Upon arriving at the mansion, Lea touched her neck as if lost in deep thought. Her fingers brushed against an old keyshaped necklace embedded with a red gemstone.
Touching her necklace whenever deep in thought had become a habit. The Emperor had said not to worry about it, but the words kept swirling in her mind.
[Strange, I feel like I’ve seen you before.]She sensed a change in the Emperor’s gaze as he covertly watched her. Could it be an illusion that the Emperor seemed to recognize her?
Lea was left with an unidentifiable sense of discomfort.
“What are you thinking so deeply about?”
Startled by the sudden low voice, Lea lifted her head. Akkia was leaning on the windowsill, staring at her.
“It’s nothing, really…”
However, her eyes revealed depths of unspoken thoughts.
‘Beallitzkal.’
Located at the northernmost tip, Beallitzkal was cold enough to wear longsleeved clothes even in the summer.
Moreover, it took ten days of carriage travel from the capital to reach there.
The Count was leaving for such a distant place. Akkia had replied that he would depart tomorrow with minimal luggage.
The antidote for the side effects wasn’t even ready yet. Lea was worried about letting the Count go alone under these circumstances.
“Count, are you really heading straight to Beallitzkal?”
“His Majesty has ordered it, what else can be done?”
His expression was unreadable as he looked out the window.
‘It will take at least a month.’
Including the travel time, they would be apart for more than a month and a half.
Lea worried that the Count’s condition might worsen during that time.
However, the Count, who was departing on the Emperor’s orders, didn’t seem likely to take her along.
‘I have no choice. I must prepare the antidote in the meantime.’
Lea planned to prepare the antidote while the Count was away from the capital. She spoke, directing her words at the Count who was still looking out the window.
“Take care. I heard that even in the summer, Beallitzkal is as cold as early winter.”
At Lea’s words, tinged with concern, the Count turned his gaze. Akkia’s expression was mysterious as he stared at Lea.
“Why? Do you have something to say?”
His brow furrowed deeply at Lea’s puzzled expression. Then he opened his mouth as if asking what she was talking about.
“You should come as well.”
“…Excuse me? Me?”
‘Why would I go there?’
He was going on official duty by the Emperor’s orders; why would they need her, a pharmacist?
“Did you plan to stay alone in the capital for an indefinite period?”
‘Did I think that?’
Lea’s eyes widened at the Count’s unexpected response.
She had to sell the stamina potions she had developed along with Magnolia. Only then could she provide the Count with the substantial amount of money she had promised.
And now he was asking her to go to Beallitzkal with him.
‘What about the stamina potions?’
“It’s obvious. What could I possibly do there? Besides, I have things to do here, with Magnolia…”
“There’s nothing for you to do.”
Akkia cut off Lea’s words with a resolute tone.
“Do you really think so?”
Then he smirked, tilting his chin.
“…What?”
“Surely you expect side effects to occur there too. What will you do then?”
“Well, that’s…”
‘I’ll have to solve it myself.’
Lea swallowed the words that almost escaped her lips.
“You said you’d take responsibility, didn’t you?”
“I did…but, haha.”
How long did he plan to chew on those words she’d uttered days ago? She forced a smile onto her lips.
“Wherever I go, you go with me.”
There was no room for negotiation in Akkia’s firm tone. The sunlight streaming through the window illuminated his red eyes.
(End)
[Dash] Whoosh.
The sound of hooves clattering was buried in the downpour. They had been riding in the carriage for already a week.
The sudden heavy rain made the muddy ground jostle the carriage.
‘The weather doesn’t seem quite right.’
Could they safely reach the northern region in this bad weather? Lea was lost in worry, watching the raindrops pouring down like a waterfall.
Then, at that moment, the carriage sank suddenly, tilting their bodies diagonally.
“Ah!”
It happened in an instant. The two bodies entangled inside the cramped carriage.
Somehow, Lea ended up leaning against Count Heidern and hurriedly lifted her body.
“I’m sorry!”
Count Heidern, who had his eyes closed, looked at Lea with a dazed expression. Just as his lips seemed to move to say something, the coachman knocked on the door.
“Are you alright?! I’m sorry. The wheel got stuck in the mud…”
The coachman, completely drenched in a matter of seconds, spoke to both of them.
“I’m fine. Are you okay, Count?”
“I’m fine.”
As Count Heidern didn’t say anything else, the relieved coachman spoke.
“Could you please step out for a moment? I need to free the wheel. You can take shelter under that tree for now. I’ll get it out quickly.”
The coachman pointed at a large tree. Thanks to the thick foliage, the ground below was less waterlogged.
Both of them quickly took refuge under the tree.
“Sigh…”
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.]
