Save Me (Completed Main Story) - Chapter 5
The cold, sunken golden eyes and the sharply defined nose suited his shimmering silver hair perfectly.
A tall, slender figure with graceful movements.
Duke Valroc was an intelligent, handsome man who instantly captured attention.
Moreover, even without his famed title as the Dragon of Termina, he appeared sufficiently noble.
Yet, right now, such a man was…
“Oh, how can you say something like that!”
“Courtship is a serious matter.”
Bianca, pale-faced, cried out softly.
After uttering words so shamelessly embarrassing they could dry up her tears, Duke Valroc’s face showed not even the faintest blush.
“Will you tell me, my lady? You never gave me an answer even inside the carriage—I’m terribly curious.”
His tone, absurdly earnest, brimmed with persistence.
She had a near-certainty that she wouldn’t escape without answering.
“Th-that sort of thing…”
“That sort of thing?”
A life born with original sin.
Affection was something Bianca dared not hope for.
How could she possibly choose something like that?
None other than Bianca Termina herself.
Feeling slightly wronged, Bianca cried out softly.
“There’s no such thing!”
“Think carefully. There must be something.”
“Your Grace.”
“Gillian.”
Bianca stared at Duke Valroc, who stubbornly insisted on his given name even now, and let her shoulders slump.
He was no ordinary man.
Whether it was because he truly was a descendant of dragons as legends claimed, or because of abilities far surpassing those of humans, his way of thinking was different.
Polite and gentle on the surface, yet strangely alien in unexpected ways.
“I’ve never even been loved—how could I possibly have preferences?”
Her mouth tasted bitter as she spoke the truth.
“Not remembering being loved and having preferences are slightly different matters.”
“……”
“If you don’t have any, then think about it from now on and tell me.”
He didn’t ask, ‘Will you tell me?’
Because he would politely say something utterly shameless enough to make her gasp.
Bianca added one more assessment of the duke.
Suspicious, clever—and exceedingly sly.
Just as she let out a quiet sigh through her lips,
Gillian’s index finger slipped through the window and gently brushed Bianca’s damp eyes.
“Your crying face was lovely, but you look a little prettier when you’re not crying.”
Though his tone was unmistakably sly, his hand, stroking her eyes, moved slowly and tenderly, as if asking, ‘Is this much alright?’
Though her face instantly flushed, Bianca didn’t push Gillian’s hand away.
The embarrassing words were hard to bear, yet she felt she’d heard another message hidden beneath them.
‘Don’t cry.’
“Shall we depart now, then? I want to return home quickly.”
Though his expression remained languid as he pulled away, Bianca felt there was more to him than met the eye.
“Thank you.”
That’s why her greeting came out so awkwardly.
“……Don’t mention it.”
His eyes widened slightly in surprise before he smiled habitually, not denying Bianca’s thanks.
As the carriage window shut firmly, Gillian straightened his back and turned his head.
The gentle smile he’d shown Bianca had vanished completely.
The stares that rushed toward them the moment he halted the procession to comfort weeping Bianca were rather irritating.
Twenty on each pulley beyond the drawbridge, four at every gate of the city walls.
Over a hundred archers pulled their bowstrings taut.
The tips of their arrows pointed toward—
“……”
Gillian slowly turned his gaze to his own left chest and gave a brief laugh.
They’d truly lost their minds.
Not quite murderous intent, too arrogant for fear.
“What shall we do?”
As Gillian’s gaze lingered, his aide Crete silently approached from behind and asked.
“Leave them.”
Gillian added one cold phrase at the end.
“For now.”
“Then…”
“Must my lady really see it?”
Crete asked no further questions and bowed deeply before stepping back.
The duke’s procession resumed moving at Gillian’s signal to turn his horse’s head.
Yet Crete remained standing firmly in place,
until the procession shrank to a black dot and finally vanished from sight.
* * *
Bianca suddenly jolted awake.
“……”
She thought she’d heard something eerie, yet the carriage remained quiet.
As she slowly rubbed her goosebump-covered arms, a crisp knock sounded at the door.
“My lady?”
“Wh-ahem. What is it?”
A low, hoarse voice.
Only then did Bianca realize she’d dozed off.
“We’re about to pass through the warp.”
Responding with a “Yes” to the polite voice outside, Bianca was tidying her disheveled hair when she suddenly wore a strange expression.
Warping was convenient, yet it caused nausea, dizziness, and tinnitus.
Though warp gates had been steadily improved since their commercialization and were much better now, some people still suffered side effects.
Thus, announcing before a warp had become customary.
An ordinary notice.
But to Bianca, it was special.
She might seem foolish for being moved by such routine courtesy.
Yet before she realized it, her hand had already flung open the carriage window and called out to him.
“Your Grace—G-Gillian!”
“My lady?”
Her hoarse voice wasn’t very loud.
But even amidst the clatter of hooves and the metallic clinking of knights’ armor, Gillian immediately responded to Bianca’s call.
Golden eyes gleaming before her.
Bianca stared blankly at Gillian, who had dismounted and approached in an instant.
Bathed in the setting sun, his face glowed red, appearing slightly warm.
The man who’d seemed utterly colorless now blazed brilliantly under the sunset’s light.
Terrifyingly splendid and beautiful.
As Bianca gazed at him, entranced, murmuring “Thank you,” her eyes suddenly widened.
“We’re already at the warp gate…?”
“I hurried a bit.”
A lie.
A blatant lie.
The warp gate wasn’t somewhere you could reach just by hurrying a little.
Though warp gates operated regardless of weight, distance, or frequency—truly remarkable—they had a fatal flaw: they easily granted enemies access to one’s inner sanctum.
Therefore, warp gates were forbidden within city limits.
Ordinary cities placed them an hour’s carriage ride away; in the monster-infested North, the law mandated a full day’s distance.
There was no way they could have reached the warp gate in half a day just by riding faster.
“Ha…”
Bianca realized it was because she was the “Imperial Princess of Termina.”
The imperial house’s justification to bind him—both in life and death.
No, even “justification” was too generous.
She would become a pretext for the duke, so he’d rushed like this.
She suddenly felt bile rising in her throat.
“The knights and horses must have worked terribly hard to halve our travel time.”
“I was eager to bring you home as soon as possible.”
Gillian remained gentle, yet Bianca felt a heaviness settle in her heart at his smile.
“If you truly consider me your wife… please think of me a little more… comfortably.”
Please trust me a bit more.
I’ll never return to the imperial house that abandoned me.
“How about considering my wish not to burden you on our very first day of marriage?”
Bianca’s hard-voiced sincerity was utterly blocked by words she never expected.
Completely and perfectly.
The duke, having effortlessly silenced Bianca, ordered his aide to activate the warp.
“Let’s return.”
“Yes, Your Grace. The warp gate will open shortly. Everyone, prepare!”
As the duke’s aide aligned the knights and activated the formation, the surroundings brightened, and Bianca briefly felt her feet lift off the ground.
The dizziness lasted only a moment—when the glare faded, Bianca had already arrived in the Northern Territory.
As she opened the carriage door, a cold so piercing it seemed to freeze her lungs engulfed her.
Shivering uncontrollably from the unbearable chill, Bianca leaned out of the carriage—only to find herself gently enveloped in Gillian’s arms.
“What…!”
Just as startled Bianca reflexively raised her hands to push him away,
“Welcome home, my lady.”
At the tender tone brushing her ear, Bianca lifted her head with a soft groan.
Gillian gazed down at her with a smile, his eyes half-lidded.
Knowing full well what she meant to him, she couldn’t bring herself to push away someone so exquisitely gentle.
“That mad beast!”
Emperor Ecliff scowled deeply at the report from the captain of the royal guard.
“Why would the duke suddenly—?”
Ecliff remembered clearly.
The warning Valroc had given after accepting his offering with satisfaction.
He knew Valroc better than anyone in this world.
Valroc was cruel, yet courteous.
A beast who always kept his promises.
Yet could the man who’d supposedly returned really have sent his subordinates to suddenly destroy the drawbridge and slaughter the archers…?
Poison flared in Ecliff’s gleaming eyes before fading.
“What did you do to him?”
“We merely maintained our usual vigilance.”
“Vigilance? What vigilance?”
“You halted the procession.”
“Halted it?”
The captain offered no further words.
But Ecliff waited patiently.
“After halting, did he order an attack?”
“…Her Highness was observed weeping, and the duke stared into his true nature.”
“So?”
“The archers were on alert—urk!”
Ecliff kicked the captain hard in the stomach, snorting as he rose from his seat.
“Have you lost your mind?!”
He’d expected trouble, but never something this foolish.
In short, the duke merely looked their way, and they panicked and ordered the archers into attack readiness?
“Why provoke a beast I carefully soothed and sent back!”
The captain’s forehead, split open by the kick, bled profusely down his face—but he clenched his teeth and said nothing more.
“……”
Ecliff looked down at him, then bent to grip the back of the captain’s head, forcing eye contact.
“No, no—that’s not all, is it?”
Speak up, Captain Herphen. I simply can’t understand this incident. That beast was satisfied with nothing more than a mere warning—even when his own father died. And you deliberately provoked him?”
For a long while, their stubborn gazes remained locked as blood dripped steadily, drop by drop.
Suddenly, Ecliff burst into maniacal laughter, as if he’d discovered something in the captain’s trembling eyes.
He shook with mirth until tears gathered in his eyes.
“Good heavens.”
“……”
“You were frightened, weren’t you?”
Ecliff rose from his seat, forgetting all imperial dignity, and moved about busily while giggling to himself.
How long had it been?
Exhausted from laughing, Ecliff collapsed into his chair like a crumbling tower and wiped the tear-soaked corners of his eyes.
“Clark Herphen. You were afraid of that legend, weren’t you? Admit it! ‘Only when Valroc gains Termina shall he finally be freed from his ancient bonds.’”
“……”
“Oh! You’re not denying it!”
The emperor, grinning widely with a crimson mouth, shouted in a voice brimming with glee.
“Poor Herphen. Then I suppose I must reassure you, eh? Do you even know when Bianca was born? Merely six months after Sabrina became Empress—six months!”
At this sudden revelation, the captain could only blink dumbly.
“Don’t you know? It was exactly ten months after her former husband, Baron Holshir, had died!”
“Hah!”
Watching the captain choke out a strangled gasp, the emperor’s eyes gleamed with madness as he cackled.
“Are you reassured now? Valroc never truly possessed Termina to begin with.”
Ah, what a pitiful beast he was.
His proud, confident demeanor when delivering that warning had been quite a sight to behold.
When scheming men desperately battle for her favor in the male harem
This one’s also on my reread list! The rivalry, scheming between the men in the imperial harem are just as intense and thrilling as in classic palace drama novels, where concubines fight to the death. Give it a read, girls! I promise you won’t be disappointed.
Synopsis:
“I am not worthy of her… but I still want to be by her side, even if only as a loyal dog…”
Those were the painful whispers of Yue Guanyi – the proud Crown Prince of the Great Qi, who was torn between deep love and a guilty conscience. Despite holding the supreme power of the Imperial Guard, he still could not forget the dark past when he was sold into a brothel.
Fate played a cruel twist when Qiu Shuzhi – a young female official who had just passed the imperial examinations with top honors – stepped into his life. She did not know that she was the one who had saved him from a tragic fate many years ago. And now, her heart was the target of pursuit for both Yue Guanyi and the powerful Empress Dowager Qin Qing.
While Yue Guanyi only dared to silently care for and protect the one he loved from afar, the Empress Dowager Qin Qing openly expressed his feelings and did not hesitate to take advantage of his power to approach Qiu Shuzhi. The covert struggle between the two most powerful forces in the imperial court began…
Trigger warning: All men in this novel are yandere style.
_____
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