While Francis IV"s complicated royal family drama was raging on in Holon city, after months of travel and battles, the leads" side finally had a conclusion.

In the end, Adam became somebody without a partner. The d.u.c.h.ess chose Andre and begged him to stop torturing the three of them with his stubbornness. Like a soulless knight that he had become, he watched as his beloved childhood sweetheart escaped from his grasp and ran to her husband.

The ducal couple went back to their territory in Holon after that.

Francis IV turned a blind eye to this and did not make trouble for them. Aside from the fact that he had to tend to a pregnant consort, he realized that there was nothing better than keeping people like them far from the capital. He needed Jiang Li"s warning from that time.

However, despite having returned to their fief, the days of Marian and Andre did not completely become peaceful. While the knight gave up, her family didn"t. The Obson couple was aware of the body swap due to their closeness to the Church of Wisdom and naturally wanted to retrieve her. It didn"t matter if she was married to the duke. With their son dead, the last thing they wanted was for no one to inherit the clan. They sent several platoons of knights to appeal to the king of Holon.

Minor disputes and troubles followed. While the enemies sent were weak, since these people could always escape, they repeatedly made sure to hara.s.s the fief so the two leads frequently had headaches.

As for what happened to Adam… Well, he seemed to have received a blow to his pride as a knight so he tried following the Grey couple back to Holon.

He was quite indignant about the result of the numerous fights with Andre. Yet because Marian repeatedly clarified to him who her real love was, he eventually stopped restricting her from coming back to Andre.

Because he still wanted to see for himself how real the affection between the duke and d.u.c.h.ess was, he followed the two, maintaining a safe distance from their group when they were still on route.

He was alone. His friends had gone back to Obson to report to the Viscount. He knew once he goes back, he would no longer be accepted for he released Marian even though the order he received was he should do his best to bring her back. 

Did he regret his decision back then? Well, not really. Maybe, at a later time, he would. But at that time, he was busy with his self-imposed mission.

The months of covert tailing only ended when he got into the village bordering the desert again. He no longer persisted in following them back to the capital.

At this point, from several days of watching the ducal couple from the distance, he had accepted that Marian did not lie to him.

It turned out he really had no more chance to make her his wife in this lifetime... 

It happened while he was drowning in grief, walking towards the only two-story building in the village, the inn. His whole body reeking sadness, he met Margarette who was guiding the kids in the village in learning Jiang Li"s writing and counting system.


"Milady, I apologized for my previous transgressions towards you," he said.

Without the presence of the other female lead nearby, he woke up and understood he should not have blamed Margarette before for Marian"s distress. It was he who caused his childhood friend and liege to become sad.

"We met at Borley City and I caused you some trouble due to a misunderstanding. My sincere apologies for that," Adam added, briefly showing a nostalgic expression due to her face before looking away. "It"s my fault for not conducting a proper investigation. I"m willing to receive punishment for what I have done."

Margarette recognized him. So she scoffed, almost saying she would have ordered for his head to be cut off if she was still in her previous body. But having remembered that a compa.s.sionate and reasonable heart was required to be a G.o.ddess, she chose to remain silent as to not say anything crazy. 

"I don"t care about you. Stay away. You don"t exist in my eyes." Her att.i.tude said so.

Yet after that brief encounter, the knight stayed in the village to seek her forgiveness. Since she was treating the other as air, Adam a.s.sumed he had to step up his game and show more sincerity. He did this by helping her out in various tasks.

Before he knew it, he had already been by the woman"s side for a year, silently helping her with errands and acting like her guard and knight.

Before he knew it too, he had also forgotten about Marian and began to hold affection for Margarette even though the latter never paid him attention.

Perhaps Adam had been fascinated by the air of a saint around Margarette although, at a glance, it was obvious her character was not at all saintly.

From the beginning, the princess never spoke to him. It was he who adjusted for her. It was him who voluntarily stayed even though he knew she was a witch. But he still stayed.

Ten years pa.s.sed. 

In Margarette"s house.

The teenage boy who had once been taught the longest by Jiang Li asked her, "Teacher, why did you choose to stay in this village for so long? Knight Adam said you are a very impressive person in the capital and could have lived a better life there."

"Finish your work, Matt." The woman who had become more mature and beautiful than ever did not lift her head. The day was special for her because she received an important package. She couldn"t take her eyes off the box as he unwrapped it.

The teenage boy scowled. "Teacher, I can mult.i.task, okay? Chatting while arranging books is not hard. So for real, why did you remain in this poor village? I was young back then, but I can still recall you were escorted by a dozen people when you first came here. Each of them was scary, like veterans on the battlefield. I am really curious about Teacher"s ident.i.ty since you could have people like them as subordinates."

Margarette looked at Matt and indifferently answered, "You"re curious? Fine. I"m a pretty important witch there and I used to live near to the royal palace. What? In my many years of staying here without concealing my items to you and the other students, you failed to guess my real occupation?"

"…Witch…" Of course, he already knew. The youth stopped speaking for a while. Unaware that Margarette was the princess, he thought, "Right, right. It"s an impressive feat to be a witch that survived years in the capital."

The woman did not forget to explain how because she grew tired of the situation in the capital, she decided to settle down in the village. "Because I became poor, I had to terminate her contract with the mercenary group. That"s how I ended up here."

If the managers of her conglomerate heard what she said, they would have doubted the official dividing line between the rich and the poor that had been decided by the king. As for the mercenaries, if she had truly terminated her contract with them, they would have cried rivers of tears from losing the support of the richest woman on earth.

With a wry smile, the little guy changed the topic. "Then how about your relations.h.i.+p with Knight Adam?"

"What about him?" She asked in annoyance. She knew where this conversation was heading and was displeased by it. 

"Since I was a kid, he"s been around you, Teacher. He"s handsome, kind, and powerful... Everyone is fond of him and thinks he"s a good and capable guy."

"..." "Sales pitch, huh."

"It"s obvious to everyone that he holds affections for you. May I know what you think of him?"

Margarette narrowed her eyes at the boy. Had she been the previous her, she would have put a curse on him already.

She said, "You won"t make much progress in your study of magic if you keep poking your nose to things you should not delve into. Stop thinking of weird stuff, Matt. Or else, I"ll kick you out and disown you. If you"re close to that Adam, tell him to stop being shameless."

"... Pitiful Adam." The boy secretly shook his head.

Margarette coldly smiled, "Tell him he should stop dreaming because this lady here is married and is faithfully waiting for her husband."

After speaking, since by then her chatterbox and nosy apprentice had finished his task and was only staring with wide eyes at her, she hurriedly chased him out of the room.

And then, what she last said immediately spread in the village.

It came as a shock to Matt, much less Adam who had been lingering around Margarette like a big fly. For years, the woman had not talked much, except to her apprentices who were mostly kids who had been marked by Jiang Li. Not many knew about her personal life so this was everyone"s first time learning about her marital status. It instantly became the talk of the town.

"It"s unbelievable. Miss Margarette, our beautiful hermit, is married!" For a long while, this became the most spoken sentence in the neighborhood.

Adam couldn"t recover from the shock. It took him long to connect the dots and came to a realization.

Years ago, he was chasing after Marian. Years ago too, she must have been looking for her husband so she appeared in the capital of Borley Kingdom.

Adam never thought that the world was this malicious towards him. The knight felt sad after realizing he actually fell for married ladies twice. He felt hurt and even started to wonder if he was still fit to become a knight since his heart was this sinful. "Do I need to convert into a monk to repent? Why can"t my heart find a lady who is single and willing to try loving me?"

...

The woman who unknowingly made the poor male lead wallow in another bout of depression had no idea about what was going on outside. All she cared for was the birthday gift she received from Jiang Li.

For a whole decade that she lived a suffocating, dull life because she couldn"t see and hug him, it had become her sole joy to wait for packages from him and to see what gifts from outside did he send her. Most of the time, the items were rare decorations or gems. Sometimes, it would be paintings with moving pictures depicting the place he had visited. However, the latter never contained his image.

This time, would there be a handwritten letter from him? Or painting with his face in there?

If only she could know from where the boxes were coming from, she would have long replied and threatened him to go back or else she would find another or become a nun.

"Husband, do you know that I sometimes hate how I can"t forget your sad smile? I was born with this special trait. A whole ten years had pa.s.sed. But I never once managed to erase your disappointed expression in my mind…"

With bated breaths, she opened the box before her.

Not long after, her eyes reddened. Her tearful appearance right now was not something her apprentices would find easy to digest in their minds.

Looking at the beautiful cheongsam lady in the painting which had her previous appearance, she really wanted to see him and ask whether this was another act of revenge on her.

Just now, she finally understood in full how painful it was to be remembered as another person, even if it was her past incarnation.

Thankfully, the painting was accompanied by a letter this time. She placed all her attention on that in no time.

Only after reading everything there did she sigh in relief and started laughing.

Despite the phantom pain in her heart, she was happy that finally, she heard from Jiang Li and read what he had been up to in the past ten years.

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