My goodness.
For a moment, I felt my face flush along with his.
What’s the big deal about just one kiss.
What’s the big deal about just one skinship.
I couldn’t bear to look at Leoprick’s reddened face any longer and turned my head away.
“I-I’ll be going now!”
Then I left the room as if fleeing.
Oh, really.
What’s suddenly going on here.
“Your Highness. Did something happen?”
“Huh?”
As I hurriedly exited the room, Betty, who was waiting outside, saw my face and her eyes widened.
“No, your face, it’s extremely red.”
“Uh…?”
My face is red, she says. The moment I realized that fact, I felt my cheeks heat up even more.
This is all because of Leoprick.
It’s nothing. It really was nothing.
Just one kiss, what’s the big deal.
For some reason, my heart felt like it was about to burst.
Whether it was because his face was red, or because I was surprised by what I had done, I’m not sure.
I blamed him inside as I buried my red face in my palms.
Really, what is this all about.
“Please calm down, Your Highness. Are you alright?”
“Mm, I’m fine. More importantly, did you say Hayley sent a note?”
“Ah, yes. It’s this one.”
Betty, who had been checking if I was really okay, took out a note from her bosom and handed it to me.
I unfolded the note Betty gave me and checked if there was any news I had been waiting for.
[Grandmother has departed for the Empire. I’ll contact you as soon as she arrives. −H]“Grandmother has left for the Empire.”
“Is that so? But it’ll still take quite a while to get from there to here.”
“That’s true. Anyway, she said she’d contact us as soon as she arrives, so we’ll get a message.”
I’m going to meet Grandmother.
And I’ll be able to hear about my mother and my ‘sense’.
That fact excited me to no end.
I folded the note and handed it back to Betty, telling her to let me know if any other news came.
“Are you going back in?”
“Hm? Of course.”
As I turned to go back inside, Betty made an indecipherable expression.
It looked somewhat lecherous, and also somewhat teasing.
When I narrowed my eyes at her, having answered without knowing anything, Betty suddenly grinned.
“I won’t disturb you. Should I bring your meals to the room too?”
“It’s not like that, Betty!”
I was just going to talk a little and leave.
No, given the atmosphere earlier, that probably won’t happen…
But still, even so.
To disappear with such a grinning smile like that.
Out of a misplaced sense of indignation, I didn’t go back into the room for a while.
Somehow, it didn’t feel very pleasant to do as Betty expected.
And that night, I really had to endure him all night long as he was worked up from waiting for me.
[This is the timeline separator]Lloyd was just as worked up as he could be.
He had nothing left now.
No money, no people, not even reputation remained.
He used to have many things he ordered his aides to do every day, but now he had to do them himself or have the butler do them, and he couldn’t even go out because he had run out of money.
Meanwhile, his mother Flora was openly spreading rumors with an innocent face that she would soon become the mother of the Emperor.
Not even knowing her son’s feelings.
“Damn it.”
At this rate, he really seemed destined to be branded a traitor and end his life.
That couldn’t happen.
He should be able to do anything now that he had come back in time.
Why is nothing working out in this life?
Come to think of it, it was like that.
In his previous life, everything was perfect, but in this life, everything was a mess just because Amelia wasn’t there.
What could the difference be?
As his thoughts reached that point, he began frantically searching the room.
The difference between having Amelia and not having her.
The difference between her helping him or not.
If that difference is so great, then wouldn’t it work to turn back time again?
Turn time back again so that she would be on his side again, to make her look only at him perfectly until the end.
So Lloyd began searching for the pocket watch he had made before, the one that Leoprick had given him in his previous life as the item needed to turn back time.
The one he had received before had broken after one use and couldn’t even be used as an ordinary watch anymore, so it had no more value.
Still, since it seemed to have contained magical power, he had kept it just in case, but he had made a replica to use once more in preparation for any eventuality.
He vividly remembered badgering the craftsman to make it exactly the same, not missing even the smallest detail, since it was an object related to magic.
Where on earth did that object go?
He searched the room meticulously but couldn’t find it anywhere.
Then Lloyd started throwing and breaking things that might have been hiding something.
Crash, bang, the sound of various things breaking echoed all around, but nothing came out.
“Butler!”
He shouted angrily to call the butler, but there was no answer.
Instead, whether she had heard the loud noise or not, his mother Flora opened the door and came in.
“Son! What’s going on? Oh my!”
Flora, who burst in through the door, screamed at the sight of the messy room.
Lloyd felt his irritation rising sharply at his mother’s shrill scream over something so trivial.
Who on earth had allowed his mother to come near here?
He had already kept her from coming here because her usual meddling was annoying enough.
“How did you come here?”
“What do you mean, ‘how’? Does a mother need a reason to come see her son?”
Flora carefully stepped inside while looking around.
Why is she trying to come in when everything is such a mess like this?
Lloyd frowned deeply and shouted at Flora.
“Get out! Can’t you see the state of things around here?”
“Goodness! Why are you shouting like that?”
Flora put on a deeply hurt expression at Lloyd’s harsh reaction.
“Isn’t it natural for a mother to worry about her child? Why are you getting so angry?”
Saying she would quickly call the servants to clean up so he shouldn’t worry, Flora didn’t stop her steps that made onlookers more anxious.
Lloyd, who had been looking at his mother with irritation, suddenly changed his expression as something occurred to him.
“Mother. Do you still have the key to the imperial treasury?”
“Hmm? Didn’t His Majesty take that away from me back then?”
Flora had possessed the key to the imperial treasury.
A precious gift brought by the favor of the previous emperor.
But after the Tears of Isolde disappeared recently, the emperor took that key away from Flora.
She said it was taken away, but Lloyd knew.
His mother was not someone who would so easily let go of or have a privilege once grasped taken away.
So surely, there must be another one hidden somewhere else.
“Don’t say that, please think about it. Mother, aren’t you always someone who thinks of contingency plans?”
“Well, that may be true, but…”
Flora stopped her steps into the room at Lloyd’s words.
She stood still for a moment with a thoughtful expression, then glanced at her son’s face and put on a pretend oblivious expression.
She probably thought she was being clever in her own way, but to Lloyd, his mother’s transparent tricks were nothing.
He was the man who handled women best in the empire, after all.
“I don’t remember very well. Actually, that key is difficult to copy, isn’t it?”
“But I think you must have made a copy, Mother. You always said important things need backups, didn’t you?”
I thought a wise mother like you would surely have one.
Sending a slightly dejected expression along with expectant eyes, Flora forgot that her son was actually a much more cunning person than herself and nodded.
“Well, yes. I did make a copy. Though I haven’t used it even once yet…”
“Then where is it?”
“Hmm, it should be in here.”
At those words, Flora took out a small scent pouch from her bosom.
Something that every woman carries around, so it wouldn’t stand out much even if her body was searched.
He barely swallowed a sneer, thinking his mother had used her head quite well, for what it was worth.
“Ah, yes. Here it is.”
And when she finally found the key to the secret chamber from inside it, he grabbed that hand holding the key and carefully extracted the key.
“Once again, Mother has saved me. Thank you.”
“Uh, yes? Do you have some use for this?”
“Of course, Mother.”
The small and shiny things are good to have in any amount, after all.
As Lloyd said that with a smile, Flora was bewildered at first but soon nodded.
Small and shiny things are good to have in any amount.
Even if it means taking something that belongs to someone else.
“Be careful when you go, Lloyd. We can’t have Leoprick interfering with you again.”
“Of course, Mother.”
That bastard will probably never be able to interfere with me again.
He swallowed those words he didn’t speak out loud and smiled brightly while keeping them hidden deep inside.
He already knew where the magic circle was, how to activate it, and what was needed.
The important thing was to find something to substitute for his own magic power, which might have run out.
Probably in the imperial treasury.
If it was in there, it would exist.
If he could just find that item. And if he could just find the emperor’s signet ring that Leoprick surely possessed.
Then he could turn back time again.
Then, he could undo everything.
Amelia by his side, and the arrogant Leoprick by heaven’s side.
He smiled vilely as he grasped the key in his hand and took a step.
Leaving only his mother in the wrecked room, he hurriedly headed towards the imperial palace.
After Being Cheated On, She Picked Up a Treasure (Female-dominant)
One-line summary: The husband I married on a whim had been secretly in love with me for a long time.
On the day when Jun Shao finally obtained the imperial decree for her marriage, Lan Qu, the person she had admired for six years, defied the decree and ran away.
Her gentleness and devotion, her promise of a lifetime together, were all disregarded by him. Instead, he dreamed of entering the palace to serve the Emperor’s sister as a sixth-rank attendant.
News of this incident spread throughout the capital, and the alleys in front of and behind the Lan mansion were crowded with people who came to watch the commotion.
Jun Shao should have been embarrassed and angry.
But someone stepped in to protect her dignity.
The figure was in a miserable state, yet still possessed an undeniable elegance and handsomeness.
The young lord struggled to climb the wall of the Lan mansion and shouted to her, “If he won’t marry you, I will!”
So, Jun Shao took advantage of the situation and married the person.
She thought the young lord did it to save the Lan family from the crime of defying the imperial decree, but never imagined that from beginning to end, what he coveted was her.
*
After the wedding, Jun Shao felt like she was living in a dream.
Her Wife-master was as beautiful as a fairy in a painting, skilled in the six arts, well-versed in poetry and literature, capable of being gentle and attentive, and also grand and dignified. Most importantly, she was the only one in his heart and eyes.
Jun Shao didn’t know how Lan Shiwu, as a illegitimate son without a father and blessed with beauty, had managed to preserve his purity, recklessly escape, and use his last ounce of strength to ruin his own reputation, all because of his love for her, just to stand before her.
She could only see him gazing at her with eyes full of love, and when she bestowed a name upon him, his eyes shone like stars.
“You have come to me like a weary bird perching on a branch. I shall call you A Qi.”
