A Fortune-telling Princess - Chapter 81

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

“What did that bastard say?”
The moment we stepped onto the Terrace, Arsian threw the question back at me in a sullen voice.
“Arsian.”
“What?”
“I’m going to live a long life.”
“What are you suddenly talking about?”
If you want to die, do it alone! Please, make your treasonous remarks when I’m not around!
I swallowed the words that threatened to burst out and explained calmly.
“Today is my birthday.”
“I know. Why do you think I’m here?”
“So don’t cause any trouble.”
“What trouble would I cause….”
“….”
“…Fine.”
Arsian’s brow furrowed repeatedly, clearly dissatisfied that I wouldn’t tell him what Crown Prince Edsen and I had discussed.
As I watched him, my eyes widened in surprise. Only now did I truly see what Arsian looked like.
‘Oh.’
I was seeing Arsian’s neat appearance for the first time.
His hair, which usually hung messily over his eyes, was now swept back naturally, and the all-black formal attire suited him remarkably well.
His lean frame actually made his height appear even more striking.
‘A man really does look best in a well-fitted suit.’
Having already felt the lean muscle hidden beneath that frame with my own fingers, I couldn’t help but admire him inwardly.
“It suits you well.”
At my compliment, Arsian’s expression became slightly awkward. He kept furrowing his brow as if the formal attire was entirely uncomfortable.
Finding his reaction amusing, I let out a small laugh.
“Where is Duke Sorpel?”
“That man’s busy. I came instead.”
“What? If Duke Sorpel had come, you wouldn’t have?”
“Ah, no, I mean…!”
When I deliberately pouted, he visibly panicked.
But soon he noticed the playfulness all over my face, sighed, and abruptly thrust a box toward me.
“He told me to give you this.”
“Duke Sorpel did?”
When I opened the box Arsian handed me, a small tiara studded densely with jewels emerged.
“Wow….”
It looked incredibly expensive at first glance.
“Tell him I’m grateful.”
“Do I have to give thanks for just this kind of gift?”
“…I’ll give my thanks in person later.”
I’m sorry. I’ve asked too much of you.
“Let’s head back inside.”
Since it wouldn’t be proper for the protagonist to be away for too long, Camilla turned back toward the Hall.
Arsian followed quietly behind her, just as he had moments before.
“Make sure you remember, Arsian. Today is my birthday.”
“I know.”
After reminding him once more, Camilla moved forward.
“Hmm?”
But as she stepped into the Hall, she found herself stopping dead in her tracks.
The atmosphere felt distinctly strange.
“What…?”
The soft music that had been playing moments ago had ceased, and not a single voice could be heard.
Everyone in the Hall had frozen mid-action, their gazes fixed blankly on a single point.
Following their stares, Camilla’s expression gradually hardened.
“Oh! Lady Camilla!”
A woman broke the eerie silence with a cheerful greeting.
It was Lania. The one I’d met at the Orphanage before.
Composing my flustered expression, I stopped Arsian from following and walked toward her.
As I drew closer, I recognized the familiar faces gathered around Lania.
Ludvil and Ravi, and… Father. Duke Sorpel.
“I heard today is Lady Camilla’s birthday? Congratulations. I didn’t know and wasn’t able to prepare anything… I’m truly sorry.”
“How did you get in here?”
“Oh, I happened to obtain an invitation.”
Someone who didn’t even know it was her birthday? Was she joking? What was the logic behind this?
‘Well, that’s not what matters right now.’
Lania’s smile remained beautiful.
She waved her hand without paying any attention to the others’ stares, and on her wrist was still that bracelet.
The Late Duchess Sorpel’s bracelet.
“Your name is… Lania, correct?”
Duke Sorpel, who had been staring intently at the blue gemstone bracelet, asked in a calm voice.
Noticing the tremor hidden within that question, I bit the inside of my cheek slightly.
“I must have surprised you by coming so suddenly, haven’t I?”
Lania’s expression changed in an instant.
Her cheerful smile faded, and with a face that looked ready to cry at any moment, she clasped her hands tightly together and bowed deeply toward Duke Sorpel.
“I’m sorry, Father.”
Father.
That single word was enough. I understood completely why the atmosphere in the Hall had become like this.
Of course, I too found myself unable to speak for a while. It took time to accept this situation.
‘Father…’
But that time was shorter than expected. Rather, all the things that had felt awkward and irritating until now seemed to vanish.
‘How strange.’
It was strange even to me.
“Lania.”
Camilla approached Lania in place of Duke Sorpel, whose expression had grown rigid.
“It seems we have much to discuss. Would you mind moving to another room and waiting? As you can see, the situation is a bit complicated at the moment. Is that alright?”
“Oh! I’m so sorry!”
Lania’s face fell immediately.
“Did I ruin the mood? What should I do?”
Watching her, I exhaled a short sigh internally. If I misstepped here, the reputation I’d barely managed to build would crumble to pieces.
“I just rushed here at the thought of being able to meet Father… I’m truly sorry—”
“Rube.”
Cutting off her apology, I called for the butler Rube immediately.
“Show her to the Reception Room.”
“Yes, Miss.”
Then I entrusted Lania to him, whose expression was slightly stiff unlike usual.
He must be confused as well. Both as a butler and as the leader of Black Shadow.
“A daughter, you say….”
“How on earth did this happen?”
“Could it be that the Duchess….”
“She died in a carriage accident, didn’t she?”
“But they never found her body then.”
“Oh! That’s right, they didn’t.”
“But doesn’t she look nothing like the Duke?”
“That’s what I’m saying.”
Naturally, the party atmosphere afterward was a complete disaster. People couldn’t stop whispering about the woman who had suddenly appeared claiming to be Duke Sorpel’s daughter.
‘Another ruined birthday this year.’
Was it fate? Did my birthday this year have to end in chaos no matter what?
I smiled as brightly as I could while internally clicking my tongue repeatedly.
The moment my expression hardened, I knew all too well what rumors would spread about me in society starting tomorrow.
A fake who was shocked and tearful at the appearance of the true Duke Sorpel’s daughter!
Such gossip would surely circulate.
“There goes that smile again.”
Crown Prince Edsen, watching from the side, clicked his tongue softly.
* * *
“What on earth is the meaning of this, Father!”
The party ended in a fizzle.
But no one had the energy to worry about such things. Before having a proper conversation with Lania, we first needed to speak directly with Duke Sorpel.
“….”
Duke Sorpel couldn’t easily open his mouth in response to Ravi’s question.
“A daughter, how could…!”
“Brother.”
Camilla quietly called out to Ravi, who couldn’t hide his excitement.
“Won’t you have some tea?”
“Now’s hardly the time for tea.”
“If you don’t like tea, I could prepare something else?”
“That’s not necessary—!”
Ravi, who had been irritated by Camilla’s unnecessary remarks, suddenly paused.
The moment he saw the calm, settled look in her eyes, he realized something.
‘Damn it.’
Camilla’s birthday—that troublesome younger sister’s birthday—had ended in complete disaster.
The one who should have been more shocked and upset was instead sitting there with a composed expression, sipping tea. There was nothing to say.
She must be hurting inside, yet here he was, her older brother, failing to be any support whatsoever. Ravi Sorpel, you fool.
With a mixture of self-reproach and embarrassment coloring his ears slightly red, Ravi finally released a short sigh and settled into his seat.
Soon his gaze drifted unconsciously toward Ludvil, who occupied the seat beside him.
Perhaps this situation was most bewildering for that man?
A daughter of the mother who had passed away long ago—his own blood sister—had suddenly appeared. How absurd it must seem to him.
“….”
Yet reading the expression of that insufferably composed stepbrother was not easy. He simply sipped his tea with eyes that betrayed no emotion whatsoever, as always.
As though it mattered not at all whether the person who had come to them today was his blood sister or not.
Ravi turned his head away sharply before their eyes could meet.
“Camilla.”
“Yes, Father.”
After a moment, Duke Sorpel finally opened his tightly sealed lips.
“Have you met that child before?”
“I saw her at the Orphanage I visited recently.”
“The Orphanage?”
“Yes, she was there doing volunteer work.”
Camilla briefly recounted her first meeting with Lania.
She also mentioned the bracelet Lania had been wearing and the crystal orb she had discovered in the Storage Room.
“Camilla, that is….”
“Father.”
She cut off Duke Sorpel, whose expression had hardened and words had faltered, before he could continue.
After days of contemplating every circumstance she had witnessed, she had arrived at a single conclusion.
“Anna Sorpel didn’t die in an accident, did she?”
Anna—the name of the former Duchess. Ludvil’s biological mother, and if Lania’s claims were true, her mother as well.
The woman who had passed away in a carriage accident when Ludvil was five years old.
Yet a daughter of the supposedly deceased Anna had appeared.
‘Carrying the bracelet that Anna Sorpel wore—the only one of its kind in the world….’
And the reaction of the butler phantom Derin when the bracelet was mentioned.
[A woman in her forties, perhaps?]
Forty years old.
Camilla focused intently on those words.
If Anna Sorpel had lived, she would be around that age by now.
That was the conclusion I’d reached through various deductions.
“She was alive, wasn’t she?”
Contrary to what the outside world believed, the Duchess had never actually died.
There was no other way to explain this situation.
“What nonsense are you spouting?”
Ravi’s response came first, his bewilderment evident as his brows furrowed repeatedly.
“That she’s alive? What does that even—”
“I’m sorry.”
But at Duke Sorpel’s words, spoken with a heavy sigh, Ravi had to quickly close his mouth.
“Father…”
“Camilla is right.”
His story, beginning with an apology, was enough to plunge everyone into shock.
By the time he reached the part about Anna being a Gypsy dancer, about how Duke Sorpel fell for her at first sight with her beautiful dancing and appearance, I had squeezed my eyes shut.
‘Oh, Father.’
I sighed quietly to myself. Why do you always fall for people like that…?
Love marriages weren’t impossible, but that only applied when both parties held equal social standing.
In a noble society where marriage was merely a means to an end, there must have been countless people who were shocked to hear Duke Sorpel’s news.
Honestly, my own mother’s origins weren’t particularly distinguished either.
She wandered about earning money—or as Duke Jebillen would put it, she came from a family of the lowest possible standing.
But Ludvil’s mother was the same…
At his children’s bewildered expressions, Duke Sorpel offered an awkward smile.
He continued speaking with a faint smile lingering at the corners of his mouth.
“We had no problems. Or rather, I thought we didn’t.”
Many, including Duke Jebillen, opposed the marriage, but to no avail.
Already smitten with her, Duke Sorpel pushed through to marriage without hesitation.
And contrary to others’ concerns, Duke Sorpel and Anna built a happy home and lived well together—so much so that those who had opposed the marriage came to nod in agreement.
But that happiness did not last long.
“She left.”

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