Grita closed her eyes tightly, urging sleep. The time had swiftly approached dawn. If she didn’t sleep now, she’d suffer from fatigue all the next day. Her breathing, initially irregular, slowly became rhythmic.
Then, in a moment of silence as the wailing chickens quieted down:
Creak.
Grita’s eyes snapped open. Before she could process it with her mind, a chilling shiver ran down her spine. It was the sound of the firmly locked lock turning. And there was only one key to that lock, which Grita always carried with her.
‘Then who could it possibly be?’
As that thought crossed her mind, a wave of self-mockery surged in her heart. Are you really asking? Your instinct knows, doesn’t it?
Click.
Finally, the lock was fully released, and the door slowly opened. Her heart pounded rapidly. Her breath became shallow in an instant. Grita barely swallowed the scream trying to burst out, turning over in her bed and muffling her mouth with the pillow.
Creak. Creak.
The sound of someone stepping on old floorboards and approaching grew louder. The shadow she glimpsed with half-closed eyes looked like a large man. Not in the shape of a dragon, nor moving independently as the rumors suggested.
As if there was still a reason to remain human.
When ‘it’ stopped at her bedside, Grita closed her eyes tightly.
“…….”
Even without opening her eyes, she felt ‘it’ staring down at her intensely. She pretended to sleep, turning her body, but her rapid breathing was uncontrollable.
‘It’ leaned closer, almost touching, yet bizarrely, no sound of breathing was heard. Only Grita’s gasps were audible.
“…….”
Grita felt a faint chuckle flow down her wrinkled cheek from ‘it’. It was like a voice made of thousands of people overlapping, or perhaps a single howl, or just a fierce north wind whistling and swirling…
‘It’ seemed to already know. Their crude plan, Grita’s fear, and the fact that she hadn’t yet fallen asleep.
She was going to die. Her lips and fingertips trembled with the stark premonition.
And in the moment she barely opened her eyes,
“……!”
Grita found herself facing a pair of shimmering golden eyes in the darkness. Eyes that glowed on their own, even without light.
The way it looked down at her, as if from a great height, like looking at a wriggling maggot, was utterly inhuman and chilling. That profound strangeness…
“Uh, uh… please, save me…”
Unable to hold back, Grita wept silently. ‘It’ was a disaster incarnate. Terror made her teeth clatter against each other.
It just watched, as if amused or finding her reaction funny, as if her pleas for mercy didn’t even reach its ears.
“……please, please…”
Suddenly, its shadow moved. Grita gasped and shivered, feeling the cold touch of the shadow climbing her neck. She soon realized that it wasn’t just a simple shadow, but hundreds of hands.
The hands seemed metallic. They were like snake scales, or even knife blades.
They covered her mouth, densely wrapped around her short, thick neck. They moved elegantly, like playing an instrument, or constricting like a spider taking its prey’s breath away.
“……uhhh…”
Grita’s pained groan was muffled by the hands, unable to escape outward. Tears, snot, and saliva mixed in a mess. It wasn’t an exaggeration; she felt like she was truly about to die.
The problem was, no matter how much she struggled, ‘it’ showed no interest. It seemed indifferent, as if watching a crushed caterpillar.
“Uh… ugh…”
If it wanted to kill her, it would have done so already. But toying with her like this, planting deep-rooted fear from the core, there was only one reason.
Because she had proposed an escape to Adelheit.
Male lead is a Destined Young Husband (Female-dominant)
One-sentence summary: Wife-master, listen to my explanation!
Li Ruantang, a young lady from a prestigious family, stumbled and fell. When she woke up, she saw a noble and beautiful young man sitting by her bedside, wiping away tears.
The young master had slightly reddened eyes, and his every move exuded charm.
The sight made Li Ruantang’s eyes hot and her heart flutter. After all, she had made a bet with the young master Meng from the neighboring family. If she couldn’t marry a husband before the end of the year, she would have to admit defeat and give up the jade she had worked so hard to obtain.
Outside the window, the flowers were in full bloom.
Rather than losing the bet, the jade, and her face, Li Ruantang calculated that it would be better to seek marriage with the young master in front of her, killing three birds with one stone.
…
Meng Jun never thought that an accident during a spring outing would lead to them rolling down a cliff and into a river, yet still survive.
Now they were trapped in an unknown village, and Meng Jun had overheard that the family who had rescued them had their own intentions.
After all, it was Li Ruantang who had lost her mind and sought marriage first. He was only trying to protect himself!
Glancing at Li Ruantang, who was listing her own merits, the young husband’s voice softened, and he blushed as he lied, “W-wife-master, Wife-master, don’t you remember me?”
The young husband’s voice was clear and handsome, coaxing Li Ruantang’s heart to be soft and sweet, and she spared no effort to protect him.
It wasn’t until they returned to the capital that Li Ruantang suddenly remembered.
When they had fallen off the cliff, in order not to implicate Wei Yunruo, whom he secretly admired, the young husband had instead pulled her, who was slightly farther away, down the cliff with him…
Short summary by Yuushi L: Initially, the male lead (ML) liked another girl, while the female lead (FL) liked the ML. Both fell off a cliff. The FL temporarily lost her memory, and the ML, fearing others might take advantage of him, claimed FL was his wife while they were staying in a village. Later, when they returned home, the FL regained her memories and remembered that the ML liked someone else, so she kept her distance from him. However, during their time living together in the countryside, the ML’s view of the FL had completely changed. From this point, his pursuit of the FL begins.
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