Defiance of the Fall - Chapter 1309: Escape Route

Nora is shattered a month before her wedding when she uncovers her fiancé's deceitful affair. As she manages this betrayal, she discovers a deep ploy to hinder her from claiming her rightful inheritance. Devastated but determined, Nora takes a daring step to regain control of her life. Enter Demetri 'The Demon' to those who know him, a formidable man barely known to her, who offers her protection and support in return for a contract marriage to satisfy him. In a twist of fate, Nora marries Demetri to claim her inheritance and fight those who plotted against her. But as she battles her own family and Demetri's many rivals, will she be able to keep from falling for the man known to crush people beneath his booted heel.Excerpt:She had forgotten that the man was intimidating and directly challenged him.Rather than speaking, Demetri rose from his seat and approached her deliberately. Although it was a mere few steps, time seemed to stretch for Nora. When he was almost within touching distance, his hand gently landed on her knee, moving it sideways. His touch moved with a hint of a caress, and he stepped between her open legs. Nora sat there in frozen silence, her eyes wide like a deer caught in headlights.Catching her chin between his fingers, he tilted her face upwards and spoke unhurriedly,“ You are my wife.”She nodded her head slowly in affirmation while his thumb slowly traced her lip. “I have given you time to gather your emotions.”Another nod. Nora's nervousness made her lick her lips, acutely aware of his intense gaze fixed upon them.“Your reason for the marriage was to secure your inheritance and get away from under your mother's thumb.”“Yes...” Nora whispered in confusion. Her confusion was not about his statement but about the bewildering sensations coursing through her. What was happening with her?”It's time for you to fulfil your end of the contract, yes?“ He continued.”Yes,“ Nora whispered breathlessly. Why was she breathless? Had the oxygen level in the house dropped? Was the air suddenly thinning?Abruptly, his hand left her face, and she watched as he drew closer. It was then that Nora comprehended what was unfolding. All those tantalizing, heart-pounding kisses she had read about in novels were about to possibly become her reality.But the anticipated kiss didn't happen. Instead, he paused near her and commanded, ”Kiss me.“

According to a popular legend, the famous God of War of Great Liang, Huo Wujiu, was once captured by an enemy country. He had his meridians severed and both his legs broken before he was thrown into the prison. In order to humiliate him, that incapable ruler of the country gifted him to his cutsleeve brother as a concubine.

General Huo suffered a great deal of humiliation. He laid in wait for three years before he shed his cicada skin and returned to the Great Jing. He treated his crippled legs, and three months later, he led his army to storm the enemy’s capital. He slaughtered the emperor, razed the capital, and finally beheaded that tr*sh of a cutsleeve, displaying his head on the city’s walls for the next three years.

Since then, the world has been united.

——

A certain university’s history lecturer received a graduation thesis depicting the legend of Huo Wujiu, and he wrote a full page of criticism for the student.

Then he blinked, and he was transmigrated into the body of that cutsleeve prince.

There were lanterns and decorations everywhere. A man came, sending word that the disabled general of the enemy state had already entered the manor in his wedding sedan.

As he looked at the General Huo in front of him, taking in his malicious gaze, his tortured state, clad in a red wedding gown, Jiang Suizhou realised that even legends can come true.

This legend could even cause him to be beheaded in public in the future, with his head hung on the city walls for three years.

Jiang Suizhou’s only option was to take good care of General Huo.

In spite of the hidden arrows of the court’s political agendas and the incapable ruler’s endless attempts to humiliate him, he could only bite the bullet and bear the brunt of it; his only wish was that after three years, he could protect his own head.

Of course, he didn’t dare to even dream of asking this 3 meters tall “concubine” to serve him.

However, before the three years was up, General Huo’s legs recovered on their own.

He didn’t just slaughter the incapable ruler and unite the land under the heavens, but he also climbed into his own bed and pinned him down with a heated gaze, stubbornly wanting to establish his status as a concubine.

The next morning, Jian Anning asked, “What is happiness?” Yu Xingxing hooked his lips into a smile and suddenly pulled her into a tight embrace. “Happiness,” he said, “is being with the one you love and doing things that make you happy. Let's continue, wife!” Jian Anning kicked him off. “Get lost!”

When the enigmatic and overpowered Kieran Drayke awakens in a foreign magical world after a sudden transmigration, he brings along a system unlike any this realm has ever known. The “Sovereign Architect System” doesn’t just make him invincible—it gives him the tools to build something far greater.But Kieran isn’t interested in world domination. At least, not in the usual way.Disillusioned by the world's surface-level glimmer and the rot beneath it, Kieran sets his sights on the forsaken—those discarded by society, lost in the shadows of nobility and corruption. From slums, war zones, and forgotten ruins, he gathers orphan girls of various races—elves, beastkin, humans, and more—each with untapped potential and pain behind their eyes.He trains them in secret. Guides them. Empowers them. Not as soldiers, but as a family. A hidden organization that operates behind the curtains, shaping the world while appearing as ordinary students at the prestigious Aetherion Magic Academy.Kieran himself? Just a carefree, slightly lazy transfer student with a penchant for sweets, sarcasm, and sneaking naps between classes—on the surface, at least.With a slow-burning plot that weaves magical worldbuilding, deep friendships, training arcs, casual comedy, and a cast of unforgettable girls who grow into queens of the unseen, Chronicles of the Hidden Crown explores what happens when an OP MC doesn’t conquer the world with brute force…But builds a legacy from its forgotten pieces.No betrayal. No forced drama. Just the steady rise of a secret kingdom in the shadows of a crumbling empire.