The Wolf Lord is Enduring (Completed Main Story) - Chapter 15
Shortly afterward, Raphelian entered his study, radiating coldness.
The maid followed him in with trembling legs, unable to act either way, swallowing hard again and again.
Not long after, Irina, the head butler who had just finished speaking with Michaela, knocked on Raphelian’s study door.
“You called for me, young master?”
“Irina.”
“Yes.”
“I’ll need to bring in someone new.”
Raphelian spoke without even glancing at Irina.
“I’ve done wrong. Please, don’t throw me out.”
Of everyone present, the maid understood his meaning first.
She quickly dropped to her knees on the floor, rubbing her palms together desperately as she begged.
“Why should I do that?”
Raphelian’s expression remained blank, yet faint irritation clouded his features as if annoyed.
“Well… that is…”
The maid couldn’t immediately find an answer to his question.
Irina swiftly stepped in front of the hesitant maid, shielding her from Raphelian’s gaze.
“I shall carry out your orders.”
Irina bowed her head without asking a single question.
Seeing that the head butler was unlikely to take her side, the maid crawled forward on her knees and pleaded.
“I—I’d rather take the lashes! I’ll take as many as you like, however many you want! Young master, please strike me—just don’t…!”
“I fail to see why I should dirty my hands over someone like you.”
“Huh?”
Stunned by his icy tone, the maid let out a foolish sound.
“How utterly absurd.”
His expression, utterly devoid of mercy, offered no room for even a needle to slip through.
“I’ll handle this myself.”
Irina once again stepped in front of the maid and bowed respectfully.
“Don’t even think about giving her a letter of recommendation.”
“Of course not.”
Raphelian walked past Irina without changing his cold gaze and left the study.
No sooner had the study door closed than the maid’s loud sobbing filled his ears.
Yet he didn’t so much as blink as he left the study to find the twins.
“Play with them well enough that they won’t have stray thoughts or even notice if something hurts.”
“Is that really okay?”
“Of course.”
“Yes!”
The twins rushed past Raphelian, quickly gathering their things before dashing down the stairs in an instant.
Raphelian slowly walked on, watching silently as his siblings disappeared from his sight.
After sunset, El chose a suitable moment.
She clutched her blanket tightly and waited until all signs of people outside had vanished completely and the garden lanterns went out.
“Is now a good time?”
El rose from her feigned slumber.
But there was an unexpected variable.
The room was so dark that even moonlight was absent, making it impossible to distinguish anything inside.
“Even for nighttime, it’s way too dark. Where’s the moon… Ah!”
It was so dark she could barely find the door.
El stamped her feet in frustration, then approached the window where faint shapes were barely visible and looked up at the sky.
Thick clouds completely covered the pitch-black night sky.
“It looks like rain. I hope it holds off until I can leave… Eep!”
Before she could finish her whisper, a brilliant flash lit up the sky—and immediately after, a deafening boom! Thunder shook the heavens.
El gasped in shock as if having a seizure, sinking to the floor and covering her ears.
Her ears, which had finally eased from pain, now throbbed anew.
Crash! Boom! Boom!
“Oh! What do I do?”
No. I hate this. So much.
A scream she couldn’t release tickled in her throat.
Crash! Boom! Rumble! Boom!
“Aaah!”
El instinctively shrieked, then clamped her hands over her mouth.
Overwhelmed by the thunder and lightning crashing above, she barely managed to crawl under the covers.
It seemed impossible to escape the duke’s estate tonight.
At the same time, Raphelian was still awake, taking a nighttime stroll.
“It’s going to rain.”
He glanced up at the sky and changed his direction.
In the north, as winter approached, it rained heavily every year.
Sometimes it poured for days like a monsoon. Afterward, biting winds would sweep across the entire north, bringing winter in an instant.
Raphelian’s silent footsteps soon passed the mansion’s entrance and reached the central staircase.
Flash! Crash-boom!
The moment he stepped onto the first stair on the right, thunder and lightning struck.
Tonight promised to be quite a restless one.
Crash! Boom! Boom!
At the sound assaulting his ears, Raphelian sighed softly and resumed his halted steps.
With every stair he climbed, thunder loudly shook the world.
“Oh! What do I do?”
Amid the roaring cries of the sky, a fragile voice could be heard.
Having reached the bedroom door, Raphelian turned toward the source of the sound.
Crash! Boom! Rumble! Boom!
“Aaah!”
El’s cry and her trembling whimpers.
‘That’s far too clear.’
Raphelian frowned in puzzlement.
Even with his senses exceptionally sharp, at this distance and without focusing on her, her voice shouldn’t have been this distinct.
Yet, amidst all this noise, El’s voice alone came through perfectly and unmistakably.
Impossible to ignore.
He placed his hand on the doorknob and hesitated briefly.
“I won’t be able to sleep right away anyway.”
He did ponder it, but not for long.
He turned back along the path he’d taken to reach El.
When he entered the corridor where the guest room was, he deliberately made noise as he walked.
“Hmm. Hmm.”
Not only did he make footsteps unlike usual, but he also cleared his throat before knocking.
It was a deliberate signal so El wouldn’t be startled.
But just then, as if by cruel coincidence, thunder shook the earth once more.
“Ugh!”
It sounded muffled, as if she’d pulled the blanket over her head.
Raphelian knocked quickly and called out.
“El.”
His voice, heavier than usual, passed through the door.
Inside, a chaotic clatter echoed—busy, yet somehow pained.
‘Did she fall? Trip over something?’
He wanted to check, but Raphelian couldn’t bring himself to open the door outright.
When she’d been unconscious, it had been unavoidable—but now, entering the room of a seventeen-year-old girl so casually felt too delicate.
He waited patiently for the door to open.
Soon, the cream-colored door, half-lit by lamplight and half-swallowed by darkness, creaked open slightly.
“Good even—”
Rumble! Boom!
“Eep!”
Even in this state, El spotted Raphelian standing at the door and tried earnestly to greet him—only to jump again at the thunder’s sudden crash.
But the scream that instinctively rose in her throat never fully escaped.
As if compelled by an obsession that she must never cry out or whimper, she clamped her mouth shut and tensed her entire body.
“Is the sky being too harsh on you?”
Seeing her, Raphelian tossed out a light remark, hoping to ease her tension.
Completely dazed, El didn’t even properly hear his words—she just nodded mindlessly.
‘She must be dizzy.’
True to his thought, El swayed unsteadily right after.
He let out an unconscious chuckle and caught her shoulders before she could fall.
“May I come in for a moment?”
Again, El tried to respond only with a nod instead of words.
When Raphelian stopped her, she stepped back a few paces, still covering her mouth with her hand.
Raphelian stepped into the room, which flickered wildly from the lightning outside.
“I—I was too noisy, wasn’t I? I’m sorry—eep!”
El was terrified not only of the thunder but also of the sharp lightning that lit up the sky.
This time, unable to cover her mouth in time, she glanced anxiously at Raphelian.
“My siblings were scared of it too.”
“Really?”
Trembling violently, El’s eyes widened as if she’d just heard wonderful news, and she looked up at him.
“It’s fine to be scared. What can you do about something frightening?”
Raphelian spoke lightly and casually, as if it were no big deal, and gently stroked El’s hair.
‘It’s okay to be scared…’
El had lived her life scolded and mocked by others simply for fearing thunder and lightning on rainy days.
Hearing such kind words after living only among those people made her eyes burn warmly.
“Thank you.”
El bowed deeply to him, embracing immense comfort.
Raphelian wondered if this was really something to thank him for, but chose not to say anything more.
“You should probably sleep.”
“Yes. I suppose I should.”
Raphelian muttered to himself, gazing toward the bed.
Though spoken softly, El heard him and replied in a voice mixed with awkwardness and embarrassment.
‘What should I do?’
Raphelian had come because he felt responsible for bringing El here and saw it as his duty to help her since she seemed frightened—but now he felt slightly awkward.
He was deeply troubled over how best to get through this night.
‘Briel and Riello would share a bed with her, but…’
Though they planned to live together under one roof, they weren’t blood relatives.
If she’d been much younger—around six or seven—it might have been different, but that wasn’t the case here.
Though El still looked very young on the outside, she was in truth a young lady, so Raphelian was careful in his actions.
“How about lying down on the bed for now?”
“Yes.”
Raphelian asked as kindly as he could manage.
El answered readily but couldn’t move right away.
The deep night, the booming sounds, and the blinding flashes had frightened her too deeply.
Raphelian lowered his posture toward the hesitant El.
“May I carry you?”
“Huh?”
“I’ll take you over.”
“Oh…”
At a time like this, what she needed most was someone’s warmth.
But El didn’t even realize such comfort could be helpful in moments like these.
Because of that, his considerate offer only made her hesitate in answering.
“If you don’t want that, I can just hold your hand.”
Raphelian held out his hand toward El.
His ever-beautiful hand lay before the frightened girl.
Once again—flash! Lightning banished the darkness and heralded thunder.
Terrified of thunder and lightning as she was, El didn’t take his hand—she rushed straight into his arms.
Raphelian lifted El effortlessly and carried her toward the bed.
He patted the back of El, who had buried her head in his shoulder, and gently laid her down on the cozy bed.
El’s eyes trembled anxiously with fear as she lay there.
Instead of joining her on the bed, he fetched a chair, sat beside her, and held out his hand.
“Holding hands might be best.”
Her hand, which had been clutching the blanket tightly, hesitantly reached out and grasped his.
Her cold hand, chilled by fear, tugged at his heart.
“What story shall I tell you?”
“Huh?”
“My siblings always fell asleep when I told them old tales.”
“Will you… stay with me?”
“I brought you here, so it’s my responsibility to take care of you.”
“…”
“I’ll stay until you fall asleep.”
As if to show he wouldn’t let go of her hand, Raphelian squeezed El’s hand slightly more firmly.
“B—but if you, my lord, can’t sleep…”
“It’s not time to sleep yet. Don’t worry—just rest comfortably.”
Flash! Rumble. Crash-boom! Rumble.
A new wave of thunder and lightning rolled over their heads.
El hesitated in answering, then quickly nodded.
A faint smile touched Raphelian’s lips as he recalled, one by one, the stories he’d once told Briel and Riello, placing them gently on his tongue.
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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