“I don’t see anything special. Is it my lack of artistic taste, or does Your Majesty have a peculiar taste? The dancing statue from last season was much better, wasn’t it? This one is just standing still.”
Once again, the maid left, and once again, Latil had to hold back her breath. She muttered curses towards Hyacinth under her breath, clenching her teeth.
Fortunately, the next person to enter was Hyacinth. His heart was worn out, having been put on edge twice in a row. Hyacinth had a smile on his face from the moment he walked in, as if something was amusing him.
“Couldn’t you have said no one should enter?”
As Latil crossed her arms and grumbled, Hyacinth chuckled softly.
“If you did that, people would have started talking about the ‘ghost statue’.”
“What did I do.”
“Our palace people were scared, talking about the statue here. One said the small statue looked a bit odd, another said the standing statue was strange. The carrier said, ‘Isn’t that the laughing statue?’ Someone even suggested there might be a ghost statue running around at night, then what would you do?”
“It’s your fault for coming late.”
“Is it always my fault?”
“It’s periodically your fault.”
“Yes, yes. Ask a hundred random people. Do they have cases where their exlover sneaks in disguised as a statue?”
Once Hyacinth finished talking, he picked up a chair and sat in the middle of the room, crossing his legs and looking at Latil with a teasing smile.
“My disguise as a diplomatic party was pretty harmless, it seems.”
“Stop teasing me.”
“I missed you, I’m glad you’re here.”
“I’d rather you tease me.”
“Where’s the original statue? Tell me where before you leave. I’ve already paid the merchant.”
“Do you have no middle ground?”
As Latil grumbled, Hyacinth laughed and asked, “Handkerchief?”
‘A handkerchief, will it do…..’
But she was too tired to argue any longer, and she responded listlessly.
“A very large handkerchief.”
Her whole body had been tense on the way here and it was very painful. Her shoulders were stiff, her legs felt like they had cramps, and her arms felt like they had become statues. Moreover, her heart had dropped several times.
But instead of giving her a handkerchief, Hyacinth took off his cloak and draped it over Latil, then put a hat on her.
“Why this?”
Looking at her, Hyacinth just laughed and pointed at the door.
“You need something like a bathtub. Towel comes after the bathtub.”
[This is the time separator]Latil, who had gone to the nearest bathroom, realised that Hyacinth had been late because he was preparing for her bath. Moreover, everything from a head towel to a bathrobe was perfectly prepared in the bathroom.
Latil got into the warm water and worked to relax her tense muscles, then scrubbed her body and face with a rough cloth to get rid of the white paint that had stuck to her skin.
‘Ah, ow…..’
After nearly 40 minutes, she looked in the mirror. Her hair was almost grey, but she no longer looked like a statue. However, not all the white paint had been removed, so there were still white patches here and there.
But it seemed wrong to take any more time, and feeling guilty toward Hyacinth, Latil quickly got dressed in the bathrobe and went out. Wrapping her hair in a towel, she saw Hyacinth had brought a book to read.
On hearing the door, he turned his head, and his expression turned strange.
“I thought you looked different because you were disguised as a statue. But even without the disguise, you look like someone else.”
“It’s because of magic.”
“Magic? Do you use magic too?”
“Not me, but someone does.”
Latil, while squeezing the dampness from her hair wrapped in a towel, leaned back heavily on the chair opposite Hyacinth.
Once she laid her head back completely on the chair, she could see even the light purple comfortable attire Hyacinth had prepared in advance beyond.
“What brought you out like this? It was quite a risky method, Latil. You know? Your reputation was almost completely ruined.”
Latil lifted her heavy head again. Before she knew it, Hyacinth had closed his book and placed it on the side table, staring intently at her, mostly focusing on her changed face.
“I know. But the situation is urgent right now… I had no other choice.”
“Urgent?”
Latil, sucking in her cheeks deeply and twitching her lips like a goldfish, continued to anxiously press her finger against the towel. She had no clue where to start explaining from.
‘Should I talk about my mother and brother? Should I tell him that I was suspected to be the Vampire Lord? What if he tries to imprison me in the temple when I mention it? Should I leave out that part? Then where should I start explaining from?’
“Latil?”
“Do you remember when we went to the border village of Karisen together?”
“Clearly.”
“When I went back after taking care of what I had to do, a fake looking exactly like me had taken my place.”
Hyacinth, calmly listening to Latil’s conversation with his hands clasped, opened his eyes wide and furrowed his brow at the story of the fake, standing up from his torso.
“A fake?”
“Literally. Remember the note I gave to the Queen to deliver?”
“The note that there are suspicions related to the hewm?”
“Yes. In fact, a similar thing happened on our side. There were several circumstances found where Tyla, who we thought was dead, was alive.”
“Such!”
“There were even appearances of corpses affected by black magic.”
Latil, adding explanations about the ‘Lord’ who appears every 500 years and the stories of black magicians resurrecting together when the ‘Lord’ awakens, let out a heavy and dull sigh.
“So, we were already on high alert regarding black magicians on our side. But, instead, I fell victim to it. The fake stole my appearance and my position, and I turned into a black magician who was suddenly trying to impersonate the emperor with evil power.”
“How did the fake steal your appearance?”
“I had a magical item used to change my face. It seemed to have something similar. But I don’t know what that item is.”
Hyacinth, after being lost in thought for a moment, raised an eyebrow and asked while sinking back deep into his chair.
“No matter if it’s a fake, things like personality should be different. People believe all of that?”
“…Because my brother is helping the fake.”
Hyacinth’s expression quickly turned as fierce as a lion about to attack.
“Lean?”
Hyacinth, who had studied abroad in Tarium, had occasionally hung out with Lean. Naturally, he also knew how much Latil valued her brother. But Lean betrayed Latil?
“Cowardly bastard. How could he betray you. With that innocent face!”
“…It feels like it was just yesterday when we both cursed at you. The tables have turned.”
Hyacinth, repeatedly clenching and unclenching his fists, got up from his chair and approached Latil. He stretched out both arms at Latil’s side and awkwardly wriggled his hands.
However, he who could not end up hugging Latil, dropped his arms weakly, turned around, and went back to his place, clawing at the innocent leather of the sofa.
“Even if the fake is revealed as a fake, the timing is important. Otherwise, my brother could go with ‘that black magician made the real fake and the fake real’. Most of my supporters were taken directly from my brother’s supporters, so they will believe my brother’s words without perfect evidence.”
Hyacinth crouched in front of Latil and met her eyes.
“How can I help you, Latil.”
“Will you help?”
Hyacinth’s expression subtly changed and one corner of his lip raised slightly.
“Why are you like this. You know it all, Latil. That I am still tied to you.”
[This is the time separator]“Your Majesty, Your Majesty! It’s a big problem, a big problem!”
Startled by the raucous noise coming from the reception room, Aini removed the wet towel that covered her face from forehead to eyes and glanced sideways. A maid was gasping for breath, her face pale as she trembled with clenched fists.
“What’s the matter?”
“Your Majesty has secretly brought some strange woman!”
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.”
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