Nikolai felt simultaneous gratitude and guilt towards his loyal subject.
‘I would be so exhausted without you. I will certainly reward your loyalty, Caeron.’
He had thought so many times, but never voiced it.
Some relationships were sufficient with silence alone.
So it was between Caeron and Nikolai.
“The corpse?”
“As expected.”
“I will confirm it with my own eyes.”
Caeron stepped back.
Nikolai swiftly lifted the cloth covering the corpse.
Dust flew into the void.
The bodies of the dead gather dust.
And vermin.
Decay and rot.
The deceased quickly turns into a handful of bloody water through a Hades flower.
“The Hades flower…”
From Nikolai’s throat came a low sound, as if scraping metal.
Red splotches were haphazardly stamped onto Simon’s body.
A mix of sweet floral scent and putrid odor emanated from the splotches resembling fluttering petals.
The epidemic that had plunged the empire into the abyss of death had once again shown its sinister fangs.
“A young man contracting it, what has happened?”
Caeron asked with a sigh.
If news of the Hades flower’s return leaked, the empire would be paralyzed overnight.
What the fearful and anxious people would do.
How everyday life would be shattered.
History had proven it.
“Originally, Hades flower infects indiscriminately.”
“For six years, the Hades flower targeted only young women.”
“They merely harbored the seed. No symptoms, no contagion. Isolated in my and the wolf’s territory, they could harm no one.”
“Why couldn’t the wolf find Simon?”
Nikolai harbored the same question as Caeron.
The question was close to boiling rage.
If the wolf had done its duty, murdering in front of Elizabeth, her possession, would never have occurred.
Voices clamoring to chase away the wicked Elizabeth erupted from all sides.
Everything was blamed on Elizabeth.
Nikolai couldn’t reveal the truth.
He couldn’t protect Elizabeth.
He found himself more detestable than those who vilified her.
“It’s like a wellorchestrated play.”
“The fence accident was somewhat clumsy. The anticipated benefit was small compared to the risks taken.”
“It wasn’t targeting Elizabeth. It was just to buy time.”
“If Elizabeth hadn’t approached the fence… Something else would have disrupted the duel.”
“In that short span, Simon changed.”
Nikolai sensed something strange from Simon.
An indescribable, unpleasant premonition.
Had he stopped the duel then, the worst could have been prevented.
“The wolf was silent. The moment Simon tried to cut off Claudia’s life, the Hades flower bloomed, sending a signal.”
“If Simon hadn’t been dealt with, everyone in the square would have been infected.”
“…”
“Fortunately, the corpse is not contagious.”
The word ‘fortunate’ sounded pathetic and powerless.
Since his enthronement, Nikolai had been fulfilling his duty to protect the empire.
He had protected the people from the Hades flower with the wolf.
But what if the Hades flower mutated?
If wolves were beyond their abilities this time, Nikolai could do nothing.
To watch my people shrink like candles before a storm.
Spreading death and despair with their foul smell and spitting blood.
He could only stand by and watch.
“The place I and the wolves were focused on was the southern border.”
“Do you mean the Inted Archipelago commanded by Count Rose Royce?”
“The new queen was also brought from there. What was the woman’s name again?”
“It’s Tara. She is the daughter of Baron Joyce from the Brendan Duke’s family.”
Casus said to remember at least the queen’s name in that tone.
There was no change in Nikolai’s expression.
That day remained a huge wound.
‘I had to push Elizabeth away to isolate that woman.’
Elizabeth, who had not met my eyes for some time.
Nikolai, who couldn’t confess his true feelings to such an Elizabeth.
The same question tormented him every time.
‘Can I really protect her? When the duties of an emperor always come first?’
He broke the emperor’s testament to love no one.
He harbored a woman he should not.
His dulled senses awakened anew.
A loneliness he had forgotten flooded over him.
The cherry blossom scent floating around Elizabeth.
Only her smile and scent saved Nikolai.
Happiness breathed only by her side.
But Nikolai continuously hurt Elizabeth.
Far from protecting her, he put her in danger.
‘If not for me, Elizabeth wouldn’t be called a witch. She wouldn’t be threatened. Is it right to keep her by my side when I can’t even protect her? Shouldn’t I send her to someone who can truly love her?’
Why did Douglas’s halfhearted face come to mind now?
Nikolai bit the inside of his lip.
It smelled acrid but he couldn’t taste the blood.
All he felt was Elizabeth’s scent and lips.
“We need new information. Call Archimandrite Akantho from the Morasinthia temple who is researching the underworld flower.”
“What about Simon’s body?”
“……. ”
“Duke Brendan is protesting, asking for at least the body back.”
Nikolai’s eyes turned towards the dead.
A talent once coveted.
The heir to a prestigious family.
Simon had crossed an uncrossable river.
A chilling voice slipped from between Nikolai’s lips.
“Burn it like the other bodies.”
Until then, he had no idea what had happened to Simon.
Until the wolf spoke again.
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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