The Eldest Daughter Walks Down The Flower Path - Chapter 170
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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The Eldest Daughter Walks the Path of Flowers Episode 170
Radis stood before the mirror wearing a deep navy evening dress.
The dress fabric was deep navy satin, and the textile carefully woven by artisans shimmered with silver light when it caught the light, while areas without light took on a black hue, giving it a mysterious feeling like the night sky.
“Hmm.”
Radis spun around in place.
The skirt that had been elegantly spread from below her hips gathered into folds and sparkled like a rippling sea in deep navy, silver, and black.
She crossed her arms and carefully looked into the mirror.
One shoulder of the dress had ruffle decorations reminiscent of waves, while the other was boldly exposed.
Radis turned around and asked.
“Lord Marquis. Does this look alright?”
Behind her, Eve sat demurely in a chair wearing black formal attire.
Eve, who had been entranced by her seductive appearance, said.
“So intelligent it’s mind-numbing, so sexy it makes reason fly away.”
“…That means it’s not bad, right? Then I’ll just go with this.”
Radis took a seat.
While the maids gave final touches to her elegantly pinned-up hair, Radis examined her gloves and chose black lace gloves to put on.
Eve watched the black lace being pulled up over her white skin and spoke in an earnest voice.
“I think a black wedding dress would be fine too.”
Radis looked at him with her eyelashes, made even thicker with mascara, batting widely.
“Don’t say ridiculous things.”
“I think it would be nice though…?”
“It would look like a funeral, wouldn’t it?”
“Ah, that could be true.”
Radis smiled toward Eve, who was agreeing.
And she looked into the mirror and applied lipstick to her lips.
“…!”
Eve crept closer to Radis and stared intently at her applying lipstick.
His gaze persistently followed the lipstick sliding smoothly over her lips.
Radis, having finished applying lipstick, looked up at Eve and said.
“Are you really going to do this?”
“What am I doing.”
“If you’re going to keep looking at me with those eyes from the side…”
“Oh right.”
As her voice began to grow sharp, Eve quickly pulled out a gift he had prepared.
Eve cleared his throat to adjust his voice before speaking.
“A gift for the beautiful Duke Gloria.”
Radis rolled her eyes lightly then opened the jewelry box he offered.
Inside the box lined with black satin were pearl earrings and a pearl necklace.
Radis realized that the pearls in those earrings were the mermaid pearls she had once received as gifts from merchants.
She smiled faintly and said.
“This… when did you commission the crafting? It’s pretty.”
“Allow me to put them on you.”
Eve gentlemanly put the earrings on her ears himself.
Though it seemed like he touched her ears a bit longer than necessary.
In any case, the large pearls glowing softly among her richly pinned-up auburn hair looked very beautiful.
“I’ll put the necklace on you as well, Duke Gloria.”
Eve, bringing the pearl necklace, arranged a few strands of hair swaying over her snow-white nape.
And as he put the necklace around her neck, he kissed her nape with audible sounds.
Several times.
Radis’s cheeks turned red.
It was because she was embarrassed in front of the maids.
She could feel the maids behind her holding their breath and trying to pretend they saw nothing.
“Really…”
Radis, who was about to push him away, stopped speaking when she saw the large black diamond that had dropped onto her white chest.
She laughed.
It was because she remembered how he had once put a purple amethyst necklace around her neck just like this.
Eve seemed not to know why she was laughing.
He smiled brightly and laughed along with her.
In front of the hall where the grand banquet for the wedding eve was being held, young noble ladies dressed like fairies were distributing gifts for the visitors.
The young ladies who spotted Radis rushed toward her.
“Duke Gloria…!”
“Here, I’ll give you a brooch.”
“Please accept mine…!”
Radis accepted the brooch offered by the girl who approached her first.
The peacock-shaped brooch seemed to be a gift for those attending the wedding.
Another girl nearby offered a brooch to Eve and asked in a shy voice.
“Are you two getting married?”
It was just a child’s question, and it would have been fine to simply nod.
However, Radis couldn’t answer rashly.
Eve answered the girl’s question instead of Radis.
He pinned the brooch to the chest of his tailcoat and said in a low voice.
“It has to be that way. Because I’ll never let Duke Gloria go.”
“Kyaa!”
The girls burst into cheers, but Radis couldn’t bring herself to laugh along.
Receiving the surname Gloria and becoming free from the Tilrod family was certainly a joyful thing.
Being granted an estate encompassing the Monster Forest was also glorious and simultaneously necessary for the work she had to do.
According to what she heard from Robert, at the time Radis returned from the past, a new Chronos was born in the Monster Forest.
The Monster Forest, now temporarily named ‘Garden’, was where existing monsters and newly born monsters were fighting for territory.
Watching that flow was also part of Radis’s work.
However, to protect the surname Gloria and her estate, Radis had to continue remaining as Radis Gloria.
In other words, it meant she couldn’t marry Eve.
Radis would have been fine remaining unmarried for life and staying in a romantic relationship with him.
However, Eve, who was the head of the massive prestigious House of Russel, would be different.
He would need an heir who carried his bloodline.
But strangely, Eve seemed not to care about that fact at all.
“Shall we go, Duke Gloria?”
There was no way the perceptive Eve wouldn’t notice why Radis couldn’t smile in this situation.
Yet he was smiling brightly as if he had no worries at all.
Radis, who had been looking at him for a moment, smiled along with Eve.
Today was a celebration for Olivier and Elizabeth’s marriage.
Worries wouldn’t suit such an occasion.
Radis placed her hand on his offered arm and said.
“Thank you, Lord Marquis.”
The doors to the banquet hall opened before them.
A royal maid announced their entrance in a loud voice.
“Lord Russel, Marquis of Luare, and Count Gloria of ‘Garden’ are entering!”
The maid’s voice was so resonant that all eyes in the banquet hall turned to them.
It wasn’t just gazes.
Everyone was murmuring and talking about them in excited, rapid tones or voices filled with awe.
Among them, Gabriel Arpend, brother of Emperor Olivier, came out to greet them.
“Lord Russel, and Duke Gloria! Please, come in.”
Gabriel kissed the back of Radis’s hand and whispered.
“Duke Gloria, you are dazzlingly beautiful in uniform, but today you have a radiance that could blind one’s eyes.”
Eve interjected between them.
“Your Highness Gabriel, congratulations on the Imperial Court’s grandest event.”
Gabriel nodded his head.
“I shall convey thanks on behalf of His Majesty the Emperor. Come inside for now.”
While following Gabriel into the inner part of the banquet hall, countless people looked at them with envious gazes, desperately trying to make eye contact and exchange greetings even once more.
After frantically exchanging light greetings for quite some time, they found themselves standing before the Audience Hall.
Gabriel said to Radis.
“Duke Gloria, His Majesty the Emperor is waiting.”
“Thank you, Your Highness Gabriel.”
Radis nodded lightly and entered the Audience Hall.
Behind her, Eve stared intently at Gabriel and asked.
“Your Highness Gabriel. Did His Majesty the Emperor not summon me?”
“You are after Duke Gloria.”
“Why separately? He must be busy with official matters, so we could go in together.”
An amused smile appeared on Gabriel’s lips as he realized that this man was treating the Emperor of the Empire like a romantic rival.
Gabriel put his arm around Eve’s shoulder and said.
“You have more interesting aspects than I thought. I’ll be your opponent. Shall we go over there for a drink?”
Radis thought that both Olivier and Elizabeth would be together in the Audience Hall.
However, only Olivier was in the room.
Olivier, who had been sitting alone in an armchair by the window, stood up when he saw Radis enter the room.
He was dressed in splendid ceremonial robes of white silk embroidered with white thread and adorned with diamond buttons, with the Emperor’s crown placed on the table.
Meeting his eyes, Radis realized that the way Olivier looked at her had changed.
She remembered walking the Golden Road with him in Duras.
His eyes had been just this warm when he watched her, captivated by the street’s attractions.
Olivier, who had been looking at Radis with an infinitely gentle gaze, spoke.
“Somehow it feels like I’m meeting you after a long time.”
Radis walked toward Olivier and said.
“I was thinking the same thing.”
Olivier, who had been looking at Radis as if dazzled, let out a light sigh.
“There was a time when I thought I wouldn’t mind paying any price if I could have you.”
Radis saw his beautiful violet eyes becoming moist.
“But now I wish for your happiness.”
Olivier continued with a voice overflowing with various emotions.
“I have seen oaths of loyalty carved in stone tablets break, bonds of blood between family members shatter, and even magical contracts I believed would never break come undone. Perhaps promises have no meaning in our world.”
He raised his hand and touched Radis’s cheek as if even touching was frightening.
“But you kept the vow you made to Eve Russel. You fulfilled that seemingly impossible vow.”
Olivier’s lips trembled finely.
“So I too will make a vow. Though it is merely a fragile human heart, my wish for your happiness will never change for eternity.”
Radis looked up at her Emperor.
When they first met, he was the only person who didn’t mock her as she wandered in a quagmire like a mud pit, but knelt down to lift her up.
That was surely salvation.
Radis realized.
He was someone who could see others’ pain because he had experienced suffering himself.
He was someone who could save others because he had waited more desperately than anyone for salvation.
Radis slowly knelt before the Emperor and kissed the back of his hand.
She said.
“I once told Your Majesty this. That if Lord Olivier had been a noblewoman, I would have offered my sword.”
At her words, Olivier burst into a small laugh.
“There was such a time.”
Radis looked up at Olivier with a slightly reddened face, just like then, and said.
“I too will make a vow. I will protect Lord Olivier forever.”
The smile disappeared from Olivier’s face.
He took Radis’s hand and helped her stand up.
Olivier said.
“Radis, you are a throne blessed by the gods. You don’t need to be bound to me. I won’t bind you with an oath of loyalty between lord and vassal.”
“Lord Olivier, this isn’t loyalty.”
Radis said with a smile.
“It’s more like… friendship, you could say.”
At her words, Olivier’s eyes widened and then narrowed.
He smiled meaningfully, as if pleased, and said.
“A poet once said that friendship lasts longer than love. And with a guarantee of eternity too. I like it.”
“I think my love’s duration will be quite long too, you know?”
“We’ll see about that. I’ll be watching.”
Radis looked up at Olivier, who was smiling as prettily as a flower, and said.
“Lord Olivier.”
“Yes.”
“You must be happy.”
At her words, a very warm smile appeared on Olivier’s face.
Olivier, who had once been like a glass doll that never smiled, was saying with that smile.
That he was happy now.
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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