The horse gathered its wits and stiffly stepped backward.
At that humanlike appearance, Asha suddenly burst into laughter.
“You’re the one?”
Asha unhesitatingly approached the horse and gently stroked its snout.
The horse stood frozen, occasionally glancing at her, accepting her touch.
“Right, good.”
Asha, while patting its mane, was slightly startled and asked,
“Did you get wet? If you don’t dry properly in this winter, you’ll catch a cold.”
Asha quickly brought a large towel and dried the moisture on the horse’s head.
With that delicate motion, Jackal, the wild horse, bowed his head inside the towel and unknowingly blushed.
He felt it was indeed fortunate that he had gray fur.
Asha tied the towel under its chin cutely, like a red hat, and said with a smile,
“Thank you for bringing me here.”
As the horse peeped out from under the towel, Asha spoke with a sentimental look on her face,
“It was the first time in my life that someone came to rescue me. People only ever came to capture or kill me……”
Asha momentarily wore a bitter expression, then forced a smile and asked,
“Did you come to find your master?”
“……Snort.”
The horse answered with a snort.
“But what to do……? I left in anger earlier. But if we wait, he will return eventually. Stay with me until then.”
Asha led the horse onto the carpet and carefully patted its stiff back from stress.
Having been alone in the palace for so long, she always wished for someone to pamper like this.
Jackal lay obediently on the carpet, glancing up at her, wondering if he had looked that angry earlier.
But Asha, thinking the horse was pondering, sighed and said,
“I must have earned your master’s hatred. Maybe we won’t ever meet again.”
At those words, the horse involuntarily shook its head.
Asha laughed and asked,
“You say no?”
“Snort.”
“Thank you. You’re all I have.”
Asha looked around and reached out a bowl of water.
“I want to give you something, but it’s not my house, so I have nothing to offer. Drink this water while waiting for the master to return, okay?”
The horse hesitated for a moment but then slowly lapped the water.
Whether it was sweating from bathing, or because it was from Asha, the water tasted sweet.
Asha, watching him, murmured with a faint smile,
“I wish to be reborn as a horse, not a butterfly, next life……”
The horse looked puzzled, and Asha faintly murmured,
“Because as a horse, I could go anywhere freely. I had no escape but death……”
At that, Jackal’s blue eyes also grew melancholy.
Asha now lay beside the horse, gently stroking its snout, and said,
“I may not be your master, but I wish you would be by my side like this sometimes. I feel like you understand and listen to me.”
The horse answered by briefly closing its eyes.
“Today, I blurted out something to your master that I couldn’t dare say. I must face him and apologize later. In this life, I must… keep that man from being caught by the emperor and killed……”
Asha murmured like that and, lulled by the alcohol, drifted into sleep.
Now, only her gentle breathing filled the room.
Once she was sound asleep, a humanshaped shadow suddenly arose from the fireplace.
Jackal carefully lifted the sleeping Asha from the carpet and took her to his bed.
Asha was so drunk and deep in sleep that she didn’t wake at the movement.
He stood by the bedside, gazing down at Asha with a complex expression for a long while.
And then, she swiftly raised a hand to gently brush her hair behind her ears, passing it over.
But that was the moment.
“Captain, are you here by any chance? I heard you were in the bathhouse, but you’re not there……”
The lieutenant opened the door and entered, only to discover Jackal standing naked in front of Asha, his eyes widening.
The beastlike body with vividly divided muscles in the back, and underneath that, the contoured bronze buttocks stuck in his eyes.
Jackal casually looked at the door and asked in a low voice.
“……They’re not even beasts, so why are there so many people in our organization who don’t know how to knock?”
“Ah, I apologize…… Have a good time then……”
As the lieutenant carefully tried to close the door, Jackal walked up to the door, grabbed the handle, and said.
“What good time? I have something to say to you. Spend tonight with me.”
“……Yes?”
The lieutenant’s eyes widened.
Jackal, realizing that his words sounded strange again, cursed “Damn……” and angrily brushed his hair aside.
The lieutenant, with an embarrassed face, looked away and said.
“Please put on some clothes first.”
“……Wait a moment.”
Jackal casually draped the clothes hanging on the coat rack over his body and then went outside with him.
Although the cold night wind swept through his hair, he wasn’t that cold because Asha had meticulously dried his wet hair.
The lieutenant hesitated and then carefully asked.
“Why were you naked……?”
Jackal glanced at him and replied nonchalantly.
“Why. Can’t I be naked in my own house?”
The lieutenant rolled his eyes and answered.
Male lead is a Destined Young Husband (Female-dominant)
One-sentence summary: Wife-master, listen to my explanation!
Li Ruantang, a young lady from a prestigious family, stumbled and fell. When she woke up, she saw a noble and beautiful young man sitting by her bedside, wiping away tears.
The young master had slightly reddened eyes, and his every move exuded charm.
The sight made Li Ruantang’s eyes hot and her heart flutter. After all, she had made a bet with the young master Meng from the neighboring family. If she couldn’t marry a husband before the end of the year, she would have to admit defeat and give up the jade she had worked so hard to obtain.
Outside the window, the flowers were in full bloom.
Rather than losing the bet, the jade, and her face, Li Ruantang calculated that it would be better to seek marriage with the young master in front of her, killing three birds with one stone.
…
Meng Jun never thought that an accident during a spring outing would lead to them rolling down a cliff and into a river, yet still survive.
Now they were trapped in an unknown village, and Meng Jun had overheard that the family who had rescued them had their own intentions.
After all, it was Li Ruantang who had lost her mind and sought marriage first. He was only trying to protect himself!
Glancing at Li Ruantang, who was listing her own merits, the young husband’s voice softened, and he blushed as he lied, “W-wife-master, Wife-master, don’t you remember me?”
The young husband’s voice was clear and handsome, coaxing Li Ruantang’s heart to be soft and sweet, and she spared no effort to protect him.
It wasn’t until they returned to the capital that Li Ruantang suddenly remembered.
When they had fallen off the cliff, in order not to implicate Wei Yunruo, whom he secretly admired, the young husband had instead pulled her, who was slightly farther away, down the cliff with him…
Short summary by Yuushi L: Initially, the male lead (ML) liked another girl, while the female lead (FL) liked the ML. Both fell off a cliff. The FL temporarily lost her memory, and the ML, fearing others might take advantage of him, claimed FL was his wife while they were staying in a village. Later, when they returned home, the FL regained her memories and remembered that the ML liked someone else, so she kept her distance from him. However, during their time living together in the countryside, the ML’s view of the FL had completely changed. From this point, his pursuit of the FL begins.
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