Chapter 9: Return to Ellsie's Future
Ellsie and Lucian found themselves standing in a large ballroom, surrounded by happily socialising nobles. Just at that moment the door opened and Ellsie walked into the room with her hand linked to a handsome nobleman. While the young heiress looked up at the man beside her with a loving expression, her fiancé seemed to be too busy socialising with other people to notice.
~~~
"Where are we?" Lucian looked at the girl beside him confused, this looked like his birthday ball from last night, except it was different. Ellsie had been escorted by a man he did not recognise and her stunning emerald gown had been replaced with a plain and simple pale pink one that did not flatter her body the way the green one had the night before.
"This was the first time I went to your 18th birthday." Ellsie could not look Lucian in the eyes. The heiress rearranged their hands so their fingers were entwined, focusing on their hands Ellsie wasn't exactly sure where to start. She'd thought she would have a more time to work out how exactly she was going to tell him.
"What?" Lucian mumbled in confusion. He turned to see the girl trying to distract herself, by fiddling with their fingers. His usual arrogant and cold expression softened into tenderness. Using his free hand, Lucian picked up the girl's chin and brought her face up close to his. With a cheeky yet seductive kind of smile Lucian asked, "What is going on?"
"Uhh... Umm." Ellsie looked up at him, she felt her cheeks go red and suddenly the feeling of butterflies filled her stomach. "Well the truth is, this is how yesterday originally went, this was supposed to be the last time we saw each other. The man over beside me is Lord Henry, my fiancé, in three years we'd be married, after we say our vows, he will help the duchess kill me and leave with Clarissa. After I died, I woke up again yesterday." He's previously playful eyes were now filled with perplexity.
"So this is the second time you've lived this life?" Lucian's hand fell from her face, he stood there in shock. You heard about these kinds of things in stories and legends, but never in his life would he have believed this girl in front of him was actually living proof it could happen.
"Yes," She looked at the man standing before her and couldn't help feel a somewhat strange feeling being this close to him. She pulled herself away flustered, her arm was suddenly pulled back by him, her body collided with his.
"Sorry. We have to stay together, you heard what Alissa said," the rope that had tied there physical bodies together had not joined them in this world, so they had to make sure not to let go.
"Right." Ellsie felt her cheek warm into a colour that must have almost matched her hair.
~~~
Suddenly the memory of the prince's birthday faded and they were standing in the dining hall in Ellsie's house. Sitting at the table was Ellsie, Henry, Eric and Clarissa, all looked older than they were now.
"This was just before my wedding to Henry," Ellsie said shyly. This was the Ellsie he'd always known and he guessed it was the same Ellsie that had married that bastard and been killed by the duchess. The Ellsie, staring lovingly at her fiancé who was sitting at the table across from her and next to Clarissa, was like a naive child who still believed in wishing on stars.
"I can't believe you all honestly fell for this!" Lucian yelled outraged by the fact that a man could actually betray such a beautiful and kind person such as Ellsie. "I mean they're actually holding hands under the table!" The prince looked at the naive heiress sitting across the table smiling happily, looking like any nearly-married woman, yet in her eyes hid an abundance of sadness. Noticing the sadness in her, Lucian looked at the renewed girl beside him, while she could not look at the scene in front of her, she was not surprised by his comment. "You knew, didn't you? That he did not love you."
"H... How did you know?" Ellsie looked up at him in shock. Lucian didn't say anything he simply nodded towards the young girl sitting at the table. Was it possible he had seen through her facade? Despite how naive Ellsie always seemed, she'd always been more intelligent than people gave her credit for, she had chosen to ignore the fact that Henry had fallen for her sister rather than the girl he was promised to. While she indeed had no idea of the duchess' intention, she pretended she didn't know and hoped that everything would be fine once they were married.
~~~
That painful memory faded and the pair travelled through numerous other tender memories, that made it very obvious, that Henry never care for her and that the duchess was not as motherly as she was made out to be. While Ellsie seemed to have overlooked a lot of red flags, she became angry with herself. Watching her Lucian realised she wasn't as naive as he'd originally thought, she simply trusted the duchess like and mother, how could she possibly believe that her mother would kill her. She was not naive, she was simply a daughter.
~~~
Suddenly the four extravagant walls of a church built themselves up around them, the altar was decorated with white magnolias and the seats were filled with every noble family, in the Creston Empire, who were dressed in their best outfits. Henry and an old priest stood at the end of the altar. Lucian and Ellsie stood in the middle of the aisle, looking at the scene surrounding them. The young prince looked around in confusion until he saw the horrified look on Ellsie's face, before he could say anything music started to play. The pair turned around to see an ecstatically looking red-haired bride, dressed in a gorgeous white gown and a tall proud father holding his daughter's arm. The duo stood there shocked, as the father-daughter pair headed towards them, neither of them moved but just like ghost the bride and her father just walked straight through them.
"This is your wedding!"
"Yes, this was supposed to be the best day of my life, but it turned out to be the last..."
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