“Why would His Majesty? He has never cared about that before!”
Indeed. Litania inwardly agreed.
“Don’t you have any pride? You just came when called?”
“It’s an imperial order. What can I do? If I didn’t come, there would be an uproar about daring to defy His Majesty’s command.”
“Where do you get off speaking informally?”
“You’re speaking informally too. Didn’t you say we’re the same age?”
Litania had no intention of responding to the princess’s provocation, but she also had no intention of backing down when she hadn’t committed any crime.
Even if she was an outcast, she was still a princess, and officially Litania and Herna’s positions were equal.
“Hah, what is this…”
“Let’s watch our words. It won’t do either of us any good to be seen quarreling on such a good day.”
While it wasn’t unusual for the fake princess to be mistreated, it would be a different story if other nobles saw the real princess raising her voice at the fake one.
Realizing that the more she argued with Litania, the more her own face would be damaged, Herna stepped back with a frustrated expression and bit her lip.
“Do you know why His Majesty gave such an order?”
How could she know? The emperor had summoned Litania but didn’t show up himself. As Litania frowned slightly, Herna looked her up and down and folded her arms.
“If you showed up sluggishly with no intention to hunt, that’s rather fortunate. It’s not like you could catch any game anyway.”
“…”
“I won’t let it slide if you interfere with me.”
I have no intention of interfering anyway. As Litania shrugged her shoulders, Herna irritably lifted the tent flap and went inside.
Vapor, who had been watching his sister nervously all along, glanced at Litania and added in a small voice.
“Be careful not to get bitten by the dogs. No, you can get bitten, just don’t do it in front of me. I’m scared of seeing blood.”
If he hadn’t added that last part, she might have thought he was genuinely concerned, but the prince unnecessarily added words that tarnished his image.
Litania watched the prince’s retreating back disappearing quickly into the tent with a slightly pitying look. As the raised cloth fluttered back down, she briefly made eye contact with the crown prince who was holding the hunting meeting.
‘Wow. What a fierce look.’
She had expected that the other siblings wouldn’t welcome Litania, but actually facing it was more tiring than she had thought.
If she went in there and tried to join the hunting meeting, she might end up throwing up even yesterday’s food from the discomfort.
‘The emperor isn’t here either, should I just go back? I’ve participated as ordered, so it’s not like I’ve disobeyed the imperial command.’
Just as Litania was about to head for the exit, thinking this worked out well since she wasn’t interested in hunting anyway, the sound of a long horn blew.
“Presenting Duke Orbis Reverto Aeternitas!”
It was like a bolt from the blue.
‘Why is a duke, no, a divine dragon coming here when even the emperor isn’t present?’
Litania quickly turned her steps away from the exit and moved as far to the edge as possible.
Though he couldn’t be publicly presented as more noble than the emperor, the nobles who knew the duke was a divine dragon rushed to the entrance to meet Orbis.
Litania, who had barely managed to squeeze out of the crowd, stumbled and grabbed onto a fence. A strong smell of horse manure wafted over.
“…Horse dung?”
Beyond her hand gripping the fence, she could see the muscular leg of an animal. Looking up, she saw a white-maned horse looking down at her.
“Um… hello?”
The horse with pearly white fur and jet-black eyes looked so elegant that Litania greeted it as if entranced.
The white horse blinked lightly in response to Litania’s greeting, then made a soft whinnying sound and nudged the fence with its nose.
“You want me to open this?”
Litania looked around. There was no groom in sight, and the white horse in front of her was the last one left in the enclosure.
The bridle was new and the saddle was clean. Judging by the white feathers that looked like bird feathers under the saddle, birds must have been sitting there recently.
Given how gentle and obedient it seemed, it probably wasn’t another hunter’s horse. Perhaps it was a spare horse.
‘If I were really participating in the hunting festival, I would probably have been assigned this horse.’
When Litania lifted the latch and opened the gate, the white horse walked out slowly and shook its mane as if feeling relieved.
It was Litania’s first time seeing a horse up close, so she was a bit nervous, but she felt herself relax a little when the white horse approached and sniffed near her shoulder.
As she carefully stroked the horse’s fur, Litania was a bit surprised to find that the horse’s coat was unexpectedly soft.
“You’re pretty. What’s your name?”
The white horse blinked its jet-black eyes, then licked Litania’s cheek.
“Ah! That tickles.”
It was a good horse that followed people well. If first impressions were as important between people and horses as they were between people, the two seemed to have passed each other’s test.
Screech!
The sound of drums and horns announcing the start of the hunting festival brought Litania, who had been having an unexpected moment of healing, back to reality.
As the flags of each family planted in the ground began to move and the crowd gathered around Orbis started to disperse, Litania noticed and grabbed the white horse’s reins tightly.
‘Oh no, what should I do?’
She could see Orbis, who was a head taller than others, slowly turning his head. She didn’t know how good a dragon’s eyesight was, but if he discovered her, all her efforts to avoid his gaze and escape here would have been in vain.
‘Let’s hide in the forest for now!’
Litania quickly pressed herself against the side of the white horse to hide her body, and holding the reins, entered the Black Forest.
The clamorous sound of horse hooves and barking hunting dogs mixed chaotically, but she continued to push through the undergrowth and finally moved away from the noise. Relieved to have distanced herself from the hunting grounds, Litania raised her head.
True to its name, the Black Forest was densely packed with trees stretching tall towards the sky.
The gnarled, intertwined branches blocking out the sunlight looked just like a hunter’s fingers ready to snatch up careless prey.
Feeling a bit creeped out, Litania stopped in her tracks, and the white horse shook its muzzle, pulling the reins from her hand.
“Ah!”
Before Litania could grab the reins again, the white horse immediately started galloping, pushing through the undergrowth.
“Hey, hey! Don’t go…!”
Despite all the trees and bushes around, the white horse, much larger than her, galloped vigorously as if it were on a wide open plain.
Litania tried to chase after the white horse, pushing through the grass that seemed to cling to her feet, but she couldn’t close the widening gap, and soon the white horse disappeared from her sight.
“Oh no… I lost it. This is bad. What should I do?”
She could explain that she had let the white horse loose on her own because she intended to ride it, but losing the horse was a different story.
‘I should have held onto the reins more tightly.’
Litania looked around belatedly, regretting her actions and trying to find the disappeared white horse, but all around her were only the rustling sounds of leaves and chirping birds.
“Wait, where am I?”
She couldn’t hear the barking of hunting dogs at all. Had she strayed too far from the hunting grounds?
‘Surely I haven’t entered the mountains beyond the forest?’
Realizing she had no idea where she was, Litania became even more anxious. The dense foliage blocking the sky made it difficult to even gauge direction.
It felt exactly like wandering through a maze made of trees and bushes, making her heart pound and beads of sweat form on her forehead.
‘I need to find the way back first.’
Litania stood still and closed her eyes, concentrating. She could hear very faint sounds of dogs barking and horns blowing, so she hurriedly started moving in that direction.
Rustle, rustle. The sounds of trampling grass and pushing through bushes echoed urgently.
Pii, the sound of the horn was louder and longer this time.
Was she getting closer to the hunting grounds? Litania wiped the beads of sweat from her forehead, feeling a little relieved.
Crackle!
The sound of leaves crushing came from nearby.
‘Is it a hunter?’
Litania quickly raised both hands and shouted, lest a hunter mistake her for game and shoot an arrow.
“There’s a person here! Don’t shoot!”
Trained hunting dogs wouldn’t attack humans, so this should be enough to ensure her safety. It seemed to have worked, as the rustling sound definitely grew quieter.
‘Did they understand?’
As Litania lowered her hands and tried to look in the direction of the sound, the rustling noise started again.
The sound of the undergrowth shaking, slowly and gradually getting closer, gave Litania an ominous feeling.
‘Surely not.’
Crunch, crunch.
Rustle.
The sound grew louder and the branches shook greatly. At the same time, as a large, dark shadow revealed itself through the undergrowth, Litania nearly screamed.
Sharp golden eyes were glaring at her.
‘A black panther…!’
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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