12 O'Clock Marionette - Chapter 25

CONTENT WARNING:/This novel contains mature themes, explicit sexual content, strong language, and adult situations. Reader discretion is advised./---She ran from the devil who raised her…And married the one who wore a crown.After her parents’ tragic death, Lydia Andreyevna’s life became a nightmare. Stripped of her name, inheritance, and freedom by her uncle—Lord Alexander—she was treated like property and promised to a Count four times her age.Desperate to escape, she fled into the cold night… and straight into blood.A stranger. Wounded. Beautiful. Terrifying.She should’ve left him.But she didn’t.She touched him once—and fate branded her forever.Her uncle caught her the next morning. Her escape failed. But when she begged Queen Olga for protection, the Queen offered her a deadly bargain:Marry the masked Grand Duke of Zolotaria.The king’s hunting dog. The butcher of the East. The devil in a crown.The man feared by kings.The heir to the throne.The same man she once saved.Ivan Romanov.They say he bathes in blood. That he kills without blinking. That he conquered kingdoms with a smile behind a mask. That no one sees his face—and lives.Some call him the devil. Others call him Death’s favorite son.But behind the mask is the same man she found dying in the dark.The same voice that haunted her dreams.The same hands she once held.Now, he’s her husband.Her jailer.Her obsession.She doesn’t know if she’s his prisoner, or his weakness.Cold and untouchable, Ivan doesn’t share his bed. Doesn’t share his secrets. But she sees it—the hunger in his eyes. The pain in his silence. The way he looks at her like she’s the only thing keeping his demons at bay.She should fear him.She should hate him.But the moment she dares to take off his mask… it’s already too late.Because Ivan wants her—her fire, her body, her heart.And in his world, what he wants, he keeps.Even if it means burning down the kingdom.She thought she was running from hell.She ended up in his bed.And the most dangerous thing of all?She doesn’t want to leave.

This story tells the life of two people, a noble only in name and an older wife from the army, married through a tentative agreement. In the bone-chilling cold, they spend their time hunting, gutting, and cooking by the fireplace. Their daily life passes peacefully. This is the warm love story recounting their daily lives.

In the year of 2013, the tide of zombies outbreak exploded in everyone homeland, humanity launches a large-scale battle in the endless nights awaiting for the arrival of the dawn.

The end is approaching, is there going to be a way out for them?

Their faiths were shattered into pieces and buried in ashes in the raging fire.

But within the blazing fire, a newborn hope arise once again.

- Description from Novelupdates

Fang Zhou transmigrated into the immortal cultivation world, and the first thing he did was personally cancel his engagement.As a straightforward and macho man, he decided to cancel the engagement to a beautiful girl with a great figure.In this world where men were inferior and women were esteemed, the righteous were women, the villains were women, the cultivators were women, and even the gods who created the heavens and earth were women.Female warriors robbed the rich to help the poor and explored the world with their swords. Men, on the other hand, had to be cautious when going out so that they could protect themselves, lest they be robbed of their wealth and dignity, leaving them with nothing.Transmigrating into such a world, Fang Zhou, a handsome man who was desired wherever he went, felt immense pressure. Girls wanted to play with him and even tried to capture him and take him home.For the sake of his own life, Fang Zhou had no choice but to fight against women to the end.“Get lost, you annoying woman! Don't disturb my cultivation!”