Everyone had blended into the banquet hall.
Outside, a few guards silently died.
And Pyotr was there too.
(This is a time separator.)
Pyotr stiffened his face in confusion.
The child, so changed, was unfamiliar. The child had already become someone else.
Instinct tells him.
To put that child back.
Whether forcibly bowed down or imprisoned.
“I, I have to find that child again.”
Pyotr’s murmur lingered in the air.
(This is a time separator.)
“Is Charlotte okay?”
Aster, with a pale face, fumbled with her lips.
Charlotte had dressed in her outing clothes and put on a beret.
She was going straight out today as she had an errand.
“You’re diligent from the morning.”
Aster scolded Charlotte, saying, “You’re like a stubborn one!”
Charlotte hurriedly finished preparing to leave.
“What do you mean?”
“I think you had too much to drink, so I made some honey water…”
“Uncle, how old am I? Don’t worry.”
“How old are you? Shar, do you remember being carried home yesterday?”
“Carried home? Stop joking. I showered and went to bed properly.”
She felt fresh since waking up in the morning and stretching in bed.
Her body smelled of soap after finishing her bath.
She changed her pajamas neatly.
“Drink the honey water first.”
Charlotte neatly drank the honey water Aster prepared.
“You have a stomach like Cozette.”
“My mother only liked wine. She almost threw up any other liquor.”
“Ah, Cozette… You taught your daughter something very good.”
Her mother used to ask why she drank poison, but she understood when she grew older.
When the bitterness threw up the stomach, the frustrating stomach felt somewhat open and comfortable.
Everything that was frustrating felt meaningless at that moment.
“Where are you going so early in the morning?”
“Yes, I’m going somewhere with His Highness.”
Aster narrowed her eyes slightly.
“As soon as you wake up?”
“Yes?”
“No, no. Have a good trip. Send a message to His Highness the Crown Prince. You fell asleep like that, and His Highness carried you to the carriage.”
Aster left her seat with the honey water, muttering, this isn’t it.
(This is a time separator.)
“Has the young lady arrived?”
Roskella greeted Charlotte. He put down his wine glass and looked down at Benjamin across from him.
“Your Highness, even if you’re busy, you should see your fiancée. The young lady is here.”
“She’s here?”
Benjamin closed the documents and shooed her away with his eyes.
Roskella was wiping a glass with a dry cloth across from him,
And Benjamin quickly organized the papers on the Ireland table.
The Crown Prince’s engagement ceremony had just ended, and the Crown Prince’s information officers were also busy.
“Would the young lady like something to drink?”
“I’m leaving soon, so I’m fine.”
Roskella put down the dry rag she was using to wipe the glass cup.
“Miss, who has a kind heart, has made a big decision. Is this engagement alright?”
Benjamin Visennov looked up from organizing his papers.
“What do you mean?”
“His Highness the Prince is keeping quiet.”
Benjamin shot a look as if to say, say that again if you dare.
“If Miss has been threatened, please shake a carrot. Or, if it’s burdensome because His Highness is present, you can also tap the wine glass twice with a spoon. Then I will…”
“Shut up.”
“Your Highness is only cold to me.”
Roskella hung a glass cup upside down in the cabinet, pretending not to know.
Roskella tidied the table neatly and looked at Charlotte, her eyes seeming to say, ‘How did Miss end up with someone like that bandit?’
“Congratulations on your engagement.”
Despite her bewildered expression, Roskella cheerfully offered her congratulations.
“So you’re going to the outskirts of the city today?”
“Yeah. Are you done with your busy work, Benjamin?”
“If we want to return before sunset, we should leave now.”
Benjamin put down the papers he was looking at and handed them to Roskella.
Roskella took the papers and hid them behind the table, then went through a hidden side door.
“Follow me.”
Charlotte put on a robe and came outside.
Some time had passed since the engagement ceremony.
“Is there an escort?”
“The family at my fiancé’s home is very worried.”
They were temporarily assigned an escort.
The temporary escort knight was a silent woman with her brown long hair tied tightly.
‘Katarina.’
Katarina seemed to be of a reticent nature and spoke little.
Charlotte put on a beret and climbed into the carriage.
“Where are you going?”
“I have to visit the pharmacy.”
“A pharmacy? Are you sick? You could tell the family doctor…”
“It has to be him.”
“The outskirts are not safe in the city, is that alright?”
“I’ve visited this place frequently before.”
The destination of the carriage was a deserted alleyway.
“Here?”
Benjamin lightly tapped the worn fence of a shabby house.
He seemed to be confirming if this was the correct destination.
It was Aaron’s pharmacy.
There was no hope left for Mother.
‘Why are you crying alone?’
Aaron appeared in front of Charlotte.
She wanted to do something.
As her mother’s illness worsened, the medicine became more toxic.
She was desperate. She wanted to do something, she had to.
“It’s too late.”
What should she say as her first greeting?
“I should have visited sooner to pay my respects, but I suddenly stopped coming.”
It only came to mind after death. It had been decades.
Charlotte stopped in front of the old building and looked up.
She could feel how desperate she had been.
“Who are you? Uh…?”
“It’s been a while. Aaron.”
Aaron hesitated at Charlotte’s first greeting.
“Did you come to make medicine?”
“Not today.”
“Then why did you come here?”
I forgot to thank you for over a dozen years.
I only thought of you after I got married and became stiff and immobile.
“Mother has passed away.”
Aaron held his breath.
“She left peacefully in the end. We received a lot of help from the pharmacy, and I owe a lot to Aaron. Thank you for all these years.”
Charlotte ended her speech bluntly.
“Charl.”
Benjamin looked closely at Charlotte.
His gaze followed her. She felt his heavy gaze land on her shoulder.
Benjamin placed his hand on her shoulder.
“Let’s go inside for now.”
He locked eyes with Aaron.
“It doesn’t seem like a conversation to have outside.”
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
