Darius took me to the back of the castle, under a large poplar tree. It was an ancient tree, over 300 years old, rumored to have been planted by the founder of the Inkheart family. Despite hearing this legend, I remained unmoved.
“Thankfully, Lady Egret’s clutches haven’t reached here,” I thought, feeling regretful as I remembered the cotton flower I still hadn’t planted since the gardener was dismissed.
“A leaf has fallen on your head,” I said, even though I could have removed it myself.
Darius reached over my head, and I felt his gentle touch brushing through my hair, followed by a clicking sound, like metal being locked.
“Huh?” I wondered, feeling something odd in my hair.
He chuckled at the moment I realized the strange sensation.
“Hmm,” he hesitated, unlike his usual demeanor.
I touched my head and felt something cold and hard, like tiny stones… maybe a hair ornament?
“I don’t know how to praise the beauty of your hair like the other knights,” he confessed.
It was indeed a hair ornament!
“Why are you giving this to me all of a sudden? If you ask, I guess it’s because the Fosse family received a bridal gift, but I didn’t give you anything for your dowry,” he said.
I froze, feeling like fifty years of embarrassment had passed over me, though I hadn’t even lived that long, including my time before and after the possession.
“This is my first gift to you,” he said expectantly.
“It suits you very well, just as I thought. Come here,” he coaxed, lovingly stroking my hair.
I’ve always been weak to such romantic gestures. I could even believe that the wilted leaves falling on my head were flower petals.
“He doesn’t like me. Wake up, Annette. You’re not the heroine of this novel,” I reminded myself.
Does he really not like me, not even a little?
I tried to recall how coldly Darius spoke to Daniel.
“Beware of Annette.”
“Don’t let your guard down for a moment with women from the South.”
Ah, he was too cruel.
“Don’t you like it?” he asked, seeming to care.
“I…”
“Excuse me, Your Grace, Duchess,” interrupted Sir Lucion’s urgent voice, pulling me from a sweet dream.
“Ah, Sir Lucion. It’s already evening.”
“What’s the matter? I thought there were no urgent issues,” Darius asked, slightly disappointed.
No, it must be my mistake.
“I’m sorry to interrupt, knowing you’re in the middle of something important. I didn’t want to disturb you both, but I had to…”
“Just get to the point.”
“Rose is missing,” he announced.
I blinked, surprised.
“Rose?”
“She attended a ceremony at the castle today. But afterwards, she left a strange message with the servants and disappeared,” Sir Lucion explained, starting to say something about the message but then shaking his head.
“It doesn’t seem serious, but since she’s still young and it’s getting dark, I’m worried. I’m sorry, but could you help with the search?”
“No, Rose is like a sister to me. I’ll deploy the castle’s forces to find her. If we all search, we’ll find her quickly,” Darius assured.
Sir Lucion sighed with relief.
“Thank you for your kindness, my lord.”
‘I remember seeing her upset at the ceremony.’
But she was there until that point.
“I’ll go back to my room. I have a lot to discuss with Lady Egret and the documents.”
“It might get late, so don’t wait for me tonight.”
I nodded to Darius and left.
Right now, the issue with Lady Egret was giving me a headache. Although I was certain from reading the original story that Lady Egret was embezzling funds, I had no evidence.
“I need to find evidence that will completely immobilize Lady Egret.”
It was frustrating to have so much to do with only one body. I sat at my desk in my office, blaming the inadequate conditions.
“Huh?”
My eyes darted around. Papers, quill and ink, books borrowed from the Duchy’s library.
“Could it be…”
“Did someone visit my room today?”
Someone had tampered with my room while I was away.
“Well, now that I think about it, Miss Rose did visit your room today because of the punishment you imposed on her! But it was really brief, and Miss Rose said she only came to leave the copied book!”
Apple’s face turned pale as she confessed immediately.
“These papers, reorganized but definitely different from how I originally placed them. Rose must have thoroughly examined them.”
I reopened the book, placing a map on it, searching for the most recent notes I made.
“There’s a circle drawn on the map.”
There were three places I had been considering, and among them, a new circle was drawn on one.
“To His Grace, no, inform everyone in the castle! Rose Temery is not where you are searching! Rose is in the willow forest beyond, over the hills!”
I didn’t know I could ride a horse until the moment I realized Rose had seen the map and documents I was searching for and had gone to the willow forest ahead of me.
Ironically, it was only after I harshly grabbed the reins of a whinnying horse that I, as Annette, realized I knew how to ride.
“No, Rose Temery. No, you shouldn’t go.”
I muttered madly, not even knowing what I was saying.
“Lady!”
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.]
