Lady Cinderella - Chapter 32

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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 32

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Marquis Ruth Clyde turned the brooch Ella had left behind over in his hands, lost in thought. He had wondered what it was when the child showed up looking like a beggar and left it with him. The years had worn it, but there was no mistaking it: their mother had handed it down to his youngest sister, wishing her a happy marriage.
“Millenia.”
The middle name in Ella’s formal name, Ella Millenia Lloyd, had been taken from their mother. Even after he had driven out the niece who looked so much like his late younger sister, the matter had not stopped gnawing at him.
That girl was both the only blood left of the sister he had loved most and the daughter of a man he hated down to the bone. She bore not a trace of her father’s features, favoring her mother from head to toe, yet no one could deny that half the blood running through her veins belonged to that damned Lloyd.
“If only I could turn back time.”
Since childhood, his youngest sister had been frail, and she had spent her days alone in embroidery within the vast walls of the Ruth Marquis’s mansion. She had hardly ever left the house, and for fear that a fit might strike, she could not even attend her peers’ tea parties.
It had been Clyde himself who urged her to go to such a party. Despite their mother’s objections, he had taken his younger sister along, insisting she could not stay shut up at home forever, though she was not ready to face the world.
—I’ll just go chat with a friend for a bit. Have a good time, but don’t overdo it.
—Oh, Brother, I…
—This is a good chance to make some friends, isn’t it?
He should never have done it. The other ladies chatted away at society gatherings without anyone teaching them, so he had foolishly assumed his shy little sister would manage just as well. By the time he was caught up in animated talk about the cricket match next month, Clyde suddenly realized Millenia was nowhere to be seen in the hall.
—Have you seen my sister anywhere?
—I think your sister was taken off by that wild boy from the Lloyds, wasn’t she?
—Why that guy of all people?
“That wild boy from the Lloyds” could only mean the son of Count Lloyd, whom people of their age already whispered about as a menace. Clyde hurried from room to room, searching for Millenia.
—Millenia!
When he flung open the tenth door, he stood frozen, staring at the bed with a face gone blank. The wild boy of the Lloyds, the current Count Lloyd, had tried to slip away, but the power of Millenia’s father, the former Marquis Ruth, was far too vast and too strong to escape.
To bury the tragedy, the marriage between the two was hastily arranged. Clyde knelt, begging and pleading again and again, claiming it was all his fault. Watching her brother cry out in anguish, his gentle younger sister gave a faint, lonely smile.
—I suppose this is my fate.
Clyde did not understand why his sister had been forced to smile, why her smile had been so achingly beautiful, until months after the wedding. Exactly ten months after that hellish day, Millenia gave birth to a daughter who looked just like her.
Her husband, who had fled, claiming he had been bound to an unwanted marriage, left her to bring forth their only daughter with great struggle, holding their mother’s hand. That child’s name was Elladis. She was the final legacy Millenia left behind, the child her frail body had given everything to bring into the world.
While Millenia was alive, Count Lloyd had used her to squander enormous sums every month. Still, the Maternal Grandmother, who was both Clyde’s and Millenia’s mother and Ella’s grandmother, worried over Millenia and little Elladis and gave that large sum without a second thought.
Everything changed when the former Marquis Ruth, Clyde’s father, passed away and Clyde inherited the marquisate. He cut off all support to the Lloyd Count Family. He kept paying only for Millenia’s medicine and treatment, but even that did not last long.
Her body was already weak, and bearing Ella had ruined Millenia’s health beyond repair. And so the pitiable young sister passed away while still young. The Maternal Grandmother pleaded earnestly that Ella, now left alone, must be brought to the house, but Clyde opposed it.
—That creature was born by devouring my sister. Remember that the master of this house is me. I will never allow it!
At first, Count Lloyd, who had meant to pass the child off out of mere annoyance, flew into a rage upon hearing Clyde’s words, declaring that even if he died and came back to life, she was his daughter and he would never give her up. While Ella wept for her mother, knowing nothing at all, the emotional clash between the adults grew fiercer by the day and trampled the fate of the little girl. Longing for her pitiful granddaughter, the Grandmother of Ruth at last fell ill from heartsickness.
—Please, that child… She is the only blood your sister left behind.
Her tearful plea shook his heart, but now that the Ruth side was the one that wanted her, Count Lloyd grew even more arrogant, lifting his head high and taking a commanding stance.
If they wanted Ella, he demanded a huge sum as compensation for all the trouble of raising the girl. His demand for money had less to do with wanting cash and more to do with a battle of pride. Where, exactly, had everything gone wrong? It was his wife who broke the silence of the Marquis Ruth, who had been lost in thought. The Marchioness looked at her husband with an uneasy expression.
“Dear, have you heard the news?”
“What news?”
It was the kind of story that would bring disaster upon anyone who dared bring it up carelessly before her husband, yet she could not keep silent either. After hesitating again and again, the Marchioness finally forced the words out.
“That girl, Ella… there’s a rumor that she has become the fiancée of Grand Duke Wellington…”
“What?”
Clyde shot up from his seat. Of all people, the Grand Duke Wellington? The Imperial Family was currently locked in a fierce, hidden struggle over the Imperial Succession Rights, under the emperor’s firm grip on power.
The more prestigious houses, the Ruth Marquis House among them, had openly declared neutrality and could slip past the fallout, but Grand Duke Wellington was different. He was a member of the imperial family who was openly disliked by the emperor, and a cousin once removed of the emperor who might, in a pinch, lay claim to the Imperial Succession Rights himself. On top of that, he had earned great acclaim in the Gordon Great Plains, so the emperor’s wariness was only expected to grow by the day.
“How on earth did that girl end up like this?”
“How would I know? And the Lloyd Count Family is making a fuss, saying this engagement is void and demanding they return Ella.”
“How did that girl ever come to meet the Grand Duke?”
The last time she had come to the funeral, she had still been dressed like a beggar. Perhaps he had pretended not to notice that she was being abused because he did not want to face the consequences of his own sin. That may have been his cowardice.
—Brother, please protect my daughter, protect Elle.
She was the child who had ruined her life, and if only that child had not existed, perhaps everything could have been undone. If she had at least given up the child, she might have lived a little longer, yet in the end, my sister chose the child at the cost of her life.
The girl had called him uncle and followed him around. Ella, who looked exactly like Millenia even as a little one, grew more and more like her mother the older she became. Seeing that she had the worst luck with men, just as her mother had, he was sick with anger, as if she were repeating her mother’s life word for word.
If things went badly, she could be branded a traitor, and not only Ella herself but even the Ruth Marquis House could be harmed. To him, Ella was a thing that touched the scales of his very wrath. If only he could turn back time, if only he could return to that very day, he might have undone everything.
But miracles were not his to claim. The Grandmother of Ruth closed her eyes, wishing happiness for her granddaughter, the only living proof that her beloved daughter had passed through this world and had tried with her life to protect her. Let at least that child be happy. The mother who had prayed so fervently, right up until she loosened her last grip on the world, and the daughter who was already gone from it.
The last words of the two of them rang in the ears of the Marquis Ruth. Whether that child should still be saved even now, or whether he should turn away from her. Despite such fervent pleading, the lingering residue of old resentment still clouded Clyde’s eyes.
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Ella lost herself in thought as she embroidered the cloth she had received for the Empress’s gown. If Miro truly was that Emil Dionel, he might lose his life in exactly one year, at the Battle of Minette, in the Grand Duke’s place.
‘Since the future has already changed once.’
By rights, every last bit of the spoils would have been lost, yet they had safely reached the capital, and after launching a sweeping purge centered on the places Ella had flagged in advance, the enemy’s remnants were also cleared away without incident.
General Eastern, who had been checking Calaile by sending off the spoils half-heartedly and cutting off the army’s provisions, lost his influence after failing in the last operation to clear out the remnants. The emperor was furious over General Eastern’s failure, and in the end another general was assigned, allowing Calaile to withdraw safely from the Gordon Great Plains War.
“That’s good news, I suppose.”
The trouble began after that. The change in the way Calaile looked at Ella had started from the very day he confessed his love. With eyes that seemed to blaze like a fire, Calaile would gaze steadily at Ella and bite his lip.
“I’m scared.”
By rights, the two of them should not have so much as met face to face, let alone grown close. Who knew what might happen if fate were tampered with on a whim? Miro watched Ella in silence as she sank into thought. Between the business with the stumble earlier and everything else, it seemed the Duke had caused some trouble again and upset the Lady.
“Is something troubling you?”
“Miro.”
Kevin kept doubting Ella without end, but Miro had taken a liking to her, what with the Spoils Incident and the way his master had gone so far as to call her his “future Grand Duchess.” When he had only heard of her, Ella had seemed rather suspicious, but the woman he had actually come to know was nothing like Kevin’s description.
Miro paid no mind to the gossip that asked what on earth she had used to win over the Grand Duke. Ella’s sincere concern for him was plain enough just from watching her from the side. Seeing how weighed down she looked, Miro spoke to her gently, the way a kind older brother might.
“Please bear with His Excellency if he shows a rather childish side. In his younger days, since he and the Crown Prince were the only precious grandsons of the Imperial Family, I won’t deny he grew up a bit spoiled.”
“Calaile was spoiled?”
“Oh, certainly. I’ve heard he was an absolute little troublemaker.”
Now that he said it, Ella seemed to have heard something of the sort from Olga as well. Of course, Calaile had shown her a rather gentle and playful side, but the image Miro held of him was closer to that of a grave, sharp-edged soldier.
“I suppose so. He even teased me that I was ugly.”
“I doubt he meant that seriously.”
Watching the Lady sulk with her lips pouting, Miro laughed without meaning to.

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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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