‘First, I need to make this man my ally.’
Hunter was an upright and loyal man, and such men become easier to handle once you have their leash. And Elise knew well how to get men under her control.
Hunter furrowed his brow as if asking what was wrong when Elise suddenly stopped walking and looked at him. At the same time, Elise pretended to feel dizzy, putting her hand to her forehead and staggering.
Startled, Hunter approached and grabbed Elise’s arm.
“Are you alright?”
“Mmm…..”
Elise made a sound like a groan and gauged the distance between herself and Hunter. Hunter was only lightly holding Elise’s forearm. Not enough yet. Elise took the strength out of her legs as if she couldn’t support her body.
When just holding her forearm wasn’t enough to support her, Hunter had no choice but to wrap his arm around Elise’s waist.
“I’m dizzy….. I must be too tired…..”
Elise whispered in a thin, fragile voice as she lowered the hand that had been holding her head. Her fingertips brushed Hunter’s neck and chest as if by accident on the way down. Elise clearly witnessed his Adam’s apple bob.
“Shall I escort you to your bedroom?”
“Yes, please do.”
Hunter hesitated for a moment before lifting Elise up in his arms. Feeling his firm chest, Elise steeled her resolve.
‘I have to use everything I have right now. How else did I obtain this life?’
She had to smile in front of those who killed her family. She had to pretend to be grateful for their kindness, pretend to love them. It was the life of Elise Hailis that she had barely managed to obtain amidst that hellish humiliation.
The downfall of Canta and the fall of the Franche royal family that she had so desperately wished for. But Elise had no intention of stopping there. She wanted to enjoy all that Roxiana had enjoyed simply for being born as the king’s daughter.
‘Why can’t I enjoy what you enjoyed? You took my family and were happy, so there’s no reason I can’t take your family and be happy!’
Although the downfall of the Hailis ducal family was due to their own crimes, distorted anger had ruined her life. Unaware of this fact, Elise schemed to use the only thing she could rely on, her body, to grasp happiness.
Elise clung to Hunter’s neck as he laid her on the bed. Hunter was startled and tried to step back, but Elise was faster in burying her face in his neck.
The woman’s sweet breath clung stickily to his nape.
“Hunter, I’m so scared. Please stay by my side until I fall asleep.”
Elise murmured with her lips against his neck.
Hunter’s Adam’s apple bobbed once more.
Elise was an exceptionally beautiful woman regardless of her origin. Hunter, a sturdy man, could not ignore her fairy-like beauty and sugary sweet scent. It did not take long for man and woman to become one on the bed.
Embraced in his heated arms, Elise thought.
‘This man is loyal to Lucas, so he won’t carelessly run his mouth. I only used this method because my body is all I have to use right now, so Lucas, you must understand me.’
This is all Lucas’s fault.
If Lucas had given prior notice to the officials so there would be no difficulties in managing the territory, there would have been no need to resort to such methods.
‘So you should pity me for having no choice but to use this method.’
+++
When Roxiana opened her eyes again, the sun was slowly setting. Petria, who had been pacing anxiously outside the bedroom, hurriedly approached.
“Princess, are you alright?”
The title that had been “Lady Roxiana” had changed at some point, but Roxiana no longer pointed it out. Such titles were no longer important now.
“I’m fine.”
Roxiana answered gently as she walked towards the sofa. Although Floyd had shared his vitality, her strength had not fully recovered. Moreover, the nightmarish pain she felt after losing consciousness lingered in places, making it difficult to stand for long.
“You haven’t eaten for a long time. Would you like some soup?”
“Mm, that sounds good. Just a little, please.”
Petria nodded and left the room.
Left alone, Roxiana checked the vase by the window. The flowers that Hexten’s children had gifted her long ago had stayed fresh for a very long time, but now they were withering, having reached the end of their life.
‘Even with a spirit’s company, nothing lasts forever.’
Roxiana leaned her head back on the sofa and closed her eyes.
The conversation she had with Floyd before falling into a near-faint sleep came to mind.
‘Why did I get so worked up?’
She could have calmly explained about her family. It would have been proper to request certain things in exchange for providing certain things.
‘Why am I so upset and heartbroken now?’
It was natural for Floyd not to believe in Roxiana’s power. She collapsed every time she used it, causing him trouble, so for someone who had always solved problems on his own, having to keep Roxiana alive must have been nothing but a nuisance.
Roxiana knew very well that it was a vain hope to ask someone she had only recently met to trust her completely. So she should have taken the time to slowly demonstrate her abilities to him and persuade him.
But strangely, when faced with him, her emotions became intense, and it was difficult to control those emotions that surged like waves. Sometimes she even felt the urge to pull out her insides and show them to him.
‘It’s because of the Grand Duke.’
She tried to blame that uncharacteristic behavior on Floyd.
‘Yes, it’s all because of the Grand Duke. Because he shows his feelings so openly, I thought it was okay for me to do the same. That’s why I keep failing to contain my emotions.’
In any case, she was able to get his help in finding her family. Although she had been trying to hide her family’s dishonor until now, once she spoke about it to someone else, she realized there was no need to hide what had been thrown into the well.
‘It’s not my family’s fault. This isn’t my family’s dishonor, but a dishonorable act by Lucas and Elise. Yes, that’s what it was.’
As hope arose, her thoughts naturally flowed in a better direction. She had been thinking of everything as tragic, which was true, but she could find something a little better from there.
−”I understand. Then we’ll have to search all the wells inside Ider Palace and the ones nearby.”
Suddenly, she recalled how naturally, so matter-of-factly he had said he would help Roxiana. Those words, kinder and sweeter than anything he had said before. As she remembered that tone, as if it were something he should rightfully do, something soft and fluffy filled her chest.
And so Roxiana wanted to do something for him, not to use him, but to repay him.
At that moment, Petria, who had left, returned.
She had only wanted a bowl of soup, but the trolley cart was filled with various dishes. When Roxiana looked puzzled, Petria blushed and said,
“When I said the princess had woken up, the cooks packed all sorts of things. They all seemed to have been waiting for this moment, and I couldn’t refuse as they kept adding more.”
The concern of the cooks who had worried about Roxiana was laid out one by one on the table. Roxiana had no appetite, but not wanting to disregard their feelings, she picked up a fork.
“Everyone was so worried when you didn’t wake up for so long, Princess.”
Relieved that Roxiana had safely awakened, Petria became more talkative.
“We were so scared you might never wake up… His Majesty was the same, and the Knight Commanders visited every day. His Majesty stayed by your side all day.”
She hadn’t known that. She thought she had woken up just when he happened to be there.
−”I’m going to kiss you.”
The kiss they shared before he left came to mind so suddenly that Roxiana dropped her fork.
“Oh my, you must not have strength in your hands. What should we do.”
Petria fussed as she picked up the fork, but Roxiana didn’t have time to explain that wasn’t the case.
‘A kiss…’
At the time, she had been too exhausted in body and mind to think deeply about it.
‘We did.’
Her face flushed hot. The soft warmth that had touched her lips was vivid. The flow of his power into her mouth felt as if it was still continuing.
Her heart began to pound painfully hard, thump, thump, thump.
‘It was treatment.’
Roxiana thought firmly.
‘It was just treatment.’
It really was. His kiss had breathed strength into Roxiana’s weary soul. It had pushed away the pain of body and soul.
So it was a meaningless treatment. Like when Kirshan tended to the knights’ wounds. Yes, treatment.
No matter how many times she repeated the word “treatment” in her mind, it was troubling that her heart’s pounding wouldn’t quiet down. She quickly spooned up the soup that Petria had brought with a new spoon, but she couldn’t escape from their kiss.
“Oh, I almost forgot. Look at me. His Majesty left a message.”
At the words “His Majesty,” her already rapidly beating heart pounded even harder. Roxiana gripped her spoon tightly and stared at Petria.
“Tomorrow, His Majesty will be leaving for monster subjugation with the Spider, Bear, and Eagle Knight Orders.”
Upon hearing the words “monster subjugation,” her mind, which had been full of thoughts of the kiss, gradually calmed.
Yes, now is not the time to be flustered over a slightly, no, excessively strange “treatment.” The path she must walk to reach those responsible for her family’s deaths is long and treacherous.
She has only just stood at the starting point.
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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