“So? Why did you bring Miss Lizzy with you?” Dion asked as they ran through the forest outside the Reyn mansion.
“Now that it’s known that I am cooperating with you thieves, there’s no place for me in that mansion anymore,” Elizabeth answered in a self-deprecating tone as she brushed aside the branches in front of her. How could she have been so bad at this? Just when she’d decided to stop doing her father’s bidding, it felt like someone was sabotaging her so that she would fail in everything she tried to do. It was as if someone were telling her she should only do what her father told her. Her luck was so bad, she’d ended up causing problems for Dion and Paige. The latter had even been injured defending her.
“You might be tired, but hang on a little longer. When we get through the forest, the carriage that the crown prince prepared for us will be waiting,” Paige said to Elizabeth.
“Why are you being so nice?” Elizabeth asked.
“I’m not really a nice person. But Westalia is, so maybe it’s rubbed off on me,” Paige replied.
Elizabeth was silent. How could Paige be so warm toward her when she was nothing more than useless? As she stared at Paige, who was smiling despite having sustained injuries to her legs, arm, and eye, Elizabeth suddenly felt tears prick the corners of her eyes.
“Ow!” At that moment, Elizabeth’s long hair became tangled in a low-hanging branch. The branch’s many thorns had her thoroughly snagged. She tried to untangle it, but she couldn’t see well in the darkness and it just ended up more tangled.
“What’s the matter?” Paige asked.
“My hair got tangled in a branch. I can’t get it unstuck!” It was her fault again that they’d had to stop.
What even is Elizabeth Pink? Elizabeth thought. Although her father claimed to have developed the dye to look like Elizabeth’s hair color, so that he could use her as a walking billboard, it didn’t even look all that much like her hair. Her pink was not remotely as vivid.
Her father spent a lot of money to set Elizabeth up so that she would be admired by all the other young women, but in reality she was just an ordinary person. Someone like Westalia, who had actual talent, should be the one who was admired by others. She was strong and graceful and could stand on her own two feet. Honestly, she was dazzling.
Elizabeth had been brought up like a princess, but she had no power of her own. On top of that, the dye that she had helped promote contained poison. The horror of her own stupidity, that she’d been unknowingly promoting a dye full of poison to people, made her laugh.
I hate this hair! she thought. She gritted her teeth.
“Please let me borrow this!” Elizabeth said, pulling out the sword that rested at Dion’s waist.
“Miss Lizzy?! What are you—”
Elizabeth sliced the sword through her long hair. Paige and Dion stood in stunned silence as the faint starlight shone down on the long, pink locks as they fluttered to the ground.
✦ ✦ ✦
Elizabeth shook her head and ruffled her new short hair. It felt refreshing. Her hair was prone to knots, but since it was a promotional product, it had been essential to provide it with diligent care. To be honest, she always found it tedious to waste such long hours in the bath.
“Father would be quite angry if he saw this. It doesn’t make for a good advertisement,” Elizabeth muttered, looking down.
“Miss Lizzy?” Dion asked. He and Paige looked on worryingly at the woman. But in the next instant Elizabeth looked up and barked out a brisk laugh.
“Well! Serves him right!” she said. This severing was a sign of defiance and resolve against her father. She wasn’t going to live her life as a meek child, listening to what he said. She wouldn’t give into that absurdity; she would defy it.
“Let’s go,” Elizabeth said abruptly, marching away. Dion and Paige exchanged glances as they followed behind her.