There was nothing special.
Past emotions had worn out, and the days passed in slight fatigue,
That’s how the time had continued.
“What are you doing sitting there?”
“……Just sitting.”
Today, she had stopped by in Windsor to visit her mother’s grave.
Charlotte rested her head against the tombstone. The solid gravestone supported her body, and she sat there like that for the day.
Leandro looked down at his granddaughter’s back.
Leaning against the gravestone, she tilted her body to the side, her crimson hair covering her back entirely.
“Are you on your way back from the Demon Cycle ritual?”
“Did you know?”
“It’s the beginning of the Demon Cycle, so it’s time for the temple to hold the ritual.”
Charlotte pulled up her long sleeve.
The red fabric was vivid, and its darkness was more intense. The layered ceremonial garb was not bright.
“People have forgotten, but you remember.”
“The empire has almost forgotten now.”
“Since the times of our ancestors, they’ve wiped away all traces and forgotten.”
Those who had fought and died fighting demons were all covered up.
The honor and dignity of the past ancestors were erased, and their sacrifices were silenced.
Old traditions had thus been forgotten.
“The ritual honors those who fought and died against demons. Even if the past empire has forgotten, it must be different now.”
When the Cycle came, it was customary for the Empress to pray at the temple.
It was an old tradition, now practically obsolete, but when the public sentiment was unstable, people would seek the old ways to regain stability.
“You come without any particular reason and keep watch by the tombstone.”
Leandro narrowed the distance between him and his granddaughter.
His steps on the soil felt heavy, laden with hesitation.
He stopped at a reasonable distance, revealing his caution.
“……You’re careless.”
His granddaughter, who sat unceremoniously on the ground, kept vigil next to her mother’s tombstone.
“As a royal adult, you shouldn’t break palace etiquette and rules. Tell a servant to bring you something to sit on.”
“I have to go soon.”
“How long have you been here?”
Leandro spat out those words and then regretted them; they seemed to tie down the girl’s feet.
“I will visit again soon. I have been away for too long.”
Soon after, the guards who had accompanied her from the palace approached.
Leandro assumed a formal posture. However, his eyes still carried a look of concern.
“Then take care on your way.”
The carriage passed through the central square of the royal city.
It was while passing through the big city after leaving the memorial tower where the soul-consoling ceremony was held in the past.
“Hey, hey! Calm down!”
The coachman struggled to control the horses. Charlotte lifted her arm from the carriage’s windowsill. A guard knocked on the door.
Opening the window with her fingertips, Katarina bowed her body deeply.
“The carriage wheel got stuck in a drainage hole. I apologize.”
“There’s no reason for you to apologize to me.”
Charlotte opened the carriage door and got down.
“We’re running late.”
Tilting her neck, she quietly looked up at the town bell tower. The clock’s second hand indicated the time.
She covered her shoulders with a shawl and concealed her face with a hood. Her crimson hair hid inside.
Even the royal ceremonial dress was hidden.
“It’s getting colder in the evening.”
“When I left, it was just when the sun was rising, I’ve been away for too long.”
“The temple ritual lasted until late in the afternoon, so that’s understandable.”
The Pope had gone to great lengths to keep Hanelle in the ritual for its symbolic importance,
But Hanelle, who was supposed to be part of the ritual, had already disappeared with a bottle of alcohol.
“The Pope did say he had high blood pressure; it wasn’t a lie.”
She muttered those words vaguely.
Katarina’s hand moved to her sword.
“Your Majesty, I sense an ill omen.”
The guards tightened their grips on their swords, ready to draw them at any moment.
“Step back.”
Ah, it was a familiar face. It was a servant who had worked in Tutega, bending his body like a puppet tied to a string.
“……Let him go quietly.”
The translation adheres to the guidelines provided, including keeping the same number of lines as in the original text and translating into past tense. The names and genders of the characters are accurately and consistently translated.
“Ah, Miss. It’s me. I, I, brought you from Tyutega. Have, have you forgotten me?”
The thin voice scraped like gravel being dragged across one’s throat.
“Do you know him?”
“It seems so.”
“What shall we do?”
“It’s the royal palace square. Don’t act rashly.”
“Then, I’ll discreetly take him away.”
The guards sealed the man’s mouth and led him into the alley.
The man had a broken ankle. It seemed as though it had been torn apart by a beast. The flesh was rotting black, and the ankle was twisted.
A vein throbbed in the man’s neck. It was black. Dark blood swirled in his eyes, sapping his vitality.
“What is the meaning of this appearance?”
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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