Lady Cinderella - Chapter 7

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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, Episode 7

“Calaile! You said you’d come to the ball!”
Without so much as a knock, someone burst through the door. At the sound of the voice he hated most in the world, Calaile furrowed his brow and glared at the intruder.
“Yohan.”
Crown Prince Johannes Devonedale Silamino Generux, with golden hair the color of honey and blue eyes. He was twenty-three, the same age as Calaile, yet where Calaile was steady and serious, Yohan was flippant and frivolous, so much so that his title as Crown Prince seemed to mean nothing at all.
Ever since his beloved cousin’s return from the frontier, Yohan had requested countless meetings, only to be turned down again and again on the grounds of Calaile’s heavy workload. While Kevin, who had been an impenetrable wall, stepped out for a moment to see to matters concerning the ball, Yohan finally managed to breach the fortress.
“This ball will be a celebration of your victory, Calaile. Of course, it will also double as a birthday celebration for Father.”
“Or are you looking for a bride for yourself?”
“Well, I suppose that’s true too. Not that it has anything to do with me.”
While the Crown Prince and the Third Prince clashed fiercely over the matter of succession, the faction supporting the Crown Prince was in an uproar, pushing to quickly secure an Imperial Grandson to strengthen his claim. The Third Prince, born to the current Empress, was still young, but thanks to the backing of his mother, he constantly threatened the Crown Prince’s position despite the eight-year age gap between them.
The problem was the Emperor. He had no intention of relinquishing his power, so he neither lent strength to the Crown Prince nor particularly responded to the challenges from the Third Prince’s side. For the Emperor, nothing mattered more than himself. In that light, the achievements of Grand Duke Wellington, his second cousin’s son and not even his own child, were far more of a thorn in his eye.
“I have business to attend to. Once that’s taken care of, I’ll leave right away, so don’t you dare cook up any nonsense.”
“Business, you say? Has our dull Grand Duke Wellington finally found a lady he fancies?”
The moment the word “lady” came out so abruptly, Calaile feigned complete indifference and pushed Yohan out of the room. If the loose-tongued Crown Prince ever learned of his affair with Elaidis, it would be only a matter of time before the rumor spread across the entire capital.
“You know full well this isn’t a situation to be laughing about.”
“Of course I do.”
One ball had come to serve two separate purposes, and it had turned into a battle of pride. Knowing this, Grand Duke Wellington had tried to step back by declaring his absence, so that the Emperor’s birthday celebration could shine on its own. But then the Emperor, claiming it was disloyal not to celebrate his birthday, once again lambasted Grand Duke Wellington at court.
Unless there was an unavoidable reason, it was customary for every noble to attend the Emperor’s birthday. Caught between being scolded whichever way he turned, the matter of Lady Elaidis erupted on top of it all. Calaile chose the path of attending the ball and enduring the humiliation.
“What, is it really a woman problem? You?”
“Get out.”
Their cousinly bond was too close to hold a grudge over rudeness. Yohan slipped out from under Calaile’s silent, insistent hands and immediately began inspecting the desk in the study. Battle reports, of course, but also Elaidis’s investigation file was still lying there on the desk. Calaile, fearing that the photograph of her he had been idly studying might catch Yohan’s eye, simply forced the unwelcome guest out with his own hands.
“Calaile! Is this how we treat each other!”
“Shut up!”
The Crown Prince only left once the Grand Duke had issued his dismissal. If the philandering Yohan showed real interest, then things would become truly troublesome. Calaile swallowed his rising irritation and sat back down on the edge of the study desk. If not for this lady’s letter, he would not have chosen the tiresome path of attending the ball.
“Elaidis.”
The Intelligence Department had even acquired a handkerchief that she had supposedly embroidered herself. Considering the work his mother once used, the delicacy of her stitching was no ordinary skill. Waiting for a reply that never came, this lady had begun to make her way toward independence, and her moves were still difficult for him to predict within the bounds of common sense. He examined the contents of the documents more closely.
“The trust fund left by her mother will become available to her in the year she turns twenty, and as for the current financial state of the Lloyd Count Family…”
It wasn’t openly visible, but it wasn’t exactly prosperous either. Compared to the spending of Patricia and her two daughters, the Lloyd Count’s estates and business in the capital were running one deficit after another.
“Dreadful.”
Calaile rested his chin on his hand and put the whole situation in order. If she remained under their shadow even after reaching twenty, the legal age of adulthood, the Lloyd Count Family, pinched for money as they were, would naturally lay hands on her trust fund under the pretense of being her guardians.
“Even so, why would she of all people reach out to me?”
Wondering where she had obtained the information, and what she could possibly gain by offering him useful intelligence so eagerly, he fell into deep thought with his chin still propped up. Leaving a letter as a piece of physical evidence was clumsy; it would be quicker to meet her in person. He would attend the ball as Kevin had instructed, meet the Lloyd Count’s daughter, and ask her outright. Having made up his mind, Calaile returned his focus to the documents awaiting his attention.
* * *
The Emperor’s birthday celebration was drawing near. It was an event nearly every noble in the capital attended out of obligation, but unfortunately Lady Elaidis, Ella, was far too busy helping her elder sisters Kate and Anastasia get ready.
“I need to change the ribbon color on my dress!”
“I’ll bring it right away.”
“I told you, not this fan!”
Rumors had spread widely that the Crown Prince might choose his bride at this ball. Ella helped her sisters dress during the day and did embroidery at night, and she barely had time to sleep. Looking at Ella’s eyes, where the tiny blood vessels had burst, Patricia could not hide the suspicion on her face.
‘She’s become truly strange.’
Once, she had been an obedient girl who only ever called out “Mother, Mother,” so when she had started talking nonsense about becoming independent at twenty, Patricia had felt uneasy.
But that was the end of it. As long as she wasn’t pushed too hard, Ella obediently attended to her sisters, and perhaps because she had been properly marked by her father, it was plain to see that she had grown thoroughly accustomed to life as a servant.
It was still too early to relax. She seemed to be scheming something else, and seeing her red eyes, Patricia wondered if she was roaming about at night, so she had even tightened security around the house. And if she had a man, that wasn’t it either. Ella went out almost every day, so Patricia had someone tail her, and all she visited were the Imperial Library and a dressmaker’s shop. Watching Ella steadily frequent the dress shop, Patricia jumped to conclusions about her intentions.
‘Could she be planning to attend the ball?’
Since she was a rather accomplished embroiderer, perhaps she meant to help out there and receive a dress in return. The little schemer apparently dared to try to seduce even the Crown Prince, but Patricia was not a woman who would stand by and let that happen. Only when such hopes came crashing down would the girl come to her senses, so Patricia deliberately decided to plant hope in Ella.
“Ella, you look a bit tired today, so go and rest for a while.”
“May I really?”
“Yes. You’ll be coming along to the ball too, after all.”
“Me too?”
Upon Patricia’s detestable suggestion that she come along to the ball, Ella even asked back. Clicking her tongue at the hypocrisy of Ella’s expression, Patricia breathed false hope into her stepdaughter with a feigned smile.
“Of course. It’s an occasion every noble family’s daughters are required to attend, so naturally you should come and add your presence to the event.”
Ella returned Patricia’s bright smile with one of her own, swallowing curses inwardly.
‘Hypocrite.’
If she truly intended to take me along, she would have at least prepared a dress for me. Making me serve every last one of her daughters, and then saying I should come along, only to say on the day itself that I’m not ready and can’t be brought, and brush it off clumsily, is exactly what she would do.
Back in the past, she wouldn’t have given me even a glimmer of hope, but now that I’ve talked back a few times, Patricia has turned even more vicious. Looking at her, life truly seemed to have no dreams or hope left in it at all.
Even so, it’s fine. Unless a reply came from the Grand Duke, Ella had given up all hope and chosen the path of succeeding on her own strength. With Patricia’s permission, Ella returned to her room, pushed the bed aside, and took out the embroidery she had left unfinished.
First a handkerchief, then lace embroidery for a waistband, and since she’d said she’d take on any work that paid, now a rather elaborate quilt for the outer fabric. Marveling at how she could manage all this in a single night, Mary worried more about Ella’s health than about the work itself.
‘What a kind person.’
She probably wouldn’t be going to the party, but she had no regrets. The Grand Duke was never going to attend that ball anyway, which would only earn him even more of the Emperor’s disfavor. Even though she had admired Duke Wellington for so long, he hadn’t so much as sent a reply, and Ella was thoroughly sulky about it. Somehow, she felt like a fool for having jotted down everything she could remember from before the regression, all for his sake.
“Bad judgment on his part. I’m done with him.”
She set down her embroidery in a huff, pouted her lips, and glanced at the mirror once more. Her ash-gray hair had gone stiff from neglect, and her appearance now looked like nothing more than a maid’s. Considering that, it was no wonder the staff at the Imperial Library treated her with contempt. Perhaps the Duke, too, knew her circumstances and had judged her not worth his time.
“It was my own fault for expecting anything.”
Ella sighed and returned her focus to the embroidery. While everyone danced beneath dazzling chandeliers, she would have to keep watch over this cold mansion alone. Back then, she might have cried in bitter resentment, but now there was at least work to be done, so she didn’t feel wretched about it.
“Better focus on earning some money.”
With the busy season upon her, she had to finish these jobs quickly and bring in more orders if she was going to raise money for independence. Forgetting all about that insufferable Duke Wellington, Ella poured every ounce of her attention into the embroidery.
* * *
On the day of the ball. Grand Duke Carlisle Jeremiah Wellington, who had never intended to attend in the first place, made a rare appearance at the palace in formal dress. At the sight of the Wellington crest, the Lion and Lily Crest, the ladies could not hide their excitement.
“First the Crown Prince, and now His Grace the Grand Duke Wellington too? Could this ball truly be where the two of them come to find their brides?”
His attendance was top secret, so apart from the Emperor, the Crown Prince, and a handful of others, no one had any idea. The Emperor, who had been eager to rebuke Wellington for skipping his birthday celebration, had been in a foul mood all along upon hearing that this thorn in his side, his second cousin once removed, would be attending.
“What on earth made him change his mind?”
Since neither could bear the sight of the other, the Emperor was only waiting for a convenient pretext to send him back to the Frontier. Whether the Emperor was displeased or not, the Grand Duke’s attention was fixed on something else entirely.
“The moment Lord Lloyd’s party arrives, inform me.”
Having arrived at the palace early, he first ordered Kevin to find Lady Lloyd before even paying his respects to the Emperor. He intended to make some excuse once she showed up, then seek her out privately and question her directly about how she had come by her information.
‘How she came to know about the front lines, and what she wants from me.’
That hollow gaze that kept coming back to him nagged at him, but those two points were all he wanted to know. To him, Lady Elaidis was still an unknown quantity. She clearly held some key, yet there was no sign she had been spreading it around. For now, Calaile offered his greetings to the Emperor first, so as not to give anyone a handle on him.
“It’s been a while, Grand Duke Wellington.
“I trust Your Majesty has been well.”
“Thanks to your great accomplishments, I’ve been most comfortable.”
His tone was thoroughly sarcastic, but Calaile had long since outgrown caring about such things. Anyone could see it was a mere formality, and once the greeting was done, the Grand Duke scanned the edges of the ballroom, searching for the silver-haired lady. Let’s finish this quickly and go home.

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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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