Early in the morning, while working in his study, Duke Hart lifted his head at the sound of a presence.
There stood Duke Clint, wearing a refreshing smile.
“Already at work?”
“Yes.”
Duke Hart nonchalantly responded as he skimmed through his documents.
Then Duke Clint walked over and snatched the paper from Duke Hart’s hand.
“You’re too cold. At least pretend to welcome a guest when one arrives.”
“I didn’t invite a guest like you.”
Duke Hart swiftly reclaimed his document, placed it on the desk, and rose from his seat.
“Tell me, why are you here?”
Despite the Duke’s cold attitude, Duke Clint was unperturbed.
“Lady Nelia started working yesterday, didn’t she?”
“So?”
“I came because I was curious, obviously.”
As Duke Clint made himself comfortable on the sofa, Duke Hart sat across from him.
“Why are you curious about Nelia?”
“As the head of the House of Duke Hart shows interest in her, of course I would be curious.”
Duke Clint answered with a cunning smile.
Seeing this, the Duke scowled.
“I wasn’t talking to you.”
“But you already said it.”
The Duke’s silver eyes were filled with amusement.
“I’m talking about what happened that day.”
[Star Icon][Star Icon][Star Icon][Star Icon]The Duke held a secret he could not tell others.
Only the people of the Duke’s house and Duke Clint knew of this secret.
The longkept secret was clandestine and dangerous.
So much so that the gaze of admiration would quickly turn into one of disgust if others found out.
The secret was a curse hidden deeply behind the high status of the Duke of Hart.
This curse, which only affected the eldest son of the house, transformed him into a lowly serpent for a certain period each day.
Only a drug developed over a long time could maintain his human form.
If he missed the medication for even a day, his form would inevitably change.
Yet the Duke was indifferent to this curse.
Would it be because his mother’s repeated warnings from childhood had bred resentment? Or had his anxiety worn thin?
So, the Duke did not fret about his transformed appearance being discovered by others.
One day, he didn’t take the drug he’d been taking daily.
Duke Clint seemed to think he had turned into a serpent in the middle of town that day because he had forgotten to take the medication, but in fact, it was due to a sudden wave of doubt.
Without that tiny pill, the admired Duke Hart would disappear, right?
His transformed serpent symbolized cunning and wickedness.
Everyone would avoid him and look at him with disdain if they knew he turned into such a serpent.
The thought of futilely relying on a drug to live a life where everyone would be shocked and run away if they knew the truth, made him skip the medication and take a blatant gamble.
It was purely an impulsive act.
The outcome was as expected.
Without the medication, his form changed in the carriage.
No one saw him transform, but the mere presence of the serpent slithering in the middle of town caused people to scream.
“Kyaaaaaaaaa!”
At the earpiercing shrill scream, Duke Hart hastily tried to escape the place.
However, someone caught him first.
“I got it. I caught it!”
In a flash, he was lifted and put somewhere.
The space wrapped in thick fabric was like a bag.
The man who caught him quickly sealed the bag. His sight went dark.
‘I’m trapped and can’t move.’
Then someone cautiously asked.
“What’s in there?”
The worried voice of a woman resonated clearly, as if it had been nailed to his ears.
“You’d better not concern yourself. It might be a superstition, but there is a saying that if you meet their eyes, you will be cursed.”
The woman remained silent at the man’s firm response.
Inside, Duke Hart, who had been listening, sneered.
That was about how others saw him.
‘If you make eye contact, you will be cursed.’
He was the one who was cursed, but he didn’t know who else he was supposed to curse.
“Why it came down to the town from the mountains. In any case, I’ll take care of this, so Your Highness, don’t worry.”
The aftermath of the rebellion was significant.
Because of a fleeting defiance, he refused to take the medicine, and now, trapped inside the sack, it seemed he would be discarded.
Still, there was no particular sense of crisis, probably because his heart had been worn thin.
After repetitive, weary days, his heart had become numb without realizing it.
The man, seemingly without any idle talk, hoisted him up and briskly walked somewhere.
And then, suddenly, there was a sense of floating, as if his body had lifted, and he dropped somewhere.
When he felt the ground wet underneath, he realized he had fallen into water.
He tried somehow to get out, but with no hands or feet, it was impossible to open the sealed entrance and escape.
‘Soon, I’ll sink.’
He knew he wouldn’t die from this much. He hadn’t tried it, but he was sure of it.
Because he was different from ordinary humans.
‘It might get a little suffocating.’
The moment the duke resignedly stopped his movements, the sack he was in started to move sneakily somewhere.
After Being Cheated On, She Picked Up a Treasure (Female-dominant)
One-line summary: The husband I married on a whim had been secretly in love with me for a long time.
On the day when Jun Shao finally obtained the imperial decree for her marriage, Lan Qu, the person she had admired for six years, defied the decree and ran away.
Her gentleness and devotion, her promise of a lifetime together, were all disregarded by him. Instead, he dreamed of entering the palace to serve the Emperor’s sister as a sixth-rank attendant.
News of this incident spread throughout the capital, and the alleys in front of and behind the Lan mansion were crowded with people who came to watch the commotion.
Jun Shao should have been embarrassed and angry.
But someone stepped in to protect her dignity.
The figure was in a miserable state, yet still possessed an undeniable elegance and handsomeness.
The young lord struggled to climb the wall of the Lan mansion and shouted to her, “If he won’t marry you, I will!”
So, Jun Shao took advantage of the situation and married the person.
She thought the young lord did it to save the Lan family from the crime of defying the imperial decree, but never imagined that from beginning to end, what he coveted was her.
*
After the wedding, Jun Shao felt like she was living in a dream.
Her Wife-master was as beautiful as a fairy in a painting, skilled in the six arts, well-versed in poetry and literature, capable of being gentle and attentive, and also grand and dignified. Most importantly, she was the only one in his heart and eyes.
Jun Shao didn’t know how Lan Shiwu, as a illegitimate son without a father and blessed with beauty, had managed to preserve his purity, recklessly escape, and use his last ounce of strength to ruin his own reputation, all because of his love for her, just to stand before her.
She could only see him gazing at her with eyes full of love, and when she bestowed a name upon him, his eyes shone like stars.
“You have come to me like a weary bird perching on a branch. I shall call you A Qi.”
