“Damn it!”
Jeffrey yanked off his cravat and threw it aside. He messed up his hair. His eyes were bloodshot with anger.
“What a disgrace! I did everything Mother told me to! What will people say starting tomorrow!”
Jeffrey yelled at Madam Olan. He cursed and stomped his feet like a child.
Elena, knowing Jeffrey would get angry, ran away to her room saying she was embarrassed.
“You caused this, so take responsibility. Go shut their mouths or get on your knees to stop rumors from spreading!”
“They won’t spread such rumors. Madam Castella is family. She won’t spread rumors that tarnish our family name.”
Madam Olan fretted, trying to soothe Jeffrey’s mood.
Jeffrey snorted and sneered.
“Rumors that tarnish our family? Did you do this knowing that? Knowing how much of a scandal this would be!”
“You agreed to it too!”
“You encouraged me!”
“I told you it would be fine since they’re all my people!”
Though she said that, Madam Olan couldn’t hide her anxiety, fidgeting in her seat.
Mrs. Riel, who ran a dress shop, was intentionally invited to spread word of today’s events. She had a loose tongue, and many maids and ladies frequented the dress shop, so rumors would spread easily.
She was invited on purpose, but it backfired.
If she suggested cleaning up the mess, Jeffrey would furiously berate her, so Madam Olan just kept insisting it would be fine.
‘So this is the kind of person he is.’
Jeffrey was truly despicable.
Having committed the act together, he couldn’t take responsibility and tried to avoid it by blaming his mother, Madam Olan, and getting angry.
He was nothing more than a child who couldn’t take responsibility.
Though no one held me back, I didn’t leave the study and watched them.
Realizing that fighting would only hurt each other, Jeffrey’s sharp gaze turned to me.
“Princess, this is all your fault! Why did you cause such unnecessary trouble! Divorce, of all things!”
“Blame your unfaithful self. If you hadn’t cheated, I wouldn’t have asked for a divorce.”
Of course, even if he hadn’t cheated, I would have found some grounds for divorce anyway.
There were more than enough reasons for divorce.
The upcoming investment failure or fraud, loans from private lenders, various minor incidents of impersonating royalty by claiming to be married to me, a princess.
I simply chose the fastest and simplest method.
“Did you sign the divorce papers?”
“Damn it! Divorce is absolutely not happening!”
With nothing else to say, Jeffrey stormed out of the study in a fit.
He won’t grant the divorce easily. A person made up of face, dignity, and pretense won’t accept the stain of divorce.
But the divorce will happen.
I will make it happen.
Through the window, I saw a carriage entering through the main gate. I checked the time.
As promised, they arrived on time.
“Ormia, you…”
Madam Olan glared at me, clenching her fists and trembling.
“You knew, didn’t you? You did this on purpose knowing?”
It wasn’t a question that needed an answer.
When I remained silent, Madam Olan didn’t seem to want an answer either and shrieked sharply.
“Ha, so you knew. Who told you? Which maid told you?”
The strong hand gripping my arm dug its nails in. It seemed ready to pierce the skin and cut into flesh.
The elegantly dressed Madam Olan was gone.
Her hair was disheveled, and her expression was so twisted with malice that not even a white lie could call it pretty.
“Don’t you feel sorry?”
“Sorry? Why should I?”
“You were caught trying to make me out to be mentally ill. A person would feel sorry about that.”
“Why should I be sorry! If you hadn’t come into this house, I wouldn’t have had to do this! The Olan family was harmonious and good! If only that incompetent bitch hadn’t clung to our Jeffrey begging to marry!”
“And that’s how you received a title and became nobility. You were happy selling your son then, but now I’m a thorn in your side?”
I looked into Madam Olan’s angry eyes and said quietly.
“Aren’t you ashamed?”
Slap. Madam Olan was strong enough to turn my face.
Jeffrey had been flustered after hitting me, but Madam Olan glared, wanting to hit me more.
“So this is your true nature, you bitch. You did this on purpose to ruin our Jeffrey, didn’t you!”
“You’re the one who made plans to ruin me, Mother.”
“You bitch!”
Seeing me speak calmly without fear seemed to further provoke Madam Olan’s temper, and she started swinging her hands wildly.
When she secretly came to my bedroom at night and beat me with a pillow, she at least took care not to leave marks on my face, but now she seemed to lack even that much reason.
At that moment, Elena came in to see what was happening.
She always got involved in these situations.
“Mother, how could you… Kyaa, Mother!”
“This bitch is ruining our Jeffrey! She’s determined to destroy our Olan family!”
Elena, seemingly wanting to vent her frustrations, didn’t stop Madam Olan but joined in.
“That’s why I said we shouldn’t marry this bitch! I said she was ominous! An evil woman rejected even by God!”
My hair was grabbed and my body shaken. Sharp nails scratched my skin.
“Die! Just go out and die!”
The strong hands tore the seam of my shoulder with a rip.
I had been stoned by angry mobs, had my skin torn by nails and feet wounded while running away, and been dragged by my hair.
The manhandling by these two was nothing to me and a situation I could endure.
“Ah.”
But I started to have trouble breathing.
As if someone was pressing on my throat, my chest tightened and the bookshelves and ceiling in my view all distorted.
The ground crumbled beneath my feet and my body fell.
“You demon-like bitch, clinging to our Jeffrey! I can’t let you ruin the Olan family! Just die!”
The thick emotions I thought had worn away and disappeared rose up.
Madam Olan grabbed the roses from a vase and raised them to strike me, the motion appearing slow.
I’m going to die anyway.
I won’t live past twenty-two anyway.
Is my existence really that intolerable to them?
“Stop!”
In that moment, a large hand pulled me back. My hair fluttered as the bouquet of roses passed dangerously close to my face.
The firm embrace at my back held me.
The scent wafting from behind.
Liam Wilboyer.
As I looked up, Liam was glaring at Madam Olan and Elena with his jaw clenched and teeth grinding.
“Wh-what is this? Why are you…”
There were others besides Liam. The royal herald with a red banner draped over his shoulder was also present.
The herald, who visited various houses to deliver royal letters, also acted as a proxy to convey the king’s words.
The calm and polite herald turned pale and shouted.
“In broad daylight, even if you’re family, what is this! Assault! Ladies, what on earth are you doing!”
“This is a family matter. My daughter-in-law disrespected her mother-in-law, so I’m disciplining her. Please leave!”
Madam Olan recognized the royal herald but brazenly pushed back.
“A-ah, even if you’re commoners, what a dogfight this is.”
“Who are you calling commoners? Our family is that of a viscount!”
The herald looked back and forth between me and Madam Olan.
He must know I’m a princess since he came to the Olan house, but he seemed cowed by Madam Olan’s booming voice and hesitated.
If it were another royal family member suffering this, he would have intervened without hesitation.
No, if it were another royal, they wouldn’t have suffered this from their mother-in-law in the first place.
“This is a family matter, so please wait in the reception room. We’ll be there shortly.”
“Ah, well…”
When Madam Olan spoke with her chin raised, the herald didn’t try to look at me.
He felt guilty but didn’t want to get involved and make a big deal out of it.
As the herald nodded and opened his mouth, Liam, who had grabbed me, changed the situation.
“Does the royal herald condone the assault of a royal family member?”
Liam’s mocking voice was heavy like a thick icicle.
“In the Empire, they would cut off both arms for insulting royalty, regardless of commoner or noble status. They would exterminate the entire family for treason, but the Glishian royal family claims their royals are children of God yet treats them so cheaply.”
“Insulting royalty…”
Elena murmured, turning pale. Madam Olan frowned and addressed Liam, the interloper.
“Uninvolved people should not interfere! This is a family matter! An unfortunate incident occurred while resolving an issue within the family. The Olan family will handle this properly.”
“What nonsense is this! Even if Princess Ormia is married, she’s still royalty. Herald, are you going to stand by and let the assault of royalty be covered up?”
Sensing the crisis, the herald intervened.
“J-just a moment. This is not a matter for someone from the Empire to be involved in. I will report this officially and handle it.”
“I will report this incident to the Empire. When people learn how powerless royalty is treated like this in Glishia, won’t they think the Empire is safer?”
The herald turned pale as Liam took a hard line.
Fearing it would spread into an international embarrassment, the herald quickly blew his whistle. He shouted loudly enough to echo through the hallway.
“Knights, come in and arrest these people immediately! Arrest the criminals who assaulted royalty!”
“What is this? W-wait a moment. This is a family matter, I said!”
“Kyaaaa!”
Along with the sound of multiple heavy footsteps echoing in the hallway, knights burst into the study.
Elena screamed and ran around the study.
Madam Olan turned pale, took two steps back, and collapsed.
“What’s going on?”
Jeffrey came in, belatedly hearing the commotion.
“Jeffrey! That bitch is in the wrong! We’re innocent!”
“Save me! I only did what Mother told me to do!”
Madam Olan and Elena were arrested and dragged away by the knights.
Jeffrey watched the scene in bewilderment.
__________
“Tell me, what makes you like me? I’ll change!”
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.”
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE
