At His’s sudden appearance, I just stood there silently. As I said nothing, His soon chuckled.
“I’m quite duplicitous. I was the one who first offered a contract engagement.”
“No, I accepted it because I liked it, too.”
His blushed slightly and gripped my hand.
“But I feel like I’m deceiving Reina.”
I couldn’t say anything as a complex emotion entwined and floated above His’s face saying that.
His was still worried after finishing the party, and my mind became more complicated when I arrived at the dorm room.
Kirian was nowhere to be seen.
“He must have gotten tired of running away.”
I stretched out across the bed. Now that Kirian was gone, there was nothing to hinder me from rolling left or right.
“It’s very comfortable and nice.”
But strangely, I couldn’t fall asleep for a long time.
(This is a time separator.)
“I’ve been waiting.”
As Kirian entered the ducal mansion, a cold voice rang out.
As expected, his mother appeared in the hallway, holding a practice wooden sword.
“I’m back, Mother.”
The duchess, with a chillinducing cold smile, responded to Kirian’s greeting, which was not only curt but also dry.
“That’s right. It’s been a long time, son.”
The duchess, who banged the practice sword a few times, came a step closer.
“I must at least give you a chance to explain.”
The wooden sword fell again with a snap.
“Where have you been, and what have you been doing all this time?”
“I apologize for worrying you.”
Instead of confessing his wrongdoings, Kirian ambiguously dodged the question.
“You won’t tell me, will you?”
Kirian just stood still without answering.
He was indeed a stubborn son.
When he was young, he followed Reina around like gum, but from a certain moment, he became strangely cold towards his sister. She should have noticed then.
That he would grow up to be a person with such a lacking character that he wouldn’t even care about his only sister’s engagement ceremony.
Of course, there had never been a lack of doubts about the son’s inherent disposition since he had made several children cry in his youth, but to grow up into such a heartless fellow even towards his family.
“Don’t resent your mother.”
The Duchess, holding a practice sword, took her stance and spoke.
“It’s all for your sake.”
Precisely, for a ruined disposition.
Internally admitting his own fault, Kirian just stood silently.
“Hayah!”
With the same skill that swept the battlefield in her heyday, the Duchess’s wooden sword fell, drawing a sharp trajectory. Immediately, a loud sound of breaking resonated, and even the pictures hanging on the wall shook without mercy.
“What?”
The Duchess, who had delivered a perfect blow, squinted her eyes. There was definitely a sense of impact. It was absent.
Standing blankly, Kirian clenched his stomach, pretending to endure the pain belatedly as the Duchess glanced at him.
“That’s enough. Stop this strange act.”
The Duchess, who wouldn’t be fooled by such poor acting, looked at Kirian with a troubled face. Kirian slowly lowered his hand, embracing his stomach, and returned to attention.
“You’ve become more resilient.”
The Duchess poked Kirian a few times with her wooden sword, slightly annoyed.
“I apologize.”
With a calm voice, unlike someone who had just received a crushing blow, Kirian repeated his formal apology.
“Sigh. I thought you’d become more rigid, so I tried to hit a vital point, but it’s just so disappointing.”
The Duchess poked Kirian’s stomach one more time. The wooden sword cracked, and it broke into several pieces.
“I apologize.”
Kirian bowed his head again, making a short bow. Repeating the same words with a still unapologetic face, the Duchess sighed, pressing her throbbing head.
“Sigh.”
When he was young and soft, it was about firmly correcting his habits. If it’s selfinflicted, it’s selfinflicted.
Falling for his chubby, angelic face and overlooking Kirian’s villainous actions several times was the root of the problem.
Still, she thought there was hope for her son by seeing how he treated Reina. But the sense of loss she felt when that last hope disappeared like a mirage.
Expecting her son, who was particularly hard on others, to live, interacting and frying with others like ordinary people, seemed something she had to give up now.
“What’s the use of disciplining a grownup son.”
While calming her distressed heart, the Duchess gestured for the servants to clean up the fragments of the sword. The servants began to pick up the wooden pieces with a calm urgency, showing no signs of surprise.
“So, what’s the reason for suddenly returning home?”
The Duchess, folding her arms, began to question Kirian.
It wasn’t like her son, who wouldn’t catch a cold even if he used a snowbank as a bed, to come home because he was uncomfortable outside.
The Duchess dissected her son’s face, trying to figure out what he was up to.
Kirian’s expression, which had been a bit sullen throughout, darkened for a moment, and a light flashed and disappeared in his red eyes.
“I want to enter the Academy.”
To not lose his sister.
“I will go to the Academy.”
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
