166.
“Recently… I don’t come often. After all, with ‘this’ here, it’s burdensome to fall asleep in your bedroom. If I feel the urge in the middle of the night, it would be troublesome…”
Isolde, who had quietly come down after a very long time, first spoke words that seemed calm yet somewhat like an excuse. Johannes’ hand, which had been tending to the sword used in training, stopped abruptly. He was rather puzzled by her explanation.
As Johannes raised his head towards Isolde, the longsword he carelessly put down swept across the carpet. That white blade, as long as a decent-sized child, was his first real sword bestowed by the duke a few weeks ago.
“On nights when Mother goes to Father’s chambers, don’t you leave your key with Griselda?”
Johannes asked.
“Yes. I do take it back though…”
Isolde, who was doing needlework sitting in Johannes’ armchair, gently folded her hands on top of the embroidery frame and hesitated for a moment. She soon uttered briefly.
“It’s uncomfortable to open and close it in front of you.”
“Open and close what?”
“……”
“Your chastity belt?”
There was no particular answer to Johannes’ confirmation. Even as the flickering golden light from the fireplace filled the dark bedroom, her complexion remained as white as limestone. A dim silence. Johannes then realized that she was reluctant to accurately call ‘it’ by name. Recalling the young Isolde who used to flutter her skirt in front of him, he asked again.
“I’m sorry…. I never thought you’d be uncomfortable.”
“I thought you might think that.”
“If you don’t want it, I won’t try to peek, so don’t worry about that.”
“No, I’m not particularly worried…”
“Then why are you like this?”
Johannes, who had been sitting at her feet, put down the sword completely and slipped his hand under the hem of Isolde’s nightgown. Soon he gently grasped her ankle. His tilted hair quietly touched the side of Isolde’s thigh. Looking up at Isolde in a posture like a docile beast, he felt more concerned than anxious. When did this child become so frightened, and for what reason.
“You… Don’t you think I would understand and take care of your situation?”
He asked, gently rolling the skin marked white with silk patterns with the tip of his thumb inside Isolde’s skirt. In fact, he could now pinpoint that spot on Isolde’s ankle quite accurately without even having to look directly. It’s just an idle habit of fiddling without any particular intention. Isolde, who flinched slightly for some reason, gave no particular reaction. Johannes persuaded again.
“Isolde. Even if I were to actually harbor lecherous thoughts, I’m not bold enough to carry out such an adventure. You know. Surely you would find me unpleasant… I don’t think I could bear that.”
If he had been someone who could handle Isolde’s scream-like gaze, or the corpse of Isolde with her limbs torn apart, he wouldn’t have taken such a long and roundabout path in the first place. Isolde, who had been silently looking down, carefully parted her lips.
“I’ve never thought that. Besides, I wouldn’t be displeased no matter what you did to me in the first place.”
“…Somehow it doesn’t seem that way.”
Johannes smiled with a rather bitter expression.
“It’s just….”
“Just?”
“There’s… a sound.”
“Sound?”
The back of Isolde’s hand resting on the embroidery frame seemed to turn a pale blue. As if enduring something, even veins faintly stood out on the thin, delicate skin. Isolde’s lips parted.
“The sound of lifting my nightgown up to my lower abdomen.”
“……”
“The clinking sound of metal. The sound of keys colliding…”
“……”
“The sound of taking it off…”
“……”
“With you clearly nearby, I’m hiding in a corner… making such sounds alone. It’s filthy. It’s irritating.”
Isolde’s eyelids finally sank. Johannes also closed his mouth. Amidst an indescribable silence, only the crackling sound of sparks flying remained, seeming to recreate Isolde’s past figure strangely. The image of cloth flowing like water over a small body standing alone in the corner of the bedroom flickers in Johannes’ mind.
He almost asked, are you trying to provoke me now?
Johannes’ mouth immediately became moist as his gaze fixed on Isolde’s closed eyes. He unconsciously swallowed. The back of his neck was slowly, redly, flushing. Heating up.
Certainly, unless it was a situation where affectionate contact was expected, he had never harbored dark thoughts about Isolde’s everyday gestures first. Now, due to her statement, trivial actions he had not even been conscious of until now took on an intimate meaning.
“…Even if I don’t listen?”
“Mm-hmm. It bothers me alone…”
Whether knowing Johannes’ expression as he quietly asked with his gaze fixated on her fragile eyelids, Isolde murmured in a rather monotonous tone. Johannes couldn’t tear his gaze away from her delicate features.
Just without any intention, he slowly pushed up the hand that had been holding Isolde’s ankle. Past the swaying ankle, through the center of the plump calf, to the hollow behind the knee, he heavily stroked upwards.
Even the hem of her nightgown caught between his forearms was being pushed up. Finally, Isolde’s white ankles were exposed in the warmth pooled in the dark room. Suddenly Isolde shivered slightly and neatly brought her ankles together, causing Johannes’ fingertips to be pressed between her knees.
“It’s not filthy at all.”
He spread his hand to its limit and dug his fingertips between her knees, feeling above them. If possible, if she hadn’t been so scared like now, it would have been fingertips that would surely have pushed up to the inside of her thighs.
Johannes endured his waist, which was about to break and tingling, by resting his chin on her knees. He suppressed the desire to unleash his tangled insides alone by roughly pressing his body against her legs, which would just sit like a doll, like a filthy beast alone. After barely exhaling a sigh that smelled sweet from within, he spoke to Isolde in a rather pitiful tone.
“You’ve definitely changed somewhere.”
“……”
“…Yesterday you were bold, and today you’re a pitiful young lady. Why are you so shy around me?”
“It’s not shyness or anything like that.”
It was then that a flash of fierce light briefly returned to Isolde’s eyes. Johannes waited silently for her next words, adapting to her light with gently curved eyes.
“I am… Valdemar.”
Isolde finally declared quietly, looking straight down at Johannes.
“A modest attitude is a virtue that a noble’s daughter should possess, and I am even the daughter of Valdemar. So… I will strictly maintain it. Purely for myself, for the prestige of my name…. I, even if I die, will never become like Mother.”
Her very low voice seemed to grind even ice. No, as if on some day, for some reason, she had sharpened and sharpened the ice that had formed in her lungs until it stood up like an awl. At that moment, Johannes suddenly sensed that this awl would be the weapon to pierce his neck in the future. An indescribable emotion welled up to his chin. These moments of repeatedly confirming the fate to come were always so wondrous to him. Even if you wither like a reed in a tower that will never open, in the end you are my woman, my king. The only person who will devour me and kill me….
“Ah…”
Isolde, who had scattered hot frost through her slightly parted lips, seemed to have lost strength completely. The momentum that seemed about to fly at the slightest breeze suddenly waned, and she drooped her shoulders like a rain-soaked bird. As if pondering how her appearance might have looked in her brother’s eyes. Her face, with her eyelids half-lowered and lips tightly closed, was turning red. After fidgeting restlessly in the armchair for a moment, she brushed off Johannes’ touch and quickly muttered.
“I, I should go now. It’s late, and Mother might cough at any time…”
“Come as often as you can.”
Johannes, who had followed her to the exit as she was about to leave hurriedly without any proper farewell, grabbed her arm. Isolde, who turned to look at him with a startled expression, shook her head awkwardly.
“As I explained earlier, it will probably be difficult from now on.”
“No. You can. Come often.”
“How…”
“Come to me and show your face often, even if just that.”
“……”
“Don’t keep me waiting…”
Isolde, whose words were cut off by Johannes, stared at her brother with a somewhat bewildered look. Soon she cast her gaze down here and there like a guilty person. Johannes gently held her chin, which couldn’t stay still, and fixed it in front of him. Isolde’s wide blue eyes caught his gaze.
“Do you understand?”
“……”
“Answer me.”
“…Yes.”
Johannes finally got a definite answer. Only then did he loosen his grip a little. He gently scratched Isolde’s cheeks and under her chin, which had unintentionally left red marks, and whispered softly.
“I’m saying this because I’m worried about you. You must be bored up there all the time too.”
“Yes…. It’s boring without you.”
“…Is that so? It must be boring.”
Johannes soothed and comforted Isolde, who was standing awkwardly at the doorway, and embraced her in his arms. Naturally pressing his lips firmly to Isolde’s crown as she rested her forehead against him, he smiled briefly, saying this is the farewell for tonight. Only then did Isolde’s arms slowly rise to embrace him back. She sighed heavily against his neck.
“You’re right. It’s because you at least often keep me company that I can endure like this…. Otherwise I couldn’t have borne it. How do other noble ladies spend their days and years in this state? Every morning I only think of running away. They’re really amazing…”
“Where would you run away to without me?”
“……”
“And what is there for you to admire about their affairs…. Aren’t you Valdemar? Isolde.”
For a moment, Isolde’s breath stopped. Then, as if taking a careful step, she let out a small exhale. It was a breath that seemed like some kind of resignation and also a small resolution. She quietly asked.
“…Will you wait for me?”
“Always.”
“……”
“Without missing a moment.”
“Then I can endure as long as it takes.”
“…You will succeed.”
Johannes patted her back as if stroking her spine. And just then, Isolde muttered with a somewhat sad expression.
“I wonder when it will come…”
“What?”
Johannes, who had not missed that small mutter, quietly asked. Isolde answered like a sigh.
“The marriage proposal.”
Ex-husband Wants Reconciliation
One-line summary: Chasing the wife to the crematorium (making an effort to attract someone who has become indifferent), the female lead doesn’t look back, the second male lead takes the position.
Intro:
To repay the kindness of the older generation, Su Mu crossed into a female-dominated world and became a live-in daughter-in-law of the Yan family, single-handedly saving the Yan family from fire and water.
But her husband, Yan Jiyue, the eldest son of the Yan family, treated her with sarcasm and never showed her a good face.
It wasn’t until after Su Mu’s death that this pampered and arrogant young master shed a few fake tears and pretended to want to die for love.
This life’s kindness was enough. If there was a next life, she would definitely kick Yan Jiyue away.
Who knew that the heavens would be so kind as to allow her to be reborn, returning to the time when she had just married into the Yan family.
Su Mu glanced at the Yan eldest son, who still spoke coldly to her, and threw a divorce letter in front of him.
“Let’s divorce!”
***
Yan Jiyue never imagined that he would be reborn. He happily went to find Su Mu, wanting to make up for the mistakes he had made in his ignorant youth.
Wasn’t the reason the heavens allowed him to be reborn to let him reconcile with Su Mu?
But when he pushed open the door to Su Mu’s room, the person lying on the bed was another man.
Su Mu’s personal attendant, Xie Yi.
Yan Jiyue hated him so much that his teeth itched. In front of Su Mu, Xie Yi was a gentle and considerate whisperer of sweet nothings, but in reality, he was vicious-hearted and deliberately sabotaged their husband and wife relationship.
In the previous life, it was he who secretly hid in Su Mu’s coffin and committed suicide, stealing a step ahead of him to be buried with Su Mu.
Yan Jiyue’s eyes were filled with hatred as he cursed, “What kind of thing are you? Your background is lowly, what right do you have to occupy Su Mu?”
Xie Yi looked at the sleeping Su Mu and no longer pretended to be a whisperer of sweet nothings.
He proudly stuck out his belly, “I have the right because my belly is capable of giving the Wife-master a daughter.”
***
Yan Jiyue was consumed with jealousy. He spread rumors that Xie Yi had once been branded with the mark of a “harlot” on his chest.
But on the night Xie Yi cut off the flesh bearing that mark, Su Mu suddenly realized something was amiss.
“How did you know the exact moment I was poisoned? And why did you show up a month early?”
Xie Yi remained silent, blood from his wound soaking through his robes. His sapphire eyes brimmed with anguish – or was it just a flawless act?
Between a once-arrogant husband now seeking redemption, and a gentle soul willing to die for her – who truly held the darkest secrets? And could it be that Su Mu and Yan Jiyue weren’t the only ones given a second chance at life…?
[Reading Guide]
1. True divorce, chasing the wife to the crematorium, the female lead doesn’t look back, the male lead is Xie Yi.
2. The ex-husband did not cheat, he just realized too late and didn’t realize that he liked the female lead.
_____
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