Blair’s pupils shook violently upon seeing that face.
“…Marina?”
She was a maid at the Hwanghu Palace who usually played cards and laughed together with Esmeralda. Why…?
Blair wanted to ask, but the unbalanced maid collapsed, banging her head on the armrest of the sofa. A red streak of blood trickled down her cornered head.
“Ah… Ah…”
Blair, with trembling eyes, looked at Marina bleeding from the candlestick in her hand.
At eleven years old, the princess was too young to understand what death was truly about. Murder was simply learned as something bad without understanding how heavy the sin was.
But in that moment, the meaning of taking a life became horribly clear. Blair instinctively knew what it meant to claim a life.
“But Marina, the queen…”
Blair justified herself, swaying as if about to collapse at any moment.
Although she wanted to escape this hell immediately, her body wouldn’t respond. The acrid smoke blocked her airways.
Then suddenly, Blair remembered she needed to save Esmeralda.
Blair stepped on the table and approached Esmeralda, who was hanging from the ceiling.
“…Your Majesty.”
Even when called, she showed no signs of movement.
Blair’s dull eyes, looking up at her, shed tears.
“No, no…”
Although she wanted to immediately release the cloth wrapped around Esmeralda’s neck, the ceiling was too high for the child.
“Help… Please, someone…”
In the flames, Blair cried while holding Esmeralda’s legs.
She had killed someone to save Esmeralda. It would have been alright if she could be reassured by Esmeralda, saying it was not her fault.
But Esmeralda was dead, and Blair was trapped alone in this hell.
“If I had woken up a little earlier. If I had come out of the wardrobe a bit faster…”
Then, could she have saved the queen?
“My hesitation, fear… I couldn’t save the queen.”
Because I am weak.
Because I am a powerless child.
Because of me, the queen…
“Ha, ugh…”
Blair, who was crying, stopped crying.
She could no longer breathe. Her lungs were hot, and once she exhaled, she couldn’t inhale again.
Gradually losing consciousness, her body became limp. Blair sat still at the table. In the raging flames, Blair blinked her eyes dully.
“I can’t breathe…”
At that moment, more than any other instinct, a priority moved the child.
Blair, grasping her fading consciousness, stumbled into the corridor. There, too, was filled with dense smoke.
She squeezed the remaining breath out of her lungs and stumbled down the corridor. Even the originally long corridor felt like an endless orbit.
“Haah…”
Finally, Blair, who exhaled her last breath, collapsed in the corridor. Gradually losing consciousness, her heavy eyelids fell.
Blair closed her eyes and prayed.
Please, let it be a dream.
When she woke up, may everything from this night be nothing but a memory…
The Duke’s mansion was turned upside down.
The Duchess, who hastily went to the palace around dawn, was suddenly kidnapped and returned to the arms of Herdin.
Her face covered in blood, her body marked with burns—a pitiful spectacle.
Herdin, who had laid Blair on the bed, watched as the maids busily cleaned her and changed her clothes, then left to the corridor.
The resident doctor, who arrived just in time, quickly greeted Herdin and entered Blair’s room.
The noise, everything that made up this situation, felt strangely distant.
Resting against the wall with a throbbing headache and closed eyes, Herdin felt a familiar presence approaching.
“Your Excellency. Are you hurt anywhere?”
It was Mason.
Even in this situation, his question about his safety first felt somehow amusing.
“As you can see.”
“Madam… She should be fine.”
Mason’s carefully chosen words were hesitant. Herdin kept silent for a moment and gave a meaningless response.
“…I suppose.”
It had to be like that.
While Mason quietly stood by Herdin in this situation, an urgent sound of footsteps approached.
It was Luce, who had gone to the temple to fetch the priestess, followed by Miela.
Herdin’s gaze, seeing her, sank coldly.
“Hello, Your Excellency.”
The woman greeted with her characteristic innocent face, as if she had completely forgotten their previous conversation. Even though that conversation could not have been pleasant for her either.
Among the many priests in the temple, it had to be this woman. What a remarkable coincidence.
“I heard the Duchess was severely injured. May I check her condition?”
But there was no time to wait for another priest.
Herdin took Miela to Blair’s bedroom.
Blair, with all burns and blood wiped away, wore a peaceful expression, as if she were sleeping. However, there was no room for reassurance.
Sacred power could perfectly heal wounds, but it couldn’t cure diseases.
If it were a simple burn, it could be treated with sacred power, but if her damaged lungs were already afflicted by disease, it might be an incurable condition.
Moreover, she was a woman who had suffered significant respiratory damage in an accident ten years ago.
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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