Watching Elise crying and saying that even His Highness shouldn’t treat her this way, Christine gazed at her coldly.
“Elise, regardless of how you’ve conducted yourself, or what’s contained within, rumors have spread and the honor of the Pelur royal family is hitting rock bottom. His Majesty the King was so enraged that he wanted to grab you by the hair and force you to kneel, but I stopped him. He even tried to bring the Crown Prince to scold you severely, but I stopped that too. Do you know why?”
Elise was just shedding tears without answering, but Christine continued.
“When the Crown Prince learns of the rumors surrounding you, he won’t stay still. When people see him going berserk, they’ll gossip even more. Because of you…”
Christine pressed her index finger to her temple, then released it.
“It’s really giving me a headache. My head hurts. So Elise, please be careful with your conduct. Don’t sneak out of the palace at such a late hour, keep in mind that there are eyes watching you everywhere, and live quietly. Do you understand?”
Elise looked like she had a lot she wanted to say, but in the end, she just pressed her lips together and nodded. Watching Elise’s retreating figure as she staggered away, Christine laughed coldly.
‘Now you’ll start to get anxious.’
The reason Christine had asked Joseph V to let this pass quietly for now without reaching Lucas’s ears was to get rid of Elise.
From now on, Elise’s mind would be filled with trying to find ways to prevent this rumor from reaching Lucas’s ears.
‘It’s harder to prevent a rumor that everyone knows from reaching just one person’s ears than to clean up a secret that’s already been revealed.’
Elise would become anxious and uneasy. She’d be so busy fretting about who might tell Lucas this rumor that she wouldn’t pay attention to the blade aimed at herself.
Meanwhile, the poison that had been sent to Elise through hired hands had been ineffective. It was clear that someone was protecting Elise.
‘But tomorrow…’
Whoever was protecting Elise wouldn’t be able to accompany her to the tea party. With her mind full of thoughts about the rumor, Elise wouldn’t be able to pay attention to what she was eating.
A tea party to welcome Floyd and his fiancée Roxiana. The reason for holding such a grand tea party and inviting so many nobles, despite hating Floyd so much, was precisely for this.
At that place with many witnesses, Elise would eat the poison and die. And at that place would be Roxiana Franche, who had lost both her country and family because of Elise.
‘Then Floyd, who do you think people will believe put that poison?’
It was difficult to touch Floyd directly. So the only option was to use someone close to him.
‘The crime of killing a pregnant woman, not just a single person, would be extremely severe. It would be an even greater crime than what Elise Hailis did to the Franche family.’
Christine’s lips curved up askew.
‘You won’t be able to protect anyone, Floyd. Just like you couldn’t protect your mother.’
+++
How did this happen? Who spread that rumor? If it becomes known that I’m involved, even my life would be in danger, so who would do such a foolish thing?
What should I do now? How long can I prevent it from reaching Lucas’s ears? When he finds out about this rumor, how will Lucas react?
He’ll go berserk. He won’t believe me. He might even drive me out on the spot. Then what should I do? How should I speak for Lucas to believe me?
There was no time to go to the Crown Prince’s palace to gauge Lucas’s mood. As soon as Elise returned to her room, she collapsed and burst into tears.
She felt miserable about her situation. She had only tried to do well, only wanted to be happy, so why did these things keep happening? What did I do wrong?
After crying for a while, Elise came to her senses when she felt the baby kicking in her belly and placed her hand on her stomach.
Despite Christine’s torment, the baby was growing well. That was the only comfort for Elise.
‘You’ll be Lucas’s child, right?’
She wanted to believe that.
‘Even if you’re not… as long as you resemble Lucas. I hope you have blonde hair. Or blue eyes like Lucas or me with orange hair like mine. Please, please do that for me, baby. That’s the only way you and I can live together. That’s the way for us to survive.’
But she wasn’t sure if she could safely give birth to this child.
Because of the incident in Canta, Lucas had been furious with Elise, but he had withdrawn his anger because she was pregnant. If he found out about the rumors that this child might not be his, Lucas would drive Elise out without even trying to verify the truth of the rumors.
‘What should I do? It’s only a matter of time before that rumor reaches Lucas’s ears. What am I really supposed to do?’
Perhaps due to anxiety, her stomach cramped. Elise groaned, holding her belly, but didn’t call for anyone. She didn’t want to cause a commotion right now.
−”Elin, are you okay? Oh no. Wait a moment.”
Why? Why does Roxiana come to mind again at a moment like this?
Once when she had a severe cold, even though the doctor had already seen Elise and left, Roxiana stayed by Elise’s side the whole time. She brought water in a basin and changed the wet cloth, staying up all night by Elise’s side.
How reassuring it was to have Roxiana there every time she woke up.
The cloth that Roxiana wrung out was more soaked than what the maids had done, so water dripped down moistly, but it felt good. The worry in those green eyes, the small hands wringing out the cloth felt good, allowing her to fall asleep with peace of mind.
She thought there was only terrible loneliness while living in the Ider Palace, so why do the good memories keep coming up recently?
Tears that she had barely stopped started flowing again.
How nice it would be if Roxiana were by her side now. She would surely watch over her with worried eyes and tell her. That there’s nothing to worry about, that the child growing inside will be born safely and live happily.
‘No, no. She wouldn’t do that. I killed her family members. Her family members killed my family. The reason she was nice to me was because she felt sorry for killing my family. Because she pitied me. So those weren’t good days. They were just days pretending to be good. It was just sympathy she could show me because she was a princess, because she was far above me.’
Elise’s eyes grew cold.
Remembering Roxiana living comfortably as a princess in the Ider Palace made her stomach churn. Recalling her own situation where she had to call her ‘Princess’ in front of others even though they were friends made her blood boil.
‘This is no time to cry.’
Elise wiped away her tears with the back of her hand.
‘I need to resolve my situation first.’
It was clear there was no evidence for the rumors surrounding Elise now. If there was evidence, the nobles would have already stepped forward to demand that Elise be removed from her position as Crown Princess.
The reason they were staying quiet was because this was still just a rumor. They wouldn’t want to be seen as vulgar gossipmongers believing rumors and trying to bring down the Crown Princess.
‘Then I just need to get rid of the evidence.’
Why did she cry when there was such an easy solution?
Laughter leaked out, pfft, pfft.
“I’m so stupid. Bugs, I have you, don’t I?”
Lanian, who had been in the darkness, revealed himself. Feeling love and pride for her own slave who would appear just by calling his name, Elise reached out her hand towards him.
Lanian took Elise’s hand in both of his as if it were a precious jewel and kissed the back of it. His attitude, as if performing a solemn ritual, made Elise feel much better.
“Lanian. Will you go to Kingteren and kill the people I tell you?”
Elise recited the names of the men she had slept with. Lanian, who was listening attentively, asked.
“Should I bring back their fingers?”
“No, that’s fine. It’s hard to dispose of those. How soon can you do it?”
Lanian smiled prettily.
“I’ll be back tomorrow, my lady.”
+++
“Is this dress alright? There are more elaborate ones too.”
Looking at the dress Roxiana had pointed out, Petria asked curiously. The dress Roxiana had chosen to wear to today’s tea party was elegant but subdued, not eye-catching.
“This is fine. Tea parties generally avoid overly flashy attire. Besides, there’s nothing good about wearing something more elaborate than the queen. But we shouldn’t look like we lack money either, so…”
Roxiana examined the jewelry box.
“Let’s go with slightly more expensive hairpins and earrings.”
Roxiana left her adornment to the skilled maids and gazed at her reflection in the mirror. The faint smile lingering on her lips was not feigned.
‘Today I’ll finally be able to have a proper conversation with you, Elise. We didn’t even have time to exchange a word in Canta. Now I can finally see with my own eyes how happily you’re living after betraying me. So I’m truly delighted. I hope you’re delighted too.’
The light purple dress that exposed her shoulders fell in soft, flowing lines without puffing out due to the soft material of the petticoat. The reason for exposing her shoulders was because she wanted to show them once again. To show that there was no brand on these shoulders.
The maids styled her hair to match the subdued dress, and pinned up the neatly arranged hair with a large hairpin studded with rubies and blue diamonds.
When she finished her preparations and came out, Floyd was waiting in the hallway. He too was wearing a subdued black suit today, which surprised Roxiana a little. She had expected him to be dressed in flashy, glittering attire like last time.
He gazed at Roxiana as if entranced and reached out his hand towards her chin, when the maids cried out.
“Your, Your Highness!”
“You mustn’t!”
“You’ll smudge her makeup!”
At the maids’ urgent cries, his hand stopped abruptly in mid-air.
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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