“The Emperor granted permission for the pilgrimage? I find that hard to believe.”
“Thanks to Marquis Nettleton. Pinch, too, can finally breathe the air outside the palace!”
Laila seemed extremely excited.
It was inevitable, given that it was her first outing in several years.
Nikolai couldn’t join in the laughter.
“Will prayers help?”
“The Goddess will judge. I’m just happy that I can leave here.”
“What if your condition worsens during the journey?”
“I still want to go. I’ve tried everything medicine can offer…”
Nikolai wished she had stayed in this small and beautiful room.
For her health?
For safety?
Any excuse was useless.
He hoped Laila would wait for him with an unchanged smile.
“Taking Pinch with you is too dangerous.”
“Please allow it, Nicky. It might be the first and last journey with Pinch.”
The Emperor had already granted permission.
The Crown Prince’s opinion was useless.
Laila knew better than anyone.
But she also knew that if she left the palace, Nikolai would be lonelier than anyone.
Like a friend, like a sister, sometimes like a mother.
“I’ll be back soon. Since the Emperor has assigned guards, it will be safe.”
“If the guards can protect you, the Emperor wouldn’t have confined you. Don’t forget Penelope is after you and Pinch.”
“I wonder why the Empress hates me.”
“Because the Empress loves you.”
“Nicky, you know. The one the Empress loves is not me but… the late Empress Bridget.”
Laila smiled.
With a face more pitiful than a canary soaked in rain.
Nikolai never forgot the shock when he first met Laila.
Her golden hair shining as if melted honey.
Transparent skin that didn’t match the stiff maid’s uniform.
Even the slightly raised corners of her plump lips resembled her mother.
Placing portraits of the two side by side, it would be impossible to distinguish who bore the Crown Prince and who bore the illegitimate child.
“You did the same. You almost called me mother the first time you saw me.”
“Who the hell calls a woman only four years older mother?”
“Ha. You did.”
“It was just a little surprising. For me and the Empress.”
“Even if I didn’t resemble Empress Bridget, would the Empress have embraced me?”
“Don’t ask a son such a thing.”
With an expression of disgust, Nikolai wrinkled his nose.
Laila laughed playfully.
“What can’t we say between us?”
“If you didn’t resemble mother, Penelope might not have gone berserk.”
“Indeed? What did she do? Sending assassins, poisoning food, buying maids and servants… What else?”
Nikolai listed step by step his stepmother’s misdeeds with his hands.
There was no evidence.
Laila’s existence itself was thoroughly concealed by Penelope.
The victim was only Laila, and Penelope was renowned as a competent and intelligent Empress.
Moreover, she had the full support of the religious sect worshipping the god of war and the aristocracy.
The Emperor, who had to rebuild the country devastated by the Reaper’s Flower, also needed Penelope’s help.
“You bore Pinch, the successor of the Evergreen Imperial bloodline. It’s only fitting for you to become the official empress.”
“I don’t want to provoke Lady Penelope. As long as Pinch is safe, I don’t mind anything.”
When Penelope learned that a common woman had given birth to the Emperor’s child before her, her anger reached its peak.
Frustrated by the repeated failures of assassinations on Laila, Penelope lost half of her sanity.
If the Emperor hadn’t confined Laila to the Canary Room for protection, she didn’t know what would have happened.
Perhaps it could have been a more dreadful event than rebellion.
“Why should you and Pinch be confined like criminals? Depose Penelope!”
Nikolai gritted his teeth.
Laila patted his shoulder.
“Let me explain to His Majesty. You could be in danger too.”
Nikolai was the Emperor’s only son.
However, if Penelope opposed, even the Crown Prince’s position was precarious.
The Emperor had no choice but to consider Penelope’s feelings to protect Nikolai.
Laila being confined in the Canary Room was also partly Nikolai’s responsibility.
“When I become Emperor, I’ll send Penelope to the guillotine.”
“Hush! If someone hears, they’ll say the Crown Prince is plotting treason!”
“That woman won’t give up on you. After making her believe I gave up, who knows what opportunities may arise.”
Laila looked at a small garden surrounded by a thorny hawthorn fence with a gloomy expression, as if sensing what might happen.
“Even if the Goddess Morashinsia doesn’t pay attention to me, it’s fine, as long as she protects our Pinch.”
“I’ll protect you and my sister.”
“It’s just provoking Lady Penelope. It’ll be more dangerous if the public’s attention is drawn.”
“Which temple are we going to?”
“I’ll tell you after we return. His Majesty has prepared a very special guardian for you.”
“Who is it?”
In response to Nikolai’s question, Laila pointed at the shadow under her feet.
“They are a mysterious tribe that moves through shadows. Do you believe it?”
Leaving the audience chamber behind, they exited the stables.
An Indifferent Woman is the One Men Desire the Most
One-line summary: The female lead is actually cold-hearted and extremely rational. She has stage-by-stage relationships and won’t two-time, but there will always be someone who secretly likes her.
This novel has the following triggers, so if you’re sensitive to these, please don’t read:
1. The female lead has had many relationships, but she treated each one seriously and broke up properly.
It’s just that the men unilaterally pestered her incessantly. For the female lead, when she doesn’t like someone anymore, she simply doesn’t like them.
(This applies to her relationships with Male Lead 1, 2, 3, and 4 as well, but she’s loyal in each 1-on-1 relationship!)
2. In this novel, Male Lead 2 and the female lead kiss in a car, and Male Lead 1 sees it and beats up Male Lead 2.
The female lead calls the police and sends both Male Lead 1 and 2 to the police station! Male Lead 1 begs the female lead not to break up with him.
3. Male Lead 1 has a gentle appearance but an obsessive personality.
Male Lead 2 has a delicate and soft appearance, slightly green tea-like (two-faced).
Male Lead 3 is a youthful college student and a smart person who has secretly liked the female lead for a long time.
Male Lead 4 is the female lead’s father’s special assistant, a business elite with deep, hidden thoughts.
4. At the beginning of this novel, the female lead has already broken up with Male Lead 1 (Chapter 4) and gotten back together with Male Lead 2 (ex-boyfriend).
5. Enter with caution if you have triggers!!!
