The carriage ran and ran. Although it shook a lot due to the muddy ground from heavy rain, it was bearable.
But after about 10 minutes of running. Suddenly, the carriage felt tilted to one side and then came to a complete stop.
“What’s the matter?”
Joanna asked, opening the window connected to the coachman’s seat. Ben, who had been whipping the horse, wiped the rainwater soaking his face and said in a troubled voice.
“The wheel seems to be stuck in the mud, Joanna.”
“What? Then…”
“Let’s get out, Joanna.”
Riena quickly assessed the situation and flipped up her hood.
“What are you saying?”
“We need to get out and pull the wheel out.”
Ben panicked and tried to stop her.
“No, miss. I’ll do it!”
“Mister, there’s not enough time for you to do it alone. We should do it together. Joanna, you get out quickly too.”
Riena got out of the carriage without anyone’s escort. The ground was all mud, so her feet sank in as soon as she stepped down, making her stumble, but she quickly regained her balance.
Then she took Joanna’s hand and escorted her as she got out of the carriage.
Joanna still looked somewhat anxious. Riena assumed she was worried about getting caught and pulled her arm.
“Joanna, there’s no time to worry. If we delay even a little, mother might notice and come to catch us. Let’s quickly push the carriage.”
“Ah, yes.”
Joanna followed Riena, swaying as if in a trance. Riena rolled up her sleeves and started pushing the carriage. Her shoes and hem of her dress were soaked in muddy water, but she didn’t mind.
But it was impossible for two women to do a task that would be difficult even for an adult man. The carriage twitched a little but couldn’t escape from the mud.
Even with Ben getting down from the coachman’s seat and directly pulling the horse’s reins with great effort, it just wouldn’t work. Instead, only the horse’s whinnying grew louder.
“This won’t do.”
Finally, Riena stood up straight and looked back towards the mansion. They had already moved quite a distance by carriage, so there was a considerable gap from the mansion, but if they made a commotion here, they might still be discovered.
“At this rate, we’ll be caught. Rather, I should ride the horse directly…”
Riena, about to say she would ride the horse herself, closed her mouth as a thought flashed through her mind.
Rainy days and horses. It was not a good memory.
“No. I think it’s better to just walk to the town.”
Ben was startled and approached her.
“Miss. It takes a full hour to walk from here to the town. It will take even longer with this bad weather.”
“An hour is plenty walkable. It’s good I wore hunting shoes.”
Riena spoke as calmly as she could while checking the luggage bag she had put in the carriage.
Since she had only brought what was absolutely necessary from the mansion, the luggage bag wasn’t very large, but that was only when traveling by carriage. It could be considered quite large to carry and walk for over an hour.
She opened the bag and just stuffed the hair ribbon her father had given her as a last gift into her pocket, then turned without regret.
It hurt to leave the luggage bag behind, but there was a need to look at reality coldly.
‘Clothes and necessities can be obtained anew in Berna territory.’
Food could be procured in the town, so there was nothing immediately needed now.
“Joanna, let’s go quickly.”
“Oh my, miss! If you go like this, I won’t be able to face the Count later!”
“Thank you, Mister Ben! Father will be grateful to you too!”
Riena smiled brightly at the restless Ben and then began walking towards the town.
“Miss, let’s go together!”
Joanna, who had been stamping her feet in place, hurriedly ran after Riena when she had gone about thirty steps away.
The rain was getting heavier. Riena tried to walk vigorously while wiping the rainwater flowing down her face, but her feet kept sinking into the mud.
Far from walking quickly, she soon became tired from exerting all her strength in both legs just to avoid falling. It seemed the same for Joanna, as her breathing beside her became rough.
“Miss, will this really be alright?”
“If you want to go back even now, you can go back.”
Riena said while continuing to walk.
“What?”
“I’m doing this for my future, but you don’t need to go through this hardship. You don’t need to be my exclusive maid forever, so if you want, you can go back.”
“Miss…”
Joanna looked back at the mansion with a face full of lingering attachment, but that was all. She grabbed her skirt with both hands and followed Riena, taking steps again.
After walking aimlessly like that for about 20 minutes. Amidst the sound of rain, the sound of a horse’s cry was heard and the ground vibrated slightly. Riena stood in place and looked back towards the mansion.
‘Mother couldn’t have known already, could it be Mister Ben?’
Perhaps Ben had managed to pull out the carriage and was driving it urgently.
However, contrary to her hopes, the one who appeared riding a horse was the captain of the Count’s knights. Behind him came a couple of knights whose faces she knew.
“Miss!”
He jumped off his horse after stopping it abruptly. Riena tried to run away quickly, but her feet wouldn’t come out of the mud, and her wrist was caught by him.
“This isn’t good weather for a walk. If you catch a cold like this…”
Riena burst into a hollow laugh as she looked at him calmly mentioning a ‘walk’.
“Do I look like I’m taking a walk to you right now?”
“…”
“Don’t you know, and don’t I know, that this isn’t a walk?”
“It would be better not to cause any more commotion, miss.”
“Why? Is mother unable to tell Baron Rothman that I left home because I don’t want to marry Greetje? Or is it too shameful to show Baron Belliard how messed up our family is?”
“Miss! How long will you act so childishly! If the late Count saw this…”
“Yes, you brought that up well.”
Riena shook off his arm with all her strength. The knight captain caught her as she almost fell from the force, but she shook off that hand as well.
“If father saw this situation now, don’t you think he would respect my decision? What do you think?”
The knight captain couldn’t give any answer to that question. Although he was following the Countess’s orders now, he was once a knight who respected Count Dyke.
Even to him, the Countess’s decision was incomprehensible. It was a shocking event that would make the deceased Count Dyke rise from his coffin in anger.
However, he couldn’t just let Riena go like this. After a moment’s hesitation, he forcibly slung Riena over his shoulder.
“Sir!”
Riena pounded his back with her fists to break free from him. Although she hit with all her strength and it must have hurt quite a bit, the knight captain didn’t budge.
As Riena was considering whether to bite the knight captain’s arm as he tried to force her onto the horse, it happened.
Once again the ground vibrated and the sound of a horse’s cry began to be heard from far away. It was coming from the opposite direction of the mansion.
In other words, someone was riding a horse towards the mansion at this hour, through this rain.
Faced with this unexpected situation, the knight captain couldn’t move hastily. Riena forgot to resist and looked at the faintly visible figure in the distance while hanging upside down.
‘Could it be Raoul?’
Since childhood, Raoul had an uncanny ability to find her when she was in trouble. Somehow, a baseless hope arose that if it was him, he would have come to help her this time too.
However, the man who appeared before her in an instant was not Raoul.
The man was wearing a black hood, so his face wasn’t visible, but Riena, who had grown up watching Raoul since childhood, could be certain. The hooded man was even bigger in build than Raoul, who was a knight.
Then was he coming to see Countess Dyke? While thinking this, Riena couldn’t take her eyes off the man. For some strange reason, she had a baseless conviction that the man had come looking for her.
Indeed, he stopped his horse in front of Riena. One knight followed behind the man.
“Are you visiting the Dyke mansion?”
The knight captain finally put Riena on the horse, then approached the man and asked politely.
“It’s late, so please come again when the day breaks tomorrow.”
The man, disregarding his words, lightly jumped off his horse. Then he walked past him, striding towards Riena. The knight captain blocked his way.
“I’ll say it once more. Please come again when the day breaks. If you act like this, I’ll have no choice but to subdue you by force even if you’re a guest to the mansion.”
“I have business with Lady Dyke.”
As soon as Riena heard his voice, she was overwhelmed by a strange emotion. It was clearly a voice she was hearing for the first time, yet strangely, she felt like she had heard it somewhere before.
And the moment he took off his hood, she was startled.
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.]
