“Like this.”
Jack hammered a fist onto that noble’s wrist. The noble who had been gripping Gloria’s wrist immediately let go and wanted to scream.
“What are you yelling for? If you draw the attention of the people around, the one who’ll be disgraced is you.”
He pressed the noble, who had already let out a few syllables, against the icy wall and used the wall to block the noble’s mouth. That noble’s hand had already been twisted behind his back by him.
Gloria stared in stunned silence. To her, Jack—with his stern face and tall, burly build—looked just like a big black bear. What had happened in that instant felt like a big black bear charging down the mountain to attack a kidnapper. She didn’t think the big black bear was attacking the kidnapper to rescue her; she felt like she would be the big black bear’s next target.
Seeing Gloria shrink back, Jack felt a twinge of conscience. …This little girl couldn’t be blamed for being frightened by him. She only came up to his chest, and this face of his—which Adrian often teased as the “Hell’s Gatekeeper”—was just too frightening.
“If you harass this young lady again, I’ll snap this arm of yours.”
He issued a low threat to the troublesome noble he had subdued. Jack shoved the noble hard to the side, then dropped to one knee before Gloria.
The Grand Duke’s orders were to protect Mrs. Clement and Mrs. Hedelin, along with their two daughters, without drawing attention. Because of the earlier commotion, people nearby had already looked over. Letting the disturbance grow now would clearly not be wise. It was better to disguise it as two men quarreling over a woman out of jealousy.
“Young lady, would you honor me with a dance?”
Gazing into Gloria’s pinkish-purple eyes, Jack spoke with utmost sincerity.
When the big black bear suddenly dropped to one knee before her with a whoosh, Gloria’s springy twin tails stood straight up in fright. Fortunately, in the next instant, Gloria—who had previously only been able to look up at him without seeing his full face—got a clear view of the young man’s face because he was now kneeling on one knee.
Thick brows, deep-set eyes, high nose bridge, thin upper lip, thick lower lip. The young man’s features carried a handsomeness amid their sternness. Probably from frowning so often, there was a faint a deep furrow between his brows that didn’t match his age. His whole face seemed to proclaim in big letters: “I don’t know what a smile is.”
This face made Gloria no longer afraid of the man before her.
…Truth be told, she even had a bit of an urge to touch that furrowed brow of his.
Ah… Such thoughts were surely not something a proper lady should have, right?
“If it’s just one dance…”
She placed her hand in his palm, and Gloria’s heart pounded wildly. She instinctively understood: This gentleman wasn’t really wanting to dance with her; he was just here to help her out of the situation. If she refused, he certainly wouldn’t pester her again. No, he was probably hoping she would refuse, eager to skip the hassle of dancing with her.
That actually made Gloria want to trouble him a little more.
On the other side—
“Hasn’t this young lady already told you to let her go?”
Adrian appeared from behind Claudia and effortlessly pulled her into his arms.
“Adrian von Benaken!? What are you doing here?”
“What am I doing… Isn’t it the same as you? I’d like to invite this beautiful young lady to dance with me.”
With that, Adrian took Claudia’s hand and planted a kiss on the back of it. “Young lady, would you do me the honor of a dance?”
Receiving Adrian’s flirtatious glance, Claudia’s face filled with disgust; she wanted nothing more than to lean back tactically.
However, of two evils, choose the lesser. Adrian von Benaken was the notorious playboy even she had heard of, but he was also the gentleman that the ladies of Vitlil praised to the skies.
Though she had no idea why such a playboy had suddenly appeared before her, she would rather dance one song with this fickle type than be dragged off to some deserted spot by a noble she didn’t know. After all, men like him had standards and pride; once rejected by a woman, they never came back for seconds. She didn’t have to worry about him clinging persistently.
“Mr. Benaken, your invitation honors me greatly. Please allow me this dance with you.”
Even with her face still pale, Claudia curtsied very formally to Adrian in this situation, lifting her skirt. This made Adrian pause slightly, then chuckle softly.
Little Treasure putting up with her disgust to accept his invitation was just too amusing! He really wanted to tease her more—this girl who hated impropriety and disliked frivolity.
“Young Master Adrian of the Benaken Earl family and Young Master Jack of Tyran Baron’s House both have dance partners now…”
Many ladies disappointedly covered half their faces with their fans, sighing softly behind them.
“One is an aloof flower, the other a seemingly flirtatious aloof flower. How enviable for the girls dancing with them… I wonder which family’s ladies they are?”
“Ladies? What kind of ladies are they! Just merchant daughters who got dog-shit luck!”
For every disappointed and saddened lady, there was one unwilling and resentful, anger flaring up. Ye Tang heard all the voices around her. She exchanged a glance with Daisy, who was twirling in the dance floor.
In that instant earlier, if Adrian and Jack hadn’t appeared, Ye Tang and Daisy would have handled it themselves.
For a she-wolf and a lioness, tearing apart a few jackals and leopards for their daughters was no great difficulty.
The ball continued. Amid the swirl of fragrant dresses and elaborate hairdos, Cinderella gazed from afar at her sisters basking in everyone’s attention, dancing intimately with two prince-like men.
“—Didn’t I tell you long ago, Cinderella.”
“Your stepmother, er, foster mother? Whatever! That woman won’t truly treat you well! Look at how gorgeous your sisters’ gowns are, how dazzling their jewels! Now look at yourself!”
As a waiter passed by with a silver tray under his arm, Cinderella caught sight of her own plain and subdued reflection in its fleeting gleam.
Unlike her well-developed sisters, who suited lavish and luxurious attire, the gown she had chosen was not only pale in color but also conservatively styled. On her ears were unremarkable pearl earrings, around her neck two strands of pearls that wouldn’t sparkle. Her wrists, her shoes, the ribbon hair clips decorating her hair—all were adorned uniformly with smooth pearls that couldn’t attract attention with shine.
Compared to her gem-like sisters, Cinderella was like the pearls on her body. So low-key as to have no presence.
“It’s only the first day of the ball! It’s not too late to listen to me now, Cinderella! Pray to your birth mother, say you want to attend the ball all pretty, and your fairy godmother will give you the world’s most beautiful dress! The world’s most luxurious jewelry! You’ll get to wear the crystal shoes every girl in the world envies, you know!?”
Kim Hora chattered away noisily. If Cinderella hadn’t already sealed off the chance for her to take over her body, Kim Hora would have jumped in herself to complete the “Cinderella” story’s greatest achievement.
“What are you talking about?”
Seeing Cinderella stubbornly unmoved, Kim Hora rolled her eyes and bluntly told her everything she knew about “Cinderella.”
“Listen up, Cinderella. You’re the protagonist of a fairy tale called ‘Cinderella.’ It goes like this—”
“—And that’s how it is. Do you get it now, Cinderella? Marrying the prince and becoming a princess is your destiny! If you want to change your fate, you must seize the chance to marry the prince! …Cinderella, are you listening to me? What are you laughing at?”
Discovering Cinderella wasn’t listening, Kim Hora was so exasperated she nearly popped her eyes out.
“Rela… No, you’re ‘Kim Hora,’ right? Kim Hora, even if I’m the protagonist of the fairy tale you mentioned, I won’t marry the prince.”
“—!? Why not?!”
“The prince danced with ‘me’ for three days but didn’t even know what I looked like. If he could recognize me from the start, he wouldn’t have needed to send his attendants with my crystal shoe to find me. Clearly, what the prince saw from the beginning wasn’t me.”
Being called a “bastard” wasn’t the reason for Cinderella’s pale face. What enraged her utterly was that the noble had dared to say her sisters only deserved to be nobles’ mistresses.
“Kim Hora, do you know? A prince can’t possibly marry a merchant’s daughter. Merchants are commoners at best; even marrying a minor noblewoman would face united opposition from the great nobles, let alone a merchant’s daughter…”
“You said it yourself, right? ‘I’ caught the prince’s eye in the crowd because I wore a lavish gown, and everyone mistook me for a foreign princess.”
“The ‘Cinderella’ in the fairy tale fled from the prince’s side every night after the ball… If that ‘Cinderella’ really was me, there could only be one reason I fled—”
“I had already realized the prince wasn’t looking at me. He was looking at the gown on me, the jewels on me. I, as a person, held no value to the prince; what he wanted was only the wealth and power represented by those things on me. That’s why the prince wouldn’t mind taking away whichever sister of mine—or me—from our family.”
“So what if the prince discovers I actually don’t have the power and wealth he craves?”
Leaving behind Kim Hora, whose brain felt like it had been thrown into boiling oil and fried, Cinderella hugged Ye Tang’s waist from behind.
—Claudia and Gloria had been rescued by Adrian and Jack. Meanwhile, the noble who had spouted harsh words at Cinderella hadn’t taken a few steps before Ye Tang “invited” him out to the terrace.
With the French windows and curtains blocking the view, Cinderella didn’t know what happened on the terrace. But when Ye Tang emerged, she was alone.
Seeing her mother’s hair now slightly disheveled, Cinderella rubbed her face against Ye Tang’s back.
This was Cinderella’s first time acting spoiled toward Ye Tang—the fairy tale was too terrifying. If she really was that “Cinderella” from the story, then the abusive home was hell for her, and the palace would be another hell.
Where could she escape to? Would the prince and king, upon discovering she had nothing, spare her?
Fortunately… Fortunately…
None of it was real.
Her sisters held no grudges against her, her mother was so warm. She wasn’t a “Cinderella” waiting to be saved; she was Cinderella Hedelin, who could save others’ lives with medicine.