Hillstain, having finished his crisp, no-nonsense report to the Emperor, turned toward me and smiled.
He even gave a slight wink with one eye.
Good heavens. For the first time, Hillstain actually looks kind. Still, it would’ve been better if he hadn’t thrown in that smug wink.
“Hillstain… you scoundrel! To forget all the favors I’ve shown you…!”
Blue veins bulged on the Empress’s forehead as she panted furiously. But Hillstain stood calmly, as if it had nothing to do with him.
Wow, just look at that infuriating attitude. Isn’t he deliberately provoking the Empress? Probably seizing this chance to repay all the suffering he endured putting up with her foul temper.
After receiving Hillstain’s report, the Emperor stared for a moment at the Empress’s back, then sighed deeply and leaned back into his chair, pressing his fingers to his forehead.
“Empress. Please… exercise some restraint.”
The Empress, who had been glaring at Hillstain while suppressing her irritation, now whipped her body around fiercely toward the Emperor.
“Are you saying you don’t believe me?”
The Emperor shook his head slightly, as if unable to comprehend her attitude.
“Whose word should I believe, then? As the Captain of the Knights said, everyone in this room—except you—claims that woman is not the Grand Saintess! You alone insist she is, simply because you listened to a witch! Should I really believe you over everyone else?”
“Of course I should! Clearly, she must have pulled some trick!”
Her raised arm, emphasized with force, made her red dress sleeve flutter, and her long, jewel-encrusted fingernail pointed directly at me. The Emperor, eyes half-lidded from exhaustion, gazed at me. Then, pressing his fingertips firmly against his forehead a few times, he slowly asked,
“Latieana Merigold.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“I am seeing you for the first time. Have you ever met me or the Empress before?”
I shook my head.
“No. I am meeting you both for the first time today. And… Her Majesty the Empress has never seen me before either.”
The moment I finished speaking, the Emperor’s thick eyebrows twisted sharply.
“Empress, not long ago, it was Ciela.”
“What did you say?”
“I’m reminding you of how you used the Imperial Princess as a pawn to separate Edan and Killian! How long do you intend to keep doing this? It hasn’t even been long since the last uproar—and now you’re trying to use this woman?”
“Your Majesty!”
As the situation turned against her, the Empress’s voice grew shriller. Meanwhile, the Emperor’s sighs only deepened.
“I’m utterly sick of this. First, out of nowhere, you confess the Grand Saintess was actually a witch. Now you claim you’ve found the real one. Yet you offer no solid proof! What exactly have you been doing all this time?”
“What do you mean, ‘what have I been doing’?”
Under the Emperor’s pitying gaze, the Empress tensed her entire body so hard that her collarbone, adorned with a dazzling necklace, visibly hollowed.
“Can’t you see? I’m uncovering the truth for the sake of the royal family. I’m merely continuing the righteous deeds I’ve always done for the Empire.”
The Empress lifted her chin high, smoothing her dress sleeve as if she bore no fault whatsoever.
How can she be so arrogant? Does she feel no remorse or guilt at all? She acted shamelessly, as if she’d never apologized to anyone in her life—and never intended to admit fault again.
Though she had just seethed with rage over her own wounded emotions, she now remained eerily calm, as if the Emperor’s feelings meant nothing to her.
“Righteous deeds? You stir up this chaos without even verifying whether the witch’s words are true or false—and still dare to shout so loudly?”
“That’s because that wench—!”
At that moment, Killian interrupted the Empress, stepping forward one pace.
“Mother, where is the witch?”
His expression was icy, as if their quarrel meant nothing to him. The Emperor, who had been loosely leaning against his chair, straightened his back.
“What are you talking about? The witch was, of course, kept in the underground dungeon, was she not?”
“She’s gone.”
“What did you say?”
“I’ve requested several times recently that you decide the witch’s fate. Receiving no reply, I sent subordinates to the temple to assess the situation myself. But she had vanished without a trace.”
“You mean the witch escaped the underground dungeon on her own?”
“Even a witch couldn’t escape the dungeon alone. It’s buried deep within the temple’s stone mountain, guarded by seasoned knights at the entrance. Moreover, the iron bars were locked with artifact-embedded locks specially crafted by mages.”
As Killian continued speaking, his brow furrowed, and his gaze naturally shifted toward the Empress.
“That’s why I’m asking you. You’re the one responsible for the temple.”
“Empress! What is the meaning of this!”
The Emperor, whose face had darkened to outright pallor at the mention of the witch, leapt up in horror. Simultaneously, the Empress sat down with perfect composure, as if nothing had happened.
“Mother, I’ll ask again. Do you know where the witch disappeared to?”
“Hmm. Why are you asking me?”
The Empress’s crimson lips curved back into a smile. Killian’s expression darkened, his eyes sharpening.
“Shall I ask the High Priest, then?”
Killian’s head jerked slightly toward the direction of the High Priest, and I followed his gaze. The High Priest was hunched deeply into himself.
“Empress! Answer me!”
“Why are you raising your voice at me? Do as you please. I have no idea.”
The Emperor stared at her, utterly dumbfounded. But it wasn’t just him. Everyone present gazed at the Empress the same way. Even I was taken aback by her attitude.
But… somehow, the surroundings had grown dark.
While the Emperor and Empress glared fiercely at each other, I looked toward the large window.
Just moments ago, sunlight had poured in blindingly bright—but in the blink of an eye, the weather had turned. Dark clouds now filled the sky.
Glancing out the window at the swaying tree leaves, it seemed a breeze had begun to stir.
Though several hours remained until evening, darkness was rapidly closing in as if night were approaching. The atmosphere felt stormy, sending chills down my spine and raising goosebumps. And somehow, I felt that smell again.
That fishy, unpleasant odor I’d smelled on the first floor. I glanced around, but the thick, heavy doors of the audience chamber were firmly shut—nowhere could such a smell possibly come from.
“Latie, are you feeling unwell?”
Edan, noticing my pallor, whispered softly.
“It’s not that—I smell something….”
“A smell? You’ve been saying that since earlier?”
“Can’t you smell it? This fishy stench….”
“Not at all.”
As the odor grew stronger and I frowned, Edan walked to the window and slightly opened the large pane, apparently to ventilate the room. But through the gap rushed humid wind—and with it, a nauseating stench flooded in mercilessly. Ugh! I quickly clamped my hand over my mouth.
What on earth is this? How do I even describe it? A vile stench like rotting fish mixed with the metallic tang of blood…? Or the reek of long-spoiled food…? No. Worse than that.
Between the smell and the weather, my instincts screamed danger. Though I’d never experienced this before, I felt an uncanny sense of déjà vu.
So then….
While I furrowed my brow, trying to recall, the Emperor shouted again at the Empress.
“Damn it, Empress! Where is the witch? Tell me now!”
The Emperor shouted again, clearly agitated by the witch’s disappearance. But the Empress’s attitude had gone beyond mere shamelessness. She leaned back in her chair, arrogantly crossing her legs.
“Hmm. I feel like I might remember… or maybe not.”
“What?”
“That’s right. If you want to know where the witch is, apologize to me—and acknowledge that woman as the Grand Saintess.”
The Empress’s eyes curved into crescent moons as she looked down at me.
“Or, you could confess instead.”
She was manipulating me, making it seem as if everything depended on my choice.
Her eyes brimmed with venom. If I admitted to being the Grand Saintess, she’d drag me to the temple and lock me away immediately. Then Edan would try to stop her—and become a traitor. Though she acted recklessly and without restraint, under current Imperial law, the Grand Saintess belonged to the temple—and the temple fell under the management of a woman like her.
I silently scowled. It was because of the smell, but the Empress, seeing my poor complexion, mistook it for distress caused by her words—and smiled faintly.
“Cunning little vixen. You’ve certainly wriggled your way into favor, haven’t you?”
“What did you say?”
“To pretend such innocent ignorance while turning all these men to your side.”
“….”
The Empress’s gaze toward me resembled someone staring at trash discarded in the street.
“How vulgar and filthy you are.”
Her perfectly groomed eyebrows lifted slightly.
“All Saintesses are the same. They use their ‘healing powers’ as an excuse to mingle with every man they meet. What’s so noble about that power? Just because everyone praises them, they start thinking they’re special.”
Honestly, she has a remarkable talent for infuriating people.
I straightened my hunched posture—bent from the stench—and lifted my eyes squarely to meet hers.
“Yet, Your Majesty, isn’t it precisely through the power of those ‘vulgar and filthy Saintesses’ that you’ve maintained the Empire’s peace until now?”
“You insolent creature—I did not command you to answer back.”
Regardless, I deliberately let a mocking sneer slip.
“Your Majesty suffers from deep inferiority.”
“What?”
The Empress’s arrogant eyes flickered momentarily.
I know someone who feels exactly like her.
I know her very well.
Ivy Violet. Ivy, who wished me misery. Even when exposed as a witch in the temple, Ivy wasted no time begging for her life—instead, she hurled curses at me.
‘You damn bitch! You ruined me! Just die already, Latieana!’
She could’ve pleaded for mercy, but until the end, she blamed me and raged against me. The Empress, spewing baseless hatred toward Edan, resembled Ivy perfectly.
“If you’re envious, why not just admit it? If you’d acted sweetly like her, showering him with honeyed flattery, maybe things wouldn’t have turned out this way. Seems you’ve never considered setting aside your pride, even while tormented by inferiority.”
I hadn’t explicitly named anyone—but the Empress instantly realized I was referring to Edan’s mother.
The composure she’d maintained shattered; her face flushed scarlet.
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.]
