Love Me Just Once (Completed Main Story) - Chapter 15
The events that followed were easy to predict, as if they had been cast from a mold.
Idren sent a formal marriage proposal to the Kingdom of Reden. It took about half a year to finalize the exact date, as several conditions needed to be negotiated.
Nevertheless, he eventually secured a marriage with Ophelia around the following summer. At twenty-three, it was just the right age to wed.
While preparing a port property and a villa as wedding gifts for her, Idren felt excitement. He had never seen a woman as radiant as Ophelia had been at fifteen—let alone now at twenty-three.
Moreover, Idren remembered what Ophelia had once told him.
“I hope I can see you again next year.”
Admittedly, too much time had passed to bring up those words now.
But he had improved vastly since then—so much so that the helpless child who couldn’t even claim ownership over his own body no longer even overlapped in his mind.
Idren believed that, just as others had, Ophelia too would be glad to see how much he’d changed. Thus, a delay of a few years wouldn’t matter much.
Yet Ophelia’s reaction differed from what he’d expected.
Clearly, he was incomparably better than that pitiful boy, yet she wouldn’t even look at him.
No—she didn’t even seem to remember him at all.
At first, realizing this drained all strength from him, but Idren decided to interpret the situation positively.
He truly had been pitiful as a child. If she couldn’t recall that version of him, then at least she saw him as he was now.
Of course, it was a little sad that something irreplaceable to him held little meaning for her, but memories didn’t vanish just because they were temporarily set aside.
So Idren kept silent. After all, everyone wanted to appear impressive before their first love.
But that approach had been wrong. Now Idren understood that much.
While he remained silent, hoping to seem a suitable husband to Ophelia, he never drew any closer to her. Ophelia had kept walls firmly raised against him all along.
And in the end, hadn’t she made the cruelest choice of all?
Now that he clearly understood she didn’t want to marry—this thought brought him a pang of pain—Idren wanted to let Ophelia live as she wished.
Of course, he still wanted to marry her. But more important than his own wish was ensuring Ophelia wouldn’t die again.
If her family stood as an obstacle to her will to live, Idren could protect her from them. It was only fair—after all, she had once stood by him when his own family was the problem.
And to make Ophelia believe this, he would need solid reasons—meaning he’d have no choice but to explain in his own words what had happened in the past.
It was embarrassing to dredge up such a shabby past again, but that was fine. If it helped Ophelia, Idren was willing to confess any of his flaws.
Having washed away despair and regained new hope, Idren lifted his head. When he’d first stepped out of Ophelia’s room, her words implying she didn’t need him had left him stunned—but now that he’d gathered his thoughts, he felt better.
Just then, a piercing scream came from behind.
“Your Highness—!”
Realizing it came from the direction of Ophelia’s room, Idren turned around and ran back the way he’d come.
But before he even reached the door, his vision wavered. He stumbled on the violently undulating floor and finally collapsed.
The last thing his blurred eyes saw was Ophelia’s wide-open chamber door and people rushing inside.
[This is the timeline separator]When he opened his eyes again, he found himself cast under a clear blue sky.
Startled, Idren rose to his feet. Standing unsteadily on the swaying deck, he staggered like a drunkard. Colorful silks decorated the passing ships, and blossoms spilled luxuriantly along the riverbanks caught his eye.
Suddenly, a strong fishy odor hit him. Nausea rose in his throat. Idren knelt at the stern of the ship, retching. Penrel approached him with a look of alarm.
After that, everything unfolded exactly as he remembered.
The knight with emerald eyes asked him worriedly if he was alright. Idren grabbed him and asked what year it was, receiving the same answer he’d heard before.
“It is the fourth month of this year, and Your Highness is en route to the royal palace of Reden, where you are to meet King Dares and Prince Mahanas.”
Hearing this, Idren pushed the knight away. Penrel, pale-faced, covered his own face with his hands and asked again if he was alright.
Contrary to the knight’s words, he was far from alright.
Am I going mad?
Clutching his face on the rocking deck, Idren wondered. Am I losing my mind? Is that why I keep seeing this illusion over and over?
Yet the sensation of his own face gripped tightly between his fingers felt too vivid.
It wasn’t just his face—the lazy spring breeze, the vibrant colors bright enough to hurt the eyes—all of it was excessively real. That very vividness tightened around his throat like a noose.
Gazing down at the water, which seemed ready to surge up and swallow him whole, Idren thought of one person.
Ophelia.
In the last scene he remembered, her chamber door had been wide open, and people had rushed inside.
As if something had happened to whoever was within.
Separate from the strangeness he felt, a wave of anxiety overwhelmed him.
Clearly, Ophelia wasn’t being treated well in the Reden royal palace.
Her maid had blamed her after she jumped, and her family had acted as if the incident had never occurred.
The measures they’d taken… flashed before his eyes—the grotesque wooden planks crisscrossed across the balcony.
Perhaps someone had harmed Ophelia.
At that thought, his already racing heart felt like it would burst from his chest. He vomited again. The swirling water below was a vivid blue.
[This is the timeline separator]This time too, Idren mounted a horse prepared at the dock and raced toward the Kingdom of Reden. Penrel, unable to stop him as he spurred his horse like a fugitive, simply followed behind.
Finally arriving at the Reden royal palace, Idren immediately looked up toward the wing where the princess’s chamber was located.
Ophelia had certainly been there. The memory of catching her as she fell from that balcony remained vivid.
But now, the balcony stood shut tight, as if it had never been opened.
Still, he couldn’t afford to relax. Idren strode swiftly across the palace gardens. Mahanas, coming from afar to greet him, looked startled.
“You’ve arrived earlier than scheduled. However, right now…”
Idren brushed past the prince without a word and entered the palace. Penrel called after him in alarm. “Your Highness!” The knight seemed shocked by his master’s unprecedented rudeness.
Regardless, Idren hurried up the corridor leading to Ophelia’s room. From within, he heard the sound of something shattering.
He prayed it wasn’t coming from the very room he headed toward—but his wishes had never been particularly prone to fulfillment.
Soon, Idren saw a crowd gathered before Princess Reden’s chamber.
A few who recognized him tried to say something, but their words didn’t register in his ears.
He pushed through the throng—past Ophelia’s maid, who stood sobbing with a ruined flower basket, and the whispering attendants—and approached. From inside Ophelia’s room came a dull, tearing sound.
Idren urgently knocked on the door.
“Ophelia! Are you alright?”
He couldn’t see what was happening inside, but the noise filled him with dread.
“Please open the door! Ophelia!”
As if hearing his desperate cry, the door suddenly swung open.
A bony hand shot out from the dark gap and seized his wrist. Before he could even register the contact, Idren was yanked into the darkness.
Shadows cloaked the entire room. Looking around, Idren was horrified.
“Are you alright? What is this…?”
The room was in complete disarray. The vanity mirror was shattered, the chair beneath it lay overturned with one leg broken off, and crushed flower stems were scattered everywhere across the floor.
Then Idren realized why no light entered the room—the curtain rod above the balcony window was half-broken, and the rolled-up fabric had spilled over the glass.
Amidst this chaos, Ophelia, breathing heavily, saw him and strode forward.
“You came back too, didn’t you? You too?”
Her hoarse voice was laced with urgency. Before the stunned Idren could reply, she pleaded desperately.
“Do you know why this is happening? Why… why…?”
Then Ophelia bowed her head, covering her face as if in deep shock.
Idren reached out to steady her trembling shoulders out of pity. At that moment, Ophelia murmured, “Why won’t I just die?”
It sounded less like a question meant for him and more like one directed at herself—but it was clear enough. A chill shot down his spine. Idren asked in a trembling voice,
“What did you just…?”
But Ophelia seemed not to hear him. Covering her face, she muttered through clenched teeth like a madwoman, “What’s wrong with me… why can’t I… why can’t I just…”
Seeing her, Idren understood.
Nothing had happened to Ophelia.
She had done something herself.
With trembling hands, Idren gripped the woman’s shoulders. Ordinarily, he would have avoided touching someone without permission—but now, he couldn’t care less about propriety.
In a voice edged with desperation, he asked,
“…What did you do?”
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.”
[Touch the gear icon in the bottom right corner of the screen to move to the next chapter if you want.]
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