Serena’s eyes looked at Lucas strongly and directly, just as they did in Astel. Inwardly, his worries about whether she might have changed after facing life in the capital were all for naught.
“I’ll admit I was wrong.”
“…Really? You’ve thought it through well. Then, tell His Majesty the Emperor right now that you want to break off the engagement!”
However, he couldn’t help but feel somewhat hurt by Serena’s delighted expression as she still spoke of breaking the engagement. Even if she disliked his proposal, her being so pleased made him feel rather stubborn instead.
“No. We’re going to get married.”
When an answer different from her wishes came out, Serena began to glare at him.
“That wasn’t a mistake.”
“Ha, then did you come here to make fun of me? I don’t need it, so please leave.”
Even when he concealed his identity while wandering sometimes, no one treated him carelessly due to the pressure and dignity he exuded, but this woman treated him so aggressively even knowing his status that he couldn’t help but laugh.
“The mistake I mentioned was confining you to this stuffy old mansion. I sincerely apologize for that part.”
Serena still did not lower her aggressive gaze.
“Truly, I had no such intention. I thought… the preparations for the royal marriage would be done at the Astel duchy.”
Lucas spoke with an unexpectedly careful tone and expression.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t think about the fact that your mother had passed away early.”
It wasn’t his fault. But it wasn’t bad to see the face of the man apologizing with such a serious expression.
“Still, making me the Crown Princess is a mistake.”
Serena did not yield her stance. It was unreasonable to ask her to become the Crown Princess when she couldn’t even properly maintain the dignity of a lady, let alone a noblewoman.
“How could I live in the imperial palace and be called the Crown Princess when I can’t even properly pay my respects?”
“Are you denying our connection over such a trivial matter?”
Lucas showed signs of being quite hurt, but Serena deliberately ignored him.
“Your Highness, 6 years have passed. We’ve both grown, and the past is just the past. Also, please consider it not a trivial matter, but my problem.”
Serena saw Lucas’s reckless proposal, which came to her belatedly, as a kind of obsession. An obsession to resolve the wound inflicted by the tall fiancée who had openly disregarded him.
“I’ll apologize for offending Your Highness at the engagement ceremony. And Your Highness has now become a very strong and handsome man. Yes, you wouldn’t lose to any warrior who might come.”
If there was a way to resolve his obsession, it was only to face the memory of that day head-on. Hadn’t Serena also healed by facing the wounds of her past life directly and accepting reality?
“I’m glad to hear your words.”
Lucas would stop his childish behavior once he realized that he had already faced and healed the emotional wound he received at the engagement ceremony.
“Indeed, we are……”
“Yes, just a past engagement.”
Serena nodded.
“Right. A perfect connection formed by our past engagement.”
However, at Lucas’s words, Serena’s movements suddenly stopped.
His dark eyes already held a firm resolve, and judging from all her experiences so far, they were evenly matched in stubbornness and difficult to determine superiority. In the end, unable to hold back, Serena opened her mouth again.
“Do you know that you don’t seem to be in your right mind right now?”
Lucas shamelessly shook his head. He never knew that the feeling of someone looking down on him could be this frustrating, but now he seemed to understand Lucas’s feelings from 6 years ago.
“Anyone can see that I’m not a suitable candidate for Crown Princess. The outcome of what Your Highness is insisting on now will only bring unhappiness to both of us.”
“You always assert that we’ll be unhappy together. Without ever having lived with me.”
Of course, Serena had a separate reason for her assertion. It was because she knew she was a supporting character in this story, and the only vivid description of the character Serena was fresh in her mind.
“We’ll definitely be unhappy. We won’t be able to bear any fruit.”
That was exactly as described. At the point when the protagonist of this story begins to appear, Serena is portrayed as an empress on the verge of being deposed.
An incompetent, powerless, and will-less useless existence who couldn’t fulfill any of her duties and received no one’s attention, about to exit the stage soon.
“No.”
Lucas’s voice resonated lower, as if angry, and he stepped forward until he was right in front of Serena.
“Our marriage will be happy.”
No matter how intimidatingly he looked down at her, Serena’s heart remained unchanged.
“How can we be happy when I can’t be happy?”
“That’s why I’m making a promise.”
Lucas grasped Serena’s wrist. The calluses on his large hand were small proof of how much effort he had put in.
And perhaps because she had suffered in an unfamiliar place, his hand, which was somewhat familiar, felt warm.
“How can I believe Your Highness’s promise? Far from wearing men’s clothing, I had all my clothes taken away and had to have new dresses made.”
Clothes were a good measure of a person’s life.
Among the dresses Serena brought from Astel, even those worn for formality and etiquette weren’t even suitable as indoor clothes in the eyes of the Marchioness. That was an indication of Serena’s future life.
“Didn’t I apologize for that?”
Unlike his calm words, Lucas’s eyes looked at Serena very emotionally.
“This time it’s my fault. I admit it.”
Gently, his hand gripping Serena’s wrist tightened.
“But I can’t agree that we’ll be unhappy.”
At first, it was inferiority. But the reason he felt inferior was because the other person was none other than the woman he had fallen for at first sight.
How could there be hatred when there was no interest to begin with? Moreover, after some time passed, it wasn’t hatred but resentment at not having his feelings reciprocated.
“I liked you from the moment we first met.”
For a moment, Serena doubted her ears.
“…What?”
“What do you think was the reason I trained for 6 years? If it was just a whim, I would have returned to the palace long ago.”
Lucas wasn’t as simple a man as she thought. Six years was too long a time to have wandered just out of stubbornness.
“It was all to win you over with a dignified appearance.”
Now she could tell that his words were sincere. There was no trace of the boy left on his face, and his subtle scent was full of the presence of a full-grown man.
“The waiting is over now.”
Above all, those pitch-black eyes and manly, firm lips held only sincerity. Whether Serena wanted that sincerity or not.
“Your Highness, I……”
“I promise.”
Lucas cut off her words with a low voice before Serena could say more.
“I’ll make the promise I made to you in Astel again.”
At Serena’s puzzled expression, Lucas recalled the purpose of coming here today. He took out a rolled-up scroll from his bosom. It was clearly a luxurious parchment stamped with the Crown Prince’s seal.
“Serena Astel.”
Lucas called her name.
“I, Lucas Tern, will leave our promise in writing to remember.”
Instead of a diamond ring, his proposal consisted only of a rough scroll.
“Please accept and keep my promise forever.”
Lucas placed the scroll in Serena’s hand and looked at her with a tense expression for a moment. No matter how strong a man was, he didn’t like being repeatedly rejected by the woman he had always dreamed of.
“Is this an order from His Highness the Crown Prince?”
“No.”
It was the calm answer Serena had expected. She wanted to avoid this fate, but the sincerity of the man before her eyes was too heartfelt to ignore no matter how much she tried.
“It’s a promise from one man named Lucas Tern.”
She should reject him even now. She should somehow cancel the marriage and return to Astel to live freely alone.
“A promise only for you, Serena.”
His lips trembled slightly. His strong face showed a bit of tension. She really wanted to turn away, but this man was sincere.
“Please, accept my promise.”
Lucas pressed the scroll more firmly into Serena’s hand and made her grasp it tightly.
“I don’t even know what’s written in here.”
“No, you already know.”
His low voice resonated clearly yet comfortably.
“Because it’s just the promise I already gave you written down.”
There was no arrogance on his face. Rather, only desperation and intense desire that kept showing no matter how he tried to hide them were visible.
“What if I still don’t like it?”
For the first time, his dark eyes were filled with loneliness.
“If you hate me even to death… then…”
This large man suddenly looked pitiful like a dejected boy.
“If you really hate me…”
His handsome eyebrows drooped and his muttering voice was all gloomy.
“I’ll wait.”
“What?”
Serena let out a short breath in surprise.
“I’ll wait until you don’t hate me, even if it’s not 6 years but 60 years.”
She thought she was second to none when it came to stubbornness. Even if her opponent was Lucas, she considered them similar.
“I won’t marry anyone else, I won’t meet any other woman, and I’ll… wait for your heart to change.”
Again, Serena was wrong. The firm resolve and stubbornness of the man before her eyes couldn’t be beaten by anyone, even herself.
“But waiting is too cruel.”
At some point, Lucas’s face had come close enough to feel his breath.
“I’ll keep my promise, so don’t push me away.”
He gently pushed back Serena’s hair with touching carefulness and lightly kissed her forehead. It was such an unexpected act that Serena forgot even to breathe for a moment, let alone think of kicking him in the shin.
__________
Bro, don’t be like this, I’m really about to throw up! (Female-dominant)
Short intro:
What she can’t stand the most is the streets full of effeminate men, especially that so-called top beauty whom she avoids at all costs.
Shen Yaoxing looks at Jiang Mingyue, who keeps approaching her with coy shyness.
Shen Yaoxing: Bro, don’t be like this, I’m really about to throw up!
She fears nothing in heaven or earth, except for him getting close to her.
*
At first he thought she was just using the trick of feigning indifference to attract his attention. Later, he learned that she truly despised him.
This dealt a heavy blow to Jiang Mingyue, and he vowed to make her, like everyone else, fall at his feet in worship!
***
Synopsis:
Before transmigrating, Shen Yaoxing only wanted to find a reliable man to spend her life with. Who knew that after transmigrating, she would become a reliable woman herself…
A forced misandrist, highly skilled, and reliable female lead
vs.
An initially aloof and arrogant, later morbid, obsessed male lead