The square where the execution was to take place was packed with countless people.
It was the place where the Orphe Duchy, once a central pillar of the Belgader Empire, would lose its name. People had flocked there to witness that historic moment with their own eyes.
A few days ago, the emperor had announced the following verdict for Kardian:
Kardian de Orphe and all his direct descendants shall be executed.
Furthermore, the Orphe family name, titles, and property shall all be confiscated, and from the day of execution, no one may use the Orphe surname. However, in recognition of his merits, Damion de Orphe shall be exempt from execution.
There was no opposition to this decision. The annihilation of the Orphe household and the exclusion of Damion were both eminently reasonable decisions.
Rather, all the citizens of the empire knew how spectacularly Damion had distinguished himself in reclaiming Belgader, and there were even loud calls for him to be given additional rewards.
Ansi also refrained from commenting on this matter.
Damion de Orphe. The younger brother of the hated Kardian.
He, too, deserved to die. But somehow, she didn’t feel like asking for it to be done.
Perhaps it was because she recalled the moment she had faced that man that day.
Having lost his entire family and foundation, it might be an even greater torment than death. Just as it had been for Ansi when she lost her father and Derell.
Ansi shook her head.
She didn’t want to think any more about that man.
Thinking about him made her heart feel strangely heavy, as if filled with fog. She didn’t want to know the nature of this unpleasant feeling. She had not the slightest intention of paying any attention to the Orphe man.
It was then that the surroundings began to murmur and great noises filled the square.
“They’re coming up!”
“Kardian, that damned bastard!”
“Traitor! How dare you try to sell out Belgader to satisfy your own greed?”
Amid the clamor, Kardian, Basilov, and Marianne ascended the execution platform one by one.
Ansi tightly gripped the hem of her skirt.
How long had she waited for this moment? The bastard who killed her father and brought the Ruvelsas name to ruin. How she had longed for his downfall.
How much she had wanted to make him feel the same pain she had.
Ansi stared at Kardian standing on the execution platform.
Seeing the countless people gathered in the square, Kardian burst out laughing.
At his demeanor, the people muttered. Some threw stones along with curses. After the executioner quelled the commotion, the emperor, who was standing a short distance away, approached Kardian.
“Do you have any last words?”
“I did everything I could for the empire. But to be treated like this is unacceptable.”
“Don’t worry. Your name will remain to the end. As a traitor who caused immense harm to the empire, as a criminal who tried to kill his wife.”
“Shut up!”
Kardian shouted. The executioners subdued him as he tried to lunge forward.
“The rebel, Kardian Orphe, shall be executed.”
As Rudkaos gave the order, the executioners placed a rope around Kardian’s neck.
“No!”
Kardian thrashed violently.
Though he always acted gentlemanly, in this moment he could not suppress the violent nature he had kept repressed. Blood vessels burst in the whites of his eyes, turning them red.
Kardian screamed, but soon the execution was carried out. At that moment, Kardian’s eyes met Ansi’s. Seeing her, Kardian’s face contorted in agony.
Ansi stared at him intently.
She did not turn her head away until the moment he died.
Next, the executions of Basilov and Marianne were completed. Now it was all over. The long revenge against the Orphes… was a success with this.
Yet her heart felt hollow. An unquenchable thirst clawed at her heart.
It was then.
Damion’s figure could be seen in the crowd. Damion was looking at her. Though he had pulled his hat low, Ansi recognized him at once.
The moment their eyes met, Ansi’s face twisted.
It hurt as if her heart was being torn out. She didn’t know why it was so painful. But it was almost unbearable.
Clearly, he was a hated Orphe. That’s how it should be… Yet just seeing that man made it difficult for her to breathe properly.
Seeing her contorted expression, Damion smiled bitterly and said something.
Though she couldn’t hear the sound, Ansi could tell from the shape of his lips.
‘Don’t worry. I’ll die too.’
With those words, Damion turned and left. Ansi hurriedly stepped in his direction. She felt she mustn’t lose him.
“Ansi?”
“I have something to take care of. I’ll be right back.”
Brushing off Derell, who grabbed her with a puzzled look, Ansi moved her feet. But it wasn’t easy to reach Damion in the crowd. The distance between her and Damion grew.
“Da…”
As she tried to call out Damion’s name, a sudden, keen emotion seized her.
A primal fear rose up, warning her that she must not chase after that man, Damion de Orphe.
Why was she trying to follow that man in the first place? Why did her heart ache so much? It was all a mystery.
But one thing was certain. The fact that Damion was the younger brother of her nemesis.
Reminding herself of that single fact, Ansi halted her steps.
Damion quickly vanished into the crowd.
“What’s wrong, Ansi?”
Derell caught up to her and turned her around. Consternation flickered in his eyes. Ansi was crying. An emptiness she couldn’t possibly hide flowed out as tears.
“Are you alright? It- it’s over now, Ansi. You’ve really been through a lot.”
Thinking his sister was crying either because the long revenge was finally over or because the execution she had witnessed was too shocking, the flustered Derell fumbled for words of comfort.
But Ansi’s tears showed no sign of stopping. She continued to shed tears like a broken faucet.
At that moment, Ansi felt a sensation like a breeze enveloping her. Along with a feeling like someone stroking her head, a voice brushed her ear.
‘It seems the mark engraved on your heart was deeper than I thought. To be in such pain even after cutting everything away.’
She couldn’t understand what the words meant. Ansi only kept shedding tears.
‘Don’t suffer too much, Ansi. The promised time will come soon.’
The breeze that had embraced her scattered into the air once more. The breeze shimmered with iridescent colors as it disappeared.
“Lady Roma…?”
Ansi muttered softly. She was certain she had heard her voice.
[This is the timeline separator]Damion’s hands tightened on the steering wheel. He couldn’t get the image of Ansi’s face twisting in pain at the sight of him out of his head.
Perhaps she had expressed anger at seeing him alive when she thought all the Orphe people would die.
He didn’t want to cause her any more unpleasant feelings. Though he had avoided being executed by others, he had to go somewhere out of her sight by some other means.
Damion decided to settle everything. Even going to the imperial palace now would be for the last time.
In the office he entered, Rudkaos greeted him with a wry smile.
“How do you feel? Sad? Or relieved?”
“I’m not relieved. Orphe still remains, after all.”
“You’re referring to yourself.”
Damion nodded. He still bore the Orphe surname.
At this, Rudkaos held out a sheet of stiff paper.
On the paper stamped with the emperor’s seal, a short word was written. Damion read it aloud.
“Laurel?”
“Yes. The new surname I’ll bestow upon you. Along with it, I’ll grant you the title of marquis. As a reward for your service to the empire.”
It was a fine surname, conveying the meaning of victory. One unsuited to Damion himself.
He shook his head.
“I cannot accept it.”
“Accept it. You know you can no longer use the Orphe name.”
It didn’t matter. In any case, Damion intended to take his own life after this.
Having seen Kardian’s end, he no longer had any reason to live.
Moreover, for the sake of Ansi, who had looked so distressed upon seeing him, he had to die. That was the path to Ansi’s complete happiness.
A surname and title were unnecessary for one who would soon die.
But Rudkaos persistently persuaded Damion.
“I know you wished to be executed along with them. But many have lost their place due to the war, and the empire is in chaos. I need someone like you.”
“I no longer have any reason to act.”
“There is still Lady Ansi Ruvelsas, is there not?”
Damion didn’t say that Lady Ansi Ruvelsas was probably the one who most wished for his death. To Damion, who gave no answer, Rudkaos added:
“You’ll need time to adjust. But this name is not for you to choose. The moment I bestow it, Orphe completely ceases to exist. You are already Damion de Laurel.”
Rudkaos spoke as if in jest, yet with finality. In the end, Damion bowed. It wasn’t as if he could refuse even if he expressed greater displeasure.
“Thank you.”
Considering it fortunate to die as Laurel rather than Orphe, Damion left the palace.
His destination was the lake in the Deudae Forest.
Within the forest filled with red autumn leaves, clear and transparent water stretched before him. Damion surveyed the beautiful scene with indifferent eyes.
It was here that his life had begun anew.
So if he were to end his life, this would be the place.
Without hesitation, Damion leaped into the water.
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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