88. If You Say You’ve Offered Yourself
2023.12.27.
Yuan Pelliese had been slightly flushed throughout her entire walk to the villa.
It wasn’t because of mosquitoes—rather, her intensified practice of her ability under Bollonico’s direct supervision had succeeded.
The amount of pain she’d delivered was far stronger than what she’d first inflicted on him.
The incident involving the yellow elephant and Diva’s suffering had occurred before Bollonico left for hunting, so the intensity of pain then had clearly not been very high.
But this time, the force had certainly been enough to knock Bollonico down.
Yuan rubbed her slightly cramped hand, opening and closing it repeatedly as she looked around the garden.
As always, the tea table had been set up with Trin’s usual grumbling touch.
Instead of Noel chattering beside her from morning, only a newspaper lay abandoned on the table.
“We’ll be taking our leave now.”
A man standing firmly at the garden entrance, refusing to take another step, called out to her.
Yuan turned her gaze, which had been searching for Noel, upward to the man who had escorted her here, leading two subordinates.
Eugene Kimfri.
Commander of the Royal Second Knight Division.
He had been forced to leave Bollonico lying in the First Prince’s bedroom after the prince suddenly collapsed, clutching his Achilles tendon.
Naturally, he had escorted Yuan, whom he’d found standing at the corridor’s end listening to Bollonico’s screams, all the way here.
Yuan lowered her eyes awkwardly and answered.
“Very well.”
And then—Eugene Kimfri stepped forward toward her, leaving his subordinates behind who had been eyeing her warily, and bowed his head.
“You may roast Bollonico or boil him, for all I care—but please, do not make the mistake of touching Prince Noel.”
The man added, looking down at her with his distinctive amber-colored eyes.
“You will regret it.”
Without waiting for her reply, he glared once at the villa, then abruptly turned and strode out of the garden.
Yuan stared blankly at the backs of the knights who gave her a crisp bow before rushing after their superior.
What did he think he knew, anyway?
Yuan stood frozen for a long moment, then instinctively glanced around her surroundings.
She had far more urgent matters piling up than dwelling on a man she’d likely never meet again.
Especially, she had many questions for Noel.
About Bollonico’s Heaven and the Path of Loyalty.
And about that man, Eugene Kimfri—so polite yet so rude.
After all, the last she saw of him was his back vanishing the moment news of Bollonico’s departure arrived. Perhaps, somewhere, he was watching her even now.
***
Yuan spent the entire afternoon alone, enjoying her tea time.
Empress Marilyn must have been busy with the final stages of selecting her maids, as she didn’t summon Yuan all day.
Perhaps because Yuan had behaved quietly in the villa, or maybe because Trin’s reports were utterly unremarkable.
They might have decided there was no need to summon her frequently.
‘Maybe Bollonico said something infuriating to the Empress this morning.’
Recalling that Bollonico, who never acted like a dutiful son, had specifically visited the Empress’s palace that morning, Yuan suspected he might have said something to upset her on his way to fetch her.
Whatever the reason, it wasn’t a bad situation for Yuan.
Trin was poor at reading and writing, so she didn’t care what Yuan wrote, and she was often away cleaning other villas.
Another sign that the Empress’s surveillance and caution toward Yuan had weakened.
Thanks to this, Yuan could think and write freely without watching her surroundings.
Yuan scanned the list of noble houses she’d written all morning.
It was a record of families that appeared both in the Path of Loyalty and among those who had sent gifts to the Empress’s palace—only the overlapping ones.
It was small enough to burn or swallow easily if needed.
Feeling satisfied, she lifted her head—just as Noel Euphris was walking steadily toward her from the villa’s entrance.
She had suspected he was watching, but hadn’t expected him to come so quickly. He must have been extremely curious about what she’d done with Bollonico.
Noel was staring at her with a face carefully stripped of complicated emotions.
In his eyes, hesitation flickered—whether to ask or not.
Yuan steeled her heart and waited for his choice.
After a brief pause, he spoke.
“W-why did y-your Highness c-call m-my brother this morning?”
“…….”
“D-did the two of you g-go somewhere?”
Yuan slowly sipped her already cold tea, speaking as calmly as possible.
“He showed me around the First Prince’s palace.”
Noel’s composed expression crumpled like paper.
Yuan continued without pause.
“You must know, as his brother—about ‘Bollonico’s Heaven’.”
Noel stiffened his face.
“All kinds of strange creatures from this world reside there. I’d never seen such sights before—birds I’d never seen in my life, bright yellow elephants… humans with all sorts of skin colors.”
Yuan felt as if, for the first time, she was seeing clearly why Noel disliked Bollonico.
The more she described Bollonico’s Heaven, that bizarre greenhouse, the more it felt as though Noel’s soul was writhing in agony.
She didn’t stop, continuing her tale.
“Beyond that horrifying yet beautiful place, even more magnificent things appeared—like the Path of Loyalty.”
Yuan calmly described the place while watching Noel’s reaction.
A grand, orderly space where each family proudly displayed their beauty—where those who had offered rare treasures to Bollonico passed through the greenhouse and finally offered their entire house to proceed.
The kind of space that would overwhelm ordinary people the moment they stepped in, leaving them breathless with pressure.
Noel’s tense brow, which had trembled while listening about the greenhouse, finally smoothed out like ironed fabric when he heard she had entered the Path of Loyalty.
Not because he wasn’t displeased.
Noel simply stared, mouth slightly open, breath held, as if he couldn’t believe she had gone that far.
After a brief murmur of “Impressive,” a long silence followed.
It was Noel, staring intently at her, who broke the heavy silence.
His next question, clearly much harder than the first, came with trembling lips.
“D-did you also offer s-something?”
“Your question is wrong. A better one would be—what did *you* offer?”
Yuan studied Noel’s face more closely.
Noel looked as if his life force had been gnawed away during the few hours she’d been in Bollonico’s palace.
Even his smooth, chocolate-colored cheeks and lips had become rough and dry.
For a moment, time seemed to stop as Yuan saw in the prince’s eyes the desperate hope that she had offered nothing.
A bitter smile escaped with her breath, falling to the floor. She’d known this moment would come someday.
The moment when an uncomfortable conversation would begin, forcing her onto a crossroads.
“Did you offer some poor creature to your brother to enter the palace? Did you offer your entire house? Is this palace truly worth abandoning your house for?”
What would this prince do if she said she had offered herself?
Yuan felt the chill spreading through her head, closed her eyes deeply, then opened them again.
She couldn’t bear to see the prince’s face, silently begging for an excuse.
I’m sorry, but Yuan was someone who could only disappoint him.
“You didn’t ask this expecting me to answer, did you?”
Yuan replied with a low sigh. Today was clearly not the day to ask Noel anything.
She turned away from Noel, who stood rigid, mouth slightly agape, and headed toward her room—when suddenly, loud commotion came from the garden entrance.
“Your Highness!”
It was Marquis Companni.
He approached hurriedly, dressed sharply in his formal uniform.
Surprisingly, he stopped not before Noel, but directly in front of Yuan.
Both Noel and Yuan widened their eyes, focusing on the unexpected visitor.
From beneath his neatly twisted, stylishly upturned mustache, his voice poured out.
“Prince Bollonico is asking for you! Hurry—take the shortcut!”
Again, after seeing him this morning? Yuan was surprised, but rose without delay.
Perhaps Bollonico had found a critical use for her tonight.
If so, she might get another chance to explore the Path of Loyalty more thoroughly.
But just as she stepped forward, a long arm abruptly blocked her path.
Yuan froze mid-step.
“S-soon it’ll be d-dark. Where exactly are you going?”
It was Noel Euphris.
Marquis Companni, who had tried to take only Yuan as if ignoring Noel entirely, replied with a slightly dazed expression.
“It’s urgent, Second Prince. There’s no time to delay.”
“W-what’s the matter? A-aren’t you going to tell me?”
“It concerns the First Prince.”
Companni answered, his expression stern, eyes fixed straight ahead.
As Yuan tried to pass Noel and follow, Noel immediately grabbed her arm, trying to pull her behind him.
Yuan looked up in shock—and for a moment, seeing Noel’s face, she felt as if she’d committed a grave sin.
Eyes resembling Clade’s stared down at her, desperate and gloomy.
“P-please don’t go.”
As if pleading not to be disappointed again.
As if he could already guess what Bollonico would do to her this night.
“D-don’t disgrace Brother Clade any further.”
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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