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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 10
Chapter Title: The Rose that Blooms at Night
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Chapter 10
My mother pulled a magnifying glass and a pair of tweezers from under the bed. She and Philip sat on the bed and began prying off the diamonds.
“Hey, what are you doing? Come over here and help. Weren’t the jewels on that brooch you bought at the market shiny, almost like diamonds? Let’s swap them. What do you think?”
Philip, tweezers in hand, called to me excitedly.
I glared at him, then stalked over to the bed, crumpled the dress into a ball, and threw it.
“What’s the point of having these damn jewels? When are we ever going to turn them into cash? If the wedding gets called off tomorrow, we won’t have time to exchange something like this in the capital!”
At my outburst, my mother and Philip’s eyes went wide.
My mother pinched my arm, hard.
“Ow!”
“Why would you say something so unlucky! So! Unlucky!”
“Ow! Ow! Ow! That hurts!”
I glared at my mother, rubbing the arm she had pinched.
The wedding was now only three days away. Three days!
In that time, I had relayed every single bad rumor about the Duke to my mother, suggesting we call off the wedding and run away. I even told her the Duke was probably after our land.
But of course, none of it worked on her.
‘Cheating? Well, could he be any worse than Viscount Wedgwood? I don’t care if he cheats! I’ll just cheat right back!’
She would say things like that, or—
‘Land? What land? That tiny little plot we have on the coast? Why would a duke be after something like that?’
—that.
I lacked the evidence to tell her why that small piece of coastal land was essential to the Duke.
‘The documents! I don’t have the documents!’
Was the only path left to wait until the day before the wedding, when my mother would learn the truth? And then run from the Duke’s pursuit?
I wanted to avoid that at all costs. The Duke was a far more terrifying man than one could imagine.
‘So, in the end, the only method left is to cause a scene. Make it look like *they’re* the ones breaking off the marriage, not us…’
“You know, you’ve been acting a little strange lately.”
As I was lost in my plans to cause a scene, my mother asked me quietly.
She spoke with a worried expression.
“Are you, perhaps…?”
“What?”
What is it? I looked into her eyes, a flicker of hope rising in me that she was finally starting to take my words seriously.
*Yes, Mother! That Duke is a total psycho!* I was just about to say it.
“Is it because you feel like you’re losing your mother to the Duke? Oh, Imeline. You’re so childish… Don’t worry too much. Your mother isn’t going anywhere. I’ll always be your mother, Imeline.”
“…?”
My mother hugged me tightly. Philip, seeing this, looked at me with a hardened expression before squeezing himself between us.
Locked in an embrace with my mother and Philip, I gritted my teeth.
‘Ah, for fuck’s sake.’
“Mom… Waaah… I… I’ll be good from now on, I promise…”
Philip, despite his large frame, began to sob.
“You, you brat. Just stop meeting strange women… And stop going to that weird bar, the Rose that Blooms at Night or whatever it’s called… I’m scared to death that rumors about you will start circulating in high society…”
My mother started crying with him, pounding on his back.
“Just… just for tonight… can’t I go just for tonight…? I heard the princess is coming to the Rose that Blooms at Night today…”
“You foolish child…! The princess knows Young Lord Eric. Oh, be quiet and come here… My daughter… my son… Waaah…”
The Rose that Blooms at Night.
It was a secret gathering place for nobles that Philip frequented.
Ah, pathetic Philip… What woman’s life is he planning to ruin there now…
‘Wait a minute.’
Just then, a plausible plan flashed through my mind.
Still in my mother’s arms, I quietly asked Philip.
“Is the princess… really going to be there?”
✵ ✵ ✵
That night, I walked the splendid streets of the capital, my head covered by a robe.
The streets were more magnificent than I could have ever imagined in the South.
‘Back in the South, everyone would be home with their feet up by eight at night…’
Wealthy commoners and nobles alike strolled the night streets in clothes that were obviously expensive. The streets were filled with beggars trying to get a coin from them and street vendors hawking their wares.
‘Don’t these people ever sleep…?’
Most of the women wore dresses that exposed their collarbones and shoulders.
It was clear that the people of the capital felt neither the need for sleep nor the cold.
The glittering lights and the scent of perfume from the men and women were enough to make my head spin.
A Southern country bumpkin.
The words I had heard until my ears bled since coming to the capital finally felt real.
The capital’s night market was filled with not only magical tools that used mana stones from ancient times but also products utilizing the new marvel of electricity.
Such items at these prices!
I almost squandered the money I had saved to get thoroughly drunk tonight.
‘Get a grip, Imeline! Are you Philip?!’
I shook my head, warding off the temptation of the various goods, and stopped in front of a small stall.
Spread out on the stall were shoes at unbelievably low prices.
I glanced down at the worn leather shoes peeking out from under my robe.
‘I didn’t prepare any shoes…’
While I hesitated, the woman who seemed to be the owner of the stall quickly spoke to me.
“These glass slippers have found their owner! I’ll give you a good price!”
As she spoke, the woman held out a pair of translucent, pale blue shoes.
“Glass slippers…?”
They’re obviously soft and pliable, not made of glass…?
“Of course. These are the shoes from that serialized newspaper novel that’s all the rage these days. A work by the author Scarlett… The heroine drops her shoe, and the hero picks it up and…”
The woman launched into a detailed explanation of the pulp novel’s plot. It was full of cringeworthy famous lines, but the gist was this:
Through these glass slippers, a commoner girl, abused by her stepmother and stepsiblings, ended up marrying a rich prince.
A royal and a commoner couple.
The ending was all too predictable.
Just like these shoes, called glass though they weren’t, reality after the story’s end would be harsh.
“Want to try them on?” the woman asked.
I fiddled with the coins in my pocket. Among the already cheap shoes, these glass slippers were especially inexpensive.
“How much… can you knock off the price?”
At my words, the woman’s face lit up. She quickly brought over a large mirror.
“Half price! I’ll give them to you for half price!”
Half price?!
I quickly threw off my robe, revealing a beautifully cascading yellow dress.
The woman’s eyes widened when she saw my dress.
“That’s a very expensive dress!”
Of course, it is.
It was my bridesmaid dress.
An expensive dress the Ducal house had tailored for me along with my mother’s wedding gown.
I tried on the glass slippers. Fortunately, they went very well with the yellow dress.
“If I’d known you were a rich young lady…”
Hearing the woman mutter, I quickly pulled coins from my purse.
“Half price is a bit much, so let’s just take this much. You did make an offer, after all, right?”
The woman licked her lips. She seemed pleased to get more money, yet felt as though she’d been tricked.
‘That’s what you get for judging people by their appearance.’
I gave the woman a wink.
“In return, can I borrow your scissors?”
Without waiting for an answer, I snatched a pair of scissors lying next to the stall.
“Why the scissors…”
*Snip, snip, snip!*
Ignoring the woman’s question, I cut off the bottom hem and the top part of my dress.
The woman’s eyes nearly popped out of her head.
“That’s a very expensive dress…!”
I draped the cutoff hem over my shoulders like a shawl and grinned at my reflection in the mirror.
So what if the dress is expensive? This much exposure isn’t enough to compete! I instantly felt the eyes of everyone in the market fixated on my collarbones, ankles, and the nape of my neck.
I tossed the robe aside next to the stall and started walking in my new shoes.
After a few minutes, a massive building came into view, with a crowd of noblemen gathered around a passage leading underground.
They smiled at me.
I could feel their gazes raking over me from head to toe. Feeling their blatant stares, I knew I had come to the right place.
The Rose that Blooms at Night.
Here, in this ridiculously named place, I was going to cause a huge scene to get the wedding called off. It was perfect that the princess was said to be coming tonight.
According to the rumors… my source, of course, was Philip.
According to Philip, the princess was quite the flirt. And despite being a flirt herself, she absolutely hated it when a man she had her eye on looked at another woman.
‘It got so bad she had the other woman completely exiled from high society.’
So, one must never become the princess’s rival in love.
Recalling Philip’s words, I met the gazes of the men staring at me.
My eyes swept over them from head to toe, and I gave them a wistful look.
“Ah, this is a bit…”
No matter how I look at it, you guys aren’t the princess’s type. I think she only goes for looks…
“W-what did you just say…!” one of the noblemen snapped at me, offended.
I scoffed and waved a dismissive hand at him.
His companions held him back as he tried to approach me.
‘What’s it to you? It’s okay for you to stare, but not for me?’
I ignored them and approached the bouncer guarding the door of the Rose that Blooms at Night. As soon as our eyes met, he said flatly:
“What happens in the Rose that Blooms at Night…”
The password.
Before coming out tonight, I had gotten Philip drunk and found out the rest of the phrase.
“…is a secret in the daytime.”
At my words, the bouncer nodded and opened the door for me.
What an easy password. Then again, I suppose it had to be simple enough for drunk nobles to remember.
As the door opened, a splendid corridor unfolded before me.
A secret social club with a password, no less.
Ah, this is…
Getting exciting.
I entered with a wiggle of my shoulders.
This had to be the most thrilling of all my schemes to sabotage my mother’s wedding.
✵ ✵ ✵
“Must we meet in a place like this?”
Eric Orleans looked at the strangely dim lighting of the Rose that Blooms at Night and spoke with displeasure.
The woman sitting across from him shrugged and replied.
“Why? It’s perfect for our little secret rendezvous. Dark, secluded… and sexy.”
The woman in the extravagant dress crossed her legs. Her red lips parted in a wide smile.
Eric sighed and answered curtly.
“What nonsense.”
The woman sitting opposite him was Ella von Dennique.
The princess of the kingdom that ruled the Helenian continent, first in line to the throne.
