My Husband Was Stolen Twice (Completed Main Story) - Chapter 15
“That woman—isn’t she the one who married after trailing Count Wens around like a puppy?”
People’s gazes had turned notably unfriendly now that they’d begun to recognize Roje.
“Are you certain you saw it all?”
Duke Fliche strode toward Roje with sharp eyes, looking as if he would seize her by the collar at any moment. Roje swallowed hard and replied.
“Yes.”
He gnawed his lower lip, caught off guard by Roje’s unexpected presence.
Just a little more pressure, and he could have arrested him—for the murder of Marquis Bled.
If that succeeded, Grand Duke Arteum’s execution plan could have been brought forward a little sooner.
“How odd. You should be at the banquet. Why are you here with the Grand Duke? Leaving your husband behind on a dark night… alone with the Grand Duke, no less. And your dress is filthy, as if you’d rolled about on the ground.”
Was she trying to muddy the issue? Duke Fliche narrowed his eyes and glared at Roje, then ran his gaze up and down her body with a displeased look.
“I came out with Count Wens but got lost in the garden.”
Roje answered calmly, without panic, carefully emphasizing that she hadn’t been with the Grand Duke from the start—and made sure to mention Eric to drive the point home.
“And this dress got dirty because I tripped in fright after suddenly seeing a monster.”
Duke Fliche, who’d intended to crush the woman’s spirit and force events to unfold as he wished, now felt an overwhelming urge to clamp his hand over Roje’s mouth as she stared straight into his eyes and spoke with crystal-clear precision.
‘What an ignorant woman—she doesn’t even know which side her husband has aligned with!’
She should’ve cowered quietly instead of arguing back pointlessly with such stubborn clarity. Since Roje was already notoriously known as a dull-witted woman, he didn’t suspect she was deliberately siding with Grand Duke Arteum.
“I nearly lost my life as well. But…”
Roje trailed off and glanced at the Grand Duke. She gave him a subtle smile and spoke softly.
“Thanks to you, my lord, I survived. Had it not been for you, I would have perished alongside Marquis Bled.”
“Then where did that strange monster go?”
Duke Fliche snapped the question, refusing to give her breathing room, but Roje continued without flinching.
“It must have fled while I was briefly away to fetch someone to tend to Marquis Bled. It was quite a violent creature… This is terrible. What if it starts rampaging elsewhere?”
Roje wore an expression brimming with fear, as though she’d truly seen the monster herself. Then she looked toward Grand Duke Arteum.
She blinked her large eyes at him, staring intently—as if sending a signal.
Grand Duke Arteum, who’d been watching Roje with interest as she defended him, caught her signal. With a faint smile at the corner of his lips, he spoke.
“Don’t worry about that. Since it was already at death’s door, it’ll be found as a corpse wherever it tried to flee.”
The Grand Duke himself had already ended the monster’s life.
‘He’s saying the monster—which I already killed—is now missing…’
The Grand Duke stared blankly at Duke Fliche. Given the circumstances, the only person likely to have removed the corpse was him.
Just as the Grand Duke suspected, it was indeed Duke Fliche—or rather, his subordinates—who had removed the monster’s body.
They’d cleared away the dead monster and brought only Marquis Bled back into the mansion, then shouted to everyone that the Marquis had been “murdered.”
‘Damn it! How could they bungle it like this?’
Duke Fliche had stationed six of his knights near Grand Duke Arteum beforehand to manipulate the incident.
He’d explicitly ordered them to kill anyone who might become a witness to avoid complications—but…
Now that matters had spiraled this far, his six knights were nowhere to be seen. Duke Fliche ground his teeth, vowing to deal harshly with them once they showed themselves.
‘It’s my fault for entrusting everything to them.’
He’d grown too careless, convinced his plan was flawless.
The crowd listening to this exchange began to stir.
With a witness having appeared, Grand Duke Arteum was clearly “innocent.”
Those who had been snapping at the Grand Duke like wolves now started glancing around warily as the tide turned.
They’d followed Duke Fliche, expecting only to stand beside him and blow hot air—but now, they began wondering if it was time to quietly withdraw.
After all, those who defied Grand Duke Arteum had never met pleasant ends. One by one, the onlookers started slipping away.
“Hmph. We nearly misunderstood the situation.”
“Yes, indeed. Grand Duke Arteum would never do such a thing.”
The crowd, which had swarmed like hyenas, now scattered with various excuses.
Among them were nobles who’d conspired with Duke Fliche in this affair, but they feigned ignorance and hurried off—each intent on saving themselves alone.
‘Those bat-like bastards…!’
But even outrage had its timing.
Duke Fliche knew all too well that this was not the right moment.
“We nearly fell into a misunderstanding, Grand Duke Arteum.”
Duke Fliche forced a smile onto his lips as he looked at Grand Duke Arteum. Though his mouth curved upward, his eyes remained chillingly cold.
“As did you. It’s been a pleasure meeting you.”
He cast a frosty smile toward Roje—the very person who’d ruined his plan.
His glare sent chills down her spine, but she pretended not to notice and bowed politely.
“The pleasure was mine as well.”
Since Roje hadn’t known exactly who he was, she watched him with a questioning gaze and trailed off. He then introduced himself.
“I am Duke Fliche.”
Roje flinched slightly upon hearing his name.
‘If he’s Duke Fliche… he’s the Emperor’s closest confidant.’
Her private tutor had once lavished praise upon this very Duke Fliche.
He was the man who’d played the greatest role in securing the current Emperor’s rise to the throne.
‘…And also the one who thoroughly exploited and then discarded the Wens family.’
At the heart of the Wens family’s downfall stood Duke Fliche. After extracting all he could from them, he’d cast them aside simply because they knew too much.
“The dog that chased the chicken now stares at the roof”—those words perfectly described the fate awaiting the Wens family.
“Yes, Duke Fliche.”
Realizing she’d just spoken to an immensely powerful figure, Roje felt a chill run down her spine.
‘Thank goodness I didn’t know. Had I known, I couldn’t have looked him straight in the eyes and spoken so boldly just now.’
Ignorance truly was bliss. She’d once grumbled about the absence of cameras in this world—but never dreamed it would actually help her.
As Roje bowed to Duke Fliche and turned to leave, his voice calling out to her made her stop.
“Wait.”
When Roje glanced back, Duke Fliche gave her a meaningful look and said,
“Please be sure to send my regards to Count Wens.”
Sending regards to her husband in this situation—
Roje instantly understood his intention.
‘So I’m thoroughly marked now.’
He was clearly venting his anger toward the Wens family.
“Yes, I understand, Duke Fliche.”
Pretending not to grasp his underlying message, Roje offered a bright smile and turned her back on him.
In any case, his hostility seemed directed not at her but at Eric—so it hardly mattered.
Roje straightened her back and walked away with dignified calm.
How long had she walked? Only when she believed they could no longer see her did Roje finally let out a deep breath.
“Haa…”
Her heart pounded rapidly in her chest. She’d been terrified Duke Fliche would catch her in her lie.
“…I thought I was going to die.”
Roje sank down onto the ground and muttered to herself. Her palms were soaked with sweat. Then, piercing the silence, Grand Duke Arteum’s voice reached her.
“Then why did you step forward, if you were so afraid?”
“Kyaaah!”
Convinced she was alone, Roje was utterly startled by his voice.
‘Good grief… Since when were you standing there?’
She hadn’t even heard his footsteps.
“…How long have you been here?”
Seeing Roje’s ghost-white expression, as if she’d seen a specter, Grand Duke Arteum merely shrugged.
“I’ve been standing right behind you since the beginning.”
Roje quickly peeked behind him, wondering if others might be standing there too.
“Don’t worry. It’s just you and me here.”
Relieved by Grand Duke Arteum’s words, Roje sighed in relief—she had no desire to face Duke Fliche’s icy glare again.
‘To defy someone even more cunning than Grand Duke Arteum himself…’
“I’ll ask again. Why did you shield me?”
The Grand Duke looked genuinely curious as he questioned Roje.
“…Because you said you didn’t kill him.”
“So you claimed to have seen something you never saw—just for my sake?”
Roje slowly nodded at his words.
“You must believe me, then—that I didn’t murder Marquis Bled.”
“…Yes.”
Though, at first, I thought you were the killer…
At Roje’s answer, Grand Duke Arteum’s eyes flickered slightly.
“You can’t be unaware of the rumors that follow me.”
“The rumors are one thing… but you seem kinder than I expected.”
The Grand Duke looked surprised by Roje’s reply.
True, their first meeting had terrified her to the bone, but the man she saw today was no different from any other.
Besides, he’d caught her when she fell from the carriage and helped her escape Eric’s grasp.
“I’m terribly sorry for misunderstanding you at first. I didn’t even realize you were saving Marquis Bled…”
Roje couldn’t bear to meet the Grand Duke’s eyes—she’d wrongly accused an innocent man of murder. The Grand Duke watched her as she hung her head, utterly flustered.
Could Roje see the faint madness glinting in his eyes as he stared silently at her?
Probably not—she kept her gaze lowered. The Grand Duke slowly approached her.
“It’s all right. You’re practically my savior.”
He leaned down toward Roje, who sat slumped on the ground, and whispered,
“I’d like to repay you for saving my life.”
Gently, he brushed aside her wildly tangled hair. Eric’s rough handling and the night’s chaotic events had left her coiffure in complete disarray.
As he looked down at Roje—her hair loose, her large eyes staring up at him—he was reminded of his pet dog.
‘…She resembles it.’
Almost unconsciously, his hand moved to stroke her hair as he would his pet—but halted midair. He nearly treated her like an animal.
However similar they might appear, stroking a noblewoman’s head like a puppy was hardly proper. He quickly lowered his hand.
“Repay me? No, it’s fine. I didn’t do it expecting anything in return…”
Just as she began to say repayment wasn’t necessary, a thought struck her.
‘Wait… this could be a golden opportunity.’
Roje’s lips parted and closed again. Then, with difficulty, she addressed the Grand Duke.
“My lord…”
“You have a request, I take it?”
Roje slowly nodded at his words.
“I….”
Why was she hesitating so much? Grand Duke Arteum patiently waited, giving her space to speak comfortably.
After a long moment of deliberation, Roje finally voiced her true request.
“Please… help me. I need to go through a divorce, but I don’t know anything about the process.”
The Grand Duke’s pupils visibly trembled at her unexpected words.
“You want a divorce? You?”
It was unbelievable—coming from a woman who’d always trailed after Eric, the word “divorce” sounded utterly inconceivable.
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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