“Your Majesty? Why are you suddenly covering my eyes?”
When Shallen began to kiss Rose, Parnes, who spotted them first, instinctively covered Kasallin’s eyes with his palm without realizing it.
Kasallin only blinked, not understanding what was happening.
Her long eyelashes fluttered rapidly up and down, tickling the inside of his palm.
“Your Majesty…?”
Parnes slowly pulled the reins, turning the horse’s head in the opposite direction.
Just as Shallen and Rose, who seemed ready to cause quite a scene right there in the middle of the forest, were finally out of sight from this direction.
Parnes slowly removed his palm from Kasallin’s face.
When Kasallin looked puzzled and widened her eyes, Parnes said as if making an excuse.
“There was a deer carcass.”
“Was there?”
“Yes. Two of them, actually. It was quite gruesome.”
How fortunate that you didn’t see it.
Parnes muttered meaningfully.
Still leaning half against his upper body while riding the horse, Kasallin timidly fidgeted with her fingertips.
“Did you cover my eyes because you thought I’d be scared?”
“It would be troublesome if you ended up vomiting on our Black Griffon’s mane, so I did it for that reason.”
I thought so.
Kasallin quietly frowned.
As if understanding its master’s words, Black Griffon shuddered as if getting goosebumps.
“‘Our’ Black Griffon, you must cherish this horse greatly.”
“I watched it being born. We’ve been together for quite a long time.”
“Please also cherish Duke Ludwig, who works tirelessly day and night for Your Majesty.”
Parnes’s eyebrows became crooked.
“Why is Ludwig’s name suddenly coming up? Have you two become close?”
“Your Majesty, really. What do you mean ‘that guy’ when referring to an elder who looks well over seventy? Even if he’s an aide, you should respect the elderly.”
“Ludwig isn’t even sixty yet. You’re making the man sound like a doddering old fool.”
“……”
I’m sorry, Duke Ludwig.
Kasallin apologized inwardly and quietly kept her mouth shut.
“By the way, Your Majesty, why aren’t you hunting? You’ve just been leisurely strolling around since earlier…”
“I was worried you’d be startled.”
“Pardon?”
“Hunting isn’t as clean and elegant as depicted in novels. Blood splatters everywhere and flesh gets torn apart brutally. Could you watch such things?”
His unexpectedly honest words that struck straight to the point pierced deep into Kasallin’s heart, which had barely managed to regain its composure.
Though it was a blunt and gruff tone mixed with informal speech, it was definitely consideration.
“I’m grateful for your words, but I’m not as weak-hearted as you think.”
“Is that so? Then that’s fortunate.”
“Fortunate?”
Parnes dismounted from the horse and skillfully picked up his bow, focusing on a certain point in the sky.
Just then, a large hawk was circling overhead, making its characteristic sharp cry.
“Are you going to hit that hawk?”
“Yes.”
“It seems too far away…”
Before Kasallin could finish her words, an arrow shot out sharply from the smoothly drawn bowstring.
It hit the target in one shot, and a small exclamation escaped from between Kasallin’s teeth.
“Your skill is remarkable.”
“Take it.”
“Pardon?”
“I’m telling you to take it. Whether you boil it or roast it.”
Kasallin’s gaze slid from the hawk that had fallen far away among the bushes to his face.
“But giving someone the game you caught at a hunting competition has special meaning, doesn’t it?”
She expected to hear an indifferent answer as usual, saying he didn’t care about such useless traditions.
But Parnes remained silent for quite a long time without responding.
His eyes, whose thoughts were unreadable, persistently stared at Kasallin’s slightly reddened cheeks and the lips positioned like flower buds below them.
“Your Majesty?”
“Would it be wrong if it had special meaning?”
When the bewildered Kasallin asked what he meant, Parnes pretended not to hear and avoided her gaze while lightly whistling a signal.
Then the guard knights who had been secretly following nearby approached leading horses.
“The sun will set soon. Kasallin, you should return to the lodge before it gets late.”
“What about Your Majesty?”
Parnes answered while gazing into the forest where sounds so subtle that only someone with keen senses could notice them were coming from.
“I’m going to catch one nasty-tempered deer before I go.”
[This is the timeline separator]Though there was no sign of the day darkening yet, a reddish tinge was gradually spreading across the sky that had been blue at midday.
After sending Kasallin back to the lodge with the guard knights, Parnes, left alone in the forest with its eerie atmosphere, walked leisurely somewhere as if enjoying a stroll.
“I wonder what others would say if they knew the king was following a maid’s every move.”
Parnes, who had stopped in a clearing where animal tracks were scattered here and there, spoke to the empty air.
After a while, Shallen emerged from behind the densely grown underbrush.
In his hands were a bow and arrows stained red with animal blood.
“You’re making a strange misunderstanding. I was simply enjoying hunting while roaming the forest.”
“Then you’d better go back quietly. From here on, it’s an area where wild wolves appear.”
Unless you want to be torn apart and killed.
As Parnes’s low warning eerily echoed through the clearing, something large appeared from within the shadows, prowling around.
It took Shallen some time to realize that it was a real wolf, not an illusion or trick of the eyes.
“Wait, there’s a wolf behind you!”
“I’ve known this fellow since my days as crown prince. Quite clever. It’s hostile to ordinary humans, but it follows my commands well.”
Parnes didn’t bat an eye even with the house-sized wild wolf right in front of him. He even petted the creature’s head.
The wolf seemed completely submissive to Parnes, closing its eyes gently and nuzzling with its nose.
“I think I was around fifteen. It suddenly charged at me and bit my arm, so I stabbed it several times in the shoulder with a knife, and from then on it became docile.”
This is insane.
If risking one’s life to tame a ferocious wild beast at such a young age isn’t madness, what is?
Shallen forced a relaxed smile and took a step back.
“Let me tell you what I have to say first. I just want to give you one piece of advice.”
“Advice? What advice.”
Parnes asked languidly while stroking the wolf’s back.
The wolf, sitting obediently with its amber eyes glowing quietly, looked ready to pounce and tear Shallen apart the moment his command was given.
“As one man to another, let me advise you. Kasallin is not a woman with a clean past. Nothing good will come from getting close to her.”
Parnes’s hand, which had been petting the creature’s fur, stopped abruptly.
An ominous silence filled the gray forest.
“Her past is not clean.”
Parnes muttered lowly as if chewing over those words, his eyes losing focus in a rather chilling way.
Shallen felt a chill at the back of his neck, but believing he could sufficiently persuade him as someone who had lived a similar type of life, he began to speak passionately again.
“That’s right. You know nothing about Kasallin’s true nature.”
“Humans don’t even know their own true nature, so how can you speak so confidently as if you see right through hers?”
“That’s because I’ve known her for a long time.”
Shallen was seized by the impulse to tell him everything about his past relationship with Kasallin.
That he had been with Kasallin for a full ten years, that they had shared passionate love countless times, and that he had completely claimed all of her firsts.
That he knew every secret part of Kasallin that you don’t know.
He wanted to boast so confidently, but the atmosphere surrounding Parnes was too ominous to act on such thoughts.
Shallen lowered his voice and continued.
“…Kasallin is a cunning woman. The reason she treats you kindly is purely because she wants the position beside the emperor and his wealth. Don’t be deceived by her seduction. I’m giving you this advice with genuine sincerity.”
“She seduces me.”
Parnes muttered as if he understood completely.
Seeing signs of persuasion, Shallen nodded eagerly.
“How surprising.”
Parnes recalled the image of Kasallin he had quietly observed all this time.
A person whose only hobby, unless something special happened, was to sit quietly in a secluded garden and read books.
A woman who could live a more glamorous life than anyone if she wanted, yet carried endless deep loneliness and wounds.
Despite all that, someone who never complained once and did her best at her assigned duties.
That occasionally childlike bright smile of hers was meant to seduce him.
How truly surprising.
“Do you know what kind of food she likes?”
At Parnes’s sudden question, Shallen narrowed his eyes.
“Why are you suddenly asking that…”
Thinking for a moment, Shallen trailed off with lost eyes.
Come to think of it, he had never really paid careful attention to what she liked to eat.
Such things weren’t important.
“Despite not looking like it, she has exactly the taste buds of a child. She despises green beans and broccoli but readily eats sweet fruits. Especially when apples are preserved in honey and sprinkled with cinnamon powder, her cheeks even turn rosy.”
“……”
“Don’t you find it strange? You’re the one who’s known her for a long time, so why do I know more about her?”
Parnes walked slowly with both hands shoved crookedly into his pockets.
Under the overwhelming pressure as if a giant rock or ancient tree was bearing down on him, Shallen’s breathing became slightly rough.
“Listen, Your Majesty the King. Let me make this clear once and for all – even if Kasallin really is seducing me, I don’t care at all.”
Parnes continued in a voice that seemed to rumble low from the bottom of the ocean floor.
“If it’s her seduction, I’m willing to fall for it at least once.”
The Male lead Always Seduces Her with His Beauty (Matriarchy)
Xin Jiao Zhou is the leader of the world’s premier sect. She has just experienced betrayal from all sides, was poisoned in an assassination attempt, and faced death squad attacks while the poison was taking effect. After finally clearing out the scum from her sect, she was drugged again while trying to detoxify.
After waking up from a night of unconsciousness, she gained a “beautiful and kind-hearted” husband.
Xin Jiao Zhou: “???”
He fell ill.
She came to see him, bringing breakfast.
As she put down the breakfast and was about to leave, his hand slipped while holding the spoon. “Clank!”
She turned around upon hearing the noise.
He looked up at her, his eyebrows drooping: “My hand… has no strength.”
“Shall I… feed you?” she asked tentatively.
He opened his mouth cheerfully: “Ah—”
Thinking she was drowning, he jumped in without hesitation to save her, but nearly drowned himself. In the end, it was she who swam over to rescue him, giving him air underwater.
After emerging from the water, his ear tips turned red. He lightly brushed his cheek, tucking his sideburns behind his ear, revealing delicate, pink-tinged ear tips. He lowered his gaze, too embarrassed to look at her.
Xin Jiao Zhou: He’s truly beautiful, kind-hearted, and adorable.
A certain someone when disciplining subordinates behind the scenes: “If they don’t obey, just kill them.”
What’s that? She might already have someone she cares about in her heart? A certain someone: Find out who it is, kill them, and then there won’t be anyone.
What? She met a man by the riverside? What? That man even hurt her? A certain someone: Whichever hand hurt her, chop off his entire arm.
Love at first sight without realizing it, gradually falling in love, slowly getting closer…
Family and national grudges, schemes and desires, good and evil, crime and punishment, she and he face the future together, seeking justice with passion!
A naturally dark female lead who could accidentally destroy the world but is actually an honest person VS a weak, pitiful, and helpless but skilled fighter, beautiful white-cut black male lead
My heart is not of stone, how steadfast is your love? — Tao Yuanming “Imitating the Ancients (No. 3)”
— Reading Guide —
Cold female lead & dramatic black lotus with hidden yandere traits male lead
