Alicia, holding her throbbing head, woke up and wiped her tear-stained cheeks again today.
If it’s going to leave traces like this, it would be nice to at least remember what kind of dream it was.
“Shall I bring the doctor?”
Amy, who deliberately brought cold water for washing, asked while examining Alicia’s pale complexion.
“It could be due to accumulated fatigue.”
“It’s already been a week since you returned from your trip.”
Alicia, who thoroughly massaged her eyes with cold water and washed her face, said while wiping her face with a clean towel.
Her reflection in the mirror looked exactly like a swollen frog.
“There’s no frog that pretty in the world.”
Mina answered firmly to Alicia’s mutter.
Alicia, who filled her stomach with the simple breakfast Mina had brought, received an ice pack and placed it on her eyes.
It was a routine that had been repeating for a week.
The swelling had gone down, but traces of puffiness remained, and the mirror reflected the face of someone who had clearly been crying their heart out.
Alicia, who shook her head that this was difficult to solve even with ice therapy, lightly applied the ointment she received from Tilly to the puffy areas.
If it were any other time, she would have stopped here and laid back down on the bed to rest, but starting today, she had to move busily.
‘There are only two weeks left until elder brother’s birthday.’
It wasn’t simply a matter of preparing for the banquet, but she had to prepare to prevent the incident that would occur on that day.
‘Something happened at the hunting grounds.’
The official hunting tournament of Eregron is held only for the three days during the spring banquet period.
However, the imperial family cannot participate in the hunting tournament held during that banquet, so for Adrian, who loves hunting, the Emperor opened the imperial hunting grounds for just one day on his birthday.
That was one of the reasons why Adrian looked forward to his birthday.
In the past, when Adrian visited the imperial hunting grounds for his birthday, he returned to the imperial palace covered in blood.
A broken forehead, an arrow piercing his shoulder, and a broken leg.
Later, she heard that at some point, Adrian disappeared and only his horse returned to the stable alone.
Seeing the blood on the horse’s saddle, the nobles realized that something terrible had happened to him and searched the entire hunting grounds to find him, but by then, he had already lost consciousness from losing too much blood.
The capital was turned upside down by the accident that occurred on the Crown Prince’s birthday.
All the nobles who had gathered together that day became suspects in injuring the Crown Prince, and the one who received the greatest suspicion was none other than Killian.
Not only did they have a poor relationship, but if the Crown Prince died, the next in line for the throne would be Alicia, Killian’s fiancée.
No one stepped forward to openly make the claim, but behind the scenes, everyone suspected Killian.
The effort Alicia put in to prove that it wasn’t Killian who had harmed her elder brother was beyond imagination.
After about a month had passed…
In the end, the assassin who tried to kill the Crown Prince was not found, and Adrian passed away without recovering.
‘This time, I will absolutely make sure such a thing doesn’t happen.’
To do that, she first had to secure Adrian’s safety with certainty.
Even now, the efforts put in by the imperial family for his safety were no ordinary matter, but more than that was needed.
‘The best method would be to eliminate the hunting tournament, but that’s impossible.’
Just yesterday, Adrian was boasting that he would win this hunting tournament and bring back lots of wonderful furs.
She couldn’t disappoint her elder brother, who was excited with anticipation.
There was also no suitable reason to stop it.
If she said it was dangerous because something like this happened in the past, she might be misunderstood as mentally ill and sent to a monastery.
On the other hand, there weren’t many things she could use as an excuse to attach a different appropriate reason.
In fact, Alicia still couldn’t understand how such a thing happened in the past.
There were five knights guarding closely beside the Crown Prince, and the number of those hiding in the shadows to protect him was also considerable.
It was difficult to simply approach him, let alone impossible to charge in to kill him.
Yet, they broke through such protection, shot an arrow into Adrian’s shoulder, and left him unattended until he bled to the point of endangering his life?
It was something that didn’t make sense.
That was the very reason why Killian was the strongest suspect in trying to harm Adrian.
Because he was the only person who could somehow make such a situation happen if he tried.
But I swear to God, that day’s incident had nothing to do with Killian.
To prove his innocence, she went through the process of proving even the smallest rumors.
‘There were people who didn’t believe it even after I proved it like that.’
There were quite a few people whispering behind her back that she covered up Killian’s crime to shield her fiancé or out of desire for the throne.
If the same thing happens again this time… No, she will do whatever it takes to prevent such a thing from happening.
In the off chance that such a thing does happen again, Alicia will move to clear Killian’s innocence, just as she did in the past.
“Sigh… While doing this, what…”
After returning to the imperial palace, Alicia had been spending most of her time in her study.
She was repeating the process of carefully examining a huge map centered around Eregron, studying various travel records, and… choosing a place among them where she could run away and live.
There were two criteria.
First, Alicia had to be able to move alone.
In order to hide her traces as much as possible, she shouldn’t receive help from others.
And the second was a distant place.
A place just far enough for the major news of Eregron to occasionally reach.
She wanted to live in a place where she could at least hear news about her family.
And if she were to add an additional condition…
‘A place Killian absolutely won’t know. Even if he knows, a place he absolutely can’t come to find me.’
Of course, she knew that something like him coming to find her would never happen.
So this was just a condition she was adding to reflect her wish.
“I’ll think about this later and first, about elder brother’s matter…”
She thought of various ways to protect Adrian, but the one with the highest possibility among them was for Alicia to participate in that hunting tournament.
Since her elder brother was overprotective of Alicia, if she said she would participate, he would stick by her side throughout the entire tournament and not even look elsewhere.
Moreover, if something were to happen while the two of them were together, she could directly protect her elder brother herself.
She couldn’t wield a sword or a bow, but she could throw herself in front of a flying arrow.
She had already drunk poison to die, so why wouldn’t she be able to take an arrow?
Anyway, if she bought time like that, the shadows and knights trying to protect Adrian would surely come running.
“The problem is whether Father Emperor will allow me to participate in the hunting tournament…”
The Emperor knew that Alicia did not like hunting tournaments.
Moreover, Alicia had never held a tool that could harm someone, except for needles and thread.
If such a person suddenly said she would participate in the hunting tournament, what reaction would the Emperor show?
‘First, he would worry. He would be concerned about whether some problem had arisen and would suspect… suspect if I had other thoughts.’
She didn’t doubt her father’s love.
However, the Emperor was someone who had to know how to suspect every situation.
No matter how much he loved his daughter, as long as Alicia was an imperial princess and the one with the right to succeed the throne after Adrian, his suspicion was valid.
Knowing that, she wasn’t hurt, but if she couldn’t stay by Adrian’s side during the hunting tournament because of that, it would be a problem.
“What should I do?”
The concern was only about obtaining the Emperor’s permission; she wasn’t worried about Adrian’s permission.
If Alicia blinked her big eyes and said, “This year, I specially want to participate in the hunting tournament with elder brother. Would that be possible?” and then shyly smiled and said, “It would be nice if elder brother could teach me,” that would be the end of it.
At least when it came to Adrian, Alicia had an undefeated record.
Even Sienna, who showed a weak side to her, would say, “Sometimes my husband looks so stupid, it’s a big problem,” whenever she saw Adrian like that.
“Ah…!”
At that moment, a good idea popped into Alicia’s head.
It was Sienna.
The Emperor cherished Sienna, his only daughter-in-law, very much.
Since it hadn’t been long since they held the wedding ceremony and became family, he was also paying special attention to ensure she wouldn’t feel alienated or hurt within the family.
If she personally stepped up to help Alicia, the possibility of the Emperor allowing her to participate in the hunting tournament would increase.
Let’s get help.
With that decision, Alicia had lunch with Sienna that day and moved to the Crown Princess’s tea room to have an after-meal conversation.
And she carefully brought up a line she had prepared in advance.
“I need Sienna’s help.”
“I’ll help with anything, just tell me.”
“It’s nothing else, but I want to give elder brother a surprise gift for his birthday this time.”
“Oh my!”
“I want to personally prepare a birthday cake for him, but it’s too obvious if the kitchen gives it.”
“That’s true.”
“So, when the winner is announced at the end of the hunting tournament, I want to go up on the stage holding the cake I made myself.”
Since it was a hunting tournament held to celebrate the Crown Prince’s birthday, the nobles would tactfully adjust the amount of game they hunted.
In fact, he was the type to enjoy the process of hunting rather than winning, so it didn’t matter to him who became the winner, but Adrian knew that the nobles had no choice but to be mindful and pretended not to know, letting it slide.
For that reason, if Alicia appeared in front of him with a birthday cake as he ascended the winner’s podium with little excitement each year…
“…It might become a rumor that my husband is a crybaby.”
“…I’ll try to control it well so elder brother doesn’t cry.”
“Will that be possible?”
“If it really doesn’t work, I’ll cry first. Then he’ll stop in surprise, right?”
“Alicia, I always say this, but you’re really amazing.”
Sienna was learning yet another way to handle Adrian.
__________
Ex-husband Wants Reconciliation (Female-dominant)
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.
Synopsis:
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.
He even had his eyes on another woman.
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.
Su Mu expressed her disdain.
This life’s kindness was enough. If there was a next life, she would definitely kick Yan Jiyue away.
She also wanted to embrace Xie Yi, who had silently stayed by her side in her previous life and committed suicide by taking poison after her death.
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.”
[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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Zozo Zahraa
I hope you upload more chapters. I really love this novel and I will support you.