The Lenardo Viscount’s mansion was not too far from the Grand Duke’s palace. It was a modest but clean building with a training ground and garden, not very spacious.
“Ahahahaha!”
Even before entering the building, a man’s laughter could be heard.
“Kyaaaaaah!”
“Noooooo!”
As children’s screams followed, Roxiana stopped in surprise and turned to look at Percy. Percy shook her head with a sigh.
“Looks like they’re at it again.”
Playing?
Upon entering the building, it was indeed play.
Hexten had a white sheet draped over him, running around yelling “Ohohohoho!” and “Grrrr!” while the children screamed and ran away from their father.
With the sheet covering his view, Hexten flailed his arms wildly and bumped into Roxiana.
“Oops! Who’s grown so big?”
Saying that as he lifted the sheet, Hexten saw Roxiana standing before him with wide eyes and blushed.
“Ah… P-Princess… W-When? Why? No, um… Welcome.”
It was amusing to see the large man resembling a golden lion flustered. Roxiana realized she almost laughed and covered her mouth with her hand.
“Ah, yes. Thank you for welcoming me.”
“Princess!”
The children, belatedly noticing Roxiana, came running and hugged her tightly, then suddenly stepped back and greeted her politely.
“We greet the Princess.”
“We greet you.”
Both Dennis trying to act grown-up and Jewelry imitating her brother were cute and lovable. So Roxiana smiled faintly without realizing it.
Seeing Roxiana’s smile for the first time, Hexten’s eyes widened and he elbowed Percy in the side. Percy stood on tiptoe and whispered to her husband.
“Well, His Grace the Grand Duke asked to go see the circus together.”
“What!”
Hexten blurted out, then laughed “Hahaha” and put his arm around Percy’s shoulder when Roxiana turned to look.
“I was just surprised by my wife’s beauty.”
“Ah… I see.”
Fortunately, the children each took one of Roxiana’s hands and led her somewhere. As soon as Roxiana was out of earshot, Hexten bent down and whispered urgently.
“You’re not mistaken, are you?”
“How could I be mistaken about something like this? It’s true.”
“Our lord asked to go see the circus first?”
“You don’t think the Princess asked to go see the circus first, do you?”
“No, she wouldn’t have. But…”
Hexten thought of Floyd. He remembered how coldly and harshly he treated women who approached him.
“I told you, didn’t I? His Grace has feelings for the Princess. Romantic feelings.”
Hexten looked down at his wife with a dazed expression. Ever since Percy heard that Floyd had brought Roxiana into the Lily Palace, she had frequently said, “His Grace must like her.”
Of course, if it were any other man, Hexten would have agreed with his wife’s words. But when the protagonist was Floyd, he couldn’t make such an easy judgment.
Floyd not only disliked women but despised them. Once when Princess Dracelle of the Enilta Kingdom had deliberately brushed Floyd’s arm, Floyd had not only wiped the touched area irritably but also made an expression as if holding back nausea.
So Hexten and others who knew Floyd well did not interpret his kindness towards Roxiana as romantic affection.
They had guessed it might be camaraderie, gratitude, or using her as a tool to do something Lucas disliked, but…
“That can’t be.”
“Why not? If it’s just gratitude or camaraderie like you said, there’s no need to go out to see the circus together.”
“Well… For the Princess to experience various things…”
“Then he could have just ordered me or a maid to take her out.”
“That’s true, but… Love? Our lord?”
“Maybe not love yet, but he clearly has feelings for her. Have I ever been wrong before?”
Hexten looked down at his wife speaking so confidently.
‘You’ve been wrong many times. Don’t you remember? Last time you insisted the cheese we ate was made from goat’s milk, but it was cow’s milk! And before that, you said the meat we ate was kingfisher, but it was swan!’
Percy had been wrong countless times, but Hexten had the manners not to point out his lovely wife’s mistakes. So he took her hand, kissed the back of it, and said:
“Never. My wife is always right.”
Roxiana was admiring the wooden carvings the children had made themselves. Hexten watched her and grinned.
“Something amusing came to mind.”
+++
As she was about to leave with a hat, gloves, shoes, and accessories borrowed to match the dress the maids had made, Hexten followed.
“I hear you’re going to the circus today? I’ll escort you.”
“No, you don’t have to, Lord Lenardo. How could the Captain of the Knights…”
“I swore to protect the Princess. It’s naturally my duty.”
“But going to the circus isn’t dangerous.”
“Not dangerous? The streets during festivals are very dangerous with so many people. It’s so dangerous you could cut your nose if you turn your eyes for a moment.”
That dangerous? A festival?
Roxiana was dumbfounded, but Hexten’s eyes were serious.
“So I must accompany you, Princess. I’m on vacation until next week anyway, so let’s go together.”
It was hard to refuse after he insisted so much. When Roxiana nodded, Hexten smiled broadly, brought a horse, and rode alongside Roxiana’s carriage.
Watching this, Dennis said:
“Dad’s really excited.”
“Indeed. Your father seems very happy at the thought of teasing His Grace.”
“Why would Dad tease our lord? Our lord is cool and strong.”
Not understanding her mother’s explanation, Jewelry said to Dennis:
“He’s teasing because our lord is going out with the Princess. You tease Kevin oppa when he plays with Yunas unni too.”
+++
Crimson sunlight fell across the desk in the office. Floyd put down the documents and turned his chair to look out the window.
The sky that had been briefly overcast in the afternoon cleared up again towards sunset. That’s fortunate. If it had rained, it would have been difficult to go around with Roxiana.
Floyd had been pondering all day since this morning why he had proposed to Roxiana to go see the circus.
During festivals, people from other countries came to sightsee and merchants and mercenaries from other regions frequently came and went. It could be dangerous to take her out where someone might recognize Roxiana’s face.
‘Should I cancel it now?’
Roxiana had accepted Floyd’s proposal, but it was unclear if she really wanted to go to the circus. When she nodded, her face was expressionless and her eyes were still empty.
But Floyd didn’t feel like canceling the promise.
He decided not to ponder why he didn’t want to cancel. There isn’t always an answer for every action, feeling, and thought of a person.
If you want to do it, do it, and if you don’t want to, don’t do it.
Floyd stood up abruptly and called a servant to prepare for going out.
“Will you be riding a horse, sir?”
“Yes. Two horses… No. Prepare a carriage.”
He disliked carriages because they were stuffy, but Roxiana probably couldn’t ride a horse yet. Besides, there was no guarantee she could ride horseback. And they couldn’t ride the same horse either.
Floyd’s red horse ‘Red’ was famous for its nasty temper, so even skilled knights found it difficult to approach. It was unimaginable to put someone else on its back.
‘Come to think of it, at that time…’
When he rescued Roxiana on the merchant ship, Floyd had mounted Red with Roxiana in his arms. He was too frantic then to consider Red’s mood, but thinking about it now, the horse had allowed Roxiana to ride without fuss.
‘Was it because I held her as I rode? Or did it endure because I looked urgent?’
He thought about trying to ride again with someone in his arms next time, but soon shook his head. There was no one to hold. He absolutely hated holding knights, and he couldn’t hold Roxiana for no reason either.
Floyd headed to the Lily Palace with various thoughts.
Guided by a maid to the reception room on the first floor, Floyd stopped breathing when he saw Roxiana waiting there.
Floyd didn’t know about women’s dress fashions. He had no interest in the value of dresses.
All Floyd could tell was that the Roxiana before his eyes was very much…
-“Wear this. You’ll catch a cold if you get rained on.”
…like that girl who had handed him an umbrella.
Not the woman who had lost everything and only breathed while longing for death, about to scatter and break, but as if that warm and lovely girl from childhood had grown up and was standing before him.
The white hat with lace ribbons, hair braided and tied back, the sparkling white dress and gloves that came up just above the wrists, the bracelet studded with blue jewels.
The finely adorned Roxiana looked exactly like Floyd’s only princess from long ago, and Floyd felt relieved.
Not knowing why he felt so reassured, he stood there unable to take his eyes off Roxiana.
Ex-husband Wants Reconciliation
One-line summary: Chasing the wife to the crematorium (making an effort to attract someone who has become indifferent), the female lead doesn’t look back, the second male lead takes the position.
Intro:
To repay the kindness of the older generation, Su Mu crossed into a female-dominated world and became a live-in daughter-in-law of the Yan family, single-handedly saving the Yan family from fire and water.
But her husband, Yan Jiyue, the eldest son of the Yan family, treated her with sarcasm and never showed her a good face.
It wasn’t until after Su Mu’s death that this pampered and arrogant young master shed a few fake tears and pretended to want to die for love.
This life’s kindness was enough. If there was a next life, she would definitely kick Yan Jiyue away.
Who knew that the heavens would be so kind as to allow her to be reborn, returning to the time when she had just married into the Yan family.
Su Mu glanced at the Yan eldest son, who still spoke coldly to her, and threw a divorce letter in front of him.
“Let’s divorce!”
***
Yan Jiyue never imagined that he would be reborn. He happily went to find Su Mu, wanting to make up for the mistakes he had made in his ignorant youth.
Wasn’t the reason the heavens allowed him to be reborn to let him reconcile with Su Mu?
But when he pushed open the door to Su Mu’s room, the person lying on the bed was another man.
Su Mu’s personal attendant, Xie Yi.
Yan Jiyue hated him so much that his teeth itched. In front of Su Mu, Xie Yi was a gentle and considerate whisperer of sweet nothings, but in reality, he was vicious-hearted and deliberately sabotaged their husband and wife relationship.
In the previous life, it was he who secretly hid in Su Mu’s coffin and committed suicide, stealing a step ahead of him to be buried with Su Mu.
Yan Jiyue’s eyes were filled with hatred as he cursed, “What kind of thing are you? Your background is lowly, what right do you have to occupy Su Mu?”
Xie Yi looked at the sleeping Su Mu and no longer pretended to be a whisperer of sweet nothings.
He proudly stuck out his belly, “I have the right because my belly is capable of giving the Wife-master a daughter.”
***
Yan Jiyue was consumed with jealousy. He spread rumors that Xie Yi had once been branded with the mark of a “harlot” on his chest.
But on the night Xie Yi cut off the flesh bearing that mark, Su Mu suddenly realized something was amiss.
“How did you know the exact moment I was poisoned? And why did you show up a month early?”
Xie Yi remained silent, blood from his wound soaking through his robes. His sapphire eyes brimmed with anguish – or was it just a flawless act?
Between a once-arrogant husband now seeking redemption, and a gentle soul willing to die for her – who truly held the darkest secrets? And could it be that Su Mu and Yan Jiyue weren’t the only ones given a second chance at life…?
[Reading Guide]
1. True divorce, chasing the wife to the crematorium, the female lead doesn’t look back, the male lead is Xie Yi.
2. The ex-husband did not cheat, he just realized too late and didn’t realize that he liked the female lead.
_____
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