At those words, Dante curled up tightly.
Yet the sharply raised claws and tail thumping against the floor clearly expressed alertness and discontent.
Standing between the two dragons, Yerpi watched the current situation with bewildered eyes.
‘This isn’t right.’
No—actually, she couldn’t even understand how things had ended up this way.
Like rewinding a clock, Yerpi’s memory traced backward to the moment before the incident.
It was half a day earlier.
Yerpi had been fiddling with a wild peach handed to her by a maid.
This peach, dark red in color, was small and uneven, even ugly in appearance.
If at least the taste had been good, it might have been acceptable—but that wasn’t the case either.
No matter how much she thought about it, Yerpi simply couldn’t comprehend how Dante could eat such a thing, so she finally left her chamber.
The place she headed to was the kitchen of Growen Castle.
The sudden visit from the Grand Duchess caused a brief commotion in the kitchen.
Perhaps hearing the maids’ startled voices, Ted Dyon, the head chef and chief of the kitchen, quickly stepped forward before the Grand Duchess.
“Welcome to the heart of Growen Castle, Your Grace. I am Ted Dyon, the head chef here.”
Yerpi couldn’t help but smile at the elderly chef who referred to the kitchen as Growen’s heart.
“I suppose I came rather suddenly.”
“Oh, we’ve always been ready and waiting for your visits, Your Grace. Ever since you arrived, cooking has felt truly meaningful. His Lordship used to be excited no matter what, whether this or that. Hahahaha.”
The large-built head chef’s laughter was as hearty as his voice.
As Yerpi smiled at the kind-faced Ted, he asked,
“But what brings you to the kitchen today?”
“Oh, I just needed some peaches—wondered if you might have any. Do you?”
At Yerpi’s question, the chef’s eyes widened, and without a word, he turned around and said, “Please wait a moment.”
A short while later, Ted returned carrying a large box.
“Oh, of course we have peaches. In fact, we were just about to use them in tonight’s salad.”
Inside the box, peaches wrapped carefully one by one in cloth were dressed in soft pink.
The fresh, sweet scent of fruit tickled her nose. Without even cutting one open, she could already tell—these peaches would have an excellent sweetness.
“The color looks wonderful.”
“Naturally. These are the finest peaches, freshly brought in from the summer region. But how many do you need?”
After a brief pause, Yerpi answered,
“One… no, five, please.”
Recalling the number of seeds scattered on the stone wall yesterday, one just wouldn’t be enough.
Smiling, the chef promptly placed the finest, most beautiful peaches into a rattan basket lined with cloth and handed it to Yerpi.
“Here you go.”
“Thank you.”
A maid standing nearby reached to take it, but Yerpi declined and carried the basket herself.
She quite liked the substantial weight in her arms and the rich, fruity fragrance rising from the basket.
After expressing her gratitude to the kitchen, Yerpi headed toward the garden courtyard.
On a whim, she went to the stone wall where Dante had been yesterday, but found only traces of fallen seeds—no sign of the child at all.
Seeing the empty space along the wall, a bitter smile tugged at Yerpi’s lips.
‘I did expect this.’
Perhaps, no matter where she looked, finding Dante would be difficult.
In fact, before going to the kitchen for peaches, Yerpi had visited the far end of the west wing, where Dante was said to be staying.
Oddly, the door wouldn’t open, and there was no presence felt from inside.
Staring at the locked door, Yerpi fell into thought.
‘Can Dante even unlock doors with a key?’
And before that—where was Meidi, Dante’s maid, right now?
Shouldn’t she be with Dante?
Doubts quickly spiraled into suspicion, one after another.
Meidi enjoyed various privileges—being excused from cleaning duties, living in Dante’s room instead of the dormitory—all justified by her role as Dante’s personal caretaker.
Yet, before even considering her lifestyle, the number of people who had actually seen Meidi and Dante together could be counted on one hand.
Amid this chain of questions, Yerpi turned away from Dante’s room and went straight to the kitchen.
Now, holding the basket of peaches in the garden courtyard, the situation hadn’t improved at all.
‘Now what?’
Would meeting Dante through Meidi be faster?
But the cold, sharp look in Meidi’s eyes when they met was hard to forget.
Then, how could she possibly meet Dante?
The more she pondered, the more vividly Dante’s wary face appeared in her mind.
Small, dark body. A cute face hidden beneath a frowning expression, tiny paws, and a long tail like a cat’s.
‘Ah. I remember.’
Not finding Dante—but calling the child to her.
What came to mind was a trait of the Growen family.
All bloodlines of the Growen family were born and raised with spices as their foundation.
Young dragon bloodlines relied on the scent of spices to find peace, grow with stable minds, and welcome their new partners.
‘Since that child also has dragon blood, wouldn’t they respond to my scent?’
She had once scattered vast clusters of pinkbells across the prairie just by releasing her scent.
The power of spices in the domain of recovery was that strong.
Having experienced this firsthand, she no longer had room for doubt.
‘It’s not certain, but… maybe I should try releasing a little?’
Since she didn’t know where Dante was, she couldn’t direct the scent to a specific location.
All she could do was release her fragrance into the open space of the courtyard and let it spread widely.
Soon, the sweet scent of honey spread around Yerpi.
And that scent led everything back to her.
Still inexperienced in controlling her fragrance, Yerpi’s power unintentionally attracted other things as well.
For example, cute recovery creatures resembling squirrels or field mice, or herbivorous recoveries similar to deer.
All recovery creatures freely moving about Growen Castle had gentle temperaments.
They hid on tree branches or in the bushes of the courtyard, watching Yerpi with curious eyes.
When she reached out toward a small squirrel-like recovery sitting on a branch, it flinched but shyly approached, rubbing its cheek against her hand.
‘Warm.’
Unlike the original Yerpi, she tended to like animals—and was quite popular among them.
Soon, Yerpi was surrounded by large and small recovery creatures.
Seeing these tiny, adorable creatures cautiously approaching her, she felt like a protagonist from a fairy tale, almost forgetting the purpose for which she had released the scent.
Yerpi gently placed the creature in her arms down onto the ground and glanced around.
‘Hasn’t Dante come yet?’
With so many furry creatures around, the ground was barely visible.
After scanning the area for a while, Yerpi spotted a small, dark figure perched on a branch not far away.
Dante, unaware that his bright yellow eyes were gleaming, remained hidden in the shadows, watching only Yerpi.
Seeing the young dragon just staring, unable to approach, made her heart ache.
‘I want to hold that child.’
Was it because the child’s past resembled her own?
Yerpi felt an inexplicable pull toward Dante.
Dante seemed extremely shy, and with so many recoveries lingering here, approaching her seemed unlikely.
Yerpi shifted her fragrance. The visible golden scent spread outward, prompting the other creatures to leave the clearing and return to their own places.
Dante, whose attention had been distracted by the moving creatures, finally realized the Grand Duchess had noticed him.
Yerpi approached closer toward where Dante was hiding and placed the basket of peaches down in front of the tree.
“Hello. I’ve startled you more than three times already.”
Dante’s mouth, about to hiss, awkwardly hung open.
Those bright yellow eyes were already fixed on the peaches.
Noticing the child’s gaze locked onto the basket, Yerpi picked up one peach and held it out.
“You seem to like these. I brought it as a gesture of apology. Will you take it?”
Though still wary, Dante’s nose honestly twitched, sniffing curiously.
But the hesitation didn’t last long.
Just as Dante slowly began to peek forward toward the peach—
Rustle.
Was there still a recovery creature lingering in the clearing?
A cat-shaped recovery, seated on a branch, startled by Dante’s gaze, leapt powerfully away.
Crack—
That was when it happened.
Along with the sound of a breaking branch, the creature fell.
The thick branch, already weakened by prior damage, now came crashing down directly toward Yerpi’s head.
There was no time to react or even dodge.
Just as she tightly shut her eyes, a hand reached from behind and pulled her back.
The rotten branch hit the ground with a heavy thud and shattered.
The warmth at her back was unmistakable.
Lifting her head, she met a pair of golden pupils.
“Raymond?”
At the name she blurted out, Raymond’s golden eyes flickered.
But it was only for an instant.
Having pulled Yerpi behind him, at his feet, a peach rolled across the ground.
Raymond stared at it coldly, then turned his gaze toward Dante.
“You caused trouble again. Dante Growen.”
After Being Cheated On, She Picked Up a Treasure (Female-dominant)
One-line summary: The husband I married on a whim had been secretly in love with me for a long time.
On the day when Jun Shao finally obtained the imperial decree for her marriage, Lan Qu, the person she had admired for six years, defied the decree and ran away.
Her gentleness and devotion, her promise of a lifetime together, were all disregarded by him. Instead, he dreamed of entering the palace to serve the Emperor’s sister as a sixth-rank attendant.
News of this incident spread throughout the capital, and the alleys in front of and behind the Lan mansion were crowded with people who came to watch the commotion.
Jun Shao should have been embarrassed and angry.
But someone stepped in to protect her dignity.
The figure was in a miserable state, yet still possessed an undeniable elegance and handsomeness.
The young lord struggled to climb the wall of the Lan mansion and shouted to her, “If he won’t marry you, I will!”
So, Jun Shao took advantage of the situation and married the person.
She thought the young lord did it to save the Lan family from the crime of defying the imperial decree, but never imagined that from beginning to end, what he coveted was her.
*
After the wedding, Jun Shao felt like she was living in a dream.
Her Wife-master was as beautiful as a fairy in a painting, skilled in the six arts, well-versed in poetry and literature, capable of being gentle and attentive, and also grand and dignified. Most importantly, she was the only one in his heart and eyes.
Jun Shao didn’t know how Lan Shiwu, as a illegitimate son without a father and blessed with beauty, had managed to preserve his purity, recklessly escape, and use his last ounce of strength to ruin his own reputation, all because of his love for her, just to stand before her.
She could only see him gazing at her with eyes full of love, and when she bestowed a name upon him, his eyes shone like stars.
“You have come to me like a weary bird perching on a branch. I shall call you A Qi.”
