“Make way, please.”
The queen’s trembling yet resolute voice echoed in the eerie garden.
“Yes, if Your Majesty wishes.”
Aaron stepped aside slightly for the queen.
His movement was as smooth as flowing water.
“I have something to say to Queen Eleanor, that is.”
“I seem to have no conversation to share with the commander.”
“It’s an important matter.”
“Important matters are discussed with His Majesty the King. Then I will leave.”
As the queen tried to ignore Aaron and pass by, he muttered just loud enough for her to hear.
“Just leaving like this, what am I to do? Should I just do as I please?”
At Aaron’s provocation, the queen paused in her steps.
The supreme commander who occupied Iorenti intends to do as he pleases.
With my precious child.
The queen’s voice, suppressing her anger, came trembling thinly.
“What are you talking about?”
Looking at the shivering queen, Aaron smiled softly.
“She’s been badly damaged.”
The queen glared at Aaron with a blend of sorrow and anger.
Isn’t all of this your fault?
Unable to voice her thoughts because she was a queen of a defeated nation, her throat tightened from swallowing her words.
“The royal garden was badly damaged.”
“Pardon?”
Doubting her own ears, the queen questioned.
“The garden?”
“Yes. Looking down from above, the royal garden was a mess.”
“…”
“The flowers were all trampled on. There were many broken statues, and the trees were burned and damaged.”
Aaron, sensing the gaze of the queen who had lost her words, continued his speech.
“Since it happened largely due to the imperial army, I thought I would try to restore it.”
The queen laughed hollowly, looking at Aaron with an incredulous expression.
If he had mentioned Delia, she would have slapped the commander’s face, even if it meant her death.
But to talk about the garden in this situation.
The queen’s profound sorrow lost its place at Aaron’s unexpected words.
“The trees will need to be uprooted and replanted. And.”
“Haa.”
Not hearing the queen’s hollow laughter, Aaron confidently explained his plan.
He acted as if he had already received the queen’s permission.
Aaron stretched out his arm to point at the ruined flower bed.
“The trampled flowers there need to be completely replaced……”
At the end of his sentence, Aaron glanced at Delia over the queen’s shoulder.
“I’m a bit scared of flowers.”
“…”
“It would be nice to create a large fountain by bringing water to the empty space where the flowers were removed.”
“But……”
What on earth is the commander up to?
The queen, momentarily lost, retorted.
“Creating a fountain requires constructing a waterway to bring the water, which would require significant construction.”
“Of course it would.”
“Iorenti is short of funds and manpower due to the war, excessive construction could be a burden on the citizens.”
At the queen’s rebuttal, Aaron’s smile deepened.
Caught.
It was a success just to have her engage in conversation without avoiding him.
“Since the damage is due to us, the empire will take responsibility.”
As if doing a big favor, Aaron readily continued his words.
At the unexpected words of the commander, the surprised queen’s voice echoed in the garden.
“What?”
“Just as I said. We will take responsibility and repair it.”
“That is not something for the commander to worry about.”
“It’s a small favor of mine. Please accept it.”
“But to accept such a favor……”
She couldn’t afford to go into debt for compensation and garden repair.
The queen’s refusal was easily covered by Aaron.
“The Bergen family will be responsible for the funds, and as for the lack of manpower…. there are my subordinates, so there’s no need to worry.”
Dyke, who had been quietly listening to the commander, grimaced.
“There’s plenty of money and manpower, but it’s tricky to decide how to design and decorate.”
Ignoring Dyke lightly, Aaron turned his head towards the queen with a peculiar smile.
Like luring a prey into a trap.
His ashcolored eyes sparkled with a strange sense of competition.
“What kind of trees would suit the soil of Iorenti? It would be a problem if we plant the wrong ones and they wither.”
Aaron spoke to the queen with the utmost courtesy.
“I hope Queen Eleanor can advise us on what trees would suit the soil of Iorenti.”
The queen looked at the commander, who requested politely while maintaining his gentlemanly manner.
She could feel Delia fidgeting, her wrist clutched in her hand.
The hesitant queen felt Delia’s breath on her back.
Even without looking back, the image of Delia, whose ears were perked up, was vivid.
The queen tightly held Delia’s hand and stared into Aaron’s pupils.
An odd silence filled the garden of Iorenti Castle.
Everyone in the garden was watching the queen’s lips due to her silence.
The queen’s lips, which had been hesitating for a while, carefully opened.
“I think it would be good to plant cypress trees around the garden.”
Aaron responded with a faint smile to the queen’s words.
“That’s a good idea.”
The queen suddenly began to explain her opinion calmly with a gentle tone.
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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