I Became the Female Lead Ruined by Others - Chapter 36

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

Chapter 36

As I climbed the stairs away from the empty basement, something hot and seething churned inside my chest.

“Master, there was a loud noise—” Ted flinched and stepped aside, his solemn doorkeeper’s composure cracking at once.

He’d been bracing himself like some grim sentinel, but he crumbled the moment he saw me.

“Where’s Cap?”
“This morning Cain and Abel took him to the back garden—they said they’d teach him some basic swordsmanship.”
“Bring him here. Now.”
“Yes, I’ll send him up right away!”

I gave a curt reply and turned toward the central staircase, then abruptly stopped dead.
Ted, who’d been following behind me, lurched to a halt as well, startled by my sudden pause.

“Send him to the man’s room.”
“…I beg your pardon?”

Ted’s bewildered voice came back—as if the barrage of commands had overwhelmed his processing capacity and left him confused.
I was about to snap at him in frustration when I caught myself, replaying the words I’d just spoken.
The man’s
room.

‘I’ve been calling him “the man” to myself every day, so it just came out naturally like that.’

It made it sound as though I didn’t even know his name!

‘And honestly, I don’t.’

Still, I’d spent enough time playing along with his performance by now, hadn’t I?
More importantly, it would look strange to anyone if Roselina Marsh—the one who’d brought a courtesan into her own mansion—didn’t even know his name.
So I borrowed the mask of the most formidable scoundrel I knew.
Roselina Marsh’s infallible rule: when in doubt, bluff your way through with menace.

“Is there any other man in this mansion worth calling a man besides him?”
“M-my apologies! I’m sorry!”

Ted’s face went pale as milk, and he folded himself in half with a bow.

“I’ll hurry—the guest, I mean—the, that, what was the name—I’ll send Cap to the guest room right away!”

Whether he was biting his tongue or simply stammering, his words tumbled out almost incomprehensibly, but at least the message got through.
I left Ted standing there in a panic and ascended the stairs.
With each step I pressed down hard on my heels, as if I meant to shatter the stone beneath them.

‘Not a word to me—just spreading false information and spiriting away an assassin?’

That peculiar way he had of letting down my guard with his idle talk. The meekness of him, complying with every request, docile and eager to please.
It had made me careless.

‘As if I wouldn’t eventually find out anyway—like he never even considered that I would.’

By any measure, this was like taking a dagger to the back of the head.
All that handsome face and practiced smile of innocence, while behind the scenes he pulled stunts like this.
If he thought I wanted something from him, he wouldn’t have run—but let him try to crawl back in here again.
Unable to contain my frustration, I gnawed at my lower lip.
Bang!
And there I was, standing at the entrance to the man’s room.
I threw open his door without hesitation and stepped inside without a moment’s doubt.

“Let me have a look around.”

The man’s chamber was as ordinary as my own bedroom.
A bed, a wardrobe, a desk—nothing but the bare essentials of furniture.

‘Does he have no baggage?’

He’d arrived a week ago, brought here bound and gagged from the balcony, yet there wasn’t a trace of human habitation to be found.

‘But searching places thoroughly—that’s rather my specialty.’

I strode over and yanked open the wardrobe to find five everyday garments hanging inside.
That was all.
I sifted through the clothes and even checked the pockets, but found nothing.

“What is this.”

The desk drawer was empty, and even the bedding yielded nothing when I lifted it.

“What exactly is going on.”

I swept back the curtain hanging from the small window, and my eyes filled only with the unkempt vista of the garden beyond.
Finally, I stretched myself flat on the floor to peer beneath the bed.

“Why is there nothing here?”

Had he truly come all this way with nothing but this vessel and a single body?

‘And not even a speck of dust. It’s hard to believe anyone actually lives in a room like this.’

That was when—

“Master?”

A cheerful voice came from behind me, and my head turned without lifting my body from the floor.
Cap came bounding toward me with wide, blinking eyes, moving with quick, eager steps.

“What are you doing?”
“Ah, hem.”

I cleared my throat awkwardly and rose to my feet with some embarrassment.
His clothes were smudged with soil in several places—evidence that his earlier claim about practicing Swordsmanship in the garden was true.
I reached out and brushed the dirt from him gently, keeping my voice as soft as possible.

“Cap, do you remember the day you went on an errand to the Marquis Brillant’s estate?”
“Of course!”

Cap stood with his arms spread wide, allowing me to brush away the dust, and nodded eagerly.

“The butler was awfully angry that day. He was really scolding me, telling me to keep my wits about me.”
“Really? How could he say such a thing?”
“I was so very frightened…….”
“Yet you went to run the errand anyway? You’re truly brave!”

With each word Cap spoke, I responded with the most sincere and enthusiastic encouragement I could muster.
At my reaction, the child’s rosy cheeks trembled, and his lips danced without ceasing.
About ten minutes into listening to his lament, just as Cap began to smile brightly again like before.
Now was the moment.

“But Cap, is there perhaps something you forgot to tell me?”
“Pardon?”
“Think carefully. There’s one thing from that day you didn’t report.”

Cap, who had been whimpering softly, suddenly clamped his mouth shut.
His eyes darted frantically across my face, then my shoulders, my hands, the open wardrobe, and finally the ceiling.

“There shouldn’t be secrets between us.”

I stepped forward and knelt to meet his gaze directly.
His small lips, which had been trembling for a long moment, finally opened hesitantly.

“It’s… it was the shiny brother at the Main Gate that day…….”

I knew it. That madman.
Even as I ground my teeth, I forced my trembling lips into a smile and patted his small shoulders.
Cap, who had been hesitating, finally seemed to make a decision—he squeezed his eyes shut and confessed.

“If people find out that bad man is alive, he said an even worse person might attack! And then you’d be in danger again. So he said I had to make those people fear you. He said if I told them he died right there, everyone would be terrified…….”

Cap’s small shoulders trembled violently as he kept his eyes tightly closed.

“Th-the Marquis’s face was so frightening my heart was pounding… but I held it in and got my courage! Because… I’m your knight…….”

My fists were trembling just as badly now.
But I swallowed my rising fury and stroked Cap’s shoulders with shaking hands.

“You found courage to protect me, Cap. I’m truly grateful.”
“I’m sorry for keeping a secret. But he said you’d be so worried if you found out…….”
“Don’t apologize. You did nothing wrong.”

The fault lay with that madman for deceiving an innocent child who knew nothing.

“Then Cap, there are no more secrets you’re hiding from me now, right? Especially about that brother.”
“He’s been busy lately, so I never even asked his name…….”

Cap closed his eyes as if thinking hard about something, then suddenly opened them wide.

“On the day he first came, he gave me a special task!”
“A special task?”
“He said he wanted to get close to the Mansion people quickly. So he asked me to tell him what everyone likes and what they’re doing. He said it would help him get closer to them faster.”

If he truly wanted to get along—or to deceive them well—he would have asked Ted rather than a small child.
Why use a young boy to understand the people around him?

“Has he gotten close to other people besides you?”
“Hmm, no? He listens well to Mary’s songs, but he’s not as close to her as he is to me!”
“Does he know you’re a Secret Knight?”
“No! You said that fact would be a secret between just us two forever. Even the butler doesn’t know.”

Cap lowered his voice slightly, his arms gesturing innocently as he spoke.
I too leaned in close, whispering as if worried someone might overhear.

“Right, he must never find out about this. Understand?”
“Of course!”

I stared into Cap’s clear eyes and whispered, my voice barely audible—only for Cap to hear.

“Will you keep being close friends with him from now on?”
“Pardon?”
“He never tells me what’s really on his mind. So I’d like you to pay attention to him—his worries, the places he goes often, things like that.”
“Oh! A secret mission?!”
“That’s right. Can you do it?”

Just as Cap nodded brightly with a wide smile, I heard someone murmuring.

“Wow, this is the first time someone’s visited this room.”

A soft voice—a man’s voice, but not a child’s.
At the sound, both Cap and I whipped our heads around at once.

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