Rewriting the Trash Ending - Chapter 61

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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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61.

“Go and humor the Grand Duchess. You need to make up for your last blunder properly. This time, don’t be foolish—grovel thoroughly and come back.”
Grovel thoroughly?
Belia’s eyebrows twitched faintly.
Just weeks ago, he’d ordered her to stay locked away inside the house, to keep still.
Hadn’t he said she was a woman marked for death anyway, that she should not lift a finger and wait until a position opened up?
“…Father, last time you told me to exercise restraint.”
“Circumstances have changed.”
“I… I see?”
“Not long ago, the director of the Welfare Center under the Grand Duke’s purview was sentenced to life hard labor for embezzling funds. But I’ve heard the Grand Duke visited the Welfare Center with that woman.”
“The Welfare Center?”
“They say he intends to use it as the headquarters of the Fundraising Association.”
The Grand Duke disliked drawing attention to himself in public.
Yet beyond the Count’s consort’s 70th Birthday Celebration, he’d visited the Welfare Center with her as though they were an affectionate couple.
It was unmistakable—the Grand Duke’s favor had fallen upon that woman.
The Grand Duke was a man, after all; where the body goes, affection follows.
“Everyone who crosses paths with that woman meets a bad end.”
He could still see the expression on the Grand Duke’s face when they’d suggested using the Grand Duchess to push the Empire back a step.
“Touching that woman now would be foolish. Better to keep her pleased while she lives.”
He leaned back in his chair, watching his daughter stand frozen before him.
“Think it through carefully.”
…….
As Belia’s pupils wavered faintly, a thin, bitter smile crossed the Count’s lips.
“You, who stood by that woman’s side in life itself, are offering to embrace her bloodline—how could His Highness cast you out?”
“So what you’re saying is…”
Belia’s eyes darkened with a thick, murky light.
“From now on, earn that woman’s trust by winning her favor.”
…….
“You need not concern yourself with His Highness’s affections. He’ll have no choice but to keep you near—for the sake of his heir.”
The Grand Duke marched out to the garrison almost daily.
If he fell in battle like the previous Grand Duke, only a young heir would remain.
Once her daughter took on a mother’s role, the young heir’s side would naturally become hers to command.
So there was no need to concern herself with the Grand Duke’s feelings at all.
“What is your answer?”
Belia’s hands curled silently into fists as she opened her mouth.
“…Yes, Father. I’ll do as you say.”
“Good. See that you make no mistakes this time. You must grow close to the Grand Duchess.”
The Count lowered his gaze back to his documents.
There was nothing more to say—she was dismissed.
Belia left the study at once.
Click.
After the heavy door closed behind her.
Belia began to walk down the empty corridor.

“You, who stood by that woman’s side in life itself, are offering to embrace her bloodline—how could His Highness cast you out?”

…It wasn’t a bad strategy.
The longer she turned it over in her mind, the more convincing it sounded.
It looked good to others, and the Grand Duke would readily consent to keeping her near for such a reason.
But.
Belia stopped abruptly in the middle of the corridor.
‘He’s asking me to grovel before that woman?’
The obedient mask dropped from Belia’s face as she let out a low, bitter laugh.
How absurd.
Why should she, of all people, bow before that dancer’s bastard—abandoned, with not a single strand of connection?
That woman’s position.
The child that woman would birth from her own body.
The Grand Duke’s seat beside her.
Father’s words meant she should receive those things as if begging for scraps, but what I wanted was to strip everything from that woman while she still drew breath.
Tear her down in the most pitiful way possible—not beg for leftovers.
I played the obedient daughter in front of Father, but I never intended to follow through.
…….
She stood motionless for a moment, then resumed her walk.
‘So Baroness Ruan’s son was arrested for embezzlement……’
The Welfare Center was a charitable institution founded by the Former Baron Ruan.
For two decades, he had drawn from his own coffers to shelter the destitute—a man of merchant stock who nonetheless commanded the respect of the people for his austere nobility.
When he passed, even she had paid her respects, so celebrated was his name.
Yet his son had been caught embezzling the facility’s funds, and now the Welfare Center itself—the family’s own property—had become the Grand Duchess’s Fundraising Association headquarters?
How curiously the pieces were falling into place.
‘Wait—what of the Former Baron’s widow?’
It was said the Former Baron’s widow had spent her remaining years in quiet retirement after her husband’s death and her son’s inheritance of the title.
But if she’d lost the Welfare Center that her husband had nurtured for twenty years, and her son had been sentenced to life hard labor……
How tremendous that fury must be.
‘This could prove useful.’
Belia’s lips curled upward with satisfaction.

***

The Fundraising Association’s inaugural gathering was imminent.
Since the royal wedding, the city bustled with preparations for the first grand reception to be held.
“Thank goodness we managed to procure the aged meat in time.”
She’d feared they’d waste such costly provisions, but a glance at the stores revealed them abundantly stocked.
Wine, meat, desserts—all in plenty.
There would be no shortage when it came to entertaining the guests.
Having confirmed the reception preparations were proceeding smoothly, she decided to visit the Welfare Center instead.
The place that would become the Fundraising Association’s headquarters.
She’d heard they’d hung the plaque yesterday—she ought to see it for herself.
She changed into her traveling clothes and climbed into the carriage with Caiden.
The view through the window was more animated than it had been days before.
The bandits had been cleared out, and it showed.
But the moment the carriage stopped before the Welfare Center, a woman’s shrill voice pierced the air from within.
“…You thieving bitches! This land my husband devoted his life to—what right have you to set foot here!”
Lumiere exchanged a glance with Caiden.
My husband. The land of his lifetime.
‘The Former Baron’s widow?’
She entered the Welfare Center before the commotion could escalate further.
Broken pots lay scattered about, and the women and children huddled in the corners, their faces drained of all color.
“M-madam! You mustn’t—!”
“My son is innocent! His only crime was taking in and feeding vermin like you! Sign the petition at once! Free my son, I demand it!”
The administrator tried to restrain her, but the elderly woman paid him no mind, wielding her walking cane wildly.
“Not content with my son, you’ve stolen the very land itself……!”
A sigh.
A deep, rising sigh escaped her lips.
Then Lumiere spoke.
“That’s enough.”
The old woman’s head snapped around.
White hair and violet eyes.
An unadorned but unmistakably warm and refined coat draped her frame.
Recognizing the woman’s station, the old widow cast down her cane and collapsed to the floor.
“Your Highness! Please hear this old woman’s grievance! What crime of treason did my son commit that you would send him to the mines……!”
…….
“My husband devoted twenty years to this land. We spent our entire fortune gathering the destitute and the lost. And now the land is seized, my son laboring in the mines……!”
The old woman’s voice rang out with raw despair.
The administrator moved to approach, but Lumiere raised a hand to hold him back.
The old widow wept with the bitterness of profound injustice.
‘Hmm……’
What caught her eye was the old woman’s attire.
A black hat and black veil, a black dress, and jet jewelry adorning her ears and neck.
The quality of the mourning attire was so fine it seemed almost impossible to procure with merely the legacy her husband had left behind—a man who had devoted his entire life to the Welfare Center.
Nobility might cling to dignity even at the cost of hunger, but for the widow of the Former Baron Ruan, such finery struck her as excessive.
“Everyone step back. I need to have a word with the elder lady.”
At Lumiere’s command, the steward and soldiers retreated haltingly.
Only Caiden remained, standing quietly behind her.
She bent her knees gently, lowering herself to meet the old woman’s eyes.
Then she opened her mouth softly.

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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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