“Then answer me, monster. What are you, what’s your purpose in doing all this, or whose orders are you under?”
The shadow, the dragon of Beichleben, the slayer of the World Tree, the antithesis of holy Morrig, the only twin of a god, the devourer of darkness. Finally, it answered.
[Shadow. I must win this war. I desire unyielding honor.]“Haugh…….”
When it first spoke, Adel gasped for air, bending over.
It felt like lightning had struck her mind. A chill ran down her spine, her neck strained, her head tingled with the resonance.
It sounded like layers of voices, at times a single powerful voice, profound yet simultaneously intense.
The reverberation seemed to directly transmit into her head.
[For that, I would give anything to you. Even my soul, dragon of Beichleben.] [You are dying. And I have no interest in your insignificant soul.]Adel quickly realized that it was a conversation between Valentin and the shadow, relaying the moment of their contract, their final dialogue.
[Heuh…….]Even the laborious, heavy breathing from that time was vividly reproduced. Valentin’s voice was frail, devoid of any signs of life, as if he was on the brink of death.
After a moment of silence, the dragon spoke again.
[However, I see something you can offer me.] [Really?]Valentin pleaded desperately.
[Any price, I’m willing to pay, dragon. Make me the victor of this war.] [You will not survive.] [I’ll be remembered by history. Recorded as the greatest emperor of Anschar. I will….]Valentin coughed out painfully.
[Then, forever, live…. not end up a miserable, defeated….]His voice was unclear, as if his mouth was filled with blood, yet the content was crystal clear. The dragon’s voice was soaked in delight.
[Then the contract is established.]Adel gasped for air. She couldn’t comprehend what she had just experienced, feeling as if she had been brutally beaten, all strength draining from her body.
As she staggered, the shadow approached her urgently.
“I did…. as you wanted, I did….”
She was startled, unable to distinguish between the voice in her head and ‘Valentin’s’. As she flinched, he bit her lip hard.
“So…. please, don’t cry.”
Crying? Me? Adel blinked dazedly and was more surprised when tears fell. She thought she had dried them all up. There should be no reason to cry anymore….
The creature seemed to want to wipe her tears. As it cautiously raised its hand, Adel recoiled, avoiding its touch. He seemed a bit shocked at her clear rejection, then bit his lip sorrowfully.
“I should’ve known. You’re always harsh to me…….”
“…….”
“….I just.”
“…….”
“I missed…. you, Adel.”
Adel’s green eyes widened in shock.
‘Missed me?’
According to the ‘conversation’ he relayed, he was the dragon of Beichleben. Now, she couldn’t help but believe it. Having heard such a voice in her head.
Surprisingly, he was capable of learning, engaging in intellectual conversation, and convincingly mimicking a human, but the fact remained that he was a monster.
‘I’ve done nothing to deserve meeting a monster.’
And as for her, since arriving in Anschar, she hadn’t stepped a foot outside the castle, with no knights or guards to escort her.
With no self-defense skills, Adel found it risky to wander alone inside the castle, let alone venturing outside, where unknown troubles could ensnare her.
The North was never a safe place. Its people, sharing the same barbaric blood, were endlessly generous to their own kind but were closed off, even outright hostile, to outsiders.
“So, I almost confined myself within the castle walls.”
When could he have seen her? How did he know her well enough to miss her? Adel murmured in exhaustion.
“You, you talk as if you were the Grand Duke himself…”
It was an unsolvable riddle. As she pondered, Adel suddenly thought of a possibility.
“Could it be… you possessed another person’s body to watch over me? Or did you inhabit an animal?”
“….”
“What about the Duke then? Where is his soul? What happens to his body after you ‘enter’ and leave it? Tell me!”
“….”
“You hold the Duke’s soul, don’t you?”
Though the shadow kept silent, Adel took its silence as an affirmation of her questions. She was confused about how to deal with this ‘shadow’.
“My God… Can the Duke return later?”
The shadow slightly twisted its eyes and reached out its hand as if worried she might faint. As its fingertips touched her shoulder, she instinctively shut her eyes.
The instinctive aversion was unavoidable. Even if ‘it’ maintained an almost human facade and demeanor, who knew when it might reveal its true form, its gaping red maw ready to devour her.
“My, foot.”
‘It’ gently placed its hand on Adel’s slender shoulder, handling her as if she were fragile glass.
“….”
“Adelhaite. Look, at, me.”
The shadow carefully lifted her chin, brushing her eyelids with its thumb. Adel exhaled the breath she had been holding and opened her eyes.
The creature, wearing Valentin’s face, narrowed its eyes happily.
“….”
Even as she wished to believe the man before her was her husband, the unnaturally elongated pupils shattered her into a chilling reality.
Adel barely moved her frozen lips to plead.
“Tell me.”
“….”
“What happened to my husband… What should I do next?”
“….”
“I want to know everything.”
Its fingers, just barely touching her earlier, now enveloped her cheeks, warmed by her touch.
With an unreadable gaze, it watched her silently, then closed its eyes, bending to press its forehead to her pale one. Again, a tingling resonance began the moment Adel inhaled sharply.
[I just want to see it with my own eyes. The glory of Anschar spread far and wide, my name glorified, my body… I want it all in my name, not my brother’s, whether I die or sleep inside you…]Valentin’s speech was interspersed with pain, sometimes fading, sometimes hoarse, sometimes broken by his struggle for breath. The dragon must have viewed his struggles like a bug’s writhing.
Sensing the shadow’s waning interest, Valentin raised his voice.
[You won’t die, will you, shadow!]A long sigh. Both voices sounded similar due to the resonance, making it hard for Adel to discern whether it was the dragon’s or her husband’s.
Finally, the dragon slowly opened its mouth.
Adel felt her heart drop. No, not that… anything but that. The presence of the dragon here meant their contract was already concluded. Despite knowing she was powerless, Adel desperately screamed in her mind.
[Make your choice.]Incredibly, Valentin burst into laughter. It was the sound of a dying breath, but distinctly discernible.
[So, that’s why Nasau perished after three hundred years… Now I see… how the Lion King could elevate his name in history…] [….] [Just time it right… the people should naturally follow their monarch.] [….] [Until then, I’ll sleep within you…]Adel gasped as if surfacing from a deep dive. It felt like being resurrected from deep waters, her body dry yet feeling soaked. Trembling, Adel pushed away the thing, no, the man in front of her. He easily backed off.
“Are you… okay?”
Valentin asked anxiously, his speech clumsy as he examined her complexion. There was none of the earlier grandeur. She blinked slowly.
‘Now, I understand everything.’
Why the man returned to Anschar, why he specifically inhabited Valentin’s body, and why the monster hadn’t harmed anyone until now…
‘I can’t let the contract be fulfilled. It would mean doom for Anschar.’
Why not? At that moment, someone seemed to whisper softly in her heart.
Adel froze, blinking. It wasn’t her heart speaking, but the cruel voice of someone else lurking near her ear. Initially faint, the voice grew louder and clearer.
Anschar always shunned you. They tormented, ignored, and pained you…
Think about it. Isn’t this good? Your despised husband is dead, and those who disregarded you will now bow to you…
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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