A World Where You All Are The Villains - Chapter 161

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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161.

Nancy narrowed her eyes and scrutinized my face with meticulous care.
I flinched instinctively and recoiled from her.
“Your… why are your lips…?”
“In this light, they’re definitely swollen. And your lips are all red around the edges… Did an insect bite you? Let me take a closer look, Miss.”
“No!”
I hastily covered my mouth with both hands and shook my head vigorously.
“It’s nothing. Just…”
“…?”
“Ah, I think there were flowers decorating the pastries I ate earlier…”
“Good heavens, is that so? Why did you eat them, Miss! Don’t touch them and don’t let them bite you.”
Fortunately, my hastily improvised excuse worked.
“Just to be safe, I brought allergy medicine with me. I’ll go get it back from the Butler right away!”
Nancy accepted my words at face value and worried with an innocent expression.
It was only natural that she would have no knowledge of what happened in the Reception Room.
Yet I couldn’t understand why my heart was pounding so violently, as though I’d been caught doing something wrong.
“But that’s strange. There weren’t any flowers in the garden at all…”
She tilted her head and murmured to herself, and only after she finally left the room did I lower my hand from my mouth and exhale a sigh of relief.
Then Nancy’s murmur suddenly came back to me.
‘Now that I think about it…’
The vast garden I’d glimpsed before entering the Grand Duke’s Residence was filled only with lush greenery—there truly were no flowers.
Though I hadn’t explored every corner like Nancy had, there wasn’t even a single common vase inside, including the Reception Room.
In this hierarchical society, estate landscaping was nothing less than another display of power and wealth.
Even the Duke’s Mansion maintained its garden and rear garden year-round, despite the Princess’s condition…
‘Does he dislike flowers?’
The master’s peculiar preference didn’t stop at flowers—it extended to the room itself.
The bedroom’s size was excessively large for a guest, but there was a reason for the strange sense of déjà vu I’d felt since earlier.
Specifically, this room had a similar structure to my room at the Duke’s Mansion.
The placement of the Dressing Room and Study, the arrangement of furniture and decorations—all felt uncomfortably familiar.
In other words, it was like an expanded version of my room.
Of course, one could argue that all noble family rooms are essentially the same…
But the image of him entering my room kept surfacing in my mind.
The fact that he’d prepared a similar room as though waiting, even though I’d never confirmed I would stay.
The way he’d filled the wardrobe with clothes that fit my measurements perfectly.
The fact that there were no flowers anywhere in the Grand Duke’s Residence.
It was as if…
He’d been waiting for me to come all along.
“Ah, no way.”
I shook off the absurd thought that had suddenly seized me, like a convulsion.
Self-consciousness was a disease in itself.
Besides, when he asked if he liked me, didn’t he answer that he didn’t know?
He’d even demanded a vulgar transaction from someone crying out of fear they couldn’t go back….
“…It’s actually a relief.”
That was far more like Serge.
If he’d confessed to liking me under these circumstances, I would have found it equally absurd and suspicious.
So between us, as it had always been, we were merely means and tools for each other’s purposes—nothing more.
I still didn’t know why the price was what it was….
‘There’s nothing new about this.’
It was just one more crude prank added to the ones he always played.
I decided to count it as being bitten by a dog rather than having our lips touch.
Either way, since he’d help me find out where Sephiroth is, it’s not a complete loss for me.
Once I’d settled it that way, my turbulent emotions gradually began to calm.
“…I should get some sleep.”
A crushing fatigue suddenly washed over me.
‘The Butler said he’d have a meal ready soon….’
I had no appetite for food or anything else.
Perhaps it was because too much had happened today.
I moved toward the bathroom, intending to wash quickly and get to bed.
Then suddenly, someone’s voice echoed in my ear like a lingering remnant.

― I heard someone say it. That there is no product in life more precious than love.

I shuddered and tugged at my earlobe.
“…Damn it, love can freeze to death.”
I couldn’t fathom why he’d spouted such nonsense to someone saying they’d leave because they had nothing to hold onto.
Not knowing his own feelings, and yet he dared say that to me.
I’d clearly decided to count it as being bitten by a dog and move on.
But the reflection staring back at me in the bathroom mirror looked nothing like someone who had moved on.
Not at all.
“Ha….”
I irritably wrapped both hands around my flushed face as if to hide it.

***

A day spent at the Grand Duke’s Residence was quite different from what I was accustomed to.
I’d intended to handle breakfast the same way I did at the Duke’s Mansion—hastily consuming soup and bread scraps in my room.
But the Butler, for reasons unknown, vehemently opposed this and insisted I make the trek to the expansive Dining Room.
And I had to eat there alone, without the master of the house who had left early.
After he’d pressed me multiple times, I reluctantly finished dessert as well, and then the Butler gave me a tour of the Estate.
As a guest, I would have preferred to remain confined to my room, but he used the pretext of cleaning to forcibly evict me—I had no choice.
Fortunately, as Nancy had mentioned, there was indeed plenty to see at the Grand Duke’s Residence.
I strolled through the barren Maze Garden devoid of a single flower, visited the room displaying artifacts the master had collected from various Gates, and even saw the peculiar chamber where monster corpses were preserved as taxidermy.
I also toured a glittering Annex Building whose walls, pillars, and floors were entirely encrusted with gold and jewels—either the master’s wealth was rotting away, or he was simply ostentatious.
By the time I finished, the hours had slipped away and it was already noon.
Unfortunately, I still hadn’t encountered the master.
Unlike yesterday, I wasn’t particularly anxious about it.
No matter how formidable the Grand Duke’s authority, he couldn’t possibly locate an elusive Cult Leader in a single night.
Besides, avoiding him for now seemed better for my mental and physical well-being.
“Young Lady, would you care to take lunch in the Glass Greenhouse? The master has collected rare exotic animals from various lands—birds and the like—so there should be much to enjoy while you dine.”
While I rested briefly in my room as lunch was being prepared, the Butler made yet another tiresome suggestion.
This time, genuinely wanting to manage with something simple in my room, I replied with a somewhat weary expression.
“…Must I?”
“Yes, you must.”
“No, I just…”
“Then please rest while preparations are underway. I shall return to escort you shortly.”
Before I could protest, the Butler dashed out of the room with remarkable speed.
He was just as unreasonable as his master—utterly impossible to reason with.
‘Is there truly a man more difficult than the Duke’s Butler…?’
Watching the door close swiftly, my thoughts naturally drifted to the Duke’s Mansion.
“…I wonder if he’s doing well.”
“Our Butler, miss?”
Nancy, who had followed me all morning without tiring, came scurrying over and brushed my disheveled hair aside.
“Yes, well…”
I gave a vague response.
By now, the Duke must have realized I’d left the house. I could only hope he wasn’t being too harsh on the Butler.
“Don’t worry too much, miss. Our Butler is quite skilled at handling such situations, if I do say so myself.”
Nancy, sensing my concern, spoke cheerfully.
At her words, I smiled slightly.
That was when it happened.
Knock, knock—
A knock suddenly echoed through the room.
“Is the meal ready already?”
Nancy tilted her head curiously and approached the door.
It hadn’t even been a few minutes since the Butler left, so I too was puzzled.
But it wasn’t the Butler who came looking for me—it was someone unexpected.
“Good day, Young Lady. I am Mellery, the head maid of the Grand Duke’s Residence.”
A middle-aged woman who had greeted me with utmost courtesy approached carefully and handed me something.
“The matter is, a letter has arrived addressed to you, Young Lady, and I’ve come to deliver it.”
“To me?”
At this unexpected news, my eyes widened in surprise.
The Duke didn’t even know I was at the Grand Duke’s Residence—how could a letter addressed to me have arrived?
“Who sent it? His Highness the Grand Duke?”
“I’m afraid I don’t know either… I received it from the gatekeeper and brought it straight to you, thinking it might be urgent….”
True to Mellery’s words, the plain yellow envelope bore only the name “Edith Blake.”
“Well… thank you. You can go now.”
After the head maid bowed and left, I examined the envelope thoroughly.
Still, I could find no trace of the sender beyond my own name.
Moreover, it felt quite thick with whatever was inside.
“Miss, what if there’s something dangerous in there?”
“What could possibly be dangerous?”
If it were poison, I could simply purify it. And it was unthinkable that this place would contain something like a homemade bomb.
I casually tore open the sealed envelope.
To be honest, since only Serge could have sent it, I’d been rather careless in my thinking.
But then.

「Midnight tonight. Blue Moon Guild.」

Inside the envelope lay only a single line of text and a pure white mask—the kind one would wear to a masquerade.
“A deer…?”
Nancy had somehow managed to identify the peculiar shape of the mask.
A Deer-Masked Maid.
A message had come for Sephiroth.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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