Roxiana looked up at Floyd endlessly from inside the narrow box. Spring grass-like green eyes and a golden rim like sunlight filtering through dense trees. Though many years had passed since she last saw those eyes, she had not been mistaken.
A thin body and withered skin from poor meals for a while, disheveled hair and dry, cracked lips.
The vivacity of the little girl who ran to give an umbrella while playing with her brothers at Ider Palace was no longer present in her. However, Floyd was certain she was that princess he had seen then.
At that moment, indescribable emotions overcame Floyd.
Anger, shock, irritation, resentment, longing, sadness, and something difficult to name.
Floyd momentarily forgot to breathe, immersed in emotions he would not normally feel. As he looked down at Roxiana while holding his breath, Floyd saw the brand marked on her collarbone.
The sunflower brand symbolizing a slave.
When that entered his sight, the power crouching inside Floyd stirred.
Belatedly trying to regain his senses and control the surging emotions, that power broke free of Floyd’s reason and will, running wild on its own.
As a wave of hot energy swept through the ship’s hold, the knights realized something was amiss and put up barriers. The next moment, enormous flames erupted from Floyd’s center.
“Ugh… Aaaaagh!”
“Kyaaaaa!”
People screamed as broken boxes burned in the sudden inferno. The knights spread their barriers wide to protect people, but they could not completely block the heat. The hems of people’s clothes within the barriers sizzled and burned.
Floyd shouted at the crazed flames that had escaped his control.
“Stop! Stop now!”
But as always, the deranged flames did not heed Floyd’s cries. The inferno would only subside after creating as much chaos as it desired.
Floyd did not have the courage to look down and check on Roxiana. While others would be protected by the knights’ barriers, Roxiana who had been close to him would have undoubtedly suffered the full brunt of the flames.
Losing her country, branded as a slave, and now dying burned by fire.
In the end, he too had played a part in the princess’s ill-fated destiny, and if so, he had to engrave in his eyes exactly how terrible the result he created was, no matter how horrific.
At that moment, something grasped his trouser leg. He lowered his gaze to see who was holding onto his pants.
Though the box and clothes had been burned to ashes by the flames, Roxiana alone was unharmed as if nothing had happened. Her skin was not scorched, and her hair was intact without a single singed spot. Despite being engulfed in flames, Roxiana was there as if nothing had occurred.
‘How…?’
Floyd was bewildered, but Roxiana was not. The flames that engulfed her felt like a blessing.
In the intense heat, Roxiana heard numerous voices. Voices she had heard often long ago, but had not heard for a very long time – beloved voices.
Those voices did not sound as gentle as before and seemed very angry. It also seemed like they were fighting with someone.
But none of that mattered now.
The moment she recalled who the master of Torkan was, Roxiana wanted only one thing. She wished to entrust the end of her ill-fated destiny to him.
And so, Roxiana grasped his trouser leg, looked up at him, and spoke desperately with one last shred of hope:
“Please do not grant me Adelia flowers.”
So that my soul may wander restlessly without finding peace, and if I’m lucky, perhaps cross paths with my family once.
However, that desperate wish did not reach Floyd’s ears. Mixed with people’s screams, only scattered words like ‘please’, ‘flower’, ‘grant’ survived to reach Floyd’s ears.
As the strength left Roxiana’s hand gripping his trouser leg and her upper body that had been straining fell to the floor with a thud, the flames flickering around him as if they would never extinguish disappeared in an instant. Though there were no windows, a wind that happened to blow at that moment carried away the remaining heat.
The screams ceased. Silence descended on the place that had been pandemonium just moments ago.
Floyd was still looking down at Roxiana. A miraculous woman without a single wound despite being engulfed by flames right in front of him.
He could not understand what had happened. Usually, the heat lingers for a while even after the mad flames end, but now it was cool as if there had never been a fire.
Where was this wind blowing from, driving away the heat?
Suddenly coming to his senses, Floyd took off the jacket he was wearing and draped it over Roxiana’s body. Just in case, he placed his finger under her nose to check if she was breathing.
Though faint, he felt her breath.
She’s alive.
Floyd sighed in relief as he lifted her up. Limp in his arms, she was so thin and haggard she looked almost like a dead person.
Looking down at her, Floyd recalled that she had tried to say something desperately earlier.
Please, flower, grant.
She must have been asking to be granted Adelia flowers. Without being wrapped in Adelia flowers, her soul would not be able to rest in peace.
‘Did I look like such a villain that I wouldn’t even allow a single Adelia flower?’
Well, she probably did think so. Seeing a grim-faced man with a furrowed brow after being trapped in a box, it’s understandable she would be anxious about her body being discarded anywhere.
Turning around, Floyd’s eyes fell upon the warehouse in ruins from the fire. The rescued slaves were huddled around the knights, looking at Floyd with frightened eyes.
“I’ll go back first, so clean this up roughly.”
After giving orders to the knights, Floyd carried Roxiana and left that hellish place.
+++
The smell of burning permeated the merchant ship’s hold. The wind that had been blowing from somewhere stopped, leaving the air stagnant and suffocating.
The tense slaves collapsed here and there with thuds. Some slaves were huddled in corners, shaking uncontrollably.
After ordering the knights to clean up the hold, the knight captains came up to the deck. The crew members and slave traders’ people captured by the knights were tied up and kneeling in one corner.
The captain, caught among the crew, protested that he knew nothing about this, and the other crew members agreed with the captain’s words. The slave trader and his subordinates, fearing what was to come, tried to placate the knights with pale faces.
Adrian, the captain of the Red Spider Knights, leaned his elbows on the railing and gazed at the vast expanse of sea. His dull silver hair flowed down, covering his deep and delicate eyes.
Adrian murmured as he brushed back his bangs in annoyance:
“Who was that woman our lord carried away?”
“He said she was the princess of Kanta.”
Adrian wrinkled his nose at Cain’s answer.
“Who’s asking that because they don’t know? I’m saying this because it seems our lord knows that woman.”
“Our lord knows her? I don’t think so…”
“Brother, think about it. Our lord is so uninterested in women that he can’t even remember the faces of maids who come and go every day. But he immediately recognized that woman as the princess of Kanta.”
“Well, isn’t it natural for him to recognize someone of a princess’s status? Our lord isn’t a fool.”
“The king of Enilta has sent his daughter here several times because he wants to form a connection with our lord, but our lord can’t remember who she is every time he sees her.”
The king of the Enilta kingdom, eager to form a strong bond with Floyd, had already sent Princess Dracelle to Torkan several times under the pretext of a vacation.
The beautiful and lovely Dracelle tried in various ways to win Floyd’s favor, but Floyd couldn’t even remember her name.
Dracelle’s persistence in challenging herself each time despite hearing “Ah, who was it again?” with every visit was remarkable, if anything.
“Yet he recognized that woman as the princess of Kanta as soon as he saw her.”
“The princess of Kanta? You mean Roxiana Franche?”
Startled by the voice suddenly appearing near his ear, Adrian grabbed his ear and shouted:
“Aah! You scared me! Hexten! Where are you blowing that foul breath of yours?”
Hexten guffawed at Adrian’s startled reaction. Hexten, the captain of the Golden Lion Knights, seemed to have been drinking somewhere, as his breath was mixed with the smell of cheap alcohol.
“So? What did I miss? What happened with the princess of Kanta?”
“If you didn’t want to miss it, you shouldn’t have been late when our lord summoned. Keep wondering.”
Adrian retorted teasingly, but Cain spoke up:
“Apparently the princess of Kanta was trapped in a box where the slaves were confined. Our lord took her away. Like this, carrying her.”
As Cain mimicked lifting a woman, Hexten’s eyes widened.
“Our lord carried a woman like that?”
“Yeah. And you know what’s even more amazing? Our lord went berserk.”
“Ah, so that’s why it reeks of burning here.”
“Yeah, it was incredible. But that woman was right in front of our lord and wasn’t hurt at all. Her clothes were all burned, but her hair and everything…”
Recalling something, Cain’s face reddened as he continued.
“Anyway, she looked fine.”
“Still, it’s surprising. To think the princess of Kanta was alive… The Franche royal bloodline was thought to be completely cut off, and Kanta’s people are still in mourning.”
Hexten, who hadn’t witnessed the earlier scene, was more surprised by the fact that the princess of Kanta, thought to be dead, was alive rather than the fact that Roxiana had survived those flames.
Adrian snorted.
“Becoming a slave is as good as dead. What difference does it make if she’s alive when she’s been branded?”
When yandere male lead believes she loves him — but she never did
“How dare you!”
“How dare you make me love you, only to cast me aside as nothing more than a friend?!?
“I will never accept that.”
“I will never let you return to him.”
“Even if I have to burn myself to ashes.”
“Even if I must shatter my purity, my dignity, my very soul.”
“I will never let you escape me!”
This was the first novel that introduced me to the matriarchal genre. I’ve read it three times already!
At first, the male lead despised the female lead. Later, he misunderstood that she liked him, so he condescendingly and reluctantly reciprocated her feelings.
Then, he suddenly discovered that she was kind to everyone in the same way, and there was already someone she cherished in her heart, and that person was not him.
The male lead couldn’t believe it, he became angry and crazy. He was determined to capture her body and heart by any means necessary.
Synopsis:
Want to see how a green tea bitch male lead falls in love with the female lead?
Want to see how he flirtatiously pursues the female lead?
Want to see how he gets slapped in the face repeatedly?
The male lead is a green tea bitch, a poisonous lotus, jealous, ruthless, unscrupulous, with a venomous heart, and he’s also a delusional maniac.
The female lead is righteous, positive energy-filled, kind, a holy mother.
Let’s see how two people with extreme personalities come together~
_____
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