The knights stopped in front of Dragon Castle, surrounded by dark brown cliffs, and let out sighs.
“There’s no end in sight……”
“Did the Dragon God create these cliffs?”
Dragon Castle, which should have been surrounded by a lake, was so ruthlessly hidden by high cliffs that to those unfamiliar with its true nature, it looked merely like a towering rocky mountain.
The tall cliffs, as if wedged between heaven and earth, were massive barriers created by the combined forces of nature and Orbis’s magic, and also served as a tomb enclosing the hidden Dragon Castle in a silent space.
The pointed rocks jutting out from the sides of the cliffs looked even more threatening.
Bain let out a low groan and turned to look at Litania.
“Princess Litania. It’s impossible to proceed any further.”
“It certainly looks impenetrable.”
“These cliffs won’t crumble from artillery fire. With such steepness, it’s nearly impossible to ascend on horseback.”
Even a mountain goat climbing the cliff wouldn’t be able to overcome this height. A horse carrying a person would be even less capable.
Litania looked up at the peak of the cliff that seemed to touch the clouds.
‘What was Orbis thinking, surrounding Dragon Castle with such cliffs?’
Even without being hidden like this, humans wouldn’t approach Dragon Castle where lightning bolts and ice rain pour down.
So why bother erecting such a barrier?
“We’ll know when we go up.”
“Princess. What I just said……”
“I know. That other horses would have difficulty climbing.”
As Litania stood up with her feet in the stirrups, the saddle of the white horse shifted, likely due to the lightened weight.
“Oh!”
In that moment, the surrounding knights exclaimed in surprise. The saddle on the white horse’s back wobbled, and then a large pair of wings stretched out from underneath.
“Wings…?”
Bain looked at Litania with an unbelieving expression.
A horse with wings – wasn’t that a divine beast only found in legends or myths?
He seemed unable to understand how the princess, not the Dragon God, could possess such a mystical creature.
“Bain. I told you before. Kindness is repaid with kindness.”
“Princess……”
“I was the one who first set this child, Lapis, free.”
At her first hunt, Litania, as if enchanted, had released Lapis, who had looked at her with dark eyes as if speaking to her.
If she hadn’t brought him out, Lapis would have remained trapped in the enclosure all along.
Of course, she nearly died after losing that horse and venturing deep into the Black Forest, encountering the black leopard.
“A year later, when I entered the Black Forest again, Lapis came to find me.”
Lapis had come looking for her as soon as he separated from Orbis. Perhaps it was to greet her, or perhaps it was to test her.
“Once again, chasing after the fleeing Lapis, I fell into a trap and was kidnapped……”
At the time, she was too scared and preoccupied with Herna’s matter. Then, she was angry at the fact that Orbis had allowed her to be kidnapped and forgot about it.
The fact that it was Lapis who had led her into the trap.
“I could have resented him, but I didn’t.”
She couldn’t even think of resenting him, wondering if a beast that couldn’t speak could have possibly had any intention of putting her in danger.
When she learned that the white horse was actually the Wish Stone, she wasn’t even angry, just feeling that it had all been fate.
“Maybe that’s why? From then on, Lapis moved according to my will.”
Perhaps it had been a test.
Just as the Dragon God had listened to the unreasonable demands of humans.
The Wish Stone, too, must have been gauging whether to trust the human whose wish it had to fulfill.
“Since Lapis can fly, he should be able to climb these cliffs.”
At Litania’s signal, Lapis neighed softly and raised his front hooves. Just a light flap of his white wings sent sand swirling on the ground.
“Princess, please wait a moment!”
“Bain?”
“It’s dangerous inside. Haven’t you experienced it?”
Bain urged Sonipes forward to block right in front of Lapis.
“It’s dangerous to go alone. Let me go instead.”
“Lapis won’t carry Bain. He’s not as gentle-natured as Sonipes.”
It seems so. Even just making eye contact, he bared his teeth, looking truly as ferocious as the Dragon God.
“Then at least let me go with you.”
“……”
Litania pondered for a moment, then shrugged her shoulders.
“Bain. Even coming this close, it’s bearable, right?”
“Pardon?”
“I mean the weather.”
The season had entered winter. Although the first snow hadn’t fallen yet, this area where Dragon Castle was located was in the north, so it was colder than the capital.
However, the wind wasn’t so biting that it was unbearable.
“Back then, even though it was autumn, it was much colder. I thought I would freeze to death.”
When she first encountered the rising pillars of fire after Dragon Castle’s magic was dispelled, she thought she would burn to death, and after taking refuge in the annex, she nearly froze to death due to the falling hail and biting wind, if not for wrapping herself in blankets and sharing body heat.
But now, even though they’ve come so close to Dragon Castle, she doesn’t feel unbearable cold or heat.
“It won’t be as dangerous as before. I have that certainty.”
“The heat or cold might not be leaking out because of the surrounding cliffs. If you were to get injured by a pillar of fire or hail……”
“Then going together would be even more dangerous, wouldn’t it?”
No matter how excellent a knight Bain was, he couldn’t cut down pillars of fire or repel ice rain. Even if they went together, it meant he wouldn’t be able to help protect Litania.
Bain couldn’t continue and bowed his head.
Even the most outstanding human was powerless in the face of magic and nature.
“Then perhaps we should look for another way……”
“We can’t waste time.”
The border was in the countdown to war. If war breaks out with another country, countless lives will be lost.
If that could be prevented.
“I’ll give you an order. Until I come out of this place, try to persuade His Majesty to delay the conflict at the border as much as possible.”
“Princess Litania, entering Dragon Castle alone is dangerous.”
“It’s equally dangerous whether I’m alone or not. It would be dangerous even if I don’t enter.”
“But……”
“Let’s see if fate also affirms the cycle of goodwill on this occasion.”
Litania looked at Bain with a slight smile.
Unable to think of any other way to dissuade her, Bain stepped back with a troubled expression.
“Let’s go, Lapis.”
As if understanding Litania’s words, the white horse flapped its large wings and began to leap up the cliff.
The knights watched with astonished faces as their master soared towards the sky.
As if the direction of gravity had changed, Lapis raced up the cliff with fierce momentum.
The strong wind untied her hair ribbon. Litania’s brown hair streamed out behind her.
Her gaze was directed towards the vast winter sky that stretched out along the path up the cliff.
“Princess Litania…!”
An unbelievable sight was unfolding.
A flying horse.
And Litania riding atop it.
It was a moment when she was etched into their minds not as the bride of the Dragon God, but as the master of divine beasts.
[This is the timeline separator]From the top of the majestic cliff, Litania looked down.
Dragon Castle appeared like an oasis floating above a desolate and silent land.
A deep ravine spread out in all directions. The mirror-like lake reflected the dazzling sunlight.
The Dragon Castle, visible small within the circular cliffs, truly looked like a toy or a model garden.
‘Dragon Castle has returned to its original appearance.’
Seeing that the sky was only slightly hazy without gathering dark clouds, she thought the weather inside wouldn’t be severe, but she didn’t expect it to have returned to its previous state to this extent.
“Lapis. Can you go down?”
As if responding to her words, the white horse flew very lightly with Litania on its back.
It was an elegant flight, like flower petals floating down.
“The garden has returned to normal too.”
No, it wouldn’t have originally looked like this. It must be the appearance refined by Orbis’s magic.
Just as she remembered, the garden was still full of blooming flowers. Even the way they swayed in the wind, releasing their fragrance, was the same.
However, the beauty of the place exuded some kind of alien atmosphere. It seemed to move by Orbis’s magic.
‘It’s like a world where time has stopped by magic.’
It didn’t feel this awkward before. Back then, there were no such high cliffs, so the wind blew naturally. Now it seemed that everything, even the wind and sunlight, was controlled by magic.
“My lady…!”
Turning her head at the sound of someone calling her, she saw butler Simons standing in front of the main gate of the palace.
Behind him, she could see the cook Pepper, the gardener Rico, and other Dragon Castle servants who had taken care of her.
In human form, not as animals, as she distinctly remembered.
“My lady, you’ve returned!”
Hazel blinked her large eyes and ran out, but stumbled with an “oops” at Lapis’s stomping.
“Hazel, are you okay?”
“Oh my, I’m fine. It’s nothing since you’ve returned, my lady.”
“I… haven’t returned.”
“Pardon?”
“So there’s no need to call me ‘my lady’. No, there’s no need.”
They’re no longer her servants, so speaking down to them doesn’t fit the situation. As Litania spoke politely, Hazel jumped up, not knowing what to do.
“What do you mean you haven’t returned?”
“Then are you leaving again?”
Simons and Pepper, who had come closer, looked up at Litania.
They had always been tall, so she had to look up at them, but it felt strange and awkward to be looking down at them while on horseback.
However, that should become natural from now on.
“I am Princess Litania. As His Majesty’s envoy, I have visited Dragon Castle to meet the Dragon God Orbis.”
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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