Listening to the full story through Rinel made me feel relieved, separate from the problem.
“But, why are they rushing to bring in concubines?”
“The ministers seem to be in a hurry.”
“Why?”
“Some of the priests who came on the first night seem to have spread a rumor among the ministers.”
“What rumor?”
“That I passionately took you.”
“……Ah.”
My words were stuck due to the vivid memory of his passionate actions on our first night.
A heat rose from my toes, slowly dyeing my body red.
“We will let God punish the priest who spread the rumor, and how should we deal with the ministers who made a fuss over the rumor and their daughters who took you lightly……”
Rinel held my hand with a cold expression, but his hand was much colder than his face.
I had the urge to press his icy cold hand against my burning face.
“By the way……”
He looked at me with a more serious look than when talking about the concubine problem.
I was trying hard to cool my body with deep breaths.
“I can’t concentrate because of the sudden appearance of the peach human……”
“Excuse me?”
I blinked my eyes at Rinel’s offbeat remark.
He touched the edge of his chest with his hand and turned his head slightly to clear his throat.
“What are you talking about?”
“Your appearance right now.”
Rinel raised a finger in front of me and traced a circle in the air.
The range of the circle he drew included not only my face but also my chest line.
I lowered my head and checked my flushed skin.
Then I realized what he meant.
“It seems hot, if it’s hot, why not lift your dress a little.”
Rinel reached out again for the hem of my dress.
“It’s okay. I’m originally hotbodied……”
I swept away his hand and fanned my face with both hands.
“Cool down a little.”
“Thank……you.”
He put his cold hand on my hot neck.
Wow, it’s totally an ice bag.
“Your cheeks are cute.”
“Is my face like a wellcooked apple now?”
“Yes.”
There was strength in his hand around my neck.
“Then, please don’t choke my neck.”
“Did you notice?”
Rinel let go of my neck with a laugh.
I also laughed and felt around my cooled neck.
“Why not borrow my hand if you’re going to hide it?”
“……Excuse me?”
“My hand is much bigger than yours.”
Rinel cheekily compared the size of my hand to his.
“Please be considerate.”
Even though it was just the two of us in the office, there were many attendants waiting outside the door.
“That seems to apply not only to me? It would be nice if you could also be considerate with your excessive deep breathing.”
Rinel pulled the frill on my chest line.
At his point, my breath was caught in an inhale.
“I like it, but I wouldn’t want to give the Duke of Martins, who will appear soon, a wrong idea.”
Rinel handed me a cushion on the sofa next to him in a lecturing tone.
“I will be careful.”
I sat down with a straight posture holding my breath.
He was tickled at my awkward face and opened his mouth.
“I thought we could take it slow, but if the situation is like this, we may need to hurry up a bit.”
Rinel stroked his chin with his hand and spoke seriously.
We need to hurry up? For what?
Gasp, could he be saying we need to have a child soon?
“Isn’t it too early to bring up the successor?”
“They? Do those ministers think it’s the right time to bring me a concubine?”
Rinel scowled, pointing towards the office door and raising his voice.
It wasn’t that he was wrong. But I was not in a position to agree with him and plan for our future children, exclaiming ‘I think the firstborn should be a princess!’.
“Wouldn’t it be better if I pursued you, rather than having those women thrown at me?”
The hand that Rinel had been pointing at the office door gently lifted my chin.
His blue eyes, which held me, were so cold they seemed to freeze me, and he pressed me for an answer.
What should I reply?
No appropriate response came to mind.
When I merely stammered, he seemed slightly hurt.
“Do you not care if I mix with other women?”
No, that was not the case.
“Do you not mind if a child born from another concubine, not our own child, becomes my heir?”
That was a question I could not answer in the first place.
“Rinel……”
All I could do was to call his name weakly.
That was all I could say at the moment.
“Do you not get angry because you do not have affection for me, Zelda, and you do not mind sharing me with the concubines?”
“Your expression is a bit excessive, Your Majesty.”
“Have you not thought that your silence is more severe than my words?”
Rinel seemed to be suppressing his anger.
“……”
“Or do you not care about succession? Is that it?”
The reason why you cannot eat even when a feast is set before you is because it is someone else’s table.
It’s not because I’m not hungry.
You shouldn’t carelessly touch things that are not yours. You shouldn’t.
It’s not that I dislike you, Rinel…
No matter how much I plead with my eyes, he will never understand my feelings.
“I also hate sharing my things with others the most! I am extremely individualistic.”
I rambled on, fearing that the prolonged silence would have a negative impact on my lifeline.
Despite my serious statement, Rinel, who had been serious just a moment ago, broke into laughter.
“Hmm, I think I have a rough idea of what the empress means.”
He cleared his throat, pretending to cough, and brushed off his remaining laughter.
“Let’s talk about it again when Duke Martins arrives.”
“Yes……”
“Let me make it clear once again, it’s not my directive. Of course, taking in concubines is an unavoidable issue, but I really had no intention of making it known in this way.”
At his sincere expression, I nodded obediently.
“I, too, dislike sharing my things with others. On top of that, I’m quite a picky eater.”
“……So what?”
“So, I don’t like tasting this and that. I only eat what suits my palate.”
“What if you get tired? Then you’ll find something else, won’t you?”
“I don’t know because I haven’t gotten tired of anything I’ve come to like yet.”
Rinel’s face came closer to mine.
As if we had made a promise, our lips wriggled at the same time.
“Hmm?”
His lips stamped on mine like a seal.
“Wait, just a moment!”
I pushed his sturdy chest with both hands, but he didn’t flinch.
“Why all of a sudden……”
“Because you seemed like you would keep asking stupid questions.”
His aroused voice flowed between our slightly parted lips.
“So I decided to stop it around here. Don’t you like it?”
“No, it’s not that I don’t like it……”
“Then do you like it?”
“Well, I don’t know……”
“If you don’t know, you’ll find out by doing it.”
“Ah.”
My resistance melted away under his persistent kiss.
What started as a light kiss was deepening.
Rinel’s hand lingered on my neck for a while before slowly sliding down under my collarbone.
His hand began to wander around the vicinity of my heart, which was beating as if it would jump out.
Knock knock knock.
At that moment, a cheerful knock echoed throughout the office.
Startled by the sound, I pushed Rinel away.
Huh? Did I put more strength in my hand than I thought?
I realized that I had failed to control my strength when I saw him fallen behind the sofa.
He stared at me with a flabbergasted expression.
Before his dumbfounded face twisted into anger, I hurriedly responded to the knocking sound.
“Co, come in!”
His gaze remained on my face until the office door opened.
I quickly pulled his hand, helping him to sit upright on the sofa.
Although he moved as I guided him, his face still looked shocked.
“Zelda, the next time you reject my kiss, then!”
Rinel slowly watched the office door opening and whispered in my ear.
“You should know that I won’t be the only one falling backwards.”
The threat was too eerie.
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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