A Fortune-telling Princess - Chapter 25

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 25. Laying the Groundwork
Laila.
Beautiful. Kind. Wonderful personality.
She was the only one who approached Camilla—someone everyone avoided—and spoke to her first, offering genuine smiles.
‘I really hate you!’
‘I wish you were dead!’
‘Get away! Disappear from my sight!’
I despised Laila. No—I loathed her.
‘Though what I really felt was jealousy.’
Laila and I shared something in common.
We had both lost our biological parents in childhood and been raised by adoptive families.
But the outcomes couldn’t have been more different.
Though the Baron’s Household wasn’t as prestigious as the Sorpel Duchy, the couple who adopted her cherished and loved Laila as their own daughter.
She grew into a cheerful, beautiful young lady, and people constantly surrounded her.
Everyone adored Laila. Even Petro, whom I had pursued relentlessly, showed interest in her.
We were in identical circumstances. We both grew up under adoptive parents, not biological ones. So why was Laila different?
She effortlessly claimed the affection I so desperately craved. The envy must have been maddening.
‘But I couldn’t admit that envy.’
Because acknowledging it would only deepen my despair.
I protected myself by tormenting Laila and hurling cruel words at her.
The rejection only intensified, yet even knowing this, I couldn’t stop.
And eventually…
‘Father!’
‘…’
‘P-please save me!’
“Ugh, this is so frustrating.”
The unbidden memory made me roughly tousle my own hair.
The affection I never received.
Yet Laila possessed everything.
Consumed by violent emotion, I had even kidnapped Laila with intent to kill her, but was instead caught and faced devastating consequences.
That was the final line. Everyone turned their backs on me because of that incident.
Duke Sorpel even stripped away the meager affection that remained under the guise of family bonds.
My only blood relative, Ravi, was no exception.
When he devised his plan to kill Ludvil, he dragged me into it without hesitation for precisely this reason.
Effectively isolated, I couldn’t refuse Ravi’s request when he was the only one extending a hand to me.
I remember desperately seeking out a refreshing drink after witnessing his pathetic state each time. The suffocation was unbearable.
“You’re Miss Camilla, aren’t you?”
I gazed at Laila for a moment without expression as she offered a radiant smile, despite the pain in her ankle.
‘Come to think of it, she transferred around this time.’
A person who endlessly provoked me, yet I had completely forgotten about her.
“Over there….”
When Camilla said nothing, Laila’s expression grew cautious. Camilla stepped closer to her.
A soft rustle.
Then she extended her hand.
Laila stared at Camilla’s pale, slender hand with a somewhat dazed expression.
“Are you going to keep standing there like that?”
“Oh!”
Laila, her smile finally returning to her face, carefully took Camilla’s hand.
“Ugh!”
As Laila rose, sharp pain shot through her visibly swollen ankle, and she stumbled. Camilla quickly supported her with her other hand.
“Thank you.”
“If you’re grateful, then don’t follow after such people into places like this anymore. Can’t you see it plainly? What were you thinking, trailing after someone into this desolate Forest?”
I wasn’t following that person….”
“Then?”
“I was following you, Miss Camilla!”
At her shy smile, I couldn’t help but wear an expression of bewilderment. When had we even met for her to follow me like this?
“You were heading into the Forest, so I wondered if something was wrong…. Going alone might be dangerous, wouldn’t it?”
I’d never seen such a meddlesome person.
“Do you know me?”
“Yes! I do!”
You know me?
“Everyone was talking about you, Miss Camilla.”
“About me?”
“What dress the young lady of Sorpel Duchy wore that day. What accessories she had on. How her hair was styled like this, or like that. By afternoon, you could even hear about what you did during class.”
“….”
“Everyone seems to take quite an interest in you, Miss Camilla.”
I had vaguely sensed that attention was shifting toward me more than before.
My own figure, comfortably enjoying the indifference and neglect of those around me in a way quite different from before, must have looked terribly strange to others.
‘I didn’t know they were even discussing my hairstyle, though.’
I’d heard in passing that the shops responsible for my clothing and accessories were doing remarkably well these days.
“I’ve wanted to meet you so much.”
“Me?”
“Yes.”
“….”
Her eyes were shining with such brilliance.
‘Those eyes seem very familiar.’
Novice performers always had that exact look in their eyes when they first saw me.
“Camilla.”
Ludvil slowly approached her side. Only then did I turn my attention back to my surroundings.
Ludvil slowly approached her side. Only then did Camilla turn her attention back to her surroundings.
“Ugh.”
“Hgh….”
“Mm….”
Four men knelt on the ground, groaning in pain. Some were even whimpering.
‘…What on earth happened in that brief moment?’
They all looked absolutely wretched.
Some had limbs hanging limp as though their bones were shattered, yet not a single one dared to abandon their kneeling posture. As if their very lives depended on maintaining it.
‘When did he come down?’
Juide, whom I had suspended from the tree, was also kneeling on the ground and groaning in agony.
When I lifted my head, I could see that the branch he had been hanging from was severed with remarkable precision. It appeared Ludvil had done the cutting.
How on earth did he manage to cut something so high up?
“This.”
The moment I looked at Ludvil, he thrust something forward.
“Huh?”
It was a bracelet. My bracelet.
But….
“It’s broken.”
The bracelet that had been binding Juide had been forcibly released and shrunk back to its original size, but one end was snapped clean off.
“Sorry.”
Watching Ludvil offer his apology so matter-of-factly, it seemed this too was his handiwork.
How did he manage to break something so durable? Ravi had said it could bind even formidable monsters.
“There’s nothing to be done. I’ll have to ask my older brother Ravi to repair it.”
“Ravi gave you that?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Why? If I had to answer why….
“I’m not entirely sure myself.”
I let out a soft laugh.
“Perhaps he was simply looking after his younger sister? He is my older brother, after all.”
The memory of Ravi awkwardly tossing the bracelet to me surfaced anew, and my eyes grew warm at the recollection.
“….”
Crunch!
‘Huh? Crunch?’
What was that sound… wait!
Just as I was about to extend my hand to retrieve the bracelet, an unfamiliar sound emanating from Ludvil’s grip made my eyes widen in alarm.
Something glittering crumbled into powder and fell to the ground. The man released his grip and held out what remained to me, speaking with utter composure.
“Sorry.”
I stared at Ludvil in disbelief as he offered yet another apology.
Avoiding my gaze, Ludvil pressed the shattered bracelet firmly into my palm.
* * *
“How strange…”
Lying in bed, I found myself awake again, my mind churning with endless thoughts.
My head felt muddled by the sudden encounter with Laila. Ever since her appearance, the circumstances surrounding me had shifted in increasingly subtle ways.
‘Ludvil especially.’
He showed little interest in people, objects, or even himself—yet Laila was the first to draw out genuine obsession from him.
But today, the two of them were utterly unexpected. They were distant, barely even glancing at each other.
In my repeated life, I had watched them feel a powerful attraction from their very first meeting, displaying keen interest in one another.
And with Ravi and Petro joining in alongside the other men, a chaotic romantic battlefield was supposed to unfold…
‘Perhaps because their first meeting didn’t happen in the planned location?’
Today’s encounter between them resulted from an action I had never taken before—my journey to Spirit Lake to find the Divine Beast’s egg.
‘Originally, they first met at the Marketplace, didn’t they?’
In that version, Ludvil happened to witness Laila caught by villains in a predicament and rescued her. After that, they grew close rapidly.
“…I don’t know. I should just sleep.”
After releasing a long yawn, I tossed and turned briefly before sinking into deep slumber.
How much time had passed like this?
[Listen here.]
“Mmm…”
Just as I had finally fallen into deep sleep, a familiar voice roused me, and my eyes fluttered open.
[Wake up, would you?]
“Ah, go away…”
[I said wake up.]
Sleep vanished in an instant.
Standing at the head of my bed, looking down at me, was a figure—no, a ghost.
Had it been an unfamiliar spirit or any other ghost, I might have simply accepted it. I had seen ghosts appear suddenly like this in the night more than once or twice before.
“How did you come all the way here?”
But if that presence was a bound spirit, that was another matter entirely.
[Well, I’m not entirely sure myself.]
The one who had come to find me was Hersel.
The man who had been bound as a spirit to his own grave, unable to move—suddenly standing right before my eyes. I couldn’t help but be startled.
‘How on earth?’
This was the first time I had encountered such a situation, and it was quite extraordinary.
[I’ve been waiting for news from you, and suddenly today I felt my form grow lighter.]
…Do ghosts have weight?
I released a small sigh.
I suspected his lingering resentment had finally begun to ease now that finding the Divine Beast had become possible.
‘His desperate desire to urge me to find the Divine Beast quickly must have played a part as well.’
Clearly, constantly pestering the butler ghost Derin every day had proven insufficient. Hersel himself must have wanted to come here and urge me directly.
Even breaking free from the binding force that had confined him for a lifetime.
[When exactly do you plan to extract the Divine Beast’s egg?]
“It’s not something so simple.”
[I even gave him the location. What’s so difficult about that?]
“Sigh.”
Camilla exhaled another short breath.
Now, after Derin, Hersel would come calling every single day like this.
I should be singing about hurrying to the Spirit Lake to search for the divine beast’s egg instead….
‘I can already kiss sleep goodbye.’
Exhaustion was already creeping over me.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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