Silently staring at the queen, Aaron rose from his seat.
“I will take my leave for today. I have a meeting to attend.”
“Already? I heard there would be discussions about the aftermath with the Elder Council. It seems like it might be a long meeting.”
“It will be over soon. It’s a meeting where the conclusion has already been reached.”
As Aaron stood up, the queen also rose to bid farewell to the guest.
While extending greetings, Aaron, who had intended to do so, stopped as he watched the queen adjusting her dress hem.
In an instant, the reception room was filled with an eerie stillness.
“I heard that the Boswell family is staying in the capital.”
At Aaron’s words breaking the silence, the queen’s hand froze as it was.
“Were you so curious about their well-being? Curious enough to send a letter avoiding eye contact?”
As if forgetting to breathe, the queen’s entire body stiffened.
As if avoiding Aaron’s gaze, only her trembling pupils moved downward.
“What are you talking about…”
“I wondered why the plans for the garden construction kept changing, delaying the time. And now I see the reason in this letter.”
Aaron extended a neatly folded paper from his bosom toward the queen.
“I cannot understand what you mean.”
“While investigating the secret passage of the castle, we captured the messenger you sent.”
The queen barely suppressed a sigh, and she looked at the letter held in Aaron’s hand.
There was no storage for letters, and there was no royal seal.
But the queen could easily guess what was written in the neatly folded letter.
It was a letter she had sent.
“Just a letter of greetings. I sent it as a courtesy since we couldn’t exchange letters during the war.”
Before the queen finished her sentence, Aaron touched on the contents of the letter he had seen.
“He requested information about the international situation related to Boswell.”
Seeing the stern look in Aaron’s eyes, it was clear that he already knew the contents of the letter.
The queen, struggling to speak, had a trembling voice.
“I just wanted to confirm the truth. I wanted to make sure if Boswell had really betrayed us.”
“So… What were you planning to do after confirming it?”
Under Aaron’s sharp aura, the queen firmly sealed her lips.
It was a question, but it wasn’t just a question.
“You don’t have to be afraid like that. I’m not a barbaric man who suppresses a fragile woman with force.”
Aaron slowly approached the queen.
“Even though I may look like this, I am a gentleman who has learned proper manners towards ladies.”
Aaron bent down and placed the queen’s secret letter on Delia’s etiquette book.
Feeling the imposing atmosphere in his slow and courteous movements, the queen unconsciously took a step back.
As Aaron straightened up, he stared at the queen with eyes colder than moonlight.
“But I don’t know how I’ll change when someone tries to take what’s mine.”
He already saw through everything.
He caught wind of the queen’s plan to send Delia out of Ioventi.
He overheard the plan to send her not to Boswell, but somewhere farther away, to distance her from the commander.
The queen faltered, not knowing what to say.
In the end, the hesitant queen had no choice but to reveal her true feelings.
“Aaron Bergen, Commander. This is not a good relationship for either of us.”
“The princess has already made her choice, and that’s enough.”
“Ioventi has already lost. How can Delia refuse the commander’s demands? That’s not a choice.”
Aaron wiped away the feigned smile on his face without a trace.
The queen was denying Delia’s choice, which Aaron had painstakingly obtained.
“If you truly care about Delia, let her go. Our relationship began with the blood and grudges of both nations. There is no good ending.”
“The beginning was a war, but it will end with peace. We will be remembered as a symbol of peace that prevented a larger war.”
In the face of the commander’s firm determination like a wall, the queen grew gloomy.
With the feeling of holding onto the last straw, the queen tried to persuade the commander.
“What will you do with Delia’s aura that went missing in battle against the commander?”
“…”
“What will you do if Alfredo appears dead? How will you deal with that grudge?”
Upon the queen’s point, Aaron remained silent.
“And… What if he appears alive?”
Aaron, trembling but resolute, silently observed the queen’s efforts to say what she had to say.
“Can the Grand Commander of Ioventi and the Grand Commander of Stellereitz coexist?”
The queen’s simple question contained countless emotions and meanings.
The Grand Commander of Ioventi and the Grand Commander of Stellereitz.
With the Crown Prince of Ioventi and the Crown Princess on their backs.
If the two were to be in the same place, someone was bound to suffer a fatal wound.
As a queen, she could not just stand by and watch her children fall into chaos.
“This marriage will eventually become the seed of conflict.”
Aaron barely held back a curse that was about to come out.
Collection Item No. 3.
In the end, that guy was the problem.
After Being Cheated On, She Picked Up a Treasure (Female-dominant)
One-line summary: The husband I married on a whim had been secretly in love with me for a long time.
On the day when Jun Shao finally obtained the imperial decree for her marriage, Lan Qu, the person she had admired for six years, defied the decree and ran away.
Her gentleness and devotion, her promise of a lifetime together, were all disregarded by him. Instead, he dreamed of entering the palace to serve the Emperor’s sister as a sixth-rank attendant.
News of this incident spread throughout the capital, and the alleys in front of and behind the Lan mansion were crowded with people who came to watch the commotion.
Jun Shao should have been embarrassed and angry.
But someone stepped in to protect her dignity.
The figure was in a miserable state, yet still possessed an undeniable elegance and handsomeness.
The young lord struggled to climb the wall of the Lan mansion and shouted to her, “If he won’t marry you, I will!”
So, Jun Shao took advantage of the situation and married the person.
She thought the young lord did it to save the Lan family from the crime of defying the imperial decree, but never imagined that from beginning to end, what he coveted was her.
*
After the wedding, Jun Shao felt like she was living in a dream.
Her Wife-master was as beautiful as a fairy in a painting, skilled in the six arts, well-versed in poetry and literature, capable of being gentle and attentive, and also grand and dignified. Most importantly, she was the only one in his heart and eyes.
Jun Shao didn’t know how Lan Shiwu, as a illegitimate son without a father and blessed with beauty, had managed to preserve his purity, recklessly escape, and use his last ounce of strength to ruin his own reputation, all because of his love for her, just to stand before her.
She could only see him gazing at her with eyes full of love, and when she bestowed a name upon him, his eyes shone like stars.
“You have come to me like a weary bird perching on a branch. I shall call you A Qi.”
