Amelia Bluewell
Amelia Bluewell
A tavern somewhere in Chaldea, the capital of the Borus Empire.
It was a place popular with merchants, selling cheap, tasty food and the dwarven specialty, dark beer.
There, a sigh escaped from one of the merchants sitting across a table from another.
"Have you ever heard of a book called Cinderella?"
"If you don't know that book these days, you might as well quit being a merchant. Isn't it a legendary tome?"
Lately, talk of a certain book had been spreading like a legend, mainly throughout the southern regions.
The title <Cinderella> was unfamiliar, but the story went that children who had read it even once cried for it every night, as if it were some cursed grimoire.
Nobles burning with desperation had even posted bounties while searching for the book, but word had it that those who owned copies would absolutely never sell.
'If you want this book, you'll have to declare a territorial war against me!'
That was reportedly what one book-owning noble had said when another noble made a demand bordering on coercion.
"The noble house I was trading with said they'd sign a supply contract with whichever merchant brought them that book...."
At the memory, the merchant grew gloomy and gulped down the beer sitting on the table.
It was his own fault for accepting the condition proposed by his trading partner's noble house without knowing what he was getting into.
He had accepted it thinking, how hard could it be to get a single book? But he simply could not obtain it.
'Are you insane? Sell my daughter's treasure?! Get lost before I throw you in prison.'
He had barely managed to hear that the book was in a noble house in the Goldpool Valley region and had gone there clutching money, but he was chased out on the spot.
Finding someone who owned it was hard enough, but even when he did, they absolutely refused to sell. Being chased out was the lucky outcome; he had even been beaten before.
"If only I could get my hands on this damn picture book or whatever it is, I'd sell my soul to a demon!"
At those words, the merchant drinking with him spoke up casually.
"I'm not certain, but I heard a rumor recently. Apparently, even 'that place' has...."
***
"No, I'm telling you, I'm not making any more."
"Master Rupert! Please, save me. If I go back like this, I'm completely ruined."
This was driving me crazy.
Exactly one week after I made the <Cinderella> picture book and sent it to the noble young ladies, strangers started showing up every single day clamoring for the book.
Last time, I'd been swayed by money and accepted without thinking, but what I'd earned then was enough to cover our living expenses for a while.
More than anything, making just ten copies of the picture book back then had required pulling all-nighters for nearly a week.
To meet the demands of the nobles and merchants flooding in now, I'd have to lock myself in my room and do nothing but draw for at least a month.
'Unless I've lost my mind, now that I finally have some breathing room, there's no way I'm doing that again.'
Honestly, seeing the merchant cling to me and beg did make me feel a little sorry for him, but if I accepted one request, I'd have to accept them all, so there was no helping it.
'Rupert, surely you're not disregarding our house?'
'Master Rupert, I'm disappointed. We may be mere merchants, but you refused our company's request....'
I don't know if it's just the people of the Borus Empire or the entire Silvania Continent, but there's a culture of staking one's life on honor and dignity.
If I granted one person's request alone for no particular reason when we weren't even enemies, it would amount to picking a fight.
If something like that happened, some rough-looking knights would probably show up and,
'I have come for my lord's honor! Come out!'
—and throw a white glove or handkerchief at me.
'Could my father take them?'
Since this frail body of mine was too risky to send into a fight, I considered sending Father, who was still in his prime, in my place, but decided it was best not to create that situation at all.
If I made them for no one, then even if people resented it, they'd have nothing to criticize.
***
No, why are you here?
"Hello. I am Amelia Bluewell, the eldest daughter of the Bluewell Ducal House. It's a pleasure to meet you."
The movements of everyone who had come to greet the ducal house's eldest daughter—myself included—came to a halt.
The butler and maids, because they had met a noble of higher status than our house, one of only a few ducal houses in the empire.
And I, because I had met the female lead of The Imperial Family's Youngest Son, the world I had possessed.
Our reasons differed, but we all stopped just the same.
"Please, come this way."
Get a grip. Surprise aside, leaving a ducal house's young lady standing in the entryway would be the kind of rudeness people would talk about for a long time.
I barely managed to steady my startled heart and guide Amelia Bluewell to the mansion's drawing room.
"Will tea from the East, Ceylon, be all right?"
She gave a slight nod at my words, which was a relief. Truthfully, that was the only tea we had.
Once the butler left to prepare tea and refreshments for the guest, an awkward silence settled over the drawing room with just the two of us left.
'Why on earth did she come here?'
If I had my way, I'd have asked her outright, but I couldn't. Just as the frustration and silence were dragging on, she finally spoke first.
"Thank you for welcoming me despite my sudden visit."
"Not at all. Rather, I should be thanking you for gracing us with a visit, Lady Bluewell."
Truthfully, inside I wanted to shout, 'Begone, demon!' But...
"Actually, the reason I came is none other than the picture book called Cinderella."
"Pardon?"
What? A ducal house's young lady came all the way to someone else's territory—and to the home of a male noble her own age, no less, where a scandal could potentially break out—just for that?
That's a picture book. It's for little kids. Why would you....
"Ever since my younger sister saw that book, she's barely been eating and talks about nothing but Cinderella all day."
Oh, right. She had a younger sister, didn't she?
***
The Bluewell Ducal House had two young ladies.
One was Amelia Bluewell, who at just seventeen possessed such dazzling beauty that she tormented the hearts of young male nobles in the surrounding territories.
And the other was Evelyn Bluewell, the family's youngest at only five years old, doted on by both the duke and her older sister.
Because of that Evelyn Bluewell, a great crisis had recently descended upon the Bluewell Ducal House.
'Evelyn, why on earth won't you eat?'
'There's no Cinderella, so I won't eat.'
'Evelyn, why on earth won't you come out of your room?'
'There's no Cinderella, so I won't come out!'
'Evelyn....'
'Cinderella....'
Had she been struck by a curse that made her answer everything with "Cinderella"?
The tantrums of young children—especially those aged five to seven—were famously ferocious, so even the mighty Duke Bluewell had no way to handle it.
They had hoped that the words of her older sister, whom she always followed so well, might get through, but even against her sister's coaxing, persuasion, and threats, she went mute as if she had joined a secret society.
'I'll go see what that book is and try to get one.'
Seeing Evelyn's once-chubby cheeks gradually growing gaunt, Amelia finally decided to take matters into her own hands.
***
"I've actually seen the book. It really did seem like something children would love."
Amelia genuinely thought so.
Honestly, the story and illustrations were so charming that she had wanted a copy herself.
"Thank you."
But the man didn't even meet her eyes at her compliment, just sipping his tea and answering half-heartedly as if it had nothing to do with him.
'That man really created such a beautiful story?'
The story of <Cinderella> was clearly different from the typical storybooks children read.
Ordinary storybooks contained tales of heroic adventures or knights, which honestly weren't very interesting for girls to read.
In contrast, the Cinderella Amelia had seen contained a fateful narrative in which the female protagonist, Cinderella, escaped hardship and adversity and finally found true love.
'The illustrations were truly beautiful too. Without them, it probably wouldn't have been this charming.'
Especially the beautiful illustrations that were too unreal to be realistic, yet strangely dreamlike, stimulating the imagination.
They were pictures of an entirely different character from ordinary portraits or murals.
So Amelia had assumed that the person who drew such a story and pictures would have a gentle and kindly appearance.
'Rupert Somerset.'
The second son of the Somerset Count's House and the author of Cinderella was by no means a soft-feeling man.
If anything, his face alone seemed cold.
His attitude toward her was also extremely dry and blunt, which, conversely, piqued her interest.
"So, my lady's business is presumably to ask me to make a Cinderella."
"Yes, if it's not too much trouble, I would very much like to ask that of you."
"Understood. I'll send it to your house once it's ready. It was a pleasure meeting you, my lady."
Amelia was fundamentally accustomed to the favor of men.
Of course, she could never feel fondness for men who threw themselves at her based on her looks alone, but even so, this was the first time someone had treated her so stiffly.
"Yes, thank you for granting my unreasonable request. I will certainly repay this kindness."
The man merely nodded in acknowledgment and left the drawing room.
Rupert Somerset. For some reason, she felt he would linger in her memory.
***
"Phew..."
The moment I stepped out of the drawing room, I let out the breath I had been holding.
To think I'd run into the character ranked number two on my list of people I absolutely must never encounter for the sake of my comfortable otherworld life—and so out of the blue, at that.
Throughout the entire conversation, I had struggled to avoid eye contact as much as possible and keep my responses short.
In the process, I had even ended up promising to make the book, but there was no helping that.
The Bluewell Ducal House.
The female lead's family, and one of only three ducal houses in the Borus Empire.
Considering that the other two ducal houses were collateral branches of the imperial family whose ducal titles were largely honorary, the Bluewell Ducal House was the most dangerous family after the imperial family itself.
'Refuse a request from them? That's basically asking to be ruined.'
Since I had to make it anyway, I answered carefully because I didn't want to leave any impression of myself.
Well, what could possibly happen? If something came of meeting her just once, that really would be the fucking Monkey's Paw screwing with me.