A heavy silence hung between the two stiffened people, as if the surrounding noise had been cut off. Lina, who came to her senses before Duke Valige, quickly bowed her head.
‘Darn it…!’
Why hadn’t she thought of it? That Duke Valige would be at the police station.
She remembered the Duke’s words from the past, when he couldn’t return to the mansion to investigate the consecutive disappearances in the capital.
“You…….”
And the moment Duke Valige opened his lips to say something, a voice calling for the Duke was heard from afar.
“Duke, there is something you need to see.”
At the soldier’s words, Duke Valige, who had been quietly gazing at Lina, rose from his seat.
“…Take care of this woman who seems quite startled.”
“Yes, Your Grace.”
A man who gave a light salute to Valige covered Lina with the blanket he had been holding.
“You will be able to return home safely once your identity is confirmed, so don’t worry.”
He seemed to have been frightened by seeing Lina’s trembling body.
“…Thank you.”
Even while thanking the soldier, her eyes were only following Valige’s retreating figure.
Meanwhile, Duke Valige kept recalling the face of the woman he had encountered moments ago while handling his duties.
‘Why does it feel so familiar?’
She was surely a woman he’d never seen before, yet the sensation was like knowing someone for a long time.
‘It must be my imagination.’
So thinking, he moved on, when suddenly the voice of the woman thanking him brushed past his mind.
For some reason, that voice. It was clear and familiar.
‘Just like….’
“Your Grace, is something the matter?”
At the moment something was coming and going in his mind, a soldier beside him asked in a puzzled voice.
“No, continue the report.”
“Yes. There were seventeen women in the carriages. Once we return to the capital, we will verify their identities and send them all home.”
“Casualties and fatalities?”
“About five injuries on our side, all minor. No fatalities. On the Jenders Merchant side, thirty in total. No fatalities, but ten with serious injuries. About fifteen with minor injuries. We were able to finish the job easily, as they did not anticipate today’s surprise.”
“Alright, as soon as we arrive in the capital, imprison them, and you and Kendall prepare the doctors.”
“Yes, understood.”
Duke Valige, who had issued orders to the soldier, shook off his contemplation. There was a mountain of urgent matters that needed handling now.
He had no time to focus on strange things. Valige quickly mounted his horse.
“We are heading back to the capital.”
Once the situation on the scene was mostly under control, the women were again put in carriages, heading back to the capital.
‘I should quietly slip away once we arrive in the capital.’
Although it would have been safest to escape from the chaotic scene, it was difficult to move alone without knowing how far they had gone.
‘But my magic is back.’
Lina looked at her palm. She was in a state where she could use teleportation magic just by chanting a spell.
‘But I should use this to get into the mansion.’
It was clear that if she used it now, she would still wander the forest since the teleportation distance was short.
‘Now that my body has changed, I can’t even go out.’
Since using magic had become restricted, sneaking out of the mansion without being seen by others was now an unthinkable act.
Lina leaned against the carriage wall and exhaled a breath as heavy as the night air.
(This is a time separator.)
Eventually, the carriages that arrived in the capital began to stop one by one in front of the police station.
“Let the doctors first check the injured soldiers, and see if anyone among those in the carriages is hurt or ill.”
“Yes!”
As the Duke’s command fell, people began to move busily.
Duke Valige, thinking the situation was somewhat under control, caught his breath and watched the women getting off the carriages.
However, the woman who had incessantly irritated his nerves was nowhere to be found. Unintentionally, he was looking for her when a soldier approached him.
“Duke Valige, the investigation of the abducted women is complete. Shall we send them home in the order they were verified?”
“Well done. Show me the list for a moment.”
Valige carefully examined the list handed over by the soldier, wondering if there was a familiar name.
“Do you know the name of the woman with silver hair?”
“Silver hair? I haven’t seen such a woman, my lord.”
Valige’s eyebrows twitched at the soldier’s words.
“That can’t be, she has silver hair and purple eyes. You really didn’t see her?”
“Yes, I haven’t seen her. Wait a moment. Hey, Collin!”
“A woman with silver hair was said to be here, did you see her?”
“Ah, that woman… huh? Strange. Where did she go? She was definitely sitting over there.”
Collin, a man scratching his head, mumbled in confusion.
“What was the woman’s name?”
“I think it was Jane.”
‘Jane.’
Repeating the name Jane, he searched his memory, but nothing came to mind.
“My lord, was she an important… person?”
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.”
[Touch the gear icon in the bottom right corner of the screen to move to the next chapter if you want.]
