Led by Felix, Byron, and the other branch heads of Tentinella all entered the king’s bedroom.
Although they had come to the palace during major kingdom events and sometimes stayed for days, it was the first time they had set foot in the king’s private quarters.
As the last door leading into the inner bedroom opened, Felix, who was walking in front, almost involuntarily covered his mouth and nose with his hand.
Along with the bitter smell of medicine, there was some terrible stench. Though it couldn’t be pinpointed exactly, it was clearly an odor infinitely close to death. It was a dry, pungent smell.
“Come closer.”
A thin shadow was visible behind the canopy curtain. At Ord’s hoarse voice, the branch heads momentarily looked at each other with tense expressions, but soon slowly moved forward.
Mel, the faithful servant who attended to the king in place of the missing Baso, carefully drew back the curtain.
Byron’s eyes widened as Ord finally revealed himself. Felix unknowingly bit his tongue, and even Marnak, who always maintained a calm and composed demeanor, couldn’t hide his shocked expression.
On the bed, Ord’s appearance was pitiful.
Though it had always been so, today his condition was even more severe. For the branch heads who had never observed him up close until now, it was so alarmingly deteriorated that it would be stranger not to be shocked.
He seemed like a shell completely devoid of vitality, like a fragile sand sculpture that might crumble at the slightest touch or breath.
“Your Majesty!”
Gimius cried out in a trembling voice, almost wailing. Ord turned to look at her for a moment with empty eyes. The thought that he didn’t recognize who she was for an instant crossed all the branch heads’ minds.
But it was only for a moment. Ord’s eyes, which had opened wide on his blackened face as if burned, shone with a strange light. His focus sharpened, and a sharp breath escaped between his parched lips.
“Do not make a fuss.”
At his command, Gimius bit her lip hard enough to draw blood. Marnak, looking around, carefully spoke.
“Your Majesty, where are all your attendants? I saw servants outside, but the head servant Baso…”
Seeing the expression that appeared on Ord’s face at that moment, Marnak felt as if an icy chain was constricting his heart. It was a tense feeling and fear at the same time.
It was the kind of terror that made one want to turn and flee blindly, just before steeling oneself to face something terrible. Even though Ord had only smiled faintly.
And looking around, Marnak realized he was not alone in feeling this fear.
“Baso has left.”
Byron’s lips trembled. He was about to say something—probably wanting to ask the true meaning of ‘left’—but closed his mouth and quietly waited for Ord’s next words. The other branch heads did the same.
“What’s important now is not the matter of my person. It might be hard to guess why I’ve summoned you all. I’ll get straight to the point.”
After a brief silence, Ord let out a sharp cough.
Mel tried to approach, but he raised his hand sharply to block her advance. Wiping the blood that had seeped between his lips with his sleeve, Ord gasped for breath and glared at the branch heads.
“We must bring Eustar.”
The branch heads stared at Ord with dumbfounded expressions, forgetting even to ask questions.
Ord said.
“Eustar, and Laila. We must bring those two.”
“Where are they, Your Majesty?”
Felix asked. He looked ready to run out and shout Eustar’s name at the top of his lungs if Ord just gave the order. But Ord’s next answer stunned Felix.
“Those two are now in the city of magicians. Trapped, would be the right word. The same goes for Olga, the head of the 2nd branch.”
The expressions of the branch heads changed moment by moment. They looked as if they couldn’t have heard anything more absurd.
Marnak, who regained his composure first, stepped forward and bowed.
“Your Majesty, I am Marnak Deyamer, who oversees the 4th branch.”
“I know. I haven’t become so confused as to forget my most important subject.”
A gentle, sincere smile appeared on Marnak’s lips.
“I’m relieved that Your Majesty’s wit remains sharp. Then, if I may ask something.”
“Speak.”
“How did you know that Lord Eustar, Lady Kristrad, and Branch Head Olga of the 2nd branch went to the city of magicians? Also, what do you mean by saying they are trapped?”
Ord stared intensely at Marnak’s face for a moment, then slowly exhaled a heavy breath and answered.
“It’s exactly as I said.”
He coughed briefly, then continued speaking with a breath that sounded as if there were holes in his lungs.
“They are trapped in the city of magicians, unable to escape. Moreover, they are struggling quite a bit. The reason I know that these three headed to the city of magicians, and that they are fighting there, is simple. Because I saw it.”
It was an even more incomprehensible statement. Saw it? How?
Felix cautiously asked.
“Did you use a magic tool, Your Majesty?”
Ord snorted faintly at Felix, who raised his hand like a student, then nodded.
“Yes, something like that.”
It was a lie. He was too weak to even use a magic tool, let alone stand up on his own.
Everyone knew this but dared not point it out. Meanwhile, Ord recalled the hazy vision he had seen in a state half asleep and half dead.
It was the work of the Decepter. Or perhaps it had been done for Ord’s sake. Either way, without the Decepter, Ord would have had no way of knowing Eustar and Laila’s whereabouts.
The Decepter was outside the barrier of the magicians’ city. It felt as if it was bound, but Ord didn’t believe in that feigned weakness.
Because even if the Decepter couldn’t be the highest-ranking demon, Ord couldn’t imagine it being tied down by a barrier created by human magicians.
He could see Eustar and Laila facing monsters and heading towards a tall, dark tower. No, to be precise, he wasn’t ‘seeing’ it. He could feel it with his whole body.
As if he were there with them. And he also knew that the two were approaching a dangerous pit moment by moment. What the magicians in the city, and those controlling them, were plotting.
‘As a demon, it wouldn’t want such a thing to happen.’
That was the conclusion Ord had reached.
If the magicians eliminated all ordinary humans without magical power, it would only be a loss for demons. Because they wouldn’t be able to take their souls. Magicians rarely engage in contracts with demons.
“If that’s the case, Your Majesty.”
Byron’s deep voice broke the silence.
“Should we go to the city of magicians and rescue the Prince and Lady Kristrad?”
“Yes. I’m not sure if it’s possible, but Olga as well.”
Ord answered in a voice drained of all strength, then muttered as if to himself.
“It might already be too late, though.”
Gimius stood up.
“We will follow Your Majesty’s orders, whatever they may be.”
Byron and Marnak nodded as well. Only Felix kept his lips tightly sealed with a complicated expression, but soon he made a gesture of pulling his own hair and exclaimed.
“I don’t want to help that Muge Olga! I don’t even want to go near the city of magicians! But if it’s Your Majesty’s word, and for Lord Eustar and Lady Laila’s sake, I’ll go too.”
Ord said.
“Baso will be near the city. Find him. It might be a different being, but if it recognizes you, it will take on a familiar form.”
He pronounced the last words slowly and carefully, as if taking cautious steps backward.
“By any means necessary, stop the magicians. There’s no time.”
[This is the timeline separator]Laila involuntarily frowned and closed her eyes at the bright light that spread throughout the tower.
After the light that seemed to paint the outside of her eyelids white disappeared, she slowly looked ahead with her brows still furrowed. And she found Eustar gasping for breath.
“Eustar!”
Laila cried out and held Eustar as if to support him. His long hair flowed down like a waterfall as his head bowed, and between the strands, Eustar’s smiling face could be seen.
“I’m fine.”
“You’re not fine at all. What is this…!”
“Really, I am. Just a bit out of breath… Look.”
He stretched out his hand to point ahead. Laila, looking where he pointed with an expression mixed with resentment and concern, opened her eyes wide.
“This is…”
“If we follow this, we should be able to find Muge.”
There was a path of light on the floor. It stretched out long like a carpet leading into a party venue, and as they stepped on it, something like fine golden sand rose up like dust.
Eustar joked with a hint of laughter in his voice.
“It feels a bit strange to be walking on my life force.”
Laila startled at his words and tried to step off the path. But Eustar grabbed her wrist and nodded as if to say it was okay.
“Don’t worry, Laila. It’s not as difficult as I thought. To be honest, it feels so normal that I wonder if the shock I felt when I first used this was just a dream.”
“Can I believe that?”
Eustar smiled gently.
“You can believe it. My suspicious little witch.”
As she walked along the path of light with him, Laila noticed one curious fact. The monsters couldn’t approach the area where the light was laid.
She wasn’t sure what would happen if something huge appeared again, but at least the small ones were desperately avoiding the light. Some even fled into the shadows, only their eyes gleaming.
Eustar said.
“They probably don’t like the energy coming from me. The wavelength doesn’t match… If forcibly brought in, they’d suffer and eventually disappear, but there’s no need to do that.”
The two quickened their pace a bit. Had they climbed to the second, no, third floor of the strangely structured tower? The light was abruptly cut off in front of a dull gray wall. Laila soon realized that this wall was an illusion.
“There must be a way to open it.”
Laila said. She placed her hand on the cold, damp wall surface and slowly felt around.
Then she felt a pain like a needle pricking her palm. Just as Laila frowned, there was a clunking sound from inside the wall.
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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