The substitute greeted the incoming person with a bright face.
It was a tall man who blended well with the palace knight’s uniform.
“This is Sir Havel, the commander of the palace knights. Have you two met for the first time?”
It was Havel, Violet’s older brother.
An awkward greeting slipped out due to the unexpected encounter.
“Oh, good afternoon.”
Why did it have to be Havel of all people?
I had parted on bad terms because of Violet.
“Nice to meet you, Your Highness the Grand Duchess.”
“Have you met each other formally?”
“Yes.”
“Then things will proceed much more smoothly!”
The substitute, oblivious to the atmosphere, laughed boisterously as if to cheer us on together.
“If you’ve finished your work, would it be okay to have a short conversation with you, Your Highness?”
“Yes? Is it about security since the commander has come?”
“I’ll let you know that directly.”
Havel hinted towards the door, but the clueless substitute didn’t catch it.
“Oh no. No, it’s not. I can’t postpone the duties of a busy commander. Now, let’s look at the palace map together…”
Tap.
Havel grabbed the map and pulled it towards me.
“I’ll personally inform Your Highness the Grand Duchess about this.”
He smiled, but his eyes seemed to send a silent reproach.
Only then did the substitute notice and quietly gathered their belongings.
“If the commander will do it, I appreciate it. Then, may I leave now?”
With that, they hastily rushed out of the room.
In the end, the substitute disappeared, leaving Havel and me alone.
An awkward silence hung in the air.
Our previous conversation about Violet had been quite rough.
Havel couldn’t greet me lightly as he used to.
He struggled to control the urge to burst out with a face that seemed ready to explode.
“Violet is doing well.”
“After hearing the news of the duel, are you okay since then?”
“It’s the same as usual.”
Even though Violet was continuously on my mind. I was relieved to hear that she was doing fine.
“How is Her Highness the Grand Duchess?”
Looking into his eyes, which were lowered until now, I asked.
“Why do you ask me for my well-being? I’m just asking about the Grand Duchess.”
“I understand. I’m doing well. Sir Havel, how have you been?”
“Me? Are you asking about my well-being?”
Of course, you must ask me for my well-being.
Even though he smiled, Havel’s eyes seemed to convey a hidden resentment.
I nodded casually.
“Obviously, I haven’t been well. I feel like I’m walking on thorns because I think I’m hated by Her Highness the Grand Duchess.”
He blamed me and lamented how difficult it had been for him all this time.
After hearing the story, he seemed more haggard than the last time.
“Just focusing on training without proper meals only improved my physique.”
I lightly smiled at his grumbling. His honest appearance looked good.
“You suffered because of me.”
“But still, I’m glad we can meet like this again. And there’s something I wanted to tell you.”
As I nodded, he continued his story.
“As you mentioned last time, Violet secretly investigated who might be behind all this. If the maids conspired to do such a thing, she even considered dismissing all the staff.”
Peach fuzz accumulated in Violet’s teacup.
It seemed like she tried to find the instigator without letting go of the incident.
“But I heard something strange.”
After exhaling a deep sigh, Havel wiped his chin.
“You couldn’t identify the instigator?”
“In the end, we couldn’t. At first, we thought the maids, who had been working for a long time, might have conspired to support each other. So, one by one, we called them and asked them to write down everything they saw on the day when Grand Duchess arrived. However, the results were strange.”
“How so?”
Havel looked at me once and pursed his lips.
“I might earn Her Highness’s resentment again by saying this. Still, it’s better to be honest than hide it.”
“It’s okay. Whatever it is, please tell me.”
That way, I could also know the truth.
And I didn’t want the original plot to progress any slower.
The Marquis de Sharpenne’s people should start regretting.
Then it would be my turn.
“All of them said there were no peaches in the Marquis’s food warehouse. After the trouble with the peaches when we first arrived here, the head cook stepped forward and cleared away the peaches.”
What he said was completely opposite to what I expected.
“So, someone brought the peaches separately?”
He nodded, chewing on his lips.
Then, with a stern face, he added a shocking statement.
“According to the maids, it seems like Violet did it herself.”
Huh?
My eyebrows furrowed at the strange answer.
“The lady wouldn’t bring them herself. Is that accurate information?”
“I’m not doubting it. It’s just that the maid who was cleaning Violet’s room said that she found peach pits in the trash that Violet had burned. Violet supposedly burned them herself.”
As I made an incredulous face, Havel, who had been watching my reaction, continued.
“I’m not suspicious either. But it’s strange. It’s hard to find peaches in the Marquis’s, and Violet’s actions are the only memorable ones concerning peaches. Everyone remembers the incident with peaches involving Violet’s room.”
“It doesn’t make sense no matter how much I think about it. Why would the lady deliberately swallow peach fuzz? That’s almost like ingesting poison voluntarily.”
If I took the wrong measures, my life could be in danger.
The fact that Violet had ingested it herself was almost equivalent to drinking poison.
It didn’t make sense no matter how much I thought about it. Havel, too, seemed frustrated with the lack of understanding.
“I’m puzzled too. I tried to understand because she’s family… But I can’t understand anything. I know Violet felt neglected by me and my father. But even if I try to get closer to her, it feels like she’s getting farther away.”
His voice, filled with frustration, burst out as if overwhelmed. I quietly listened to his story.
“These days, she goes outside day and night and doesn’t come back. It’s even difficult to have meals together. It seems like Violet closed the door to her heart after the last time. This is undoubtedly our fault. If we embraced her as a family, Violet wouldn’t have ended up like this.”
He clenched his head as if blaming himself and continued with a shocking statement.
“One day, I spoke to Father, and he forcefully opened the door that Violet had locked. Suddenly, Violet… threatened to throw herself off the terrace if he didn’t close the door again. Father was terrified.”
Wait, but you said Violet is doing well?
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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