The Grand Duke’s Little Lady - Chapter 3

Are you going to help me? Even when she was beaten down by her own father, even when she was bullied by her brothers as if she was an animal, no one wished to help. When ‘he’ planted the cursed jewel inside her heart, when she was shivering after killing someone for the first time, no one even bothered. But will he help her?

It wasn’t something a man who should want revenge of his fellow comrades would say. She couldn’t trust him. But when Ariel waited for a moment, all the dark mana in her hand was drained to the man’s sword. Ariel was astonished to see this. The man took out his hand, instead of a dangerous weapon.

“Hold my hand.”

He had a commanding tone of voice but it suited him. Ariel bit her lips and gazed his blue eyes. He sure didn’t look like he was lying. However, after she get this work down she could finally get away from the curse of Undir. Great suspicion rose in her mind.

‘Do you really think ‘he’ will let you go?’

It was the question she had long been avoiding. Because she wanted to keep her hope, also this time he wrote the magical contract, she just believed she could escape from it. She had been his slave for three whole years. Greed and hatred. ‘He’ looked as if he was made of evil. She finally acknowledged. ‘He’ will never let Ariel go. She will be his slave forever.

‘No, not anymore.’

Ariel reached for the man with black hair who was in front of her. His long big hand grabbed her small pathetic hand. She grasped his hands tightly like it was a rope of redemption. She made eye contact with the man who was way taller than her. Even though she never experienced what beauty was, his eyes were perfect. Ariel soon died and fell to the ground. It was the curse of Undir in her heart.

After she woke up, she noticed she was in the Marquis Castle’s attic bedroom. Ariel absently looked herself. Her small hands were like a maple leaf and her small foot like a rabbit. Her short legs and arms were a way lower view than usual. She was definitely seventeen years old at that time. But suddenly, she went back to time and she now was eight years younger than before, Even though it was an early morning, the butler who doesn’t sleep much was going across the garden.

‘He….He definitely died before I left the Marquis’s Castle.’

The fat middle-aged butler who was never nice to Ariel died after falling from the ladder.

‘But he is still alive now.’

She also couldn’t find the statue of the Marquis that was built when Ariel was thirteen years old. And that is…. Ariel blinked absently after seeing black ponies on the side of the garden and the cattle connected to them.

‘Jerome used to play with them.’

It was an expensive gift given to Jerome who was three years older than her after he begged the Marquis to buy it for him. She remembered herself when she was locked in the attic room and she used to watch Jerome playing with his dark ponies.

“…”

She suddenly realized all of this is her new reality. Does that mean all of the memories until she turned seventeen was a dream? Ariel operated the attack magic she knew.

“Tiery.”

After she read out the spell she could feel the wave of mana flowing inside her body.

“Ouch.”

She stopped operating the spell.

“Huh..Huh….”

It worked! She could operate a high cla.s.s attack spell she could never use when she was nine years old. Her body was too weak to endure the spell so she was in pain. Ariel was confident that all the memories were not a dream. Whatever the cause, she must have traveled back time with her memories. Just before her twelfth birthday, when everything went wrong. How is this possible?

‘I was dead for sure.’

When she reached for the hand of the black haired man her heart was destroyed. Maybe ‘he’ must have put on a spell to operate the curse when Ariel betrays him. Ariel shivered remembering the pain of the feeling of her heart being torn apart. Ariel put both of her hands to her heart in order to get away from fear and felt her regular heartbeat. It’s running well. The heart of her nine year old self still hasn’t experienced that pain.

‘So I can change it.’

Ariel said to herself. And she kept tracking down her memories.

Her past. All of the time, she thought was past soon became her future. As she already knew the future, she should be able to predict everything that was going to  happen and come up with the right decision.

‘Still, I don’t know much yet.’

She was inside the Marquis’ attic bedroom until she was fourteen years old and she was controlled by ‘him’ until she was seventeen so she knew nothing about the world. Even though she traveled through time, she wasn’t informed of any events or trends in the upper cla.s.s.

‘But… my life needs to….’

Ariel grasped her skinny heart with her small hands. Even though she couldn’t influence anyone, she still had the ability to change her own life. At least she could save herself. That was all Ariel needed.

‘First I have to get out of this castle.’

If she would stay here, she will only lose one leg and eventually be sold to the devil after being used by the family.

“….”

Ariel gazed at her legs as if she was remembering the past. Her malnourished body was skinny like a fawn’s body. At least, she still wasn’t a cripple.

‘I only have one week.’

Only one week was left till that incident. After six days, she would become ten years old. On that day, she loses her leg. Not only because she embarra.s.sed the Marquis in front of everyone, it was also because she knew how to use magic. Actually, she was beaten because of her existence. Even though she got away with the trouble, she would soon be a cripple anyway.

‘I don’t want to repeat all of this.’

Ariel clenched her soft hands. Before, she craved love from her father and her brother. She sincerely wanted to be a part of the family. Once she tried to change the color of her hair by using poor magic and failed. Still, her father and brother never accepted her as their family.

‘I will never be abused, used, and abandoned again.’

Ariel clenched her small fists. She decided to never crave love from her family. That was the start. Everything in her life depended on how she acted from now on. Everything was unsure but one thing was definite:

‘I will be beaten by my father and become a cripple after just one week.’

She had to stop it first. As far as Ariel knew, there was only one way for her to get away from her father’s influence.

‘Marriage.’

The ten years old Ariella Rucilion decided to marry someone.

“Marriage….”

Ariel quietly said it out loud. By marriage, she didn’t mean a serious relationship with a person she loved. She needed someone to protect her until she turns eighteen. She would satisfy the needs of her husband in return.

“It would be a contract marriage.”

Ariel approached the window. She could see a small girl reflecting the window. Ariel slowly put her hands on herself through the window. Her scarlet clear red hair grew down to her wrist. She could also see a skinny face as she was never treated well.

Even the pale light in the midnight couldn’t cover up Ariel’s transparent skin that looked like snow. Her eyes were colored in strawberry red. Even though her lips were chapped from the cold, it still remained pink. Her face that still looked like a baby was lovely. Nonetheless, Ariel sighed as she believed she was ugly.

‘Even though I traveled back to time, I still look strange.’

Even though it’s a contract marriage, she still had to marry someone. She was anxious since she thought she was ugly. Until she turned seventeen, she had never showed her face to anyone. When she stayed in the Marquis’s castle, she was locked up so she never saw anyone else.

After she was sold to ‘him’ she had to hide her face because she had to hide the fact she was the daughter of Marquis Rucilion. That was ‘his’ orders but Ariel was happy with that too. She was a child, a girl, a cripple and even ugly so she never wanted anyone to know how she looked like.

‘But I can’t hide my face to the person I’ll be married to.’

Ariel already erased the reflection of herself in the window. She just wished her husband won’t take appearance as a downside to the marriage.

The law for marriage was as following: A girl could get married after turning ten years old and boys had to be twelve. The parents had to approve for the marriage of a minor. Ariel was ten years old and she had to go through her tenth birthday to marry anyone. That meant escaping this place would have to be after her birthday.

‘When would be the best time?’

When the Marquis was too busy to notice Ariel is missing, she had to escape at that time. Ariel acknowledged this after thinking deeply.