Chapter 15: Relocation

"My lady, I have prepared your suitcases." Marina informed me. "I will go put it in the carriage."

"Are we leaving today itself?" Eleanore asked, confused by how hurriedly Marina was performing her work.

"Yes. The young Master will also be accompanying us as well. Until then the Sinclair mansion will remain closed." Marina informed before leaving the room to complete her errand.

Eleanore sighed when she saw the window appearing in front of her again. She held mixed feelings on reading the contents. As if it was a curse, the window continued to appear, with one intention, to mess up Eleanore's life and meet a near death situation at all cost.

|| Chapter 2: The Shatter of Stella's Pride

Caelestis, feeling his only option to keep Stella at his side, has confined her in a secret room within Lancaster Mansion. His aim is to shatter her pride and hope until she is entirely reliant on him. Once he has her obedience, he plans to marry her, setting her up for an ultimate downfall.

Quest 1: Find Baroness Stella

Click continue the start the new chapter

Continue ||

A new problem had arrived for Eleanore. She needed to shift her residency from Flora's to someone towards whom she had developed a very strong dislike, the day before.

'Damn it!' She cursed this unknown system, which although was making things tough for her, was yet her only life line.

Lazily, Eleanore got out of her bed and grabbed the white scarf she had used to cover herself, when she left the crown prince's palace. She wrapped the luxurious piece of cloth around her thin nightgown, just like how Crown Prince Alastor had covered her up to keep her warm before she sat in the carriage.

The mansion was a maze but not for Eleanore. Somehow she remembered every nook and corner of the mansion, every secret escape root and every flower that had been planted by the original owner of the body personally in the garden.

She walked past the long corridor and then went upstairs to her brother's study that is supposed to have a very calm and peaceful environment, according to her distorted memory fragments. 

Without knocking on the door, which was not guarded by any knight, a little concerning, considering Hael is the young duke of the household. She opened the door.

"Elle?" Hael immediately got out of his seat on seeing her sister walk towards him in a perfectly healthy condition. Yet her complexion worried him. "What's wrong? Why did you come here alone? Where is your maid? You—"

"Brother—" She interrupted her overdramatic brother. "I wanted to have a very important conversation with you. That's why I am here."

"Well, then you could have called me in your room. The chamberlain —"

"Can I sit down first brother, I am very tired right now." Once again she cut him off and then took a seat on the resting sofa in the middle of the study.

"What happened?" Her brother sat beside her, after pouring her a cup of fragrant tea.

"I wish to change my residency." Eleanore said, picking up the tea cup. The color of the tea was unique. It was bright pink, one she had never seen before, but felt familiarity towards.

"I see, where do you want to go?" Eric asked, carefully breaking the cube of sugar into half, to add it to his tea. 

"To Lancaster Mansion." She announced.

The sugar cube instead of breaking into half, as Hael wanted. With a little more pressure from the spoon Hael was using, shattered into powder. "What? Why— why on earth do you want to go there?" He asked, completely taken by surprise. 

At first Hael's true destination was indeed Caelestis' mansion. After all, who could he trust more than his best friend? However, after everything that happened at the crown prince's birthday banquet, he changed it, thinking Eleanore would hate going there.

"I—" Eleanore began, but she was not given a chance to explain herself.

"Are you still in love with him, after everything he did yesterday?" Hael, who is normally described as a very calm person in the web novel, looked very angry at that moment, and Eleanore knew the reason behind that anger to some extent. "If it weren't for the white Knights and the kingdom, I swear, I would have broken off our friendship long ago." The tone of his voice changed to a much heavier one, one that held weight. He meant what he said.

"Brother, It wasn't entirely his fault. I have done many unspeakable things for him to come to that conclusion." She raised a very valid argument. 

"But—"

"Also, when I said that the crush has ended, I meant it. Why don't you believe me? " Hael shut his eyelids in agreement, dropping his will to continue the argument. He felt ashamed when he remembered the number of times he had asked the same question, just to satisfy his suspicions.

"Brother, Don't you remember? I was saved by Grand Duke, when the last attack took place. I believe that would be the safest place for me." Eleanore explained her reason for the request she had made minutes ago. "Moreover, I do not want to pose a danger to Flora."

"What if Caelestis acts like how he did yesterday, while I am not there? What will you do? He is my friend Elle but even I can't guarantee what that monster might do to you in the fit of rage. " Hael raised his concern.

"It won't happen if you warn him well. Besides, I am pretty sure he takes you more seriously than himself sometimes." Eleanore laughed at that, but Hael remained silent, lost deeply in his thoughts.

"Brother." Eleanore turned to him and gently brushed his shoulder. "I'll be fine. Believe me."

Hael sighed, failing to win this argument against his younger sister, like always. "Very well then, I will inform him about our arrival." Hael got up and moved back to his desk to draft a letter on a thin, small paper, which was then tied to a messenger pigeon.

"Elle, go. Get ready to leave in the next two hours." Eleanore obeyed and left the study. Her eyes struck at the translucent Window that was still there, dancing like a mad ghost in the air.

|| Chapter 2: The Shatter of Stella's Pride 

Caelestis, feeling his only option to keep Stella at his side, has confined her in a secret room within Lancaster Mansion. His aim is to shatter her pride and hope until she is entirely reliant on him. Once he has her obedience, he plans to marry her, setting her up for an ultimate downfall.*

Quest 1: Find Baroness Stella

Task 1: Enter the Lancaster Mansion

Do you accept the task

YES/NO

Note: Reward: +100 coins

Penalty: -1000 coins

Total Reputation: -200,000

Total Coins: +90,000 ||

"Yes." She said, before leaving to the corridor for her room.

"My lady, where did you wander off to? I thought—" Before Marina could complete her worrisome sentence, Eleanore estimated it and completed the sentence for her.

"Something happened to me?" She turned around to face her maid, who was visibly exhausted, covered in sweat from all the running around.

Marina was caught by surprise when she heard her complete her sentence at the same time.

"That my death was near today." She changed her last few words, before falling on her knees, dramatically. "I could see my death this close, my lady." She cried in Eleanore's feet, as her palm mimicked the character of death.

"Stop it, Marina." 

"My lady, huhu!! Please don't hurt my heart like that. I would rather get hurt by a breakup than this. Huhu!!" She cried, like always. Her cry was so fake that even Eleanore was able to catch it.

"Marina, if I remember it well, last time you said your stupid parents had committed suicide and had left ample of debt and two siblings on your shoulders."

"What?!" Marina stopped crying and looked at her miss, who had a devilish smile stuck on her face.

Elenore bended a little, before placing her hand on Marina's shoulder. "Want me to reduce some of that weight from your shoulders?" She asked in sarcasm, her eyes brightly glinting from the sharp sun rays, penetrating through the balcony door.

"Huh?!" Marina gasped when her breath got stuck in her throat at that sight.

"It was all a lie, wasn't it? Just half an hour ago you said that your mother told you about my last maid." Eleanore revealed. "How dare you lie to me, Marina?!" 

"My lady" she started crying again. "Please do not kill me. My father is a gambler and has a lot of debt—"

"Is that so?" Eleanore's red eyes gleamed stronger, surrounded by a threatening aura and her heinous smile had fallen. "What about your siblings?" She asked after straightening her back and folding her hands around her chest.

"That— I do not have any." She revealed the truth.