Chapter 2

After marrying Fred, Mildred discovered that he was a serial business starter on his way downhill. Mildred couldn’t have known. She couldn’t have expected to have two dead husbands by the age of thirty-seven, and that she would be beholden to taking care of three daughters, one being the child of her late second husband.

Maybe Mildred had been asking this world’s god the same things as me. Why me? It’s not fair!

“Mother.”

As I took the bread from the oven, Mildred’s third daughter entered the kitchen. She wasn’t Mildred’s child but that of Fred’s first wife.

She was Cinderella.

“Could you bring me a plate?” I asked her, turning to the sink to wash my hands.

“Okay,” she said, and reached for the cupboard. She had shimmering blonde hair and blue eyes.

Mildred had not liked her, but that was understandable. A handsome rich widower had seduced Mildred while she was struggling to raise two daughters on her own. It was only after she married him that she discovered he was not only broke but a serial failure.

Then he had left to start a business with half of Mildred’s assets and disappeared off the face of the earth.

Mildred had been the lady of a noble house. She had never washed her underwear before—until Fred dropped her into an impoverished life.

Now Fred was dead, but his daughter remained in Mildred’s care. To top it all off, Fred’s daughter had taken after her handsome father and beautiful mother, while Mildred’s children looked like their ugly father. Even to Mildred’s eyes, her daughters didn’t live up to her standards. She could only imagine how they looked to outsiders.

Now Mildred had to raise her not-very-pretty daughters and get them married using wealth sapped by this girl’s father. I could understand why the stepmother hated Cinderella.

Do you get why I say that I’m in a Cinderella story now?

“Agh!” Cinderella cried out as something crashed to the floor.

What is it now? Startled, I turned and saw shattered dishes on the floor. I sighed.

Right. This was another reason Mildred hated her. Ashley (a.k.a. Cinderella) was a bit clumsy and lacked common sense.

“I-I’m sorry, Mother!”

She was kind, at least.

Ashley frantically turned to clear the dinnerware she had broken. With her elbow, she hit more dishes that she had set on the counter.

A second round of shattering began. Another set of dishes, destroyed. I rested my head in my hands and sighed.

I wasn’t Mildred. I understood her dislike of Ashley, but I didn’t think the way Mildred treated her was right.

Ashley was only seventeen. There was only a ten-year difference between her and my old self.

And a twenty-year difference between her and Mildred.

You can despise someone more than a decade younger than you, but that doesn’t mean you should treat them like a servant.

“Wait, wait, wait.”

Ashley tried to grab the broken shards with her bare hands, but I stopped her. She was clumsy enough that she would probably cut her fingers trying to clean it. I didn’t want this story to go from Cinderella to Sleeping Beauty. That girl slept for a hundred years.

My only desire was to stay on Cinderella’s good side and to live peacefully somewhere once she married a prince.

“Iris! Lily!”

“Mother, what’s happ...”

Iris came running into the kitchen at the sound of my call and the shattering dishes. She assessed the situation and ran back out.

I pulled Ashley as far away as I could from the shards. “You’re Cinderella, not Sleeping Beauty.”

“Huh? I’m what?”

“Never mind.”

Quick-witted Iris brought a broom.

“I-I can do...”

“No, it’s okay. Please set the dining table.”

Ashley attempted to take up the sweeping, but I sent her to the dining room. I wasn’t concerned for her as much as I didn’t like the way she worked.

Iris swept the kitchen floor. Lily brought the dustpan.

The more pressing matter for me was taking the food I had just made to the dining room.

“Mother.”

As I took the ham and fresh bread to the dining room, Ashley came in and called for me.

Didn’t I tell you to set the dining table?

The table had nary a plate or fork.

What in the world?

I looked at Ashley with dismay, but she ran over to me in excitement, apparently oblivious to the look on my face.

“We have a visitor!”

“A visitor?”

Someone had knocked on our door. This mansion was so stupidly large that you couldn’t hear someone knock from the kitchen.

“They’re here from the castle!” Ashley’s voice was shrill with delight.

Hearing the ruckus, Iris and Lily dashed out of the kitchen.

“Who is it?” Lily asked. I guess she overheard that they were from the castle.

Why would someone from the castle come here? Mildred was the daughter of a noble family, but after her marriage to Vans, she had grown distant from noble society. Vans had not been a noble.

I saw no reason for anyone from the castle to visit. Unless...

My eyes landed on Ashley.

She’s Cinderella. Cinderella attends a party held at the castle and leaves behind a glass slipper.

“I will see to it.” I took off my apron and exited the dining room. I could hear the girls following me secretly, but I pretended not to notice.

A visitor from the castle stood outside the open door.

They really are from the castle.

Even if Ashley hadn’t said so, I could tell because he was wearing the castle uniform. Obviously, this was based on Mildred’s memory and not mine.

“You are here from the castle?” I asked as I stepped outside.

My voice startled the man, who had been staring at the mansion. He straightened himself.

“I am. Is there a Lady Vans present?”

That’s me. I stepped away from the door.

“I am Lady Vans. Would you like to come in?”

“You are Lady Vans?” Surprise flashed over the man’s face.

Hmm. He did look younger than Mildred, and Mildred was beautiful. Nevertheless, it was rude to show such open emotion. At least, according to Mildred’s memories.

The man quickly regained his composure. “My apologies. I have been tasked with delivering a letter.” He took a missive from a bag on his shoulder, one of the many tucked inside. “Farewell.”

Huh? That’s it?

The man bowed and retreated as I stared at the wax seal on the letter. He walked down the pathway to his horse.

Uh-huh... I watched him ride away, then turned around.

“Why did he come?”

“What is it?”

Iris and Lily clung to my sides when I went back inside. Ashley seemed just as curious as them, but she hovered a few feet away, as if she didn’t feel as comfortable clinging to me.

I felt sorry for her at times like these.

“Let’s read this in the dining room.”

I returned to the room with the children hanging off of me. The food was still on the table: bread and a bit of ham. And a salad.

I knew they were eager to know more, but I sat down, sliced the bread, and doled it out. You could just buy bread in this world. I didn’t have to make it myself, but kneading dough was good for my stress.

A modern internet addict like me needed to knead and mash something with my hands.

“Open the letter, Mother. Please?”

Lily could not bear it any longer and started begging. Iris looked at me with pleading eyes. After Ashley looked my way too, I sighed and tore open the envelope.

In bygone days, a maid or a butler would have handed me a letter opener. However, when Fred disappeared and Mildred lost hope that he would ever return, she had fired the employees and begun to treat Ashley like a maid.

That had started at the end of last year. It must have been six months since Ashley started working like a servant.

When I ripped the envelope and opened the letter inside, my eyes were met with elegant script.

“It is from the castle.”

Mildred was able to read it because she was of noble birth. Reading and writing were basics taught in noble households, as well as in wealthy households that wished to be a part of high society. Thus, Mildred took pride in being able to read.

She hadn’t even taught Ashley how to write.

This was not Mildred’s fault. Iris and Lily had been taught while they were Riveras. Nevertheless, it would be good to teach Ashley too. She was going to be a princess once she married the prince, after all.

I took a mental note to teach Ashley how to write, then I scanned the letter.

It was an invitation for the children of the house to attend the castle’s debutante ball. Our four names were written at the bottom.

I lifted my head. The girls were looking at me with sparkling eyes. This was getting complicated. I made an effort not to frown.

“They are inviting us to a ball at the castle.”

“Really?”

“When is it?”

In two months. Based on Mildred’s experiences, the famous clothing shops in the city would be overwhelmed with customers soon enough.

The girls were excited, but I was not. The letter felt like confirmation that this was truly the world of Cinderella. And in Cinderella’s world, neither the stepmother nor stepsisters had a happy ending.

“We’re going, right, Mother?” Lily asked in excitement.

Of course we must. Ashley will go, at the very least. Even if I don’t let her, a fairy godmother will appear to send her anyway.

I put down the letter with displeasure. “We must all go. The four of us.”

“Four?”

Iris’ eyes widened, and Lily glanced at Ashley. Ashley looked equally surprised that she was going too.

I lifted a piece of bread from my plate and spoke reluctantly.

“Yes, of course. Ashley’s name is also written on the invitation.”

“But...” Lily started to say something, but she flinched and shut her mouth.

Iris had kicked Lily’s shin underneath the table. I could tell from the way Lily glared at Iris.

I ignored Iris and Lily’s silent quibbling and turned to Ashley. “Ashley, do you have a dress?”

Of course, the fairy godmother would make a dress for her since she was Cinderella. Even so, it would be strange if I made dresses for Iris, Lily, and myself, but not for Ashley.

Ashley shook her head. “No, I don’t.”

“Then, we will go to a clothing shop tomorrow.”

“To make a dress?” Lily interrupted.

I was always happy to go shopping for clothes. In my old world, my shopping cart was constantly full of clothes totaling 500,000 won.