Although she asked, she didn’t expect Espen to answer. During the several years she spent as Espen’s, or rather, the Prince of Birds’ fiancée, he never once revealed his true feelings.
However, today was different. With a radiant smile as if he wanted to boast to death, he answered meaningfully.
“The person I wanted to meet again.”
Leaving those words behind, Espen led his subordinates and disappeared. Cecil strengthened her trembling legs. It was only holding on, as she felt like she might collapse at any moment.
‘Ah, really.’
Tears seemed ready to fall. In the end, all of Cecil’s expectations were correct. Even the times when he just sat Cecil down and stared blankly at her, or when he made the daughter of the Duke of Hanmi his fiancée.
Everything was a substitute for Marian.
Cecil bit her lip. Espen’s answer pushed her further to the limit.
‘My position is shaking because of this woman. I have to do something somehow.’
To her who was gathering her resolve, a guard asked in a dry tone.
“Will you go in?”
‘If I strike her emotionally, Espen won’t stay still.’
But she couldn’t back off.
‘I need to know what kind of situation it is so that I can deal with it.’
First, she had to find out about the relationship between her and Espen. Is Espen’s one-sided crush, mutual, what is her status, and so on.
‘I can find a gap in that information.’
Having organized her thoughts, Cecil nodded slowly. Thanks to Espen’s permission, the previously fortress-like door opened surprisingly easily.
The court lady who served Espen at close quarters was surprisingly in the Jade Palace. She stuck close to Cecil and informed her of the precautions.
“His Excellency wishes that nothing about the situation in the Jade Palace leaks out. You must not tell the parents about what you saw and heard today.”
“I understand.”
“While it’s okay for him to speak directly, please refrain from asking him questions.”
“……Yes.”
Despite firmly resolving to enter the Jade Palace, the situation she faced weakened Cecil’s heart.
‘After hearing the precautions, I’m even more convinced that it’s confinement.’
If she genuinely welcomed Espen’s affection, there would be no reason for her to be confined. Cecil firmly grasped her emotions that made her sympathize with someone in a more advantageous position than herself.
‘I don’t need to think from her perspective. Cecil, just extract the necessary information. If there’s a rift between the prince and her…’
Chanting those words like self-hypnosis, Cecil soon stood in front of Marian’s room. Eventually, the door opened.
The room was a mess.
Broken items, a fallen table, a pillow spitting feathers into the air.
It was clearly the trace of things being thrown and broken.
In the middle of it all, a woman dressed neatly in a light pink dress stood.
Cecil widened her eyes, staring at the woman looking at her. The first things that caught her eye were the pink hair similar to hers, and the blue eyes.
And then, the next person who entered had an expressionless face.
‘I don’t think it felt like this the last time I saw her.’
Can a person dry up so quickly? Between Cecil’s bewildered lips, Marian swept her hair and gave a tired smile.
Marian was the first to speak as she opened her mouth.
“Hello? You’re the one who came to see me last time, right?”
She greeted Cecil so brightly that Cecil became flustered.
“Oh, yes… Hello?”
To Cecil, who answered awkwardly, Marian spoke in a cheerful tone.
“I’d like to welcome you warmly, but my room is a mess right now, so it’s embarrassing.”
Listening to the conversation between Cecil and Marian and confirming that the two had an appropriate friendly relationship, the court lady withdrew. Sensing that gesture, Cecil twisted her face in discomfort.
Whether Marian didn’t care or didn’t notice, she pulled Cecil, who seemed fine, toward the relatively intact bed.
“Sit here. Don’t worry; they’ll come in soon and clean up.”
Questions shouldn’t be asked.
But in this situation, questions popped up involuntarily.
“…Did the Prince of Birds do this?”
To Cecil’s question, Marian widened her eyes. Cecil noticed that Marian’s eyes were much lighter and looked more transparent than her own.
With those lovely eyes forming a crescent shape, Marian answered in a cheerful voice.
“No. I did it. Each word I say is unfortunate.”
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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