My Fiancé Keeps Trying to Raise Me (16 Chapters Left to Complete) - Chapter 10
I’d thought a walk might ease my stifling mood a little, but after laying bare my heart just moments ago, I felt even more depressed.
Even setting aside the fact that I hadn’t yet met the Grand Duke, I needed to stay in good favor with the imperial family to maintain this engagement—but the thought of having angered the Empress Dowager left me utterly dejected.
“She isn’t seriously unwell, is she?”
The Empress Dowager’s face kept flashing before my eyes—clutching her chest as if her heart pained her.
At this rate, might I end up imprisoned before Grand Duke Harzent even arrives, charged with harming the Empress Dowager’s health?
It wasn’t entirely unfounded worry—after all, Bridget had once been abruptly dismissed to house arrest, stripped of duties, simply because she complained of a headache right after Anet returned from reporting the completion of her first demon-beast hunt.
Though I knew this place differed from that one, recalling how the King used to seat Bridget on his lap and shout made me sigh involuntarily… just in case.
“Sigh.”
“…?”
Had I just sighed out loud?
Anet, startled, turned her head this way and that.
Not far off, beneath a large tree, a small figure lay sprawled carelessly on a bench.
I’d sensed their presence ever since entering the garden.
But Serina had said only royalty came here—and that no one was around—so I’d assumed it was some small animal…
“Huh?”
Just then—
the child, who’d been sighing deeply in a manner wholly unsuited to their age, straightened up upon sensing Anet’s gaze.
Golden hair distinctive to the imperial bloodline, violet eyes mirroring the Queen’s—like the dawn sky—and a charming face that seemed to blend the best features of both Emperor and Empress.
‘She’s definitely the Crown Prince.’
I’d heard he was supposed to be in lessons—had he skipped class?
While Anet figured out the boy’s identity, Crown Prince Mikhail, who’d been eyeing her warily, strode over on short legs with a stern expression.
Placing his tiny hands firmly on his hips and furrowing both eyebrows, he demanded with all the dignity he could muster,
“Who are you? By what right do you dare set foot in this garden, reserved solely for royalty?”
“…”
“If you refuse to reveal your identity, I shall hold you accountable for your crime!”
Though Anet found the little prince’s phrasing oddly formal, his sharp tone still startled her—because she genuinely feared being accused of harming the Empress Dowager’s health.
At the same time, she thought wryly to herself:
Now she’d met every member of her future husband’s family—except the groom himself.
[This is the timeline separator]Meanwhile, as Anet faced interrogation from Mikhail—
“Guilty! Absolutely guilty!”
The bedridden Empress Dowager cried out in grave earnest.
“I’d heard tales of a knight whose single sword swing made demon-beasts fall like rain—I imagined a dignified, awe-inspiring girl, one even ordinary boys wouldn’t dare approach, let alone a child! But—!”
The moment the parlor door opened and a doll-like, beautiful child tiptoed in, curtsying sweetly by lifting her skirt, the Empress Dowager nearly stopped breathing—so shocked she couldn’t even speak.
The way those round eyes kept glancing at her warily resembled a cautious kitten, and when tea and sweets arrived, her eyes sparkled as if she’d found treasure—utterly childlike…
“How can anyone be so unbearably cute! That level of cuteness is a crime! Why didn’t you tell me she was this adorable, Queen!”
The Empress Dowager shouted again, her expression fierce.
Knowing well that the Empress Dowager always wore such a terrifying look when deeply charmed, Charlotte inwardly shook her head and offered an excuse.
“I, too, never expected Lady Heyworth to be quite this adorable.”
Though she’d long claimed to be Anet’s devoted follower, she’d only ever heard heroic tales—never truly grasped Anet’s actual personality.
She’d assumed Anet remained distant from others due to years of isolation and mistreatment in the Heyworth Kingdom, and that an unhappy childhood spent solely hunting demon-beasts must have left her emotionally immature.
‘So I’d steeled myself not to withdraw my hand, even if met with cold rejection…’
But instead of rejection, Anet—though flustered by the kindness—slowly opened her heart, leaving Charlotte deeply moved and almost tearful.
Because she’d finally realized: Anet had kept her distance not by choice, but because no one had ever truly approached her.
“At last! A girl has appeared who will wear the dresses I made!”
Still overwhelmed with emotion at meeting Anet, the Empress Dowager clenched her fists.
Though her appearance seemed cold and sharp, she adored all things cute and sweet—and designing whimsical children’s clothing had been her lifelong hobby.
Thanks to this, she’d frequently made outfits for her two sons and even her grandson Mikhail—but she’d always lamented the rows upon rows of untouched girl’s dresses gathering dust in her dressing room, waiting for an owner who never came.
As Empress Dowager, she couldn’t simply summon unrelated noble daughters into her inner circle, so she’d waited endlessly for a granddaughter—making this miracle all the more astonishing!
Though an adult transforming into a child wasn’t exactly ordinary, after living her whole life with a father-in-law, husband, eldest son, and youngest son—each possessing unique powers—the Empress Dowager found Anet’s physical change hardly shocking at all.
Besides, her eldest son could surely fix it—and even if not, her second son would never leave Anet as she was.
Just then, recalling her second son, Grand Duke Harzent, the Empress Dowager’s lips curled into a smile.
“By the way, Kardin’s been caught in his own trap. He must’ve gone on that hunt early, planning to stay put in the capital for a while after bringing home his new bride…”
Despite her regretful tone, the Empress Dowager grinned as if she’d just eliminated a rival, resolving to recount to Kardin—once he finally heard the news—every single adorable detail, from Anet’s first greeting to her frantic snack-eating.
Especially how adorably she’d shyly offered him a cookie—it had looked charming enough to blow up the entire palace!
“But… isn’t she a bit too thin?”
Remembering how scrawny Anet looked despite eating plenty, the Empress Dowager frowned disapprovingly.
Though mentally twenty-four, a child ought to be plump and round!
“Queen, let’s have tea again after lunch tomorrow. I’ll make her nice and chubby—glossy with health!”
Whispering like a wicked witch about to devour a child, the Empress Dowager sprang from her bed, determined to alter the dress she’d made to fit Anet perfectly by tomorrow.
[This is the timeline separator]At that very moment—
The Harzent Ducal Knights were deep in the midst of a purge within the forest along the borderlands, known as the “Demon-Beast Marsh.”
Though still midday, darkness blanketed the woods as if night had fallen—and with rain falling, the atmosphere grew naturally eerie.
Boom! Crack!
Suddenly, lightning split the sky.
As the demon-beast’s hidden red eyes flashed menacingly, a man in a black mask burst forth, kicking off the rain-soaked earth.
Moments later—
Thud. The demon-beast collapsed heavily to the ground, its head cleanly severed from its body.
From the knight’s sword, which had cut the beast with unwavering precision, vivid black energy rose like mist.
As the entire company watched in awe, the deputy commander standing behind him—Morton Feyran—spoke.
“Your Grace, this should keep things quiet for a month or two.”
They’d launched this purge earlier than the scheduled patrol and ventured unusually deep into the marsh to eliminate the threat.
Yet the Grand Duke himself, who’d accomplished this astonishing feat, frowned—his only visible eye beneath the mask betraying dissatisfaction.
“Merely a month or two…”
“Your Grrrrrraaaace!”
Just then—
an absurdly loud voice shattered the forest’s silence, save for the sound of rain.
“What lunatic would—”
One knight muttered instinctively, alarmed.
In the Demon-Beast Marsh, where some beasts were highly sensitive to sound, charging through with such noise was tantamount to offering one’s life.
The lunatic’s identity was quickly revealed:
none other than the Grand Duke’s aide, Samuel.
“Yooooooour Grrrraaaace!”
Samuel, a quintessential scholar unskilled in horsemanship, approached at breakneck speed in a perilously unsteady saddle.
“Neeeeigh!”
When he yanked the reins abruptly, the horse reared, flailing its front hooves in midair before barely regaining its footing.
“Whew! Almost died!”
Nearly glued to the saddle, Samuel gasped for breath—then, spotting the Grand Duke he’d so desperately sought, hastily dismounted.
“Your Grace!”
“So our loyal Samuel has come to spare me some labor?”
Was he deliberately trying to draw the demon-beasts’ attention? Understanding the mockery in his lord’s tone, Samuel let out an awkward chuckle.
The Grand Duke tilted his head slightly.
“Well then—what urgent matter drove you to risk your life riding here?”
The Grand Duke’s icy tone carried an unspoken threat: unless this was news of war or catastrophe, Samuel might just lose his head.
Samuel flinched—the Grand Duke’s eyes still gleamed with the lingering bloodlust from his recent hunt.
“D-don’t look at me like you’re about to gut me! I’m not a demon-beast!”
Your Grace isn’t the brutal monster those rumors claim—someone who’d cut down humans as readily as beasts, right?
Samuel spoke hesitantly—even though he himself had spread those very rumors under the Grand Duke’s orders, he still couldn’t quite believe them.
“Get to the point.”
Snapped back to his senses by the cold reply, Samuel immediately pulled something from his robe.
“A message arrived from the palace—I came running. It’s urgent—”
Before Samuel could finish, the letter was already in the Grand Duke’s hand.
Instantly, the Duke’s blue eyes trembled violently.
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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Wow this novel has it all, huh? No misunderstanding over the ML’s feelings towards FL, kind and loving imperial family wow
Always a favorite of mine when hurt, abandoned, abused MCs gets a chance of having a true family 🥹