Overlord of Blood and Iron - Chapter 252: A Squirming Conspiracy

I remember the story of a novel I had read in my previous life just before my marriage. If you don’t mess up the wedding, you’ll be poisoned by your husband! So I kissed the pastor who was in charge of the ceremony.

“Commander, are you alright?” shouted one of the holy knights as he approached the pastor who was kissed.

Huh, what?

Wait … are you the commander of the Holy Knights?

****

Rurutia, who was about to die, wanted to spend her last moment in a temple where she felt at ease the most. She started a business with her friends for the temple, and it was a big hit.

“Miss, you have the world in the palm of your hands!”

“Are you a God who has descended to Earth?”

In the midst of being embarrassed by the large crown, the commander of the holy knights himself was also acting strange.

“All I wish for is to be your husband,” he said, his eyes shining with obsession. “Take responsibility for stealing my first kiss.”

This is all so wrong.

It seems that I changed my future.

[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.]

******

“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.

After dying unexpectedly, she was reborn as a ten-year-old little girl in an ancient farming family, with barely a few rooms in her house and even fewer acres of land, not to mention a household of the old, weak, sick, and disabled.Fortunately, the elders in the family were kind and honest, her brothers loving and good-natured, and the neighbors harmonious and friendly. For Yang Mengchen, who had suffered from her relatives' torment and endured all sorts of mockery and scolding since she was young, this was truly a blessing from heaven.To support the family she loved, she resolutely took on the heavy responsibility of providing for them. If she, a modern corporate CEO who had once dominated the business world, couldn't feed a family, then who could?Pharmaceutical recipes, building greenhouses, opening storefronts... Not only did her family start living a comfortable and prosperous life, but she also led the surrounding villages in creating a magnificent pastoral scene!With money and fame, as she grew up, Yang Mengchen decided it was time to choose a husband, and thus, young talents from around the world began to flock to her.Who knew a grim-faced god of death would be blocking the entrance to the Yang family's home?“You're too tall, you're too short, you're too fat, you're too skinny, you're too dark, you're too pale, you're uneducated, you're deceitful and sly... All eliminated!”In a moment, the entrance was empty, and Yang Mengchen was instantly furious, “Prince, you've driven everyone away. How am I supposed to choose a husband now?”“I would like to see who dares to marry you. I wouldn't mind sending him to the Underworld as a groom!”Yang Mengchen...A certain Prince counted his merits on his fingers: “I have power, prestige, and substance, no concubines, no secret love affairs, no gallivanting— I embody the standards of a husband's three obediences and four virtues... In short, only I, this unparalleled good man, am worthy of you!”The guards: Oh wise and valiant Prince, is it really good to be so lacking in your role as a husband?

Athena, Earth’s most glamorous lone assassin and the seal bearer of the Death Goddess, met her end on her final mission. She succeeded in eliminating the world’s most powerful Mafia leader with her bare hands, but it came at the ultimate cost, her life.Or so she thought.Instead of the eternal rest she expected, Athena’s soul transmigrated into the body of Athena Demerin, a rising celebrity in the Interstellar Era of the Andromeda Galaxy. As the cherished granddaughter of the Northern Duke on planet Asenus, the original Athena had strived to carve out her own path to stardom without leaning on her family’s immense power. But ambition came with a heavy price. She died from exhaustion… or so the official story claimed. The truth? Someone orchestrated her death.Now, the new Athena has inherited not only this body but its unresolved mysteries. Determined to unravel the secrets behind the original Athena's death and fulfill her dreams, she must also navigate a world of fame, family legacies, and interstellar intrigue.But life throws her another curveball, a marriage to Major General Mors Jericho, the galaxy’s most brilliant young warrior. Revered by millions, he is admired for his strength, intelligence, and commanding presence. Yet beneath the surface of this union lies a web of secrets that could shift the balance of power across the galaxy.As she uncovers the truth behind the forces conspiring against her, Athena must confront her own feelings about Mors.Can a marriage built on duty transform into love? Or will her husband turn out to be her greatest adversary?Will she follow her heart, carve her own destiny, or succumb to the shadows of her past?