Late night after dinner.
In an open space near the Marquis’s mansion, four people gathered secretly. Lishi, her two maids, and Mir.
They stood in a circle, their hoods pulled low, facing each other.
Mir was the first to speak.
“With all of us gathered like this, it feels like we’re planning a romantic escape.”
“As if, Mir. It’s not just the two of us here.”
“It’s not uncommon for a lady’s maids to accompany her on a journey of love.”
Lishi looked at Krishna, asking if it was true. Krishna shook her head as if she hadn’t heard the words.
“Enough of that, Mir. As I mentioned in the letter earlier, I’m going to try the method of dying and coming back to life today.”
“Hmm. I don’t think it’s a good idea, Lishi.”
Mir tapped the ground with her staff.
“First of all, there’s no need for the lady to learn magic. I don’t know if you’re aware, but Kei’s shadows are strong enough to be jealous. They will protect Lishi.”
“I want to protect my own body.”
Feeling mana wasn’t the real reason, but Lishi couldn’t be completely honest with Mir.
“And… feeling mana isn’t that difficult.”
While saying that, Mir repeated the explanations Lishi had heard from Eldi, Zen, and Erwel.
She couldn’t do it with that method, but she was going to try this.
“Well, I could feel it from birth, so I only know the theory, but anyway. When I was an academy student, there was only one guy among my peers who couldn’t feel mana until the end. That guy was famous for being a fool. Since the lady is intelligent, if she studies formally, she’ll quickly learn to feel mana.”
‘No, I’m the fool. If I went to the academy, I would have been the fool who couldn’t feel mana until the end. I would have become famous for being a fool.’
Swallowing those words, Lishi said.
“I want to feel mana right now. It’s not like I’m really going to die, just until right before that. Since the Marquis can use magic, if it seems dangerous, he can save me and take appropriate measures.”
“Oh, dear.”
Mir exaggeratedly shook her head like a theatrical actor.
“To trust me this much. How do you know I can’t refuse when you ask with such beautiful eyes?”
“…Mir?”
“Alright, Lishi. Is it because you want to surprise Kei when he returns? If that’s the case, I’ll help. I also like to see that guy surprised. He never seems to be surprised at all.”
Kei is always surprised when he sees Mir, but Mir seemed unaware of that.
Anyway, they gained the help of Mir, a magician.
Lishi headed straight for the lake without hesitation.
The method Erwel told her about ‘dying and coming back to life’ was like this.
Mana is easier to feel underwater, but you have to dive until you feel it.
Hold your breath, feel the flow of water, and at the moment it feels like your breath will stop, your senses become acute, time seems to slow down, and you can feel mana, they say.
Since there have been situations where people using this method have had their breath cut off and died, it has been forbidden in the magic tower.
After arriving at the lake, Mir practiced with Lishi several times.
Lishi, after confirming how long she could endure by dipping her face in the lake dozens of times, was finally able to enter the water.
“Lishi, I’ll say it again, it’s two minutes. I’ll pull you out exactly two minutes later. But if you absolutely can’t bear it, you have to give up in the middle.”
“Got it.”
“Iris, think again. It might be better to give up on this method…”
Krishna said with a worried expression.
Lishi just smiled and confidently walked into the depths of the lake.
After reaching a point where the water reached chest height, Lishi bowed her head and dived deep into the water.
Before entering, she had tied a large stone to her leg and waist.
Her body sank downward without floating up.
At first, she could hold her breath. She tried to feel the flow of mana in the water as she had learned from everyone.
As time passed, her lungs screamed for air, her heart pounded, and her lungs ached as if they were about to burst. When she opened her mouth, cold water rushed in. The air that had remained in her lungs burst out.
Although she had been warned that this situation might occur, it was still terrifying.
I’m going to die!
Panicking, she struggled, but her stone-bound body did not rise.
In the cold water dominating her entire body, amidst the pain, Lishi exhaled her last breath.
+++
It was darkness.
Darkness everywhere she looked.
Lishi knew where this was.
A space where she couldn’t tell if she was standing or lying down.
In that emptiness, Lishi stared blankly at the darkness. She didn’t expect to come back here again. No, even if she were to return someday, she thought it would be a very distant future.
“Am I dead? Really? That foolishly?”
Unlike the last time she came here, images did not flow.
There was only darkness.
“No, it can’t be. I can’t be dead. I was told I would come back to life using the ‘dying and coming back to life’ method. Everyone will rescue me soon, and Mir will treat me. People who fall into the water can be saved if rescued quickly.”
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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