Maiana lay down, supporting her elbow, and looked at Arianthe. On the opposite side, Cedeloi, lying down as well, mirrored her posture as if reflecting in a mirror. Arianthe, under the sheets, held one hand of each of them, wearing a happy expression.
“It’s warm.”
Arianthe said. In that moment, a complex smile passed across Maiana’s face.
A long time ago, memories from childhood resurfaced, back when she was so young that she barely understood what death meant. It was an incident from a past life.
Six or seven years old, maybe? Back when diving into her parents’ interactions, teasing and frolicking, felt like flowers blooming in her mind, making the whole world joyful and happy.
“Lady, are you happy now?”
When Maiana asked, Arianthe widened her eyes, then fervently nodded, almost shaking her head.
“I’m happy. Extremely happy! You know, it feels like having both mother and father.”
Maiana’s gaze, holding the child’s fingers, trembled. Arianthe closed her eyes with an innocent expression, and only Cedeloi witnessed Maiana’s fluctuating emotions.
“Good night, Father. Sleep well, Maiana.”
Cedeloi lightly kissed Arianthe on the forehead, gently patting the sheets with his large hands, putting the child to sleep.
Maiana felt the child’s fingers in her hands occasionally twitching. It seemed a mixture of affectionate emotions and faint sadness swirled alternately.
“What happened with Swan?”
When Arianthe had fallen asleep, Cedeloi spoke in a quiet voice. Maiana, who had been gazing at Arianthe’s face with her eyes closed, laughed shortly, as if sighing.
“I chased away the monster hiding under Young Master’s bed.”
Cedeloi’s eyebrows raised slightly.
“What does that mean?”
“Jocelyn, the housekeeper, was bothering Swan Young Master.”
While stroking Arianthe’s smooth cheek with her fingertips, Maiana explained. Expecting Cedeloi to react strongly, he surprisingly maintained a calm attitude.
“I suspected as much.”
“Did you know?”
This time, Maiana showed a surprised expression. Cedeloi’s shoulders, which had risen slightly, gradually sank with a deep breath and then settled again.
“No, I didn’t know. But I thought Jocelyn wouldn’t leave Swan alone. Wouldn’t anyone think that way? Weren’t you worried?”
After a moment of silence, Maiana answered.
“There was a vague sense of anxiety. But since Young Master almost always stays in the eastern part, I thought he wouldn’t encounter Jocelyn, the housekeeper. I thought Young Master Swan was avoiding me and Bridget so much that it was strange… I thought it was because he found us unfamiliar.”
“You were busy taking care of Arianthe.”
“Well, that can’t be an excuse. Young Master Swan was suffering a lot. It must have been frightening for him to be alone. Jocelyn, the housekeeper, was relentless.”
Cedeloi remained silent for a moment with a contemplative expression.
“Jocelyn, the housekeeper, spread rumors about the Lady.”
“Rumors?”
“Rumors about the Lady’s birth.”
When Maiana delivered what Swan had heard, Cedeloi’s expression turned cold. The words Jocelyn had been spreading were disgraceful and derogatory enough to immediately expel her from the mansion.
How many people had she poisoned with such stories?
It was beyond hatred for Verbo and Lilia; she even detested Arianthe, who was nothing more than their child.
Cedeloi asked, “What did you say to Swan?”
“I told him everything was a lie, of course. Young Master Swan didn’t completely believe those words. But Jocelyn was so frightening that he couldn’t refute her.”
“I suppose so. Swan… is not a child who would be swayed by such words to harbor inappropriate thoughts.”
Silence ensued. Maiana gently released Ariante’s hand, which was peacefully sleeping, and removed the strands of hair sticking to her lips.
“Sending Housekeeper Jocelyn away was also part of the plan you mentioned last time?”
“That’s correct.”
Bear hunting. Maiana recalled the bear hunting Cedeloi had talked about. The bear, intoxicated by the easily applied poison on the arrows, becomes an easy target…
“This mansion will soon be peaceful.”
Cedeloi stated as if casting a spell. It was imminent. The day to entwine and release the tough vines around Balterminester Mansion, pouring oil on the roots of those vines and setting them ablaze.
Ariante and Swan decided to take a day off from their lessons with Ash to prepare for a visit to Cyrus’s house. Thanks to this, Ash could enjoy a leisurely morning, but for some reason, he didn’t seem as comfortable as he looked.
“Why are you like that?”
Cedeloi, reading documents and calmly signing them, asked. After finishing their meal, Ash, who had come into the study suggesting they have some tea together, was making an unpleasant face with his fist clenched.
Ash said, “I witnessed something absurd this morning.”
Cedeloi, giving a wry smile, took a sip of tea as if to say, “You’ll explain if you want to.” Then, as he resumed reading the documents, Ash, with a disgruntled expression, asked again.
“Aren’t you curious about what I saw? You don’t even ask.”
Male lead is a Love-Obsessed Merman
When he discovers she has gone, he risks everything to pursue her on land, enduring agonizing pain to transform his tail into human legs…
One-line summary: Male lead chases female lead. The male lead’s love is a bit sick, an invincible love brain.
Synopsis
During a voyage at sea, Jiang Yang accidentally captures a merman.
Servant: I heard that mermen are fierce and brutal.
Jiang Yang looks at the merman obediently rubbing her palm like a puppy: “You call this fierce and brutal?”
Servant: I heard that mermen have no human nature.
Jiang Yang looks at the merman with wet puppy eyes, obsessively calling her ‘A Yang’ like a childish infant: “You call this having no human nature?”
With great difficulty, she releases the merman back into the sea and returns to shore.
Who would have thought that in less than half a month, the merman, who should have been freely wandering in the South China Sea, would shed his scales, endure the pain of losing his tail, transform into human legs, and come ashore to find her?
He kneels at her feet, rubbing her palm, with merman tears rolling down: “A Yang, don’t abandon me.”
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