Behind the bathtub, a very familiar man was giving off a familiar voice.
“Is this why you escaped from the palace?”
It must be a hallucination.
Or maybe a dream.
I rubbed my eyelids, but it was useless.
From head to toe, Nikolai, dressed in all black, with icy eyes, was glaring at me.
“What on earth are you two doing here?”
A powerful and suffocating energy surged from Nikolai’s entire body. The sensation of facing hundreds, even thousands of blades with bare skin sent shivers down my spine. Nikolai’s gaze landed on my disheveled hair. And Douglas was fixed on the towel he held. The steam from the old wooden bath turned a pale white. What could be the reason for its ominous appearance, like the breath of a reaper? And what about the premonition that someone might not come back to life? There were almost no people who welcomed the new imperial knight commander. The same was true when there was a significant restructuring of the knight order. Everyone treated Claudia as if she were the lackey of the villainess Elizabeth.
As the transgressions of the former knight commander and the knights were gradually exposed, the atmosphere began to change. The seed of change. The first step towards reform. Those who first noticed Nikolai’s dreams and what Claudia had initiated were reform-oriented junior nobles and young bourgeoisie.
“More than half of the palace guards are said to have died or been imprisoned, right? The sight of the palace guards in disarray was unfortunate, but it turned out well.”
“There’s a new recruitment announcement for the royal palace guards, isn’t there?”
“Not only commoners but also mercenaries can join if they have the skill. Indeed, a knight of the royal palace is considered as Blanc’s heroine.”
“It would be good to sweep away all the corrupt ones at this opportunity. It might make business easier, don’t you think?”
Not everyone had optimistic expectations. Self-proclaimed nobles engaged in gossip about Claudia.
“What can a provincial female knight know about the palace and politics?”
“The royal knight commander has traditionally been an experienced veteran knight. Now, a woman with no blood on her hands…”
“Claudia Blanc is a proxy for the villainess. She might pretend to be just while harboring ulterior motives.”
“A woman should simply serve her husband well and raise many children. It’s best not to wield a sword and behave in a way unsuitable for her status. Tsk, tsk.”
The noblewomen had different thoughts than their husbands, who were engulfed in emotions of uncertainty or jealousy. They even ignored the grumbling of stubborn fathers. Many noblewomen admired Claudia’s remarkable talent, beautiful appearance, and unconventional actions.
The fact that Claudia resembled a character from a popular romance novel that had just been released also played a significant role.
“Did you read the third volume of ‘The Red Star of the Empire’ released yesterday? I thought I was going to have a heart attack while reading.”
“Doesn’t the genius female knight in the third volume look too similar to Claudia Blanc?”
“To think that a truly just female knight, like the one in the novel, exists in reality. What a blessing for the Empire!”
“Every time Claudia deals with those arrogant men, it’s exhilarating. I want to invite her to a tea party.”
“I also want to learn swordsmanship. Would that be okay?”
Until then, Claudia had been considered one of those individuals who would briefly appear in high society like a comet, fresh and peculiar but forgotten over time. She shattered everyone’s expectations.
It was revealed that she, a mere knight commander, had raided Lord Brendan’s mansion. The Empire was in shock.
“Have you heard the news? Claudia has started robbing noble families!”
“Isn’t Lord Brendan’s mansion the most untouchable in the Empire? Even if Rose Hwangbi has been imprisoned, you can’t just casually interfere.”
“I heard Rose Hwangbi escaped. Lord Brendan helped her escape and collaborated!”
“Is that all? She earned dirty money through usury and plotted rebellion with that ill-gotten fortune!”
The public opinion, which initially criticized Nikolai as a tyrant due to Simon’s death, was gradually changing its view of Lord Brendan.
“Rose Hwangbi escaped? And Lord Brendan helped with her escape and fugitive?”
“Is that all? She earned dirty money through usury and plotted rebellion with that ill-gotten fortune!”
The public opinion, which criticized Nikolai as a tyrant due to Simon’s death, was gradually reversing its view of Lord Brendan. Viscount Lehman, Marquis Pipe, and Count Blackfold gathered to discuss countermeasures.
The conclusion was quickly reached amidst a long silence.
“Let’s abandon Lord Brendan at this point. That is the only way we can survive.”
Erasing ominous premonitions, Douglas looked back.
There were drops of red blood on Douglas’s lips.
“Lord Douglas!”
I tried to support him.
Nikolai prevented it.
“Your Majesty…”
Douglas, who barely managed to straighten his body, knelt on one knee beneath Nikolai’s feet.
“How dare you…”
The muscles around Nikolai’s jaw tightened.
A purplish blood stain emerged on the firmly clenched fist.
The sudden fear of whether Nikolai would strike Douglas again made me shudder.
“You misunderstood.”
“…”
“There’s nothing Your Majesty is imagining.”
“What am I imagining?”
Turquoise eyes resembling the forest and the sea pierced through me.
Within them, anger flickered.
More than anger, there was overwhelming sorrow.
And a burning longing.
It was difficult to bear it all.
“So… that…”
Some words came to mind and disappeared.
My tongue stiffened like a rock.
I didn’t want to make excuses.
No excuse would be convincing.
But avoiding misunderstandings was even more undesirable.
At that moment, Douglas stood up.
“Your Majesty, will you allow me to explain everything?”
Flames flickered in Nikolai’s eyes for a moment.
Before I could stop him, he pushed Douglas against the wall.
“Your Majesty!”
“Don’t say a word. Before I cut off this man’s breath.”
Nikolai, pressing Douglas’s neck with his forearm, spoke as if chewing on his words.
I wasn’t the one to step back.
After taking a deep breath, I raised my voice.
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.”
[Touch the gear icon in the bottom right corner of the screen to move to the next chapter if you want.]
