The knights gathered in front of the carriage exchanged glances.
“Two of you stay here and guard the carriage.”
The two designated knights nodded, and the other two rushed toward the direction of the scream.
“……!”
And at the sight they witnessed, the knights were frozen in place with bated breath.
The Marchioness and Marquis of Ratse and the four knights surrounding them were all lying on the ground, bleeding.
The knights cautiously approached the Marchioness and Marquis of Ratse.
Gulp.
Dry saliva went down their parched throats.
The knights’ expressions darkened as they each checked for a pulse on the necks of the Marchioness and Marquis of Ratse.
At that moment, they sensed a presence.
Shing!
The knights quickly drew their swords and pointed them at the figure.
“P-please spare me……”
Startled by the sudden appearance of swords, a middle-aged man pleaded fearfully as he raised his arms high in surrender.
Only then did the knights survey their surroundings. Besides the middle-aged man, there were quite a few people standing at a distance, watching them.
“It seems they were hiding out of fear.”
The culprit was skilled enough to take down four elite knights in one fell swoop.
As powerless civilians, they had no choice but to hide and watch.
“Did you see what happened here just now?”
The knight finally lowered his sword and asked.
“I-I’m not sure. I just heard screams and came running……”
The middle-aged man trailed off, sweating profusely. Just then, someone shouted.
“Thieves, it was a band of thieves!”
The knight turned his head in the direction of the voice.
“Thieves, you say……”
An old woman grabbed the shoulder of the person who spoke, as if to silence them, but the child shouted again.
“Yes, sir knight! After hurting these people, they went that way!”
The knights looked at each other as they gazed in the direction the child was pointing. One knight, pondering whether to believe the child’s words, asked another knight.
“Didn’t you say you have a child about that age?”
“Yes, I do.”
“Do children lie?”
“Rather than intentionally lying, they sometimes experience confusion with their senses. Often, they’ll talk about something that happened days ago as if it happened today……”
Before the questioned knight could finish, they encountered the knights who had gone to inquire about the inn where the Marchioness and Marquis of Ratse were to stay.
“What in the world… What happened here?”
They too seemed shocked by the gruesome scene.
“We’re… trying to figure that out now……”
The highest-ranking knight among the Marchioness and Marquis of Ratse’s escorts looked at the horrific scene with a troubled expression.
Even if he had survived by sheer luck, he had nowhere to return to now.
No family would accept a knight who failed to protect his masters.
[This is the timeline separator]It was when Jieselgrante, Lady Greykin, and Lady Howard were having afternoon tea in the garden.
The huge iron gate of the mansion opened, and a horse carrying a knight galloped in quickly.
“Something must be happening, right?”
Lady Howard stood up with a curious expression. The knight’s figure was hidden by the landscaped trees.
“He’s stopping the horse in front of the fountain.”
Lady Howard explained the situation.
“Is that so?”
Then Lady Greykin also got up from her seat and moved closer.
The two of them, sticking close together and craning their necks with interested eyes to look beyond the landscaped trees, looked just like a pair of meerkats.
Jieselgrante was watching the two with a pleased smile when it happened.
Lady Howard exclaimed in a somewhat excited voice.
“The knight is running quickly into the mansion!”
Lady Howard and Lady Greykin’s heads slowly turned towards the mansion and then stopped.
After staring at one spot for a while, the two simultaneously turned to Jieselgrante and said.
“It seems there’s some new information?”
“Yes, I think so too!”
Jieselgrante slowly rose and said.
“Let’s go to the mansion as well.”
The three of them quickly moved towards the mansion without anyone taking the lead.
“……”
Though their hearts were racing, with each step, the dress clinging to their legs felt truly cumbersome.
After a quick glance around, Jieselgrante firmly grasped the voluminous skirts of her dress with both hands and strode vigorously towards the mansion.
Glancing at that sight, Lady Greykin grabbed her own dress skirts and quickened her pace, and Lady Howard followed suit without hesitation.
“It seemed like a really urgent matter, I wonder what it could be about?”
As Lady Greykin broached the subject, Lady Howard responded.
“Could it be related to Duke Antares, perhaps?”
“Did you hear something about him from that person you mentioned who’s at the Imperial Palace?”
Lady Greykin asked, lowering her voice slightly.
She still didn’t know who Lady Howard’s friend at the Imperial Palace was.
“No, it’s not that. This is just my guess.”
Lady Howard waved her hands with a troubled expression, and Lady Greykin let out a small sigh.
“Ah……”
As the three entered the mansion, a maid standing at the entrance bowed deeply.
“Where did the knight from earlier go?”
When Lady Howard asked, the maid answered.
“He went to Duke Cardia’s study.”
“Let’s go there too.”
With those words, Jieselgrante headed towards the study where Cabelased was.
Inside the study were Cabelased, Count Preston, and the knight who had just arrived on horseback.
As the three women entered the study, Cabelased said.
“Perfect timing. I was just about to send for you.”
As the three approached the knight, Cabelased gave him a look as if to tell him to speak.
“The Marchioness and Marquis of Ratse have passed away.”
“……!”
A brief silence fell over the study. But soon, Count Preston asked.
“Has it been determined how this happened?”
Instead of answering immediately, the knight gauged the expressions of the young ladies.
He seemed to be checking if the precious young ladies would be shocked by the gruesome story.
“I’m alright.”
At Lady Howard’s words, Lady Greykin, with a pale, bloodless face, also agreed.
“Me too. Please continue.”
Jieselgrante also nodded. Only then did the knight continue to explain the situation.
“I recently received orders from the Duke to follow the Marchioness and Marquis of Ratse. Even though I pursued them hastily, they had left in such a hurry that I couldn’t catch up closely.”
It seemed the Empress had intentionally made the Marchioness and Marquis of Ratse leave quickly to prevent any pursuers from catching up.
Since she misunderstood that the Ratse family was trying to side with Duke Cardia, the Empress’s purpose could be roughly guessed.
“As I hurriedly followed their trail, I encountered the Marchioness and Marquis of Ratse’s party in a small western village, but by then, they were already cold corpses.”
“Whose doing was it?”
At Cabelased’s question, the knight shook his head and said.
“Although I didn’t witness the scene directly with my own eyes, those who were there said it was the work of a band of thieves.”
“Thieves?”
As Cabelased raised one eyebrow skeptically, the knight nodded and replied.
“That’s correct.”
“……That’s strange.”
As Jieselgrante quietly raised a doubt, Lady Howard asked, seemingly not understanding.
“What’s strange about it?”
Jieselgrante and Cabelased exchanged glances, and then the knight explained.
“The number of knights escorting the Marchioness and Marquis of Ratse was by no means small. They wouldn’t have been lacking in skill either. It’s hard to understand how trained knights could have been completely wiped out by mere thieves……”
Only then did Lady Howard nod with an expression of understanding.
[This is the timeline separator]After the knight finished reporting the situation and left, those gathered in the study also dispersed.
Lady Howard and Lady Greykin returned to the garden, saying they would continue their interrupted tea time, and Count Preston left the Cardia mansion, saying he would look into the external situation.
Jieselgrante returned to her bedroom to quietly organize her thoughts.
Lindsey, who was standing by the window with a feather duster, saw Jieselgrante and asked curiously.
“……Huh? My lady, did you forget something?”
“No. I just had something to think about alone, so I left early.”
“Ah…… I was just about to finish cleaning. Shall I prepare some tea?”
Jieselgrante lightly shook her head.
Understanding, Lindsey nodded and quietly closed the bedroom door as she left.
Jieselgrante approached the window and looked down at the young ladies still chatting in the garden, visible at a glance from her room.
Though she couldn’t hear what the two were talking about due to the distance, it seemed their conversation was unending.
Lady Howard regularly visited the Cardia mansion to relay messages from Lady Blatnik, who had become the Empress’s lady-in-waiting, and Lady Greykin had been staying here continuously since the Empress’s assassination attempt.
Whether they liked it or not, they would have to face each other for a while, so it was fortunate that Lady Howard and Lady Greykin seemed to get along well.
As Jieselgrante watched them fondly, she thought about the sudden death of the Marchioness and Marquis of Ratse.
‘Was their death really a coincidence?’
My Arch-enemy Sealed My Memory and Said That He is My Husband
This is an incredibly captivating story that you absolutely shouldn’t miss! I’ll give a brief introduction here, and below you’ll find a detailed synopsis of the plot.
The female lead is a fierce and powerful demon king. The male lead is a once-in-a-millennium celestial lord, admired by the entire cultivation world.
They are equally matched, legendary rivals who have battled for centuries.
In the final duel, the female lead is gravely injured. The male lead saves her, seals her memories, and hides her true identity. He tells her that he is her fiancé. His entire life has been flawless—except for the one thing he never expected, never controlled, and never wanted to control: falling for his greatest enemy. She is his inner demon, his obsession.
When the female lead regains her memories, she is furious at his deception.
She makes his life a living hell.
And somehow, the male lead—possibly a total masochist—doesn’t mind at all. In fact, he’s happy she’s paying attention to him.
Yep, we’re back to my favorite trope: male lead suffering. If you love this kind of story, jump into the pit with me now!!!
Intro
Dong Xia lost her memory.
Her handsome and extremely powerful fiancé Li Qing comforted her: “It’s okay if you can’t remember. I’ll always be with you.”
Everyone thought Dong Xia’s ancestors must have burned incense to get such a perfect fiancé. He was the number one person in the immortal realm, yet he remained chaste and only loved her.
…
The day before marrying her fiancé, Dong Xia finally remembered everything.
She wasn’t suffering from memory loss at all.
Her arch-enemy had made her fake her death, destroyed her cultivation, replaced her memories, and pretended to be her deeply in love fiancé.
No wonder he said, “It’s okay if you can’t remember”!
Dong Xia laughed coldly as she pulled out her long knife: Li Qing, prepare to die 🙂
*
Li Qing, as the supreme being of the immortal realm, was the people’s shining beacon.
The only unknown stain in his life was his affection for Dong Xia, the ruler of the demon realm.
In the final battle of the war between immortals and demons, the sky collapsed and the earth shattered. The ruler of the demon realm was finally slain under the sword of the supreme being of the immortal realm, and everyone in the immortal realm applauded.
The cultivation world lost a ruler of the demon realm.
And in the back mountain of Li Qing’s cave dwelling, he secretly hid away a fiancée.
Notes:
1. The female lead is white on the outside, black on the inside, and the queen of flattery; the male lead repeatedly tests the edge of darkness, a VIP guest at the crematorium.
2. Fantasy cultivation world setting.
[Touch the gear icon in the bottom right corner of the screen to move to the next chapter if you want.]
