“I’m sorry, but you’re late. Countess Creighton has been gone for a while.”
“……”
“You could at least pretend to be disappointed.”
“……”
“Or have you already seen?”
Lu Zen squinted his left eye slightly.
“You already know, don’t you?”
“I would rather hear it directly from your mouth. Nothing looks as ridiculous as the face of a man in love.”
Even intentional provocation did not change his expression at all.
Lu Zen pouted and leaned on his chair.
As long as you were in the palace, no one could escape my eyes and ears. I already knew that Calix had arrived before Count and Countess Creighton left.
“You should have shown up early. If so, it would have been more interesting to see Bake’s face. He always acts like a dog that found a kitten when he sees you.”
“……”
“Well, his appearance is like a kitten. Isn’t it? Honestly, you’re not a cat type either. A dog, no, not even that. To compare with you, you need to bring a tiger.”
Calix’s eyebrows subtly lifted at Lu Zen, who tried to roar with his hands like a claw.
“If you’re going to keep making irrelevant conversation, I’ll take my leave.”
“You can leave if you’re not curious about today’s incident.”
Lu Zen laughed playfully.
It was about Riviana, no one else. Calix was bound to look back.
Counting one, two, three internally, expecting when Calix will react, something felt off. Contrary to Lu Zen’s expectations, Calix walked without any hesitation, just opened the door.
It couldn’t be. It must be bluffing.
Lu Zen’s eyes narrowed.
“……Huh?”
Lu Zen, as if surprised, quickly got up while staring at the door that was closed with a thud.
“Did he really leave? Really?”
Lu Zen blinked at the door blankly. Despite believing that he would return, Calix did not return until the end.
Only then did Lu Zen admit that he really left and hurriedly pulled the line. Calix might be allowed to leave easily, but not him.
“Are we really doing this?”
“I’m not the one who’s regretful.”
“I wish you would remember that I’m the emperor sometimes.”
“I always remember that.”
“You’re not supposed to say that with that face.”
Lu Zen, putting a lot of strength in his eyes, expressed his dissatisfaction, but he couldn’t get the reaction he wanted.
“If you have nothing to say, may I leave again?”
“No, no! I was wrong! So, hurry up and talk. What happened?”
“There was a harvest.”
“If you’re going to talk, can’t you speak a little longer and more verbosely? Don’t you save your words in front of Countess Creighton like this?”
“……”
Lu Zen, who was chuckling, suddenly changed his expression and watched Calix’s reaction. The wrinkles on Duke Pieren’s forehead were deeper than before.
Lu Zen slapped his lips hard enough to make a sound.
“Yeah, it’s all my fault. This mouth is the problem.”
“……”
“Will you accept my apology?”
Even with Lu Zen’s cheekiness, Calix didn’t loosen his frown, but he opened his mouth again.
“As a result of the confirmation, we found a place where ‘he’ is suspected of hiding.”
“Are you sure?”
Anxiety spread over Lu Zen’s always relaxed face.
Calix glanced at Lu Zen. Lu Zen was always dressed flamboyantly like a premating male, the owner of the radiant palace, but he remembered what the hand hidden under the luxury glove looked like.
His hand, which had been holding the sword for a long time, was not as rough as his own, but it was sharp.
“It’s worth checking out. Looking at the flow of the soldiers mobilized to find the missing Baroness Fisher, there was movement near the territories near Creighton from the point where she disappeared.”
“If you say that, it’s not just that, is it?”
“Only Nagata is excluded.”
“……Excluded?”
“Upon further confirmation, I heard that there was no search order in Nagata that day.”
“Nagata is……”
Lu Zen hurriedly rummaged through his desk and spread out the map. The hand searching for Nagata’s location on the map was desperately unlike him.
“If it’s here, I would say he has quite a nasty taste.”
Lu Zen, who finally found the location of Nagata, curled up with a bitter smile on his face.
Nagata was located at a distance where you could arrive in about two days from the capital or even within a day if you ran all day.
“It’s risky, but it’s also a good place to let your guard down.”
“After all, we’ve been looking far and wide until now.”
Why didn’t I think of it until now.
The tip of Luzen’s finger gently swept across the map.
What had started as a fierce pursuit gradually became chronic over time. The halfbrother who took a big hit in particular, the habit of cutting off his tail like a lizard, made the chase increasingly difficult day by day.
Thus, the pursuit that had begun gradually from the outskirts of the capital over time became farther and farther from the capital.
“Is it luck, or is it skill? What do you think? You’ve been watching for a long time, so you must know.”
“……”
“Uhhuh, it seems our Lady Creighton is not just a pretty face.”
Luzen tilted his head, recalling the woman with bright blue eyes he had been watching earlier.
After Being Cheated On, She Picked Up a Treasure (Female-dominant)
One-line summary: The husband I married on a whim had been secretly in love with me for a long time.
On the day when Jun Shao finally obtained the imperial decree for her marriage, Lan Qu, the person she had admired for six years, defied the decree and ran away.
Her gentleness and devotion, her promise of a lifetime together, were all disregarded by him. Instead, he dreamed of entering the palace to serve the Emperor’s sister as a sixth-rank attendant.
News of this incident spread throughout the capital, and the alleys in front of and behind the Lan mansion were crowded with people who came to watch the commotion.
Jun Shao should have been embarrassed and angry.
But someone stepped in to protect her dignity.
The figure was in a miserable state, yet still possessed an undeniable elegance and handsomeness.
The young lord struggled to climb the wall of the Lan mansion and shouted to her, “If he won’t marry you, I will!”
So, Jun Shao took advantage of the situation and married the person.
She thought the young lord did it to save the Lan family from the crime of defying the imperial decree, but never imagined that from beginning to end, what he coveted was her.
*
After the wedding, Jun Shao felt like she was living in a dream.
Her Wife-master was as beautiful as a fairy in a painting, skilled in the six arts, well-versed in poetry and literature, capable of being gentle and attentive, and also grand and dignified. Most importantly, she was the only one in his heart and eyes.
Jun Shao didn’t know how Lan Shiwu, as a illegitimate son without a father and blessed with beauty, had managed to preserve his purity, recklessly escape, and use his last ounce of strength to ruin his own reputation, all because of his love for her, just to stand before her.
She could only see him gazing at her with eyes full of love, and when she bestowed a name upon him, his eyes shone like stars.
“You have come to me like a weary bird perching on a branch. I shall call you A Qi.”
