Idren suppressed the urge to immediately ask what was going on and examined her wounds. Ophelia seemed to be in a deep sleep, not waking even when he shone a light on her.
Judging by the size of the marks, it looked like they were left by a man’s hand. However, he couldn’t think of anyone who would dare touch Ophelia’s neck, knowing they would be caught by him.
Moreover, these wounds weren’t there the day before.
Recalling the people Ophelia might have met during the day, Idren realized that the prince of Egelbamont was among them.
Could it be, even though he claimed to have feelings for her, that he raised his hand? He almost couldn’t accept it, as it was incomprehensible to him to lay hands on a woman he loved, but if it wasn’t Netepel Runtalis, there was no one else who would do such a thing.
In the end, Idren stayed up all night. He couldn’t sleep at all thinking about what the Second Prince had done to Ophelia. All he could do was suppress the urge to drag the man out and wring his neck right away.
Staring at the woman’s back all night, Idren thought he would ask her about the exact situation when day broke. He understood that Ophelia might want to hide the situation, but this time, he couldn’t let it slide.
However, when Ophelia actually woke up, he found himself pretending to be asleep without realizing it.
He knew it was different from what he had resolved to do. But Idren couldn’t bring himself to dash the woman’s hopes as she checked if he was still asleep before dawn had even broken.
Thinking that he was asleep with his eyes closed, Ophelia immediately gathered her clothes and got dressed. She even wrapped herself in fur to hide the marks on her neck, and quietly slipped out of the room. Knowing she wouldn’t look back, Idren watched her retreating figure while holding his breath.
After deliberately leaving the bedroom at his usual waking time, he went to find Ophelia first.
“You weren’t by my side this morning.”
“I woke up early. I couldn’t sleep.”
“Still, it’s not good to sleep too little. Is there a reason why you can’t sleep?”
And Idren waited for Ophelia to say something. He hadn’t been a proper husband until now, but as her spouse, he wanted her to tell him about what she had experienced.
If she would just say one word, he could prove his usefulness properly this time.
But Ophelia just looked at him for a moment and replied in a calm tone.
“It’s just that I really couldn’t sleep.”
It felt like the ground was falling out from under him, but Idren just smiled.
After all, it was he who had failed to gain Ophelia’s trust. Who could he blame?
“Still, I’m worried, so please don’t wake up too early. I was surprised.”
“You’re surprised by such a small thing.”
“I guess I’m just easily frightened.”
At that, Ophelia gave a small laugh. It was a weak smile, with just one corner of her mouth turning up slightly.
It looked as if she was hesitating about something, so Idren stood still. He thought that maybe Ophelia might have something to say, even if belatedly.
However, Ophelia didn’t tell him anything about what had happened yesterday.
“Do you have anything else to say?”
“…No.”
The servants also seemed to have been instructed to keep quiet beforehand. If it were others, it might be different, but those who helped Ophelia with her bath or changing clothes must have seen the wounds, yet no reports came in.
It felt like he was burning up inside, but he couldn’t bring himself to speak. He had promised not to pry into things Ophelia had decided to keep secret.
But he couldn’t just stand by while his wife was injured, so Idren eventually went to find Ophelia again.
“May I ask how you plan to deal with Netepel Runtalis?”
If she didn’t have any plans, he was thinking of taking action himself.
Ophelia, who was reading documents that had come up from Galicia, looked at him.
“…I didn’t know you were interested in Netepel?”
“I’m interested in everything you do, but if it’s difficult to talk about, you don’t have to tell me.”
“It’s not difficult. I was just surprised.”
And Ophelia put down the document she was reading.
“I’m planning to repay Netepel for what happened to Anika.”
In other words, she meant to end his life.
If Ophelia had a plan, he shouldn’t intervene. To hide his boiling impulse, Idren forced a smile.
“I see. That’s a good idea.”
The woman looked at him strangely and added.
“I don’t intend to hesitate, so it won’t take long.”
Did Ophelia know that those words were somewhat comforting to him?
Nevertheless, Idren, who finally visited the prince’s room, suppressed the urge to wring the neck of the man sitting on the bed looking up at him. He knew what Ophelia was planning to do and couldn’t interfere.
Idren asked the prince, who was staring at him with bloodshot eyes that had turned even redder.
“Did you lay hands on Ophelia’s neck?”
“Did she tell you?”
And Netepel Runtalis lowered his eyes. Looking somewhere on the floor, he muttered like a deranged person. He clearly said it was a mistake….. The pronunciation was blurry and the voice was small, but they were close enough not to miss it.
Heat rose from the nape of his neck at the words that confirmed what he had been thinking all along. Idren grabbed the chin of the man who had lowered his gaze.
“Are you mad? How dare you lay hands on the queen’s body in Aglante?”
The Second Prince, whose head was forcibly lifted, smiled when their eyes met. It was an unpleasant sneer.
“Don’t pretend to be noble when you’ve done the same thing.”
“What?”
“What god did you make a deal with? Did that bastard also say his name was Desire?”
“What nonsense are you talking about?”
“I’m telling you not to deny it when it’s all out in the open.”
And the Second Prince grabbed his hand that was choking his neck. The moment their skin touched, a strange sense of discomfort washed over him. It felt like touching something fundamentally incompatible.
When Idren hesitated in surprise, the Second Prince snorted.
“See, are you going to keep hiding it till the end?”
Looking up at the frowning Grand Prince of Aglante, Netepel laughed dryly. It was lamentable that he had only noticed this fact now.
The man’s hand was still choking his neck, but compared to the creepy sensation rising from their touching skin, the pain of his airway being blocked was nothing.
Idren Sigrasal had also made a deal with a god, just like him.
Now Netepel was certain of it.
The last time he had touched the Grand Prince’s body, he had felt this same unpleasant sensation.
However, at that time, he didn’t have anything to compare it to, and he was too preoccupied with how to appease the angry Ophelia to think deeply about it.
But yesterday, when he made a mistake with Ophelia and touched the Tears of Mevasa hanging around her neck, Netepel realized. This filthy feeling was what one experienced when touching something imbued with divinity.
It was laughable that a man who had done the exact same thing pretended to be noble in front of Ophelia. Netepel sneered.
“Ophelia has no eye for men. The husband she chose to keep in her heart is just like me….”
It was then that his head suddenly turned.
Netepel blinked at the intense pain that struck his jaw. His neck and shoulders ached from the sudden turn of his face.
Realizing that the Grand Prince had punched his jaw, he frowned.
“Are you cra…!”
“It seems the late Prince Reden didn’t teach you.”
Idren grabbed the jaw of the man who was running his mouth without knowing his place.
“I clearly told you that the crazy one is the one who dares to mention the queen in someone else’s country.”
He couldn’t understand why this bastard and that bastard didn’t think about that fact before wagging their tongues.
“Can’t you grasp your position? The reason I’m not breaking the prince’s neck is because it belongs to Ophelia.”
He was just suppressing himself over and over again to avoid becoming a husband who stole his wife’s share.
Nevertheless, when upsetting and infuriating things like this happened, Idren wanted to forget his duty and clear away everything that lingered around Ophelia.
How many times had he held back, fearing that if he did so, it would give the impression that even the process of their marriage, which had not respected her wishes from the start, was like that?
He was trying so hard, but everyone around Ophelia, except him, was not cooperating with the plan.
Just like now.
Idren looked down at the man who had been hanging around with the late Prince Reden and now even mimicked his actions.
“So keep your mouth shut and stay quiet until Ophelia kills you. Understand?”
[This is the timeline separator]Namie, now eight years old, looked up nervously at Uncle Masa who had come to find her late at night.
Her uncle, who used to be very affectionate, had been ignoring her lately.
At first, thinking she might have done something wrong without realizing it, Namie had gone to her uncle several times.
When she lived with her mother and father, she could get whatever she wanted with just a little fuss, but now things were different. Namie understood that much.
She couldn’t exactly distinguish what was different, but anyway, her mother and father were no longer here. In the royal palace of a foreign country, not the castle where she originally lived, Uncle Masa was the only person who took care of her.
But one day, without warning, that uncle started ignoring Namie.
“Uncle, I did something wrong.”
She had whimpered in front of the closed door, not knowing what she had done wrong, but the response was cold.
“Your Highness, the prince has ordered you to return.”
After being sent away without even seeing her uncle’s face, Namie didn’t visit her uncle’s room again. Or rather, she couldn’t. Strangely, the atmosphere of the palace was subtly different from what she remembered, making it impossible to move around freely.
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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