“Orbis.”
Litania, who belatedly noticed the situation, quietly called out to him. Orbis avoided her gaze and answered in a small voice.
“You are having an audience with the king. Please do not concern yourself with me.”
“Orbis. Do not destroy the palace.”
“I do not know what you are talking about.”
Orbis shamelessly denied it. Smoke was coming out of the broken device. Certainly, Orbis did not touch the device. However…
‘There is no wind blowing, yet the smoke is avoiding me and going only towards the king.’
He was blatantly using the power of the dragon god to cause mischief.
Litania glared at him and sighed.
“Your Majesty. It seems we cannot continue the talks in this situation.”
“You… you brazen woman! I treated you as an honored guest, and you dare to overstep your bounds!”
King Dipamo, who had been showing some courtesy to Orbis, shouted at Litania.
“Are you threatening me? Is this how Veryvervium does things!”
“……”
It was a mystery why he was yelling at Litania when it was Orbis who caused the incident.
‘Besides, it was you who tried to kill me, wasn’t it?’
Even after her life was threatened, Litania had already made enough concessions by directly coming to accept the apology and offering a compromise.
Wasn’t it hypocritical of him to hurl abusive language at her now?
“Oh my.”
Litania clasped her hands behind her back and tilted her head.
“I do not know what you are talking about.”
“Wha- what?”
“We did not do anything.”
Wasn’t it the king’s side who first plotted the kidnapping plan, who first subtly looked down on them while pretending to be friendly, and who first flew into a rage and poured out abusive language?
Litania was a pacifist, but she knew well that problems could not be solved by simply bowing down.
“I do not understand why you are holding us responsible for the malfunctioning of a broken device. Shouldn’t you call a technician?”
“The clock and heating devices in the audience chamber were made less than a month ago!”
“Oh. Then isn’t it a bigger problem?”
Litania smiled and brought her index finger to the corner of her mouth.
“I understand that Dipamo is already supplying devices to several countries with patented technology. If rumors spread that even the palace’s machines broke down in less than a month, what would happen?”
There would be a large-scale product recall. The credibility of the technology hitting rock bottom would be the least of their worries.
The king’s face crumpled like a used tissue.
“You vile…”
“And yet, there is someone who plotted to kidnap and murder a foreign princess and pretended not to know for nearly a year.”
“……”
“Your Majesty. As I said, I wish for a peaceful resolution.”
The implication was that if he did not want the clock tower to be destroyed, the entire city’s facilities to be ruined causing enormous damage, the technology credibility to plummet, the patent income from other countries to be lost, and to be in a position to pay compensation, he should back down appropriately.
It was a mistake to underestimate her because of her innocent appearance and soft expression. Wasn’t she the woman who was once the dragon god’s bride, even if she was divorced?
King Dipamo clenched his fist on the armrest and trembled.
“…I will have the border garrison troops withdrawn.”
“You have made the right decision for the peace of both nations.”
Litania smiled brightly. Orbis remained expressionless.
King Dipamo watched the two of them leave the audience chamber with a desolate face.
In that short time, the king’s face seemed to have aged drastically.
[Timeline separator]“Orbis. Your methods are too eccentric.”
After leaving the audience chamber and entering the room assigned to the guests, Litania gently admonished Orbis.
“Thanks to that, you easily negotiated, did you not?”
“If I had scolded Orbis there, it would have looked strange.”
Litania was startled when Orbis suddenly broke the device, but she also thought it was an opportunity.
If it was revealed that they had disagreements, it would be disadvantageous for the negotiations. They had built up well so far, so they could not ruin it at the end.
Although it was awkward for her personally, she needed to be shameless for the sake of the Veryvervium Empire.
“It is alright as long as no one gets hurt or dies, is it not?”
“No one likes to hear things like ‘I will spare your life,’ you know?”
Litania pinched the back of Orbis’s hand, who still looked shameless.
“Ouch.”
Orbis exaggeratedly reacted and covered his hand.
“Violence is bad, Litania.”
“Do not pretend. Even if I pinch you…”
Litania, who was about to scold Orbis for acting as if he was severely injured when he would be fine even if he was hit by a sword, shut her mouth with a gasp.
The back of Orbis’s hand was red and swollen.
“O-Orbis, are you alright?”
“Even a dragon feels pain.”
“I am sorry. I thought you would be fine… Does it hurt a lot?”
As Litania approached, Orbis quickly hid his swollen hand behind his back.
“You will have to compensate me for injuring me.”
“What?”
“The princess of Veryvervium would not commit the shameless act of injuring someone and then brushing it off with words, would she?”
When Orbis recited the king’s words with a slight modification, Litania’s eyes narrowed.
“Orbis. Your hand did not swell because of me, right?”
“You pinched me…”
“Do you think I would not know that you inflated it with magic?”
When Litania slapped his arm, Orbis once again exaggeratedly reacted with an “Ouch.”
“Self-harm blackmail, where did you learn such bad things!”
“It is a misunderstanding.”
“Quickly return it to normal!”
When Litania pulled his left hand and urged him, Orbis reluctantly used magic to erase the red mark on the back of his hand.
Confirming that the back of his hand had returned to being white and smooth as usual, Litania sighed and pouted her lips.
“I was really worried, thinking you were injured.”
“…You were worried about me?”
“It was the first time I saw Orbis pretending to be in pain.”
“I heard that a man’s pretense of pain is a very annoying act, but if I can receive your concern, it may not be such a bad thing.”
At the honest answer that poured out without filtering, Litania’s eyes sharpened. Orbis smiled at her expression that had become pointed like a grumpy cat.
‘What is he smiling about?’
Litania was about to get angry but stopped, thinking she would look more ridiculous.
“What were you trying to do?”
“Hm?”
“You said to compensate you for injuring you. There is something you want, right?”
It was Orbis’s bad habit to deliberately set up a situation where it was difficult for her to refuse before asking, even though she would have accepted if he had simply requested.
“You listened to my request in Sermo. I promised that I would be okay with a light request, so just tell me.”
“What if it is not a light request?”
“…I will listen and think about it, so just tell me for now.”
Orbis knew the limits of humans well, so he would not make an absurd demand.
‘He will not make an impossible request, at most, it will only make me uncomfortable.’
If that was the extent, she was willing to grant it once.
“I want to kiss you.”
…It was a request that was difficult to grant.
“Orbis. Friends do not do things like kissing.”
“I heard that in Dipamo, kissing between friends is a kind of greeting.”
“That is for Dipamo people, not us.”
“But this is Dipamo, is it not?”
In the first place, the Dipamo greeting was to kiss on the cheek, not the lips, and it was a greeting exchanged between people of the same gender, so it was far from what lovers do.
“Orbis. Do you know how rude it is to tell a woman who is not even your lover that you want to kiss her?”
At Litania’s words, Orbis’s expression became gloomy. His beautiful eyes drooped, and shadows fell over his blue pupils.
Litania had to feel an inexplicable sense of guilt at his face that had become sullen like a scolded child.
It was Orbis who made the absurd request, so why did she have to feel guilty?
‘…He deliberately did not even kiss me at the wedding.’
It was Litania who thought it was regrettable when his lips casually moved away, but somehow their positions had been reversed.
“It was a rude request…”
“Yes. It is rude. However.”
Litania gently stroked the back of Orbis’s hand that had returned to normal.
“If it is under mutual consent, it is not rude.”
“……”
“Just this once.”
The light slowly returned to Orbis’s shadowed eyes. He blinked in disbelief.
“Really?”
“If you cannot believe it, then forget it.”
Orbis, who grabbed Litania as she was about to turn around, gently lifted her up.
Wow. Litania, whose feet were off the ground, was startled and grabbed Orbis’s shoulders.
He carried her to the window, opened it, and went out to the balcony.
Unlike the heated interior, the balcony where snow was falling was cool with a cold wind. Litania hunched her shoulders and scolded Orbis.
“Orbis. It is snowing here.”
“I know.”
Orbis brushed the snow off the railing with his palm and seated Litania on the railing.
Perhaps because of the significant difference in their heights, when he seated her on the railing, their eye levels perfectly aligned.
“Now we can experience the first snowfall together, can we not?”
“……”
She finally understood why he made such a request.
Because on the day of the first snowfall in Yongseong, they could not experience the snow together.
“This is really silly.”
Litania closed her eyes. Something softer than snowflakes touched her lips.
The snow falling from the sky was cold, but the snowflakes enveloping her lips were so warm that her heart trembled.
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.
Link to read
