“Your Majesty?”
Under the dense canopy, Franz rose hesitantly.
‘I’ve already arrived at the Crown Prince’s palace back garden…’
Entranced by the wolf’s audacious voice, he didn’t even realize how far he’d come.
Swallowing a bitter smile, he asked his younger halfbrother.
“Were you well?”
“Yes! Did you come to see me?”
A radiant joy spread across Franz’s face.
Franz threw the wooden stick he’d been holding far away.
He didn’t want to be seen in such a childish state.
‘I didn’t come to see you, I came to find traces of Elizabeth.’
He couldn’t bring himself to say the truth.
Franz’s body was faintly scented with cherry blossoms.
It was a faint trace that required all senses to detect.
However, to Nikolai, who hadn’t smelled Elizabeth for a long time, it was like a ray of light.
‘It’s intoxicatingly wonderful.’
Embarrassment surged beyond awkwardness.
He thought he was accustomed to the stench, but his obsession with the scent had only grown stronger.
It was all due to Elizabeth.
No, he had completely lost his selfrestraint.
“Ah… you’ve come to see Miss Elizabeth.”
Franz awkwardly scratched his hair.
‘I know Elizabeth isn’t here. I received the report that she’s on vacation. I’m here, like a shameless starving dog, to pick up the breadcrumbs she left behind.’
It was impossible for the quickwitted Franz not to know.
But he didn’t expect him to bluntly ask.
“Your Majesty, do you like Miss Elizabeth?”
His vision became pitch black and distant.
It felt like the core of his soul was being trampled.
He had been pointed out by the wolf numerous times, but he didn’t expect to hear it from Franz’s mouth.
‘If it’s desire, I can admit it. I won’t deny that I was captivated from the moment I met her. It’s true that I want Elizabeth. But what does it mean to like?’
A tangled lump of thread filled his mind.
His heart rattled like a broken cart wheel, and the back of his ears flushed unnecessarily.
Liking someone and wanting to own them were clearly different.
He was perceptive enough to notice that, but it was only a theory.
Nikolai was ignorant of his own feelings.
He couldn’t easily name the trembling and impulses that had occupied him.
If it were merely a possessive desire, or monopoly desire, it wouldn’t be as tormenting as now.
‘Is it a question about why I treat her specially? Or does he mean do I miss her? Or does he mean do I feel affection for her? If that’s really the case, then I… I already like Elizabeth.’
Cold sweat beaded on his forehead.
He felt so dizzy that he wanted to collapse.
If it weren’t for Franz in front of him, he might have fallen on his knees.
What might be a funny question to others was serious for Nikolai.
Not because he didn’t have experience with women, but because he believed that he should not like anyone.
‘The emperor should not be swayed by desire. You should not chase after trivial happiness. Do not let anyone steal your heart. You must live for the people, not for one person. That’s the emperor’s mission.’
The crown prince was a greater monarch than those praised by historians.
However, he wasn’t a good father.
He didn’t know how other fathers disciplined their young sons.
If he had, at least he wouldn’t have hammered the idea that happiness was forbidden into their ears.
Yet, he revered such a father.
A hero who saved the nation from a plague of death.
A holy monarch who lived his entire life for the people.
Nikolai also wanted to become such an emperor.
Despite enduring humiliating criticisms, he followed his father’s teachings and will.
And then Elizabeth appeared.
It was fate’s joke.
‘I have broken traditions and laws multiple times for Elizabeth. I have handed down undeserved high positions, and did not punish for the rebellion. I even tolerated speech that was close to an insult. What differentiates me from a tyrant bewitched by a woman?’
Was that all?
He wanted to strangle Douglas, who kept circling around Elizabeth.
He wanted to cut down all who spoke about her casually or failed to show her proper respect.
He was curious about everything regarding Elizabeth.
He wanted to understand even her past.
Even the aspects he could not understand were only cute to him.
‘I have to admit. I like Elizabeth…’
Nikolai’s head drooped lifelessly.
It felt as if he could hear the screams of anguish from the underground.
Franz spoke to Nikolai, who had fallen into guilt.
“I don’t dislike Miss Elizabeth either. Well, it’s not like I really like her… but I don’t dislike her.”
“What is your reason?”
“She doesn’t try to impress me, and doesn’t fuss about pretending to like children. It seems like she has forgotten that I am the crown prince.”
“She keeps forgetting that I am the emperor.”
“She is a little peculiar, isn’t she?”
“Take it seriously.”
Could it be due to the shock of revealing his true feelings to Franz?
Or could it be the feeling of emptiness, as if he had abandoned his lifelong mission?
Nikolai was babbling nonsense.
“Do you think Miss Elizabeth likes Your Majesty too?”
“Don’t worry about it.”
Ex-husband Wants Reconciliation
One-line summary: Chasing the wife to the crematorium (making an effort to attract someone who has become indifferent), the female lead doesn’t look back, the second male lead takes the position.
Intro:
To repay the kindness of the older generation, Su Mu crossed into a female-dominated world and became a live-in daughter-in-law of the Yan family, single-handedly saving the Yan family from fire and water.
But her husband, Yan Jiyue, the eldest son of the Yan family, treated her with sarcasm and never showed her a good face.
It wasn’t until after Su Mu’s death that this pampered and arrogant young master shed a few fake tears and pretended to want to die for love.
This life’s kindness was enough. If there was a next life, she would definitely kick Yan Jiyue away.
Who knew that the heavens would be so kind as to allow her to be reborn, returning to the time when she had just married into the Yan family.
Su Mu glanced at the Yan eldest son, who still spoke coldly to her, and threw a divorce letter in front of him.
“Let’s divorce!”
***
Yan Jiyue never imagined that he would be reborn. He happily went to find Su Mu, wanting to make up for the mistakes he had made in his ignorant youth.
Wasn’t the reason the heavens allowed him to be reborn to let him reconcile with Su Mu?
But when he pushed open the door to Su Mu’s room, the person lying on the bed was another man.
Su Mu’s personal attendant, Xie Yi.
Yan Jiyue hated him so much that his teeth itched. In front of Su Mu, Xie Yi was a gentle and considerate whisperer of sweet nothings, but in reality, he was vicious-hearted and deliberately sabotaged their husband and wife relationship.
In the previous life, it was he who secretly hid in Su Mu’s coffin and committed suicide, stealing a step ahead of him to be buried with Su Mu.
Yan Jiyue’s eyes were filled with hatred as he cursed, “What kind of thing are you? Your background is lowly, what right do you have to occupy Su Mu?”
Xie Yi looked at the sleeping Su Mu and no longer pretended to be a whisperer of sweet nothings.
He proudly stuck out his belly, “I have the right because my belly is capable of giving the Wife-master a daughter.”
***
Yan Jiyue was consumed with jealousy. He spread rumors that Xie Yi had once been branded with the mark of a “harlot” on his chest.
But on the night Xie Yi cut off the flesh bearing that mark, Su Mu suddenly realized something was amiss.
“How did you know the exact moment I was poisoned? And why did you show up a month early?”
Xie Yi remained silent, blood from his wound soaking through his robes. His sapphire eyes brimmed with anguish – or was it just a flawless act?
Between a once-arrogant husband now seeking redemption, and a gentle soul willing to die for her – who truly held the darkest secrets? And could it be that Su Mu and Yan Jiyue weren’t the only ones given a second chance at life…?
[Reading Guide]
1. True divorce, chasing the wife to the crematorium, the female lead doesn’t look back, the male lead is Xie Yi.
2. The ex-husband did not cheat, he just realized too late and didn’t realize that he liked the female lead.
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