“I would never give such a thing as a gift.”
The denial came out immediately.
At that moment, my eyes met Clodel’s.
Her expression was minimally emotive, almost doll-like in its impassiveness, but her eyes, which had been looking at him as if begging for help or a solution, dimmed with disappointment.
As soon as I saw that, I had a fleeting thought of regret, but what I said in this castle was law.
If Kyan says it’s right, then it is, and if he says it’s wrong, then it is.
If he calls blue red, the retainers will agree it’s red, and if he calls white black, the servants inside the castle will say it’s black.
Such is the absolute power of the lord of the castle that I couldn’t retract what I had just said in front of so many watchful eyes.
Especially over such a trivial matter as whether or not I had given a button decoration as a gift!
“Of course, that’s what the Bermonts would do.”
“Balmont encircled in gold by the Bermonts must’ve been a false rumor.”
“Ha ha. To fancy such trivial things. Must’ve never seen a real jewel in her life.”
Laughter and mockery poured onto Clodel and her maid.
Kyan shouted.
“Enough. Be quiet and everyone leave.”
The mockery and taunting towards the two women from Balmont continued until the corridor was empty. Even from the stairs below, someone shouted, “Thief!” and raucous laughter echoed from afar.
After that, Kyan felt awkward.
Clodel had closed her mouth tightly and bowed her head, while her maid, who had been picked on and beaten, sat on the floor.
He had never extended a hand or cared for someone else.
That wasn’t what was expected of a lord.
Kyan was supposed to be like a shield: firm, strong, and sharp like a sword.
Can one imagine a shield or sword extending a hand of comfort?
Since his word was always right, he had never even apologized.
But now, for the first time, a strange feeling spread in his chest.
A faint sense of guilt.
However, Kyan didn’t fully recognize or understand it.
He was raised that way.
He turned the awkward and uncomfortable emotion into annoyance at Clodel for asking for such a trivial thing and even boasting about it.
“Don’t cause a commotion.”
At Kyan’s words, Clodel’s shoulders flinched.
“It means to live quietly. No one in Lohen Castle will take your side.”
With these harsh words, he turned around, relieved that the matter was somewhat settled.
‘Why would she ask for such a thing?’
Kyan left with long strides.
“What kind of person is that?”
As Hanna applied medicine to the bruised and bloodied area, she couldn’t hide her frustration.
“Wow. Really low. The worst I’ve seen in this castle!”
“Stop it, Hanna.”
“What do you mean stop? I haven’t even started yet.”
Clodel’s quiet attempt to calm her down only made Hanna explode.
“He tortures people in such a clever way. I fell for it once, but never again. I won’t let him get away with this.”
“That man is not like that. You’re misunderstanding…”
“A lady gets treated like this and still defends him?”
Hanna shouted in disbelief, while Clodel shut her mouth.
Her gaze fell on the ambiguous object on her finger – whether to call it a ring or a button decoration was unclear. Noticing this, Hanna glared.
“Give it here! I’ll take it to the kitchen and use it as kindling.”
“Don’t.”
Still, worried that Clodel, who had been getting thin and listless lately, might hurt her finger, Hanna relaxed her grip.
“I can’t stand it. Really.”
“I’m sorry, Hanna.”
“Not you, lady. That thing.”
Clodel hesitated and covered her left hand with her right so it couldn’t be seen.
“I almost started to dislike you.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Oh, just throw that thing out the window. Didn’t you see what the Duke did earlier? And yet you still put up with it.”
Clodel covered her mouth with her hand and coughed softly.
“Cough. Cough cough.”
Clodel felt sorry for Hanna, but she thought she couldn’t fully explain everything she was feeling.
She found out she had Herzol about two months ago.
Balmont Castle is located far north in the Kingdom of Oberon, spending half the year in frozen lands.
In these cold lands, there was a coughing disease called Herzol, a deadly illness where one coughs for a hundred days, eventually coughing up blood and dying.
The disease was highly contagious; if one person caught it, up to eighty percent of a village could die from it.
However, someone found a way to overcome it.
It was discovered that if one mildly suffered from Herzol and recovered, they wouldn’t catch it again.
Especially since babies who caught it would almost certainly die, a Duke of Bermont centuries ago established a small village to manage the disease.
Before a child’s first birthday, they were taken to a village near Balmont Castle for the ‘Ice Baptism.’
The child would be lightly rubbed with a towel used by a patient suffering mildly from Herzol, which allowed them to also mildly suffer from it and recover.
Before the Ice Baptism, Herzol was a disease that ended only when an entire village perished.
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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