The person who would not come to see Natasha first was Sieghart.
He tilted his face askew when he discovered the woman trying to go out.
“I have a brief errand to run……”
She hurriedly trailed off. While speaking, the sound of the door locking was heard.
Urgently looking towards the door, she saw the other person putting the key in their pocket. Sieghart had really locked the door.
Natasha was appalled by the rude behavior. As she glared at Sieghart as if to say ‘What are you doing?’, the man pointed out her plan as if to justify his rudeness.
“It would be quite a long journey to the Grand Duchy, are you going without notifying me?”
“……What are you……!”
“That won’t do. The money you’ll spend, the carriage you’ll ride, the clothes you’re wearing, and the land you’re staying on. It’s all mine.”
Sieghart walked over step by step and threw a piece of paper in front of her.
It was the letter in question that the Grand Duke of Kshant had not replied to.
“You were trying to betray me.”
The low murmuring voice did not immediately register in her ears. The question was why the letter that should have been on the Grand Duke of Kshant’s desk was sweeping across the innocent floor.
Could this possibly be the Grand Duchy’s response? Saying they don’t want any cooperation, so don’t contact them again.
Natasha’s mind went blank as if her thought processes had stopped.
In the meantime, the man who had come close grabbed her slender shoulders. Unlike his harsh face, the hand gripping her body was gentle. It was as if he knew what pain his brute strength could cause.
“You said you would cooperate with the Grand Duchy.”
“……”
“So that’s what you chose instead of this place? You seem to be misunderstanding something, you’re no longer a princess. After giving them what they want, you’ll be treated like a rag. Far from being protected, you’ll end up being exiled.”
His attitude of scolding her made her laugh involuntarily.
Treated like a rag, unable to be protected and exiled. It was amusing that the man was trying to lecture her. In any case, she was already a foreigner and an outsider in the Duke’s household.
It was no threat to warn that she would be treated worse there.
“I merely chose a better hell to escape from hell. Don’t treat me like a fool.”
Natasha barely managed to hold back her rising anger. Even if she yelled and struggled, the man watching would only frown once and that would be the end of it. If her struggles would be seen as mere light resistance, it was better not to start the fight at all.
“So this place is hell for the princess.”
“Did you think it was paradise?”
A hint of doubt seeped through in the other’s whisper. Even that slight bewilderment was clearly an act of deception.
Betrayed by the man she loved, despised by the servants. Her body had no freedom, confined to live only within the room.
Is there any other word to describe such a life besides hell?
“It was a good place. Because I didn’t have to fear death under the protection of an honorable family. Knights to protect me and servants to help with my daily life, along with a luxurious room and meals. I received things beyond my station as a princess of a fallen country. The reason this place turned into hell……”
“……”
“Sieghart, it’s because of you.”
In the end, Natasha lamented. It was because the other’s obtuseness in not knowing how much influence he had on Natasha’s life irritated her.
“Then should I become better?”
“……What did you say?”
“I’m asking if hell can become paradise again if I become a loving husband who cares for the princess.”
It would have changed.
This time, she managed to swallow the answer. Her pride wouldn’t allow her to voice her true feelings this time either.
It was too late to turn back her altered world.
When she asked for help after being threatened by the Imperial family. No, when she desperately begged to save Cayena.
Sieghart should have changed then.
But the man showed belated interest and affection as if intending to stop Natasha from running away. As if that would change the woman’s heart.
[This is the timeline separator]An uneventful afternoon no different from past days was progressing. Someone came to visit Natasha’s office, which rarely had visitors.
“I will escort you to the dining room.”
The maid who greeted her politely then guided her to the dining room.
Other servants they encountered in the hallway bowed to Natasha with terrified faces. Those who had never treated the woman as the Duchess before were showing uncharacteristic respect.
Upon arriving at the dining room, Sieghart seated at the head of the table greeted Natasha. He who had been waiting for her in a rigid posture shifted his gaze at the approaching footsteps. It was an unnecessarily elegant sequence of movements.
“……I told you false courtesies are no longer necessary.”
Natasha muttered as she sat in the designated seat for the Duchess. She wondered what kind of false play this was.
“You also added that it was tiresome.”
As expected, he casually retorted.
“You’ll get used to it as time passes.”
His answer exuded a sense of expertise, as if he had achieved results like this before.
After the meal was served, Natasha slowly began to eat. An awkward mealtime with no conversation continued.
‘I feel like I’m going to get indigestion.’
She couldn’t taste anything from the chef’s dishes that normally drew praise. It was difficult to continue eating due to her broken sense of taste and the heaviness in her stomach.
If she had to pick a cause, it would be the other’s lingering gaze.
“I cannot eat anymore. I will take my leave now.”
She rose from her seat and left the dining room, heading towards her room. She ran wildly, not minding that her flowing dress would hinder her movement. She believed the pounding of her heart was due to the exertion.
The room she arrived at afterwards was quite strange. Until this morning, it had been perfectly fine, but now all of Natasha’s belongings had disappeared.
Footsteps approached behind the bewildered woman. It seemed to be the person who had been following her from the hallway. The maid, who had been regulating her breathing with pursed lips, finally raised her voice.
“We have moved the lady’s quarters. From today, I will guide you to your new room.”
“You moved my belongings without a word to me?”
“We processed it quickly and didn’t have time to inform you. Please understand.”
Natasha could no longer be angry at the person bowing politely to her.
The maid entered a familiar path and soon stopped in front of a familiar room. She stepped back beside the door, signaling for her to enter.
“I think you’ve mistakenly guided me to the wrong room.”
“No, my lady. His Grace the Duke ordered us to move your belongings here and guide you. From now on, you will share the same room as His Grace.”
“You mean I’m to share a room with him?”
“Yes.”
She demanded clarification, saying it was absurd. However, what followed was a confirmation shot stating that everything was true.
Was this what he meant by becoming a loving husband?
Natasha was dumbfounded by the man who had changed his attitude as easily as flipping his palm.
[This is the timeline separator]Natasha, of course, was not pleased with her husband’s change.
The kindness surrounded by lies reminded her of their previous encounters, bringing more pain instead. Like clothes getting wet in a drizzle, the existence of Sieghart Asthart seeped into her daily life, doubling her suffering.
‘I don’t understand.’
As if they had received strict orders from Sieghart, the maids flocked in as soon as morning came to attend to the Duchess. Seeing the bustling room, Natasha sighed softly.
She didn’t know what benefit he had gained from marrying a princess of a fallen country, but he was a person who had acted terribly for half a year for her marriage. Then, after achieving his goal, he had carelessly cast her aside and treated her as if she didn’t exist.
He might have acted as a husband for a while, but it was truly only for a moment.
‘If you don’t want to dine together, don’t want to kiss, if that’s how you feel… I’ll cancel the marriage even now and return to where I was before, please let me go.’
Suddenly, a faded memory came to mind. The man who had avoided meeting her on the pretext of being busy as soon as she set foot in the Duke’s residence, and then suddenly acted affectionately after some incident.
‘Surely then too…’
It was also when Natasha had demanded a divorce. Even now, her aim to escape to the Grand Duchy, leaving the man and the Duke’s household behind, was no different from a divorce.
‘Normally, one should be happy when someone they dislike says they’ll leave.’
Does he still have a purpose for her?
‘He’s waiting for my heart to soften, and when he thinks it’s alright, he’ll turn cold again like before.’
This time, it was Natasha’s turn to use the other’s kindness. Now was the appropriate time, when he believed she had given up on escaping, blinded by his kindness. The dried-up romance gave birth to realistic advice.
[This is the timeline separator]That day, Natasha obediently headed to the dining room. After finishing a delicious meal made up of her favorite foods, she casually dropped a comment.
“I want to go out. I was thinking of visiting the nearby village, would that be alright?”
“I’ll have a knight assigned to escort you to the village.”
“And if possible, I’d like to go out with a changed appearance.”
Faced with his gaze fixed on her, she hurriedly added an explanation.
“I think the gaze of the territory’s people might be burdensome. Since it’s an unofficial outing, I’d like to relax comfortably.”
“I understand. Then I’ll summon a priest and order them to change your appearance as well.”
“Thank you, Sieghart.”
Natasha deliberately put on a smile she didn’t feel. Seeing her smile, Sieghart followed suit and raised the corners of his mouth. Perhaps because of this, he didn’t question her further and readily let her go.
__________
“Tell me, what makes you like me? I’ll change!”
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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