Celia pulled her wrist free.
“Duke Gredrick.”
Celia met Ileon’s gaze.
She spat out each word slowly, as if grinding them between her teeth.
“I am not Dietrich’s person.”
“Are you asking me to believe that?”
Ileon smiled faintly while gently stroking Celia’s hair.
His lips were smiling, but his eyes were not. He looked down at Celia with calm, unreadable eyes.
“Lady Celia. Is becoming the Crown Prince’s concubine truly what you desire?”
“No.”
Celia sharply slapped away Ileon’s hand, which was carelessly braiding her hair.
“I desire nothing at all.”
“Nothing you desire?”
No, there was something she desired.
Celia had many things she wanted to say if she ever met her true enemy.
Was it really you who destroyed my kingdom? Why did you kill every single person? Not satisfied with destroying your own kingdom, why did you also annihilate Inata Duchy, our ally?
But the moment she faced the Emperor, all thoughts of asking such questions vanished completely.
Celia had killed the Emperor who coveted her body in an instant.
Was it really Ileon who destroyed her kingdom, just as Dietrich claimed?
Ileon was indeed skilled at hiding his true intentions, but it was difficult to conclude solely on that basis that he had destroyed her kingdom.
Celia trusted neither Dietrich nor Ileon.
“In my eyes, it seems you do desire something.”
Ileon lifted Celia’s chin with his index finger. Facing his clear blue eyes beneath straight eyebrows, Celia suddenly remembered the words a parrot named Popo had once said long ago.
“The princess loves blue eyes! The princess loves blue eyes!”
What had happened to Dylan, the guard who taught Popo those words? Shortly after being dismissed from his post as a royal guard… her kingdom had fallen.
Dylan had blue eyes, and the man standing before her now also had bright blue eyes.
At that very moment, for some reason, Celia found herself strangely missing Dietrich, with his red eyes.
Even Celia herself couldn’t understand why. Had she unknowingly grown dependent on Dietrich?
“A man who tried to use me? Me? Why would I? Why?”
Celia’s eyes widened.
Even weakened as she was, to depend on mere men was unacceptable.
Was it because of the way he wiped crumbs from the corner of her mouth with an annoyed expression? Or because he would stop walking and silently wait whenever she said she was in pain?
Whenever he took her hand with that indifferent look, her heart strangely calmed.
“When Dietrich held my hand, fingers interlaced between the knuckles, my mind and body would settle and feel at ease…”
“Oh!”
At that moment, Celia had an enormous realization.
She finally understood—Dietrich possessed an ability.
Why had she assumed she was the only one with such a power? Dietrich had been acting as a calming agent, stabilizing her mind and spirit.
Now that she thought about it, there were many strange things. That Dietrich knew about abilities, and that her own ability had no effect on him.
Celia’s ability worked very well on men, but had no effect on others who also possessed abilities like herself.
Since everyone else had died, she had never even considered that Dietrich might have an ability.
That assumption itself had been a trap. Now, looking back, it suddenly occurred to her that Dietrich might have survived precisely because of his own ability.
Celia abruptly seized Ileon’s hand. Ileon’s body stiffened at the sudden contact.
“Thank you! Because of you, I’ve gained a tremendous realization.”
“…?”
Ileon blinked, utterly confused.
“May I ask what kind of realization you’ve had?”
“It’s a secret.”
Celia had absolutely no intention of revealing what she had discovered to the suspicious Ileon.
Ileon raised one corner of his mouth, provoking her.
“You’re about to become the Crown Prince’s concubine, yet you’re laughing?”
“If I’m sad, will the situation improve?”
Interest flickered in Ileon’s eyes.
“So, do you have some way to escape this situation?”
Instead of answering, Celia smiled brightly.
Her beautiful emerald eyes gently crinkled. Her silver hair, lighter than Ileon’s, shimmered dazzlingly under the dim moonlight.
She was beautiful. Possessing beauty more than worthy of her title as everyone’s first love.
An ordinary man would be unable to resist desiring her.
Ileon’s perspective, however, differed from that of other men.
This extreme beauty had brought about her own misfortune.
If she hadn’t been beautiful, she wouldn’t have entered the Emperor’s bedchamber, nor would she have caught the Crown Prince’s eye and fallen into becoming his concubine.
Everyone loved beauty. No one would choose ugliness over beauty.
But under such beauty, everything else became meaningless.
Men had been intoxicated by her beauty, never bothering to understand the real Celia.
Even the fact that Celia had killed the Emperor was obscured by her beauty.
“So that’s why the Empress made that request to me.”
Ileon let out a faint, cynical smile at the Empress’s cruelty.
The reason Ileon attended the imperial banquet was partly to see Celia, but also because the Empress had sent him a private letter.
“Duke, could you obtain a poison that disfigures the face?”
Ileon fingered the small vial hidden in his sleeve.
The Empress, Erpia, was no longer of any use to him.
“Being a bastard son of the Seonseondae Duke, rising to the position of Empress deserves some praise—but that’s all.”
Without his help, she would have already been removed from her position long ago.
The next Emperor, Jeremy, also did not meet Ileon’s standards.
“Perhaps… I should just become Emperor myself.”
Long ago, a pact among the Three Dukes strictly forbade any of them from seizing the throne themselves.
In the early days of Abelon’s founding, the Three Dukes had fought each other for the throne. At that time, most of the citizens in their territories were drawn into the war and died, and rivers ran completely red with blood.
The struggle for the throne lasted over three years. The three families lost more than half their military forces and also lost the people’s favor.
It was a war where they gained nothing and lost everything.
The Three Dukes then made a pact in front of the entire populace of Abelon, declaring such events would never happen again. As a precaution, they spared the youngest remaining royal family member and placed him on the throne.
Publicly, the Three Dukes swore loyalty to the Emperor, while secretly working tirelessly to restore their families’ lost prestige and dignity.
There had been several attempts to eliminate the Three Dukes, but it was never the Three Dukes who disappeared—it was their opponents.
When the three families, once enemies, formed an alliance, no other house could stand against them.
Several hundred years later, the Three Dukes came to completely dominate above the Emperor.
Though higher than the Emperor, they were not the Emperor themselves.
Ileon resented this.
Why should he suffer because of a foolish pact made by his ancestors?
Balt Portman, one of the Three Dukes, was a Sword Master but unable to control his anger. The other, Arthur Servantes, remained shut away in his territory with no intention of emerging.
As for Dietrich, he was a duke in name only.
His dukedom was merely an empty title, granted by Ileon as an act of charity.
What kind of duke has no territory of his own?
“Still, why did Dietrich spare this woman’s life?”
It made no sense that he spared Celia simply because she was beautiful.
Ileon, growing more intrigued by Celia, fingered the vial containing poison. The poison inside would cause one’s face to grotesquely melt away, even with only a small dose.
“Lady Celia.”
“Yes.”
“Will you become my person?”
At Ileon’s words, Celia softly laughed and removed her hand from his. The moment the warmth vanished, Ileon felt a pang of regret.
“No. I refuse.”
Celia met Ileon’s gaze. Her fresh green eyes sparkled like stars in the night sky.
“I belong to no one.”
The moment Celia finished speaking, a firework burst loudly in the sky with a *bang!* Ileon stopped touching the vial and looked up at the night sky, now exploding with colorful lights.
“That was a very appropriate answer, Lady Celia.”
Ileon placed something into Celia’s hand. It was a small vial, about the size of a finger joint, filled with a transparent liquid.
When Celia gave him a questioning look, Ileon smiled faintly and replied.
“This is a gift I give you. If anyone asks who gave it, say it was from a very high-ranking person.”
“…”
“In times of crisis, this will be of great help.”
“Why are you giving this to me…?”
“Well.”
Ileon gently tucked a strand of Celia’s hair behind her ear and said simply,
“I happen to appreciate people with strong convictions.”
After Being Cheated On, She Picked Up a Treasure (Female-dominant)
One-line summary: The husband I married on a whim had been secretly in love with me for a long time.
On the day when Jun Shao finally obtained the imperial decree for her marriage, Lan Qu, the person she had admired for six years, defied the decree and ran away.
Her gentleness and devotion, her promise of a lifetime together, were all disregarded by him. Instead, he dreamed of entering the palace to serve the Emperor’s sister as a sixth-rank attendant.
News of this incident spread throughout the capital, and the alleys in front of and behind the Lan mansion were crowded with people who came to watch the commotion.
Jun Shao should have been embarrassed and angry.
But someone stepped in to protect her dignity.
The figure was in a miserable state, yet still possessed an undeniable elegance and handsomeness.
The young lord struggled to climb the wall of the Lan mansion and shouted to her, “If he won’t marry you, I will!”
So, Jun Shao took advantage of the situation and married the person.
She thought the young lord did it to save the Lan family from the crime of defying the imperial decree, but never imagined that from beginning to end, what he coveted was her.
*
After the wedding, Jun Shao felt like she was living in a dream.
Her Wife-master was as beautiful as a fairy in a painting, skilled in the six arts, well-versed in poetry and literature, capable of being gentle and attentive, and also grand and dignified. Most importantly, she was the only one in his heart and eyes.
Jun Shao didn’t know how Lan Shiwu, as a illegitimate son without a father and blessed with beauty, had managed to preserve his purity, recklessly escape, and use his last ounce of strength to ruin his own reputation, all because of his love for her, just to stand before her.
She could only see him gazing at her with eyes full of love, and when she bestowed a name upon him, his eyes shone like stars.
“You have come to me like a weary bird perching on a branch. I shall call you A Qi.”
