The carriage immediately turned towards Cardeli village. There was a clinic where Veronia used to work at the crossroads. Veronia’s appearance was warmly welcomed by her colleagues at the clinic.
“Nia! Welcome!”
“It’s been a while, Nia!”
“You must have rested well! Your face looks much better!”
It was when they were happily greeting each other. As the commotion outside grew, Marco, Veronia’s mentor, came out to greet her. However, his way of welcoming was quite different from the other colleagues.
“You came at a good time, Nia. There have been many children with colds lately. I’d like you to see the children, what do you think? Do you have time?”
“Of course, Director. That’s why I came.”
Veronia quickly took the white coat Marco handed her and smiled brightly.
There was no lie in Marco’s words about many children having colds. Veronia had to treat patient after patient without a break.
‘It’s more fun doing this after a long time. It’s fulfilling.’
She originally liked this job, but doing it after a long time made it even more enjoyable. There was a reason she thought it was her calling.
Children who were suffering from coughs and high fevers soon became comfortable after receiving her treatment.
Every time she saw the children’s relaxed and grinning eyes and mouths, she felt a sense of accomplishment. And once again, she was grateful to Jediel and the goddess for gifting her this ability.
By the time she had finished treating all the patients, the sun was already setting.
“You worked hard today, Nia! It would be great if you could drop by like this often! Of course, it would be better if you came back to work officially.”
Marco said with a laugh. Veronia felt the same way, but it wasn’t something she could decide recklessly on her own yet, so she held her tongue.
“I also felt fulfilled and good today, as if I did a full day’s work after a long time. I’ll come again next time.”
“Thank you so much for coming today. Please come again, Nia.”
“Yes. We’ll be waiting. Nia is always welcome.”
Veronia left the clinic amidst warm farewells. It was when she was walking down the alley, stained red by the sunset, towards the carriage storage.
Suddenly, several people appeared out of nowhere and blocked her path. It happened so abruptly that she felt more bewildered than afraid.
Veronia looked up at them. There were five men wearing masks.
The masked group slowly approached Veronia, giggling. Their sinister laughter unpleasantly vibrated her eardrums.
‘This… seems like a familiar scene…. As expected, Caspian, you always use the same pattern. That’s why I call you stupid!’
Tsk, Veronia clicked her tongue and took out a metal rod from her handbag. It was a self-defense weapon she always carried for emergencies.
‘To think the day to use this weapon would finally come! And against Caspian at that!’
She swung it once towards the air, and the rod that was originally a span long extended to five times its length.
“Oh, so the lady carries such things! We underestimated you too much.”
“But what can you do with that thin rod, haha!”
They mocked Veronia and her metal rod. However, Veronia stood her ground. She remembered hearing somewhere that it was important to take the initiative in such situations.
“At least I’m better than you lot who need five people to deal with one person!”
Veronia deliberately raised her voice to hide her nervousness. But she couldn’t help the slight trembling at the end of her words.
“Come at me if you dare! I may not be able to take on all of you, but I’ll surely break the bones of at least one of you!”
But the masked group was still busy giggling and mocking her.
“Ooh, how scary!”
“Oh, as expected, you’re no ordinary lady!”
“Well, it’s this kind of spirit that allows a commoner to have the Prime Minister wrapped around her finger.”
As the masked group came closer, their dark shadows gradually covered Veronia’s body.
“But that annoying attitude of yours ends today.”
“So does your position as the Prime Minister’s fiancée. He might like a brazen commoner, but I doubt he’d like a crippled one.”
“Well… we don’t know that for sure. The Prime Minister’s tastes are quite unpredictable after all.”
“True, that’s right. Seeing how he likes a woman with scars on her face, he might like a crippled woman even more.”
Pffft, hahaha! The men started laughing loudly, holding their stomachs. Veronia let out a small chuckle at the sight.
She thought they were indeed top-notch when it came to putting people down with words. The problem was that that’s all they could do.
“You talk too much. Thanks to that, I now know you’re the young noble masters who came to the engagement party. And that you’re stupid. Why don’t you keep talking? What other evidence will you provide? No! How about each of you tell me your names? So I can throw you in jail right away.”
“W-what? Stupid? Talking? How dare a commoner like you!”
In that moment, the masked group, having lost their reason, rushed at her all at once. Veronia didn’t back down either and swung her metal rod forcefully.
“Argh!”
“Aagh!”
The men screamed and fell to the ground one by one. But it wasn’t Veronia’s doing. A masked knight had appeared silently like smoke at some point, standing in front of Veronia and swinging his sword.
“Hmm…?”
Unable to understand what was happening before her eyes, Veronia could only watch blankly as the knight fought.
The knight’s swordsmanship was extremely skilled, and the masked group were just small fry, making the fight look trivial even to Veronia’s untrained eyes.
The knight merely swung his sword slightly, but some part of the small fry’s arms or legs was instantly cut, and blood spurted out.
“Uurgh!”
“Ah… Aaagh!”
Screams erupted from here and there.
This time, the knight seemed to target the men’s faces. Every time his sword grazed, the black masks fell off one by one, and small cross-shaped scratches were carved on the group’s faces as if stamping them.
The faces revealed as the masks fell off were indeed all faces Veronia knew.
‘Caspian and his minions!’
She wasn’t surprised as these were the people she had almost been certain of. She could only laugh at their ridiculous state.
The group, having lost their masks, moved about in confusion and panic.
“Damn it!”
“Hey, hey! Run away quickly!”
“It’s dangerous!”
They started to flee, limping while holding onto their sword wounds.
But Veronia couldn’t let them go like this. She grabbed Caspian’s wrist.
“Let go of me! How dare a commoner!”
Caspian, who had been beaten badly by the knight and was trying to escape, growled with his eyes wide open, forgetting his own status. But to Veronia, he just looked pathetic.
She lowered her voice and spoke as if whispering, but enunciating each syllable clearly. So that it would be heard properly by the excited Caspian.
“To think you’re still doing this when you no longer have a puppet to cover up your misdeeds! Old habits die hard indeed!”
Suddenly, Caspian’s eyes widened as if they were about to pop out.
Her gaze and voice, the way she treated him was very intimidating. It wasn’t an aura a commoner could emit. No, even most nobles couldn’t treat him like this. And there was an even bigger problem.
‘What… She’s talking as if she’s known me for a long time? Who on earth is she?’
The state of the other person knowing him inside out while he didn’t know the other person at all evoked a bottomless fear.
“You, what are you? Who are you?”
Caspian’s confused voice trembled pitifully. Veronia smiled brightly at his question.
“I wonder who I am?”
“Tell me! Who are you?!”
“Who else could I be? Just a worthless commoner with a disgusting scar on her face, right?”
I know everything about you, but you don’t know me, do you? Veronia looked at Caspian with a mocking gaze.
This gaze… It seems like a gaze I’ve seen a long time ago… But I can’t remember who it is… Caspian’s eyes trembled like aspen leaves, as if in pain from not being able to find the answer no matter how much he racked his brains.
The mocking gaze and the anxious gaze clashed head-on and became entangled.
“We need to go! Hurry!”
At that moment, one of the group grabbed Caspian’s arm.
Eventually, Caspian turned his gaze away from Veronia and ran towards the opposite end of the alley following his companions. Soon, a blue light flashed briefly, suggesting they had used an instant movement scroll.
Veronia didn’t chase after Caspian’s group. She had no need to, as she had already obtained what she wanted.
“Got it, evidence!”
She smiled looking at the bracelet in her hand. It was a bracelet engraved with the sun symbol of the imperial family.
‘I’ve got evidence, I’ve got witnesses, well done. But that knight…?’
When Veronia, who had been looking towards the alley where Caspian’s group had fled, came back to her senses, the mysterious knight had already disappeared. Just as he had appeared quietly like smoke, he had disappeared quietly like smoke.
Veronia tilted her head and looked around.
‘Who was that? Appearing suddenly and disappearing suddenly. I need to know who it was so I can thank them…’
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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