It was a situation worthy of suspicion. As soon as he left, soldiers were mobilized with perfect timing.
One could interpret it negatively if one wished—
“Have you seen something in a past life?”
Belred, who had expected her to think poorly of him, was saying something entirely different.
Saint Beril blinked as Belred spoke.
“Someone like you, who should know that moving soldiers carelessly leads to suspicion, and who has always been so cautious in everything.”
From the beginning, you were the one who questioned the extent of the landlady’s authority in this slightly different land.
“I thought there must be a reason for doing something noticeable. But Yubarla…”
A brief discomfort flashed across his face, then vanished. Saint Beril vaguely recognized that the discomfort was not aimed at her but somewhere else.
“—Considering it was about your past life, I thought you might have seen something then.”
At his words, Saint Beril nodded.
“…Yes.”
He seemed to be thinking from her perspective more than doubting her.
It felt odd.
No one she had known had ever done that.
Even when they were the ones most obliged to doubt her.
“Did you know from your past life that demons enjoy gambling?”
There was almost no suspicion on the face that asked.
“Yes.”
Saint Beril spoke cautiously. When Belred first entered the room, he had a slightly sharp vibe, but it had softened.
…Just like that night.
“You could have commanded with just your name alone.”
It seemed like he was saying it wouldn’t have been difficult for her to simply order Nabrus to bring her the drink without making a wager.
Belred, saying so, looked peaceful. As if there wasn’t a hint of anger.
“…Maybe, but if I’m going to stay here, I thought they should have a strong impression of me.”
So Saint Beril cautiously, but definitively, expressed her thoughts.
“To remain here…”
Belred mulled over her words. Then he looked back at her.
“That’s what you want now.”
Your desire.
Saint Beril did not deny it. Her feelings were only confused.
Whether she was doing this to escape from the temple where she could be ‘disposed of’ and killed at any moment, or whether she truly liked it here.
As she thought, Belred moved a little closer.
“…!”
Without realizing it, she backed away, and he followed.
—Thump.
Losing her balance, her hand found the soft bed for support. Right next to her hand, Belred’s hand found its place.
Feeling her body lean towards his arm, Beril straightened herself.
“It seems you’re thinking logically.”
Thinking too much isn’t good. He squinted his eyes and smiled.
“Do you think about why you want that?”
It was the correct answer. Beril nodded her head after a moment of silence.
Veled leaned in a little closer to her, close enough to almost touch.
“A reason is something needed to justify or persuade desire.”
His low voice resonated.
“But since it’s natural for you to have a desire, you don’t need to provide me with a valid reason.”
Beril slightly parted her lips at his words. Was I trying to find justification?
Yes…, I was. I was trying to find the ‘why’ I wanted to stay here.
Veled seemed to say there was no need to do so.
It was, after all, different from the temple.
“…Understood.”
However, far from being uncomfortable, it felt as if a thin layer that had been covering me was peeled away.
Refreshing and light-hearted.
Beril exhaled a short breath and said,
“I’m sorry for moving the military first for Nabarus. I judged it’s the opportune time to take the Masinju from Yubar’s territory while he’s away.”
Hoping for no misunderstandings, Beril explained.
“If Veled had been here, we would have discussed the expedition.”
“You don’t have to apologize; I’m not offended.”
Veled gently folded her trembling arm due to the tension.
And with his other arm, he carefully laid her down on the bed.
Her emerald green hair beautifully cascaded down onto the bed.
“Especially, considering that you made such a bet to stay and adapt here…”
Veled squinted his eyes.
He realized that this dizzying sensation coming deep from within his mind was familiar yet foreign to him.
An emotion he easily acquired throughout his long life, but never in this magnitude.
It was satisfaction.
The fact that she wanted to stay here, that she even made efforts to do so, gave him an overwhelming sense of satisfaction.
It was strange. His lips twisted.
“Do you want to stay here?”
You could stay without doing any of that. I can make it so.
It’s irritating that you try to stand on your own as if you don’t need me, but when I think of you staying here.
It’s unbearably satisfying.
He exhaled a short breath and said,
“You can stay here as much as you want.”
Beril’s eyes widened. Her voice, surprisingly soft even to her, seemed to catch her off guard.
Veled’s lips lightly descended onto her slightly parted, lovely lips.
The moment their breaths mixed, Beril realized that his breathing had also quickened, becoming somewhat coarse.
As if excited or… tense. She was feeling the same.
“…!”
The arm Veled had around her waist tightened its hold a bit more.
Her head tilted slightly by his other hand, he delved deeper.
It was like some night in the past. No, even more so, he was softly approaching her.
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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