Rewriting the Trash Ending - Chapter 8

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

8.

“…Your Highness, it has been so long since we last met.”
“Indeed it has, Miss Edbert.”
The last time she had seen her was the day she’d held a Dagger to her throat and threatened to die—some two months ago now.

[I wanted to leave, but she wouldn’t let me go.]

The woman who had shown her how futile all her desperate struggling had been.
Perhaps because it had been so long ago.
Once, she had envied and resented her so fiercely, yet now she felt nothing at all.
“Since you’re here, why not have a conversation? You must have so many questions for Clara.”
Clara reached out with an anxious expression, clutching the hem of the mocking woman’s dress.
Well, who knew what a mad woman obsessed with her lover would do next—the one who had even staked her own life on it.
“I came only to attend to some business. Now that it’s done, I’ll be on my way.”
There was no point lingering; it would only make things uncomfortable for them both.
She spoke to the shopkeeper.
“I’ll settle the account now. Have the goods packed into the carriage as they are.”
“Yes, yes, Your Highness.”
Just as she turned to leave—
“It is truly admirable that Your Highness takes such meticulous care with your shopping, even as you prepare to be sold off to the North.”
Why did this woman keep provoking someone who was trying to slip away quietly?
Finding her annoying, she swallowed a sigh and asked instead.
“I don’t know who you are, but it seems you have something to say to me, judging by all this chatter.”
“Ha……!”
The woman laughed in disbelief, a hollow sound.
It was an impudence unthinkable in the presence of a princess, yet she was not surprised—it was familiar enough.
“R-Roselin!”
Clara, panicked, tried to restrain her by the arm, but the woman gently shook off her hand.
“I am Roselin of the Belleno Viscount House. I’ve seen you several times, yet you don’t remember—I am quite concerned for Your Highness’s health.”
Roselin, then.
Was this the one who clung to Clara’s side and frequently picked quarrels?
There had been so many who treated her disrespectfully that she could not be certain.
But judging by how boldly she was provoking her now, she seemed quite accustomed to doing so.
‘It doesn’t matter who she is.’
What mattered was that if she let this pass without a response, the Empire’s social circles would be flooded with talk of “the princess running away with her tail between her legs.”
“Very well, Miss Belleno, was it? I’ll give you the chance. Don’t dance around it—say what you mean to say.”
“Before you go, you must apologize to Miss Edbert.”
……An apology?
“It is a pity that Your Highness did not win the favor of Duke Trobithan, but surely it is not right to torment an innocent person so and then depart without even seeking her forgiveness?”
Lumiere was at a loss for words.
The girl herself was silent, and yet this viscount’s daughter dared stand here and lecture the princess.
She called softly to Clara, who fidgeted beside her.
“Miss Edbert.”
“…Yes, Your Highness.”
“Do I owe you an apology?”
“…No, Your Highness.”
“Then must I ask your forgiveness?”
“No, Your Highness. I would never—”
Clara answered in a trembling voice, then bowed her head.
This was the correct bearing a noble’s daughter should display before a princess in a Class System society.
She withdrew her gaze from Clara and turned to Roselin.
“Then tell me—how do you propose to resolve this situation?”
“I…?”
“You dared to lecture the princess with such impudence, making a mockery of her authority. Do you not bear responsibility for that?”
Before the Regression, she had been a woman completely broken down after years of abuse and oppression within the palace.
Even when a mere maid looked down on her, even when she was made a “wall flower” at every ball, she could only tremble.
And yet she had threatened Clara—because marriage to the Grand Duke terrified her beyond measure.
And even that I wouldn’t have attempted if Clara hadn’t made it seem possible.
Perhaps it was because I’d grown accustomed to my own helplessness—to suffering in silence, unable to so much as protest.
Roselin, who had faltered for a moment, quickly recovered her imperious manner.
“Responsibility? Surely everyone knows that a wrongdoer offers an apology—it’s basic propriety.”
Well, I’d never received a single apology in my life.
Unable to help myself, I let out a hollow laugh, and Roselin continued.
“Yet you threaten me for speaking the truth? I fear greatly for the Grand Duchy’s future, if this is how its future queen consort conducts herself.”
“The Grand Duchy’s future…….”
She dared invoke the Grand Duchy’s future right in front of me.
I had no desire to hear more.
“It seems I’ll have to teach you some manners.”
Lumiere finished speaking and swept her hand through the air in a wide arc.
Crack!
A sharp, satisfying sound rang out as Roselin’s head snapped to the side.
“Did you—did you just strike me……?”
Roselin, stunned, clutched her cheek as she asked; Lumiere stared back at her with an unmoved expression.
“Yes. Are you awake now?”
“How—how dare you……!”
“Dare?”
“No, that’s not what I meant——!”
Did she think I was beneath her, some neglected Imperial Palace princess? Was that it?
“It seems you need a proper thrashing before you come to your senses.”
In all my days, I never thought I’d hear the word ‘dare’ directed at me.
Lumiere struck Roselin’s cheek again.
Crack!
“Your Highness!”
Struck a second time, Roselin’s eyes flashed with indignation, sharp and piercing.
Even after being hit twice in succession, far from cowering, she glared at me with brazen defiance.
“Let’s see how much longer you can stare at me like that.”
She drew back her hand, putting more force into the next swing.
Crack, crack!
Each time her head was snapped to the side, Roselin twisted back to face forward and glowered, as if challenging me to continue.
As if we were locked in a battle of wills.
That shameless attitude had to be broken.
With that resolve, I raised my stinging palm to strike again—
“Please, Your Highness!”
Clara threw her arms around Roselin and stepped between us.
“…What are you doing?”
Lumiere froze, her hand suspended in mid-air, eyes narrowing.
For a member of the royal household to intervene while the princess dispensed punishment.
It was not something this woman—who had bowed so humbly before me moments ago—should have done.
“Your Highness, please. Roselin has surely reflected on her actions by now. I beg you, show her mercy…….”
She was practically begging on her knees, yet she still asked for forgiveness?
“Step aside.”
“Your Highness…….”
“This is not your place to interfere. Now move.”
“But…….”
“Didn’t you hear me?”
Clara hesitated, wavering—
“What on earth is the meaning of this!”
A man appeared abruptly and gripped her wrist hard.
“Duke Logan……?”
“Are you threatening my fiancée?”
‘Why is the duke here……?’
My violet eyes trembled.
Logan’s face was twisted with fury, rage evident in every line.
I stared at him blankly, and then it struck me—Clara was here.
The day after I was driven north.
These two had spent time together in this very place.
A bitter laugh escaped me.
I’ve only now come to understand how foolish and ignorant I was in my past life.
What a simpering fool I’ve been, Lumiere.
What he offered was nothing but cheap pity, so why did I cling to it so desperately?
As a wave of inexplicable emptiness crashed over me, my voice emerged hollow and thin.
“…Duke, release her at once.”
“Did I not ask you whether you threatened my fiancée?”
“And did I not tell you? Let her go. Now.”
She glared at him coldly, twisting his wrist; Logan only gripped harder, his teeth grinding as he spoke.
“I told you to stay quiet then, did I not? So how could you go on until the very end like this—!”
Lumiere gasped softly in pain as if squeezed in a vise, her brow furrowing.
“Let go.”
A man tall and dark as a shadow seized Logan’s wrist with all his strength and twisted.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————