Lady Cinderella - Chapter 28

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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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Lady Cinderella Chapter 28

“The spot where I fell on my bottom yesterday hurts.”
“Where? Here?”
“Where do you think you’re touching!”
He had only reached out because she said it hurt, but his hand had landed right on Ella’s soft behind. She pushed against him with all her strength, but it was a futile effort. Calaile scooped up his flailing fiancée with ease and hurried the butler along.
“Where’s the doctor?”
Things were getting out of hand. True to the Grand Duke’s Residence, where people came and went constantly, the Chief Physician from the Main Building was summoned in a rush, and Calaile carried Ella to her bed just as he had on the first day he brought her here.
“Are you alright?”
“I’m perfectly fine.”
“If you don’t want me to touch you, then wait a moment.”
The instant Calaile saw the Chief Physician, whose hair was half gone, his brow twitched. Ella had clearly said her bottom hurt, and that meant this man would be laying hands on a place that even Calaile himself had never been permitted to touch so casually.
“Is there no female physician?”
“There hasn’t been any need for one until now, so there isn’t.”
“Bring a female physician here at once.”
Even if he meant to examine her, the Grand Duke was glaring at him as though he could shoot arrows from his eyes, and the Chief Physician was too nervous to so much as open his mouth.
“Where does it hurt, my lady?”
“The spot where I fell on my bottom yesterday hurts.”
“Did it bother you while you were sleeping as well?”
“No. It suddenly started hurting terribly just now.”
Even the most renowned physician couldn’t cure a feigned illness. The lady said it hurt, yet she looked nothing of the sort, which was a problem in itself, but what troubled him even more was the Grand Duke beside her, staring at him as if he were a sworn enemy from a past life.
What was to be done? After thirty years of practice, treating countless patients, the renowned physician reached a conclusion worthy of his reputation.
“Well, for now, I shall prescribe a suitable medicine.”
“What sort of medicine?”
“It seems the shock has left your body depleted, so this is a good opportunity to prepare a tonic to restore your vital energy. It is extremely bitter, but it is good for you, so you must take every last drop.”
Fortunately, the unfortunate incident Calaile had feared did not come to pass, but now the trouble had spilled over onto Ella. Though she wasn’t in pain, she was suddenly told she had to swallow bitter medicine. Her pride in this contest of wills with the Grand Duke mattered, but no matter what, she did not want bitter medicine. Since the physician seemed to see right through her, Ella began to tug at his sleeve and steal careful glances at him.
“It doesn’t hurt anymore.”
“You must not take a fall to the bottom lightly. If anything were to go wrong with your precious body, which will one day bear a child, it would be a grave matter. Take the medicine this time and be sure to make a full recovery.”
The Chief Physician, who had made something of a name for himself as a capable doctor, decided to correct the mischievous habits of this pretender and recommended the medicine right in front of the Grand Duke. Ella, frightened by the bitter draught being pressed upon her, made a face as though she might cry because she did not want to take it. But it was Calaile, not she, who was truly struck by his words.
‘A fall on the bottom was that dangerous?’
Because the Grand Duke’s knowledge was narrowly focused on his own areas of interest, he knew nothing about women beyond the most basic common sense. Though she was rather mature for her age and bold even before the Emperor himself, it was only natural that her body, compared to his as a soldier, was endlessly fragile.
He had personally witnessed just yesterday how easily she was knocked off her feet by a mere brush of his arm. Calaile bit his lip and asked, in earnest, “How long will it take to fully recover?”
“Your Grace?”
“I’m really not hurting anymore. Honestly, Cal.”
Faced with the Grand Duke’s expression growing ever graver, neither the physician nor Ella knew what to do. Already short on sleep and now struck by the shock of what he had done the day before, Calaile even knelt beside the bed and clasped the hand of Ella, who lay there.
“I will find a way to cure you, whatever it takes. I’m sorry.”
“What on earth…”
Ella sent the physician desperate signals, begging him to save her. In the end, both the physician and Ella had to sweat it out for quite a while, explaining that it had all been nothing more than a feigned illness.
* * *
“There’s a time and place for jokes!”
Seeing him genuinely angry left Ella with a strange feeling. She had done something thoughtless just for fun, but seeing him flare up so openly was oddly both novel and unfamiliar. Even as she sat beside him on her bed and diligently tried to soothe his anger, it showed no sign of easing.
“Were you very angry?”
“Very.”
He refused to so much as look her way, as if he were making a point, so Ella cautiously read his mood and offered him bait.
“What would it take for you to calm down?”
“Then make me a scent pouch.”
Seeing him set on getting exactly what he wanted, Ella couldn’t help but laugh. Stubborn, greedy, one moment sharp-edged and the next so endearing, she began to understand a little of why he had kept teasing her about being interesting.
“Did you really want it that badly?”
“Of course I…”
“I’m not a mind reader, so unless you tell me properly, I won’t know.”
Seeing him trail off mid-sentence, Ella conveyed her heart in a clear, bright voice. It had been the same when they first met. There was something in her golden eyes that somehow drew people’s hearts toward her.
At first, he had meant only to see how far she would go, and after that, to watch a little longer to see how things unfolded. But not anymore. He wanted to watch her truly. What she was thinking, what she desired, and even why she was so determined to hide something.
He longed for her true feelings, which were never contained in any neatly organized report file. Calaile reached out carefully and gently combed back her silver hair.
“I want to know more about you.”
Like an abyss deeper than the sea, Calaile’s gaze pressed heavily upon Ella’s heart. It was not yet the time. Just as she let her guard down for a moment, he was once again reaching toward the box of secrets that must never be opened. Each time his fingertips threaded through her silver hair, Ella felt a strange flutter that went beyond mere heartbeat. Just as she was about to look away, Calaile pulled her close so she could not escape and fell back onto the bed with her.
Like an abyss deeper than the sea, Calaile’s gaze pressed heavily down on Ella’s heart. It was not yet the time. The moment she let her guard slip, he was reaching once more for the chest of secrets she must never open. Each time his fingertips slipped through her silver-white hair, Ella felt a strange flutter that went beyond mere nervous pounding. Just as she tried to look away, Calaile pulled her close so she couldn’t escape and fell back onto the bed with her.
“Cal.”
“What exactly are you hiding?”
“I…”
“Anything at all. I’ll try to accept it. If there’s a problem, let’s solve it together.”
“It’s not like that.”
“Then what is it?”
Unable to offer a clear answer, Ella found herself feeling the weight of Calaile’s presence for the first time. The relationship between the two of them, bound together by their mutual interests, was shifting rapidly.
“Give me some time. At the very least, once my father’s problem is resolved…”
“Then you’ll leave me.”
His unexpected words made Ella’s eyes waver. From the very beginning, this engagement had been a ridiculous bargain built solely on her own insistence. Once the Grand Duke’s help resolved the matter of the Trust Fund, Ella could return to Mary’s side and reclaim a peaceful life. Even if the engagement ended a little sooner, the debt of gratitude she owed him was beyond words, and she would repay it for the rest of her life.
‘If I let my feelings become real, the Duke will only be troubled.’
Should he ever formally take a wife, she resolved to steel herself and wish for his happiness all her life without foolish greed, so that she might even be the one to sew the wedding garments for the woman who would become his true Grand Duchess.
“That was the agreement we made when we started this.”
Somewhere beyond the distant thicket, cicadas were singing. An air as heavy as the summer humidity hung motionless in the room. Gazing at Ella’s face, which still seemed to hold no attachment to anything, Calaile smiled a bitter, mournful smile.
“Ella, you’re cruel.”
With that single remark, he quietly left Ella’s bedroom. Lying limp in bed, Ella stared at the diary in which she recorded each day without fail. Not only had she written down everything from the past, but in case her own actions changed something, she had continued to record even the smallest details since her return.
“What on earth am I supposed to write about this?”
Calaile’s change in attitude was a completely new problem that she could never have anticipated before. Unlike the past, when he had attended no balls at all, he had now come to a ball and even acquired a fiancée in Ella.
At first, she had begun this to change her own fate. Yet now she felt she was twisting his fate as well. Fate was cruelly relentless. On the morning she had been rewriting her ruined five years, the very moment Ella opened her eyes, her maternal grandmother had closed her own eyes while holding a photograph of young Ella.
‘If I change anything more than this…’
The repercussions would surely reach the people closest to her. Mary had changed little then or now, so it wouldn’t concern her, but Calaile was different.
Just as she was steeling herself against revealing her true feelings carelessly, the window suddenly grew noisy. Ella leaned against the windowsill and looked out at the scene below.
“They’ve arrived.”
Spoils that, in the past, would have been completely plundered by the enemy’s remnants were now being carried safely back to the Grand Duke’s Residence under the escort of his guard.

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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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