Logically thinking, it wasn’t such an impossible occurrence.
After all, the reason Dorothea’s party ca to this Lumière territory in the first place was to follow the compass, detecting and seeking the response of the sacred treasure.
It wasn’t like they were aimlessly wandering the vast continent; they moved following the tails of animals that guided them in a straight line to the target, so it was natural that the probability of encountering a sacred treasure increased dramatically.
However—
Why now of all tis? Why does she happen to have a sacred treasure?
The owner of the sacred treasure happened to be right in front of her, and even pleading for help, saying she would pay any price.
The timing was too good, and the developnt flowed too conveniently, making Dorothea feel trendously uneasy.
One might say she should just enjoy the luck that ca her way, but she had experienced too many spectacular events while collecting sacred treasures to enjoy this at her leisure.
She had destroyed a bandit group while scamming an auction, raided an ancient dungeon where a vampire was sealed, fought fiercely in a huge tournant, conducted a raid against the best alchemist of this era, and made deals while cooperating in a huge conspiracy that shook the entire empire.
After collecting eight sacred treasures one by one like that, to have an opportunity to obtain one so easily? Suspicion grew rapidly.
However, it would also be ridiculous to ignore the target that appeared before her eyes and go looking for sothing else just because it felt fishy.
“…What exactly do you want?”
At Dorothea’s question with a sour expression, the cinder-covered girl’s face lit up.
“A-are you going to grant my wish!?”
“Not everything. I’ll only pay as much as this one ring is worth.”
Seeing Dorothea drawing a firm line, the girl fell into contemplation.
In her heart, she wanted to ask for punishnt for her stepmother, sisters, and incompetent father, but while this might feel satisfying in the short term, there was nothing beyond that.
To be frank, even if they received a harsh lesson, it wouldn’t improve the girl’s life.
Unlike genuine avengers who would throw away their own lives if they could just have revenge, the girl wanted to properly secure her own happiness, too.
That was why she had stubbornly saved even small amounts of money every day while complaining and lanting.
After moving her lips a few tis, the girl finally spoke with a determined face, “The ball… I want to participate in the ball that decides the prince’s bride, in perfect form!”
“Prince? Ah, co to think of it, it was said to have been a kingdom in the past.”
But now it’s just a count’s territory, is it right for the people of the territory to call the count’s heir a prince?
Dorothea montarily felt doubtful, but then shrugged her shoulders, thinking, “Well, whatever.”
“Why are you trying to beco the prince’s bride? Isn’t a noble’s marriage sothing that considers family background and politics and such? Won’t you just be wasting your ti if you go?”
To Dorothea’s words, the girl answered clearly, Soone who cares about such things wouldn’t hold a ball to choose a bride in the first place. The prince must be soone who prioritizes appearance above all. I need to be beautiful, gorgeous, unique, and elegant! I don’t care about the inside, as long as I can dazzle him with my outward appearance!
“I, I see…”
Dorothea inwardly muttered that this girl seed a bit strange after all.
“Just to confirm, your wish is ‘to participate in the ball in the most beautiful and special appearance possible, and to capture the prince’s heart’, right?”
“Yes, is it not possible?”
“I can provide so support to a possible extent. But in the end, whether things work out or not depends on you, and that prince. If the prince says he doesn’t like you, I can’t take responsibility for that.”
“That’s fine.”
“And even if you manage to capture the heart of the count’s son, or prince, as you say, if he’s the type to only consider appearance and not consider anything else before rushing into marriage, as you said, I don’t think your married life afterwards will be very happy?”
“Isn’t it a much better future compared to being worked like a servant and dying as an old maid, or escaping from ho only to be kidnapped by so bandit group?”
“…”
Dorothea stared into the girl’s eyes.
The girl wasn’t optimistically thinking everything would work out without any basis.
As proof, undeniable anxiety and impatience were contained in the girl’s eyes.
But to the sa degree, or rather even more so, greedy ambition was also present.
If she had to take a gamble anyway, it was as if she wasn’t satisfied with just reaching her waist height, but wanted to reach as high as possible by climbing on a chair and stretching her legs to their limit.
“Dorothea Aschengard. That’s the na of the witch you’ve contracted with.”
“I’m Zoluschka, daughter of Vasilisa. Though that’s the na my mother used to call in her hotown style, here I’m more often called Ella or Cinderella.”
Thus, the contract was established.
***
“—For that reason, we’ll be staying in this city for a few days until that ball or whatever happens. Anyone have any complaints?”
At Dorothea’s words, the lion, the scarecrow, and the Tin Knight stared blankly at Dorothea.
Dorothea twitched one eyebrow, “Speak up, speak I tell you.”
[The ‘Tin Knight’ answers that everyone is silent because they have no complaints!]
At the Tin Knight’s words, Adelaide nodded.
“Yes, I think it’s a good choice, too. Unlike before, we can obtain a sacred treasure through peaceful ans, right?”
“Also, since the territory itself is quite affluent and has many things to see, if we think of it as a break, it’s beneficial for us, too.”
“Hmm.”
Overall, the answers were affirming Dorothea’s choice, but Dorothea herself seed quite uncomfortable.
The Tin Knight could sohow guess her feelings.
After all, Dorothea’s actions were extrely inefficient and wasteful.
Granting the girl’s wish in exchange for receiving the kingdom’s sacred treasure?
At first glance, it might seem like a fair contract, but thinking coldly, there was a much simpler and easier way.
They could just take the ring from the girl, and that would be the end of it.
The opponent was an ordinary girl who couldn’t use swordsmanship or magic. Even Rapunzel, now called Trot and working at the Tower of Protection, was skilled enough to infuse mana into her two fists, but compared to her, this girl was infinitely weak in terms of force.
She didn’t have any troubleso backing, and if Dorothea and her party tried to take the ring, the girl had no way to resist.
However, despite knowing this, Dorothea chose to make a fair contract with the girl and obtain the ring through that thod.
And she seed to feel sothing like self-loathing inwardly about this fact.
While she hadn’t spared the ans of violent struggle to obtain sacred treasures so far, she was acting clean and fair when dealing with just one girl, wasn’t that hypocritical?
But the Tin Knight didn’t think such behavior was wrong.
After all, the Dorothea he knew was that kind of person.
Soone who would loosely and casually set free a familiar that should originally be suppressed with a thorough and clear contract down to the smallest details.
She might not be very witch-like, but she was extrely human-like.
So how could he not be pleased?
[The ‘Tin Knight’ claims this is an interesting event in its own way!]
[The ‘Tin Knight’ shows enthusiasm, saying he’ll create a perfect bride since we’re doing this anyway!]
[The ‘Tin Knight’ suggests teaching self-defense techniques to knock down assassins barehanded first, as befitting of a modern young lady!]
“What kind of young lady is that, you idiot?”
[The ‘Tin Knight’ counters, saying isn’t there one right next to her!]
“In my view, she’s already beyond help as a young lady.”
“Eh, !?”
As the lion made a sad face at the unexpected stray, the scarecrow said, “But shouldn’t we find a place to sleep tonight first? It seems the sun will set soon.”
“Ah.”
Realizing they were originally in the middle of looking for lodging, the witch made a dumbfounded sound.
The Tin Knight suggested they could just ask to stay at the girl’s house for a while, but the witch firmly rejected it, not wanting to show that sight.
In the end, the party was only able to sleep after leaving the city center where every decent parking space was packed with carriages, and retreating to the outer areas.
***
And so, the next day.
“Hey! How did you do the laundry to make the clothes end up like this!? I was told it was a new product trending even in the royal capital! The red dress has faded to pink!!”
“That one, the dye seed to bleed out just from touching water…. Wasn’t it a defective product to begin with?”
“Are you saying I was stupidly scamd!?”
“…No, I’ll be careful.”
“Hmph!”
“Cinderella! Embroider this handkerchief with beautiful blue roses by today.”
“Then, you need to give money to buy blue thread.”
“Is this enough?”
“It’s not enough.”
“How do you know without even going to the store? Are you just trying to extort money?”
“…If you insist, I could dye the thread myself and prepare it. But then it would take a few days to make.”
“Hmph. Forget it. To think you’d try to make money with such tricks. How did you beco so greedy and selfish?”
“Cinderella, the air in the house has been stuffy lately. Are you cleaning properly?”
“Yes, I’m doing my best every day.”
“What’s the use of just doing your best? You should do it well. You’re living off the money my husband earns and my dowry. Do it properly with the mindset of repaying that. Isn’t that right, dear?”
“Ahem. Well, let’s get going. We’ll be late at this rate.”
After all the family mbers had left.
Cinderella gritted her teeth, then carefully moved to the backyard.
A mouse with a body made of bones, sitting on the wall, urged the girl to follow as if saying “co along”.
And so, the girl t Dorothea again.
The witch, whom she t on the outskirts of the city, was leaning against a very large and splendid carriage, and the sight was so mysterious that the girl inadvertently let out an exclamation of admiration.
Whether unaware or aware of the girl’s appreciation, the witch led the girl into the carriage, saying to co in for now.
“Wow.”
Although it wasn’t glittering with gold and silver treasures, Cinderella’s eyes shone at the sight of the carriage interior, which gave off an obviously luxurious feeling at a glance.
The witch, in a crooked posture sowhere between dignity and allure with her arms folded and legs crossed, asked Cinderella, “You’ll need to prepare for the ball in the few days left, do you have any wishes? We’ll prepare on our side too, but it’s easier to know the points if there are wishes from the person involved, so I’m asking.”
To the witch’s question, Cinderella answered, “A carriage. I think it would be nice to have a very wonderful and splendid carriage, like this one.”
“Okay, I’ll prepare one. Anything else?”
“We’ll need horses to pull the carriage and a coachman too, right?”
“That naturally cos with it. What’s next?”
“Um… Oh, a pretty dress! Oh, and I need shoes too! I’d like sothing pretty and unique that people can tell is different at a glance.”
“Hmm. Well, I get the gist of it. We’ll adjust other details additionally. Let’s prepare those first for now.”
At the witch’s words, Cinderella gulped.
It was a carriage, horses, coachman, dress, and shoes prepared directly by none other than the witch herself.
She couldn’t stop anticipating what kind of mysterious magic would be shown, already excited.
Will she turn a pumpkin into a carriage? Make mice transform into horses? Maybe she’ll wave her wand at tattered clothes and they’ll change into a gorgeous dress!
And then, the witch said, “It might be a bit tight on ti to custom order horses and a carriage, so we’ll buy the best ones available in this city. Go get your asurents taken for the dress today. I’ll entrust it to a specialty shop. It seems they’re a bit backed up on reservations, but if we pour in enough money, they’ll take care of it.”
“…Um, what about making them with magic or sothing like that?”
“Vast amounts of money are no different from magic.”
***
sko-fi/genesisforsaken
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