The Eldest Daughter Walks Down The Flower Path - Chapter 9

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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 9

“Ah… Miss, please have your meal…!”

Even Irene’s completely deflated voice sounded cute.

Radis grabbed the protruding bricks on the estate’s outer wall and lightly launched her body, returning to her room through the window.

Even though she had seen this scene many times, Irene squeezed her eyes shut each time as if she had witnessed something she shouldn’t have.

Irene’s attitude was still insolent, but she did what she was told well enough.

Today’s meal consisted of boiled pork, blanched vegetables, and large bread.

Irene shook her head disapprovingly while watching Radis sit at the table reeking of sweat, but she didn’t forget to spread butter on the warm bread.

“Even Young Master David wouldn’t eat this much.”

Radis glanced at Irene.

Irene quickly lowered her head.

“I was just saying it’s amazing how well Miss eats.”

“Noisy.”

“I’ll be quiet.”

A moment of silence fell.

The only sound in the room was the clinking of cutlery against plates.

It was truly just a moment.

“Ah, ah, right. Miss…”

Radis looked at Irene with just her eyes while still holding her fork.

‘Good heavens.’

The intimidating pressure from those eyes made Irene close her mouth and swallow her saliva for a moment.

‘How did I… do such things to Miss all this time?’

It was natural for Irene to have such doubts.

The Radis before David’s entrance celebration party and the current Radis were completely different people.

Her hair, which had been messily cut and unkempt, was now short and neatly arranged.

When her always hunched shoulders straightened, it revealed her height that was much taller than girls her age and her solid body trained over a long time.

What had changed most of all was her gaze.

Until now, Radis had walked around with her head down, not making eye contact with people.

Even when their eyes accidentally met, she would show a fearful expression and immediately look away.

Her eyes had always wandered here and there, unable to find a place to look.

However, Radis’s current gaze was like a blade piercing straight forward.

Even Irene, who had always looked down on her, could no longer meet her eyes.

Irene spoke hesitantly with her head lowered like the old Radis.

“…Madam will be calling for Miss soon.”

“Why?”

Irene lifted her head slightly.

“It seems she’s going to forgive Miss!”

Radis chuckled and began cutting her meat again.

“How kind of her.”

“Right? And it seems she’s prepared a gift too.”

“A gift?”

“I saw a box. You can look forward to it!”

Irene giggled as if trying to curry favor.

However, Radis couldn’t laugh.

She slightly frowned and silently stabbed the meat with her fork and put it in her mouth.

‘She’s going to let me out already?’

In her previous life, she had often been punished with confinement to her room.

Since Margaret, who regarded Radis as a thorn in her side, most enjoyed having Radis locked away in her room as if she didn’t exist, the confinements usually lasted indefinitely.

But now it was ending when she hadn’t even been confined for a full week.

‘At this rate, staying confined seems much better.’

The drastic forgiveness felt more ominous than the familiar confinement.

‘And a gift?’

She couldn’t believe it.

In her past life, Radis had never once received anything called a gift.

Even on her birthday, she had to say ‘Thank you for giving birth to me’ instead.

There was no birthday cake, no gifts.

‘It wasn’t like that for David and Yurhee.’

Radis put down her cutlery.

“Oh my, are you done eating?”

“…”

Her chest felt so tight that it seemed like no more food would go down.

‘Could it be.’

Had her voice, her agonizing cry, finally reached her mother?

“I have such a soft heart.”

Margaret said with a gentle sigh.

“Instead of helping her brother who is the only pillar of the family, she kicks dirt in his path with her hind legs, and instead of helping the family, she does everything in her power to interfere. And I’m even buying a dress for such a daughter.”

In front of that dress, Radis let out a bitter laugh.

No matter how lacking Radis’s eye for fashion was, she could tell how outdated that dress was.

The dress made of light pink and dark pink silk was glaringly shiny.

The skirt part of the dress was full of cringeworthy wrinkles that seemed like they would have been fashionable about a hundred years ago, and bizarrely, large purple velvet ribbons were attached here and there.

‘People don’t change that easily.’

Radis couldn’t help but laugh.

It was because she felt so pathetic for having expected her mother to change, even for a moment.

That laughter seemed to have touched Margaret’s nerves.

“What’s so funny? Don’t tell me you find my gift ridiculous?”

Instead of answering, Radis shook her head.

The dress wasn’t ridiculous.

What was funny was herself.

Knowing better than anyone how expectations could make a person miserable, and having experienced that terrible death, she couldn’t stop laughing because it was so absurd that she had harbored hope once again.

“It’s a dress that suits me perfectly.”

Margaret glared at her and said.

“Good. It’s the dress you’ll wear to Lord Olivier’s birthday celebration banquet, so it wouldn’t do if it didn’t suit you.”

At Margaret’s words, Yurhee, who had been ecstatic while holding her yellow dress against her body, was shocked.

“Mother?”

Radis saw Yurhee’s lips moving in the shape of ‘Are you in your right mind?’

Though she didn’t show it, Radis thought exactly the same thing.

Margaret was someone who valued appearances above all else.

No matter how much the family fortune declined, she always had a new dress made each season, and even when they had to sell their blankets due to debt and shivered through winter nights under summer quilts, she would never sell the fur stole for tea parties.

Such a person was going to dress her daughter in this kind of dress and take her to a banquet?

“Yes.”

Margaret glared at Radis with sharp eyes as if boring into her.

“Why? Did you think that after throwing this family’s and your brother’s honor into the mud and trampling on it thoroughly, just playing around in your room was punishment enough? Did you really think that was sufficient? My goodness, if you had even a fingernail’s worth of conscience, you couldn’t do such a thing. Isn’t that right, Radis?”

Radis’s decision to attend the birthday celebration banquet of the 3rd Prince of the Cardia Empire, Olivier Arpend, was of course not because of the ‘conscience’ Margaret mentioned.

Now that she had accepted that this situation was reality, she needed change.

She couldn’t just sit quietly in her room waiting for a cruel fate to come.

Fortunately, the banquet was being held at the Russel Marquis’ Mansion, the most influential family in the south.

Many people would attend, and she might be able to find some small opportunity.

It was a thread-thin hope, but for Radis, who wanted to grasp at any straw right now, even that was desperate.

That was the reason Radis was attending the banquet even while wearing such a garishly bright pink dress.

“Radis.”

In the carriage heading to the marquis’s house, Radis’s younger sister Yurhee called out to her.

Yurhee, dressed in a yellow gown that complemented her beautifully flowing, lustrous blonde hair, looked as lovely as a spring fairy, but her face was the picture of distress.

“Don’t stand next to me when we arrive at the banquet hall. That dress is 90 percent off sale merchandise. It was in the catalog—what if someone recognizes it!”

Radis, who was about to casually reply that what did it matter what kind of dress it was, saw Yurhee’s expression and realized she was serious.

Radis looked at her younger sister with fresh eyes.

Yurhee, who had grown up receiving Margaret’s twisted affection in abundance, was a princess who would never mature.

This princess would later receive the full support of the Tilrod Family and become engaged to a young man from a viscount family.

It was a marriage prospect far too good for the Tilrod Family, who didn’t even have a title.

Of course, a dowry befitting such a match was necessary.

How much monster blood Radis had to be covered in, how much flesh she had to tear through to extract magic stones to raise that money.

The gold coins stained with Radis’s blood, sweat, and tears were transformed into Yurhee’s dresses and jewelry.

When Yurhee, holding an armful of white roses symbolizing her status as a bride, left the Tillord Estate while giving thanks to her family, Radis was lying in her bed, enduring pain.

On such a joyous day, she bit her lips, fearing that any groan that might escape would cast even a shadow over Yurhee’s future.

However, despite being sent off so preciously, Yurhee’s happiness did not last long.

Even Radis, who was isolated within the family, heard rumors that Yurhee’s married life was not going smoothly.

Radis let out a light sigh before speaking.

“Sister.”

Yurhee looked at Radis with puzzled eyes.

“You should call me sister, Yurhee. That’s basic manners. What’s more important than how much a dress costs is what kind of person is wearing those clothes. No matter how expensive the outfit…”

“What sister!”

What cut off Radis’s sincere advice was Margaret’s sharp outcry.

“You have to act like a sister to be treated like one! Spouting such nonsense.”

Radis looked at Margaret with tired eyes.

Margaret’s complexion changed at her gaze.

“What’s with that expression?”

“Then I suppose I can call you Margaret too.”

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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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