A woman fell from the sky.
It was as if she was floating down slowly. This happened shortly after Benjamin, who had left Windsor in the early morning, arrived back at the palace half a day later.
“Your Highness, the Crown Prince, over there…!”
Hearing Michel’s words, Benjamin, who was walking while reading some documents, looked up. The person slowly falling, unable to defy gravity, was none other than Lapine.
“She was at the palace.”
He had been searching right under his nose. Benjamin simply looked at Lapine, who was gently falling to the ground. Despite being the long-sought mother and daughter of Kendali, he neither called for a knight nor ran to catch her.
“What should we do?”
“What?”
“Should we leave her like this?”
“So?”
Seeing Benjamin’s nonchalant face, Michel pounded his chest in frustration.
“Shouldn’t we wake her and ask about Kendali? About your relationship with the Empress. Don’t we need to find out?”
Michel, who was about to raise his voice, lowered it urgently. However, this made him feel even more frustrated. Benjamin stared at Lapine lying not on the grass but at the crossroads where carriages traveled.
“You seem to be misunderstanding something, Michel. I want to chase the Empress, not her behind.”
He then shifted his gaze to Michel and nodded towards Lapine sprawled out.
“Does she look like someone who is favored by the Empress?”
“That’s…”
“Checking a discarded card only reveals that it was discarded.”
“But we may get other evidence or clues. She is Kendali’s own daughter, after all.”
“You still don’t know the Empress.”
Benjamin clicked his tongue. He straightened the papers he was flipping through and crossed his arms.
“Do you think the Empress is so easy-going? Naive enough to be fooled by such a young woman? Before questioning why the Empress left her here, consider that the Empress would have felt the magical wave the moment the girl fell from the sky.”
“So, leaving her means…”
“It means she either knows I’m nearby or doesn’t care if the girl rolls around. Maybe both.”
Benjamin added that keeping their distance and letting things proceed was the best course of action.
“Yes, I was short-sighted.”
With a nod, promising to do better, Michel followed Benjamin as he resumed walking.
However, two hours later.
“Thank you so much for saving me, Your Highness the Crown Prince!”
Lapine came running, calling out cheerfully. She was a far cry from before, impeccably and elegantly dressed!
Sitting at an outdoor table in the western garden of the Crown Prince’s palace, Benjamin looked at Michel, who was hiding a report from the Copelador Guild, and communicated through eye contact.
‘What’s going on?’
‘I have no idea.’
Palace servants caught up, panting.
“I apologize, Your Highness. We will correct this immediately.”
“Miss Lapine, please don’t. This is the Crown Prince’s palace! You cannot just come in like this.”
Benjamin watched Lapine, who had run towards him at a speed rivaling any adult male. Unlike the palace servants, Lapine was not out of breath.
“Hmm. Do you have business with me?”
“I do! I heard you saved me!”
“Me?”
“Yes! When I… um, fainted!”
Lapine seemed to struggle to remember, furrowing her brows. Benjamin and Michel exchanged glances again.
‘When did that happen?’
‘We’ve been together since she entered the palace; what is she talking about?’
‘Exactly.’
Michel hesitated before asking Lapine.
“Is that true? Did His Highness the Crown Prince really save you?”
“Yes! No! Actually, I’m not sure. But probably?”
Lapine was also confused. As Michel waited for her to continue, Lapine clasped her hands tightly in front of her chest and said with a dreamy voice.
“I’m weaker than I thought.”
Just sprinting over at an immense speed, had it not been for Michel, would’ve easily exposed the Coperador Guild’s documents.
“I frequently feel dizzy, and sometimes even collapse because I’m so frail.”
Michel glanced at Rapine’s arm. She seemed to weigh half as much as Yurisien, who was noticeably thin due to malnutrition.
“So earlier, as I was walking through the garden, I almost fainted. But someone caught me before my head smacked the ground.”
“Was it me?”
“Yes! If it hadn’t been for Your Highness the Crown Prince, I might’ve died right there!”
Extremely grateful, Rapine bowed slightly. It was a questionable etiquette at best. Benjamin asked her to raise her head and questioned.
“Who?”
“Pardon?”
“Who said that? Who said to Rapine that I am her ‘savior’?”
Ah, savior!
Rapine was delighted by the term Benjamin had chosen. Yes, he was her savior. He was the benefactor of Rapine’s life!
‘Now I understand why Yurisien is so enamored with Prince Hiscliff!’
It was fate. A resonance of souls.
‘This is love…!’
Rapine awkwardly folded her arms across her chest and then shyly spoke.
“Her Majesty the Queen said so.”
About a week had passed since Benjamin went to the royal palace.
“Are you crazy?! Are you sure?!”
Ivan, who was tasked with aiding in lunch preparation due to feeding Yurisien unwashed strawberries that morning, shouted. He stood agape as if wronged.
“Ah, startled me! What happened?”
Daisy, who had been nagging nearby, stopped cutting carrots and potatoes to glance at Ivan, who was busy plugging his ears with his index fingers. Ivan glared at Daisy signaling her to be quiet.
“You’re the one making noise.”
Daisy grumbled and moved on. Right now, Ivan was listening to a report through a small earpiece. The report came from a Coperador Guild member who was bribed to reveal when Benjamin would call Michel to his side.
The guild member said,
[Dash] It’s confirmed. Everyone in the palace knows by now. They’ve been having secret meetings for almost a week, and today they even exchanged letters through a servant.“Don’t talk nonsense. Aren’t you mistaken? What does the Guild Leader say?”
Ivan respected Michel alone. Knowing this, the guild member responded without hesitation.
[Dash] He says nothing. Actually, it seems like he’s helping the Crown Prince.“Really? Then… Are the Crown Prince and Rapine really dating? Are they together?!”
Ivan roared as if unable to believe it. At that moment,
Crash!
The sound of something falling and fruits rolling across the floor startled Ivan. Muttering,
“Ah… Shit. Screwed.”
Feeling sorry for Ivan who was helping with lunch because he ate the strawberries, there was Yurisien holding freshly washed strawberries.
At the same moment, the sunny noon weather was warm.
On the medium-sized maze on the left side of the royal palace, a man sat at a marble fountain in the center, reading a book. Every time he moved, the sunlight reflected off his glasses.
The soft breeze caused a slight creaking noise in the glasses’ chain, overshadowed by the sound of water splashing from the ornately carved floral fountain.
Despite the start of summer being near, the weather was pleasantly cool. It was perfect for a picnic or a date. And Benjamin was indeed reaping the benefits of the beautiful weather.
“Your Highness, the Crown Prince!”
A mischievous voice rang out. It belonged to a woman standing in front of the entrance to the center of the maze. Benjamin looked at me, his voice expressing hope that I would come and escort him here.
Benjamin gazed at Lapine, who was in a practiced posture that he had poured much effort into.
“……”
“How do I look?”
Lapine, dressed so elaborately it bordered on bizarre, shone her eyes twinkling. Truly clear.
“Did you pick out that outfit yourself?”
“Yes. Does it not suit me?”
As Lapine made a gloomy face with a whimper, Benjamin chuckled. He extended his hand toward Lapine after closing his book.
“Cute. Come here.”
His voice was filled with abundant love directed towards his lover.
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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