The Duke was a chainlike existence for my deceased father, preventing him from escaping his dark emotions.
Sudden speech must mean a resolution was made, or there was an emotional change.
There was a need to draw more words from the Duke here.
Nelia pretended not to know and asked.
“Do you, by chance, dislike His Majesty?”
The Duke stared silently at Nelia for a moment, then brushed his hair aside and muttered quietly.
“I do despise…”
I know the Duke’s sentiment towards the Emperor is not merely ‘dislike’. But asking if he wants him dead is out of the question.
“It’s more intense than mere dislike, but if I had to put it simply, yes. I dislike him.”
I knew the Duke had softened the violent word that came to mind. Probably out of selfconsciousness.
“Then why serve an Emperor you dislike?”
Nelia asked the decisive question nervously.
The Duke must have known this question would come the moment he revealed his father had died by the Emperor’s hand.
“Nelia.”
Instead of answering the question, the Duke quietly called her name.
“You might see me differently if I tell you the truth.”
“I still want to hear it.”
There was no way to back down after bringing the conversation this far.
Though it may be uncomfortable and sensitive, Nelia thought she should take the step now.
“Please tell me.”
The Duke took a short breath and opened his mouth at Nelia’s firm demeanor.
“I wanted to take revenge on His Majesty.”
“…Revenge?”
“Yes, revenge.”
His silver eyes glowed coldly like the frost in midwinter.
“I remember the day my father passed away. On a day when the funeral banners poured, my father returned to the ducal residence in a wretched form.”
“…”
“My father died so miserably, and yet the Emperor only spoke of the grotesque snake he had seen.”
The Duke’s reciting voice was low.
“So, I wanted to return my father’s brutal death.”
The moment he confessed about revenge, the Duke’s dark and explicit nature burst forth.
Even though it was a known story, the weight of the truth left Nelia speechless for a moment.
“So, do you see me differently now?”
Nelia swallowed her dry saliva and shook her head at the Duke’s selfmocking question.
“If I had gone through such an event, I would naturally want revenge… I would have felt the same.”
It was a word meant to comfort the Duke, but it was also sincere.
Who wouldn’t be devastated by losing a loved one?
However…
“But I would never have acted on those thoughts. Because nothing would be left for me even if I took revenge.”
It’s ultimately a matter of whether to act on it or not.
Even if one desires to kill a hundred times in their heart, the person is not guilty if they don’t act on it.
The Duke hasn’t killed the Emperor yet. So, it’s okay if it stops here.
Nelia clenched her small hands tightly.
“There’s nothing solved by revenge, Duke. You know that too.”
“…”
“I’m not saying forgive. Of course, it’s a lifetime wound. But I hope you bury the painful past for your sake.”
After finishing her words, Nelia’s heart pounded like she had run a hundred meters.
Yet, it felt refreshing. It was a conversation that had to happen someday.
Nelia lifted her momentarily shaky gaze to look at the Duke.
A powerless smile was on the Duke’s face.
“…It feels like I’ve been slapped.”
A bitter emotion stayed in his eyes.
“Maybe I’ve known all along. Even if I take revenge, this lump of resentment won’t disappear.”
“…”
“The reason I couldn’t easily decide… was probably because I’ve been lacking courage. I thought I wouldn’t find another reason for living if it wasn’t for revenge.”
The Duke exhaled briefly and stared at Nelia.
“But now I understand.”
The Duke reached out and gently touched Nelia’s cheek.
The reason for a life like revenge is no longer necessary. And…….
The palm of his hand that touched Nelia’s cheek was cool as usual, but warmth melted into his tone.
“If I stain my hands with blood, I won’t be able to reach out to Nelia like this.”
As always, a tender voice reached her ears.
“Maybe from the moment I met Nelia, this determination had been wavering. Because Nelia is so gentle and warm, having discovered light, I wanted to leave the cave I had always been confined in.”
“…….”
“It was a matter that didn’t require consideration…….”
Nelia could do nothing but blink her eyes.
And then, tears poured from her eyes in torrents.
“Nelia……?”
Even Nelia herself did not know why she was crying.
Because she had changed a person’s life? Or because that person was Duke Hart?
It was simply joyful, overwhelming, and choked up—a complex emotion.
“Don’t cry.”
The Duke pressed his lips against Nelia’s eyelids. Ironically, more tears spilled at the gentle consolation.
The Duke scattered small kisses over Nelia’s crying face.
Nelia sobbed for a while, unable to stop her tears.
“Shush.”
The Duke softly admonished, and their lips met. Soft touch was briefly felt and then pulled away. Nelia, momentarily surprised, stopped crying.
Then their lips met again, this time a bit deeper.
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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