Hiccup.
An unsightly hiccup echoed from Persephone’s throat. She hastily covered her mouth.
‘What should I do?’
Earlier, while being chased, she thought she saw a few silhouettes resembling messenger birds crossing the sky. It was undoubtedly the king of the underworld himself, coming to capture the ‘bride’ after receiving the news.
The soldiers groaning on the ground were startled.
“Oh, Lord Hades?”
“Why did you come only now!”
The soldiers slowly got up, rubbing their backs. Hades, who had completely removed his helmet, lowered his eyebrows.
“I had a backlog of work, so I couldn’t help but arrive late.”
“Still, you shouldn’t be late for something like this!”
“I’m truly sorry.”
The soldiers, having regained their strength, started gathering around Hades and her.
Sensing danger, Persephone tried to step back, but Hades’ fingertips moved lightly in the air.
“Ugh…!”
The cloak covering her face flipped in the wind.
“Daughter of Demeter.”
Persephone took a sharp breath.
“Don’t run away. If you haven’t done anything wrong, there’s no reason to flee so desperately, is there?”
“……”
Persephone’s lips were tightly sealed. She glanced sideways at the problem’s source.
‘It’s all because of you!’
Her insides felt tightly clogged with frustration.
Persephone frowned, resisting the urge to pound her chest with her fist.
Hades stared at her with an unreadable gaze, then pulled out something like a whip or chain from the darkness.
Seeing this, Persephone’s pupils dilated in shock.
‘Is he insane…!’
All her senses heightened, acutely detecting the crisis.
She suddenly felt a gritty sensation under her feet, as if pebbles were stuck somewhere.
‘I wonder if I have any strength left.’
Persephone, cautious of her surroundings, checked the divine power faintly circulating within her.
‘I guess I used more than I thought earlier at the Acheron River.’
Honestly, with this amount, it would be strange to attempt anything, but…
‘Oh well, I don’t know.’
She couldn’t just be caught without putting up any resistance.
At this point, it was all or nothing.
Persephone, breaking through between the guards with her small body, took out her hair ornament.
Her hair ornament wasn’t fake. It was a decoration made of real twigs, grains, and some flowers.
She had made seeds bloom into ears of grain and flowers at the Acheron River.
Then, if she planted a twig, wouldn’t a tree grow from that spot?
Persephone, who swiftly crossed between the soldiers, planted the twig in the ground right below the castle wall.
Gathering her strength, she shouted.
“Grow!”
The twig, which had only small flowers attached, began to create branches like a vine plant.
In the moment when everyone except Persephone was bewildered by this sight, uncommon in the underworld.
She, who had planted the now quite thick tree trunk, climbed up the tree with the skill she used when fleeing from Demeter.
One of the guards shouted in astonishment.
“Oh, oh! She’s falling!”
As she climbed onto a thin branch, the entire tree swayed precariously.
“Isn’t it dangerous!”
The guards below the tree began to worry about her instead.
But Persephone had no intention of missing this opportunity, whatever it might be.
She reached the top of the tree, which had already grown to one-third of the castle wall’s height, despite the swaying.
She leaped from the treetop and clung to the castle wall like a spider.
Persephone deliberately ignored the cheers from below the wall, declaring her worthy of being a queen.
Turning her gaze sideways, she looked over the gently swaying tree.
‘Wow, it grew big.’
She had felt her power was unusually abundant earlier, and it seemed her desire to escape had surpassed her physical limits.
Persephone began to climb up, using slightly protruding stones as footholds. Her eyes occasionally glanced down.
‘Surely no one would follow me up here, right?’
Fortunately, neither the king of the underworld nor the guards seemed to be imitating her actions—of course, no god other than her would do such a thing.
At that moment, a shout calling her rang out from below.
“You, no— daughter of Demeter!”
Persephone’s sharp gaze suddenly turned downward.
It was Hades, who had been the only sane person keeping his wits about him from earlier.
“What!”
Persephone retorted rather impolitely.
“Won’t you just come down!”
“No!”
“Why!”
“It’s my choice!”
Persephone, answering like a petulant child, steadily climbed up the castle wall.
Fortunately, all the guards had come down to the ground to catch her as she was running away at the bottom of the wall.
There was no one on top of the wall she was climbing, so there couldn’t be a better opportunity than this.
“Your mother will be worried!”
But the king of the underworld kept talking, disrupting her concentration.
“Why are you trying to catch me!”
When Persephone snapped back angrily, Hades shouted with uncharacteristic vigor.
“Because you’re injured!”
Persephone, who had been vigorously climbing the wall, suddenly stopped.
What is he talking about?
“You need treatment, daughter of Demeter!”
‘Didn’t he hit me trying to kidnap me? Is he saying he’ll treat the injuries he caused?’
Persephone wrinkled her nose and pressed her lips into a thin line.
“Liar!”
Persephone shouted at the top of her lungs, as if it was utterly preposterous.
A tense silence enveloped the crowd after her outcry.
“……”
Even the murmuring among the soldiers abruptly ceased.
Hades, his eyes wide open, frowned. He took a noticeably long breath and folded his arms.
“Why do you think I’m lying!”
Persephone stared at him with a completely stiff face.
Cold sweat was now flowing from her grip, making it seem like she might slip off the stone at any moment.
It was truly a situation with no retreat, only forward progress remaining.
Her heart was pounding. She felt increasingly anxious.
“……”
Persephone swallowed hard.
Yes. They say even great achievements that change the world begin with a single step.
Persephone, who was rather fond of humanity, decided to take that step.
“You’re going to take advantage of me!”
She shouted, squeezing her eyes shut.
“Li, like in, in, in, indecent literature!”
“……”
A murderous silence fell.
This time, even Hades couldn’t retort.
Because Persephone’s expression, as she shouted with her eyes tightly closed and her face completely red, was so serious.
Just as he was about to feel puzzled by that expression, Hades’ brain boiled with heat as he grasped the situation.
‘What on earth is she talking about!’
Earlier, when a soldier referred to Kore as ‘queen material,’ and now this… He couldn’t understand a single thing anyone was saying.
‘Is the world collectively deceiving me? Am I dreaming right now?’
Hades, barely maintaining his balance, gestured towards Persephone.
“What are you talking about! I just told you to come down immediately because it’s dangerous!”
At that moment, there was a rustle from behind.
Hydra and Thanatos, having finished their preparations, were suddenly behind Hades.
It wasn’t clear how long they had been there, but in any case, it was good that his subordinates had arrived.
Hades’ face, which had been quite troubled, brightened.
“Ah. Yes, Hydra. And Thanatos. You’ve come at a good time. Fly up and bring that child down—”
Clang—.
However, Thanatos’ scythe, which was hanging on his back, made an ominous sound as it fell.
[…Hmm.]He began to scrutinize Hades with a very strange expression.
[Indecent…]Thanatos’ head gradually tilted to the side.
[…literature?]His neck and jaw formed almost a right angle.
Hydra, shaking her head in disbelief, trembled.
“Weren’t you trying to take responsibility for your actions…?”
Hades raised one eyebrow in confusion.
“I am trying to take responsibility now.”
“But earlier you said you weren’t going to take Kore as a bride? You said you weren’t going to marry her?”
“That’s right. Because that’s correct.”
“…What?”
Hydra exclaimed in shock, her hands trembling.
Thanatos put his hand on Hydra’s shoulder. Hydra shook off his arm and bickered, saying, “No, there’s no way Lord Hades would be irresponsible…!”
Deep wrinkles formed on Hades’ forehead, not understanding what was going on.
“What are you two saying? Didn’t you understand earlier that there’s nothing special between that child and me? Why do you keep saying strange things…!”
“…Lord Hades?”
At that moment, the head soldier approached Hades.
“Did you just say… that there’s nothing special between you and Lady Kore?”
It was unclear why things were getting so complicated when the situation was already urgent. Hades, swallowing a sigh, turned to the head soldier who had questioned him.
“Yes. There’s no relationship that you would call ‘special’ between us. I just have some business with that child.”
The head soldier let out a sad-sounding nasal sound. His eyes became moist.
“Then Lady Kore is not your wife?”
“That’s right. There’s nothing between that child and me. But I need to bring her back.”
“……”
“Why are you getting tearful?”
The head soldier, his eyes reddening, glanced briefly at the rope in Hades’ hand.
Then, pointing at the rope, he cautiously asked a question.
“…Could it be that you have ‘that’ kind of preference?”
“……”
“That’s why Lady Kore mentioned a word starting with ‘in’ and ran up the castle wall…”
__________
“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.”
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