“What nonsense is this?”
“It’s not nonsense, think about it. If we go down to the basement now, we’ll only catch that rat bastard. The one I need to capture is Baron Lirald. Let’s say I catch the rat and flay its skin in front of him. Do you think Baron Lirald will prostrate himself and confess everything to me?”
So that’s what he meant. Charlotte gritted her teeth but had to agree.
She knew Baron Lirald was a cunning man. He might not confess even if his own skin was flayed, let alone someone else’s, and even if this man had such ability, there wouldn’t be enough time.
Decide, Charlotte. Her own voice whispered urgently in her mind. Taemi isn’t here now either.
She couldn’t call him… The hysterical, inhuman laughter of the Baroness seemed to ring in her ears.
She had to decide.
So she made her decision.
“Fine. I’ll accept your proposal. But only on the condition that my mission is a complete success.”
Matiel shrugged. Whether he didn’t grasp the situation or was naturally easy-going, either way, Charlotte didn’t like it, but resolving the issue at hand was more urgent.
While the two were having their not-quite argument, the party atmosphere had become even more lively.
Drunk people could be seen everywhere, and in places that were only nominally hidden by curtains, couples were engaging in foreplay at dangerously public levels.
Charlotte paid no attention to any of this, focusing solely on finding the figure of Baroness Lirald.
It wasn’t difficult to spot her. In the noisiest place, where the most people were gathered… there she was.
To someone unaware of the situation, it might have looked like people were surrounding Baroness Lirald to protest something.
“I didn’t know Baroness Lirald was such an eloquent speaker.”
At Matiel’s words, Charlotte bit the corner of her lip slightly.
“It’s the power of the demon, without a doubt. That…”
Charlotte observed the people crowded around the Baroness with narrowed eyes.
They were slapping each other’s shoulders and bursting into mad laughter at everything the Baroness said.
They didn’t care even when passersby glanced at them. It was behavior unbelievable for nobles who considered maintaining an air of dignity to be the most important virtue in the world.
“Laughter… or attention. That must be the food. Definitely.”
“Laughter? Attention?”
When Matiel asked, Charlotte waved her hand irritably as if there was no time to explain.
“Demons feed on a wide variety of things. There are types that literally ‘eat’ their hosts, and others that use their hosts to absorb human mental energies. This demon, whatever its name is, is using the Baroness to focus people’s attention. And making them laugh… Paying attention to someone else’s words also takes tremendous energy. It must be absorbing that. Look there.”
Charlotte pointed at the Baroness, and Matiel also narrowed his eyes as he stared at her.
“…Her body seems to be swelling.”
The dress that had fit her body perfectly when they saw her in the corridor earlier now looked extremely tight.
Every time the Baroness moved or burst into laughter, or made a loud noise, it looked like the buttons might pop off or the ribbons might snap.
Yet the people crowded around the Baroness didn’t seem to notice this fact.
Not only that, but their bodies also seemed to be strangely swelling… Was it an optical illusion? Maybe it could be.
“We need to separate her from the people immediately.”
“Can we just forcibly drag her away?”
Charlotte looked at Matiel as if he was the stupidest person in the world.
“Would you come quietly if it were you?”
“Then what do you suggest? This is your job, not my area of expertise. Shouldn’t you come up with the solution?”
I know. Charlotte thought. It’s just that the solution is annoyingly difficult.
‘If it weren’t for this man in the first place, it would have been easier to resolve… But there’s no choice now. Now…’
It was time to steel herself.
Charlotte glared at the Baroness, who was swelling more and more—now she could see the Baroness’s torso expanding with each breath she took—and said to Matiel.
“I’ll be the bait.”
Matiel looked down at Charlotte sharply.
“What did you say?”
Charlotte said irritably.
“Don’t make me repeat myself. We don’t have time. I’ll be the bait. That demon… knows I’ve come to catch it. That’s why it mocked me earlier. Eating one magician will be much, much more filling and sweet than an ordinary human.”
Or it might want to eat me for dessert. Charlotte thought.
“So I’ll be the bait to lure the Baroness. You prevent the people from following.”
“Then, you’re going to handle it alone?”
“What can you do? Have you ever even seen a demon?”
No. Matiel thought. He had knowledge, but he had never actually seen a demon.
It was his first time seeing a human who had become a demon’s host, like today.
He suddenly thought about the serial killings in the western region. King Lyuen wanted that case resolved above all else.
If everything Charlotte said was true, if she could eliminate the demon… And if those bizarrely connected murders were not the work of humans?
‘This is an unexpected development.’
“Are you going to do it or not? Hurry up and tell me!”
Charlotte urged him one last time—she looked ready to stab him with her eyes if he didn’t answer immediately—and Matiel finally nodded.
“Alright. I just need to stop the people, is that all?”
“They’re currently entranced by the demon. At least partially possessed. When the demon senses it’s in danger, it will try to call those people in. It’s using them as food while also turning them into new hosts… Do you understand?”
“Is it similar to laying eggs?”
“A disgusting analogy, but accurate. However, if the main body of the demon dies, those eggs won’t grow or hatch anymore. So you need to block any other interference as much as possible so I can kill the demon inside the Baroness. Can you do that?”
“I’ll try.”
Can you do it? The voice in her head screeched as if outraged. Can you trust this ordinary ‘human man’?
‘What choice do I have if I don’t trust him? Damn it.’
Charlotte glanced back at Matiel before pushing her way through the crowd gathered around the Baroness. The people didn’t care whether she pushed their shoulders, stepped on their feet, or crushed them.
Their gazes were fixed solely on Baroness Lirald, laughing at her gestures and shedding tears at her bizarre words while striking the person next to them.
“So I said! ‘Get lost, you country bumpkin clown!’ And then that man’s stomach really swelled up like a clown! His nose turned into something like it had been stung by a bee!”
It was impossible to tell what she was talking about, but that wasn’t important to Charlotte.
She deliberately pushed forward through the people and grabbed the Baroness’s wrist. The Baroness, who had been chattering away, suddenly turned to look at Charlotte.
“Cherie!”
Baroness Lirald was smiling, but she no longer looked human. At least not to Charlotte’s eyes.
The red rouge was smeared all over her mouth, making her look like a ‘country bumpkin clown’ as she had said, and the corners of her mouth were pulled up tightly as if someone had hooked them with fishhooks and tied them to her ears.
Her bulging eyes gleamed like glass sprayed with water, and she hadn’t blinked even once in quite a long time.
“Cherie, where have you been? Ah, did you spend some hot time with Duke Elinak? I can tell from your disheveled hair! You didn’t use my bed, did you? That’s off-limits!”
The people burst into laughter. It was clear that not a single one of them was in their right mind.
Would people who weren’t entranced by Baroness Lirald have heard this? It didn’t matter.
The moment Charlotte tightened her grip on the Baroness’s wrist, Baroness Lirald said,
“You should listen to my story too! Come on! I’ll give you a front-row seat! You won’t be able to help but laugh when you hear my story. Cherie, hm? You came to my party, so listen to my story!”
“Of course, Baroness Lirald. I’ll listen to your story. But before that, I have something to tell you, Baroness. Just between the two of us.”
The Baroness’s glass-bead-like eyes gleamed again. This time, Charlotte could tell for certain.
That sheen wasn’t tears or any kind of physiological response. It was like real glass had been embedded, reflecting light. The light of the chandelier.
“Just between the two of us? Cherie, you have something to say just between the two of us?”
“That’s right, just between the two of us. Absolutely, just between the two of us. Right now.”
Baroness Lirald laughed, lowering her chin.
Her lips, which Charlotte thought couldn’t stretch any further, rose a bit more towards her ears. Now it looked like they might tear sideways any moment.
“But Cherie, I haven’t finished my story yet…”
That was when it happened.
A woman with a dahlia flower tucked behind her ear
Wearing a hat woven from straw
Swirling her skirt embroidered with violets
Runs up the hill
Suddenly, someone’s singing voice rang out in the hall that had been full of all kinds of noise.
Even Charlotte was startled enough to look up, it was such a beautiful voice, but what was most surprising was the overwhelming volume.
‘That person is…’
Charlotte recognized the man singing on the podium that Baroness Lirald had been using.
It was Ellit. He was singing along to piano accompaniment, and the person sitting at the piano was none other than Matiel.
“Look at that! It’s Duke Elinak!”
“We get to see the Duke playing the piano!”
“What luck… And Mr. Ellit is singing! I feel like I might faint!”
For a moment, Charlotte thought Matiel might have looked at her.
It seemed their eyes met… and he seemed to be saying:
‘What are you doing? Hurry up and go.’
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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