnes Escalo’s words, but at least Shallen Riche could tell.
While pretending to fully consider the circumstances of a foreign royal family, his intention was to cleverly protect Kasallin and keep her within his sight.
Shallen Riche struggled to find an appropriate answer to politely refuse his words, but with many listening ears around, he couldn’t handle it carelessly.
If he said he didn’t want it when they were offering to look after the circumstances so that the distinguished guests could enjoy the event comfortably, there would surely be unpleasant talk behind their backs.
“You there.”
When Parnes Escalo raised one hand, a servant came leading two horses as if he had been waiting.
One was a fine horse with clearly excellent bloodline, having glossy black fur like a black panther and a rich mane like a lion.
The other horse, slightly smaller in build, had white fur and was particularly gentle.
Parnes Escalo suddenly reached his hand toward Kasallin.
Kasallin didn’t understand his action and just widened her eyes.
“Come here.”
“Yes? Where to…”
“We can’t put her on the knights’ horses since they won’t be able to properly perform their guard duties, and we can’t have her walk the rough mountain paths in that condition, so there’s only one answer, isn’t there?”
While she hesitated, Parnes Escalo lifted Kasallin’s body so very lightly and carefully seated her on the small white horse.
Then he gave instructions to several guard knights to follow Kasallin and prepare for any unexpected situations.
Parnes Escalo jumped onto his black horse and skillfully settled into position, then reached his hand to the side and took hold of Kasallin’s reins instead.
At this sight, the nobles’ eyes sparkled with interest as they murmured.
Kasallin glanced back.
Shallen Riche and Rose Robepon, who had been overflowing with composure just moments before, seemed quite shocked by Parnes Escalo’s actions and couldn’t even open their mouths.
“Today, I will give a great reward in the name of the imperial family to anyone who brings back better game than me, Parnes Escalo.”
At Parnes Escalo’s radical proposal that further stirred their already considerable competitive spirit, the nobles forgot the commotion from moments before and let out exclamations filled with determination.
As the atmosphere changed instantly, Shallen Riche could hardly find an opportunity to bring Kasallin back.
Even when he deliberately sent meaningful glances to Duke Ludwig, the duke only said things like telling him not to worry and to enjoy the hunt, whether he was being oblivious or pretending to be.
Meanwhile, the nobles scattered in all directions in search of game, each confidently shouting that they would be the protagonist of glory.
Amidst the riding clothes fluttering in the mountain breeze and the light sounds of horse hooves and arrows clattering, Parnes Escalo led Kasallin’s white horse along as he turned his horse’s head toward the lower part of the mountain.
He slowly descended following the path marked with flags, and when the surroundings became quiet, he slowed down as if leisurely taking a stroll.
The two people, left alone in the middle of the quiet forest with no watching eyes, were silent for a while.
Over the thin reins, his hand that held them overlapping hers occasionally tensed for no reason.
Every time his fingers lightly brushed across the back of her hand as he adjusted direction, strangely, sweat seeped into her palm.
“You didn’t need to go to such lengths.”
“Such lengths?”
“Yes.”
Kasallin nodded, desperately hiding her trembling heart.
“Do you think I’m doing this when I don’t even want to?”
“Then why?”
While Parnes Escalo delayed his answer, dry fallen leaves that had accumulated all winter scattered with a rustling sound on the wind.
Sunlight broke into fragments through the sparse tree branches and shone down over their heads.
Parnes Escalo, who had suddenly closed the distance, easily lifted Kasallin’s body and seated her in front of him.
As he took a position like embracing her from behind, Kasallin looked around with flustered eyes at the surroundings where even the knights who had been following them just moments before were no longer visible.
Then she slowly raised her head to look up at him.
“I have to watch over you.”
He lowered his head diagonally as if he would kiss her nape at any moment.
At the gradually approaching cold breath, her heartbeat began to surge, losing all restraint.
However, nothing ever touched her skin in the end.
Parnes Escalo again put distance between them and muttered as if scolding her.
“You’re naturally clumsy, so if I take my eyes off you even for a moment, you cause accidents somewhere. Wouldn’t it be troublesome if a foreign maid were found as a cold corpse on such a fine day?”
“What, what do you think of me?”
The sulking Kasallin slightly twisted her body, trying to get down from the horse.
However, Parnes Escalo’s hand readjusted the reins while pulling her waist close to him.
“Where are you going?”
“The paths around here aren’t rough, so I can walk.”
“There might be wolf packs nearby. If you don’t want to be swallowed in one bite, stay still.”
“But this is too… embarrassing.”
Parnes Escalo, who had been slowly driving the horse forward while firmly holding Kasallin with one hand so she wouldn’t fall, suddenly stopped breathing.
He lowered his wavering eyes.
Kasallin was covering her face, which had turned red as if about to explode at any moment, with one hand, not knowing what to do.
“Really, you don’t know my heart at all. You always treat me like a child and only make pointless jokes.”
“……”
The hair that had been precariously hanging on Kasallin’s shoulder fell with a plop near her chest, revealing her white nape.
Parnes Escalo only stared at her slender neck with thirsty eyes and remained silent.
[This is the timeline separator]An arrow flew with a swishing sound from a bowstring pulled taut to its limit.
Making the loud sound meaningless, the arrowhead stuck with a thud into the base of an innocent tree.
Thanks to this, two red deer nearby ran away deep into the forest.
“Damn it.”
Shallen Riche suddenly spat out a curse.
The sight of the red deer running away without looking back overlapped with Kasallin, who had leisurely disappeared into the forest with Parnes Escalo just moments before.
Kasallin, who kept etiquette more faithfully than anything else, didn’t even pretend to refuse Parnes Escalo’s proposal.
During the time when she was dating him, she was a woman of truly firm integrity who wouldn’t even hold hands if there was even one person around, maintaining such proper conduct.
‘In short, it means she’s lost her judgment because she’s infatuated with that Parnes Escalo fellow…’
Shallen Riche extended one hand to his attendant.
The attendant, who had been waiting with a quiver of arrows in his arms, quickly handed him a sharply carved arrow.
“Your Majesty…”
Rose Robepon watched Shallen Riche hastily drawing the bowstring as if taking out his anger on someone with anxious eyes.
She believed it couldn’t possibly be so, but to her, Shallen Riche didn’t simply look angry about Kasallin, but rather seemed to be jealous.
Looking back, Shallen Riche was always like that.
He pretended to scold the maid as a king, pretended to educate her properly, but if you looked closely, you could tell the direction of his emotions was subtly different.
He couldn’t stand to watch Kasallin being close to another man.
As if Kasallin were his possession.
As if she had some duty to live virtuously and devotedly as a maid within the fence of the royal family forever.
‘No. That’s excessive thinking. His Majesty Shallen Riche couldn’t think of Sister Kasallin in such a way.’
Rose Robepon approached him with her characteristically bright and pure smile spread across her face, unchanged from when they first held their wedding ceremony.
After all, it was naturally a wife’s duty to give strength to her husband who was upset because the game wasn’t being caught well.
“Your Majesty. This hunting ground is strange somehow.”
“What?”
“All the animals are frantically agitated as if they’re drugged. The imperial family must have done something to prevent people from catching many.”
“Now that you mention it, that’s right. The Queen’s words seem correct. If that weren’t the case, there would be no reason for them to be so hard to catch.”
“Of course. Your Majesty has been renowned as the finest hunter since your crown prince days.”
When Rose Robepon praised him, Shallen Riche wiped away the beads of sweat on his forehead and barely managed to catch his breath.
He felt belated shame at himself for getting excited and forgetting his surroundings because of one woman named Kasallin, when there were attendants behind them too.
“Well, I did catch an alpha wolf in one shot when I was nine, but it’s not something to boast about anywhere.”
“Wow. Really? That’s amazing.”
Thanks to Rose Robepon, his self-esteem, which had been miserably crushed by Parnes Escalo, was somewhat restored.
Shallen Riche was looking around for game again when he stopped moving abruptly.
On the other side of a stream so far away that it would look blurry unless he narrowed his eyes, Parnes Escalo and Kasallin were leisurely passing through the forest path.
As if the hunting competition was an afterthought, the sight of the two people peacefully enjoying the breeze while observing small birds busily going from tree to tree momentarily aroused a strange impulse in Shallen Riche.
“Give me an arrow!”
Shallen Riche, his neck flushed red, snatched an arrow from the attendant.
He immediately nocked the arrow on the string and aimed it toward where Kasallin was and shot.
Of course, he aimed at a tree a little away from her.
When the arrowhead dug into the tree bark with a thud, the startled Kasallin reflexively turned her head to find the source of the sound.
Timed with that moment, Shallen Riche roughly pulled Rose Robepon, who was beside him, and began showering her with kisses.
Even Shallen Riche himself didn’t know why he was doing such a thing.
He just wanted to do it.
‘She must have seen this much for sure.’
Shallen Riche slightly raised his head, expecting Kasallin’s face to be vividly colored with jealousy.
However, Kasallin was moving away with Parnes Escalo as if she hadn’t even noticed them.
At that moment, Shallen Riche was seized by the sensation of some dark and sticky emotional mass unpleasantly stirring in his stomach.
「What if she suddenly says one day that she won’t be your person?」
「I guarantee that Kasallin will never leave me, even if it kills her. Not now, not for the rest of her life.」
Kasallin leaving me.
He had never imagined it even once.
Because such a thing could never happen in the first place.
Kasallin dearly loved her younger sister Rose Robepon, and if nothing else, she was a woman who knew how to dedicate her loyalty to the country called the Kan Kingdom.
Moreover, she wasn’t a woman who would easily break the strong bond with him that had continued for a full ten years.
‘I’m having unnecessary thoughts…’
Shallen Riche hastily drew the bowstring toward a bird sitting on a tree branch with hands that wouldn’t quite calm down.
The sharply honed arrowhead failed to hit anything and flew helplessly through the air before finally crashing to the ground.
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.”
