“Her Majesty the Empress. His Majesty the Emperor has arrived.”
“……At this hour?”
Rasilia glanced at the ornate table clock perched above the fireplace.
It was an awkward time.
Too late for dinner, and too early for sleep.
Having recently returned to the palace and changed out of her outdoor attire, Rasilia had been waiting for Yvette.
She admittedly knew too little about the empire. She needed to know everything about her first companion and the contract they had made. After requesting books on the subject, Yvette had dashed off to the royal library.
She had looked so thrilled, claiming this was something she could excel at, that Rasilia couldn’t bring herself to dissuade her.
Rasilia planned to read the books Yvette brought back and then take a bath, but the Emperor had appeared in the meantime.
“Isn’t it too early?”
Rasilia tilted her head, looking somewhat perplexed.
She was genuinely confused.
It wasn’t just the timing; dealing with the Emperor had been increasingly awkward.
“Her Majesty the Empress?”
Seemingly disturbed by her prolonged thoughts, a voice from outside the door called out again.
In any case, turning the Emperor away was out of the question.
“Ah……. Open the door.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
Rasilia rose to her feet, preparing to greet the Emperor.
In her mind, she was figuring out how to diplomatically send him away.
‘The Blue Moon is already over…….’
So, there was no reason to spend the night together.
‘But I can’t use amnesia as an excuse anymore.’
Pretending to be the Empress while claiming amnesia had not been too problematic; it was the most effective way to navigate the situation.
However, things between her and the Emperor had subtly changed. For one, he seemed to know she wasn’t the real Empress of Carthage, and she might indeed be his true companion.
Initially, the Emperor had been someone who flawlessly identified and exploited any weaknesses. Rasilia suspected he was already prepared with an irrefutable reason for her to not refuse him.
‘So what should I say? Should I say he’s still a stranger?’
Would that even be accurate?
Is the Emperor really still a stranger?
Upon reflection, it was quite bizarre. The Emperor did not even know her name, let alone who she was. Yet, he treated her as if she were his real companion.
‘Is destiny really that potent? To the point where even real names don’t matter?’
Lost in these spiraling thoughts, Rasilia missed the moment the Emperor approached her side.
“May I ask what you’re thinking?”
“Ah……. You’ve arrived.”
She nearly shouted in surprise.
Rasilia leaned back, avoiding Lescal, who had come close to inspect her expression.
“I was waiting for Princess Shraiden. I asked for some books to read.”
“And?”
“That’s it.”
“I don’t think so.”
Lescal had an annoyingly keen intuition.
To change the subject, Rasilia offered him a seat.
“Please, sit down. You seem to have finished your duties early today.”
“Not really.”
Ignoring the chair Rasilia had indicated, Lescal sat right next to her.
This wasn’t the first time he had done this, and she had been through it several times before, but this time it was most troubling.
‘Because the thought that he might actually be the one is haunting me.’
Because it meant that she would, in some way and at some time, fall in love with this man.
What used to be other people’s issues—companionship and physical contact—had become her own.
Even his faint breath became a distraction.
“I will move my seat.”
Unable to bear it any longer, Rasilia moved to the chair opposite him.
Lescal opened his mouth, looking as if he had a lot to say but couldn’t quite articulate it.
“Do you really… have to?”
Lescal softly inquired after a while.
“Yes.”
Rasilia found it hard to answer.
If it had been before, she would have easily brushed aside the Emperor trying to cozy up to her with a mere expression of annoyance.
But now, it was difficult.
“Why……?”
“Our relationship has changed, that’s why.”
“Why?”
Rasilia couldn’t comprehend his incredulous questioning.
“Hasn’t it changed?”
People change, so relationships must change too, right?
‘Was Lord Horsed wrong? Has the Emperor never considered the possibility that I might be a completely different person?’
In the end, the one who was wrong was Rasilia.
Since the Empress lost her memory, that is, since she became the real consort for an unknown reason, Lescale had always been the same.
“Is it because of the young Duke?”
So Lescale looked for reasons in the wrong place.
Rasilia unknowingly narrowed her eyes.
“What do you mean?”
“Why you don’t want to sit with me. You allowed it before.”
“It wasn’t that I allowed it, but rather, Your Majesty… No, what do you mean it’s because of the young Duke?”
“I said I would forget, but it’s not like that yet.”
“…?”
Her thoughts were tangled.
‘What the heck. If he had thought I was different from the Empress, he wouldn’t like the young Duke… Was that not it after all?’
But it didn’t seem like Decan was lying. It was a pointless lie.
“What do you think I am, Your Majesty?”
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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