The assassin swung his knife quickly, but Asha dodged it as if she were passionately dancing.
When she avoided the attack, the assassin was slightly flustered, but soon gritted his teeth and charged more aggressively, as if intending to kill the interferer.
Asha defended herself vigorously, remembering the dagger defense techniques taught by Jackal.
She wished that the dagger he had given her was in her hand at that moment.
It was not easy to block an attack without a weapon.
Eventually, the assassin’s knife grazed her arm, tearing a long strip of flesh.
Asha’s mind spun, and her vision swayed.
Suddenly, the whole world began to appear yellow.
Looking down at her trembling face and arm, she saw deep red blood gushing from the torn wound.
The dagger had been coated with the poison that had been on the wine glass…
Asha’s dress became soaked with blood, layer upon layer, like enchanting rose petals.
The highpitched screams of women, the sound of the knights’ footsteps, coarse shouts, and the chilling sound of drawn swords buzzed in her ears all at once.
Asha grasped her gushing arm, slowly breathing in and out.
Her head was dizzy, and her breath short.
Her ears felt clogged as if trapped in a huge glass bottle, unable to make out any sound properly.
Sweating, she slowly raised her eyes and saw Karaf, looking at her in horror, and Commander Duran, standing in front of him, in her pale and transformed view.
Although the knights quickly subdued the fleeing assassin, Asha did not notice it any longer.
Looking at Karaf, she collapsed on the spot and lost consciousness.
At that moment, Jackal, who was riding towards the capital with Sosa, suddenly felt a sinister energy and sharply raised his head.
The towering imperial palace caught his eye.
Jackal spurred his horse and hurriedly ran, his hair wildly fluttering in the wind.
(This is a time separator.)
How much time had passed?
Suddenly, she heard the chirping of birds and the trickling of water.
Asha squinted at the white light and slowly opened her eyes.
‘Where am I…?’
She was lying in a flower garden she had never seen before.
The garden was endlessly filled with nameless flowers, and it was full of a floral fragrance that could make one lose consciousness.
It was a place so peaceful and beautiful that it could be believed to be a paradise on earth.
Asha dully stood up and walked barefoot in the flower garden.
Then, among all the splendid flowers, she suddenly spotted a small, pitiful red flower.
Asha approached the flower with a faint smile.
“You are a beautiful flower. But you don’t seem to fit in with the surrounding flowers…….”
Asha felt sorry for the flower, as it seemed like herself surrounded by nobles in the imperial palace.
So she carefully touched the petals and asked.
“Shall I take you with me?”
But at the moment she was about to pluck the flower, as if bewitched.
「Do not pluck that flower.」
Startled by a voice coming from somewhere, Asha raised her head.
Far away on the flowerbed, there stood a man with turquoisecolored hair flowing long and loose, clad in a dazzling ivory silk gown.
Strangely, his jadecolored hair gleamed golden only where the sunlight touched.
A man who seemed sacred from his appearance.
He smiled slightly and spoke.
“That flower is one that those who come here for the first time do not pay much attention to. You’ve managed to find it.”
Asha slightly blushed, lowering her eyes and said, “I think each flower has a different beauty. I like these simple flowers more, they’re prettier.”
“Indeed, the butterfly is different.”
Asha, recognizing his true identity, was taken aback.
The man continued to speak, still with a strange smile on his face.
“Actually, all the flowers blooming here are the people living in the Etzheim Empire. If you look closely, there is not a single flower of the same shape.”
All the flowers symbolizing the citizens of the Empire were gathered here.
Asha’s face turned pale at the realization that she had almost carelessly taken a life just now.
“I’m sorry…….”
“It’s okay. Not knowing is natural. But that the flower bloomed in that spot is all fate. A flower cannot choose where it will bloom, but it can choose how it will bloom. Just like humans.”
At these profound words, Asha gulped. It felt like he was pointing directly at her.
“Of course, there must be various conditions supporting a flower to bloom, but sometimes there are flowers that break everyone’s expectations and show astonishing beauty. For example, a flower that blooms high and alone in a crack of marble where no one believed it could.”
At his words, Asha unknowingly smiled, looking around.
Here, there were also flower buds that had not yet bloomed, harmoniously mixed with other flowers.
Then, the man’s voice faintly reached her.
“As the Empire’s butterfly, I hope you continue to support and care for all the flowers without discrimination.”
At his words, Asha suddenly realized something and paused.
Suddenly, the mural painted on the ballroom ceiling came to mind, and Asha quickly turned to look at him, but her eyes widened slightly.
The place was empty as if there had been no one there from the start.
Even the spot where he had been standing did not have a trace of pressed grass.
Asha had always wanted to ask something if she met a god.
Why did he choose her to be a butterfly?
She felt a bit disappointed, but Asha continued to walk aimlessly, careful not to step on the flowers.
However, not much later, a single flower rooted alone on a cliff far on a hill caught her eye.
Unlike the other flowers, it was exceptionally large, a rose bud that had yet to bloom, a black rose.
Contrary to the flower garden where the flowers were huddled together, the area around that flower was filled with barren soil, with only a single dandelion slightly apart from it.
Moreover, the bud was rotting from the bottom without blooming, and was perilously hanging over the cliff, as if about to fall at any moment.
It was a flower that could not put down deep roots in a barren land without any support.
Asha, thinking of Karaf, unknowingly approached it.
But at that moment, thorn bushes sprang up like tentacles from the wasteland under her feet, beginning to protect the rose.
A sudden gust of wind and earthquake made Asha stagger, raising her hands to shield her face.
Male lead is a Love-Obsessed Merman
When he discovers she has gone, he risks everything to pursue her on land, enduring agonizing pain to transform his tail into human legs…
One-line summary: Male lead chases female lead. The male lead’s love is a bit sick, an invincible love brain.
Synopsis
During a voyage at sea, Jiang Yang accidentally captures a merman.
Servant: I heard that mermen are fierce and brutal.
Jiang Yang looks at the merman obediently rubbing her palm like a puppy: “You call this fierce and brutal?”
Servant: I heard that mermen have no human nature.
Jiang Yang looks at the merman with wet puppy eyes, obsessively calling her ‘A Yang’ like a childish infant: “You call this having no human nature?”
With great difficulty, she releases the merman back into the sea and returns to shore.
Who would have thought that in less than half a month, the merman, who should have been freely wandering in the South China Sea, would shed his scales, endure the pain of losing his tail, transform into human legs, and come ashore to find her?
He kneels at her feet, rubbing her palm, with merman tears rolling down: “A Yang, don’t abandon me.”
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