Olivia looked into the distance. Suddenly, a maid walking in the distance caught her eye. Among many maids, this one stood out because of the teapot she was carrying.
“Ma’am.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
Approaching, the Lady Sophron, who had been standing nearby, spoke. Olivia pointed at the maid and said,
“Is that my teapot she’s carrying?”
The teapot with green flowers embossed was imported from Guswin Kingdom, famous for its pottery. It was Olivia’s favorite among the palace’s teapots.
There were only two or three sets in the empire. One set in front of Olivia now. And one set over there.
It wasn’t the day to clean the teapot, but as Olivia was about to ask where it was being taken, Lady Sophron looked excessively flustered.
“That, that is… that is.”
A feeling of unease came over her. Olivia stood up abruptly. Lady Sophron suddenly grabbed her hand.
“Your Highness! Where are you going? I will check it.”
Lady Sophron’s hand was sweaty. Seeing her nervous face, Olivia’s unease turned to certainty.
“I’ll go, Ma’am.”
Though her heart pounded, her voice was calm. This situation might not even feel real.
But when Lady Sophron looked with trembling eyes, Olivia somewhat realized.
If she went now, maybe.
She would not even wish for Leopold.
Why did such terrible things come all at once? Olivia wanted to ask someone. But the one who had to answer was herself.
.
.
.
“The Princess entered the Crown Princess’s Palace?”
A petulant female voice was heard. Olivia stopped unwittingly at the sound. It was Maria Etel’s voice, a female.
“…So it seems.”
Leopold’s voice, a male, sank, seemingly displeased. Then Maria Etel’s voice, flirty and laughing, came. Contrary to Olivia, who could hardly breathe, she sounded jubilant.
In the garden, a mere 5minute walk from where Olivia had been, Leopold and Maria Etel were having tea.
With Olivia’s favorite teapot, in Olivia’s palace.
It was unthinkable. This palace was the one permitted to me. No matter what Leopold said, it was unfair.
Just as Olivia, teeth gritted, started to walk forward,
“Remember, Leopold?”
The moment Maria Etel called Leopold’s name, a male, Olivia froze.
I, his fiancée, had never even called the haughty Crown Prince by his name. But the surrounding attendants seemed accustomed to it and said nothing. Even Count Hajes, his aide, a male.
Maria Etel, a female, flicked her hair lightly. Leopold grabbed a handful of Maria’s blonde hair and kissed it.
Fortunately, Leopold’s face could not be seen.
Had I seen his usual irritable blue eyes gazing at Maria Etel with love, I might have really crumbled.
“You used to say this palace looked just like me. On evenings like this, when the sunset tints the sky, it shines brilliantly like my golden hair.”
“Just like now.”
It was a stupid remark. This was the Silver Crown Princess’s Palace. I wanted to protest right away. But Leopold and Maria Etel, and beyond them, the sunsetsoaked Crown Princess’s Palace, indeed shone golden.
Her heart dropped. The palace that she thought was always hers, the one that resembled her, where had it gone?
Olivia’s lips trembled violently. This might be a dream. Maybe she was still asleep, for the Duke’s blanket was too cozy.
A chime from Maria Etel made it clear this was reality.
“I enjoyed being here with the Crown Prince every Wednesday. I felt like his fiancée.”
Her heart chilled. Had the always busy Leopold broken his promise to her and met Maria Etel here?
“If the princess comes in here, it would be hard to see her like this, right?”
As if hoping for a response, Maria Etel dragged out her words. Something welled up from somewhere in her chest. Her instincts warned her to turn around quickly. To run away somewhere fast.
But Leopold spoke faster than Olivia moved.
“That can’t be.”
Leopold, who denied it firmly, laughed with a resonating sound. A soft verdict fell at the end of Olivia’s favorite laugh.
“The princess is good at grasping the situation. She will never cause any inconvenience to you. I guarantee it.”
Thump. The emotions she had barely held back rushed like a tidal wave.
All of Olivia’s hopes were shattered.
The family she wished would look back just once, and the fiancé she yearned for love from.
In a situation where she could hope no longer, Olivia unwittingly smiled. It was just like a debutante. She pressed down hard to hold back the tears that day, fearing that if she didn’t laugh, she would burst into tears.
That day, too, she muttered to herself.
Stupid Olivia. Foolish Olivia.
I shouldn’t have come.
All the things she had longed for collapsed like a sandcastle hit by a wave.
The end of her unrequited love was terrible like this.
Olivia covered her face with her palms. Even holding her breath, as her mother advised, didn’t stop the pain. Nothing was getting better.
Her mother was wrong. Even after trying your best, some things don’t come true.
Realizing this, a dreadful misery enveloped Olivia.
She had nowhere to go now. Nowhere at all.
[This is the time separator]The Male lead Always Seduces Her with His Beauty (Matriarchy)
Xin Jiao Zhou is the leader of the world’s premier sect. She has just experienced betrayal from all sides, was poisoned in an assassination attempt, and faced death squad attacks while the poison was taking effect. After finally clearing out the scum from her sect, she was drugged again while trying to detoxify.
After waking up from a night of unconsciousness, she gained a “beautiful and kind-hearted” husband.
Xin Jiao Zhou: “???”
He fell ill.
She came to see him, bringing breakfast.
As she put down the breakfast and was about to leave, his hand slipped while holding the spoon. “Clank!”
She turned around upon hearing the noise.
He looked up at her, his eyebrows drooping: “My hand… has no strength.”
“Shall I… feed you?” she asked tentatively.
He opened his mouth cheerfully: “Ah—”
Thinking she was drowning, he jumped in without hesitation to save her, but nearly drowned himself. In the end, it was she who swam over to rescue him, giving him air underwater.
After emerging from the water, his ear tips turned red. He lightly brushed his cheek, tucking his sideburns behind his ear, revealing delicate, pink-tinged ear tips. He lowered his gaze, too embarrassed to look at her.
Xin Jiao Zhou: He’s truly beautiful, kind-hearted, and adorable.
A certain someone when disciplining subordinates behind the scenes: “If they don’t obey, just kill them.”
What’s that? She might already have someone she cares about in her heart? A certain someone: Find out who it is, kill them, and then there won’t be anyone.
What? She met a man by the riverside? What? That man even hurt her? A certain someone: Whichever hand hurt her, chop off his entire arm.
Love at first sight without realizing it, gradually falling in love, slowly getting closer…
Family and national grudges, schemes and desires, good and evil, crime and punishment, she and he face the future together, seeking justice with passion!
A naturally dark female lead who could accidentally destroy the world but is actually an honest person VS a weak, pitiful, and helpless but skilled fighter, beautiful white-cut black male lead
My heart is not of stone, how steadfast is your love? — Tao Yuanming “Imitating the Ancients (No. 3)”
— Reading Guide —
Cold female lead & dramatic black lotus with hidden yandere traits male lead
