Annette, still thinking she might be dreaming, quickly pinched her cheek with her finger.
“Ow!”
Despite her poor physical condition, the pinch was surprisingly powerful, making her cheek burn.
Rubbing her cheek and grimacing, Annette spotted a full-length mirror in one corner of the room.
Uncertain whether the bed was too high or she had shrunk in size, she struggled to get down from the bed and stood in front of the mirror.
“……!”
In the mirror, she saw a small child with untidily hanging red hair reaching down to her hips.
Pale, translucent skin, large round eyes beneath a smooth forehead, a cute, upturned nose, and slightly parted rosy lips.
Despite the apparent malnutrition thinning her cheeks, her facial features were exquisitely beautiful.
Fluttering her long eyelashes like a butterfly, Annette couldn’t take her eyes off the child in the mirror with red eyes, and a face suddenly came to her mind.
It was the late Queen in the portrait Franz cherished dearly.
“It’s not a lie. Princess, you really do resemble the Queen.”
‘Come to think of it, nanny used to say that often.’
As a child, the only mirror in Annette’s remote palace was a small, broken one.
Annette would stare into that tiny mirror, wondering if she was as grotesque as the maids said, resembling a demon.
But the mirror only ever reflected a distorted, eerie red mass.
‘That’s why I thought nanny was a liar…’
Absentmindedly reaching her tiny maple leaf-like hand towards the mirror, Annette jumped back in shock.
Her rabbit-like red eyes trembled wildly.
“What on earth is this…”
“Oh my.”
Just then, an unfamiliar woman’s voice came from behind her.
Annette stared blankly at the woman in front of her.
The woman, with her flowing lavender hair and luminous violet eyes, was stunningly beautiful, far surpassing Bridget of Heyworth Kingdom, renowned as the ultimate beauty.
“Awake already? They said it would take a long time for you to regain consciousness!”
The woman’s voice was clear and pure as she made eye contact with Annette.
Startled, Annette quickly bowed her head.
‘Foolish. Everyone dislikes these eyes.’
The woman, noticing Annette’s avoidance, was about to say something when hurried footsteps approached, and the bedroom door flung open.
“……!”
Annette involuntarily raised her head, her eyes widening upon seeing a man with fine features.
Before coming to the empire, she had received a brief explanation about the Alcan royal family.
‘Direct descendants of the royal family are said to have golden hair like molten gold.’
The man before her was undoubtedly a beautiful golden-haired individual.
‘The Emperor is supposed to be in his mid-thirties.’
The man, who appeared to be in his twenties, couldn’t be Harzent, the Duke, known for his grotesque appearance and always wearing a mask.
‘Could he really be the Emperor?’
As Annette hesitated, unable to be certain, Emperor Lucius, equally surprised to find Annette awake, stood there with his mouth agape.
Then, the woman shouted at him.
“Your Majesty, how dare you enter a lady’s room unannounced!”
“Thinking the Empress was here, I just…”
Lucius muttered thoughtlessly, and Annette, suddenly coming to her senses, knelt on one knee with a thud on the floor.
“Princess Annette Heyworth of Heyworth Kingdom greets His Majesty the Emperor and Her Majesty the Empress of the Alcan Empire.”
Hastily offering a formal greeting, Annette grimaced. Her knees and wrists ached from touching the marble floor, but that wasn’t the only reason for her discomfort. She realized belatedly that she had greeted them like a knight, an old habit.
Annette had mostly learned etiquette by observation, as Sara had only taught her a few basics. She was never confident in her manners, and now her old habits had surfaced.
“My goodness, get up, please!”
Empress Charlotte, upon seeing this, exclaimed in alarm.
As Annette was chiding herself for her foolish behavior and biting her tender cheek, Charlotte continued.
“You were in such a critical condition, and yet you offer such formalities?”
“…What?”
Caught off guard by the unexpected kindness, Annette blinked in surprise. Charlotte, with careful hands as if handling glass, gently helped Annette stand.
Annette was utterly bewildered, not knowing how to react to the warmth and the unhesitant touch.
“It’s all because of His Majesty.”
“I am truly sorry.”
Emperor Lucius immediately apologized at his wife’s admonishment, his speech as refined as his neat features.
Annette was even more surprised that the Emperor of the Empire was speaking to her in honorifics.
And he was not looking at her directly but turned halfway to the wall.
Puzzled, Annette remembered Charlotte’s words and quickly looked down at her attire. She was wearing an ankle-length, cream-colored nightgown that was slightly too large, barely revealing her body’s outline. There was no reason to be embarrassed, especially since she seemed to have transformed into a child for some unknown reason.
My Arch-enemy Sealed My Memory and Said That He is My Husband
This is an incredibly captivating story that you absolutely shouldn’t miss! I’ll give a brief introduction here, and below you’ll find a detailed synopsis of the plot.
The female lead is a fierce and powerful demon king. The male lead is a once-in-a-millennium celestial lord, admired by the entire cultivation world.
They are equally matched, legendary rivals who have battled for centuries.
In the final duel, the female lead is gravely injured. The male lead saves her, seals her memories, and hides her true identity. He tells her that he is her fiancé. His entire life has been flawless—except for the one thing he never expected, never controlled, and never wanted to control: falling for his greatest enemy. She is his inner demon, his obsession.
When the female lead regains her memories, she is furious at his deception.
She makes his life a living hell.
And somehow, the male lead—possibly a total masochist—doesn’t mind at all. In fact, he’s happy she’s paying attention to him.
Yep, we’re back to my favorite trope: male lead suffering. If you love this kind of story, jump into the pit with me now!!!
Intro
Dong Xia lost her memory.
Her handsome and extremely powerful fiancé Li Qing comforted her: “It’s okay if you can’t remember. I’ll always be with you.”
Everyone thought Dong Xia’s ancestors must have burned incense to get such a perfect fiancé. He was the number one person in the immortal realm, yet he remained chaste and only loved her.
…
The day before marrying her fiancé, Dong Xia finally remembered everything.
She wasn’t suffering from memory loss at all.
Her arch-enemy had made her fake her death, destroyed her cultivation, replaced her memories, and pretended to be her deeply in love fiancé.
No wonder he said, “It’s okay if you can’t remember”!
Dong Xia laughed coldly as she pulled out her long knife: Li Qing, prepare to die 🙂
*
Li Qing, as the supreme being of the immortal realm, was the people’s shining beacon.
The only unknown stain in his life was his affection for Dong Xia, the ruler of the demon realm.
In the final battle of the war between immortals and demons, the sky collapsed and the earth shattered. The ruler of the demon realm was finally slain under the sword of the supreme being of the immortal realm, and everyone in the immortal realm applauded.
The cultivation world lost a ruler of the demon realm.
And in the back mountain of Li Qing’s cave dwelling, he secretly hid away a fiancée.
Notes:
1. The female lead is white on the outside, black on the inside, and the queen of flattery; the male lead repeatedly tests the edge of darkness, a VIP guest at the crematorium.
2. Fantasy cultivation world setting.
[Touch the gear icon in the bottom right corner of the screen to move to the next chapter if you want.]
