As Esika entered the imperial palace, a servant, as if waiting, guided her to Resban.
It was rare for a visitor seeking the crown prince to be guided so immediately.
Resban was training in his private training ground.
The sight of him training with a sword while wearing a shirt and uniform pants gradually came into view.
In the dome-shaped training ground, wind condensed with energy was blowing around the sword Resban was holding.
The wind mixed with energy made Resban’s hair flutter and his clothes billow.
‘Aura…’
Esika thought as she saw the bluish energy on Resban’s sword.
That was undoubtedly the sword aura that only those who reached the ultimate realm could use.
In martial arts, this was called ‘strong energy’.
With just the sword’s strong energy, one could cut rocks like slicing tofu.
Esika’s past life, the spirit, had also reached the level of creating strong energy, but now, despite her enlightenment, she couldn’t reach it due to lack of training and inner power.
Somehow, pure envy welled up in her heart.
“…”
Resban swung his sword.
The wooden dolls hanging in the air started to shatter one by one.
Even without the sword touching them, chunks of strong energy bursting from the sword were shattering the dolls.
Probably in war too, countless enemies would have been shattered by each of Resban’s movements.
‘How did he reach this level so early.’
Even in the martial arts world, to reach the realm of transformation or extreme demon at this age, one had to be lucky enough to find and consume an elixir like the Sky Blue Stone Milk, or encounter a fortuitous opportunity.
It was a staircase that could never be climbed by normal methods.
Even the spirit wouldn’t have reached the threshold of the extreme demon realm without the help of Dokying, who had already reached extreme demon.
‘Perhaps it’s related to his connection with Hasetsu. I to him…’
After mentioning it in the note, Resban had never brought up that story in front of Esika.
The clue about their connection… is still insufficient.
She had taken the medicine from the folk remedy Panic gave, so if it was effective, it should gradually come to mind.
Kwagwang-
After exploding the last wooden doll, Resban leisurely sheathed his sword.
Then he slowly turned to look at Esika.
It was a look as if he had naturally known that Esika was watching.
Esika greeted Resban according to etiquette.
“…You’re amazing. The movement of your sword… was like a beast leaping.”
Resban just looked at Esika without answering.
His eyes always seemed to be asking Esika something. Or perhaps, yearning for something.
“…”
Resban, receiving a jacket from a servant and putting it on, said to Esika.
“Let’s go to the office.”
**
It was their first meeting since the encounter at the black market.
In the crown prince’s office filled with a subtle fragrance, Esika was sitting facing Resban.
A few of Resban’s buttons were undone, revealing his collarbone, and Resban’s expression was more languid than stiff.
Bright sunlight was coming in through the large window behind him.
“…I heard that next week, His Majesty will announce about the western base.”
After a moment, the door opened, and a servant brought in teacups and tea.
Resban, hooking his finger through the teacup handle, said,
“Are you worried that your Elmur might be dropped from the base location?”
At Resban’s direct question, Esika’s eyebrows twitched slightly.
And with a stiff expression, she asked Resban.
“…So you knew that I purchased Elmur.”
“There’s nothing about you that I don’t know.”
Worried that there might be someone investigating, she had asked Shupert to purchase it under a different name.
But it seems it hadn’t escaped Resban’s information network.
Resban’s deep golden eyes turned to Esika, and his lips twisted slightly.
“You must have felt and realized something at the black market. I always know much more than you can imagine.”
“…”
Esika felt a bit annoyed with him.
“I’ve always wanted to ask you.”
Resban leaned his head forward slightly and asked Esika.
“Why did you invest all your fortune in Elmur?”
“Do I have to answer honestly?”
“If you came to ask, you should be honest to expect an honest answer.”
Looking at his irritatingly calm face, Esika opened her mouth.
“I was certain that His Majesty the Emperor would select Elmur, not Tsuchen, as the western base.”
“I’d like to hear the reason.”
“Although Tsuchen’s location and accessibility are good, it’s that much more vulnerable in terms of security. The western base means a military base, and a terrain with roads open in all directions is also good for enemies to come and go.”
Resban slightly rested his chin on his hand.
Interest gleamed in his golden eyes as he looked at Esika.
Esika continued speaking, paying no heed.
“Elmur is less accessible than Tsuchen, but there are only three roads in and out of the city. The naturally formed fortress-like terrain makes it difficult for enemies to come and go. And all three roads are connected to militarily important areas.”
The western base will become the second largest city in the empire.
But the nobles only think about political or commercial aspects, not considering the military aspect.
“…Good opinion.”
Resban nodded and removed his hand from his chin.
Then he said to Esika.
“But there’s a perspective you haven’t considered. That is, supply.”
At Resban’s words, Esika’s eyes wavered.
One of Tsuchen’s biggest advantages is that grain-producing areas are located very close by.
This was an important requirement for a military base.
However, the reason Esika still chose Elmur was the future she knew.
‘Could it be that the book’s content is changing?’
“Elmur can’t match Tsuchen’s advantage.”
At Resban’s words, Esika’s heart sank.
If the contents of Shupert’s letter were correct… all the plans she had carefully laid out so far would crumble.
Damn it, she had only remembered the book’s content and bet on Klaus’s failure, but at this rate, Klaus might prosper and Esika might be ruined.
“…That is, if I don’t report about Tsuchen’s flaws that aren’t known to others.”
But at the next words coming from Resban’s lips, Esika flinched.
Resban was staring at Esika with his deep golden eyes.
“…”
Esika’s blue eyes wavered.
Resban was testing Esika right now.
That he had enough power to change the western base to Elmur.
It’s not wrong. Resban was the second most powerful person after the emperor.
But Esika couldn’t tell if coming to see him was the right thing or the wrong thing to do.
Who knows if even this moment of her coming to Resban for Elmur was part of his plan.
“…What do you want from me?”
Nevertheless, Esika had to ask him.
Because the important matter now was the selection of Elmur as the base.
More important than the book’s content was the conviction to push for Elmur.
Resban moved his lips to make a low voice.
“I want to get back what’s mine.”
“What is Your Highness’s?”
“Pretending not to know while knowing is a bad habit.”
Resban slowly rose from his chair in the office.
As the tall man stood up, his shadow, even taller than him, fell towards Esika.
Resban approached Esika, brushing his fingertips along the surface of the desk.
And he stood in front of Esika, who was still sitting.
“Esika… Esika Brigitte.”
His lips moved, tickling her ears with a low voice.
After a long silence, Esika furrowed her brows and parted her lips.
“Did I really… promise to take responsibility for Your Highness in Hasetsu?”
Shupert had told Esika about what happened in Hasetsu, in her lost past.
Esika’s meeting with the first-class wanted boy.
He must have surely been Resban Deon Lucein.
“…”
Resban bent his upper body to bring his lips close to Esika’s ear.
Their distance was close enough to hear each other’s breath.
A low voice flowed in meticulously.
“There, I was very close to death.”
A chill runs down her spine at his voice.
“Why… should I live on? It’s too painful.”
The boy’s voice full of despair suddenly pierces through her mind. Like a hallucination, brief and intense.
Soon, his golden eyes, fierce enough to be ferocious, met Esika’s eyes directly opposite.
She looked at Resban, feeling her own heartbeat.
Is it the effect of the medicine Panic gave?
Resban raised his hand to cup Esika’s cheek.
“It was you who forcibly grabbed my collar and breathed life into me.”
A low voice was heard.
She doesn’t… remember. She just felt short of breath as if drowning.
“I’ll never leave again.”
Whose voice is this echoing in her head?
“So if you don’t shake it off soon, I’ll even capture you.”
Esika tried to reach out to push Resban away slightly, but Resban’s other hand grabbed Esika’s arm.
“The urge to possess you keeps welling up. I’ve waited too long.”
Esika tried to raise her eyebrows but flinched at Resban’s words.
Perhaps to capture Esika, it would be easier to support Klaus, let the successful Riona drive Esika out, and then capture the fallen Esika.
And taking advantage of that moment of hesitation, Resban tilted his chin and kissed her lips.
“…!”
A momentary dry kiss that could be called contact rather than a kiss.
A rough yet unfathomable man, willful yet… neat.
“…”
Resban separated his lips and looked at her.
Esika, absurdly caught up in the kiss, was looking at Resban with shaking eyes.
Just as her tightly clenched fist was trembling, Resban’s lips curled up quite playfully.
“Still, I should support Elmur’s hand.”
Esika, who had been about to hit him, relaxed her hand.
His eyes looked particularly lonely.
“If I don’t want to be hated by you…”
Resban brushed his dry fingers across his lips.
Ex-husband Wants Reconciliation
One-line summary: Chasing the wife to the crematorium (making an effort to attract someone who has become indifferent), the female lead doesn’t look back, the second male lead takes the position.
Intro:
To repay the kindness of the older generation, Su Mu crossed into a female-dominated world and became a live-in daughter-in-law of the Yan family, single-handedly saving the Yan family from fire and water.
But her husband, Yan Jiyue, the eldest son of the Yan family, treated her with sarcasm and never showed her a good face.
It wasn’t until after Su Mu’s death that this pampered and arrogant young master shed a few fake tears and pretended to want to die for love.
This life’s kindness was enough. If there was a next life, she would definitely kick Yan Jiyue away.
Who knew that the heavens would be so kind as to allow her to be reborn, returning to the time when she had just married into the Yan family.
Su Mu glanced at the Yan eldest son, who still spoke coldly to her, and threw a divorce letter in front of him.
“Let’s divorce!”
***
Yan Jiyue never imagined that he would be reborn. He happily went to find Su Mu, wanting to make up for the mistakes he had made in his ignorant youth.
Wasn’t the reason the heavens allowed him to be reborn to let him reconcile with Su Mu?
But when he pushed open the door to Su Mu’s room, the person lying on the bed was another man.
Su Mu’s personal attendant, Xie Yi.
Yan Jiyue hated him so much that his teeth itched. In front of Su Mu, Xie Yi was a gentle and considerate whisperer of sweet nothings, but in reality, he was vicious-hearted and deliberately sabotaged their husband and wife relationship.
In the previous life, it was he who secretly hid in Su Mu’s coffin and committed suicide, stealing a step ahead of him to be buried with Su Mu.
Yan Jiyue’s eyes were filled with hatred as he cursed, “What kind of thing are you? Your background is lowly, what right do you have to occupy Su Mu?”
Xie Yi looked at the sleeping Su Mu and no longer pretended to be a whisperer of sweet nothings.
He proudly stuck out his belly, “I have the right because my belly is capable of giving the Wife-master a daughter.”
***
Yan Jiyue was consumed with jealousy. He spread rumors that Xie Yi had once been branded with the mark of a “harlot” on his chest.
But on the night Xie Yi cut off the flesh bearing that mark, Su Mu suddenly realized something was amiss.
“How did you know the exact moment I was poisoned? And why did you show up a month early?”
Xie Yi remained silent, blood from his wound soaking through his robes. His sapphire eyes brimmed with anguish – or was it just a flawless act?
Between a once-arrogant husband now seeking redemption, and a gentle soul willing to die for her – who truly held the darkest secrets? And could it be that Su Mu and Yan Jiyue weren’t the only ones given a second chance at life…?
[Reading Guide]
1. True divorce, chasing the wife to the crematorium, the female lead doesn’t look back, the male lead is Xie Yi.
2. The ex-husband did not cheat, he just realized too late and didn’t realize that he liked the female lead.
_____
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