Was it a mistake to bring Annet to the Tilleman memorial banquet?
As the banquet began and the atmosphere warmed up, Peter, after exchanging customary pleasantries with the obligatory attendees, returned to his seat to sip his drink.
To be precise, he was observing someone while sipping his drink.
At the end of his gaze was a woman. In this brightly colored setting, she stood out with her long, black hair.
Wherever she went in the banquet hall, whispers about her could be heard.
“She’s really beautiful. It’s astonishing that she hasn’t been active in the social scene until now.”
“Given her questionable lineage, it’s expected. The black hair is a giveaway, isn’t it? Even if the Martineks had an affair, it wouldn’t be surprising.”
“Lucky her to have made it to the palace, considering she should have spent her life hidden in a mansion.”
The Tilleman memorial banquet was intended to maintain peace. Naturally, the atmosphere should be friendly and cheerful. While everyone knew this, the rare sight before them seemed too tempting not to gossip about.
“Who knows, she might become the Empress one day. It wouldn’t hurt to make a good impression now.”
“Considering the Emperor has kept her alive this long and even brought her as his partner…”
Their habit of weighing gains and losses also fueled their chatter.
They thought they were being discreet, speaking softly and hiding their mouths behind fans. Unfortunately, the dragon lineage, with far superior senses than ordinary people, could hear them easily. Peter’s senses were particularly heightened tonight.
For one reason.
“I’ll invite you to Cheyenne Palace next time. We’ve got some excellent tea.”
To hear what Annet was saying.
Yet, despite the banquet progressing for quite some time, Annet showed no signs of being disturbed. Even Monique, expected to cause trouble, was surprisingly quiet.
More astonishingly, Peter’s condition remained remarkably stable.
‘Aside from my discomfort about Annet, my magical state couldn’t be better.’
He had thought seeing Annet would worsen his condition, reminding him of Lowell, but that wasn’t the case this time.
He guessed why.
‘Maybe because she no longer appears as Lowell to me.’
Strictly speaking, Annet’s face was undoubtedly Lowell’s. There was no doubt about that.
However, now that most of his memories of Lowell had returned, Peter could distinctly feel the difference between Lowell and Annet.
‘If Lowell had truly been healthy and alive, would she look like this?’
He thought about it several times, but the answer was the same. No.
Annet’s movements were too elegant, befitting of the Martineks. Rumors said the family had a unique way of teaching movement, resembling swan wing flutters. Maybe that was why.
Her voice was soft and low, and even her occasional smiles soon reverted to a neutral expression.
Her face, serene and tranquil like a moon shadow in a lake, seemed detached from the world around her. The heavy makeup for the banquet accentuated her features, making her more prominent in Peter’s vision.
‘The Lowell in my memory isn’t like that.’
Lowell was like a flurry of petals, lively and adorable.
Had she grown up normally, she would undoubtedly have been a cheerful and vibrant woman.
Of course, if Lowell had survived and faced the harshness of life, she might have developed a different aura. Still, the Lowell he remembered until she was fifteen was just like that.
‘…Wait.’
The moment Peter’s thoughts reached that point, he felt a sudden unease, a sense of strangeness about the hallucination he had seen in the conservatory garden.
He had always believed that Annet and Lowell were the same person, never doubting it. But if Annet and Lowell were different…
‘If I’m going mad and seeing hallucinations, shouldn’t I see Lowell as she appears in my memories?’
It was a fleeting moment, but Peter remembered the face he had seen. The face that looked back at him with startled eyes.
The calmness on that face.
That face wasn’t Lowell’s.
‘Why?’
Is this also a symptom of going mad? Are my memories of Annet and Lowell getting mixed up because they’re so similar?
If the forgotten memories of Lowell are returning because of Annet, it’s entirely possible.
The possibility that the Lowell I remember might be different from the real Lowell.
Just as he was contemplating this, unable to fully trust even his own memories…
Ting
Someone lightly tapped a glass with a teaspoon to draw attention.
Monique de Montmorency. She set down her glass and approached Peter with elegantly poised steps.
“Your Majesty, on such a joyous occasion, I have some delightful news to share with you.”
She received something from a following maid and handed it to Peter.
A case too large to be a jewel box but decorated with velvet like one.
Upon opening it, Peter’s face crumpled involuntarily.
“This is…….”
“You recognize it! Yes, I found it.”
Peter’s hand drew out the contents of the case.
A long ribbon unfurled over his hand, its end bearing the seal of a noble house and someone’s initials.
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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