At the top of that tower, a young man with clean skin and beautiful golden hair like melted gold was leaning against the window. He was staring at the whole of San Carlo, as if looking at a distant mountain.
Prince Alfonso.
Without realizing, Lariessa waved her arms vigorously. But the young man with golden hair didn’t even glance her way.
Desperate, Lariessa couldn’t help but shout.
“Prince!”
The wind rustled, blowing the man’s hair in the air. Ah, why does this wind only touch him and not blow towards me? Anxious, Lariessa shouted again.
“Prince Alfonso!”
Whether he heard her call or accidentally looked in this direction when he turned his head to brush his hair, Prince Alfonso turned his upper body precisely in the direction of the open corridor where the Archduchess Lariessa was standing.
Delighted, Lariessa waved her right hand with all her might. A broad smile spread across her doughy, dark face.
‘He definitely saw me. Our eyes met.’
It wasn’t a misunderstanding on Lariessa’s part. Prince Alfonso had definitely seen the Archduchess Lariessa.
However, he turned his upper body with a cold expression that was not imaginable for Prince Alfonso to make, too cold to be cruel. The silhouette of the youth from the tower window disappeared.
“Ah…”
Although she couldn’t see Prince Alfonso’s expression clearly from the distance, Archduchess Lariessa instinctively felt ‘disgust’ beyond ‘contempt’ from him.
‘No way, no way.’
With her shaky legs, Lariessa barely held up her collapsing body.
“Hmm, hmm. Archduchess.”
At that moment, she heard Lady Carla’s voice coming from inside the corridor. She had arrived a little while ago, but since Lariessa was shouting, she hadn’t announced her arrival. Lariessa’s face turned beet red.
“Lady Carla…”
Lariessa clumsily corrected her posture in a daze. Could Lady Carla have seen me screaming?
Lady Carla stated one thing succinctly.
“The Prince has refused the meeting.”
Her legs gave way, and Lariessa collapsed on the spot.
Normally, Lady Carla would have certainly helped Lariessa. She would have made a fuss, lifted her up, kindly asked what happened, and cheered her up.
But Lady Carla entered without even saying hello, and instead, ordinary maids gathered around. They were all trying to lift up Lariessa.
Not for Lariessa, but to correct the Archduchess and send her back to her place.
“Get off! Don’t touch me!”
The maids didn’t understand the Gallic language, but it seemed to be no problem for them. They had no intention of following the Archduchess’s instructions anyway.
The maids couldn’t forcibly drag the Archduchess away, but they surrounded her body to prevent others from seeing this disgrace.
Lariessa couldn’t push them away and sat crying on the floor, powerless and unable to command. She sobbed until she ran out of tears. Despite her struggling, the human barrier firmly did not let her out. She could no longer see Prince Alfonso. Her world had ended.
[This is the time separator]The next day, Princess Lariessa de Balboa left San Carlo as if escaping, her face pale and seemingly imprisoned in her carriage.
“Leave it!! Let it go!! I hate it!”
“Give the sedative prescribed by the royal physician to the princess.”
It was purely thanks to the herbal medicine prescribed by the doctor that she, despite her weak complexion, left obediently without causing a fuss in the carriage.
Palace Carlo gave all due courtesies to the departing delegation of the Gallic kingdom, but completely omitted any official farewell ceremonies for the king or queen.
Moreover, Palace Carlo treated the departing Elko Duke as if he did not exist. It was not the way to treat a prisoner, nor the way to treat a knight of their own country leaving for another.
In all respects, it was an ambiguous sendoff, seemingly hospitable yet not hospitable.
“……”
Ariadne de Mare stood next to Queen Marguerite, looking down at the departing Gallic delegation from the highest tower in the Queen’s residence.
It was the very pinnacle where Prince Alfonso had stood the night before. However, Alfonso was not present. It was only Queen Marguerite, Lady Carla, who was like her shadow, and Ariadne.
“Ariadne de Mare.”
Queen Marguerite called Ariadne with a calm voice.
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“You have achieved your greatest goal.”
The queen said, looking at the departing Princess of Gallic. Ariadne responded calmly, hiding a slight heartache.
“My greatest goal is the safety of Your Highness the Prince and Your Majesty.”
The queen didn’t respond to Ariadne’s words but simply continued in a calm tone.
“Ariadne.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“I would like you to avoid meeting my son for a while.”
Ariadne took a shallow breath. The queen’s intention was something she had fully grasped during her stay in the queen’s palace for the past ten days or so.
She had been well treated deep within the queen’s palace, but she had never, not even by mistake, come across Prince Alfonso, who was also staying in the palace. She, too, tactfully refrained from asking to meet Alfonso. There was no need to anger the landlord who was still catering to her.
Besides, Ariadne needed to stay closely with Queen Marguerite for the next month.
Ariadne replied calmly.
“I understand Your Majesty’s words.”
“It’s not for a very long time.”
Lady Carla interjected, as if to justify herself. She sounded apologetic for excluding Ariadne, who had done her a favor.
“A few months? Just until this matter calms down.”
Ariadne smiled slightly and nodded.
“I fully understand how you must feel. If I were Your Majesty, I would have done the same.”
In fact, she didn’t need to wait for two or three months. In a month at most, Ariadne would be known as the girl who saved the queen’s life. If she couldn’t get permission to contact the prince with that merit, she might as well give up on this life.
“Instead, will you invite me to the palace often?”
Lady Carla looked at Ariadne with a ‘look at this’ expression. Had she become too generous, and now she was trying to climb up?
However, Ariadne wasn’t flustered at all.
“I want to prove to Your Majesty by your side that I am someone who can help His Highness the Prince.”
She looked up at Queen Marguerite and smiled.
“Please consider it as an advance reward if this plan succeeds.”
Queen Marguerite looked at Ariadne indifferently. She looked down at the girl, who was about half a foot shorter than her and had black hair, for a long time without any expression.
When even thickskinned Ariadne began to get a bit nervous, Queen Marguerite answered with a big smile.
“Okay.”
She tapped Ariadne’s forehead with her fingertip.
“I knew you were brazen from the first time I saw you, but you really can’t hide it!”
Ariadne also answered with a bright smile.
“Honesty is my strong point.”
“You ridiculous girl.”
The atmosphere on the tower became cheerful and harmonious in no time.
“I will call you often from now on. I promise.”
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.”
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