“The news hasn’t reached Baskerville yet. I just arrived, and I’m just a viscount of Sirens. In fact, I guessed that after hearing the conversation between Yeong-ae and the maid, it would happen.”
Icarus, who quickly grasped the situation after only a brief conversation with Amber, was once again surprised.
However, knowing that Icarus was enjoying teasing her, Renève blurted out awkwardly.
“…You were teasing me.”
“I wish you hadn’t made that expression.”
What kind of expression was that?
Just as Renève was about to ask, Icarus’s face tilted towards her.
“I really like that naive expression of yours. It’s almost as if I want to swallow it in one gulp.”
His breath in her ear was warm.
Feeling the softness of her entire body, Renève poked Icarus with a tingle.
“I-I’m not food.”
“Well.”
Icarus’s eyes narrowed, then quickly rounded. As Renève was thinking that something ominous was about to happen, Icarus bit her cheek.
“…!”
It wasn’t a biting pain, but Renève, surprised, tried to move her body backward.
“Ah, it hurts. Your Majesty…”
But Icarus’s firm arm embraced her body even more.
“Let’s stop playing around.”
With his chin resting on her shoulder, Icarus spoke.
“You called the emperor of a distant country all the way here because you had some business, right?”
It was true, but if someone who didn’t know the circumstances heard it, it could be a statement that would lead to misunderstanding.
Of course, there was only Renève here who would hear his words.
“Say it, whether my claim was wrong.”
Not answering immediately seemed irritating to Icarus, so he lightly bit Renève’s shoulder.
It was said that constantly wanting to chew and bite something was a sign of dissatisfaction.
It seemed like something had piled up in these few days when they hadn’t seen each other.
Renève admitted that the cause was herself.
If she hadn’t stayed in Paradisium for revenge, Icarus would have visited her room every night.
Renève spoke in a slightly softened tone.
“…I have a favor to ask. I didn’t know that Your Majesty would come personally.”
“As much as you want.”
Icarus tilted his head arrogantly like a foolish emperor who neglected his duties.
His relaxed and arrogant attitude, as if he would listen to anything with just one word, made Renève smile a little.
“Soon, I hope you’ll hide some people in Baskerville.”
“The person Yeong-ae wants to hide in Baskerville is a woman, right?”
Icarus looked at Renève as if to say that it must be so.
Feeling a bit unfair about what had happened with Icarus a while ago, Renève uttered words that were not in her heart.
“…Would Your Majesty’s answer be different if the target were a man?”
Icarus’s handsome forehead wrinkled as if he was unpleasantly imagining it.
“Let’s pretend we didn’t hear that just now.”
“But why don’t you ask why I want to hide the person?”
“If Yeong-ae wants to say it, I’ll listen, but do you want me to say it wherever you want?”
Icarus glanced at her as if to say, “If you want to say it, just say it.”
“The person will testify at the upcoming trial. It’s because of the caution due to the dead maid of Hwangbi.”
“Right.”
“If it’s someone necessary for Yeong-ae’s plan, promise to hide them in Baskerville so that no one, whether it’s hundreds or thousands, can find them.”
Icarus’s expression, saying so, looked too self-confident.
“It’s reassuring.”
“That’s why I feel like an emperor who fell in love with a beauty and is ruining the country.”
Icarus laughed with a self-deprecating expression.
But contrary to his words, his lips soon curled up happily.
It seemed that Icarus liked the fact that Renève was relying on him.
Icarus finished his sentence with a questioning tone.
“Your Majesty, do you perhaps dislike me being autonomous?”
“Not really. It’s true that I hope you rely on me a little more. I find it a bit pitiful to see you struggling alone.”
Icarus added with a bitter smile.
“Besides, Yeong-ae’s reliance on me is also for the sake of the Baskerville Empire.”
Renève found it difficult to follow Icarus’s logic.
Why would her relying on him be related to the affairs of the Baskerville Empire?
“The emperor must be at peace for the empire to be at peace.”
“…”
For a moment, Renève felt like she had become a character in a novel, reacting to every word and action due to Icarus’s meticulous attention.
“So, it means you want to resolve the matters here quickly and return to Baskerville as soon as possible due to my affairs.”
She felt sorry for him being lonely because of her actions.
As Renève nodded slightly and averted her gaze, Icarus hurriedly continued speaking.
“Setting that aside, I think I have the right to know how far the plan we made together has progressed. What do you think?”
“I apologize for making you wait, Your Majesty.”
Icarus sighed as if groaning and said with a sigh.
“This is really severe.”
“…?”
Icarus’s lips gently descended like a feather onto Renève’s eyelashes, which blinked quickly.
“I feel like I might get addicted to your pleading appearance.”
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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