The bedroom was as quiet as a tomb.
Save for the emperor’s very faint breathing.
Slowly and very quietly, Lex stepped into the bedroom and stood before the bed where the emperor lay asleep.
But as he had told the man earlier, he did not check or attend to the emperor’s condition.
He simply gripped tightly the candlestick sitting on the bedside table.
“……”
Lex stared silently at the candlestick, which branched into several stems to hold multiple candles.
Its end was so sharp that, although it was a candlestick, it seemed it would have no trouble killing a person.
Lex gripped the candlestick with all his might and looked down at the emperor.
“Why……”
Soon, words close to a groan flowed from between the emperor’s unpleasantly cracked lips.
“I…… did nothing wrong……”
“……”
“Why on earth……”
Listening quietly to the sleep talk that continued weakly was a hardship if there ever was one. Lex sneered soundlessly and looked at the candlestick again.
In the center of the candlestick made of gold was a dazzling diamond embedded.
Lex, with the dagger in his hand, removed it without much difficulty. Then he fumbled at his chest.
Before long, what he pulled out from his chest was a brilliantly shining gemstone that fit perfectly with the diamond he had just removed.
Click.
The gemstone took the empty space the diamond had occupied, as if this was its original place. Only then did Lex put the candlestick back on the bedside table and turned to look at the emperor, who was still groaning.
“Rest assured, Your Majesty.”
Then, as always, he bent at the waist and whispered in a very tender voice in his ear.
“Your suffering here will not last much longer, so I hope you sleep well tonight.”
“Hrm……”
“Wouldn’t it be more shocking to unexpectedly be backstabbed and meet a sudden, miserable end while enjoying what little rest you have?”
……Just as you did to us.
Even at Lex’s clear voice, the emperor did not come to his senses, perhaps because the drug was potent.
What a piece of trash.
Lex glared at the emperor with eyes full of disgust, then left the bedroom again.
* * *
It was Schuler’s message that finally lit the fire to Sinclair’s anxiety, which seemed ready to explode at any moment.
[……She says she’s leaving?]How far can a person’s heart plummet.
[Yes…… So, she told me to relay it to Your Majesty.]Sinclair found out the moment he heard Schuler’s words, something he never wanted to know at all.
[That she no longer has any lingering attachment to Edenbell……] [……] [So, now it’s Your Majesty’s turn to keep your promise……]Thump, thump.
The sound of Sinclair’s footsteps, so different from usual, echoed through the quiet prince’s palace.
“……”
And so, in front of the room where Elaina was confined.
As Sinclair appeared, Judith, Anna and Schuler, who were keeping watch, quietly bowed their heads and stepped back a few paces.
And Sinclair, biting his lips…… approached and stood before the closed door that felt like despair itself.
“Elaina.”
Then, in a very cautious voice, he called Elaina’s name.
“……Elaina.”
But no matter how many times he called her name, there was no answer. Judith, Anna, and Schuler looked very sorry for Elaina’s lack of response, but such things were not at all important to Sinclair right now.
But today, Sinclair too had no intention of backing down.
It was strange. It was clear that the time he had not spent with Elaina, flesh to flesh, was several times longer than the time he had, but these past few days, he was caught by emotions he was feeling for the first time in his life and did not know what to do.
That is, the feeling of being thrown barehanded into the vast ocean.
So to lose a precious person forever like this and live like ashes and disappear like ashes……
On top of that, she says she’s leaving.
Who does she think she is.
How can she abandon me.
If he had to live a life without Elaina, he’d rather die.
“I’m coming in, Elaina.”
So Sinclair opened the door very slowly and carefully.
Fortunately, the door was not locked.
But Elaina’s heart still seemed closed.
“……”
Even though she knew Sinclair had entered, Elaina did not even give him a glance. She just sat weakly on the bed, clenching her fists tightly with both hands.
Sinclair hesitated for a moment, then slowly approached and stood before her.
Then he bent one knee and looked up at her imploringly.
“……Look at me, Elaina.”
As if pleading desperately.
Only then did Elaina slowly turn her head and look down at Sinclair.
But that was all. She had a cold face with no emotion.
As if she were in a completely different world from Sinclair.
“Is it…… really true that you will leave Edenbell, leave my side?”
“……”
“Hurry and say it’s not. Please, I beg you.”
Had you ever thought, even once, that I would kneel before you like a dog and plead like this?
No, probably not. It wasn’t simply because Sinclair was not the kind of man to do such a thing.
It was just that Elaina herself had never even thought she would bring Sinclair this low.
“Schuler relayed my words properly, I see.”
In an instant, Sinclair’s face changed like a brittle leaf that would crumble at a single touch.
“That’s right. I want to leave Edenbell.”
But Elaina continued.
“Even if you don’t allow it, I will leave.”
Anelle was right, and her worries were right. She was not at all suited for the position of Edenbell’s empress, and she did not want that position either.
But what tore Elaina’s heart even more strongly was the fact that her feelings and lingering attachment to Ren, to Sinclair, no matter how strong, had simply become worthless.
Perhaps, Sinclair, if you had revealed everything from the beginning, things might have been a little different.
But such assumptions no longer had any meaning.
Elaina no longer wanted to be toyed with by this man.
“Our contract is over, Sinclair.”
So Elaina answered in a voice as cold as the frost of midwinter.
“Didn’t you promise first with your own mouth? That you intended to divorce after a year had passed.”
“What……”
“Of course, if you wanted to nitpick, you could. That a year has not yet passed.”
“Elaina.”
“But you have now obtained what you wanted. Hister will soon be executed, and you will ascend to the throne. As you have said repeatedly, I think I have sufficiently fulfilled my role as the crown princess as well.”
Yes.
She had fulfilled that role of crown princess, so unfit for her status, with all her might.
Without even knowing her place.
“You said you wouldn’t care where I went after that, right?”
Sinclair’s gaze on Elaina was blank.
Sinclair’s golden eyes looking at her were hollow, having lost their light, unlike before.
Just as Elaina’s black eyes, which had shone brightly with vivid colors, had lost all light after her right leg was ruined forever.
“What if I can’t let you go?”
Sinclair asked in a very low voice.
“Are you going to run away?”
A large hand with blue veins protruding gripped Elaina’s ruined right ankle.
Sinclair’s selfishness, cowardly beyond compare, was shaking his heart once again.
Please stay by my side. Please don’t leave me.
Nevertheless, if you’re really going to abandon me, I’ll……
“……With legs like these?”
Even if it meant becoming endlessly petty and wretched, he would bind this woman.
He had never wished for or wanted a future where Elaina did not exist anyway. He could no longer even breathe without her. So perhaps Sinclair’s heart was a pitiful wail, desperately screaming that it wanted to live.
“……You told me then, Elaina. That we no longer needed such a contract.”
Sinclair continued with a face distorted with resentment, anger, or sadness, he did not know which.
“So you would stay by my side forever. That you would not leave no matter what happened.”
“People’s hearts change, and words go unkept.”
But Elaina answered with a face as still as a grave.
“Just as you did, Ren.”
“……”
“So, are you going to completely break both my legs this time, Sinclair?”
Elaina’s voice, uttered mercilessly, was full of derision.
“As if ruining my intact right leg like this wasn’t enough?”
She knew well.
What kind of words would hurt Sinclair the most.
What kind of story would become the sharpest dagger to pierce his heart.
……Will my heart forget you a little if I ruin your heart like I lost my leg?
I hate you for coming to me like an accident every time, effortlessly, casually turning my life upside down.
I despise myself for being fooled by you every time.
But what she hated and despised most was her own sincerity toward Sinclair, which kept trying to cover up her petty desire for revenge.
How foolish and presumptuous.
So, Elaina had made a choice.
To abandon everything and leave instead.
Even if it was Ren, who had occupied her entire childhood. Even if it was Sinclair, who had allowed her to live a new life.
Even if Sinclair was not the only one suffering, she could not live like this.
She hated it, even a little bit more.
So Elaina did not hesitate. Without hesitation, she ruthlessly pierced Sinclair’s heart with the sharpest words she had honed.
“In the end, you drove my life into the gutter every time. Always, without fail.”
Ex-husband Wants Reconciliation
One-line summary: Chasing the wife to the crematorium (making an effort to attract someone who has become indifferent), the female lead doesn’t look back, the second male lead takes the position.
Intro:
To repay the kindness of the older generation, Su Mu crossed into a female-dominated world and became a live-in daughter-in-law of the Yan family, single-handedly saving the Yan family from fire and water.
But her husband, Yan Jiyue, the eldest son of the Yan family, treated her with sarcasm and never showed her a good face.
It wasn’t until after Su Mu’s death that this pampered and arrogant young master shed a few fake tears and pretended to want to die for love.
This life’s kindness was enough. If there was a next life, she would definitely kick Yan Jiyue away.
Who knew that the heavens would be so kind as to allow her to be reborn, returning to the time when she had just married into the Yan family.
Su Mu glanced at the Yan eldest son, who still spoke coldly to her, and threw a divorce letter in front of him.
“Let’s divorce!”
***
Yan Jiyue never imagined that he would be reborn. He happily went to find Su Mu, wanting to make up for the mistakes he had made in his ignorant youth.
Wasn’t the reason the heavens allowed him to be reborn to let him reconcile with Su Mu?
But when he pushed open the door to Su Mu’s room, the person lying on the bed was another man.
Su Mu’s personal attendant, Xie Yi.
Yan Jiyue hated him so much that his teeth itched. In front of Su Mu, Xie Yi was a gentle and considerate whisperer of sweet nothings, but in reality, he was vicious-hearted and deliberately sabotaged their husband and wife relationship.
In the previous life, it was he who secretly hid in Su Mu’s coffin and committed suicide, stealing a step ahead of him to be buried with Su Mu.
Yan Jiyue’s eyes were filled with hatred as he cursed, “What kind of thing are you? Your background is lowly, what right do you have to occupy Su Mu?”
Xie Yi looked at the sleeping Su Mu and no longer pretended to be a whisperer of sweet nothings.
He proudly stuck out his belly, “I have the right because my belly is capable of giving the Wife-master a daughter.”
***
Yan Jiyue was consumed with jealousy. He spread rumors that Xie Yi had once been branded with the mark of a “harlot” on his chest.
But on the night Xie Yi cut off the flesh bearing that mark, Su Mu suddenly realized something was amiss.
“How did you know the exact moment I was poisoned? And why did you show up a month early?”
Xie Yi remained silent, blood from his wound soaking through his robes. His sapphire eyes brimmed with anguish – or was it just a flawless act?
Between a once-arrogant husband now seeking redemption, and a gentle soul willing to die for her – who truly held the darkest secrets? And could it be that Su Mu and Yan Jiyue weren’t the only ones given a second chance at life…?
[Reading Guide]
1. True divorce, chasing the wife to the crematorium, the female lead doesn’t look back, the male lead is Xie Yi.
2. The ex-husband did not cheat, he just realized too late and didn’t realize that he liked the female lead.
_____
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