Celia was at a loss for words, dumbfounded.
“What is this?”
There were no ghosts, yet suddenly knocking sounds came from all over the room, and now the bathroom door had slammed shut on its own.
Celia grabbed the doorknob to escape the bathroom.
But no matter how hard she pulled, the bathroom door remained firmly shut, showing no sign of opening.
The bathroom and the room were completely sealed by a solid door, letting in almost no light.
Celia pondered in the darkness.
“Why is this happening all of a sudden? And right after Dietrich left, no less.”
At that moment.
The lamp hanging on the bathroom wall began flickering on and off by itself.
Convinced this couldn’t be a coincidence, בריה drew a dagger from her bosom and shouted.
“Stop this weird nonsense and come out, you creepy fool.”
At Celia’s words, the flickering light stopped as if by magic.
Looking at the now steady lamplight, Celia let out a wry laugh.
“Oh…!”
At the same time, an excited voice came from directly behind her.
When Celia turned her head, a man who had approached silently was smiling brightly at her.
The man’s platinum hair shimmered, reflecting the light of the wall-mounted lamp.
His skin was so pale he could pass for a corpse, and his snake-like, bright yellow eyes gleamed.
Dressed in a black robe, the man wore a jet-black pearl earring in one ear and a golden bracelet on his left arm.
He extended one arm, trying to touch Celia’s cheek.
Celia struck down the man’s arm with her elbow and swiftly pressed her dagger to his throat.
“Oh… I should’ve come to meet you sooner. If I’d known you were this beautiful.”
Even with a dagger at his throat, the man showed no fear, his face flushed with excitement.
“…Ah, ha.”
Seeing the man moan with dilated pupils, Celia blurted out a curse.
“Is this guy mad?”
Celia had seen many men in her life, but this one was a first.
“Please, I beg you! Curse me more! Make me… a complete mess! With that beautiful face, that enchanting voice, curse me!”
The man before her had a strikingly handsome appearance, but his madness was so extreme that even his looks couldn’t compensate.
“…Is this guy completely insane?”
She had a gut feeling that if she stabbed his throat with the dagger, he’d beg for more.
Celia instinctively sensed it.
She pointed the dagger at her own throat instead.
The man, who had been trembling with excitement, flinched in shock and snatched the dagger from her in an instant.
His movements were so fast they were barely visible to Celia’s eyes.
The fact that he’d infiltrated Dietrich’s mansion uninvited already marked him as no ordinary man.
But she hadn’t expected him to be this agile.
“No! Don’t do that! You must cherish your beautiful self.”
“…”
“So I’m confiscating this dangerous thing.”
The man tucked the dagger into his robe without permission.
“Give it back. It’s mine.”
Celia tried to retrieve the dagger from his robe.
Then, a snake-like, sticky touch grabbed her wrist.
The man holding her wrist let out an excited moan out of nowhere.
“Ugh… ha.”
Disgusted, Celia immediately pulled her hand free from his grip.
“It’s too… stimulating. So white, so soft, so tender…”
Seeing the man muttering with flushed cheeks, a visceral disgust welled up in her.
The person before her seemed less like a man and more like an otherworldly being.
Celia glared at him with a look of revulsion.
At her gaze, the man trembled and twisted his body.
Seizing the moment, Celia reached into his robe to retrieve her dagger.
In her haste, she nicked her fingertip on the sharp blade.
But she succeeded in reclaiming the dagger.
With the dagger in hand, Celia swung it at the man before her.
Yet, her dagger couldn’t even scratch him, as if blocked by a solid wall.
“Who the heck are you?”
To Celia’s question, the man answered readily.
“I’m Arthur. A wizard who loves beautiful things more than anything in the world.”
“…No way, Arthur Servantes?”
At Celia’s words, the man’s golden eyes rolled upward.
“Ugh. You know me. The most beautiful being in the world knows me. Calling my name like that is too stimulating…”
“How can there be such a lunatic?”
Celia felt a chill run down her spine.
Not from fear or dread, but from the deep disgust of facing an incomprehensible deviant.
“To think this crazy man is one of the three dukes and even helped destroy my kingdom.”
Still, this deviant might be easier to handle than Ileon.
Nothing to lose by trying. Celia decided to test him.
“Arthur.”
At the sound of his name, Arthur’s golden eyes shook as if struck by an earthquake.
“Oh! You called my name. I’m so happy. I could die right now with no regrets…”
His eyes red with excitement, his mouth agape as if drooling, and his dilated pupils staring at Celia—Arthur truly looked insane.
Celia had many questions, but being around him was so unpleasant she indirectly told him to leave.
“Can you go away for today?”
“…Okay!”
At Celia’s words, Arthur melted into a puddle of liquid and vanished without a trace.
Confirming his disappearance, Celia looked at her hand.
Blood was beading on her right index finger from reclaiming the dagger.
It was proof that what had just happened was real, not a lie.
Frowning, Celia opened the bathroom door, which had been locked moments before.
“…It’s open.”
[This is the timeline separator]Having fed the horses in the stables, Dietrich returned straight to his mansion without detouring.
“Any intruders while I was gone?”
“None, sir.”
At the knight’s report, Dietrich nodded and entered the mansion.
He passed through the corridor and climbed the marble stairs to the third floor.
“…?”
Though the knight had said there were no intruders, Dietrich felt a strange unease upon reaching the third floor.
It was an animalistic instinct.
At a glance, everything seemed normal, but something grated on his nerves.
“If I didn’t feel this on the first or second floor but do on the third, did someone sneak in through a window?”
Dietrich glanced at the windows. The sunset was already painting the palace in red hues.
“It’s not even fully dark, and someone got to the third floor without being seen?”
A sense of unease washed over him.
Dietrich flung open the door to Celia’s room.
His gaze fell on Celia, sitting on the sofa.
“Oh, you’re back?”
Thankfully, Celia was unharmed.
Relieved to see her, Dietrich let out a sigh.
“Did anyone come by while I was gone?”
Celia’s face visibly darkened.
“I knew it. Who was it?”
“Arthur Servantes.”
At Celia’s reply, Dietrich’s eyebrows furrowed.
“What did you say? Say that again.”
“Arthur Servantes was here.”
“…”
“He was the most perverse guy I’ve ever seen.”
Celia shook her head, shuddering at the memory.
“That guy came here? Are you hurt?”
“No.”
Dietrich sighed in relief but then noticed the blood on her right index finger.
“You’re hurt, so why say you’re not?”
“Oh, this isn’t an injury, just a scratch.”
Celia replied nonchalantly.
“It’ll heal in a few days if left alone…”
Before Celia could finish, Dietrich leaned down and took her injured finger into his mouth.
Something soft and gentle licked and soothed the wounded spot.
Celia felt the cut from the blade heal as if melting away.
Dietrich, carefully licking her wound, treated her hand as if it were candy, rolling it in his mouth.
He was clearly healing her wound, yet it felt almost like a caress.
Celia was startled by her own thoughts.
“Did meeting a deviant turn me into one too?”
No. Don’t think weird thoughts.
Dietrich was just bothered by her injury and healed it, nothing more.
The cut from the blade vanished as if washed away.
Only after the wound was gone did Dietrich release her hand.
Despite his ascetic gaze, his lips glistened with moisture.
Celia stared at his glossy lips for a moment before looking away.
“Celia.”
When Dietrich called her, Celia, who had been looking elsewhere, met his gaze awkwardly.
Healing a wound that would’ve healed in a few days had created an oddly charged atmosphere.
“Sorry for leaving you alone.”
Celia was taken aback by Dietrich’s unexpected words.
He had no reason to apologize.
If anyone was at fault, it was the deviant who barged in, not Dietrich.
“Why are you apologizing? You didn’t do anything wrong.”
“No, I’m partly responsible. I did leave you alone.”
“Dietrich, don’t apologize too often. If you apologize for things that aren’t your fault, people might think, ‘Oh, this guy’s a pushover.’”
At Celia’s words, Dietrich gazed at her with calm eyes.
“Celia, you’re not that kind of person.”
“…”
“Someone who’d take advantage of an apology. You’re not like that.”
Celia met Dietrich’s unwavering gaze.
He always looked at her with such honest eyes.
Whenever he looked at her like this, Celia didn’t know what to do.
She wanted to joke as usual, but perhaps because her tension had eased, she could only stare at Dietrich.
“Celia.”
“What?”
“Be careful of Arthur. He’s more dangerous than Ileon.”
[This is the timeline separator]Celia only understood Dietrich’s words the next day.
Right after Arthur’s visit to the palace, Jeremy, confined in the tower, and Empress Erpia, practically imprisoned in the empress’s palace, were both killed at the same time.
It was far too uncanny to be a coincidence.
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.”
