“I know it’s an impudent remark, but I think His Highness the Crown Prince’s personality is exactly like Your Majesty’s.”
“If you know it’s impudent, you shouldn’t say it. And to say Kayan takes after my personality? Don’t talk nonsense. I was already mature at that age.”
Ludwig, with a reluctant expression as if he couldn’t accept it, closed his mouth.
Though he spoke half-jokingly like this, the truth was that realistic concerns were starting to creep in about whether Kayan could handle the role of Crown Prince in the future.
Some might say it’s too harsh to hold a three-year-old child to such strict standards, but they lived in the imperial palace.
In particular, the Crown Prince begins imperial education between the ages of three and four, right after the official investiture ceremony. It was uncertain whether Kayan could endure that long and arduous process.
[This is the timeline separator]The Crown Prince’s palace, where Kayan resided, was close to the Empress’s palace.
Kayan loved running out of his palace and playing in the Empress’s garden. It wasn’t because there was anything special in the Empress’s palace, but because when he played there, Kasallin would hear him and give him attention.
He was always that kind of child, but with the first snowfall, he was practically like an untamed colt.
Kayan sat in the snow, crying, while the nursemaids and knights, pale with worry, didn’t know what to do. It was obvious what had happened without needing to investigate further.
He must have climbed the rocks near the pond to slide down and fallen, scraping his palms.
“Your Highness!”
Startled by the injured Kayan, Kasallin rushed outside without looking back. Parnes ordered the maids to fetch a shawl and followed her.
As they stepped into the garden, a biting wind scratched at their skin.
“Your Highness, are you alright?”
Kasallin knelt to Kayan’s eye level, gently opening his red, scraped palms. Wanting to appear brave as a prince, Kayan put strength into his tear-soaked eyes.
Parnes draped the shawl over Kasallin’s shoulders and approached Kayan. Kayan looked up at his father with a slightly tense expression.
Parnes spoke in a stern voice.
“Your Highness. I believe I told you last time that sliding on rocks is dangerous and not allowed. Have you forgotten your father’s words?”
“N-no.”
Kayan, subdued, fidgeted with his fingers and shook his head.
Usually, it was Kasallin’s role to sternly reprimand or discipline Kayan. This was her decision. Parnes’s imposing presence and stern manner could easily make him a figure of fear, not just to children but to adults as well.
Parnes somewhat agreed with her opinion. Reflecting on his own time as Crown Prince, his father had been an unapproachable, distant figure he couldn’t even meet eyes with.
Parnes knew how bleak and uncomfortable it was to be a Crown Prince destined to follow in his father’s footsteps while fearing him. So, he didn’t want to be imprinted as a terrifying figure to his child.
But when Kayan made dangerous mistakes like this, Parnes would step in.
Kayan was the precious heir who would one day lead the Rennel Empire. When he engaged in reckless behavior that could lead to serious accidents, he needed sharp warnings.
“If you get hurt, not only your mother but many others will worry. So, you must never do dangerous things again.”
Kayan replied in a small voice, “Yes.” It was unclear whether this small, young child truly understood.
Since reaching a certain age, Parnes hadn’t found anything particularly difficult. Whether it was swordsmanship or academics, he could master them by studying and practicing a few times.
But parenting was a field where Parnes struggled. Unlike other disciplines, there were no clear answers, leaving him with many concerns.
Moreover, Parnes was the Emperor. Naturally, he had little time to spend with his child. He made an effort to visit the Crown Prince’s palace daily, but that alone couldn’t instantly bridge the emotional distance.
Was the relationship between an Emperor and a Crown Prince always like this? Or was it because his personality and tone were inherently far from warm?
Or perhaps, did he simply not know what it meant to treat his son with warmth and affection?
‘It’s difficult…’
The shadow over Parnes’s face grew darker.
[This is the timeline separator]Thick snowflakes piled softly on the transparent ceiling of the glass greenhouse, creating a spectacular sight.
Amid the lush tropical plants, Kasallin, seated across a round table, paused as she brought her teacup to her lips.
“You want to grow closer to Kayan but don’t know how?”
Parnes, answering with silence, let bitter coffee flow into his mouth. Kasallin tilted her head.
“To me, it seems like you’re doing well enough. Despite your busy schedule, you make time to visit the Crown Prince, talk with him, ask if he needs anything, and even read to him sometimes, don’t you?”
“It doesn’t feel like enough. He’s afraid of me.”
“Hmm…”
Kasallin, touching her chin and thinking for a moment, let her eyes curve slightly.
“In short, you want to express affection to the Crown Prince more actively, but it’s not going well.”
“What?”
Parnes let out a faint, incredulous chuckle but didn’t deny it.
Parnes loved Kayan. How could he not love the one treasure born between him and Kasallin?
But when he was with Kayan, he found himself acting stiffly without meaning to. He felt lost, caught somewhere between the roles of Emperor and father.
“Well, maybe.”
Parnes shrugged, reluctantly admitting it.
Kasallin stretched her arm across the table and touched Parnes’s cheek. Parnes, as if it were natural, closed his eyes and kissed the back of her hand.
“You don’t seem like someone bad at expressing emotions.”
“Are you testing me?”
Kasallin laughed softly, gently stroking Parnes’s face.
“Your Majesty is already a wonderful father and Emperor. I think if you keep doing what you’re doing, there won’t be any problems.”
“…”
“Your Majesty, are you listening?”
“What about you?”
At his abrupt question, Kasallin slightly raised her eyelids. Parnes slowly grasped her hand, still touching his cheek, and said,
“Is there nothing you want differently from me?”
“No, not really… I already have more than enough.”
Before Kasallin’s words could fully form, they dissipated into the air. Parnes’s white eyelashes lowered calmly. He pulled her wrist closer, pressing his lips to the hollow of her palm.
“Is there really nothing you want?”
He murmured, tracing down her wrist. Kasallin’s shoulders trembled slightly at the delicate sensation.
As a flush spread across her face, Parnes swiftly wrapped his arm around her waist, pulling her onto his lap. Kasallin clung to his shoulders, her eyes subtly scanning their surroundings.
“This is the greenhouse. People can see from outside.”
“Why does it matter if they see?”
“What?”
“We’re just a married couple spending time together. Who’s going to say anything? Besides, I’ve ordered no one to come near the Third Palace, not even an ant.”
At that moment, Kasallin’s face flushed like a roasted sweet potato. As she opened her mouth, unable to continue, Parnes burst into loud laughter.
“I hate you.”
“Sorry, you’re just too cute.”
“It’s too late for that. I’m leaving.”
Kasallin, with a faint pout, tried to stand and pull away. Parnes gently pulled her back, kissing her face softly to soothe her.
“Don’t go. We haven’t had much time to relax together lately because of Kayan.”
“We’re together every night.”
“Didn’t I tell you before? I love seeing you at night, but I also love seeing you in bright daylight. Do you know why?”
Kasallin shyly shook her head. Parnes, nibbling gently on her ear peeking through her dark hair, continued.
“Your embarrassed face, your flushed cheeks, your swollen lips, all the beautiful parts you show only to me—I can see them clearly. That’s why I love it.”
Before his words finished, Parnes softly covered her lips with his. Though Kasallin blushed intensely, she eagerly returned his kiss.
Her small fist clutching his shirt and her trembling eyes were unbearably lovable. Even after all this time, moments with her felt like an unbelievable miracle.
“Parnes.”
Kasallin called softly, wrapping her arms around his neck. Parnes felt pure happiness and a burning desire well up deep within him. It was clearly his limit. He could no longer hold back.
Parnes, holding the back of her head with one hand, gently laid her on the table. The cooled coffee was promptly relegated to the side table, an uninvited guest.
They gazed at each other’s faces, holding their breath for a moment.
“No matter how I think about it, this is a miracle.”
Parnes murmured in an enraptured voice. A small question arose in Kasallin’s eyes.
“A miracle?”
“That you, whom I love, love me back—it can only be described as a miracle.”
He would be grateful every moment until his last breath. In this overwhelming happiness, living each day with her felt like a miraculous life.
Male lead is a Divorced Husband
She said to him: “Tell me, what makes you like me? I’ll change it!”
Liu Changning transmigrated into a female cannon fodder character in a female-dominant novel.
After reading the first half of the novel’s plot, the first thing she did upon transmigration was to divorce the Pan Jinlian-style male protagonist she had just married.
She indulged herself, pretending to be ugly and poor.
But as time passed, the way that man looked at her became more and more unusual…
Liu Changning was dumbfounded: Tell me, what makes you like me? I’ll change!
――
This lifetime, Pei Yuanshao was rejected by the same woman twice!
The first time, she drove him away. Forced by the situation, he endured the waves of anger in his heart, yielding and humbling himself.
That person lay slanted on a rocking chair, her sallow face emotionless: “If you don’t want a divorce, go cook!”
Pei Yuanshao’s face was dark and gloomy: “You!”
The second time, after the crisis in Jinling City was resolved, the new emperor sent someone to pick him up. He turned around, stammering: “I… I have to go. If you keep me…”
That person lay on the kang bed, her back to him, as if she had long anticipated this day, crisp and clear: “Goodbye!”
Pei Yuanshao was so angry his fingers trembled: “You… you!”
The mission of family and country made him restrain himself, averting his eyes and turning to leave this broken household.
Two years later, they met again. Seeing her ethereal face, his body shook like a sieve.
“She was originally a ‘she’!”
At the Qionglin Banquet, the top scholar of the imperial examination, a talented person with exceptional speech and conduct, all the unmarried young gentlemen from aristocratic families looked at her with shy and timid eyes.
The peerless imperial official Pei Yuanshao felt the anger in his heart erupt. He pointed at the woman surrounded by the crowd at the Qionglin Banquet, his thin lips slightly curled: “Little sister, I wants that person to be the wife-master of my Mingde Prince Manor.”
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