Lady Cinderella - Chapter 36

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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 36

The lady seemed about to say something, but at the word trial she gave up, swallowing whatever she had meant to say. It felt as though she had silenced herself, yet he had no wish to make matters worse with idle words. Just in case, to avoid any trouble afterward, he took a business card from his bag.
“If there’s any problem, please come find me. Show this card, and the person in charge, which is me, will guide you personally.”
“Mr. Mason.”
“Let me ask you one last time. What will you do? Will you formally designate the Grand Duke as your guardian as things stand?”
At the dry question, Ella stared blankly at Hazel’s strawberry blond hair. She ought to give a proper answer, but somehow her voice refused to come out. A tear that had pooled in her eye slid down her cheek, and Ella hurriedly wiped it away and brought the conversation to a close.
“I’m sorry. Something just got in my eye. For now, please proceed that way. If what you say is true, then I can still designate my guardian whenever I like. And if the time comes when I need to change my guardian, I’ll make sure to come see you myself.”
“Lady?”
Having started down this road, there was no turning back now. Calaile had called Ella his future Grand Duchess. Under ordinary circumstances, such a thing would have been impossible, and though he knew it was greed, he could not bring himself to abandon this moment.
The scene unfolding before him, one he had only ever dreamed of, was a person he had always admired from afar, yet somehow pain outweighed joy. He grew afraid that this choice might bring harm to her. No one knows what future awaits at the end of a time that has been twisted. Ella felt it keenly in the Emperor’s affairs, yet she still had far too little real-world experience.
“Is there anything more I need to hear today? I’m tired. I’d like to rest now.”
Having learned about the law so late, it was too late to simply pull back and walk away. Besides, with lawsuits now being mentioned, she could hardly ask Mary for help on a whim. With a quill pen, Ella signed smoothly. Once all the formalities were complete, Hazel cursed his own unsolicited meddling and bowed to Ella. Ella, too, inclined her head slightly in return.
“Then I’ll take my leave.”
“Think nothing of it. There may come a time when I need to ask for your help, so I’m counting on you, Mr. Mason.”
Since he was a civil servant, even Lady, a noble daughter, spoke to him politely. When their private meeting ended, Hazel stepped out of the room and was guided by the butler, Seth. Ella took a sip of the tea in front of her and sank into thought.
‘Is it really alright to go on like this?’
Still seated, Ella stared unblinkingly at the empty teacup.
* * *
Lost too deeply in her worries, Ella failed to notice her surroundings. The reception room she was in now was the one Patricia and her older sisters had been given when they visited. In case of need, Calaile had been in the adjoining room, listening to every word Ella exchanged with Hazel.
“Your Grace.”
“Don’t say a word.”
Her voice, which had always been so clear and bright, pierced Calaile to the core. With those soft, sweet lips, Ella had dared to imagine the moment of parting.
―If what you say is true, then I can still designate my guardian whenever I like.
Even the possibility, however small, was unbearable. Thanks to that officer’s careless remarks, Ella had learned that her guardian did not necessarily have to be her fiancé.
‘Why.’
He had known it all along, yet he had deliberately kept silent. There had been no need to tell her. Since the matter of Mary had come up, Calaile had learned for the first time the feeling of jealousy toward someone. Being hated by the Emperor meant nothing to him. If anything, he had always told himself that having someone by his side would only burden them both, and so he had diligently turned away from the feeling of loneliness.
And now this lovely intruder, who had suddenly appeared before him, had slipped through the bars of his heart without even knowing it and begun to rule over it. It might have been better had he never begun, or had he never known of her existence, and then it could have been undone. But it was too late. True to his reputation as the Lion of the Battlefield, once he had set his sights on a target, he never let it go.
“If you’re going to act like that, then I have my own ways.”
“Your Grace.”
Calaile’s expression was not good. At the chillingly cold look on his face, Kevin shivered for a moment and tried to stop him. Even to Kevin’s ears, what Ella had just said sounded like words of someone looking for an opportunity to leave Calaile.
“I won’t do anything that would worry you, so withdraw now, Kevin.”
At his master’s cold command, Kevin could say nothing more. Calaile soon strode out of the room and approached Ella, who was sitting vacantly in the reception room.
“Why are you sitting like that?”
As if nothing had happened, Calaile flashed a bright smile, sat right beside Ella, and rested his head on her shoulder. As expected, Ella could not even bring herself to meet his eyes and only lowered her head with an uneasy look. Somehow displeased, he went a step further, pressing his head into her lap and stretching out across the long sofa.
“Did you two talk things through?”
“…Yes.”
Perhaps because he had something to hide, Calaile firmly grasped Ella’s trembling little hand. Then he lifted his head again, placed his palm on her cheek as she tried to look away, and kept her from escaping.
“El, look at me.”
“Cal.”
“You said before, didn’t you? That if I wanted anything from you, you’d grant whatever it was.”
Ella’s heart gave a sharp jolt. Those words had been her minimal atonement for having unintentionally twisted his fate. That she wanted to give him whatever he desired was entirely sincere. He had been her hero, and since her late mother, he was one of the people who had influenced her most.
“I did say that.”
“Can I use that now?”
Now that she had finally begun to look at his eyes, he sat up again and met her gaze properly. Nothing was certain yet, but he wanted to clinch it firmly. So that she could not run away. So that she could never leave his side.
“Go on, say it.”
“Will you really grant anything I say?”
“Anything, as long as it’s something I can do.”
He did not like at all the way she spoke with such composed indifference, as though she had already come to terms with everything. Calaile deliberately lifted a strand of her long silver hair and toyed with it, letting the silence stretch.
“Do you know what I’m going to ask for?”
“If it’s something I can’t do, then even if you ask, I can’t grant it.”
“Mm. This is something you’re more than capable of.”
Seeing Calaile suddenly begin to grin with a sly look left Ella bewildered and in the dark. For a man and woman in love to be joined, the fruit of how deeply the two of them love each other is indeed necessary. His lady was still young, but she was not so innocent that she knew nothing of the ways of the world. It was still a little early, yet his heart had grown so achingly restless that he ended up crossing a line he should never have crossed.
“Then give me a child.”
“What?”
“I don’t expect too many. Maybe three? Boy or girl, it doesn’t matter. Either way, I’d welcome them with open arms.”
At the word “baby,” Ella’s mind went completely blank. All the unspeakable, outrageous stories that Mary and the other married ladies had whispered to her late at night while they stitched their embroidery came rushing back, each one more scandalous than the last.
“Ella, making a baby is important, of course, but the fun of the nights is a different matter altogether.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“A man is all about strength, above all, the waist is what matters. You’ll understand once you’re a bit older.”
Mary had thrown back her head and laughed “hohoho” as she rattled off all sorts of tales, and now the memory alone sent Ella’s face flushing a red so deep it looked ready to burst. Seeing how well she understood, Calaile looked immensely pleased and quietly tugged at her hand.
“I’m ready right now, you know. For making a baby.”
Ella’s mind was twenty-three, the same age as him, but her body was still eighteen, and she had absolutely no defenses against men. Of course, among the nobility, it wasn’t unheard of for marriages of convenience to be arranged at even younger ages, but still, this was simply not something she could accept.
“You… pervert!”
Ella’s fist flew at Calaile in a burst of fury. She seemed to have gotten the hang of it by now, and the sharp blow caught him, and for the first time, Calaile felt true pain.
“Ugh!”
“I can’t stay here anymore. I’m going to Mary’s!”
“Wait, wait. El, I’m sorry. I was wrong. I was wrong!”
Everyone in the Grand Duke’s Residence froze at the sight of Calaile, who had just gotten engaged to a proper lady and then had the audacity to ask her to bear his child. Seth, the steward, had just returned from seeing the guests off, and he jabbed Kevin in the side as Kevin stood there dumbfounded and bewildered.
“Why on earth is His Excellency acting like this?”
“Beats me. Seriously, what is that?”
Calaile was too busy trying to smooth things over with Ella to notice his subordinates whispering among themselves. Having dropped his bombshell, he now found Ella eagerly taking the bait.
“El, I’m sorry. Please forgive me, just this once. That was really just a joke.”
“There are things you can joke about and things you can’t. How could you say something like that so easily!”
“Well, to be honest, it wasn’t entirely a joke…”
“What?”
“No, it was a joke. It really was just a joke!”
Afraid she might march off to Mary’s again at any moment, Calaile clung to Ella’s side and pleaded with everything he had. No matter how much he begged, her anger showed no sign of easing, so in the end he played his trump card.
“In exchange, I’ll teach you chess.”
“Chess?”
“You haven’t forgotten that you agreed to play a game with His Majesty?”
“Oh… right.”
Come to think of it, the homework the Emperor had given her was still outstanding. In just a few months, Ella would have to attend the New Year’s Ball at the Imperial Palace, holding Calaile’s hand.
“There’s sure to be a splendid ball. And the most beautiful one there will surely be you, El.”
“That’s not true. There must be so many other beautiful ladies.”
It was a line that had stuck with him, one he’d read secretly in Ella’s diary. In truth, she must have wanted to go to the ball herself. He wanted to make that dream come true with his own hands. He intended to gather the most precious things in the world and make his woman shine even brighter than the jewels themselves.
“Well, the day I first saw you, I went to that ballroom and saw countless ladies, but in my eyes, I could see only you.”
“Don’t lie. Back then, you really…”
By day she scrubbed floors until dust coated her, and by day and night she worked at embroidery until her eyes were swollen and red. She had even tripped while washing her older sisters’ dresses and ended up looking like a drowned rat, so even by her own reckoning, it had been a dreadful sight.

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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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