Normally, she would have smiled at such an expression from him, but once the tears started, they just wouldn’t stop.
This reality was too horrible and heartbreaking.
Too sorrowful.
Pitiful, and regretful.
“Sob.”
“Lina.”
Duke Valige quickly embraced Lina in his arms.
“Lina, I’m sorry.”
“Duke…… why?”
Lina continued, her voice choking with tears.
“That I doubted you.”
The Duke, letting her go for a moment, looked into her eyes and whispered.
“But, now it’s different.”
With eyes more honest than ever before.
“I trust you now, Lina.”
With a voice more genuine than ever before.
“Let’s be together forever, Lina.”
The man, speaking as though confessing his trust in Lina.
‘No, Your Grace.’
Perhaps Duke Valige thought those tears were tears of joy.
But.
‘Don’t trust me.’
With a heart different from Duke Valige, she closed her eyes in his arms.
(This is a time separator.)
As time passed, on the day of the engagement ceremony, the Fermance mansion was bustling from morning with preparations for the engagement.
“You look so beautiful, Miss.”
Lina forced a smile in response to Mei’s excited chatter.
“Thank you, Mei.”
“You will surely be happy, Miss.”
Perhaps because she knew that couldn’t happen, her heart ached at Mei’s wellwishing words.
Just then, a maid opened the door and entered, prompting Mei to ask.
“How are the preparations for the meal?”
“It’s almost done, so you can come down in thirty minutes. And this [dash].”
The maid handed Mei a basket filled with red roses.
“What’s this? Did the Duke send it?”
A gift of flowers on the engagement day, not even the day before. Mei looked at the maid with puzzled eyes.
“They said it was sent from the Rose Palace.”
“Rose Palace?”
Until that moment, Lina, who had been looking dispassionately at the basket, read the card on it.
[For the mermaid who loved the prince.]“The mermaid who loved the prince……?”
The heartbreaking love story of a mermaid who becomes foam to save a prince.
This story was a folk tale known to even fiveyearold children in the empire.
‘Ha.’
Lina spat out a bitter laugh at the card’s message, which arrived at a stunning moment. It fit her current situation all too well.
“My goodness, red roses in the fall. I’ve heard that the Empress’s palace is filled with red roses. It seems she has sent you this precious flower, Miss.”
‘No, this is not sent by the Empress.’
The seal stamped on the card was the seal of the Empress’s palace, but she surely hadn’t sent these roses.
‘The Second Prince must have sent them.’
Lina looked at the roses as she put down the card. What on earth was this man thinking when he sent these flowers to me?
“Miss, it’s time to leave.”
“……Alright.”
It was when Lina, who had come to her senses at the maid’s words notifying her that the meal would soon start, was about to fold the card.
“Eeek.”
Was it because she moved hastily? She ended up cutting her forefinger on the sharp edge of the card.
“Oh my, Miss!”
A plump red drop of blood welled up on Lina’s finger.
And then.
Drip[—]. Drip[—].
It began to fall one drop at a time.
Red blood drops spreading over the white paper.
“What should I do[—].”
Next to her, Meiga made a fuss and tried to stop the bleeding with a handkerchief, but Lina’s eyes were only looking down.
On the white card.
Red blood drops were only wetting the character ‘mermaid.’
Ah.
Then Lina instinctively realized. A tragic end was approaching her.
Just like the mermaid who loved the prince.
(This is a time separator.)
The grand hall of the permanence mansion where the engagement is taking place.
Despite the size of the vast hall, their engagement was without the usual family or friends to congratulate them.
Only one clergyman who was officiating, the crown prince as a witness, and a few attendants who helped were present.
It was a seemingly meager appearance for the Duke of Permanence’s engagement ceremony, but no one cared about that.
“We will now begin the engagement ceremony.”
Valige and Lina slowly moved their footsteps toward the podium where the clergyman was standing. Then, the clergyman started the ceremony as if he had been waiting.
He started telling various stories, blessing their future, but none of the words reached her ears.
Because she was thinking something that the protagonist of an engagement ceremony would never think.
‘Perhaps if I continue to stay here like this, I’ll live precariously. As if hanging by a single thread on a cliff.’
Of course, she didn’t know if Lawrence had really heard some nonsense somewhere. But her ominous thoughts wouldn’t stop.
And usually when she felt like this.
‘It always exploded.’
“—therefore, I declare in the name of God that the engagement of these two people is concluded.”
When the clergyman finished the ceremony and gestured at the two, Cullen came forward with the documents as if he had been waiting.
Then Valige moved the pen tip to the oath first, and Lina followed him and signed.
The voice of the clergyman, who was scanning the oath with both signatures, echoed in the hall.
“Congratulations. You two are now officially engaged.”
As the clergyman’s words ended, Lina, who had been sighing softly, raised her head. Then, Valige’s golden pupils and her brown pupils met.
“You two, the kiss of vow.”
At that, Valige suddenly enveloped Lina’s face with both hands and kissed her.
As his lips touched, a warm warmth circled her dry lips and moistened them.
A brief glimpse of the man’s gaze felt a hot heat. And when her body was about to heat up with that high temperature.
The Duke’s lips parted from her.
Neither rich nor deep, a simple kiss.
And at the same time as the two lips parted, she made a painful decision that would be a great wound to someone.
‘Let’s leave.’
Lina quietly closed her eyes again.
‘Before this heart deepens further.’
Then she began to engrave each moment here and now using all her senses.
The smell of candles slowly burning out.
The cold air brushing against her thin dress.
And.
Even the touch of Valige’s lips.
Remember this moment.
One day, the day may come when she misses this day.
The day of the engagement ceremony with the person she had been dreaming of for a long time.
The Male lead Always Seduces Her with His Beauty (Matriarchy)
Xin Jiao Zhou is the leader of the world’s premier sect. She has just experienced betrayal from all sides, was poisoned in an assassination attempt, and faced death squad attacks while the poison was taking effect. After finally clearing out the scum from her sect, she was drugged again while trying to detoxify.
After waking up from a night of unconsciousness, she gained a “beautiful and kind-hearted” husband.
Xin Jiao Zhou: “???”
He fell ill.
She came to see him, bringing breakfast.
As she put down the breakfast and was about to leave, his hand slipped while holding the spoon. “Clank!”
She turned around upon hearing the noise.
He looked up at her, his eyebrows drooping: “My hand… has no strength.”
“Shall I… feed you?” she asked tentatively.
He opened his mouth cheerfully: “Ah—”
Thinking she was drowning, he jumped in without hesitation to save her, but nearly drowned himself. In the end, it was she who swam over to rescue him, giving him air underwater.
After emerging from the water, his ear tips turned red. He lightly brushed his cheek, tucking his sideburns behind his ear, revealing delicate, pink-tinged ear tips. He lowered his gaze, too embarrassed to look at her.
Xin Jiao Zhou: He’s truly beautiful, kind-hearted, and adorable.
A certain someone when disciplining subordinates behind the scenes: “If they don’t obey, just kill them.”
What’s that? She might already have someone she cares about in her heart? A certain someone: Find out who it is, kill them, and then there won’t be anyone.
What? She met a man by the riverside? What? That man even hurt her? A certain someone: Whichever hand hurt her, chop off his entire arm.
Love at first sight without realizing it, gradually falling in love, slowly getting closer…
Family and national grudges, schemes and desires, good and evil, crime and punishment, she and he face the future together, seeking justice with passion!
A naturally dark female lead who could accidentally destroy the world but is actually an honest person VS a weak, pitiful, and helpless but skilled fighter, beautiful white-cut black male lead
My heart is not of stone, how steadfast is your love? — Tao Yuanming “Imitating the Ancients (No. 3)”
— Reading Guide —
Cold female lead & dramatic black lotus with hidden yandere traits male lead
