The Job of an Imperial Concubine - Chapter 3: Gentle (温柔)

You’d think seeing the future would give me a head start on surviving the apocalypse. I had it all planned—until everything I knew shattered when my husband sacrificed himself to save me and our son. Now it’s just me, my three-year-old son Leo, and my cursed gift of foresight that only seems to kick in when it’s nearly too late.I’m doing my best to keep us safe, to find food, to make some kind of plan—“Mommy?”I glance down, trying to ignore the tug on my pant leg as I focus on our supplies. “Not now, Leo. Mommy’s thinking.”“Mommy!”I sigh and finally look down. My three-year-old is standing there, clutching… I blink. “Leo, where did you get a knife?”He shrugs, grinning like it’s the most natural thing in the world.My heart stutters. “No, really. Where did you find that?”I try not to laugh. I mean, he’s three. Maybe he just—found it somewhere? But the next day, it’s a water bottle. Then, a tiny flashlight, somehow with batteries still inside.I don’t even know what else; he’s pulling things out one by one with the pleased grin of a kid who’s just figured out his favorite game.Well, we may just survive this mess after all.Now, if only the universe could have spared me from him. I don’t even know his name, but I know his type: tall, broad, and annoyingly handsome, with an air of calm control that’s out of place in this chaos. Ex-military, if I had to guess, with a voice that’s just as infuriating as his smirk. The man has a habit of showing up at the worst—or best—possible times, with a gun at the ready and secrets buried as deep as those bright green eyes.I mean, he’s probably useful, but I’m trying to keep my eyes on the prize here: survival.For Leo and me.Because, foresight or no foresight, nothing is guaranteed in this new world—except the fact that people like him are trouble.

“I cannot come to you with my problems when you have the weight of the kingdom on your shoulders. I would rather suffer in silence so I do not bother the king-”“Your husband,” Tobias corrected Hazel, placing his hands on her shoulders to comfort her as her eyes filled with tears. It pained him that he had not noticed how much the palace had been slowly breaking her. “I am your husband first. Do not hide your sadness from me,” he said, wiping away a single tear that slipped away with his thumb.…Hazel Wallace never thought she would make it far when she was picked to enter the selection for the next queen. In a surprise turn of events, she finds herself tangled up with the future king, Tobias Castro.Hazel once thought she would be strong enough to survive living in the palace walls. As queen and with Tobias by her side, she had nothing to fear. That was until the crown was placed on her head. Soon she realised the dangers in the palace and how not even the queen was safe from scheming men and women.Each day she spent in the palace, Hazel felt like a piece of her was slowly breaking away. Eventually, Hazel wanted nothing more than to run out of the palace, but after betrayals from people she thought she could trust, Hazel sought to become the person she was before entering the palace and get revenge on those who sought to take away her crown.Tales of Castro Nobility story timeline order -The King’s Unbreakable WifeThe Knight’s Mysterious MaidThe Duke’s Masked Wife

Jeong Yoo-shin, 23 years old, was suddenly transported to another world.In this world, not only was it impossible to return home, but even survival was uncertain.Black-haired humans were called Barbarian and treated as northern savages.There was only one place where he could gain the strength to survive and find a way to return home: the Great Labyrinth.“I must become stronger to survive. And I will definitely go back.”This is the story of a black-haired human’s fierce struggle for survival in the labyrinth.

After the Catastrophe, every rule in the world was rewritten.