“Why have you entrusted me with this mission?”
When the appointed time came, Lucia, who had come to the Prime Minister’s office, asked without hesitation.
It was because there was no reason to hand down such a grave mission simply to avoid punishment.
Moreover,
‘Why entrust me with something that was never entrusted before?’
“Come on, have a seat first. You’re really blunt. Does it really depend on who raises you?”
She stood without responding, as if the nervegrating joke meant nothing.
The Prime Minister looked at her, smiled as if he could not help it, and then opened his mouth with a serious attitude.
“Commander Lucia, did you think we would simply ignore the black contamination?”
Feeling as if he was being reproached by her attitude, he instinctively answered her.
And Lucia affirmed his words with silence.
It was quite a brazen attitude, but from her perspective, such a provocative question might have been natural.
Even though she had lived for such a long time, she had not known at all that there had been such a tree in the past, or that they had tried to counteract the black contamination with it.
So, to Lucia, the Prime Minister was someone who had discovered such a capable tree but had not used it properly and was therefore untrustworthy.
The Prime Minister continued speaking to her, who showed no movement at all.
“The Emperor and I, Helbert, have been concerned about the black contamination since before the empire was established. If we founded a nation only to starve and perish, it would be a foolish tragedy.”
“Even in the bloodspattering warfare, we never stopped investigating the black contamination, starting from Hengken village, where it first began.”
His continued words were that, in the black contaminated Hengken village, only the lake remained strangely alive, and as soon as it was discovered, protection measures were taken.
Everyone had left the village, and the only people who cared about the lake, which could not be found in just a day, were a family living by running an inn.
And then they learned that the purification ability had come from a blooming flower, and seeing hope, they alternated between Matopju and Helbert as guards of the place.
But the black contamination had only begun 5 years ago.
According to Lucia, Helbert, who is now in his mid60s, and Prime Minister Federin have been using that inn since they were young.
Isn’t the coincidence too close?
Lucia could not help but ask her curiosity.
“How could such a rare tree be so close to the secret base?”
As expected, at her insolent question, the Prime Minister spoke with a relaxed smile.
“Suspicious? Let me tell you, building this great country is closer to random work than you might think. Therefore, it’s hard to know the situation in the country unless you roam various regions and see them with your own eyes.”
Lucia, upon hearing his words, finally understood her situation.
Even though she had heard plenty about Helbert and Federin’s youth, wandering through various countries with dozens of hideouts, she had overlooked it and was doubting their intentions.
Perhaps it was natural.
To Lucia, who thought she knew the future, the information about this secret mission was that much shocking.
She finally took a seat on the elegant chair across the Prime Minister’s desk.
Who had been sitting there?
A little warmth remained on the cushion of the chair.
“A foolish question, I apologize. When do you plan to reveal the existence of the tree?”
She understood that there was only one tree, and they protected it.
If its existence was revealed, the entire continent would interfere to seize the tree.
But considering the risk of losing the tree as the village could be consumed by fire, she could not just stand by and watch.
Perhaps they had lost the tree in the past and could not find another way.
“If we find the dark tree and get the fruit, we expect it to have tremendous healing power. Even if not, we can breed it and get the pollen. So we plan to hide it until we are fully prepared.”
“Is that so? But you may have to decide sooner than you think. There was almost a fire in the forest due to the demon that flew in.”
Lucia’s words were a warning about the village that could have burned and disappeared.
However, his brows furrowed at her words.
“Are the dark wizards after the tree again? Don’t worry. The magetower owner will guard it for a while now.”
‘…Dark wizard? Then was that strange magic dark magic?’
Lucia looked skeptical, and the lord answered.
“Dark wizards are undoubtedly controlled by the one in the white robe. The first place we saw them was at the lake, and it was he who commanded the removal of the tree.”
‘White robe… Definitely, he had called my name.’
Lucia recalled the grotesque sight of absorbing the decision with a black hand coming from the pure white robe.
But more than their identity, all her focus was concentrated on the intention to remove the tree now.
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.”
[Touch the gear icon in the bottom right corner of the screen to move to the next chapter if you want.]
