The Eldest Daughter Walks Down The Flower Path - Chapter 66

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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 66

 

On the day Radis returned after staying in the capital for about five days, the maids led by Berry threw a small party for her.

 

Though the party was small in scale, its luxury was no less than a grand banquet.

 

They ate and drank the cake Olivier had sent as a gift, the food Brendan had prepared, and the sweet wine Eve had specially sponsored, sharing their feelings.

 

Berry asked with sparkling eyes.

 

“Lady Radis, tell us about the Imperial Capital!”

 

Radis told the maids, who rested their chins on their hands, stories about the endlessly vast gardens of the Imperial Capital, buildings as beautiful as jewelry boxes, noble ladies in dresses so splendid they made one’s eyes widen, and the White Order knights in pristine white uniforms.

 

Perhaps her descriptions were quite vivid?

 

The maids seemed completely captivated by Radis’s stories.

 

“Ah, how wonderful! I want to be asked to dance by a White Order knight too…!”

 

Seeing Berry’s dreamy expression, Melody spoke as if to wake her from her dream.

 

“There would be a line of noble young ladies in front of the White Order knights, wouldn’t there?”

 

“Geez, can’t I even say I want to do that?”

 

Then Nicky suddenly jumped up and said.

 

“I want to dance right now!”

 

And she actually struck a pose.

 

Berry also jumped up and grabbed Nicky’s hand.

 

“Me too!”

 

The slightly intoxicated girls didn’t even need music.

 

April clapped her hands to keep the beat for them.

 

Radis couldn’t immediately stand up to dance due to embarrassment.

 

However, the maids dancing in their nightgowns and bare feet looked truly joyful.

 

Radis also gathered courage and stood up from her seat.

 

“Nicky, dance with me this time!”

 

“Oh my, what an honor!”

 

They linked arms and danced merrily.

 

When tired, they would plop down on the floor and clap until their palms turned red, then get up and dance again.

 

The sound of small feet pattering on the floor, clapping sounds, and bursts of laughter continued past midnight.

 

“Wow, I really can’t do any more!”

 

“Me neither!”

 

Until everyone collapsed exhausted onto the floor covered with fluffy rugs.

 

Though they were in such an exhausted state, none of them said they would return to their own bedrooms.

 

They naturally brought out pillows and cushions to hug one by one and shared blankets before turning off the lights.

 

Tanya said.

 

“At times like this, scary stories are perfect.”

 

“Right.”

 

“Exactly that.”

 

The maids nodded and agreed, but that was all.

 

“Nicky, don’t you know any scary stories?”

 

“I’ve heard many… but strangely, don’t you forget scary stories after hearing them?”

 

“Right. That’s so true.”

 

Then Radis spoke up.

 

“Do you know the story of the secret basement beneath the Empire’s Imperial Capital?”

 

At her low whisper, the maids’ gazes immediately focused on her.

 

Berry quickly shook her head.

 

“No, I don’t know!”

 

“You probably wouldn’t. This is a story that even people in the Imperial Capital hush up.”

 

To be precise, that’s what Armano had said.

 

Radis imitated Armano who had told her that story, speaking in a low and quiet voice.

 

“Past the sparkling, beautiful buildings of the Imperial Capital, if you go to the deepest place, there stands a tower that doesn’t shine. And in its basement is hidden the darkest secret of the Imperial Capital. That is, a girl who was once called a witch.”

 

The girl was called a witch. It was because of the power she possessed.

 

The girl’s hands were hands that burned, killed, and took away everything.

 

Everything touched by her hands turned into black charcoal and died.

 

It was truly a power that could only be called that of a witch.

 

Even her father and mother feared her.

 

They bound the girl tightly with dry thorns and locked her in a cottage far from the village.

 

Rumors about her crossed mountains and rivers, reaching the ears of a beautiful prince.

 

Curious, the prince went with his knight and priest, crossing mountains and rivers to meet the girl.

 

At the cottage he found after crossing mountains and rivers, the prince was able to meet the girl whose entire body was bound tightly with thorns.

 

The prince asked.

 

“Are you truly a witch who burns, kills, and takes away everything?”

 

The girl said.

 

“Yes. I am a witch. But it’s alright. Bound by these thorns and trapped here, I cannot burn, kill, or take away anything.”

 

The prince nodded in admiration.

 

His curiosity was satisfied.

 

However, he could not leave the girl.

 

Because he felt pity for the small girl wrapped in sharp thorns.

 

The prince said.

 

“Fire may burn, kill, and take away, but at the same time it can bake barley bread, melt iron to make weapons, and warmly thaw frozen bodies. Could you not also become someone who creates, saves, and gives birth to something?”

 

The prince’s words moved the girl’s heart.

 

The girl burned the thorns and followed him, holding the prince’s hand.

 

The girl learned from the prince how to bake barley bread, how to melt iron to make weapons, and how to warmly thaw frozen bodies.

 

And she offered the barley bread and weapons thus made to him and warmed the prince’s body.

 

And the girl came to love the prince.

 

But the prince could not accept the girl’s love.

 

Because he had a princess he loved from before crossing mountains and rivers to meet the girl.

 

The knight said.

 

“Girl, you must not love him. If you do, you will be trapped in thorns forever.”

 

The priest said.

 

“Girl, you must bake bread, make weapons, and give warmth for more people. Your hands are meant for that.”

 

The girl cried out.

 

“I must give love to everyone in the world, so why am I not loved by anyone?”

 

The priest said.

 

“You are already in God’s abundant love and your two hands are proof of that, so why do you not know this?”

 

The girl cried out.

 

“These hands are not God’s love. They are a curse! Because of these hands, my mother and father bound me with thorns and locked me away. When I raised my head, people’s spit fell on my face like rain, and when I lowered my head, people beat me. Was that also God’s love and God’s will?”

 

The priest said.

 

“You have insulted God, so now you shall receive punishment.”

 

Black thorns sprouted from beneath the girl’s feet, constricting her entire body.

 

The girl suffered in agony from the pain of her whole body being torn.

 

The knight knelt before the bleeding girl and shed tears.

 

“How could you not know that you were in love?”

 

When the knight touched her, the thorns stopped binding the girl.

 

The knight used that hand to close the girl’s eyes.

 

Then the girl forgot her pain and fell into a long sleep.

 

The prince took the girl who had hardened like stone and crossed mountains and rivers to return to his kingdom.

 

And he showed it to the princess and said.

 

“Beautiful princess, this is that witch.”

 

The princess, having received a precious gift, was greatly pleased.

 

The princess secretly hid it in the basement of the unlit tower.

 

The girl who had turned to stone is still in that basement even now.

 

Waiting for the day when she might open her eyes again.

 

Berry said while sniffling.

 

“The girl is so pitiful!”

 

Melody patted Berry’s shoulder comfortingly.

 

“It’s a scary and sad story.”

 

Nicky looked a bit puzzled.

 

“It’s sad, but not really scary though?”

 

At Nicky’s words, Radis was flustered.

 

“Oh, r-really?”

 

Then April picked up a candle and brought it in front of herself as she spoke.

 

“Shall I tell a story too?”

 

At April’s words, the women’s gazes focused on her.

 

She began her story in a voice as chilling as the wind blowing outside the window.

 

“This happened just a few days ago, right here in this room.”

 

At the mention of “this room,” the women’s bodies froze stiff.

 

April continued in a whisper-like voice.

 

“It was past midnight, just like now. That particular night, I couldn’t fall asleep, so I was coming down the stairs to get some water from the kitchen and was passing by here. That’s when it happened.”

 

Berry, already terrified, began chattering her teeth.

 

But April’s story continued.

 

“I heard something moving inside the room. Clatter clatter…”

 

April tapped the floor with her fingertips, making a clattering sound.

 

Even though they knew it was the sound she was making, the frightened women had to let out groans of “Huu.”

 

“I naturally thought I had misheard something. After all, the maids were all asleep, and Lady Radis had gone to the capital, so this room was empty.”

 

April’s voice grew lower and lower.

 

“I gently pressed my ear against the door…”

 

That’s when it happened.

 

Suddenly from the darkness, a loud clattering sound was heard.

 

Without exception, screams burst out.

 

“Kyaaaaaaah!”

 

“Hyaaaaaaah!”

 

“It’s a ghost!”

 

Radis wasn’t afraid of ghosts.

 

They were mere monsters that could be driven away with just a torch.

 

But when she came to her senses, she was clinging to the waist of Eve Russel, who was wearing a black robe, screaming like this.

 

“Marquess, Marquess! A ghost, it’s a ghost!”

 

Eve Russel, grasping the situation, was simply dumbfounded.

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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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