The ministers and officials were surprised by the Crown Prince’s idea of sending a woman, who was neither a soldier nor a scholar, and only one at that.
Everyone agreed with the Crown Prince’s opinion. So this time, a tedious debate ensued over which woman to send.
However, because there were no volunteers even after posting notices, the nobles became anxious, and the ministers were on the verge of losing all their hair trying to quell the dissatisfaction and protests from above and below.
Sending a princess with imperial blood would be best to show sincerity, but they couldn’t send a real princess to a dangerous dragon that might kill her.
So they had to send someone with imperial blood who was ‘okay to die’.
After much anguish, the Emperor recalled a maid who had served him long ago. Though the Emperor had liked her quite a bit and had her serve in his bedchamber secretly from the Empress, he quickly expelled her from the imperial palace when she unexpectedly became pregnant.
He vaguely remembered hearing that the maid, who had been chased out with only a few jewels, had given birth to a daughter.
The Emperor had soldiers search for the expelled maid, and they brought back a woman who looked just like her, saying she was the daughter of the deceased maid.
The Emperor was greatly pleased, and the other princesses were finally relieved that they wouldn’t have to go to the ferocious dragon.
Litania was a commoner but had imperial blood, so there was justification in sending her as the dragon’s bride, and even if something went wrong and she died, there would be no repercussions due to her lowly status. This meant she was the most suitable sacrifice.
Thanks to this, there was no one who opposed recognizing Litania, an illegitimate child, as a princess.
Because not only the imperial family but also the ministers and officials were unanimous, Litania became a princess in an instant, and at the same time, became the dragon’s bride and was sent to the dragon’s lair.
Litania cried out, but no one listened to her.
Becoming a princess and becoming the dragon’s bride were both like natural disasters to Litania, who had lived quietly.
There was no time to refuse, no time to resist. Even if there had been, she would have had no power or way to escape.
Litania took her own life inside the carriage heading towards the dragon’s lair.
And so the dream ended.
[This is the timeline separator]
“Gasp!”
Litania opened her eyes under the dark ceiling and breathed heavily.
‘What was that? A memory from the original story?’
It was strange. Hadn’t Litania lived in the imperial palace since she was very young? Even if she grew up in a separate palace as a despised princess, she didn’t live as a commoner. Moreover.
‘Didn’t I first meet Orbis at the spring ball?’
The Litania in the dream died before even meeting Orbis. She didn’t die after becoming crippled and suffering from being obsessed over by the dragon, but took her own life.
‘Was it just a weird dream?’
It was so vivid that it was creepy, but if it ended before the story even began, it couldn’t have been the content of the original novel.
She also thought that maybe there were actually two ‘Litanias’, but there was no mention of twins, and the current Litania didn’t appear in the dream.
‘Right, it’s just a nonsensical dream.’
If it were as in the dream, Orbis would have been quietly waiting in the dragon’s lair only to receive a carriage carrying a corpse out of nowhere.
Moreover, how horrifying would it be for him if a bride he never even wanted arrived dead?
Orbis didn’t even appear in the dream, but as Litania imagined him opening the carriage door and being shocked, she quickly shook her head.
‘Maybe… it was a dream because of what Orbis said.’
Didn’t he ask if marrying him was worse than death? Perhaps those words had strangely stuck in her mind, causing her to have such a bizarre dream.
‘But if I were the Litania in the dream… I might have made the same choice.’
If one were suddenly dragged away to become a princess, and then suddenly sent as a bride to an unknown man, and moreover, became the bride of a dragon known for being ferocious, wouldn’t one choose death instead?
The dragon who received a bride who had become a corpse might become enraged and trample the empire, but she wouldn’t have had the leisure to worry about the aftermath of the empire that had driven her out, chaining the carriage so she couldn’t escape.
‘This is really the worst. Being a despised princess confined in a separate palace would be better.’
She didn’t know why she had such an unlucky dream.
Litania wiped the sweat flowing on her forehead and pulled the bell cord. Her heart was pounding severely.
She wanted to quickly take a bath in warm water and calm down while receiving a massage from Snow.
[This is the timeline separator]“You left the imperial palace with that dragon?”
The Crown Prince’s face contorted. Litania felt a strong urge to run away.
‘Ah, I shouldn’t have taken a walk at this hour.’
It was a mistake to think about making future plans while walking in the rear garden. She had expected to run into Princess Herna, but she never imagined she would encounter the Crown Prince here.
“I didn’t ask him to take me.”
She couldn’t leave without the Emperor’s permission, but it was a force majeure, wasn’t it? She couldn’t refuse the divine dragon’s request, so the unauthorized outing wasn’t Litania’s fault.
“Then that bastard forcibly took you.”
Snow had said something truly disrespectful to the Crown Prince, but the Crown Prince’s way of addressing the divine dragon was also inappropriate.
Even if it was something like a totem symbolizing the empire, it was still a being nobler than the Emperor, so could one carelessly call it ‘that bastard’? Litania slightly furrowed her brow.
“If he forcibly took you, why didn’t you say anything?”
“No, well…”
It was true that she was suddenly taken without consent, but it was a stretch to say she was forcibly taken.
Litania didn’t resist, and Orbis didn’t particularly take any forceful actions either.
“It’s not like I was forcibly dragged away like that. Thank you for your concern.”
Judging from her experience of seeing the Crown Prince’s expression distort whenever the divine dragon was mentioned, it seemed he did dislike Orbis. So he probably wanted to find some fault to criticize, like forcibly kidnapping a princess.
Litania, not wanting to participate in the Crown Prince’s everyone-bashing doll play, tried to end the conversation appropriately.
“Who said I was concerned about you?”
“…”
Can’t he just end the conversation? Why is he picking on her too?
As Litania looked at him with a dumbfounded expression, the Crown Prince took a deep breath and turned his gaze away.
“The fact that he can take a princess from the imperial palace so easily means he can kidnap anyone at any time. And you didn’t report that? What’s wrong with your mind?”
She couldn’t understand why he was acting like this now when he had never treated her as a real princess before, calling her a fake.
“Even if I want an audience with His Majesty, he won’t see me.”
“You could have told me.”
She wondered if he knew that the Crown Prince was more uncomfortable than the Emperor whom she had never met.
“Don’t be swayed by that bastard. You’re making other imperial descendants look foolish too. This is a matter of the imperial family’s dignity.”
“I didn’t know the imperial family’s dignity was so light that it would fall just because I left the palace for a bit.”
“What?”
“If you don’t really think of me as a princess, please don’t pull out my princess status only when it’s convenient.”
Perhaps because she had already weathered the big wave called Orbis, Litania wasn’t afraid of the Crown Prince at all.
Compared to Orbis, who was like a natural disaster, wasn’t the Crown Prince just a neighborhood ruffian throwing a tantrum? She sighed softly and straightened her posture.
“You don’t think of me as your sister anyway.”
“How could I think of you as a sister!”
“Exactly. Please continue to pretend I don’t exist, like before.”
“It’s because that damned dragon keeps targeting you!”
A sharp voice cut through the Crown Prince’s shout.
“You met with Divine Dragon Orbis?”
Here it comes.
“Herna… Princess.”
When she added the honorific, Princess Herna’s expression distorted even more. She strode over and growled at Litania.
“You fake keep acting out of line, not knowing your place. Watch yourself. He’s not someone the likes of you can aspire to!”
“Yes…”
She wanted to refute that she had never aspired to anything, and that it was Orbis who was acting out, not her, but Litania just hazily replied with a halfhearted answer.
There’s no point in arguing back, it would just waste energy. Here, she could only wait quietly for the storm to pass.
‘If she hadn’t acted like this to me, I would have cheered for Herna’s love, but I don’t understand why she’s grabbing her innocent younger sister instead of approaching the man she likes.’
Having heard from Snow that Herna’s birthday was half a year earlier despite being the same age, Litania decided to take a step back.
“I’ll behave well from now on. I’ll be going now.”
“I’m not done talking!”
“Instead of doing this to me, why don’t you go see Orbis?”
“What? You really!”
Herna raised her hand. Litania was about to close her eyes, thinking she might as well take one hit and be done with it.
But then.
“Litania. Did you call for me?”
Grab.
At the sound of Orbis’s voice from behind, Litania reflexively caught Herna’s wrist.
An Indifferent Woman is the One Men Desire the Most
One-line summary: The female lead is actually cold-hearted and extremely rational. She has stage-by-stage relationships and won’t two-time, but there will always be someone who secretly likes her.
This novel has the following triggers, so if you’re sensitive to these, please don’t read:
1. The female lead has had many relationships, but she treated each one seriously and broke up properly.
It’s just that the men unilaterally pestered her incessantly. For the female lead, when she doesn’t like someone anymore, she simply doesn’t like them.
(This applies to her relationships with Male Lead 1, 2, 3, and 4 as well, but she’s loyal in each 1-on-1 relationship!)
2. In this novel, Male Lead 2 and the female lead kiss in a car, and Male Lead 1 sees it and beats up Male Lead 2.
The female lead calls the police and sends both Male Lead 1 and 2 to the police station! Male Lead 1 begs the female lead not to break up with him.
3. Male Lead 1 has a gentle appearance but an obsessive personality.
Male Lead 2 has a delicate and soft appearance, slightly green tea-like (two-faced).
Male Lead 3 is a youthful college student and a smart person who has secretly liked the female lead for a long time.
Male Lead 4 is the female lead’s father’s special assistant, a business elite with deep, hidden thoughts.
4. At the beginning of this novel, the female lead has already broken up with Male Lead 1 (Chapter 4) and gotten back together with Male Lead 2 (ex-boyfriend).
5. Enter with caution if you have triggers!!!
