Margrave's Bastard Son was The Emperor - Chapter 9

[COMPLETE] Can a royal Romeo and Juliet find their happy ending?

Ayleth, Princess of Zenithra, is secretly trained in hand-to-hand combat, and collects swear words she doesn't know how to use. During the Festival of Peace, in which every royal son on the continent will be at the castle for a month, she is instructed by her parents to find a husband. Yet, Ayleth has never even been kissed—until the very first ball, when she meets the man in the Lion mask.

Etan is a seasoned warrior, and the Prince of Summitras. He attends the Festival hoping to find a powerful wife who will help him conquer the dark sorcery of their bloodsworn enemies, the Kingdom of Zenithra. But at the very first ball, he discovers the masked woman who captures his heart is the Heir to the evil empire.

Ayleth and Etan face an impossible battle. Will their love survive? Or will their parents' dark dealings keep them apart forever?

[Mature content. No sexual violence.]

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“You…” She stepped back. Then back again, her mouth dropped open. “You… You cannot be…”

“I am,” Etan said, and his hair raked back as he pushed his mask off his handsome face. So handsome her heart raced.

His hair was ebony black, his skin a warm brown that threatened to fade in in the winter months. He stared at her with glittering green eyes, over high cheekbones and a noble nose, his jaw tight and shadowed this late in the day. His chin was high over the pillar of his neck that she’d just touched with its hard lines and steel strength, so different to her own. And his chest... She gasped and covered her eyes. She’d humiliated herself revealing her stupid, childish curiosity.

“No, Ayleth. This changes nothing.”

“How can you say that? It changes everything!” She was horrified to realize she was crying.

“Ayleth, please.” His voice cracked on the plea and she stared at him, shoving her mask up and off, despite how it would pull her hair out of the beautiful twist the maid had managed for her.

His eyes locked on hers and she couldn’t think. She couldn’t breathe.

She had met her One. And he was the son of her bloodsworn enemy.

She stared at him as he stepped forward again, offering both hands, palm up. “Touch me,” he whispered. “Hold my hands. This is real, Ayleth. I don’t know how it happened, but this is real. Please don’t deny it.”

She couldn’t resist. She raised a trembling hand to his cheek, letting her palm catch on the scruff of his jaw. He blew out a breath and put his hand over hers, and that jolt that happened whenever they touched shivered through her again.

“Please, Ayleth.”

“I cannot deny it,” she whispered.

I, Olga Rifald, have remembered the moment my engagement was canceled.

I had died in an accident and got reborn as the heroine in the Otome Game “Princess Road”.

The end of this engagement signifies the start of the game.

… And, if I’m careless, I will head towards the death route at full speed.

… Eh? Isn’t that dangerous? Ain’t dying dangerous?

I have already died in my past life, so at least here, I would like to live peacefully…!

… That being the case, I will do my best to aim towards the slowlife.

… Even though that was the plan!

Aldred, the leader of a kingdom’s A-ranked party,『Black Silver』, has accomplished the task of slaying a dragon. However, he who has pursued strength his whole life has lost sight of his goal from taking down a monster of the strongest species. As he worried about what to do next in his life, it was the scenery of Nordende that popped up in his mind; A rural village by the countryside, full of natural beauty, which he only visited once during a quest in the past.

After declaring the disbandment of his party, he heads towards Nordende for a comfortable, relaxing life.

By Xishui River, there lived a family with the surname Ruo, whose luck was so disastrously poor that it was as if misfortune was possessed by their very souls. When other families had bountiful harvests, the Ruo Family harvested not a single grain. Their planted vegetables were devoured by insects, their chickens got chicken plague, their pigs got swine fever…Despite the household being full of strong men, they were either mad, crippled, or blind…What would have been a family of great prospects became the poorest within ten miles.The only thing that others envied about the Ruo Family was its thriving male members! The old lady of the Ruo Family had given birth to six sons, who then gave her four grandsons. She dreamt day and night of having a granddaughter. When she finally got a grandchild, to her dismay, the child was mentally disabled: at over three years old, she still couldn’t speak or walk, couldn’t even eat or relieve herself without help.Everyone thought the Ruo Family would never turn their fortunes around in this lifetime! That was until the half-old three-year-old mentally disabled child suddenly called out, “Mom…”The heavens began to change.The world began to turn mysterious.In the Ruo Family’s courtyard, the persimmons ripened overnight. The vegetables in the fields, nearly nibbled bare by insects, turned lush and green. The old hen that had never laid eggs suddenly started laying…While others faced famine, the Ruo Family’s granary was full.The eldest son was no longer mad, the second son was no longer crippled, the third son was no longer blind…The old lady of the Ruo Family, with her hands on her hips, laughed heartily to the sky, “Who says my Xuanbao is a dimwit? She’s clearly a treasure of blessings!”(This is a farming novel with a hint of fairy charm, where the female protagonist in a previous life was a just-awakened daylily that has reincarnated as a human.)