‘Tomorrow, I have to accept Nicolai’s proposal. I should go find him as soon as it gets light!’
It was natural that sleep wouldn’t come.
As the darkness deepened, my eyes were wide open, like a child on the eve of an excursion.
A warm glass of milk and a chamomile sachet didn’t help either.
I got up, massaging my sore back.
Standing by the window, I looked at the Imperial Palace.
Thinking that Nicolai was within reach, my heartbeat seemed to quicken.
“Do I have to wait until tomorrow? I can go now and tell him. Let’s get married.”
With a pounding heart, courage surged along with excitement.
There was a time when Nicolai said such words.
“If you can’t sleep at night, come find me. Your visit is always welcome.”
I thought it was absurd.
A grown woman going to a man’s bedroom late at night?
Like a cat burglar?
But that man, whether it was day or night, would come to my room whenever I called.
Using the window instead of the perfectly fine door.
“There’s nothing I can’t do, right? We’re soon to be married.”
After muttering to myself, my face turned red.
The word “married” didn’t feel real at all.
Nicolai becoming my husband, me becoming his wife, everything felt like a lie.
Could it be that I was getting caught up in my own fantasy?
To confirm, I had to meet Nicolai.
As a plausible excuse came up, my heart became impatient.
“Should I change my clothes? No, it should seem like I dropped by coincidentally. But still, sleepwear is too revealing, isn’t it?”
I deliberated, pacing around the room.
In the end, I just draped a shawl over my shoulders.
If someone found out, the plan was to respond with something like, “Oh, was this where Her Majesty slept? I had no idea. I was just out for a night stroll.”
It was a lame excuse, but it didn’t matter.
With magic involved, escaping from there was only a matter of time!
The escort knight, who seemed unaffected by my concerns, welcomed me.
“Welcome, Lady Elizabeth. Her Majesty is in her chamber. I will escort you inside.”
“…Did you know I was coming?”
“Her Majesty ordered it. If Lady Elizabeth comes, I am to guide you without asking any questions.”
The knight couldn’t meet my eyes and lowered his gaze.
It was understandable.
He wouldn’t have expected a woman in nightwear and slippers to be the real visitor.
‘Considering what I told the knight, the words of welcome anytime were sincere…’
A shy joy and an inexplicable sense of relief welled up.
I smiled in gratitude to the knight opening the door.
The chamber was engulfed in deep darkness.
Relying on the moonlight seeping through the window, I cautiously took careful steps.
“Your Majesty… are you here?”
An awkward voice tickled my throat.
There was no returning response.
Unlike the confident start, tension overwhelmed me.
‘If she gets annoyed when she wakes up… should I just go back?’
The desire to go back immediately and the desire to see Nicolai clashed simultaneously.
I can’t turn back after coming this far.
Regaining my composure by regulating my uneven breath, I mustered the courage.
I approached a massive bed adorned with golden pieces, marble pillars, and a red fabric with golden silk embroidery.
Then, I hesitated.
It was because his sleeping habits occurred to me belatedly.
‘Nicolai sleeps undressed! What if he’s completely naked, even the lower half…?’
The upper torso of Nicolai, boasting perfect muscles, flickered in front of my eyes.
Beneath the sharply defined abs that seemed carved with a carving knife, the quilt slid down smoothly! And below that…
My heart skipped a beat.
Not just for a moment, but like boiling hot water suddenly turned cold, it cooled down.
Nicolai’s bed was empty.
“Where did he go? The knight said he was inside?”
Frowning, I uncovered the neatly arranged quilt.
The chest, which had just swelled with pride, sank heavily.
Even though I thought there might be some circumstances, I couldn’t hide my disappointment.
“Why are you leaving already?”
The knight’s inquisitive question with a smirk made me feel even more bitter.
The steps returning to the Canary Room were heavy.
Even the unusually bright stars and the rose vines starting to bud were unpleasant to look at.
Nicolai’s face, which wouldn’t leave my mind, irritated me the most.
Above all, what angered me was still the fact that I missed him.
“He should sleep modestly! Where did the grown man go so fearlessly, especially at this late hour!”
I punched into the air.
Not enough, I kicked too.
The slipped-off slipper flew in an arc.
It would be fine if it ended there.
Stepping on the dewy grass and slipping heavily, I exclaimed, “Ouch!”
My body floated in the air.
As the sky spun around in a circle, dizziness overwhelmed me.
If I fell from here, my waist wouldn’t be intact.
The fear of the impending pain was more terrifying than the predicted agony.
If I sprained my waist here, what excuse would I make!
I closed my eyes tightly, and someone suddenly pulled me into an embrace.
“What are you doing here, Elizabeth?”
It was Nicolai.
Before I could even feel a sense of relief, I wanted to hide in a mouse hole.
His large hand was gripping my waist roughly, as if I would topple over if he let go.
“…I was taking a walk.”
“Quite an intense exercise, wasn’t it?”
A soft curve formed around Nicolai’s mouth.
That smile was so beautiful that my simmering resentment and anger melted away.
No, it almost did.
“Where has Her Majesty been?”
I asked sharply.
Nicolai gave an answer he couldn’t have imagined.
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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