Cannon Fodder To Villainess

🏮42. Royal Tea Party (Part One)

Amber landed down a block from the royal palace. That way she wouldn't be detected by a royal guard and suspected to be an assassin. She walked up to the gates where the other guests entered with their carriages. Driver's lined their master's carriages around the bottom of the huge flight of stairs, in front of the entrance to the royal gardens. The royal gardens were where the royal tea party and flower viewing were being held.

Although this tea party had the guise of a relaxing get-together to enjoy fine teas, view flowers, and recite poetry, it was anything but. In reality it was a means for the royal family to get a good look at what the nobility had to offer for future potential brides. Any daughter of nobility who was close to her official debut, was required to attend. Some of the younger girls also chose to attend, but it wasn't required. Males were not allowed to attend unless they were a part of the royal family, and even then it was voluntary.

Nevermind that Amber was already engaged to the First Prince, she was still required to attend. She expected nothing less than a blood bath during this so-called tea party. Most everyone was aware of the real purpose of this tea party. A great deal of the attendees would want nothing more than to take Amber's place. They'd feel insulted by her presence, since they would have heard rumors of her ugly appearance. Since she couldn't get out of this inconvenient situation, she might as well attempt to enjoy it.

She walked up the flight of stairs, while thinking of having a carriage built that her cloud could carry. A comfortable flying carriage seemed quite elegant. She'd make sure that Fluffy continued to eat enough and grew at a good speed.

As Amber walked up the stairs, She watched a palanquin quickly brought beside her, by two burly men in white and gold robes. They didn't bother to look her way while they dashed up the stairs. As Amber watched them pass her, she saw a long metal nail guard poke out from the palanquin's light blue curtain and a woman peek out towards Amber. The woman had long white blonde hair and large watery blue eyes. She had a beauty mark in the shape of a tiny pink heart, below the corner of her left eye. She was utterly stunning, like a goddess. Not a blemish could be seen on her and her skin glowed with health. Her light pink lips and well shaped little nose scrunched up in distaste, as she looked Amber up and down. Her innocent appearance was momentarily destroyed by her satisfied and haughty smirk, right before allowing the curtain to drop.

Amber continued to walk up the steps, thinking about the woman who'd passed her. She had undoubtedly been the female lead, Cray Silver. Amber couldn't imagine another woman who fit the appearance described in 'Duchess Dash' better than the woman she just saw. However, Cray's smirk and judgmental look was definitely not what Amber had been expecting. When thinking about Cray from the story, she felt more like that woman was just thoughtless, neglectful, and possibly a bit self centered.

Amber would have to keep a closer eye on this Cray. She was, after all, the main reason why Arabella Amber Frost had died in the story. If Cray was secretly a vicious person, Amber had much more to worry about than she'd realized. After all, weren't protagonists known to have a special aura that made everything fall into place for them? Cray was certainly no exception in 'Duchess Dash'.

Amber walked up to the gate and held out her invitation. One of the guards checked the seal on her invitation, then their list, and finally motioned for Amber to go through the gate. One the other side of the gate, they requested her to lift her veil, so that they could compare her face to the sketch they had of her. She lifted her veil just long enough so that they could see her red and swollen flesh that had been slapped. She dropped the veil too fast for them to get a proper look. So he assumed that the red color was the ugly rash that was depicted in the sketch of her. Although sketches of people were rarely used to identify them, they were used for any event where members of the royal family would be in close proximity with guests. She had initially intended to give herself a minor topical allergic reaction, but with the slap marks present there was no need to bother.

Eventually Amber would allow herself to publicly shine. However, for the time being she needed to keep her appearance and other enviable traits a secret. If the First Prince saw her as a valuable commodity, she'd never be free from him. It's not as if she was capable of canceling a royal engagement. She needed to trick him into canceling the engagement himself. He wouldn't easily do that though, because his Father Emperor bestowed the engagement to him personally, due to a family promise. The Ice Emperor hasn't officially chosen a Crown Prince, so the First Prince certainly didn't want to insult him. Because of this, Amber had become a toy and pawn for the two of them to play with. The Ice Emperor was using Amber to suppress his son and his son agreed to the engagement while hoping to become Crown Prince. Happy familial bonds they had not. None of these royal family squabbles should have anything to do with Amber, yet they'd dragged her into the middle of their fight regardless.

Walking past the gate, there was a long archway covered in climbing blood red roses. The thick thorns covering the sides. All around was draped in thick clusters of roses and thorns. Below, the click of her heels tapped on the stone path. The thick scent of roses all around her was heavy in the air, almost choking. Amber glanced at the long thorns sideways and avoided the wall.

As Amber watched, a hunter green palanquin carrying another lady rushed past and shoved a light yellow palanquin out of the way. The lady in the yellow palanquin, tumbled out the side, and went flying into a wall of thorns. Her light brown hair tangled into the thorns and her light yellow dress was shredded. The delicate airy material couldn't stand up against the rose thorns in the slightest. Thin streams of blood appeared all over her arms, legs, and face. The delicate skin of her face that she'd obviously babied all her life had been destroyed. There was no way she would be able to come back from this disaster without scars all over her face. In a society where a woman's beauty dictated a great deal of her worth, she was ruined. Her family would likely shun her and her future marriage prospects would be abysmal.

The girl's eyes were open in shock looking at her blood covered hands while she frantically touched her face and kept looking at her hands. More and more blood trickled down her limbs and down her neck.

The palanquin that had knocked into her, continued to go forward without slowing down in the slightest. A screech came out from the frantic woman in the yellow dress while she continued to pat her face with shaking hands. After a moment, a couple of guards came to fetch the screeching woman, and tossed her back out of the gate. She continued to screech on the other side until she was gagged and dragged away. Her muffled screams could be heard for quite some time.

While Amber looked back, she memorized the desperate face of the young woman who was covered in tears and blood. Just a simple moment had changed things so drastically. Amber would meet up with her at the right time. After all, everyone who was allowed to attend this tea party was connected to powerful families in some way. They weren't bad people to have as acquaintances, friends, or even possibly subordinates. Why would she give up such an excellent opportunity? As another palanquin came barreling up past the gate, Amber made a quick and decisive side step. The vicious battle had already begun.