At the sound of a familiar voice, Liz opened her eyes wide. Hersis’s face was too close. His breath tickled her nose.
“Uh!”
Liz tried to sit up and exerted force on her abdomen. However, before that, Hersis’s strong arms created pillars on both sides of Liz. In an instant, Liz was trapped between the thick pillars.
Suddenly, one of Hersis’s knees placed between her thighs felt dangerously unsettling.
‘Is he trying to devour me?’
The look in his eyes suggested that it wouldn’t be impossible.
“Breathe.”
Hersis said. In response, almost unknowingly, Liz exhaled deeply. She realized she had forgotten how to breathe properly.
Hersis chuckled and released Liz.
“Feeling better now?”
“Yes… I’m fine.”
Rising from the bed, Liz pulled her nightgown down to her ankles. Still feeling uneasy, she pulled the blanket up to just below her chin.
“How long did I sleep?”
“About eight hours.”
‘Not much.’
“…And two days.”
“What?”
Liz opened her eyes wide.
“I slept for two days?”
“It almost became three.”
“Really?”
Liz looked at him in surprise.
“You slept for two days?”
“I had almost asked them to unlock the prison.”
‘Wait, he locked me up for two days?’
Liz couldn’t comprehend.
Suddenly curious about how she had been living as a slave in someone else’s house, she wondered why she hadn’t been slashed before.
“It seems odd to apologize.”
Unable to figure out what else to say, Hersis spoke.
“You don’t need to apologize. An apology should come from the doctor.”
“…?”
“Failing to wake someone up for almost three days is as bad as being a deaf-mute.”
‘That doesn’t seem like a doctor’s problem…’
“I might have to order them to release you from prison.”
‘Wait, did he imprison me because he couldn’t stand those two days?’
Liz couldn’t understand.
She had been wondering how she managed to live as a slave in someone else’s house.
It seemed like she hadn’t been slashed so far.
“Where is this place anyway?”
“Huanghou Palace.”
Hersis answered Liz’s question.
“For the time being, you’ll stay here.”
“With Her Majesty?”
“I’m over there.”
He pointed to a curtain-covered window.
It was the window that Liz had seen a while ago, showing the main palace of Phrenae.
Liz pinched the hand held in her grasp inside the blanket without hesitation. It was to avoid showing any favorable expressions.
She didn’t use a shared room. Sharing a bed with this unfamiliar face… it felt awkward!
“I’m sorry, but please wait a few more days. We are currently renovating it to suit your needs. Once the renovation is complete, this place will be demolished. It doesn’t make sense for the Emperor and Empress to use separate rooms.”
“…….”
‘Unexpectedly, why are they keeping me separately?’
Liz let out a disappointed sigh.
Then, she suddenly realized that she might be missing something important.
“Um… You haven’t definitively said that I will become the Empress, have you?”
“I believe I did. You can’t just live doing only what you want.”
He was firm and unyielding like a rock.
The suggestion of getting engaged first and considering marriage slowly did not seem to appeal to him at all. He appeared to have no intention of consulting with her about the decision.
Liz decided to set aside this issue for now.
“But why the renovation?”
“It’s a bit outdated. It used to be the Duke Sejeong’s room as well.”
“Ah…”
‘He wants to erase his traces.’
Liz understood.
And since the title of Duke Sejeong came up, she decided to ask.
“Did he willingly step back?”
Liz knew nothing about what happened after Hersis entered the palace.
It seemed better to know and move forward when the opportunity presented itself.
“He seemed to step back more willingly than I thought.”
Hersis said with a wry smile.
“I guess he had no choice. The old-fashioned nobles, who prioritize tradition with their lives, wouldn’t have accepted him as the direct descendant of the imperial family, knowing he came from a Prince’s background. Anyway, since I survived their attempt to kill me and returned, he had no choice but to step back for now.”
‘The term “for now” stuck in my ears.’
Becoming an emperor was not the end, Liz knew that already.
No, in fact, ‘The Flower of Lujensia’ was just beginning.
Montaner, the Duke, would undoubtedly gather his supporting forces to plan for the future, and the two main characters, a man and a woman, would face trials because of it.
Overcoming those trials wisely and reaching a happy ending was roughly the latter part of the plot.
However…
‘What is that trial? How will they overcome it?’
Liz couldn’t remember the rest of the story.
She had tried to recall it a few times, but she didn’t think about it too desperately.
She had never dreamed or even thought about becoming a companion on that journey.
Once again, anxiety overwhelmed Liz.
It felt like someone was watching her from a corner of the room, holding a sharpened sword, ready to strike.
With eyes that seemed to say, “Pay the price for changing fate,” an eye that seemed to say, “Be prepared if anything goes wrong.”
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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