Love Me Just Once (Completed Main Story) - Chapter 10
It wasn’t just that. Ophelia continued speaking.
“There’s no need for me to marry anyone.”
The reason was simple.
“If they can’t sell me off to get a bride price, Reden will collapse.”
The very first thing she did after obtaining, for the first time in her life, someone she could control as she pleased, was to investigate her brother thoroughly.
That was when Ophelia realized—the economy of Reden had already been on the brink of collapse at this point.
So critically, in fact, that without substantial aid from somewhere, it wouldn’t last even a year.
In her past life, Mahanas and Dares had resolved that crisis by accepting a dowry from the northern Grand Duke who took her as his bride.
Was it really necessary to repeat that in this life?
Of course, choking her brother once again would have been satisfying—Ophelia already knew exactly how sweet an enemy’s despair could taste.
Yet, precisely because she knew that taste so well, she was exhausted.
She no longer had the will to fuel herself toward any goal.
This time, Ophelia intended to choose an entirely different life—one where she wouldn’t marry anyone, and where the ending would be such that she couldn’t possibly marry anyone at all.
Ophelia spoke to the man staring blankly at her, telling him the one and only thing she needed from him.
“If you truly want to help me, go say you wish to cancel this marriage and get the bride price back.”
Idren seemed to understand her words perfectly. He didn’t latch onto her phrasing as he had moments earlier.
Although he did look down at her with dazed eyes.
Ophelia waited a moment to let him process the situation. She knew Idren had wanted to marry her—it was obvious, since the marriage was clearly a losing proposition for him from the start.
Though she didn’t know his exact motives.
But then again, was that the only motive in this world she couldn’t understand? Ophelia had never claimed to understand people’s hearts well.
All she knew was the true nature of what resided within a human’s chest.
Everyone lived harboring desires in their hearts. Though the objects of those desires might differ, people lived because they had something they craved.
Ophelia didn’t think that was wrong—after all, she herself had lived a life faithfully chasing her own desires. Striving to fulfill one’s personal wishes was as innate to humans as instinct itself.
Therefore, the man sitting before her surely had something he wished for as well.
He must have married her—and sought to marry her again—to achieve it.
But Ophelia couldn’t cooperate in helping Idren fulfill his wish. It wasn’t that she bore him any ill will; she simply had no remaining energy to help anyone, and that was simply how it was.
It was then that Idren, still blinking as if in shock, finally spoke.
“May I ask you just one thing?”
Since she’d decided to be kind today, Ophelia nodded.
“Go ahead.”
The man then stared straight into her eyes. She saw her own reflection in his golden, flower-like gaze.
He asked,
“Why did you kill yourself?”
[This is the timeline separator]Ophelia did not answer him.
The reason she’d taken her own life wasn’t complicated. She’d settled all her tasks, was utterly exhausted, and simply wanted to rest forever.
But explaining that would require speaking of her tasks—and to do that, she’d have to mention the oath to the Goldenwood Tree that she could never obtain. So Ophelia remained silent. Some things were damaged merely by being spoken aloud.
Besides, kindness should only be given as much as the giver can bear.
Idren stared mutely at her silence but didn’t press further. It was a wise choice; no matter how many times he asked, she had no intention of answering.
After blinking slowly for a moment, he rose from his seat.
“I’ll come again tomorrow. It’s probably best to discuss the marriage… then.”
“There’s no need.”
This matter already had its answer decided. Regardless of what he wanted or chose, the outcome he’d face would be the same.
Yet the man seemed unaware of what was truly beneficial for himself. He muttered with a blank expression,
“Even so, I’d still like to talk once more.”
Ophelia watched him—his words clearly wounding his own pride, his demeanor lost and uncertain. Now he gripped the doorknob. His broad back, half-turned toward the door, looked pitifully unlike when he’d entered.
It was then that Idren turned fully toward her.
The moment their eyes met—his starlight-bright gaze locking onto hers—Ophelia felt a strange pang of guilt.
Perhaps it was simply because the sunlight poured too intensely through the balcony where the wooden planks had been ripped away.
Ophelia knew exactly who had let sunlight back into her room. Though it wasn’t important enough to mention, that didn’t erase what the other person had done.
So, on an impulse, she asked,
“Why are you going this far for me?”
Instead of replying, Idren shifted his gaze slightly. Ophelia realized he was looking at the yellow flower resting on her dressing table.
Swallowing hard, Idren said,
“I’ll tell you that tomorrow as well.”
Always talking about a tomorrow that would never come.
Ophelia thought this to herself but kept her mouth shut until he left the room.
It was her final act of kindness.
[This is the timeline separator]Penrel wasn’t waiting outside the door today. The knight was likely occupied with the task Idren had assigned him.
Grateful that he could return alone, Idren strode quickly down the corridor. Servants maintaining the palace halls glanced cautiously at him.
Only when he finally reached an empty spot did he stop and drag his hand across his flushed face. But no matter how many times he wiped it, the heat wouldn’t subside.
Covering his face briefly with his hands, Idren replayed Ophelia’s words in his mind.
“But I don’t need to marry you to ruin Reden.”
She’d said it with an exceptionally gentle expression—one she’d never once shown him throughout their entire marriage.
He’d longed for that face so desperately he’d even dreamed of it on certain nights, yet now Idren couldn’t even feel a flicker of excitement.
Because Ophelia’s intentions toward him were far too obvious.
“If you truly want to help me, go say you wish to cancel this marriage and get the bride price back.”
There wasn’t a trace of malice in those words—it was only natural, since she genuinely wanted his cooperation.
Idren almost wished she’d said it with ill intent, just to wound him. Then he could simply pretend not to notice and once again throw himself at her feet.
But no.
Ophelia truly had no need of him at all.
Humiliation at having boldly declared this marriage necessary in front of such a woman, and sorrow at being utterly meaningless to her, rose from deep within.
Idren dragged his hand across his burning face once more.
Just moments ago, when he’d realized his proposal held no appeal for Ophelia, it had felt as though the ground had vanished beneath his feet.
He’d had to struggle not to reveal that despair before her. If she ever saw what he was truly feeling, he’d be beyond embarrassed.
Though Ophelia seemed not to understand him at all.
“Why are you going this far for me?”
It wasn’t meant to make him miserable.
She was genuinely puzzled. Idren understood her confusion—after all, from her perspective, why on earth would he cling to something so utterly unrewarding?
Slowly, Idren lowered the hand that had been covering his face. Taking a deep breath, he resumed walking.
Yes, he might have acted foolishly in front of her—but he wasn’t so senseless as to lack reason altogether.
He had his own valid reasons, even if Ophelia didn’t seem to know them.
Idren bit down on his trembling lips. He steeled his gaze and held his chin high.
Ophelia seemed not to remember at all, but they’d already met long ago.
[This is the timeline separator]Back then, Idren wasn’t a Grand Duke.
He wasn’t even a prince—much less a Grand Duke. As a child, he’d been the illegitimate son borne to Aglante’s Grand Duke from an affair outside the palace. His maternal origins were unknown; even the Grand Duke himself couldn’t clearly recall the woman’s face.
He’d been brought into the palace solely because of his eyes—the yellow irises unmistakably marked him as Sigrasil blood to anyone who saw them.
Aside from that, however, there was nothing else about him that resembled his father.
While Idren had black hair, the Grand Duke possessed the Sigrasil family’s signature pale blond locks. Isde of Brinwell, the Grand Duke’s consort, also had golden-red hair.
Their legitimate children perfectly resembled both parents.
The previous Grand Duke and his consort had been an ideal couple—a political union that blossomed into a harmonious partnership, progressing peacefully through every stage of marriage. They even had three perfectly presentable sons.
Perhaps their family might have remained perfectly intact until death.
Had a certain child not been abandoned one day before the gates of Sigrasil Castle.
That day—nearly his earliest memory—remained faint no matter how many times he recalled it.
The towering castle walls, too high to look up at; the cold so severe it felt as if his extremities might fall off; his body trembling uncontrollably; his vision blurred by the biting wind.
And those cold, sea-green eyes.
It didn’t take long for Idren to learn they belonged to Grand Duchess Isde, who’d come in person to confirm her husband’s infidelity.
That day, the Grand Duchess ordered her knight—who’d followed her all the way from Brinwell—to drag the coal-black-haired boy to where her husband stood.
The knight obeyed, bringing him before the Grand Duke. It was then that Idren faced, for the first time, a man who shared his very same eyes.
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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Cowardice? Bitch you barely even look at him or speak to him 😦😡
Finally! Put her in her place!!! She should treat you better 😡😡😡
That caught him by surprise 😭🥺🤣 that he almost choked