Chapter 67

Translator and Editor: Bunny and Einna

Chapter 67

“This flower is so pretty, I’ll put it in my room.”

Shuelina, who received her gift back, said with a very satisfied face. Eve gaped blankly in surprise. Shuelina unwrapped the gift without a change in expression, pulling out all the contents inside.

Opening it by herself, Shuelina immediately put on the flower ring and smiled brightly.

“Kyaa! It’s an evening primrose!”

The three-dimensional ring was made by twisting the threads carefully, and it was very suitable for the young Shuelina.

Shuelina showed off her hand with the yellow flower ring. Everytime it shook in the air, the petals made of the delicate thread swayed with it.

Faced with the unexpected situation, Eve stood still and stared at Shuelina. The ring on Shuelina’s finger seemed to fit her well, but it felt strange.

‘Evening primrose… she recognized it.’

Among the nobility, the evening primrose wasn’t popular. Flowers were originally used for decoration so simple flowers such as evening primrose weren’t popular.

Eve, however, frequently drinks tea made from evening primroses. It was because they were so poor that they couldn’t afford to buy expensive tea leaves, so they had to pick flowers in their backyard then dry them to make tea.

‘I think she recognized it.’

A shabby and worthless evening primrose, a poor and unlucky Eve – she was holding back her tears for some reason as she looked at Shuelina from afar.

“Was the person who gave me this gift… Miss Eve de Hazel?”

Shuelina looked straight at Eve after reading the name on the gift box, making sure that the person who gave her the gift was Eve.

“Y-yes…….”

Shuelina ran to her at once as Eve raised her hand awkwardly, smiling broadly like an innocent friend as she held out her hand.

“It’s really amazing! It makes me happy! I’ve always wanted a ring! You knew I like evening primroses, right?”

She didn’t know about that so she was about to say that it was just a coincidence when Shuelina winked at her as if asking her to cooperate, so she erased her puzzled expression and calmly nodded her head.

“You really wanted to congratulate me on my birthday… so you took my taste into consideration, Lady Hazel! I’m moved!”

“You can just call me Eve…”

“Can I call you unnie? I want to be friends with you!”

Eve’s heart thumped in an instant. She looked around reflexively. Everyone watching the poorest young lady in this place with eyes of disbelief.

“Y-yes…….”

“Later, I will write you a letter… then let’s have tea together, Eve unnie!”

With a trembling hand, Eve took Shuelina’s hand. Shuelina then burst out laughing and waved their clasped hands. They then went back to their original place to continue opening the Grand Duke’s gift. Eve realized that many things would change thanks to her luck today.

“My daughter, are you having fun?”

Just before opening the Grand Duke’s gift, the sender of the gift approached Shuelina. It was a relief that his two sons were still young so the children in the audience could barely endure it, but when it was the Grand Duke who was approaching, they trembled in fear.

“Yes! I’ve made friends, and I’m just about to open dad’s gift!”

“Is that so?”

Shuelina answered the Grand Duke while tightly holding onto his gift.

With Wyndert and Deleign on her left then the Grand Duke on her right, Shuelina could smile innocently with a bunch of scary humans on both of her sides and only feel great.

“I can tell without looking, Daddy’s gift is something I would definitely like.”

Shuelina said as she carefully removed the flower-shaped ribbon from the wrapping paper. Then she placed the flower-shaped ribbon on one side very carefully – a slightly crooked flower-shaped ribbon that was definitely not made by a professional.

Before opening the gift, Shuelina hugged the Grand Duke at once.

“I will treasure it because it is made by Daddy himself.”

She took out a small device from the box and picked it up. It was a tool with a hole in the lower part and a handle on the top.

“What is this?”

“It’s an ice cream toy.”

“Wow! Ice cream!”

The Grand Duke stood the machine upright and put the bowl that was included below the opening at the bottom. He pressed a pink button on it and then asked Shuelina to turn the knob.

Whoosh. Shuelina turned the handle with her tiny hand, and a pile of very small ice cream spheres piled up on top of the bowl.

“The ice cream is so small!”

“It’s like ice cream beads. It can be used continuously by putting a magic stone in it.”

(E/N: the Grand Duke invented dippin’ dots lol)

Shuelina, who received the ice cream tool, stared intently at the machine with curiosity in her eyes as she tasted the ice cream. The pink ice cream melted in her mouth with a hint of strawberry flavor.

“Ah! It’s a pink button, so it tastes like strawberry!”

The Grand Duke smiled and nodded as he watched Shuelina clapping her hands and exclaiming excitedly.

It was the result of thinking hard about how to give Shuelina the dessert she likes to eat with his sons, so that she can eat it by herself, and have fun while making it quickly.

He was convinced that he had made a good choice when he saw the way she kept on turning the knob with a bright face that looked happier than ever.

“Wow…….”

The children who had been unable to approach for fear of the Grand Duke, forgot their fears and inched forward one step at a time. They seemed to have forgotten to maintain the neutral expression they had been taught to wear.

(T/N: I’m guessing when it comes to expression or facial expressions of nobility, it talks about showing neither warm nor cold expressions towards each other. )

They approached Shuelina as if they were possessed as they stared at Shuelina blankly. There were delicious ice cream beads that poured out everytime she turned the handle. They had never seen such small scoops of ice cream.

“I want to see it again….”

“I want to try it too!”

The children looked at the marble ice cream machine with envy. It was like a toy as she kept turning the handle, and they kept being captivated by it.

As the children stood near the podium with their twinkling eyes, Shuelina, embarrassed, looked around.

“If, if anyone wants to try it… let’s get along and play together!”

All the children screamed ecstatically in unison as they lined up as soon as Shuelina said that with a broad smile. The surrounding became noisy with joyful screams and the laughter of children in an instant. Around them were the adults who were talking and looked at each other in amazement.

They smiled happily knowing that it was thanks to Shuelina sharing the gifts she received that the children were able to play happily with each other. The sight of Shuelina leading the other children while playing with them was both shocking and lovely.

“Dad, brothers, thank you very much. This is the first time I have had such a happy birthday.”

While the other children were engrossed in playing, Shuelina sneaked away from them and approached her family, whispering in a small voice while smiling fondly.

“When I was suffering and struggling, I was longing for a day like this.”

Shuelina smiled happily and rested her head in the Grand Duke’s arms.

7. How to start a counterattack

I walked through the corridors of the Imperial Palace in the Grand Duke’s arms, because the side effects of the excessive poisoning from my past acted up again making my legs weak while we were on the way to the Imperial Capital from the Grand Duchy.

I was a little embarrassed because everyone was looking in our direction, but it was a comfortable way to see the Imperial Palace. It was a very different experience than when Shuelina entered the Imperial Palace in the original novel.

She entered the palace because of Azuela. When Azuela reached adulthood, simply transmitting Shuelina’s power using a Brilliant wasn’t enough anymore, and for that reason, the Empress brought in Shuelina from the Marquis’s estate, disguised as a maid, into the Imperial Palace.

‘In the original novel, Shuelina thought it was better to be a maid.’

Objectively, the rooms in the Imperial Palace were quite good. Although it was a maid’s room, it was completely luxurious compared to the secret room of the Marquis, where Shuelina had been imprisoned for a very long time.

Life would’ve been easier if Shuelina hadn’t known about the secret of her birth and had not insisted on trying to be welcomed by her family.

‘But, she was very desperate for her family.’

She didn’t have any idea that her family would become her poison.

Afterwards, when forged evidence showed that Shuelina might not be a real Imperial Princess, she was transferred to a room worse than the maid’s room within the Imperial Palace. Is it because I knew Shuelina’s situation beforehand? Somehow….

‘It’s weird here. For some reason, I feel really scared and nostalgic.’

The Imperial Palace where all the precious things of the Empire are gathered. The corridors were very splendid. Unlike the white and noble Grand Duchy, the Imperial Palace gave off a strong vibe with the combination of red and gold.

It was somehow a different feeling of splendor. It was also somewhat creepy even though it was bright because of the lights of the chandelier hanging everywhere.

‘Why is it?’

An unfamiliar feeling. It’s definitely impossible, but it felt like I’d been here before. I looked down the hallway and it felt like something was missing and hugged the Grand Duke’ neck tightly.

“We came to have an audience with Father Emperor.”

Lucas, who came up with us from the Grand Duchy, led our group in front of the large door. As soon as the knights standing on either side of the door announced our arrival, the door opened quickly.

“Please go inside, His Majesty is waiting.”

“Thank you, Grand Chamberlain.”

The Emperor’s servant who opened the door from the inside, politely greeted the Duke as he led us inside.

He (the Emperor) looked at me. Was it because he was rather embarrassed by the Grand Duke holding me in his arms? I thought I saw a subtle emotion passing through his eyes as he tilted his head.

‘You knew about Shuelina’s birth.’

Perhaps because the Emperor had spoken about it. He insisted that it wasn’t like that in the original novel. Although it took a while for others to know about ‘my’ secret, it didn’t bother me as the Grand Chamberlain was calm.

“I have accomplished what you have ordered and returned, Father Emperor.”

“At ease, Crown Prince.”

“We, the Vaillots, greet the Lord of the Empire.”

“It seems like it’s been a long time since I’ve seen you at the Imperial Palace, Grand Duke.”

The Emperor responded to Lucas’ and the Grand Duke’s greetings, but he was staring at me to the point it felt as if he would drill holes into my body. When the Grand Duke put me down to greet the Emperor, I clung to the side of the Grand Duke and Wyndert, then looked back at the Emperor.

‘That’s the man!’

It was the man I bumped into the Grand Duchy – a man whom I felt strange about and that I wanted to run away from. Why did the Emperor even come to the Grand Duchy?

I was shocked that I had already met him before. Because of that, I didn’t hear Wyndert greet him beside me and just opened my mouth blankly.

‘Why did I recognize Lucas as soon as I saw him, but I didn’t have any idea at all when it came to the Emperor?’

No, since I read about him through the written words, it would be accurate to say that I didn’t know what the Emperor looked like. It was surprising enough that I couldn’t recognize this body’s biological father, but he resembled me.

If I sat down with the Emperor and Lucas, it was surprising just how much we resembled each other, that blue light in his eyes, especially the gentle look in it. We looked the same, almost as if we were made out of the same mold.

‘I looked just like you, but you pretended to not know Shuelina?’

I shuddered slightly. With such a soft and kind face, why did he only show Shuelina a scary expression? Somehow, I felt gloomy.

“I greet the Lord of the Empire. I am Wyndert William de Vaillot.”

I was in a situation where Wyndert had already greeted him, and now it was my turn to greet the Emperor. I carefully studied the etiquette and it was nothing difficult but still… I hesitated as I bit my lip.

‘You just look like an idiot… move quickly!’

It was time to greet him as the Grand Princess however, I was embarrassed as my body didn’t bow as I wished for it to, as if my body instinctively wanted to avoid him. When I was very upset with myself, a hand patted my back – it was the Grand Duke.

“… I greet the Lord of the Empire. I am Shuelina de Vaillot.”

A strong hand as if protecting me – thanks to that hand, I was able to greet him quickly before my actions became too disrespectful.

A posture where my body was bowing perfectly while holding my dress and bending my knees to 20 degrees. Greeting and bowing to him perfectly just like the etiquette I had learned, the Emperor’s eyes softened a little. He looked straight at me and held out his hand.

“Come, get closer.”

“Yes.”

I slowly walked forward, hiding my urge to avoid him. When I was right in front of the Emperor, he bent his knees and drew closer to me.

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