A trainee knight who went to call a doctor found Julia and rushed to her. The Caterpillar slashed him to death.
“The sword cuts well, not bad for a Northern one.”
He killed the young knight just to test the stolen sword.
Julia just stared blankly at the scene.
Both entered Infidel Nugent’s office. Soon, Count Nugent entered the room.
But only Julia and the Red Caterpillar left, with a red transmission stone in the Caterpillar’s hand.
“Enough. That’s enough,” said the Duke.
I stopped the video.
At that moment, Arcadia slowly knelt before the Duke.
“Your Grace, this crime can only be repaid with death.”
He left the room after saying that.
The Steward began to sob.
The Duke silently watched where Arcadia had gone.
“I’ll go check,” I said.
“No, Esdel. Leave it be.”
The Duke’s voice was somber.
Shortly after, he too left the room.
I followed the direction in which the Duke and Arcadia had gone, ending up in the spacious garden outside the castle.
Arcadia, hunched over near the fountain, was sobbing sadly.
Julia’s words to the Caterpillar kept echoing in my mind.
“Just once more, let me be with my mother and father.”
Julia, you must have been so lonely.
Your pain was so deep that you ended up hurting others, becoming even more isolated.
It seemed Arcadia had only just realized his sister’s true feelings.
When I looked up, I saw the Duke standing in the castle corridor, looking out the window at Arcadia. The Duke looked pained.
‘What decision will you make, Your Grace?’
That night, I went to visit Steward Lewine.
As soon as she opened the door, I asked,
“Steward, where is Lady Nugent now?”
Her eyes flickered.
“She’s locked in the dungeon.”
“Who did this?”
“Sir Arcadia Nugent.”
The Steward’s face was filled with sorrow.
‘You must have known Julia since she was very young.’
I could understand Lewine’s feelings.
“Thank you.”
Leaving her wanting to say something more, I headed to the dungeon.
Two knights were guarding the entrance to the underground dungeon.
In the video shown by the Ventus stone, there were different people than the knights who had inhaled the sleeping gas.
“I’ve come to see the lady under the Duke’s orders for a moment.”
I lied, knowing they wouldn’t let me in otherwise.
The knights hesitated.
“We haven’t heard of such an order, who are you?”
“I am Esdel. The Duke has an urgent command… just for a moment.”
“Oh, that! Understood.”
Did they recognize me? Though they were knights I hadn’t seen before, they opened the door for me.
“Could you open the dungeon door for a moment? I won’t be overpowered.”
“…”
“I tell you this because she’s a proud lady who won’t speak otherwise. You can come in with me if needed.”
“Let’s do that.”
I entered the dungeon with one of the knights guarding the door.
The underground dungeon was dark even with lights.
The lady, Julia Nugent, was confined in the same cell where the worm had been kept.
Wearing the same dress as in the video, she was curled up.
The knight opened the cell door for me and left. Julia lifted her head at my approach.
Her pale, emaciated figure seemed lifeless.
She looked at me with venomous eyes.
“What do you want? To gloat that you were right and I was wrong?”
Her hands on her knees were visible, all her nails bitten down to stubs.
“Or… ha! So, it’s true. You are the Sword Master. Are you here to boast? You southern spy.”
“Do you still want to believe that?”
“What?”
I knelt on one knee in front of her, making eye contact.
“Knowing that the South could send spies to the North. Why did you believe the Red Caterpillar?”
“!”
“Why did you do that to the Duke, who suffered due to the South and hated it?”
“Shut up, you don’t know anything.”
“Who doesn’t know? The Duke drank poison to save his brother… and always forgave you despite your rebellious actions. He was always at the forefront of battles, risking his life to protect his men and knights. Why did you do it?”
I was genuinely curious.
It was a question I wanted to ask Julia Nugent in my past life.
‘Why did you do it? Was it just because of Medea’s deceiving words?’
Her eyes flickered momentarily, but then she gritted her teeth.
“My father’s death was overlooked.”
“At that time, the Duke was just fifteen, a hostage. Your father was killed by the Southern Duke Lahert. Killing the Northern deputy was necessary to send the boy to battle, to ensure the emperor’s side was fully Southern. ”
“…”
“Your father’s death was a crime committed by the South. The former Northern deputy was assassinated. Do you think the North would have known about the assassination planned secretly by the South?”
‘Such foolish Julia Nugent.’
My voice rose involuntarily.
Julia just stared coldly at the dungeon walls, determined not to look at me.
“Lady Nugent. Do you really think the South would have been so careless to let their assassination plans be known? That they wanted the Belfasts to know the Southern Duke would kill your father? Do you believe that?”
“…”
“The Red Caterpillar is a disciple of the Black Worm, the murderer of your father. I too was an assassin who learned to kill from him.”
“!”
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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