When Annette perceived the question forming on Noah’s face, she answered as if she could read his mind.
“It’s nothing serious. You seemed a bit more flexible than others.”
“Ah, have you met Simoren?”
“He’s easier to find than you. Though, it didn’t bear much fruit.”
“I doubt it would be much different with me. I have nothing to offer you either.”
“Is that so? I don’t think so.”
At Noah’s words, Annette chuckled. The black-haired woman’s smile was reminiscent of ripples on a river, ephemeral and fleeting, contributing to her enigmatic aura. Seizing the moment of Noah’s distraction, Annette continued.
“You have a deep connection with Lowell Hessen, after all. Noah Ernst, valedictorian of the 14th cohort at Blua Private School. I know your brother perished in the fire at the Hessen estate.”
“…!”
“Your brother was quite close to the Hessen brothers, wasn’t he? Visiting a friend’s house during holidays, especially since you and your brother were commoners…”
“Stop. Please stop.”
Noah’s face, which had been merely inconvenienced until now, hardened like forged steel.
“How do you know that?”
“There’s always a way to find out.”
Noah felt his blood run cold. Even if Annette was a Martinec and backed by Operetta, she couldn’t possibly know more than the Emperor. But the information she just revealed was something she couldn’t have known just from being Operetta.
Nobody knew about his deceased brother except Emperor Peter, who helped cover it up, and Simoren, his close friend since private school.
‘Unless she’s a surviving Hessen…’
How could Annette Martinec possibly know such details?
As Noah stared at Annette, frozen, she smiled wryly.
“I seem to have startled you. There’s no need to be so guarded.”
“Am I supposed to believe that?”
“What choice do you have?”
Annette’s demeanor quickly shifted from soft to steely. Her expression and posture remained unchanged, yet suddenly she exuded the aura of a ruthless assassin rather than an innocent lady.
“Don’t worry. I’m not here to threaten you. I’ll keep your secrets. I just want an answer. Nobody has been willing to give me one.”
A seemingly trivial question. Annette looked down regretfully, then smiled again.
“If Lowell is still alive, would His Majesty seek her out?”
A question no one could answer.
“Annette Martinec. What do you want?”
As Noah asked in astonishment, Annette smiled with a hint of sadness.
“I guess I won’t get an answer this time either. Don’t be too wary.”
We have the same goal.
“I’m going to quell His Majesty’s madness.”
‘Noah Ernst is the last one.’
Lowell revisited in her mind all the people she had met that day.
Having realized that Peter would never respond to her question, Lowell posed the same question to several others. To an observer, it might seem like Lowell was insistently seeking Peter’s answer, but the question was merely a pretext.
What Lowell truly cast out was the premise of her question, “If Lowell is still alive.”
“Peter thinks I know something about Lowell.”
Strictly speaking, it seems he thinks she heard about Lowell from someone, but fundamentally, it’s no different.
She was the only person at the moment who supposedly had information about “Lowell.”
What if she subtly suggested Lowell’s survival?
“Surely, a signal will come from somewhere.”
Gossip in the palace spreads quickly, and in this beautiful place teeming with desires, someone will surely bite the bait Lowell cast.
Now, all that remained was to wait.
Lowell returned to the palace assigned to her, only to find an uninvited guest.
“Lady Annette, while you were away, the Dowager Empress came to visit.”
It was rude to enter the palace of an absent owner. Knowing this, the maids showed clear displeasure.
“If you wish, I can send her away now and arrange an appointment later.”
“No. It’s not polite to turn away a visitor.”
A spark lit up in Lowell’s dark eyes.
“I’ll meet her. Lead the way.”
The first prey had arrived.
The Dowager Empress, Monique Montmorency.
Her reputation could be summarized in a single line. A woman who luckily got a palace and pretends to be the Dowager Empress, as there’s no one left in the royal family since the current emperor ascended to the throne. In other words, she’s known for her vanity, and despite owning a palace, she’s insignificant.
Of course, some might wonder if she’s in favor with the current emperor.
“If you were going to bring a bride, you should have consulted me. I don’t know why Peter left me out of such a matter. After all, I’m like a mother to him.”
Anyone who doesn’t know Monique could tell within ten minutes of meeting her that she’s not on good terms with Peter.
“Still, since Lady Annette is here, I thought she’d come to see me. I waited, but you never got in touch. Disappointing. The Martinec Dukes were good people.”
“…Yes, they were.”
Lowell replied with a slight smile. Saying the Martinec Dukes were good people implicitly suggested that their daughter, Lowell, was not.
‘She’s in such a hurry to see me, yet she talks so much.’
Lowell felt slightly irritated for the first time in a while. When she entered the Martinec family, the Duchess had long passed away, so she never saw her. However, Jurgen was more than just a foster father to Lowell.
If it weren’t for Jurgen, Lowell wouldn’t have made it this far. Perhaps she might have been caught and killed in front of the burnt estate. Therefore, Jurgen meant more to Lowell than just a foster father. Even if Monique didn’t know this, bringing up deceased parents in front of their child was ill-advised.
Monique, who had learned the etiquette of high society while living as an empress, wouldn’t be ignorant of such basic etiquette.
“Right. They were indeed good people. It’s nice to talk about this since we’re acquainted.”
“…Acquainted, you say?”
“Yes, we met when I was about three years old.”
Ah.
Lowell finally realized why Monique brought up the Martinec Dukes.
‘She wanted to somehow establish a connection with me.’
“Annette Martinec” was not just a fabricated identity for Lowell’s cover. She was a real person. Annette was the same age as Lowell, with black hair and eyes, a girl who died before her thirteenth birthday due to illness.
No further details were known. Since both the Duchess and “Annette Martinec” were deceased, Lowell could only speculate that Annette might not have been Jurgen’s illegitimate child, based on her black hair and eyes. If she had been born to the Duchess, there would have been no reason for her to have black hair.
“In any case, it was good luck for me.”
“Annette Martinec” had been frail since childhood and, except for her very early years, had grown up without ever leaving home due to her illness. This allowed Lowell to take her place.
Martinec, especially Operetta, was a closed-off place. If it was a decision made by Duke Martinec, the death of a child could have been easily concealed.
Thanks to this, Lowell was able to maintain her status as a noble. Had she been known as an adopted daughter, she wouldn’t have been able to enter this place.
“It’s such a joy that the daughter of a family we’re close with has become Peter’s bride. I want to be friends with Lady Annette.”
“It’s an honor, Your Highness.”
As Lowell was compliant, Monique’s demeanor softened a bit.
In other words, she became more uninhibited.
“I was so worried about Peter, but now that Lady Annette is here, I can rest assured. I didn’t like how his mind was occupied with that Lowell woman. Whether she’s dead or alive… Right?”
“Well, you never know with these things.”
Lowell lightly touched the rim of her teacup and smiled faintly. Her face, with black eyes hiding her true thoughts and eyelids slightly lowered, was so dry that it belied her smile.
“Somewhere… she might still be alive.”
Male lead is a Destined Young Husband (Female-dominant)
One-sentence summary: Wife-master, listen to my explanation!
Li Ruantang, a young lady from a prestigious family, stumbled and fell. When she woke up, she saw a noble and beautiful young man sitting by her bedside, wiping away tears.
The young master had slightly reddened eyes, and his every move exuded charm.
The sight made Li Ruantang’s eyes hot and her heart flutter. After all, she had made a bet with the young master Meng from the neighboring family. If she couldn’t marry a husband before the end of the year, she would have to admit defeat and give up the jade she had worked so hard to obtain.
Outside the window, the flowers were in full bloom.
Rather than losing the bet, the jade, and her face, Li Ruantang calculated that it would be better to seek marriage with the young master in front of her, killing three birds with one stone.
…
Meng Jun never thought that an accident during a spring outing would lead to them rolling down a cliff and into a river, yet still survive.
Now they were trapped in an unknown village, and Meng Jun had overheard that the family who had rescued them had their own intentions.
After all, it was Li Ruantang who had lost her mind and sought marriage first. He was only trying to protect himself!
Glancing at Li Ruantang, who was listing her own merits, the young husband’s voice softened, and he blushed as he lied, “W-wife-master, Wife-master, don’t you remember me?”
The young husband’s voice was clear and handsome, coaxing Li Ruantang’s heart to be soft and sweet, and she spared no effort to protect him.
It wasn’t until they returned to the capital that Li Ruantang suddenly remembered.
When they had fallen off the cliff, in order not to implicate Wei Yunruo, whom he secretly admired, the young husband had instead pulled her, who was slightly farther away, down the cliff with him…
Short summary by Yuushi L: Initially, the male lead (ML) liked another girl, while the female lead (FL) liked the ML. Both fell off a cliff. The FL temporarily lost her memory, and the ML, fearing others might take advantage of him, claimed FL was his wife while they were staying in a village. Later, when they returned home, the FL regained her memories and remembered that the ML liked someone else, so she kept her distance from him. However, during their time living together in the countryside, the ML’s view of the FL had completely changed. From this point, his pursuit of the FL begins.
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