@someunregpunk I guess that's as good a explanation as any. I'm just surprised, because Eli was going to be arabella originally and she was the prince's fiancee. That's a pretty high-ranking person to just disappear; moreover, judging by how being chosen as arabella is a status symbol, I would've figured there would've previously been imperial family fiancees, even princes/princesses (I think they mentioned before that bc the imperial family has no princesses this generation so Eli was first in line for arabella) that would've just disappeared, right?
The Duchess found this out through the empress dowager tho, not through rumors/families who had children chosen as arabella. Which implies that only the empress dowager currently the only person alive that is aware of this practice.