“……Lloyd?”
Just as I suspected.
Slowly removing the hood of his robe, Lloyd Alois appeared.
Seeing him, I finally remembered one thing I had forgotten.
9 PM, at the stables, was it?
I had certainly read that note and decided to forget about it, which was fine.
That’s why I was able to take a walk with Leoprick without any concern.
If nothing major had happened, that walk would have likely continued until now.
But I ran away from him.
Having completely forgotten about the note, I kept worrying about my increasingly strained relationship with Leoprick and what was to come.
I was also confident that even if I didn’t go to the meeting place, it wouldn’t be a problem.
Dwelling on past events wasn’t something Lloyd Alois would typically do.
In my previous life, he didn’t even show up at my wedding.
Not only that, but after less than a week of honeymoon, he came to see me acting far too normal.
So Lloyd Alois shouldn’t be standing in front of me right now.
As I just stared at him without saying anything, he smiled awkwardly and ran his fingers through his disheveled hair a few times.
“I said I’d wait at the stables, but you didn’t come.”
Lloyd approached me slowly.
Unlike his usual matter-of-fact attitude, he was noticeably cautious, even in the darkness.
As if he would really stop if I told him not to come any closer.
I just watched him silently as he gradually came nearer.
“I’m sorry, Mel. I thought you’d be tired, so I tried to come earlier, but taking the less populated route made me take a bit of a detour.”
“…You took a detour?”
“Yeah. I’m sorry. Are you tired? Was the carriage ride okay today?”
You get uncomfortable on long carriage rides, don’t you?
He added quietly with a smile.
For a moment, I hesitated at his casual yet caring words of concern.
Anyone would find long carriage rides uncomfortable.
But most nobles pretend to be fine even on long journeys, assuming that not only themselves but also their companions must be fine.
The Lloyd from my previous life was one of those people.
No matter how long I rode in a carriage, no matter how unwell I looked.
He didn’t really care much about it.
There were always people around him willing to endure discomfort for his sake, and I was just one of those many people.
He had never asked me if I was okay, even as a mere formality.
And now, after passing through one life, he was asking me if I was okay.
Ha. An incredulous sound escaped me.
Neither the Lloyd from my previous life nor Leoprick had ever shown me proper attention in my past life.
Though I have nothing to say about Leoprick since I ignored him too.
Lloyd always gave me the attention he wanted rather than what I wanted.
He enjoyed watching me stomp my feet, wanting more than he gave.
This man who had been so selfish until my death, why now?
Why is it that things that never happened before keep occurring now?
“I came because I thought it would be hard to catch up with you if not today… I guess it was too much after all.”
I’m sorry. I didn’t think that far.
He said with an apologetic face as he examined my expression.
“I had something I wanted to tell you. I wanted to say it before you arrived since it would be too late once you got back…”
It doesn’t suit him.
It really doesn’t suit him at all.
“But I guess I only thought about myself again.”
Seeing him lower his gaze with an apologetic face, that was the first thought that came to mind.
Lloyd isn’t the type of person to hold onto negative emotions for this long.
The only negative emotions he persistently held were his feelings of inferiority and jealousy towards Leoprick.
Feelings like regret or guilt were nowhere to be found in him.
Seeing him make such repeated apologetic gestures became unbearable for me.
More curious about his business than why he had come here, I sighed and opened my mouth.
“What’s so urgent that you came like this? Even bribing His Highness’s knight?”
“I didn’t bribe him. Sir Daeon isn’t the type to be bribed.”
“Then…”
“I just know his weakness, so he had no choice but to help.”
He spoke gently, as if trying to soothe me.
“But that doesn’t mean I did the right thing. I’m sorry for making you suspicious of the person next to you.”
Laughing awkwardly and repeatedly apologizing, this Lloyd felt unfamiliar.
He was so unfamiliar and awkward that I finally averted my gaze from him.
“If you have something to say, say it quickly. If we stay any longer, His Highness might come looking for us.”
“Right. I don’t want that either.”
He answered lightly and reached out his hand to me.
His attempt to make contact casually as usual felt familiar yet strange at the same time.
Because he suddenly withdrew his hand that was about to grab me.
“…Sorry. I decided not to do this, but it’s not as easy as I thought.”
“What do you want to say?”
Is this person really Lloyd Alois?
Just as Leoprick Reinhart, who keeps making me doubt, doesn’t seem like Leoprick Reinhart.
Is Lloyd Alois, who always demanded everything as a matter of course and made me anxious, also not himself?
I had clearly decided to change everything.
But these people acting as if they had changed before my decision kept bothering me.
It was irritating and unpleasant, making me increasingly anxious.
I finally spoke in a nervous tone, taking a step away from Lloyd.
“If you have something to say, say it quickly and leave.”
“…Alright. I will.”
Lloyd hung his head, looking utterly deflated.
After making me wait a bit longer, he raised his head again and slowly began to speak.
“I know I’ve made things very difficult for you all this time.”
It was a somewhat heavy start.
As if he was confessing his sins to me.
“You must have been tired and hurt a lot. You were always generous to me, and I was excessively arrogant.”
It was also a voice trying to be solemn yet nonchalant.
Lloyd continued speaking with deeply sunken eyes.
“And stupidly, I only realized it now.”
“…”
“It’s what I should have said when you told me you didn’t want this marriage, but if you still have it in your heart to forgive me…”
He bit his lip.
Meeting my gaze directly for the first time, he smiled the way he always did when asking me for something.
It’s ridiculous how my body tenses up out of habit.
Despite having already decided not to be dragged along by him anymore.
“…Give me one more chance, Mel.”
I tried not to listen to his words.
“I’ll do better than all you’ve given me so far, no, even more than that. I’ll do whatever you want.”
“…”
“I’ll try never to hurt you again. So Mel.”
Love me one more time, just once more.
His solemn expression crumbled in an instant.
His voice, which had been full of tension, was now filled with desperation.
He was now begging me for a chance.
Is it because he thinks my heart left with the marriage?
Or simply because he thinks he’ll lose all the help I could give him due to my marriage to Leoprick, I’m not sure.
But hearing those words, some resolve formed in my heart.
“I’m already married.”
“I know, Mel. I’m not asking you to do it right now…”
“And we’ve already received our marriage certificate.”
“…”
Why did that feel so thrilling?
And why did it sting so much?
I took another step back from Lloyd and said that the marriage was already complete.
I said that Leoprick had embraced me, and by letting him embrace me, our marriage was consummated.
Of course, it wasn’t true, but seeing Lloyd freeze up at those words made me smirk.
Even if he asked for a chance, he’s not the type to embrace a woman who has already been touched by another.
He would form relationships out of necessity, but if there was no reason or meaning to the relationship…
“It doesn’t matter.”
Just as I was about to turn away after thinking that far, an unbelievable phrase reached my ears.
“It doesn’t matter, Amelia. As long as you still want me. Then it doesn’t matter.”
“…What, are you, saying now?”
“I’m asking for a chance from Amelia Vermerian, who was always by my side. So what’s important is your heart. Not your body.”
“…I’m no longer a Vermerian.”
“Does that mean you won’t forgive me?”
Lloyd lowered his eyebrows, looking almost pitiful.
There was a hint of desolation at the end of his slightly trembling voice.
Seeing that, I felt my anger rising more and more.
Always, always like this.
He always weakened my heart like this to get what he wanted.
Without any thought that I might react strongly to his weakened appearance.
Regardless of how tattered my heart had become.
“Is there any reason why I must forgive you?”
That fact made me angry.
The fact that I always had to be swayed by what he wanted, helplessly dragged along.
That he always got what he wanted this way, and I always got hurt watching him do so.
“If you wanted forgiveness, you should have held onto me earlier. Before I got married, when I came to you begging you to propose to me.”
“Amelia, that’s…”
“I’m now the Crown Princess. I have nothing left to give you, nor do I want to give you anything.”
“…”
“We shouldn’t meet outside of official occasions, and if you were truly sorry as you say, you shouldn’t have come here. You should have acted like you didn’t know me.”
Did you really not know how troubled I would be if you came like this?
I hope all these sharp words I’ve thrown cut deep into him.
So that he wouldn’t know about my heart that had, for a moment, imagined a future for myself rather than for Leoprick.
I hoped he would regret coming, wishing he hadn’t due to the overflowing pain.
Then I could turn my back again for the perfect revenge.
And if it were the Lloyd I knew normally, the one I had already experienced sickeningly in my previous life…
He would naturally get angry at me and leave.
“…I’m sorry, Mel. I made a mistake again.”
Instead of doing that, he apologized with a face that looked like he might cry, enduring the pain.
Translation complete. 100% of original text translated.
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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