“Leave? To where…….”
“Here. This tedious place.”
Was he merely testing the waters? However, Libel’s eyes were clear and unwavering. He straightened his back and looked around. Everyone was engrossed in their conversations and drunkenness, not even sparing a glance or thought for the two of them.
Ilaide instinctively glanced towards Claudius and Celina. By now, the two were entwined in each other’s arms, whispering intimate words. Just as she thought. A short sigh escaped her lips.
But no matter how indifferent the surroundings were, caution was always necessary. If someone spread the fact that she was leaving with a foreign mercenary, it could be twisted into something strange in no time.
“There are many watchful eyes. It’s dangerous to leave like this.”
“Then, let’s do it like we did that day.”
Libel raised his index finger to his lips. Was he signaling for silence? Ilaide, without realizing, nodded in response.
He then reached out his hand towards Ilaide. She stared blankly at his palm, not understanding his intention.
The worn surface of his black leather gloves was clearly visible. She felt an impulse to see his bare hand, stripped of the glove.
“Will you take it?”
His words made her face flush. It seemed as if he had heard her inner thoughts. Carefully, Ilaide took his hand, barely clasping the tips of his fingers.
Libel smiled softly at her and said,
“From now on, don’t focus on anyone else. Think that there is no one around Her Highness, the Empress, and me, only the two of us exist.”
How could that be possible with so many people around? But as she had experienced before, she knew his words were not false.
And she didn’t want to hesitate and end up alone in this dreadful space.
“I understand.”
She helplessly placed her hand on Libel’s outstretched palm. No sooner had she spoken than Libel turned, holding the tips of her fingers.
His steps were cautious yet unhesitating. The people around them seemed to have completely forgotten their existence, engrossed in their own affairs.
Ilaide, heeding Libel’s advice, focused all her attention on him walking ahead.
It felt as if time was moving slowly around them. A time that flowed only for them, unnoticed by others.
Was it just a feeling? Even amidst the noise, his footsteps were clearly audible.
Light fragments falling from the chandeliers scattered brilliantly above his head. The light reflected endlessly on his black clothes. It was like a moment of magic.
Perhaps he was a magician disguised as a mercenary. When she reached this thought, the cool outdoor air touched her skin.
No one was in sight. They had somehow ended up far from the banquet hall. Ilaide looked at Libel in surprise.
“It’s really… like magic.”
“If the Empress feels it’s magic, then it must be magic.”
“What if I say ‘the sun is dark’? Will you believe it to be dark from now onwards?”
“From today, I will think so.”
Ilaide laughed off her nonsensical comment, but Libel did not. Could he really be taking her seriously?
“Everything Your Highness says becomes a rule and law for me.”
If Ilaide declares darkness to be light, then in Libel’s world, all darkness would shatter and shine brilliantly. Libel believed this without a doubt.
Could someone they had just met make such a firm statement? Ilaide, who had intended to use him, was left flustered, struggling to find words.
“You speak as if…… I’m everything to you.”
“Is that not allowed?”
Why did his question seem to carry a chill? It wasn’t just because of the cold night air.
Ilaide recalled Linette’s warning. To be cautious of Libel. That what he might be after could very well be the Empress herself.
Then she realized they were still holding hands. Ilaide hastily withdrew her hand, noticing too late. Libel’s black hand seemed to stir the empty air, seemingly reluctant to let go.
To change the awkward atmosphere, Ilaide tried to sound cheerful.
“By the way, how do you do it? It doesn’t seem like an ability you can use without any conditions.”
“It requires quite careful attention. You need to maintain focus, or else you’ll be discovered quickly.”
“So, you’ve been caught before.”
“There was one time.”
Libel briefly laughed as if recalling that incident. If it weren’t for that incident, he probably wouldn’t have caught Turgel’s eye and joining the Ricus Mercenary Group would have been impossible.
A series of coincidences. Maybe coincidence is just destiny in disguise, an inescapable fate.
Libel disliked the idea of fate. But if being able to stand before Ilaide was the work of fate, he was willing to believe in it, just this once.
The moonlight, momentarily hidden behind clouds, descended to the ground. The finely sharpened light cut through the darkness, illuminating the two of them.
Now Libel’s figure was clearly visible. His face, which she couldn’t bear to look at in the banquet hall, shone clearly under the white light.
Despite his rough occupation, he had a relatively handsome face. The shadow created by his fallen hair rested neatly above his eyebrow bone.
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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