“Baron Cyprus? Even though I have become like this…!”
Before the Empress could finish her sentence, the knight yanked the chain hard.
Caught off guard, the Empress was pulled by the knight’s brute strength and ended up falling.
Blood flowed from her knees, hands, and scraped face as they hit the stone floor, but the knight paid no heed and barked:
“If you don’t want to be gagged, follow quietly!”
Lying face down on the dirty, damp cold floor, the Empress bit the soft flesh inside her mouth.
She narrowed her eyes and glared at the knight.
Despite the Empress’s venomous gaze, the knight merely pulled tightly on the chains bound to her wrists.
Though she had much to say to this discourteous knight, the Empress endured. And she gritted her teeth reluctantly.
Vowing revenge on this knight who had so insulted her and those who had schemed to harm her.
[This is the timeline separator]After leaving the Grand Temple, Cabelased’s next destination was the Imperial Palace.
When he visited the Grand Temple to attend the Emperor’s funeral, Cabelased was accompanied by only a dozen or so Kardia knights.
But now, besides the Kardia knights, knights from Duke Amaterasu’s family, Marquis Howard’s family, Duke Vratnik’s family, and other noble houses allied with them were by his side.
And when Cabelased entered the Imperial Palace, the royal banners had been completely changed.
From those used by the late Emperor to those symbolizing the Kardia duchy.
This was possible thanks to a two-pronged plan, with the allied nobles split into two groups moving according to their objectives.
Cabelased and the core members of the alliance occupied the Grand Temple and captured the Empress and Crown Prince, while the other group chose to seize the empty Imperial Palace.
And this plan originated from Jieselgrante’s suggestion and was executed by Cabelased.
As Cabelased and the allied nobles who had headed to the Grand Temple entered the audience chamber, Earl Preston and his group, who had arrived earlier and were waiting, greeted them.
“Welcome. We’ve been waiting.”
The allied nobles shared great satisfaction and joy from achieving their long-cherished wish.
“At last, the alliance’s long-standing aspiration has been realized.”
They encouraged each other by displaying gestures they had secretly practiced or lightly patting each other’s shoulders.
At that moment, Cabelased walked towards the end of the audience chamber.
Naturally, all eyes in the chamber followed Cabelased’s movements.
“……”
As he sat in the chair at the center of the audience chamber, the allied nobles uniformly bent one knee to pay respects to the new Emperor.
“Duke Kardia. No, I should correct the title to Your Imperial Majesty now.”
Earl Preston, who had served as Cabelased’s closest aide and fulfilled that role admirably, spoke first, followed by Duke Vratnik and Marquis Howard, each adding a word of congratulations.
“Congratulations on your ascension!”
“May happiness and prosperity accompany the new era!”
[This is the timeline separator]There was no helping hand for the Empress and Crown Prince, once the Empire’s most powerful figures, now imprisoned in the palace’s darkest and dampest dungeon.
Such was the nature of falling from the top of the social hierarchy.
Just as bees gather where honey is, there were no bees willing to fly to a flower that was no longer sweet and might cause illness if eaten.
Since the relationships were originally formed by those who approached for their own benefit, there was no need to help the Empress and Crown Prince from whom nothing more could be gained.
Perhaps because of this.
Although only a few days had passed since her imprisonment, the Empress’s appearance had become quite miserable.
Her hair, which always shone with expensive oils, was tangled and dry, and her dress, once immaculate without a single wrinkle, was now stained and in disarray.
Jieselgrante, who came to visit the Empress, quietly observed her in this state.
The Empress, who had been staring blankly at a corner of the stone wall, slowly turned her head towards her.
As their eyes met, focus returned to the Empress’s green eyes, which had seemed empty and void.
“…Lady Amaterasu?”
Soon, a dry voice flowed from between the Empress’s parched lips.
Jieselgrante spoke with an expressionless face.
“You look terrible.”
The Empress’s brow furrowed slightly. She seemed to think she was being mocked.
After glaring at Jieselgrante for a while with a distorted expression, the Empress eventually rose, supporting herself on the bed.
Creak.
An unpleasant noise from the old bed frame echoed through the narrow prison.
It was quite a loud sound, enough to be irritating, but the Empress didn’t seem to mind much as she approached the bars where Jieselgrante stood.
“I thought you were sensitive to noise… but I guess not?”
Jieselgrante maintained the same emotionless voice and expression as before.
It was rather the Empress who found her attitude strange.
“You seem to know a lot about me.”
The Empress, who had been staring at Jieselgrante with her head slightly tilted, soon continued with an air of indifference.
“Anyway, what brings you to such a shabby place? Are you here to mock my pitiful state? If not… are you perhaps going to get me out of here?”
The Empress said with a self-deprecating smile.
Even as she spoke, she seemed to judge it an impossible scenario.
Nevertheless, perhaps seeing it as a chance to escape from here, she continued to move her lips.
“Amaterasu and the Kardia ducal family. These two houses certainly weren’t on good terms with me. But you should know that there are no eternal allies or enemies.”
The Empress’s green eyes sparkled through the bars. Jieselgrante quietly took in her words and expressions.
“Until now, the two houses might have agreed on me as a common enemy. But will that be the case after the common enemy is gone?”
The Empress reached out through the bars, trying to grab Jieselgrante’s hand.
Jieselgrante didn’t avoid the Empress’s touch and just left it be.
The Empress’s voice became a bit more affectionate than before. It was a familiar voice.
“I hope you’re not naive enough to think that the bond between the two houses will continue as it is now. Lady Amaterasu.”
To the Empress’s quiet warning, Jieselgrante quietly opened her mouth.
“I wonder if you remember.”
“Remember? What…?”
“So many things happened, but today I’m particularly reminded of the time when I had to go back and forth to the temple to purify my body and mind. Perhaps it’s because I just returned from the Grand Temple?”
The Empress’s brow furrowed even more at Jieselgrante’s nonchalant response.
She looked as if wondering what on earth she was trying to say.
“Looking back now, all those things were undoubtedly very coincidental situations.”
“What on earth…?”
“When the drawn curtain was suddenly pulled back, an empty liquor bottle was rolling under the long curtain in front of the window.”
When Jieselgrante said that much, the Empress’s green eyes began to tremble slightly.
“I’m glad you haven’t completely forgotten. Do you perhaps also remember what happened to me next?”
“……”
“His Imperial Majesty sighed deeply and then said this: ‘One month! Don’t even think about stepping foot outside the palace for the next month. Do you have any sense at all?’……”
Jieselgrante imitated the Emperor’s figure as he turned away, grumbling. Then she quickly turned back towards the Empress.
“Sigh… I’ll tell the maids to be more careful about clearing things away so they don’t catch His Majesty’s eye in the future. I’m sorry I didn’t pay enough attention, Tri.”
The Empress’s hand that had been touching Jieselgrante’s finally fell away.
Trinity might have told a maid or someone else about the situation at that time.
But the only person who directly faced the Emperor and Empress at that moment was Trinity herself.
“It’s me, me. The being you’ve desperately wanted to kill and get rid of since the moment I was born.”
Trying hard to suppress her confusion, the Empress retorted with an expression that suggested she had no idea what Jieselgrante was talking about.
“Why would I? For what reason would I want to kill Lady Amaterasu? If anything, it would be the opposite.”
“……”
“You surely remember too. I was the first to mark you as a potential match for my son Joshua, who was to become the next Emperor. And not just that……”
The Empress began to list a series of meaningless excuses.
As if Jieselgrante was the only savior who could get her out of here at this moment.
After listening to the Empress’s excuses and mumblings for a while, Jieselgrante raised her voice for the first time since entering this place.
“Princess Trinity, First Princess of the Phaethus Empire!”
At that moment, the Empress’s shoulders flinched.
Whether it was due to the sudden loud voice or the unexpected mention of Princess Trinity’s name, she couldn’t tell.
She took a deep breath in and out before continuing with a gentle smile.
“That’s me.”
“…!”
The Empress took a step back. Her green eyes, looking at Jieselgrante, began to tremble finely.
She quietly took in the sight of the Empress, agitated like never before.
But soon, whatever she thought, the Empress’s trembling lips curled up tightly.
“I really don’t understand why you’re saying such nonsense……”
The Empress shrugged her shoulders and continued, looking at Jieselgrante with a slightly sharper gaze than before.
“……Enough with this uninteresting and unexciting story about Trinity. Now, I’d like you to tell me the real reason why you’ve come to visit me in this shabby and gloomy prison.”
Male lead is a Divorced Husband
She said to him: “Tell me, what makes you like me? I’ll change it!”
Liu Changning transmigrated into a female cannon fodder character in a female-dominant novel.
After reading the first half of the novel’s plot, the first thing she did upon transmigration was to divorce the Pan Jinlian-style male protagonist she had just married.
She indulged herself, pretending to be ugly and poor.
But as time passed, the way that man looked at her became more and more unusual…
Liu Changning was dumbfounded: Tell me, what makes you like me? I’ll change!
――
This lifetime, Pei Yuanshao was rejected by the same woman twice!
The first time, she drove him away. Forced by the situation, he endured the waves of anger in his heart, yielding and humbling himself.
That person lay slanted on a rocking chair, her sallow face emotionless: “If you don’t want a divorce, go cook!”
Pei Yuanshao’s face was dark and gloomy: “You!”
The second time, after the crisis in Jinling City was resolved, the new emperor sent someone to pick him up. He turned around, stammering: “I… I have to go. If you keep me…”
That person lay on the kang bed, her back to him, as if she had long anticipated this day, crisp and clear: “Goodbye!”
Pei Yuanshao was so angry his fingers trembled: “You… you!”
The mission of family and country made him restrain himself, averting his eyes and turning to leave this broken household.
Two years later, they met again. Seeing her ethereal face, his body shook like a sieve.
“She was originally a ‘she’!”
At the Qionglin Banquet, the top scholar of the imperial examination, a talented person with exceptional speech and conduct, all the unmarried young gentlemen from aristocratic families looked at her with shy and timid eyes.
The peerless imperial official Pei Yuanshao felt the anger in his heart erupt. He pointed at the woman surrounded by the crowd at the Qionglin Banquet, his thin lips slightly curled: “Little sister, I wants that person to be the wife-master of my Mingde Prince Manor.”
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