‘Why……. Why me?’
Lina looked at the duke with confused eyes.
‘Because of the curse?’
But that didn’t make sense.
Even though he was a knight who had won numerous battles, jumping into the swollen river was akin to suicide.
To risk his life to save me, while wanting to keep me by his side to live.
‘It doesn’t make sense.’
Lina’s steps halted, her mind spinning with these thoughts.
“Lina.”
The duke, finding Lina’s dazed expression strange, called out to her.
“My lord.”
And she reflexively answered his question, to clear up all these doubts.
“Why did you save me?”
Duke Valige’s hand, which had been fiddling with the flint, paused.
“You were in danger. You could have been hurt. Why…….’
To the duke, she was merely an existence to overcome the curse. Just that much.
But why? You…
Lina’s mouth felt parched.
The crackling sound of burning firewood filled the silence between them. It was hard to know what the man’s yellow eyes were thinking.
After waiting for a long time, Lina, feeling like she could wait no longer, was about to ask again when the duke’s tightly closed lips opened.
“……Because it was the same.”
But she couldn’t understand the man’s whispering words.
“It felt like I couldn’t go on without you.”
‘What?’
Was her mind blank because of that? Lina couldn’t comprehend what the duke had just said. That he couldn’t go on without me.
“Because of your curse, my lord? Because without me, your head would hurt, and you wouldn’t sleep well?”
His quiet nod to her question, almost seeking agreement, was followed by a gaze sharper than ever.
“No.”
His eyes flickered red. Like flames from a fireplace.
“It’s not just because of the curse.”
Coming close was scalding. Very hot.
As if confessing, his voice was low as Lina averted her eyes.
A feeling that she shouldn’t hear what comes next. An unknown ominous feeling creeps up her neck.
“I…….”
“No. You don’t have to say anything.”
Valige gently grasped Lina’s wrist, which had been retreating as if she had heard something she shouldn’t have.
“Listen.”
With a different atmosphere than before.
“You can pity me.”
With a different tone.
“You can feel sorry for me.”
He starts to spin words that entwine her.
“It doesn’t matter if you lash out at those who tormented you.”
He lifted the wrist he was holding and kissed it. The man’s hot breath tickled her backhand.
‘Just because of the curse, why.’
“I’ll give you everything you want.”
That man to me.
“So stay by my side.”
Is it an illusion that he loves me?
Lina, whose thoughts had come to a stop, met eyes with Valige.
The sound of wood burning black, writhing. And.
The sound of her heart pounding, like someone who had been running without rest, was the only thing echoing in the small cabin.
(This is a time separator.)
“Haah[Dash].”
Following the duke through the forest, Lina let out a sigh without realizing.
‘I couldn’t sleep at all…….’
She had spent the night wide awake after the words the duke had pronounced as if confessing. He had always been domineering to her.
Even thinking about last night’s events made her heart feel like it was pounding again.
Lina turned her eyes to look at the cloth fixed on her right arm. The duke’s unfamiliar and amazing care as he delicately fixed the cloth was strange.
‘The duke really loves me…….’
Then, Valige, who was walking ahead of her, stopped abruptly.
“The village is in sight.”
Coming closer at his words, the smoke rising above the houses caught her eye. Only then did Lina let out a sigh of relief.
“Don’t call me ‘my lord’ in the village. There’s no need to reveal my identity there.”
The duke had many enemies. So, it wouldn’t be wise to reveal his identity alone in a strange place.
She seemed to understand his meaning and nodded her head.
“Then what do you call…”
“Valige.”
“……Yes?”
Lina, who thought he looked like a noble, was pondering a suitable title, perhaps a middleranked lord or a minor nobleman.
But to call him by his name. It seemed better not to call him Duke at all.
“How can I call you by your name, Your Grace…!”
“The reason a young man and woman travel alone is usually one thing.”
“You don’t mean, a ho……honeymoon?”
Was he suggesting that they pretend to be newlyweds right now?
Lina looked at the duke with a flabbergasted expression, but he seemed quite serious.
In the end, Lina decided to follow his words without saying anything, judging from his attitude as if there was no problem.
‘Just don’t call him.’
Making a resolution not to call him by his name as much as possible.
(This is a time separator.)
Soon, they arrived at the village and looked around. It seemed to be quite large, and the bustling movement of people and carriages caught their eye.
“Denbera. It seems we’ve drifted further than we thought.”
“Do you know where this is?”
As the duke pointed to the village entrance with his chin, a signboard reading ‘Denbera’ appeared.
“It’s a place that belongs to the Minolta territory, next to Harlen’s domain.”
“Then we can ask the lord for help!”
Male lead is a Destined Young Husband (Female-dominant)
One-sentence summary: Wife-master, listen to my explanation!
Li Ruantang, a young lady from a prestigious family, stumbled and fell. When she woke up, she saw a noble and beautiful young man sitting by her bedside, wiping away tears.
The young master had slightly reddened eyes, and his every move exuded charm.
The sight made Li Ruantang’s eyes hot and her heart flutter. After all, she had made a bet with the young master Meng from the neighboring family. If she couldn’t marry a husband before the end of the year, she would have to admit defeat and give up the jade she had worked so hard to obtain.
Outside the window, the flowers were in full bloom.
Rather than losing the bet, the jade, and her face, Li Ruantang calculated that it would be better to seek marriage with the young master in front of her, killing three birds with one stone.
…
Meng Jun never thought that an accident during a spring outing would lead to them rolling down a cliff and into a river, yet still survive.
Now they were trapped in an unknown village, and Meng Jun had overheard that the family who had rescued them had their own intentions.
After all, it was Li Ruantang who had lost her mind and sought marriage first. He was only trying to protect himself!
Glancing at Li Ruantang, who was listing her own merits, the young husband’s voice softened, and he blushed as he lied, “W-wife-master, Wife-master, don’t you remember me?”
The young husband’s voice was clear and handsome, coaxing Li Ruantang’s heart to be soft and sweet, and she spared no effort to protect him.
It wasn’t until they returned to the capital that Li Ruantang suddenly remembered.
When they had fallen off the cliff, in order not to implicate Wei Yunruo, whom he secretly admired, the young husband had instead pulled her, who was slightly farther away, down the cliff with him…
Short summary by Yuushi L: Initially, the male lead (ML) liked another girl, while the female lead (FL) liked the ML. Both fell off a cliff. The FL temporarily lost her memory, and the ML, fearing others might take advantage of him, claimed FL was his wife while they were staying in a village. Later, when they returned home, the FL regained her memories and remembered that the ML liked someone else, so she kept her distance from him. However, during their time living together in the countryside, the ML’s view of the FL had completely changed. From this point, his pursuit of the FL begins.
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