Focusing solely on Asha’s scent, he quickly came across the knights as he ran.
A robust horse started to dash excitedly from the end of the corridor, causing them to be greatly bewildered.
Durand also spotted the scene and stepped forward, his eyes widening.
He tried to forcibly stop the horse.
“Surround it in formation!”
The surrounding knights attempted to capture it with ropes, forming a shape.
In the end, Wild horse Jackal was blocked by them before even reaching Asha.
The horse was so excited and rebellious that the knights broke into a cold sweat while tying it up tightly with ropes.
It seemed as if they might all be dragged away by the horse.
But then it happened.
“……Shepi!”
Startled by the noise, Asha ran out of the room.
Upon seeing her, Jackal let out a whinny and furiously flailed its front hooves. Somehow, the sound seemed sorrowful.
Durand suddenly saw a resemblance in the horse’s behavior.
It reminded him of the last moment when the leader of Ricarion reached out and called Asha’s name.
He raised a hand and ordered the knights.
“Let me meet with it for a moment.”
“But……! If we let go now, Lady Vanessa might get hurt!”
“It’ll be fine, let it go.”
Durand spoke so calmly that, though swallowing hard, the knights loosened their grip on the ropes.
As soon as Jackal felt the restraints lifted, it charged straight toward her.
Even though the strong horse charged with ferocious momentum, Asha was not afraid and simply spread her arms to wait.
Amazingly, the horse gradually slowed down, and when it reached her, it quietly nestled in her arms, closing its eyes with a purring sound.
All the knights watching widened their eyes.
Asha tightly embraced Shepi’s face to her chest and whispered sadly,
“Shepi, did you come to see me? Because I’m trapped in the palace?”
“……Whinny.”
A cry mixed with a sob came from its nostrils.
“How could you come find me like this? It’s dangerous… If you cause trouble in the imperial palace, who knows what His Majesty will do to you.”
Jackal shook its head within her embrace. That tyrant could be beaten to a pulp for all it cared.
To be honest, it wanted to break that guy’s ribs right then and there. Its feelings were as intense as a furnace.
But now was the time to hold back.
Though it knew it must restrain itself, its heart became more and more impatient.
She was right in front of its eyes, and the pain in its chest grew because it couldn’t reveal its true identity.
Asha spent a long time stroking its smooth fur, calming the excited horse.
With her warm touch, Jackal also gradually calmed its rough breathing and regained its senses.
The news reached the ears of Imperial Black Rose, Tyrant Karaf.
Working in his office, he chuckled incredulously after hearing the report,
“That horse shares its master’s hobby of escaping rooms, does it…….”
But even as he spoke, his expression was not pleasant.
He knew well that the horse was Asha’s most cherished possession in the imperial palace, and the only being that made her feel free there.
It felt as though he had become the villain, and it didn’t make him feel good.
Inside, there was a wicked impulse to destroy her belongings and force her to focus solely on him, and a fear that doing so would earn her eternal hatred, both balancing on a thin line.
After that day, even Jackal was kept under the knights’ watch and couldn’t leave its room.
With Asha’s security tightened in anticipation of the opening ceremony, the opportunity to reveal its true identity was now lost.
If it had actually tried to run away with Asha from the imperial palace all by itself as originally planned, it would have failed with 100 percent certainty.
The last remaining method was a frontal assault on the day of the opening ceremony.
As it worried about Asha, the door opened, and a redhaired female servant stealthily entered.
Looking up, it was the servant who had come with Asha before.
“Shepi, hello!”
Sonya greeted brightly, then her face turned glum as she spoke.
“Lady Vanessa asked how Shepi is doing and wanted to know. Ah, she also said to give you this.”
Sonya laid down a basket filled with all kinds of fruit, sorted by type.
“Shepi doesn’t like hay much, so she said to send mainly fresh fruit. Right, there’s also cube sugar here. She said Shepi likes sweet things, but candy was hard to find, so I brought cube sugar instead.”
At that, Jackal’s eyelids drooped.
When they had a short tea time in the garden, even as she conversed with the Emperor, she had been attentively watching what she was eagerly eating.
She was a woman so considerate, Asha was.
Even in confinement, she was worried enough to send a basket of fruit…
Seeing Shepi’s eyes moisten, Sonya placed a hand on her nose and gently stroked her.
“Don’t worry. Lady Vanessa is well. Shepi understands human speech, she said to make sure to tell you not to worry.”
Jackal responded with a ‘puff’ and listlessly laid his face on the ground.
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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