CH 6.4

For a moment, Lila sat in the palace parlor, thinking about Lucas, who disappeared to meet the emperor for a while

She left her steaming tea unattended and stared straight ahead with a dazed expression.

“What the hell did I do…”

She had given him makeup just to let him know that he wasn’t actually ugly, and also because she didn’t want him to suffer the same disrespect that she had experience on her coming-of-age ceremony…

“Oh… that was such a stupid mistake, why did I do that?”

She ran her hand through her hair in frustration, then stopped and muttered.

“No, no, no. I made a deal with the Duke anyway, so can I be honest with him? No, no, no.”

How could I be honest?

The truth is, I have possessed, and this is a world from a novel I’ve read. And I’m the heroine of this novel, and I’m supposed to be an idiot. That’s why I deliberately dressed up as ugly. I don’t have freckles. I just painted it on.

I can’t say that to the Duke.

Then what if I answered roughly like I did to Michael?

“Well, he might have noticed something wasn’t right.”

I can’t help but tell him lies, but what if he find out about her lies and mislead her, break the contract, and never find the freedom she longed for?

“I can’t.”

Lila wanted to leave the empire without fail. Before she met him, she thought it was okay to just leave the capital, but after she found out that she could live freely with a new identity in the country he promised, she became desperate.

“Well, this is the last resort.”

At times like this, there was nothing but pretence.

“There are no other obligations in this marriage anyway, so why bother meeting the Duke? If I keep avoiding him, he’ll forget what happened today.”

Lila repeated to herself, almost brainwashing herself into believing it would happen. Suddenly, dessert and tea came into view.

“I could at least quench my thirst.”

She drank the tea that had cooled down while she was thinking. Since there was no one there to look at her, she didn’t care about the aristocratic decorum.

As she relaxed and took her fork to the cake filled with whipped cream, the door burst open.

BANG–

She dropped her fork in surprise and it rolled on the marble floor. Her heart skipped a beat.

“Who…”

Raising her head to see who this rude person was, Lila’s eyes widened in surprise at the piercing golden eyes.

“What?”

After the resounding words, the embarrassed voice of the court lady followed.

“Your Grace, Count Pinatelli. You should be going this way, not that parlor.”

“Why didn’t you leave this parlor empty when I told you I was coming?”

The courtier winced at Charlotte’s sharp reply.

“Please go to the other drawing room.”

“Why should I move? This one is the most spacious, so it’s only right that I use it.”

Charlotte said, looking Lila up and down as she spoke. The way she slowly checked her from head to toe gave Lila a strange sense of foreboding.

The courtier shook their head, unable to resist Charlotte’s insistence.

“This parlor is currently occupied by the Duke of Montefeltra. Lady Pinatelli, please use the other parlor.”

Charlotte was annoyed by the courtier’s uncharacteristic attitude, but then she remembered a rumor that had been circulating.

“Ha!”

She sneered, fanning herself with her fan and covering her face.

“Aah, I have heard that the ugly lady has been sold to an ugly duke in the north.”

Lila was already displeased, but she kept her mouth shut because she didn’t want to get entangled with Charlotte, the evil girl in the novel. But what she had just said was impossible to ignore.

“I may be ugly, but the Duke of Montefeltra is not ugly.”

“What?”

Lila’s heart skipped a beat as she looked at Charlotte, who looked so different than she was in the presence of others. The sight of her was somehow very familiar.

She bit her lip in displeasure, and Charlotte snorted.

“Who is the ugly thing defending? I heard something from Theo, but where did he lie? Oh, I guess the uglies got their eyes on each other?”

The courtier was looking at Charlotte in disbelief, wondering what had happened to the elegant woman he had seen in social circles, now using such vulgar language.

In the first place, Charlotte had come to the palace early because she was angry. She was angry that she still hadn’t received a proposal from Crown Prince Theobald, and she hadn’t even been invited to be his partner for tonight’s banquet.

“Ha, really, how can Monaca be asked to be his partner and not me?”

Remembering Theobald’s letter to her admirer Monaca, Charlotte was furious, so she went to see him first, hoping to have a private audience with the Prince, but the ugly young lady caught her eye.

“Well, I did miss you a bit.”

Charlotte strode boldly into the parlor, despite the courtier’s protests, and sat down across from Lila without asking.

Her crimson dress, which matched her hair color, fluttered across the couch like petals.

“What are you doing? Make fresh tea. Put away what she’s eating.”

Charlotte’s cold voice commanded, and the courtier knew they couldn’t argue with her any longer.

He didn’t want to stay here and get himself involved.

Charlotte turned her head at an angle to examine Lila’s dress and jewelry.

“Not even a pearl necklace around a pig’s neck.”

Even for someone with her usual eye for dresses and jewelry, Lila’s jewelry wasn’t anything out of the ordinary.

She looked at her still freckled, ugly face and felt a little annoyed.

“Well, I guess I can forgive you for that today. Oh, I don’t mean your looks, I mean your dress and jewelry.”

Watching Charlotte gently wave her fan, Lila tugged at her tense upper body and stiffened her back.

“I don’t think that’s what you’re supposed to say when you barge in without permission.”

Charlotte, ready to lash out, looked at Lila, unsure of what she had heard.

Lila was angry. She was angry at her still appearance, but she looked so similar to Jin Yura that she couldn’t stand it.

And what, an ugly duke?

“How can you look down on people like that just because you’re beautiful?”

“What?”

Despite the bewilderment in her voice, Lila didn’t falter as before.

She didn’t know if it was because she recognized the resemblance to Jin Yura, or because she was so far removed from the source material.

Plus, she couldn’t ignore the way she spoke so casually about Lucas without even knowing him.

She remember him laughing coldly.

“From what I’ve seen, Monaca Ro Arias has better skin than Lady Pinatelli, the kind of clear, thin skin that young people love, and she has hair the color of emeralds—unique and luxurious.”

Lila continued, remembering the woman who had always stood beside Charlotte and talked down to her.

“Her eyes are round and harmoniously symmetrical, and while the bridge of her nose is a little off, the overall balance is not bad.”

Lila couldn’t help but study the faces of the nobles at the banquet. She had nothing to do and no friends to chat with.

“You’re crazy, being the prospective wife of an ugly duke, you must have gotten a taste of power, but what can I say, the real power of the Vassium Empire comes from beauty.”

Charlotte glared at Lila with a frightening expression. She was about to let off some steam, but decided that the ugly girl needed to be disciplined for making an unwarranted judgment.

“An ugly duke and an ugly young lady… would make a fine pair indeed. How ugly do you think he has to be to be banned from society by Lord Theo?”

Charlotte waved her fan at Lila.

“Will you say hello to your ugly husband for me, I’ve never seen the Duke of the North’s face and I’m curious, oh, that’s not to say I don’t want to.”

“I’m not the kind of person who would listen to you say that.”