[Darkest Cinderella; Chapter 475 of 500]

The moon towers over a forest clearing, a man with dark blonde hair and blue eyes seems to be waiting for someone. He is in deep thought until he hears a feminine voice and he breaks away. His head perks up, and those blue orbs of his look around, trying to see where it came from.

"Well, well, my lord, I'm sorry I'm not exactly who you were expecting..." a woman with a voluptuous body said smoothly, as she emerged from the darkness.

Dressed in a rather revealing black nightgown, she grins at him. But it wasn't something that one should be pleased at seeing, as this particular lady...reeked of danger.

In her hand is a red fan. Strangely enough, it was only red because of a liquid staining every part of it. There was a metal part that glinted from the moonlight as she started taking steps towards him. It wasn't just any normal fan that ladies carried around- a blade was attached to it in an inconspicuous manner.

The man stumbles back a few steps from complete disbelief, his facial expression like that of a cornered animal.

"W-what is the meaning of this?!"

"You think I wouldn't know you slipped a letter to that wench?" The woman revealed a crumpled letter with splotches of blood on it as well.

She tossed it in front of him, the grass rustling as it landed. It was intercepted, but how? Was he betrayed by one of his messengers? He couldn't grasp the current situation, how things led to this outcome.

"Since she was competition, it would only be natural that I'd get rid of her. Oh, and how pretty and innocent she was too… I can see why you became so fond of her," she continued with a tone of false sympathy.

Her blonde rings of hair bounced as she laughed quite madly. It amazed him how no one could hear her. He stood stunned.

(No…she- she couldn't be dead!)

Yet he knew full well that this was undeniably true considering the woman that he's dealing with.

In his memories, a girl with mint hair beamed at him. But now that girl was no longer in this world.

All because of him.

He was too careless and let his guard down. Devastation ran across his entire face.

"Remember, that you are to be engaged to me," she cut her jubilant mood immediately, pointing her fan at him. Walking closer to him, he could no longer feel his body, he sank to the ground.

(T-this is…from the tea I drank earlier…no was that part of her plan too?!)

He felt paralyzed, unable to move as she crouched down next to him.

"Don't you forget, my darling…" Her red eyes stared down at him, tracing the end of his face with her finger as he slowly loses consciousness.

"Lord Ellis."

[end of prologue]