Heis narrowed his eyes.
“What’s going on here?”
Kiryian leaped down from the window frame and approached briskly.
“You should know.”
Heis stiffened at Kiryian’s insolence.
“Reina, where is she?”
Heis tried to turn his stubborn head. However, his mind was in disarray, making it difficult to focus.
Yet, Esmeralda had explicitly instructed him not to tell anyone about the Duke and Reina.
“I can’t say.”
Heis stepped back, uttering each word with difficulty.
However, a chilling sensation of a blade touched his neck. The intimidating feeling made him unable to move.
“Because I’m impatient.”
Even facing imminent death, Heis couldn’t gather his thoughts. It was a strange sensation. He wanted to speak, but his lips wouldn’t part.
As if someone was manipulating him. It was confusing whether what he wanted to say was right.
“I hope neither of us causes trouble for each other, whether you get stabbed first or I’m taken for regicide.”
“I can’t… say… ugh.”
Dizziness engulfed him. The chilly wind made a small cut on his skin, letting blood appear.
Kiryian squinted.
“Did Reina say something horrible about me? Something so terrible that she can’t disclose her location even at the cost of her life?”
Heis kept quiet, letting Kiryian misunderstand. It was better than wracking his brain over whether it was right to say.
He heard the bustling sounds of attendants outside, and Heis felt a bit relieved. The sun had completely risen, and soon, the attendants would come to announce the coughing hour.
Even if he was the Sage of Istira, explaining why he was boldly in the Crown Prince’s room without permission would not be easy.
Kiryian seemed to sense it was time to leave.
Heis spoke with a shallow cough-like sound, “Just give up now.”
At that moment, there was a sound of knocking on the door.
“Crown Prince, it’s time for the coughing ceremony.”
Heis, relieved, felt his throat constrict terrifyingly.
“Fine.”
Kiryian, gripping Heis’s throat, whispered lowly. Heis groaned as Kiryian mercilessly crushed the wounds with his strong grip.
“Let’s see how long you can keep it a secret.”
“Crown Prince, I’m coming in.”
Worried attendants, unable to get an answer, slightly opened the door. As Heis was called, Kiryian disappeared like an illusion.
Heis lost his balance and collapsed to the floor as Kiryian departed.
“Crown Prince!”
When the attendant discovered Heis collapsing on the floor and struggling to breathe, he hurriedly ran over.
“Are you okay?”
Checking the deeply drawn wound beneath the chin, the attendant’s body trembled.
“Quickly, let’s get you to the physician!”
“It’s fine. Don’t make a fuss.”
Heis rebuffed the overly concerned attendant. Even without the attendant’s fuss, his head wasn’t working well, and with the attendant’s fuss, it became even more difficult to think.
Although it seemed like the right choice not to tell anyone, whether to honor Esmeralda’s command or Reyna’s plea to keep it hidden from Kiryian…
“Ugh.”
He felt an instinctive sense of danger regarding Reyna.
It was challenging to grasp why that was important with his muddled mind, but Heis, with the last of his strength, grabbed the attendant.
“Tell the steward to keep the events of last night absolutely secret.”
It was a reckless gamble. It was a gamble to walk, thinking that maybe the shadow faintly visible outside might be listening, even if he didn’t resist Esmeralda’s command.
“Yesterday, Hans drove my carriage. Let him know.”
The shadow disappeared in an instant.
“What, what is it!”
Mabu Hans was in a state of shock.
He had barely managed to arrive in his room after driving the Crown Prince’s carriage all night. When he woke up, his limbs were tied to the bed, and in the corner, the attendant, also bound, was writhing.
“You’re awake.”
“W-who are you!”
No matter how much he frowned, he couldn’t confirm the face of the figure approaching in the darkness.
A robust build, a chilly voice, and glimpses of a twisted mouth were visible. Despite not seeing his face, Hans felt an oppressive aura and involuntarily trembled.
“You don’t need to know that. Where did the Crown Prince go last night?”
From the corner, the attendant violently shook his head. Hans instinctively understood. If he revealed it, he would be killed.
Hans swallowed hard.
“I-I don’t know. It wasn’t me who drove the carriage yesterday.”
Slurp.
“Hiiik! I’ll talk, I’ll talk! Just spare me!”
There was no need to put a knife to Mabu’s throat. As Kiryian withdrew his knife, Hans, like a wriggling worm, began pouring out information.
“Marquess Madeline’s place and Venice!”
“Venice?”
“The house of Madeline in the back alley of Venice, at 108th street!”
Kiryian raised an eyebrow.
“Madeline’s house? A bakery?”
Certainly, Reyna liked bread. Although she seemed to enjoy eating it more than baking, it wouldn’t be surprising if she had opened a bakery.
“Oh, no. It’s the headquarters of a violent gang called Madeline.”
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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