Belige replied with a bitter smile.
“Yes, I will follow Father’s wishes.”
After all, his response had already been predetermined. Despite becoming a duke, he had no authority to make decisions according to his own will.
“Tedious.”
Important things in his life always seemed to be decided in this way.
Oddly, today, that fact seemed to constrict his breath unusually. With a stifling heart, he moved his steps to a secluded place.
And there, he met the woman.
“That woman…”
She was the heir of the Durnamis family. Her name was Lena, if he remembered correctly.
“But what is she doing alone there?”
In her murmurs in the empty place, the light repeatedly flickered in her hands and disappeared.
“Is she practicing magic or something?”
That couldn’t be achieved through effort. Just like sanctity, magic was something one was born with.
That’s why no matter how much an individual tried, nothing would change.
But…
“Again?”
Since then, Lena had come to this place every day at a fixed time for training. Initially, it was just curiosity.
Curiosity about the woman who endlessly did something that wouldn’t change no matter how much she tried. And due to that meaningless curiosity, somehow, he found himself clocking in at this place every day.
“How pathetic.”
Peeping from behind like that. He felt so pathetic about himself.
Now, he shouldn’t come here again. Just as he was thinking that, at that moment…
Crackle [Dash].
Startled by the sound of a twig being stepped on by his foot, she, surprised, met his eyes. Breaking the awkward silence between them, Belige spoke.
“I’m sorry for disturbing. Well…”
“Sir, Duke…!”
Trying to quickly turn away, Lena grabbed Belige.
“If it’s okay with the Duke, you can practice here.”
“Practice?”
“That sword… weren’t you here to practice it?”
Only then did he realize that he had used the excuse of practicing here. What a lame excuse.
In the end, he couldn’t help but release a short breath that seemed to say there was no other way and moved his steps.
“Miss Durnamis, were you practicing magic?”
“Oh, yes… But I’m no longer a member of the Durnamis family.”
“What…?”
“I left the family.”
Her words were truly shocking to him.
Hadn’t she been practicing day and night to gain the family’s approval?
With an incomprehensible tone, Belige asked again.
“Then why practice magic…?”
“Well, naturally…”
Lena, who flicked her hair swaying in the suddenly blowing wind, continued.
“Because I like it.”
“Magic? You like it?”
“Yes, especially since Sir Duke has such strong sanctity. Naturally, it must be enjoyable, right?”
“I…”
Was it a matter of liking or disliking? He simply embraced and lived with it.
He had never approached his sanctity with feelings of liking or disliking.
He was just quietly walking on the predetermined path. But that girl…
Belige looked at Lena with a gaze as if he was seeing someone from a different world.
“Isn’t it frustrating? I heard that mages don’t have much freedom when it comes to entering the palace.”
“Well, I felt more confined when I belonged to the family.”
Belige’s eyes widened at Lena’s words. Her smile shone brighter than the sunlight filtering through the leaves.
“Have I ever smiled like that?”
At least when he was young, it seemed like he might have had a smile like that. Not now, though.
She was similar to him, yet different.
She was free. Unlike him.
And he envied her freedom.
Since then, she always seemed to be at the end of his gaze.
“You’re here again.”
Since that day, there had been a small change in Belige’s daily life.
“I had some free time.”
It was a lie. Once a month might be understandable, but there was no way he had enough time to be here all week.
However, he deliberately came here, lying for the first time in his life, making all kinds of excuses.
Tailored to the times when she would likely be here.
For him, this was like a small escape. A change from the monotonous routine of always doing predetermined things.
There was even a kind of excitement that felt like he had become an adolescent boy.
Dash.
“It’s raining…”
Today, he came here again with the excuse of being unwell. He sighed briefly at the raindrops thickening one by one.
“Well, there’s no help for it. I have to go back today…”
But strangely, it seemed like some protective barrier was covering his body, as the raindrops were avoiding only him. Feeling something strange, Belige turned around.
Then, he noticed that a light was emanating from Lena’s fingertips, wrapping around her body. When she and Belige made eye contact, she flicked her eyes.
“I just learned the protection spell today.”
But contrary to her brave words that she had just learned the protection spell, her body was still getting wet in the rain.
“You’re completely soaked over there.”
“Well… I don’t have the skills to stop two people…”
Staring at Lena, whose face turned red at her own words, Belige approached her. Then, he put the jacket he was wearing over her head.
“I don’t know how to use magic.”
That way, the two of them protected each other from the rain in their own ways.
The man matched his steps to the woman’s, a little slower.
The woman matched her steps to the man’s, a little faster.
They walked the same path, adjusting to each other’s pace.
Sometimes stealing glances at each other.
Somewhere along the way, unfamiliar emotions began to seep into his heart.
Like a drizzle soaking into his clothes.
But.
By the time I realized my feelings for you.
It was after you died.
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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