“She was a kind fairy.”
As they left the garden of the Lily Palace, Jewelry said. Dennis nodded.
“Yeah, but there are no fairies in this world, Jewelry. It wasn’t a fairy, but a princess.”
“There’s no way a princess would be here.”
“There is. Dad told Mom. He said a princess came to live in the Lily Palace.”
“Really? Then it wasn’t a fairy but a princess?”
“Yeah. She looked like a princess.”
Jewelry recalled the face of the pretty older sister they had just met, listening to her brother’s words.
Hair shining silver in the sunlight, skin white as snow rarely seen in this country, jewel-like eyes sparkling under beautiful eyebrows.
She wasn’t wearing a fancy dress like an imaginary princess, but she was far more beautiful than any imaginary princess. So Jewelry decided to acknowledge her as a princess.
“She was a kind princess.”
“Right. If it had been Sir Cain or Sir Adrian, they would have picked us up and thrown us out there.”
“But why did the princess cry?”
She was grateful that the princess didn’t scold them for playing in the garden. Mom said you should give a gift when expressing gratitude, so she made a bouquet.
Expecting to see a smiling princess, instead, the princess buried her face in the bouquet and cried for a while.
As the two were flustered, not knowing what to do, a maid said,
“Young miss, young master. It’s best if you go back now. It’s almost time for the knights’ training to end.”
At those words, they came to their senses and fled the scene.
“Maybe someone she loved died.”
At Dennis’s words, Jewelry stopped walking.
“Like Sister Carrie?”
“Yeah. When Sir Vester died, Sister Carrie had that kind of expression too.”
“Then that’s too pitiful. Brother, let’s be nice to the princess. Sister Carrie said she got strength because we were nice to her, right?”
“Yeah. Let’s be nice to her. But now we need to get home quickly before Dad catches us.”
“Okay!”
As the children were about to move again, they stopped at the sight of a giant figure walking towards them from the opposite direction. A bright smile appeared on the children’s faces as they looked up at him.
“My lord!”
As the children shouted simultaneously, a smile spread across Floyd’s face. Floyd looked down at the children with honey-dripping eyes and opened his arms.
Jewelry and Dennis ran dodododo and hugged Floyd. Floyd hugged Jewelry with one arm and Dennis with the other, then stood up abruptly. Jewelry giggled as she was suddenly lifted high.
“Where have you been?”
“To the Lily Palace.”
At Dennis’s answer, Floyd’s arms tensed.
“The Lily Palace? To the garden?”
“We met a pretty princess at the Lily Palace.”
This time Jewelry answered. Floyd looked back at the path leading to the Lily Palace garden.
“The princess was out in the garden?”
“Yes. But is that sister really a princess?”
“Yes, she’s a princess.”
“She’s really pretty. Even prettier than Sister Carrie. She’s a kind princess.”
“She was kind?”
“Yes, she didn’t get angry even though we were playing. But, my lord. When we gave her flowers, she cried.”
“Hey, don’t say things like that. Didn’t I tell you not to gossip about people crying?”
“But the princess is so pitiful. You said her loved one died.”
“I said that might be the case.”
Looking down at the children already bickering, Floyd fell into thought. He couldn’t tell if it was a good thing or not that Roxiana cried after receiving flowers from the children.
“My lord, can we go play at the Lily Palace again?”
At Jewelry’s question, Floyd thought for a moment and then nodded.
“Sure, go play there sometimes. I’ll talk to your father about it.”
After putting down the brightly smiling children, Floyd ruffled their hair and walked towards the Lily Palace.
+++
When Roxiana returned to the palace led by Petria, it was a little past lunchtime. While the maids were moving food onto the table in the reception room, Roxiana stood by the window.
She placed the bouquet she received from the children in a flower vase that happened to be empty.
-We’ll take good care of you.
-These children will live for a long, long time.
Those voices that only Roxiana could hear were no longer annoying as before. Thank you, she said inwardly as she gently stroked the petals.
“Lady Roxiana, please have your meal.”
At Petria’s words, Roxiana turned and headed to the table. Despite telling them not to prepare too much food, there was enough to overflow the sofa table.
“I can’t eat all this alone, so Petria, please eat with me.”
“No, how could I…”
“Eat with me, Petria.”
Petria blinked, then carefully sat down across from Roxiana. Roxiana was about to pick up some bread but changed her mind and cut a piece of crispy roast pork, moving it to Petria’s plate.
Petria looked down at the juicy meat with a moved expression and said,
“Thanks to you, Lady Roxiana, I’ve been indulging in luxury food lately.”
“Is that so?”
“Jackie too… Oh, Jackie is an apprentice cook working in the kitchen. He said he’s gaining weight thanks to the food you send back. Ha, but this isn’t good. Lady Roxiana should be eating more.”
“I’m eating plenty.”
Roxiana cut a piece of bread and dipped it in the soup sprinkled with finely chopped and crisply fried bacon. Just as she was about to put the soaked piece of bread in her mouth, a voice was heard from outside the reception room.
“May I come in?”
Petria hastily put down the fork she was holding and jumped up, heading towards the reception room door. Roxiana also swallowed the bread in her mouth and stood up, preparing to greet the owner of this palace.
Soon, Floyd strode in through the opened door.
Every time she saw him, she felt it, but Floyd’s presence was so overwhelming that just his entering made the room feel suffocatingly full.
Roxiana walked towards Floyd and was about to kneel, but before she could, Floyd grabbed her arm and pulled her up.
“I thought I told you not to do this.”
Floyd asked, looking around the reception room.
“You were in the middle of a meal.”
“I’m finished.”
“You’re finished?”
Floyd frowned and looked down at the food that remained untouched. As his gaze turned to the plate opposite, Petria flinched.
Sharing a table with the princess, surely a rebuke would follow.
But Floyd said nothing, led Roxiana to the sofa, sat her down, and sat down opposite her, saying,
“Eat more.”
“Is that an order?”
Floyd’s brow twitched.
“Yes, it’s an order.”
Roxiana let out a short sigh and picked up her fork. Watching this, Petria realized it wasn’t an atmosphere she should be in and quietly left the reception room.
Floyd watched Roxiana reluctantly put food in her mouth, chew, and swallow, then averted his gaze. It was painful to keep watching her swallow food made with all sorts of good ingredients as if she were eating mud.
As he looked around aimlessly, his eyes fell on the flower vase by the window. The vase held a few stalks of unnamed wildflowers.
That must be the bouquet Jewelry and Dennis gave her.
I heard she cried, but seeing that she didn’t throw them away, does she like them? Should I order to uproot all the garden flowerbeds and fill them with these wildflowers?
Floyd opened his mouth while keeping his gaze on the wildflowers.
“They are flowers.”
Roxiana, who had been looking down at her plate, lifted her head and followed his gaze.
“Yes.”
“Do you like flowers?”
“Yes.”
“I see. What else do you like?”
Roxiana closed her mouth and said nothing more. Floyd, waiting for an answer, felt a surge of anger but suppressed it and said,
“I’ve sent people towards the Kingdom of Kanta, so we should have news from there soon.”
Again, Roxiana gave no answer. Floyd, feeling inexplicably anxious, added,
“Perhaps someone from the Franche royal family might still be alive.”
Only then did Roxiana turn her gaze to look directly at Floyd.
“Really? Do you truly, sincerely think so, Your Highness?”
Her tone was even, but Floyd could sense a hint of anger in her voice.
Floyd wanted to tell her, even if it was a lie, that someone had luckily survived, that they had escaped well. Perhaps then, a faint light might return to those lifeless eyes.
But even those lifeless eyes strangely bound Floyd, making it impossible for him to lie.
When Floyd didn’t answer, Roxiana lowered her gaze. The shadow cast beneath her long eyelashes looked like tears of blood.
“Your Highness, I am grateful for everything you have bestowed upon me. But please, do not breathe futile hope into me. Do not let the fire attached to the hope I’ve barely discarded burn my flesh once again. If you wish for this body that remains in this life to live even a year, gathering the ashes, then just leave me be to live on, breathing without any hope.”
Floyd felt a tightness in his chest at her heartfelt plea, devoid of resentment or blame. He felt anger rising at her attitude that still hadn’t abandoned resignation.
‘I’m getting angry again.’
It’s not something to get so angry about, but he couldn’t understand the surging fury. And what was even harder to understand was…
‘Why is nothing happening?’
Floyd looked down at his palm.
When he felt this bad, flames should have been flowing from his body. At least the surrounding air should have become scorching hot.
But now, it was suspiciously calm and peaceful, as if the mad being coiled deep inside Floyd had fallen asleep.
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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