“Your Majesty, would you like some tea?”
“…No interest.”
It had been the same answer for several days.
Riyan internally clicked his tongue.
“Lack of hydration will damage your skin.”
“…”
“Her Majesty the Empress said your face is handsome…”
“…Ha.”
Lying on the office couch and covering his face with his arm, Rescal moved his arm away and glared at Riyan.
His eyes had grown sharper in the past few days, very intimidating, but Riyan stood his ground.
“Please hydrate. Rough skin affects your appearance.”
Rescal quickly sat up.
“Bring anything.”
“A wise choice.”
His face wouldn’t look emaciated just from fasting for a few days. Riyan simply didn’t like how Rescal lay there, deflated like a deflated carpet.
Soon, a servant brought warm tea, snacks, and water.
“Please drink.”
Rescal picked up the water glass within reach. However, as if he couldn’t muster the will to swallow it, he just held the glass.
“Your Majesty.”
“I thought you’d come to like me. Someday.”
“…What?”
Riyan was taken aback by the direct statement.
Thud.
Rescal put the glass down and slumped back onto the couch. Shielding his eyes with his arm again, he spoke.
“So, was the Empress’s rejection of me because of Duke Pielion?”
“Uh… are you asking me about Her Majesty’s intentions?”
“Yes.”
Underneath the shielded face, it seemed his lips twisted.
“I have no idea. No matter how much I think.”
“Uh, well… originally Her Majesty was romantically involved with Duke Pielion, but… although she couldn’t avoid marriage… if she couldn’t settle her feelings… No, I apologize. I don’t know either.”
Human emotions were far too complex compared to swordsmanship. Riyan was a man who believed he only needed to excel at swordsmanship.
“I don’t like her now.”
Rescal blurted out.
“Yes, Your Majesty?”
“The Empress. She doesn’t like the Duke anymore. She’s lost her memory.”
“Uh… whether the amnesia is genuine is yet to be determined.”
Crash.
Something broke. Rescal rose, grabbing and tearing the couch armrest.
“Your Majesty. The chair is broken.”
“If her amnesia is false, then why does the Empress feel different?”
Indeed, that was undeniable.
The Empress had certainly changed. She seemed like an entirely different person. The malicious, cunning Empress was now nowhere to be found.
“What if the persona she showed for the past four years was a lie?”
“Intentionally? Why?”
“Her Majesty had no choice but to marry. She might have been trying to earn your distaste to facilitate a divorce… No, it’s not necessarily that, but it could be a possibility… Uh…”
As Riyan spoke, he noticed the increasingly sharper glare from Rescal and stopped himself.
After some time passed, Riyan added a word of comfort.
“…However, since her memory loss, Her Majesty has not summoned Duke Pielion to the palace. He visited once, but.”
Duke Pielion had been quiet ever since.
If they’d loved each other enough to live a lie for four years, something didn’t quite fit.
“Did the Empress like Duke Pielion a lot?”
“I don’t know, Your Majesty.”
“How did she look at him? How did she look at me when I disturbed them?”
“Uh, well…”
In hindsight, Rescal wasn’t asking Riyan.
“…Damn it. I can’t remember.”
“…”
“I don’t know what the Empress has done or how she felt for the past four years.”
“That’s because you didn’t pay attention.”
“I know. How I treated the Empress.”
To him, the Empress was like a picture hanging on the wall. He knew what she looked like, but that was all.
Although they were spouses, he felt no emotion. The only time he felt anything was when he confirmed the mark. And even that disappeared when the Empress clothed herself and covered the mark.
So he thought that’s what marriage was.
Enduring the pain of the Blue Moon, the empress’s presence had never been more crucial. All that mattered was to establish contact before turning thirty. Beyond that, nothing else mattered.
He felt no emotion towards the presence of Count Pielion. Pregnancy would have been troublesome, but the empress had said herself that such a thing would never happen.
“Yet…”
He hadn’t known then.
He hadn’t foreseen that he would reach a point where he couldn’t even take a sip of water, recalling the way the empress looked at the count.
“…Why didn’t I know?”
“What did Your Majesty not understand?”
“That a companion could be like this.”
Riyan wore a genuinely regretful expression.
“It would have been better if you had known from the start.”
“Indeed.”
Rescal’s response was very quiet, which ironically told how big his regret was.
Riyan struggled to find comforting words.
“It’s perhaps too early to say that your relationship with her has completely ended. It took four years for you, Your Majesty, and maybe the empress needs more time to open her heart.”
It was at that point.
Shut, thud.
With a distinctive footsteps different from the twin knights, Dekan appeared.
(This is a time separator.)
“Ah… may I come in?”
Dekan hesitated, as if the air inside the room was heavy.
“Come in. What have you found?”
Male lead is a Destined Young Husband (Female-dominant)
One-sentence summary: Wife-master, listen to my explanation!
Li Ruantang, a young lady from a prestigious family, stumbled and fell. When she woke up, she saw a noble and beautiful young man sitting by her bedside, wiping away tears.
The young master had slightly reddened eyes, and his every move exuded charm.
The sight made Li Ruantang’s eyes hot and her heart flutter. After all, she had made a bet with the young master Meng from the neighboring family. If she couldn’t marry a husband before the end of the year, she would have to admit defeat and give up the jade she had worked so hard to obtain.
Outside the window, the flowers were in full bloom.
Rather than losing the bet, the jade, and her face, Li Ruantang calculated that it would be better to seek marriage with the young master in front of her, killing three birds with one stone.
…
Meng Jun never thought that an accident during a spring outing would lead to them rolling down a cliff and into a river, yet still survive.
Now they were trapped in an unknown village, and Meng Jun had overheard that the family who had rescued them had their own intentions.
After all, it was Li Ruantang who had lost her mind and sought marriage first. He was only trying to protect himself!
Glancing at Li Ruantang, who was listing her own merits, the young husband’s voice softened, and he blushed as he lied, “W-wife-master, Wife-master, don’t you remember me?”
The young husband’s voice was clear and handsome, coaxing Li Ruantang’s heart to be soft and sweet, and she spared no effort to protect him.
It wasn’t until they returned to the capital that Li Ruantang suddenly remembered.
When they had fallen off the cliff, in order not to implicate Wei Yunruo, whom he secretly admired, the young husband had instead pulled her, who was slightly farther away, down the cliff with him…
Short summary by Yuushi L: Initially, the male lead (ML) liked another girl, while the female lead (FL) liked the ML. Both fell off a cliff. The FL temporarily lost her memory, and the ML, fearing others might take advantage of him, claimed FL was his wife while they were staying in a village. Later, when they returned home, the FL regained her memories and remembered that the ML liked someone else, so she kept her distance from him. However, during their time living together in the countryside, the ML’s view of the FL had completely changed. From this point, his pursuit of the FL begins.
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