The Knight from the Fairytales-Chapter 31: Sneaky Moves

Cinderella was sold to Beihai, not a shred of mercy was shown.
Yet, this situation seemed perfectly normal, without any surprise. After all, she was Cinderella's stepmother, her nominal mother.
The result was that this stepmother had only tormented Cinderella. One could say that if not for hearing Beihai's words, it felt like that King probably had some violent tendencies—domestic abuse, along with being absurd and ignorant.
Putting it all together, you'd realize the stepmother was delighted to just take a bag of gold coins and leave Cinderella there to continue suffering, living a wretched life.
If Beihai hadn't been so crude and vulgar, but instead polite and courteous, even revealing his handsome face...
Alright, while he wasn't devastatingly handsome, nor had he become a living adjective like Patriarch Peng, he still had some capital on him.
This stepmother definitely wouldn't have made it so easy. She wouldn't want Cinderella to go enjoy a life of luxury; she'd surely want her own daughter to have that. So, Beihai had no choice but to act this way.
When leading Ella out of the estate, Beihai kept looking her up and down, making Ella so uncomfortable she could only keep her head bowed, her heart filled with grief.
Things proceeded very smoothly. Throughout the entire process, Ella didn't even take a single thing from the estate.
You could say that after all this time, even though the entire estate was technically her family's property, after all that fuss, she ended up wearing a set of rags and was simply led out by Beihai.
Cleaned out and kicked out. This was even more terrifying than being cleaned out. If not for needing clothes to wear, they wouldn't have even left her with the rags on her back.
As they left, they didn't forget to cruelly tell Ella the truth: you've been sold by us, your future is a den of monsters.
So now, this Ella was truly, literally Cinderella, wearing tattered clothes, though her face was still somewhat clean.
Little Elsa, biting one of her fingers, watched this big sister, also looking her up and down.
Ella remained silent, just bowing her head, unconsciously twisting her clothes, filled with worry about her future.
Beihai just felt a sense of déjà vu. When was the last time he took in a beggar?
Taking her to the entrance of a shop, he handed over some coins as usual.
"Arrange for her to get a nice set of clothes, and find a female shop assistant to give her a thorough wash."
The Shop Owner, swayed by the money, gave a flamboyant bow and called over the shop assistants to get to work. The first step was taking measurements with a tape.
Elsa watched, a bit puzzled. "It seems different from mine."
"Of course it's different. This is custom-tailored."
Beihai answered while removing the sack he had been wearing over his head.
It has to be said, this world really values looks. Basically, if you're pretty, nine times out of ten you're a good person. If you're ugly, eight times out of ten you're bad.
Of course, there are exceptions, like the Beast and the Beauty. But even so, most of the time, they judge you by your looks first.
Like now, after Ella saw Beihai's face, her body wasn't as tense anymore. The heavy stone in her heart also settled. Instead, she started cooperating actively, even beginning to daydream about her future days.
Beihai wasn't thinking that much. He was pondering that Ella would later receive an invitation and go to that ball. What he wanted wasn't much, just a Magic Wand.
And so, with the Shop Owner's hard work, and the occasional addition of more gold coins on the table, what started as 80% effort now became 120% overachievement to complete the task.
"Esteemed guest, this will be the masterpiece of my life. I believe I could never achieve such a breakthrough again. This will be a peerless piece."
The owner boasted, speaking with utmost seriousness. Joking aside, he could ask for any fabric, no matter how astronomically priced, and the other party could pull out gold coins to settle it directly. If anyone else came, who would be so generous!
Even the King and Prince in the Royal City probably couldn't produce so many gold coins just to pile onto a single outfit.
And Ella had undergone a tremendous transformation. She was clean, wearing a blue dress that seemed rather form-fitting, perfectly showcasing the curves of her body.
The dress itself looked somewhat simple, but the bows and other decorations on it were literally hammered out with gold coins.
To achieve symmetry, the owner even took to the field himself. Even if an obsessive-compulsive person came, they could only say there wasn't a 0.1 millimeter error.
She looked absolutely beautiful!
"Good, good, good! Not bad, very good! Now prepare two more sets, with different styles. Use this as a breakthrough to create a deluxe version."
Beihai couldn't help but get excited. This was the beautiful girl he had imagined. Just this one set, gorgeous and beautiful, showcasing all the beauty a woman should possess. Dressed like this, wouldn't she utterly captivate that Prince?
But this put the owner in a difficult spot. He had just said he couldn't achieve another breakthrough, that this piece would be unique in the world.
And now this? Isn't this making things hard for me? And you want a deluxe version too!
"No need. Using this one dress to attend my wedding with you, I think is already completely sufficient. I am very happy now."
Ella felt it was already more than enough, absolutely could not spend any more money. As they say, children from poor families mature early. She had some sense about these matters.
So she started softly trying to dissuade him. However, because she was holding back, her voice was quite soft. Plus, Beihai and the owner were in the middle of discussing.
Subconsciously, Ella, wearing this outfit, reached out and took Beihai's hand. Her eyes were already full of adoration. At this moment, her heart couldn't help but flutter a little.
At least one thing her stepmother had said was completely correct.
This was love at first sight.
Beihai looked at her with dead fish eyes, then raised his hand, placed it on her face, and pushed her away, shoving her aside. "Move. You're blocking my view."
The atmosphere was instantly ruined, but he didn't care anyway.
For Beihai, these were just ordinary clothes to wear out. The main point was to rely on these clothes to find a teacher and then receive instruction.
After all, Ella had absolutely no knowledge of noble etiquette. Thinking about it, it's normal. When she was little, before she could even start learning, her father was gone. Her stepmother only made her do rough work. It was already pretty good her hands weren't covered in calluses.
With those nobles, she couldn't act like before. They might not need money; what they want is that kind of grace and bearing.
"Owner, are you taking this job or not? Anyway, I'll cover all the costs. If you can't do it, I'll go to another shop."
"Ah, you said it. I'll do it. I'll do it for you. Actually, limits exist precisely to be broken."
"Owner, that's the drive I want to see! I knew I wasn't wrong about you."
Thus, the transaction between the two parties was once again settled. After finishing the busy work, Beihai finally came over to Ella. "Did you have something you wanted to say to me earlier?"