Inside the spacious and luxurious Empress’s reception room, only Adel was present. Struggling to keep her focus, her eyelids grew heavy. The crackling flames of the fireplace made her body feel even more languid.
‘Ah, no. I must stay awake.’
Adel tried to shake her head and regain her composure, but it was in vain.
Her consciousness grew fainter, and soon her mind became distant.
Thump.
It was when Adel’s head fell to the side.
A large hand enveloped her head, helping her lay comfortably on its lap.
Seated on the couch, he looked down at Adel, who had fallen asleep on his knee, one arm resting on the backrest. He slowly reached out and stroked her hair, caressed her soft cheek, and playfully teased her red lips as if she were his plaything.
“Umm…….”
A faint sound escaped Adel’s lips.
‘Who is this, with such a chill hand that gives me goosebumps?’
It was not Christine’s hand.
Adel instinctively felt a desire to flee.
But she couldn’t even open her eyes. Her limbs felt immobilized, as if swallowed in a quagmire.
‘Ah, I need to get up.’
“You are the same, Adel.”
The dimly heard voice was very familiar.
‘…Who… was it?’
Her mind was so cloudy that Adel couldn’t think clearly. What was certain was that the voice was terrifying, and it made her body shudder, her stomach churn as if she was about to vomit.
The cold hand that had been there all along brushed her neck and slithered down her back like a snake. Then…
“You still bear my mark, don’t you, Adel?”
“……!”
Adel’s throat went dry, and her hair stood on end.
‘Ah, no, no! It can’t be!’
She struggled to wake from the terrible nightmare. But it was as if someone was strangling her, and she could neither breathe nor move.
“Umm, umm! Uh….”
She moaned, struggling with all her strength to wiggle her fingers and toes.
“Ugh!”
Finally, she gasped for breath and sat up.
But breathing was so difficult that she could only pant heavily and couldn’t move at all.
Gradually regaining consciousness, Adel realized that she had fallen asleep on the Empress’s reception room sofa. Startled, she quickly looked around, but no one was there.
Was it a dream?
But it had felt so real. The sensation of that hand brushing over her back wouldn’t easily go away, like creepy bugs crawling on her skin. Her whole body was drenched in sweat, and her wet forehead and neck were tangled with hair.
“Her Majesty the Empress.”
The maids announced as they entered the reception room.
Adel hastily got up. She still felt a bit dizzy, as the weakness had not completely gone.
“Have you been waiting long, Miss Adel?”
The Empress, who had fought enemies on the battlefield, had an overwhelming presence unlike ordinary noblewomen. Moreover, she was wearing a leopardprint leather dress instead of a dress adorned with lace. Instead of a fan, she was holding a horsewhip.
That appearance would have intimidated most people.
“Not at all, Your Majesty, it’s an honor to be called upon. May I ask what brings you here?”
“Do I need a reason to take care of the guests of the Marble Palace as the mistress of the Imperial Palace? And I wanted to introduce someone pleasant as well.”
“Pleasant person?”
The empress asked, looking back at the maids.
“What happened? Has he not arrived yet?”
The maids glanced at Adel and answered.
“He… said he would wait a moment and then return.”
Adel was taken aback.
‘Wait a moment? Could it be that he was with me while I was asleep?’
Could it be… that the incident earlier was not a dream?
The empress grinned wickedly, looking at the confused Adel.
“But Adel, didn’t you see him?”
“I apologize. I was feeling unwell, so I dozed off for a while…”
Then the maids each expressed with an odd expression.
“That’s right. You must have been really ill. You were resting on his knee, sleeping so soundly.”
“We withdrew without waking you. If a stranger had seen, they would have mistaken you for lovers.”
Adel was confused by their words.
What was certain was that the man was not Christine, and that Adel had fallen asleep on the knee of another man, despite her fiancé.
It could easily become a strange rumor.
“You misunderstand, Your Majesty! I…”
Adel cried out, but the empress waved her hand as if she was tired of hearing it.
“That’s enough. You’re not feeling well, so it would be best if you left for today, Adel.”
Then she left the drawing room with the maids all of a sudden.
Adel, left all alone, felt powerless.
What was the real reason the empress had called her?
It felt as if she had fallen into a trap.
What was most terrifying was…
‘Could that man who left… have been that rascal?’
(This is a time delimiter.)
The empress, having left the drawing room, entered the small drawing room next door.
Seira was there.
The empress liked Seira no more than she liked Adel. But she would not hesitate to join hands with the devil if it served her purpose. Moreover, if they had a common enemy, what more needed to be said?
She could not just leave Adel, who had made her daughter miserable. If she could not win Christine, at least she must ruin her. She would not feel satisfied otherwise.
It was Seira who came to the empress with that in mind, saying that Adel had an improper relationship with her former brotherinlaw.
“Do you believe me now, Your Majesty?”
Seira smiled, putting down her teacup.
Actually, the empress had kept Seira here, drinking tea, waiting for Adel. And she had summoned Stone to be alone with her.
The maids, pretending to run errands for tea, had been going in and out of the drawing room, constantly updating the situation.
That Stone had laid Adel on his lap and gazed at her as she fell asleep.
To please the empress, they added a little more spice. Like, it seemed as if they might kiss, or that they looked like lovers, or that there had definitely been something in the past.
But the empress did not act rashly.
“If the two of them were found to be having an improper relationship, it wouldn’t be good for the Oswald family either, would it?”
Seira seemed to be waiting for that question, her eyes welling up with tears immediately.
“I… think that devil must not be happy. That woman killed my father and ruined my brotherinlaw. The reason my brotherinlaw did not return for so long as a diplomat was because he was distressed because of her. So please, Your Majesty, punish that wicked woman. All I wish for is that one thing.”
As Seira finished her plea, sobbing,
“Pffft!”
A laugh burst from the empress’s lips.
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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