A Fortune-telling Princess - Chapter 9

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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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“I already said I’m fine, yet you insist on bringing it anyway.”
Witnessing such a reaction, Duke Sorpel clicked his tongue as if genuinely annoyed.
Yet everyone present could see the corners of his mouth curling upward ever so slightly.
“I’m quite envious, Your Grace.”
“This is why everyone says you need a daughter. Haha, I only have sons, so I can’t experience such joy myself.”
“In my household, even with a daughter, she’s never once brewed me a cup of tea, let alone brought me snacks.”
“The same goes for mine.”
“Not all daughters are like Miss Camilla, though.”
As Duke Sorpel listened to everyone speaking their piece, he slowly brought a spoonful of sherbet to his lips.
Today, as always, it tasted exquisite.
“It’s truly remarkable. You were always causing such scandals, yet now you’ve finally come to your senses?”
A pause.
At that moment, a young retainer spoke, his gaze still fixed on the wine sherbet with genuine astonishment.
It was Count Ersha, the youngest among the retainers.
“….”
Duke Sorpel’s gaze turned toward him.
“Seeing as you’ve made something like this for His Grace, you must have deeply regretted the incident you caused at the party last time.”
Those around him kept signaling for him to hold his tongue as Duke Sorpel’s expression grew increasingly frigid, but Count Ersha failed to notice.
“You there.”
“Yes?”
“Didn’t you say you can’t drink wine?”
“Me?”
“Then a dessert made with wine wouldn’t suit your palate either.”
“No, I actually really like that wine-”
“You absolutely despise wine.”
Duke Sorpel cut off Count Ersha’s protests—insisting he’d never said such a thing—and commanded his butler firmly.
“I cannot disregard my daughter’s thoughtfulness. Bring that here so I may have it myself.”
“Yes, Your Grace.”
“No, wait….”
Watching the sherbet before him vanish, Count Ersha couldn’t hide his bewildered expression.
In that moment, his gaze met Duke Sorpel’s.
“Please… enjoy it….”
‘What did I do wrong?’
Only after witnessing the glacial coldness in Duke Sorpel’s eyes did he grasp the reality—that he had just committed a grave error.
He sought explanations from those around him and pleaded for their aid, but they all turned away, shaking their heads.
* * *
“What should I make tomorrow?”
[I have a special sauce I developed. I’m thinking of making canapés with just a touch of it.]
Brushing aside Head Chef Jelard’s clinging pleas to teach him the recipe, Camilla left the Kitchen.
‘Hmm?’
I had been discussing tomorrow’s meal preparations with Perol, the kitchen’s phantom chef, when I came to an abrupt halt. A familiar figure stood in one corner of the Corridor.
“What are you doing there?”
It was Ravi. I wanted to simply pass by, but our eyes met directly.
What was he doing alone in the Corridor at this late hour?
“….”
As I stared blankly at him, he strode toward me. Could he have been waiting for me?
“What are you up to?”
“What am I up to?”
Shouldn’t that be my line? You’re the one blocking the path and asking nonsensical questions—what are *you* up to?
“Every night, what are you doing? Why are you suddenly doing something you never did before?”
Watching Ravi’s gaze flicker toward the Kitchen, I finally understood what he was talking about.
“Cooking? Why would that matter?”
At my question, Ravi’s brow furrowed slightly.
“What’s your scheme?”
“Scheme?”
“Why are you suddenly doing this?”
Watching Ravi ask the same question again, I clicked my tongue in irritation.
“Mind your own business.”
He was meddling in the most pointless way.
I tried to walk past him, but his next words forced me to stop in my tracks.
“Do you really think the Duke will accept you as family because of this?”
Ravi’s voice was unusually harsh, laden with emotion. This wasn’t his typical cynical demeanor.
Had he been drinking? But there was no smell of alcohol.
“Do you honestly believe you can earn his recognition with something so trivial?”
Watching Ravi’s expression—contemptuous, yet somehow angry—I tilted my head in confusion.
‘Why is he like this?’
Whether I made food for the Duke or brought him flowers, what did it have to do with him?
‘Weren’t we supposed to be living our own separate lives?’
This was truly unnecessary meddling.
“They will never accept us.”
“….”
Us?
‘Us….’
I said nothing for a moment.
‘He’s talking about himself.’
Did my recent efforts to gain Duke Sorpel’s favor somehow overlap with his own image?
Ravi, desperately striving to catch the Duke’s eye—that was his reflection staring back at him.
“Don’t waste your time on pointless things. It won’t help anyway.”
“I know.”
“…You know?”
“Yeah, I understand.”
Camilla’s response was remarkably brief and composed, almost making the person speaking with such heat feel embarrassed.
“I have no intention whatsoever of becoming part of their family.”
“What?”
Family? That wasn’t what mattered right now.
There was only one reason I was doing this.
“I don’t want to die.”
“What are you saying?”
“I want to live.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“That’s all there is to it.”
“Hey!”
With those words, Camilla brushed past him.
I could feel Ravi’s gaze on me, his eyes clouded with confusion, but I simply pretended not to notice.
‘Yes, that’s all there is to it.’
Family?
‘Forget about it.’
Chapter. What You Give, You Must Return
“The weather is quite lovely today.”
[….]
[….]
“A cup of coffee would be perfect right now.”
[….]
[….]
“Shall we go for a walk?”
[….]
[….]
“….”
Fine, fine. I understand.
“What? What is it? Why have you two been like this since earlier? If you have something to say, just say it already.”
Camilla, who had been enjoying a rare moment of leisure while seated by the window, finally had to turn her attention to the two ghosts staring intently at her—Perol and Derin.
[What did you mean by what you said yesterday?]
“Yesterday?”
Camilla feigned ignorance and asked back.
[You told your brother yesterday that you wanted to live.]
[Miss Camilla, what did you mean by that?]
Derin, who had apparently already heard the entire situation from Perol and had wiped away his usual smile, spoke carefully.
[Are you perhaps unwell?]
[You want to live? What on earth did you mean by that?]
They were referring to the conversation I had shared with Ravi last night. How was I supposed to explain this?
“Everyone wants to live, don’t they? It’s just something people say.”
After a brief moment of consideration, Camilla answered lightly, as if it were nothing of consequence.
I couldn’t possibly tell them everything about my situation.
What if I said, ‘I know the entire future, so I’m desperately fighting to survive right now’?
‘They’d both probably leave, calling me insane.’
Receiving their gazes still brimming with questions, I turned my attention back to the window.
As I gazed at the landscape beyond the glass where flowers bloomed in full splendor, something suddenly came to mind.
“I have a question too.”
[…? Please, ask anything.]
“Do you know about the ‘Rose Garden Incident’?”
Perhaps those who wandered about the Sorpel Household might know something about it?
[The Rose Garden? What flowers… ah…!]
* * *
“It certainly is vast.”
Gazing at the endless expanse of the Rose Garden, I could truly appreciate the grandeur of the Sorpel Household anew.
What kind of garden stretched on like this?
“Is this the place?”
[Yes, this is it.]
Listening to the butler ghost Derin’s response, I gazed intently at the ground beneath my feet.
Before I had completely possessed Camilla Sorpel’s body, there had been a small—no, an utterly infuriating incident.
A few months ago, Duke Sorpel received a report: Camilla had been tearing up the Rose Garden and leaving it in ruins.
Letting out a heavy sigh, thinking ‘She must have lost her temper again and destroyed everything around her,’ yet harboring a glimmer of hope, the Duke called her and asked why she had done such a thing.
But Camilla, as always, kept her mouth firmly shut in response to Duke Sorpel’s question, unable to even meet his eyes properly.
‘How infuriating!’
This incident was one of those events that occurred repeatedly in my cyclical existence, and the outcome was always the same.
‘Every time I witnessed it, I felt absolutely livid!’
It was enough to drive me mad.
Here’s what actually happened.
A few maidservants and attendants who despised Camilla had stolen a single jewel she held dear.
It was none other than a keepsake from her deceased mother.
The maidservants who had stolen and hidden the ring set with a crimson ruby spoke in turn as if playing an amusing game.
‘We’ve hidden it in the rose garden over there—why don’t you try to find it?’
‘Oh my? You’ll hit us again?’
‘Have you already forgotten what the Duke said? He promised to lock you in your room if you laid hands on us or caused any more trouble even once more.’
‘Do you think the Duke will believe your words or ours?’
‘We’ve gotten really good at fake crying, haven’t we?’
‘Just say you’ve never seen such a ring, and that’s the end of it, Miss.’
‘Or better yet, let’s tell him that you wore it outside and lost it, and now you’re taking out your frustration on us.’
In the end, I had to search through the Rose Garden alone to find my mother’s ring.
I searched and searched again, forgetting even as my hands became torn and mangled by the rose thorns, but ultimately found nothing.
After I destroyed the Rose Garden and Duke Sorpel learned of it, I was summoned before him and received a thorough scolding—thus concluding that day’s incident.
Through Derin, the butler ghost who had witnessed everything unfold beside me, I was able to pinpoint the exact location where the maidservants had hidden the ring.
Thunk!
I dug into the earth with the small spade I’d brought.
It wasn’t long before I retrieved the ring from the spot Derin had indicated.
“….”
Clutching the dirt-covered ring, I gazed down at my own hand.
Small wounds still lingered—scars from when I’d been pricked and scratched by rose thorns while searching this place before.
“You started this.”
This was your doing first.
My eyes gleamed as I secured the ring away.

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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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