HPBLL - Chapter 35

Stella giggled and yawned, as if she were tired. Roy gently shook Stella's shoulder as she leaned back in her chair and tried to close her eyes. His expression was stiff.

"You're kidding, right?"

He wanted to hear her say it was a lie. He didn't want to believe that she was terminally ill, the woman he had finally found after years. Roy found it even harder to believe because she didn't seem sad at all about the fact. There was no way she could look this happy while telling him she was terminally ill.

"Huh? What kind of prank is this?"

At Roy's words, Stella patted his shoulder as if finding it amusing.

"But why are you so composed?"

Roy's voice trailed off. He seemed to be on the verge of tears.

"Well... making a fuss won't make things any better."

"Where is the Duke?"

Kendrick? Why Kendrick all of a sudden? She opened her eyes wide as if asking what that meant.

"Does your husband know that, too?"

She shook her head.

"No. He doesn't know. I didn't tell him."

He hugged Stella just as she was.

"Roy. What's wrong?"

'Huh? Why is it hot?'

My chest felt hot. This was definitely.

"Roy, wait a minute."

It was tears.

"Are you crying?"

To Roy, Stella looked sorrowful from the very beginning. A lonely person recognizes another lonely person. From the moment he first saw her in the garden, he knew she carried the same shadow as himself.

'On top of that, the benefactor I met in the kingdom was Stella.'

"Roy. Look up."

To think she was so composed, knowing she was terminally ill. That innocence broke Roy's heart. It felt as if someone were tearing and twisting his soul. Roy wanted to do anything for this woman. He felt that only by helping her would his heart feel at ease.

"Stop crying."

Stella was so composed that she let out a hollow laugh. Roy's face, smeared with tears, was both cute and pitiful.

'That really sobered me up.'

Her mind, which had been hazy until just moments ago, cleared the moment she saw Roy's tears. She had only ever seen Roy smiling brightly, so seeing him act so childishly gave her a strange, unique feeling.

"I'll protect you."

"What?"

"Stella, I will save you."

***

"I'll apply for the Imperial Writer's Examination too."

"Roy, you?"

"You said you need Hajean's magic stone to survive. You need to support both of them to increase your chances."

Stella remembered the conversation she had with Roy last night. Although she had confessed while drunk, she felt much more at ease after confiding her secret to at least one person rather than suffering in silence.

"Lady Stella, you remember today's trial, right?"

On the way to breakfast, Sia brought up the subject. It was the day the verdict in the orphanage director's trial was to be announced.

"Yes."

When Stella told Kendrick that she was going to watch the trial, he said he would come pick her up as soon as he finished work.

"That’s great. I happen to have business nearby as well."

"All right."

Stella set off first with Sia. There was nothing but the rattling of the carriage, but it wasn't particularly uncomfortable. It was a sign that she had become quite comfortable with Sia by now.

'That's a shame.'

Stella recalled the fact that in a few years, it would be revealed that Sia was the Princess and that she would return to the Imperial Palace. Sia glanced at Stella, as if to say she had something to say. Stella's gaze turned toward her.

"Do you have something to say?"

Sia hesitated for a moment, then cautiously began to speak.

"Thank you so much for this. I feel like I didn't get to properly thank you."

Stella nodded. Sia had discreetly thanked her before, but she had quickly left, perhaps feeling shy.

'Seeing as she is talking about it again like this.'

It seems she has been thinking about it all this time.

"But that day, the fact that you had known for years that I was from an orphanage."

Stella looked at her with a slight smile.

"How did you know?"

"I once overheard my parents talking. They regretted not adopting a different girl instead of me. They said they had planned to bring home a pretty girl with blonde hair and green eyes."

Sia's eyes widened.

"That was just like you."

Sia's head hung low.

"Actually, Stella's playmates are all my doing too."

"Yes?"

Stella didn't expect Sia to suddenly reveal even that story.

"Lily, Shimizu, and Jerina. They are all close acquaintances of mine. I thought that if I spread false rumors through them, the situation would unfold the way I wanted."

"Why?"

"Because I was really envious of you, Lady Stella. I envied how you grew up so pampered at Lanedict, and I envied how you were able to become Adrian's mistress so effortlessly."

Stella handed a handkerchief to Sia. At some point, tears began to fall drop by drop from her eyes.

"There's no need to cry."

Sia wiped her tears with Stella's handkerchief and lifted her head.

"I am on Stella's side now."

"Yes?"

"Please let me know if you need anything."

Ah, right.

Stella nodded. She had thought about winning Sia over to her side, but now that things were actually going well, it didn't feel real.

"It's true."

Sia carefully wrapped her hand around Stella's.

"Please tell me anything."

Stella felt Sia's warmth.

'Should I tell her that Sia is a Princess?'

Until then, Sia's secret felt like someone else's business. So, she didn't want to go to the trouble of revealing the fact that Sia was an imperial Princess, even if it meant changing fate. After all, it was a truth that would eventually be revealed anyway.

'But when Sia approaches me so affectionately like this, I feel bad for not saying anything.'

To return Sia to the imperial family, they had to find proof that Sia was the Emperor's illegitimate child. However, Stella did not know how the fact that Sia's biological father was the Emperor had been revealed.

It's going to take a lot of time to figure that out, too.

Stella was extremely busy right now. She felt that she didn't even have enough time to write a single word. Stella decided to put off complex thoughts for later and brought up a different question.

"How is Kendrick at work these days?"

It was about Kendrick.

"He eats candy constantly. I wonder if he hasn't been feeling well lately, as the doctor keeps visiting frequently."

"I see."

Stella wondered how Kendrick was doing in her absence.

"Um, the rumor that Kendrick is seeing someone is all made up, right?"

Sia nodded. Most of what Lily, Jerina, and Shimizu told Stella was what Sia had instructed.

"Mr. Kendrick, there isn't a single rumor like that. If there is, on the contrary..."

Sia stopped speaking. She almost said that bad rumors were circulating about Stella, not Kendrick.

'I can't let the Duchess find out.'

Stella had already noticed that Sia was hiding something.

"It's okay, so go ahead and tell me."

"It's nothing."

"What are you hiding?" Stella urged, puzzled.

"Hurry."

Sia hesitated, as if finding it difficult to speak. Stella waited silently for her to tell her.

"There have been bad rumors about Stella for a long time."

"Bad rumors about me?"

Sia nodded.

'I think I might have heard something like that in my previous life.'

"Which one is it?"

Sia brought up a few of the milder rumors she knew. Stories about Stella taking young boys out for entertainment, rumors about her attending notoriously promiscuous nightclubs, or even rumors about her doing drugs.

'It's shocking.'

Come to think of it, the reason Kendrick ended up taking the love potion was that he suspected Stella of using drugs.

"So Lord Kendrick tried to find the source of that rumor."

'Kendrick?'

"I will also actively look for the source of the rumors now. Ah, but it seems to have died down again lately. I wonder what the Duke did."

"Yes?"

Sia looked worried about having told Stella about the rumors.

"But why did Kendrick hide this from me?"

"You were worried that Lady Stella would be hurt."

Stella was not hurt by such things. It might have been different for the young Stella before her regression, but now she was not hurt or swayed by strangers whispering and gossiping based on baseless rumors.

Stella wanted to ask Kendrick about this. However, she couldn't because doing so would have revealed that Sia had disobeyed Kendrick's orders.

Before long, the carriage arrived in front of the courtroom.

"Look over there. It's the Duchess."

"I heard Lady Stella handled this?"

"That's really cool. I thought she was just a quiet person".

As Stella stepped out of the carriage and into the courtroom, she was met with widespread praise. Upon entering, the director was seated in the prisoner's chair. She looked disheveled, as if she had endured all sorts of hardships. The director's expression as she looked at Stella was fierce.

'That wicked look in your eyes is still the same.'

She seemed to have become even more vicious. Her eyes were filled with murderous intent.

Stella had participated in this gathering purely for Sia's sake. She gently took Sia's hand. Sia seemed surprised, but she did not pull her hand away.

"It's that very look in their eyes."

At Sia's words, Stella turned her head and looked at her.

"When I looked into that gaze, my body froze, so I couldn't put up any resistance."

Sia let out a smirk as if finding the current situation amusing.

"It’s okay now, but the children were probably very scared too."

Stella looked at the director once again. The director had glared at Stella and Sia the moment she spotted them. Her eyes were bloodshot as if capillaries had burst, and her pupils were dilated, yet her characteristically fierce gaze remained unchanged. Her gleaming eyes scanned Stella and Sia alternately.

"I should have stepped up to help the children sooner, but I didn't have enough money to buy the entire orphanage, and it was also difficult to face the director."

Stella stroked Sia's head. Perhaps because they were the same age, she had never seen Sia look cute or pitiful in the past. But perhaps because the Sia before her was younger than she remembered from before her regression, she didn't dislike Sia that much. She gently stroked Sia's gaunt shoulders.

"It's okay. It's a relief that things are working out now, even if it's just for the time being."

It was a remark whose true meaning only Stella understood. If Stella had not regressed, the children at the orphanage would have been abused for a few more years. Meanwhile, Kendrick was delayed longer than Stella had expected.

'Is this taking longer than expected?'

Stella actually thought it was a relief. If Kendrick had held Stella's hand even in the courtroom, people might have said it was embarrassing.

"The criminal is sentenced to life imprisonment."

The punishment was harsher than expected. It seemed the court sought the maximum sentence because the Duchess was paying attention to the case.

"What? That's ridiculous."

The orphanage director sprang to her feet in disbelief. The knights standing nearby restrained her. After watching the struggling director being dragged away by the Imperial Knights, the two left the courtroom. Stella glanced at Sia.

'I wonder if I'll feel a little relieved.'

The director was howling like a beast while being held by the knights, presumably waiting for a carriage to transport a prisoner. Stella watched the scene with Sia. Then, the director spotted them.

"Duchess!"

The director screamed in a piercing voice. Then, she swung the sword from the waist of the knight standing right next to him and rushed toward Stella with a murderous look in his eyes.

'It's dangerous.'

Stella's body froze for a moment.

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