Lady Cinderella - Chapter 29

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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 29

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Miro arrived at the Grand Duke’s Residence and set about the final inspection of the cargo. It was the last step before the goods could be sent into the Imperial Palace. Since the crisis at Oberon, there had been a few attacks by petty bandit gangs, but they had managed to arrive safely.
“Miro!”
“Well, look who it is. Long time no see, Kevin.”
Miro set down the documents he had been checking and greeted his old friend with a smile as bright as the sun. Kevin and Miro had been friends since childhood, suffering and scrambling side by side under Calaile.
“I’m glad you made it back safely.”
“Thanks to you. At Oberon, I got chills down my spine. When did His Excellency develop the ability to foresee things?”
The moment he saw Miro’s face, Kevin recalled the miraculous ambush at Oberon. After the battle, it had taken five days from Oberon to the Empire’s mainland, and even racing along the main roads inside the mainland, it had taken nearly ten days of hard riding.
‘Lady Ellediths.’
Kevin frowned at the sudden talk of foresight. On the day Ella first came to the Grand Duke’s Residence, the mages and clerics had examined her just in case, but neither she nor her belongings had shown any trace of special magic or Holy Power. She was a bit odd in her behavior and quite clever, but that was all there was to it. No matter what it was that had captured the Grand Duke’s heart, as long as she hadn’t revealed everything, suspicion still lingered.
“Well, it’s a good thing things turned out well.”
“I heard something strange on the way here. Is it true that His Excellency has a fiancée?”
Kevin could not hide his discomfort at the question from none other than the Grand Duke’s right hand, Miro. The sudden interruption by Baron Lloyd, along with whatever the Lady had whispered that led to her being presented to the Emperor, had all come earlier than planned, so Kevin could not conceal his suspicion.
“It’s nothing special, so there’s no need for you to worry about it.”
“Are these the spoils that arrived from Oberon?”
Just as Kevin was bluntly cutting him off, Ella appeared. Worried she might have overheard, Kevin hurriedly tried to smooth things over.
“Lady Ellediths, what brings you here?”
“I hope I’m not interrupting you while you’re so busy. I was looking out the window and saw many carts coming in, so I got curious and came to see.”
Seeing the beautiful young girl for the first time, Miro could not hide his delight. In the Grand Duke’s Residence, where no woman could be found, a Lady had appeared, dressed so finely that she could pass for a Grand Duchess. Something had clearly happened while he was away. As Kevin fumbled, Miro nudged his side and asked for an introduction.
“My lady, this is Sir Huston. You may call him simply Miro. And Miro, this lady is…”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Sir Miro. I am Ellediths, daughter of Baron Lloyd, currently staying at the Grand Duke’s Residence by His Excellency’s kindness.”
The honor is mine.
Cutting off the introduction, Ella made clear that she was a guest and not the fiancée. Having heard what Kevin had said, she did not wish to force the title of the Grand Duke’s fiancée upon anyone. As she wondered what phrase could introduce her, Ella found it deeply unfair that she was introduced as Baron Lloyd’s daughter.
Baron Lloyd could simply be called Baron Lloyd, and Calaile was enough with the name Grand Duke Wellington alone. So why couldn’t Ella simply be Lady Ellediths?
For Mary, who ran the dressmaking shop alone, the name Viscountess Rose Gold clung to her like a modifier. Recalling the yoke of being Viscountess Trumbone, which had clung to her like a shackle until the day she regressed, Ella could not simply settle for this.
While she stayed here, she would have no choice but to be called the Grand Duke’s fiancée, but at the very least, once she came of age, she wanted to be called by her true name, Ellediths, not as someone’s daughter or wife.
It was a tiny act of resistance, a refusal to entrust her life to someone else’s hands. Her inability to easily take the hand the Grand Duke had extended was rooted in the same reasoning. Ella had already failed once, and the wound that failure had left on her was vast and deep. The wound, not yet stitched shut, still ached.
Even if it healed completely, a deep, deep scar would remain in this great hollow that fate had clawed through. Even when the pain vanished, the memory of the pain could not be erased. That wound would remain in Ella’s heart forever, stabbing at her heart. Forever.
“You’re back, Miro.”
Just as the awkward greetings ended and Ella was about to slip away, the Grand Duke appeared at the worst possible moment. Though they had just had a quarrel that was not quite a quarrel, and the atmosphere still felt strained, everyone present bowed before the Grand Duke, so Ella had no choice but to follow suit. Because the mood had turned strange somehow, Miro read the room and hurriedly changed the subject.
“Yes, Your Excellency pinpointed exactly where the ambush was laid, and thanks to that, everyone came back unharmed. We were so amazed that we wondered if Your Excellency had developed some ability to foresee the future.”
Hearing his subordinate’s flattering words, Calaile’s gaze naturally drifted toward Ella. That praise was not rightfully his. Even as she heard those words, Ella did not seem to have any intention of claiming that all of this was her achievement.
‘Why, exactly?’
“You’re speaking of difficult matters, and I don’t really understand them. I’ll take my leave now.”
The same woman who had so smoothly thrown around even more difficult terms. Calaile seized Ella’s arm as she tried to slip away pretending not to know. He had also half-heard the introduction as he walked over from a distance. In front of Miro, his most trusted confidant, neither Kevin nor Ella had properly explained her position. That trifling fact, like a hangnail beside a fingernail, irritated the Grand Duke.
“You should introduce her properly. She is my beloved fiancée.”
“Huh?”
“Cal!”
“Sir Huston, Lady Ellediths is the future Grand Duchess whom you are to protect with your life.”
Miro’s Eagle Squadron had only been temporarily dispatched for this battle; originally, it was the Grand Duke’s personal guard. The eagle crest, with its great wings supporting from below the Lion and Lily Crest that symbolized Wellington. At the words “future Grand Duchess,” Miro, Kevin, and even Ella were stunned.
“Your Excellency.”
“We’ll hear the detailed report once we go up.”
Calaile is still faithfully carrying on this performance built on nothing but lies. Ella chewed over the words she could not bring herself to say aloud. He pressed a kiss to the back of her hand, then left her alone and went up to the main building. Sorrow came before joy. Because expectations run high, disappointment runs deep, and the kinder he became, the more Ella’s heart ached as though it were shattering.
“Lady Ella.”
“Let’s go back, Olga.”
Seeing Ella’s face look even paler than before, Olga’s heart was troubled as well. The two of them returned to the Inner Residence with heavy steps.
“Your Excellency, what do you mean by future Grand Duchess?”
“Just what I said.”
Of everyone, Kevin was the most angered by Calaile, who had tossed out that bombshell with a calm face. Whether Ella herself was aware of her ambiguous, time-limited situation, she introduced herself only as Baron Lloyd’s daughter, not as the Grand Duke’s fiancée.
‘But why.’
After their quarrel, Kevin had wondered how they had made up, but the Grand Duke had been in a foul mood all day long. He was not the only one affected; he dragged everyone around him into it, and Kevin could not stand by and watch this situation unfold.
“Isn’t this engagement a temporary arrangement to begin with? If you make such a fuss, there will be problems cleaning up afterward.”
Calaile sighed at Kevin, who was rashly talking about endings. The remark about cleaning up, as though it had to be ended someday, grated on him.
“The investigators will come knocking soon enough. Whether this engagement is a temporary arrangement or not, I’m the one who decides.”
“Your Grace.”
“Besides, the victory at Oberon is that girl’s doing too. It’s not just because I’m so capable, you know.”
Throughout his rambling, Calaile’s gaze kept drifting toward the Inner Residence, though there was nothing to see there but walls. Thank goodness it was only his two most trusted men in front of him. If he had been acting like this in front of an investigator, the worst possible outcome would have been upon them.
“Hold on, let me get this straight. Kevin, what on earth is wrong with His Grace?”
“Lord Houston, I need you to swear on your honor that you’ll keep everything you hear in this room to yourself.”
“What?”
“I said swear it.”
Only after extracting that oath did Kevin finally explain everything that had happened from start to finish. The whole time he spoke, suspicion of Ella dripped from every word of his.
“So this mysterious lady is—”
Niece of Marquis Ruth. Her identity is certain.
“And she suddenly grabbed hold of our Grand Duke and proposed an engagement.”
“I’m the one who agreed on the spot, yes.”
“That’s enough of that!”
Every time Kevin tried to explain, Miro kept cutting in and getting in the way, and Kevin was about to lose his temper for real. But Calaile paid him no mind and went merrily on, digging his own hole.
“You seem awfully angry. What exactly did I do wrong?”
“Isn’t that beside the point right now?”
“So you’re saying that young lady predicted every single battle at Oberon? Don’t be ridiculous.”
“It’s true. There’s proof.”
Calaile slid the letter Ella had written, which had been resting on his study desk, across to Miro. The letter laid out in painstaking detail everything that had happened on the Gordon Great Plains, Oberon included.
“You expect me to believe this?”
No answer came to his question. While Calaile and Kevin bickered back and forth, Miro pieced together what he had heard. Setting aside the Grand Duke’s engagement for the moment, there was no way a nameless count’s daughter, one who had never left the capital and was barely eighteen, could foresee the battlefield situation this precisely. If someone had asked him about this situation a moment ago, he would have laughed and told them to stop talking nonsense. Yet here were his lord and his friend, discussing the road ahead with deadly seriousness.
“When did I ever say I opposed her becoming Grand Duchess unconditionally? There’s still time. You need to watch her a little longer.”
“And so we just lock her up without a word?”
“What’s lacking here? Only contact with the outside world is still premature.”
“She only wants to go out once for embroidery. We don’t have grounds to forbid even that. Olga and I have both watched her closely enough.”
“I didn’t want to say something like this, but from where I stand, it looked as though the lady intends to call off the engagement once her family matters are settled.”
Unlike Calaile’s heart, which had grown ever larger, Ella never once forgot that this engagement had an expiration date.
Having heard the one thing he least wanted to hear, Calaile scowled and glared at Kevin. Why, of all things, why would he say that? Kevin knew full well how Calaile felt, that he had no intention of ending this relationship. There was no mistaking the motive behind bringing it up.
“It’s still too early to relax.”
“You don’t dislike Ella, do you?”
“I couldn’t say. If the lady really is an enemy spy, then even this behavior of hers is just a scheme to shake Your Grace’s heart.”
Had it not been for Ella’s advice, they would have been forced to take responsibility after the spoils were plundered at Oberon. But now that the whole affair had been made to vanish, Ella’s merit was naturally erased along with it, as though it had never existed. Calaile did not like that. While he himself had been treated unjustly, his subordinate, who had once raged against the Emperor, was now erasing Ella’s contribution, pretending she didn’t exist even as it sat right in front of him.
“Your denying it won’t change anything.”
“It’s Your Grace who’s letting emotion cloud your judgment and can’t think rationally.”
“Wait a moment. Hear me out too.”
This argument seemed as if it might drag on endlessly, and it needed a mediator. Miro cut off the two of them and stepped in to sort things out.
“So this lady and Your Grace are engaged on the condition of providing information and temporary protection, and it was also this lady who saved you from being left holding the entire blame for the spoils?”
“That’s right.”
“But Kevin still finds the lady suspicious?”
“It’s too soon to trust her unconditionally.”
Both of their arguments had merit.
It was only natural for Kevin, the man who put safety above all else, to take a defensive stance. By contrast, the Grand Duke himself had taken quite a liking to the lady, so Kevin’s suspicion did not seem to sit well with him.
“Then I’ll take charge of it.”
“You?”
“I’ll personally handle both watching over the lady and guarding her. That should make things simple, don’t you think?”

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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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