Kim Hora, who had woken up, hatefully scrunched the bedsheet with her hand under the blanket.
She could feel that Cinderella’s consciousness was still there.
‘Cinderella, you’re awake.’
Ye Tang sat at the desk writing something. When she heard the rustling from the bed, she got up to check on Cinderella.
Cinderella’s temperature was normal, but her gaze had returned to how it was when they first met at the door.
Thinking of Cinderella’s reaction to the Little Beech Tree, Ye Tang, who felt that Cinderella seemed to have a split personality, withdrew her hand from taking Cinderella’s temperature and said to her, ‘It just so happens that the servant said dinner is ready. Do you have the strength to walk?’
‘Yes…’
‘Then follow me downstairs to eat.’
Led by Ye Tang, Kim Hora got out of bed, put on her shoes, left the room, and went downstairs.
The main reason Kim Hora was willing to follow Hans back to Hedelin House was not that she had discovered tears couldn’t conquer him, but that she truly couldn’t stand the inn’s environment anymore.
The inn room had a musty smell of rotting wood. Moreover, there was no toilet or bathroom in the inn room. Kim Hora could endure three days without bathing, but she couldn’t endure three days without emptying the chamber pot.
The moment she opened the window… a flood of bizarre stenches nearly made her want to cut off her own nose. She had almost been splattered on the head by “auspicious” falling excrement—this city’s people, for some reason, all took it for granted to dump dirty water and filth directly onto the streets outside.
In just one week, Kim Hora had bowed her head to the harsh environment.
However—
Pretending to be obedient, Kim Hora truly couldn’t believe that the place she had just slept was the master’s bedroom. That room wasn’t rundown, but it absolutely couldn’t be called luxurious either. The wooden bed was large, but the bedposts were somewhat mottled, and the bedsheets and pillowcases were slightly pilled and faded.
What disappointed Kim Hora even more was this house. This house, which should belong to an upper-middle-class family, had a decent plot of land, but the wooden floors and stairs creaked a bit when stepped on. The rooms, lit by only one or two oil lamps, were already dim to the extreme, and the corridors were pitch black like the gaping maw of a monster. Without a maid holding a lamp ahead, one simply couldn’t walk smoothly.
The crystal chandeliers common in TV dramas? None. The elegant halls decorated with flowers, sculptures, and artwork? None. Not even a long table. The Hedelin House family ate around an utterly ordinary round table. The glamour and splendor Kim Hora had imagined didn’t exist in Hedelin House at all.
Cinderella’s consciousness, however, was very excited.
As a country girl, she let out ‘Wahhh~~~’ sounds of envy at the uniformed maids. When she saw that dinner had bread, soup, salad, roast meat, and lamb chops, and that dessert even had fruit and pie, her excitement and gratitude nearly overthrew Kim Hora’s control of the body.
With one kick, Kim Hora shoved Cinderella’s consciousness aside and ‘tsked’ at it in her mind. She truly despised this ignorant girl who could be bought off with trivial benefits.
‘This little bit of food is worth your gratitude?’
Cinderella, who shared memories with Kim Hora, immediately saw from Kim Hora’s memories a noble dining table laden with dozens of gorgeous dishes.
Cinderella was stunned for a moment, then she quickly mumbled, ‘…Even if there’s that much food, you wouldn’t eat it anyway.’
Cinderella was right. In fact, from earlier, Kim Hora hadn’t touched the lamb chops or bread. When the maid serving roast meat came over to dish it out for her, she pretended not to see and not to understand etiquette, directly ignoring the maid.
‘Crazy… Only an idiot would gorge themselves at a time like this.’
Kim Hora disdainfully scorned Cinderella. Thirteen years old wasn’t young anymore; if a girl in puberty didn’t control her mouth, her figure would inflate like a balloon pumped full of air in no time.
She was a woman aiming to become a princess consort—how could she eat high-calorie things like meat and bread that made people gain weight?
‘Then you still complain there’s too little edible stuff…’
‘Aish—you ungrateful wretch biting the hand that feeds you! I’m teaching you here! Teaching, got it? You’re a hopeless case, mud that can’t stick to the wall.’
Unable to hear the dialogue between the two souls inside Cinderella’s body, and seeing Cinderella only poking at vegetable leaves with her fork and chewing slowly, Ye Tang and the two sisters thought Cinderella was just too shy to eat meat.
‘Cinderella.’
Ye Tang called out. Kim Hora, who was busy cursing the real Cinderella, didn’t react.
Ye Tang had to call again: ‘Cinderella—’
‘What? Ah… S-Sorry, I was a bit distracted…’
Kim Hora said awkwardly. Having cursed Cinderella so much, she had nearly sworn out loud.
Ye Tang didn’t mind. She thought Cinderella was perhaps thinking of her Little Beech Tree and her pigeons.
‘Eat the meat and bread properly. Don’t be picky. The people of Hedelin House don’t have the habit of leaving leftovers.’
Claudia and Gloria were used to their mother’s sharp tongue and soft heart— who would be picky about meat and white bread? Mother telling Cinderella not to be picky was just giving her a legitimate reason to eat the good stuff.
‘Cinderella, did you hear your mother? If you did, thank her quickly for the reminder!’
Hans’s words made Kim Hora, who wasn’t very happy to begin with, even unhappier.
‘Yes…’
Gripping her knife and fork tightly, Kim Hora couldn’t help but wonder what this vicious stepmother meant—roses need green leaves to set them off. Was she planning to fatten her up like a pig to contrast with her two pretty daughters?
Ha! In her dreams!
Kim Hora narrowed her eyes, deciding that after dinner, she would go stick her fingers down her throat. She had done it often before, and now she didn’t see any problem with doing it again.
Dinner continued. After a good while, Cinderella’s voice emerged again.
‘…I don’t think the lady means what you think. She probably just wants you to eat properly.’
Kim Hora couldn’t tolerate it anymore and felt that Cinderella was more annoying than an indestructible cockroach—she couldn’t wait for reality to teach this silly sweet innocent a lesson, to make her truly understand ‘one must guard against others.’
‘Ha! Just wait and see! The stepmother your dad found for you, and her two deadweight brat sisters, will bully you soon enough!’
After saying that, Kim Hora voluntarily yielded control of the body. Cinderella blinked in a daze and found herself sitting at the table, with the knife, fork, and plates being cleared away by the maids.
The pie for dessert was best fresh out of the oven. By now, the pie had just been put into the oven by the maids, and the wait for it to bake became the family’s after-dinner time to bond.
‘My love—’
Seeing her father look at the stepmother with a fawning face, Cinderella chewed over Kim Hora’s words.
—Was she going to be bullied by the stepmother and sisters?
‘Girls.’
Ye Tang had no intention of tangling with Hans, and she saw that the two sisters had been fidgeting for a long time. So she directly interrupted Hans and nodded at Claudia and Gloria.
The two sisters’ faces lit up at once. Like rabbits bolting, they jumped down from their chairs and ran to the living room to fetch the large boxes they had prepared long ago.
‘Cinderella, do you like these dresses and jewelry?’
Claudia took out dresses from her own past—after turning fourteen, her chest had grown rapidly. She hadn’t worn these dresses many times before outgrowing them.
Cinderella had come with little luggage, and from her attire, she didn’t seem to have outfits or accessories suitable for social events.
Her jewelry wasn’t abundant, but sharing a few pieces with Cinderella was no problem.
Seeing Cinderella show no reaction, Claudia looked at the dress and jewelry in her hands, and her face suddenly flushed red.
How had she forgotten!? Though these dresses looked new, the styles were from several years ago! Her jewelry was fine for a seventeen-year-old her, but for the even more youthful and pure-looking Cinderella, it would be too mature!
Claudia tried to salvage it: ‘I-If you don’t like them! I’ll have someone make new ones for you…!’
Claudia’s salvage attempt was rather clumsy. Afraid Cinderella would misunderstand her big sister’s intentions, Gloria hurriedly stepped forward, opened her own box, and said, ‘Cinderella, do you like reading, painting, or music?’
‘Here, you can learn any subject you want!’
Gloria’s eyes were extremely earnest. She truly believed her mother would unconditionally support Cinderella choosing her favorite subject, just as she supported her and her sister in choosing theirs.
Reading, painting, and music were all elegant hobbies allowed for ladies in this era. Claudia and Gloria had long envied their female friends from minor noble houses who could read books, paint, and learn instruments like the piano. But their mother had chosen embroidery for them as their ‘hobby.’
Embroidery wasn’t a bad hobby— it could create opportunities for boys and girls to meet. If a young lady lost her handkerchief, and it happened to have embroidery indicating her identity and family, and that embroidery happened to catch a gentleman’s eye, appreciating the young lady’s talent and virtue, a fine marriage could be made.
Claudia and Gloria knew their mother had chosen embroidery for their own good.
But now, everything was different.
Mother had given them the right to choose.
…Choosing one’s own life and future was a bit scary. After all, if they didn’t choose well, they couldn’t push the blame onto others later.
But after gaining the right to choose, they discovered how vast their lives could be!
As Cinderella’s new family, they might not be able to fill the void in her heart from losing her mother, but they could let Cinderella find what she wanted to do, give her the chance to become who she wanted to be. That way, Cinderella might forget her loneliness and stop grieving.
‘I-I like them very much…’
Tears fell from Cinderella’s eyes again.
But this time, she cried while smiling.
‘The big sister’s clothes…!’
Kim Hora was practically infuriated to death by Cinderella. Seeing Cinderella agree to take the fake-sincere deadweight brat sister’s old clothes, Kim Hora kicked Cinderella’s consciousness away with one foot—she had already discovered that Cinderella wasn’t good at handling violence.
As long as she applied a bit of violence to her, she would immediately lose control of the body. This meant she could leave things she didn’t like for Cinderella to endure, and when she wanted to come out, she could just slap Cinderella aside.
‘But I… still want new clothes…’
Kim Hora covered her face and pretended to sob ‘wah wah wah.’
Claudia understood Cinderella’s desire for new clothes. Not being seen as bullying her already made her very happy.
‘Then we’ll go shopping for clothes with you tomorrow!’
‘And jewelry, accessories, and study supplies!’
Claudia and Gloria exchanged a glance. The two sisters crowded to Cinderella’s side, imitating Ye Tang’s way of stroking their heads as they stroked Cinderella’s head.
Cinderella happily accepted the warmth from her sisters. Kim Hora, covering her face, broke out in goosebumps one after another; she only felt annoyed.