Chapter 11: I Came to See Cinderella—What Are You Trying to Do?!
“Mephistopheles, stop making fun of me. In any case, lust is not exactly a bad thing for a monarch.”
Faust pressed both hands against his temples as he spoke.
Knock, knock, knock—
At that moment, a series of brisk knocks came from outside the door, making Faust frown.
He looked out the window. The sky had already gone completely dark. At this hour, unless there was something truly urgent to report, no one would dare break protocol and disturb His Highness the prince.
Faust rose to his feet and opened the door.
What entered his sight was a face as exquisite as a painting, yet marked by an unshakable melancholy.
“Vivianna?”
Faust was somewhat surprised. He had not expected her to come looking for him in person.
“Your Highness…”
The girl’s pale golden hair, slightly curved where it crossed and fell over her shoulders, gleamed faintly beneath the palace lamps.
Vivianna blinked her thick lashes and saluted Faust. “I hope I have not interrupted Your Highness’s evening pleasures.”
“Not at all. I was just sitting idle.”
“Is that so?”
Vivianna seemed a little surprised. She stretched out her swan-like white neck and glanced into the room. “How unexpected.”
“What did you come to see me about?”
Faust understood at a glance what Vivianna was referring to.
Sigh. Though my conduct in the past really was like that, it still stings a little.
But His Highness the prince also knew he had no right to defend himself, so he turned back to the main issue and asked.
Vivianna would never come for no reason. Since she had sought him out so late at night, there was bound to be something important.
Considering the task he had recently entrusted to her, Faust had already guessed what it was.
“It concerns the search task Your Highness gave me earlier.”
Just as expected.
Vivianna lightly pressed a hand to her ample chest, wrapped in black inner garments, and said, “After screening and investigating the entire kingdom’s household records, I found someone who matches your criteria. If it is convenient for you, then tomorrow morning I can…”
“Wonderful! No need to wait until tomorrow—we’re going right now!”
Since this involved 「Witches’ Banquet」, Faust did not dare delay in the slightest. He immediately threw on a coat and left the palace with the girl.
Once they were seated in the carriage, Vivianna rested both hands upon her round, straight thighs and said calmly, “Following Your Highness’s instructions, I investigated the records of everyone in the royal capital, screening them layer by layer……and I found the person who can wear the dance shoe.”
When Faust heard her say that, his heart grew hotter and hotter.
I knew 「Cinderella」 could not possibly be that hard to find. That pack of useless fools under me is not worth a single hair on Vivianna’s head. Look at her—this is how the job gets done.
She solved it in only a few days.
The Prince of Clear Tide could not help clapping his hands. “Good, good, good! It had to be you, Vivianna. You truly did not disappoint me!”
Vivianna lowered her gaze. Those violet eyes of hers were cold to the extreme.
The girl drew in a deep breath and nodded. “I merely fulfilled my duty.”
Faust was so excited that he failed to notice how utterly frigid his childhood friend’s tone had become.
Then came a stretch of silence, until at last the carriage stopped in a courtyard.
“We have arrived.”
After stepping down from the carriage, Faust discovered that he had arrived at the Roseline family estate.
Even so, he felt no particular confusion. With Vivianna’s careful and meticulous nature, she had most likely brought 「Cinderella」 to her own residence at the first opportunity and placed her under protection.
“Your Highness, please follow me.”
Vivianna patted down her skirt and spoke to Faust.
The Prince of Clear Tide followed the girl through the central courtyard, along a colonnaded corridor, and deeper into the estate.
But the farther they walked, the more Faust sensed that something was wrong.
It was too quiet.
True, the Roseline family, as one of the kingdom’s great noble houses, was known for its humility and simplicity.
Whether in the size of their estate or in their food and clothing, everything was rather ordinary.
But no matter what, it should not have been so empty that not even a single servant could be seen.
That suspicion reached its peak when Faust entered a cellar.
He swept his gaze across the room. Brown wooden bookshelves stood flush against the walls, crammed with all manner of disordered tomes and scrolls. Candle after candle had been placed upon the tables, providing the cellar’s only dim source of light.
His Highness the prince frowned. “Vivianna, where is this? And where is that girl?”
At his question, the royal guard girl halted.
Vivianna, who had maintained a strange silence the entire way, finally stopped walking.
“She is right here, Your Highness…”
Bang—
The moment Vivianna’s voice fell, the door behind Faust slammed shut. Immediately afterward, radiance spilled out from the cracks between the floor tiles, and several chains woven from magic condensed on the spot, binding and imprisoning His Highness the prince.
Faust struggled a few times, only to discover that he could not break free of the chains at all.
Even the mystic relics upon his body had all lost their effect. His expression changed drastically at once.
“I came to see Cinderella—what are you trying to do?!”
Seize power? Usurp the throne? Stage a coup?!
A whole string of thoughts flashed through Faust’s mind, yet every one of them felt too absurd to believe. None of them could truly convince him.
Faced with the monarch’s anger and shock, the girl remained calm. She merely turned around, undoing her hooded cloak as she said in an even voice, “I am only obeying Your Highness’s order, bringing you to see the person you wished to find.”
Faust’s heart lurched, and he swallowed hard. “So… where is she?”
In answer to the prince’s question, Vivianna took a single dance shoe from a cabinet.
That dazzling, exquisite crystal shoe was precisely the very item Faust had previously given her to use in finding 「Cinderella」.
Vivianna removed her white knee-high boots, then peeled off the over-the-knee stockings wrapped around her shapely calves, and slipped the crystal shoe onto her jade-like foot.
It fit perfectly.
Not the slightest difference.
Vivianna was Cinderella!
Cinderella was Vivianna!
Boom—
It was as though a heavy hammer had struck Faust square in the chest. His breath caught at once, and his eyes widened as he stared at Vivianna, stammering, “B-but…”
The iron truth stood right before his eyes, yet Faust still could not connect the childhood friend before him with the Cinderella of that night.
“Oh, right. This way, you will be able to recognize me.”
As though remembering something, Vivianna lowered her head and took a deep breath. Only after a moment did she lift it again.
The pale golden-haired girl’s entire bearing changed in an instant. Raising that breathtakingly beautiful face, she said to Faust, “Your Highness, you truly did find me. No… rather, I found you.”
That pure and sweet smile struck Faust so hard that his mind went blank.
Yes, that is right—that is exactly the 「Cinderella」 I saw that night!
The instant he saw her, it was as though some dust-covered seal over his memories had been opened. At once, the Prince of Clear Tide recalled Cinderella’s appearance.
And only after comparing that memory with Vivianna did Faust realize that there was no difference in their looks whatsoever.
They were exactly the same.
“So it truly was as I feared, Your Highness…”
The pale golden-haired girl lowered her eyes. She walked up to Faust and gently rested her head against the man’s shoulder, revealing a bitter smile filled with boundless sorrow and desolation.
“Do you hate me… that much?”