BPFP Chapter 9

“Miss!”

When Ellia arrived at the training grounds, the Iron Eagle Knights greeted her warmly.

“Uncle Dmitri!”

Dmitri approached, showing off his arm muscles.

“Shall I give you a piggyback ride again today?”

“Yes, please!”

As Ellia opened her arms, Dmitri effortlessly lifted her up.

“Here we go!”

Dmitri ran around the training grounds with Ellia on his shoulders.

“Faster!”

When Ellia urged him to go faster, Dmitri grinned.

“Hold on tight, or you might fall.”

Ellia grabbed onto Dmitri’s head tightly, and he picked up speed.

“Whee!”

As Ellia cheered in excitement, Dmitri ran even more joyfully.

Just then, Merril came running into the training grounds.

“Miss, your room is ready! And you have new clothes too—come quickly!”

“Okay.”

Ellia got down from Dmitri’s shoulders and waved goodbye to the knights.

“Bye, uncles. See you next time!”

“Come visit anytime! I, Dmitri, will personally make sure you have fun!”

“I’ll be here too, Miss!” added Campbell.

The Iron Eagle knights waved at her with innocent smiles.

Then, the twig sitting on Ellia’s shoulder commented:

[Such good people, aren’t they, Elli?]

‘Yeah, they really are.’

That only made Ellia feel guiltier.

The room she arrived at, holding Merril’s hand, was truly exquisite—fit for a princess.

“This is my room?”

“Yes. The Duke put a lot of thought into it.”

Ellia was so stunned she was left speechless.

It looked like a room straight out of a fairytale.

A white-gold bed draped with fluttering pink fabric, white curtains on the windows, a wooden vanity made to fit Ellia’s height.

On a soft pink carpet sat a small tea table and chairs.

A shelf in one corner was neatly filled with storybooks, and there was even a unicorn doll.

“Come take a look—this is the dressing room.”

Guided by Merril, Ellia stepped into the dressing room.

“What is all this…?”

“His Grace asked that outfits be prepared for each season. I chose them myself. And these boots were picked by the Duke himself.”

“The Duke did?”

“Yes, he went shopping with me.”

“How did you manage to prepare all this?”

“The Duke personally went to Count Zamel’s estate with Butler Norman to get everything.”

Ellia was astonished by the unexpected gift.

‘But I’m someone who’s supposed to leave… If it’s like this, I might not want to go…’

She looked at Merril.

“Where’s the Duke?”

“He’s probably in his office.”

“I want to see him.”

“He’s in a meeting right now…”

At that moment—

“Elli, are you looking for me?”

She turned her head quickly and saw the Duke leaning against the dressing room door.

“Your Grace!”

“What is it?”

“How can you spend so much money like this!”

“Don’t worry. Norman calculated the necessary budget and set it aside. I bought all this with the surplus.”

“Still, this is too much. I’m not someone who’ll be staying here long…”

“It’s not like you’re leaving immediately.”

“That’s true, but…”

“Then at least enjoy yourself while you’re here. Thanks to the supplies and food you brought, the people of the territory will have a warm winter. I think this much is a fair reward for that.”

Ellia’s eyes welled up with tears.

She had only meant to repay them the value of some candy, but she felt like she was receiving so much more in return.

‘Now I really won’t want to leave.’

He truly was a strange man.

“Elli, are you crying?”

“It’s your fault, Your Grace! Don’t be so nice to me, or I might beg to stay!”

The Duke’s kindness had stirred her tears, and now they were falling freely.

“If you don’t want to go, then don’t. I can afford to take care of one more person.”

“You’re too kind, Your Grace.”

“Am I?”

“Too, too kind.”

The Duke approached and bent down to meet Ellia’s eyes.

He placed a hand gently on her head.

“Stop crying, or your eyes will puff up like a goldfish.”

“I can’t stop.”

It was as if her tear glands were broken—she couldn’t stop crying. Then the Duke popped a candy into her mouth.

“…!”

“Sweet, isn’t it?”

As she rolled the candy in her mouth, the tears stopped as if by magic.

“See? No more tears.”

For some reason, Alexis didn’t find Ellia unfamiliar. A part of his heart ached.

He felt an instinctual urge not to leave her alone.

‘Maybe I should make her my real little sister?’

He strongly wanted to accept her as family and take care of her. It was just how he felt.

Ellia wiped her eyes with her sleeve. The tears had stopped.

This isn’t right. Ellia steeled herself.

“Yowr Gwace…” (Her words were muffled because of the candy.)

Even so, the Duke miraculously understood her.

“If there’s any emptwy wand, teww me.”

“Empty land?”

Ellia nodded eagerly.

“There’s plenty of that.”

“Let’sh go.”

As Ellia tugged on his sleeve, the Duke tilted his head.

“Why do you want to go there?”

“You’ww shee when we get there.”

At Ellia’s urging, Duke Cartellani sighed and nodded.

“To get there, we’ll need to leave the castle. Come here.”

He lifted Ellia in his arms.

“Merril, we’ll be back soon.”

After saying goodbye to Merril, the Duke and Ellia left the mansion and rode out together to the vacant land.

The land was vaster than expected.

Now she understood why they called it dead land—its fertility was abysmal.

A true wasteland.

A dead land that was good for nothing.

Though there were signs of attempts to cultivate it, none could have succeeded.

“Your Grace.”

“Yes?”

“Thank you. You’re the only one who was kind to me without expecting anything in return.”

“Ellia…”

“So this is my gift to you.”

Ellia stepped down from his arms and walked onto the land.

‘Twig.’

[What is it?]

‘Bestow the blessing of the earth.’

[If I do that, the Duke might realize who you really are. Is that okay?]

‘It’s fine. This will be my final repayment. It’s time I left.’

[Do you really think you can leave?]

‘Just do it.’

[Sigh… fine, fine.]

The twig climbed down from Ellia’s shoulder and walked across the ground.

A golden light radiated from it, covering the land. And then, something miraculous happened.

Moisture seeped into the parched soil, and the land’s fertility rose rapidly—enough to grow crops.

Not only that, a water source was discovered, and a spring gushed up from the earth.

The Duke of Cartellani’s eyes widened in disbelief. His gaze turned to Ellia.

She was collapsing.

“Ellia!”

“Ugh.”

Clutching her chest, Ellia coughed up blood. It stained the front of her dress.

Startled, she raised her hand to wipe the blood from her lips.

A wave of dizziness hit her, and her body crumpled.

The Duke caught her with a shocked expression.

The last thing Ellia heard was his desperate voice calling her name—before she lost consciousness.

---

“Ugh.”

Ellia frowned and opened her eyes wide.

“Miss!”

The first thing she saw was Merril’s worried face.

“Merril?”

“Please wait a moment—I’ll bring the doctor!”

Even nodding felt like a struggle.

‘Twig, what happened…?’

[What do you think? Your body was too weak to handle the blessing of the earth.]

The earth’s blessing drew upon the power of the World Tree. It had been too much for her young body to endure.

Soon, Merril returned with a doctor. But Ellia’s eyes widened in surprise when she saw him.

‘Why is he here…?’

The doctor who came with Merril was someone Ellia knew well.

Felix Bain.

A genius in herbal medicine, he would later strike gold with a cure he developed.

His medicine was presented to Crown Prince Raul, who was so impressed he wanted Felix as his personal physician—but Felix declined.

Raul then instructed Ellia to find a way to recruit him.

She tried everything to persuade him.

But Felix refused to leave the service of the Cartellani family.

So in the end, Ellia had no choice but to use a cowardly tactic.

She took his lover, Jasper, hostage.

She poisoned Jasper and threatened that unless he took the antidote on schedule, he would die.

Eventually, under duress, Felix became Raul’s personal physician.

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Let me know if you’d like this polished into a more literary tone or kept literal for translation accuracy.