“Answer me. Was that really all?”
Parnes asked as if interrogating.
In front of him, Kasallin felt like a child who had done something wrong.
Even if she didn’t know much else, she could tell Parnes was somewhat out of composure, seeing the mysterious heat rising in his eyes.
She didn’t know how far he could see through, but it seemed he instinctively sensed she had just faced Shallen.
Was her expression so poor that he could tell at a glance?
“I was in the powder room when Shallen came in. It seemed he was waiting for a chance to talk to me.”
She didn’t want to ruin his mood on such a fine day.
But she hated brushing it off and saying it was fine without telling him anything, so Kasallin calmly recounted what had happened, sticking to the facts.
“As usual, emotions flared, and a few unkind words were exchanged. There was nothing worth paying much attention to.”
“So, where is he now?”
“Sorry?”
“That guy.”
“What… are you planning to do?”
As if saying her imagination would know better, Parnes looked down at Kasallin with an impassive expression, saying nothing.
Kasallin realized the strange atmosphere emanating from him since earlier was not a mistake.
He was somehow different from usual.
His low voice, reciting lyrics without sound, was as gentle as ever, and his gaze showed no trace of agitation, yet it was different.
A madness enveloped his entire being, one that wouldn’t seem strange even if he went to find Shallen and casually snapped his neck.
“You’re my fiancée.”
He, who seemed like he’d never speak again, opened the conversation once more.
“For a man to barge into a powder room used by women without permission is clearly wrong, especially if it involves the future empress of this country. So, it’s only natural for me, the emperor, to give a word or two of warning.”
“Well… that’s true.”
It was a valid point.
But the problem was the ominous feeling that today, it wouldn’t end with just a word or two of warning.
Parnes seemed like he could do anything right now and it wouldn’t be surprising.
“Oh, Lady Kasallin. There you are. I’ve been looking for you.”
When the air between them felt several times heavier than usual, the person approaching from the end of the corridor with hurried steps was Loren Logia.
“Her Majesty, the Queen of Kan, wishes to see you… uh…”
Despite being slightly less perceptive than others, Loren Logia seemed to instinctively sense this wasn’t the time to interrupt Kasallin and Parnes.
She looked anxious, as if unsure what to do.
Kasallin turned her gaze from Parnes and spoke to Loren Logia.
“Has the Queen of Kan finally arrived at the ballroom?”
“Oh, yes. She’s been asking for you as soon as she arrived. What should we do? Should I make up an excuse?”
Kasallin wasn’t in the mood to meet anyone.
Especially if it was Rose, she’d likely bring up old matters, which would be even more emotionally draining.
But Kasallin didn’t want to cower and dodge arrows just for such a reason.
“No. As the future empress, how could I avoid meeting the queen of a neighboring country? I can make time, so please escort her to the first-floor parlor.”
“No. Say Kasallin is too tired to attend further, and if she has something to say, she should come to me.”
Parnes dismissed Kasallin’s words like an unnecessary card, pushing them aside.
Loren Logia hesitated, unsure whose orders to follow, and Kasallin quickly looked up at Parnes.
“Your Majesty, as the future empress, I still have duties to attend to in the hall. Why are you acting like this?”
“Just as Shallen Riche didn’t treat you as the future empress, Rose Riche won’t either.”
“Wherever and whoever I encounter, that’s something I’ll have to face on my own in the future.”
“No. You don’t have to face anything.”
When Parnes delivered that short but clear, gentle yet strange statement, Kasallin realized why he felt different from usual.
Parnes was trying to cut off any possibility of her being hurt or distressed before it could even sprout.
If meeting Shallen upset her, he’d make sure she couldn’t meet him.
If meeting Rose troubled her mind, he’d ensure she couldn’t meet her either.
With a cold attitude that didn’t consider Kasallin’s opinions or will in the slightest, Parnes took her hand and led her toward the emperor’s palace.
“Your Majesty.”
“I’ll handle everything. So don’t take anything to heart, and don’t meet anyone. There’s no reason for you to struggle.”
As the emperor and Kasallin had been absent for too long, a few knights came looking, wondering if something was wrong.
But Parnes didn’t even entrust Kasallin to them, instead warning them to back off as if they were interrupting his time alone with her.
While being helplessly dragged by Parnes’s much larger hand, Kasallin suddenly put strength into her wrist and sharply shook off his grip.
“Does not having to face anything mean I should just obediently follow Your Majesty’s words, sit prettily like a doll, and only accept protection?”
Like I’m Your Majesty’s possession?
Kasallin muttered as if adding on.
In the corridor where moonlight flowed like silver silk, Parnes stopped abruptly and, after a long pause, slowly turned around upon hearing her words.
His eyes were frozen in quiet shock.
“I… don’t want that.”
At that moment, the moon, which had been shining brightly, hid behind a blanket of clouds as if it had been waiting.
As a dark shadow fell where light should have been, she couldn’t make out his expression.
Kasallin knew that Parnes, standing rooted in the middle of the corridor, no longer intended to hold her back.
She gave a light bow and left his side, retracing her steps.
[This is the timeline separator]“Your Majesty, why are you in a place like this? With the wedding so close, it’d be troublesome if you caught a cold.”
Having wandered the corridors for a while, Ludwig entered the hallway, breathing heavily.
Seeing Parnes standing like a pale statue, Ludwig paused his breath for a moment.
Even long after Kasallin had left, Parnes remained motionless in place, staring at a point in the void with empty, chilling eyes.
“Your Majesty?”
“I ended up hurting her.”
The hand that shook him off in rejection.
Her trembling lips, saying she didn’t want to be a possession, still vividly lingered, and Parnes tightly closed his eyes.
He knew it was wrong, and he had warned himself countless times not to do it. Yet before he realized it, he was trying to bind her.
“You’re like your father; you’ll never be able to love in your life. It’s your nature. You were born that way.”
“…Mother.”
“Don’t be mistaken. If you ever crave something, it’s not love. It’s selfish, base possessiveness.”
Just like his father had done to his mother.
Completely disregarding her will, keeping her locked away in his embrace, unable to meet anyone.
If he did that, at least she wouldn’t be hurt or troubled by people like Shallen or Rose, as she was today.
“…Damn it.”
If she hadn’t coldly rejected and pushed him away today, his filthy desire to isolate her from the world would have grown uncontrollably.
Even now, before they were married, it was this bad.
He couldn’t even fathom how much worse it would get once they were officially husband and wife, spending more time together.
A single trivial trigger like today could make him lose restraint and hurt her again.
“Why can’t I shake it off?”
Sorting things out, cutting things away.
Wasn’t that what he was best at?
Yet why, out of all the people in the world, did it have to be Kasallin?
When he looked at her, he felt endlessly warm, like a lamb basking in spring sunlight, yet sank into boundless darkness—a contradictory mix of emotions he couldn’t trace.
The answer to that question felt like a mirage, within reach yet ungraspable.
[This is the timeline separator]The engagement banquet concluded more or less successfully.
Most guests said they had a wonderful time and expressed their intent to attend the wedding and empress coronation in four days.
Everything proceeded smoothly as planned, making her worries seem unnecessary, but on the night before the wedding, Kasallin couldn’t help feeling a strange unease.
“Maybe I was too cold to His Majesty.”
If she had looked harder, there might have been other ways.
Holding a steaming cup of herbal tea, Kasallin sat alone on the balcony.
The vast forest, spires piercing the sky, and unfamiliar guards passing by with the dry clank of metal.
She was gazing at the imperial palace’s scenery, like a dark sea she didn’t know when she’d get used to, when—
“You’ll catch a cold.”
A sudden voice from the darkness below startled Kasallin, nearly making her spill her tea.
Looking down in surprise, she saw Parnes leaning casually, looking up at her.
“Your Majesty, how are you at the empress’s palace at this hour…?”
“To apologize.”
As Kasallin blinked in a daze, Parnes took a slow, deep breath, his expression showing he knew exactly what he wanted to say.
And then, a short phrase she never expected to hear from him rang out more clearly than ever.
“I’m sorry.”
“…”
“I promised to respect you as the future empress of this country, yet I treated you like an immature being with no agency. And I tried to control you to suit my tastes.”
There was no sugarcoating.
It was a calm apology, so honest it felt impossible to read his true intentions.
Kasallin tried to choose a response from countless options.
But before she could, Parnes continued.
“There won’t be another day like today.”
There was no grand meaning behind it.
Just a simple, “I’m sorry, and I’ll make sure this doesn’t happen again.”
No more, no less—an ordinary apology. Yet to Kasallin, it somehow felt like he was drawing a line between them.
As if proving her premonition right, Parnes said,
“And today is probably the last day I can treat you as Kasallin.”
It was the expected flow.
Staying within their respective boundaries, respecting each other without crossing lines.
But as Parnes drew that line, promising not to cross it, Kasallin felt an indescribable pang of disappointment.
To feel disappointed meant, in other words, she had secretly hoped for something special from him.
“Could it be… I don’t want to remain just an emperor and empress with him?”
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.]
