It's Overwhelmingly Convenient That the Female Lead Has Darkened - Chapter 61
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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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The villainess heroine had it overwhelmingly easier.
#61
This… is my room?
Daisy forced her gaping mouth shut and looked around.
The room was exactly twice as large as her original one.
Before she collapsed, she’d swept and cleaned a space five times the size of a studio apartment, and what prayer had she whispered then?
‘Dear God, my room is disgustingly spacious. My back will give out from all this cleaning, so if you’d just halve it, I’d be eternally grateful!’
God, it seemed, had answered thus.
‘To a child without greed, I bestow a twofold reward event.’
Bang!
And so her studio had become ten times its original size.
Even the mountain spirits would have censured themselves for giving out only a single gold axe and silver axe each, then stumbled back home like a madman inflated with hot air.
It wasn’t merely the size that had expanded.
The spacious room was crammed full of furniture and ornaments.
There was a bed so vast that five grown men could lie upon it without difficulty, a sturdy and spacious desk, a bookcase that bordered on being a small library, a roaring fireplace, and countless smaller furnishings besides.
Every piece of furniture gleamed in the sunlight pouring through five large windows.
Only then did Daisy realize that all these furnishings were decorated with gold leaf.
How much would all that gold fetch if she scraped it off?
The modern woman, steeped in capitalism, suddenly recalled how soft the bedding she’d been buried under truly was.
Looking again, she saw it was made of fine jade-green silk.
……
“Oh my, miss! Why are you breaking into such a cold sweat?”
Excessive luxury made the common soul writhe in anguish.
Under the maid’s persistent concern, Daisy lay once more in the jade-green silk bedding and faded into unconsciousness, thinking.
Silk truly was sublime…….
* * *
“She fainted again.”
A weighty voice sank into the Study.
A man with platinum-blonde hair that resembled silver swept it back with a large hand, his face shadowed with deep darkness.
Though “shadowed” hardly did justice to the sheer brooding beauty of it.
‘Handsome!’
Hugh Belcourt, the aide-de-camp who’d been admiring that face, noticed the deepening furrows between the man’s brows and hastily lowered his head.
“Y-yes! But the physician said there’s no cause for concern—the fever simply hasn’t broken yet.”
“The servants?”
“I’ve verified their conduct as you instructed.”
“Was what she told me true?”
……Yes.”
The aide bowed his head apologetically.
“Ha.”
The Count exhaled sharply, as though appalled.
Those who worked in his house on his coin had treated his daughter in such a manner.
They’d made her wash in cold water, forbidden her the fireplace in winter, denied her proper bedding.
Crack.
His fists, clenched until the knuckles turned white, trembled.
He could bear it no longer.
“How dare they…….”
A voice cold enough to wring necks echoed through the Study.
……
Hearing this, the aide instinctively touched the envelope in his breast pocket.
Retirement… now?
The handsome Count—merely gazing at whom could strangle a man’s breath—had evolved into a handsome demon.
Of course, he wouldn’t dance with blades like the mad nobles of rumor.
He was too refined for that.
But the Count knew more than fifty ways to make a man beg him to do exactly that.
‘Why did they have to touch the Count’s daughter…….’
That paternal love had suddenly bloomed in the Count’s chest was, without question, impossible.
His indifference to his children was no new thing.
Count Sablehart’s life’s purpose was merely to accumulate wealth and elevate his house’s honor, and his children were but necessary conditions for achieving that end.
That Daisy Sablehart had fallen outside the scope of the Count’s fleeting attention was precisely because of this.
He was far too occupied to spare a thought on a daughter without ability.
‘But that didn’t mean it was all right to abuse the Count’s child…….’
The Count abhorred crossing the line.
And this time, the servants had crossed it far, far beyond.
“Is there anything else the girl didn’t mention?”
“Yes, sir. It appears that most of the Countess’s jewelry that Miss inherited has gone missing.”
“Gone missing?”
“Yes, sir. The servants claim that Miss lost them, but…….”
There was no stupider thing than believing that story under these circumstances.
The Count barely contained his sudden fury, pressing a hand to his forehead.
He couldn’t comprehend it at all.
“Why didn’t she tell me about something like that?”
“That is…….”
The aide swallowed hard and continued carefully.
“It appears she mentioned that you had confiscated them, sir.”
“I confiscated them…….”
“The servants insisted that Miss had actually lost them and made up that story to shift the blame onto them—but that makes no sense. The claim didn’t come from Miss herself; one of the servants whispered it to her.”
The aide’s murmuring words barely registered.
A memory flickered through the Count’s mind—a conversation from some time ago.
‘You can’t even manage to lie properly.’
‘……I’m sorry, Father…….’
‘Enough. I never expected anything anyway.’
‘…….’
What had she been thinking then?
Watching him speak to her that way, after he’d confiscated her jewelry.
“So the girl believes that everything she’s endured was done at my command…….”
“……My apologies, sir.”
It wasn’t entirely wrong.
His indifference had indeed invited the servants’ audacity.
But thinking that he had ordered it—that was something else entirely.
“Except for those who had no part in this, turn everyone else over for trial. Track down the jewelry, and secure witnesses.”
“Yes, understood.”
“Remember that everything must proceed in absolute secrecy. If Sablehart’s name so much as gets mentioned while this is being handled, not only will those servants face ruin—you won’t escape it either.”
Retirement… was it really happening now?
Belcourt’s heart rustled with the ghost of a resignation letter.
“Yes, sir!”
Yet the aide answered faithfully.
It was because he’d suddenly remembered the knitting chair he’d splurged on last night in installments.
“Ah, and regarding the butler—we’ve suspended all his duties as of today… Should we hand him over for trial as well?”
“…….”
The Count fell silent for a moment at the aide’s question.
It wasn’t concern for the butler’s treatment; rather, a fresh surge of anger made the base of his skull throb.
“Lock him in his room. There’s something I need to confirm separately.”
“Yes, sir!”
“The girl is recovering well, then?”
“Yes, sir! Since it’s only a common cold, the fever will break any time now—by tomorrow she should be able to get out of bed and return to her duties.”
“…….”
“…….”
“…….”
“Count?”
Did you have something more to say?
The Count offered no response to Belcourt’s careful inquiry.
His chin propped on his hand, his gaze fixed on some point on the desk, his face was deeply furrowed with displeasure.
Yet even that expression seemed beautiful, and Belcourt couldn’t help but admire it.
‘He really is incredibly handsome!’
“Belcourt.”
“Ah, yes, sir!”
At the handsome man’s summons, the aide’s head snapped up.
But the question that followed was something he would never have thought would come from the Count’s lips.
“What do girls that age usually like?”
“……I beg your pardon?”
“Jewels would suit you best, wouldn’t they?”
“Yes, well, I suppose……”
“Prepare them in different colors.”
“B-but… gemstones?”
“That’s right.”
“How… how long until……?”
“Until she wakes up.”
……
Didn’t I just say tomorrow?
In my head, an angel and a demon split into resignation and dismay, taking turns repeating “File that resignation~” and “Are you insane?”
But the Count hadn’t noticed any of this.
He only stood there with that distant, almost enchanted look on his face.
“Belcourt.”
“Yes, sir.”
“She embraced me.”
“Yes, sir.”
I’ve heard it seventeen times today alone.
“As you know, I was far too occupied to concern myself with a child.”
“Of course, sir. I understand perfectly.”
“And yet she embraced me.”
……
It seemed the beautiful demon Count had short-circuited.
* * *
Once again, standing before the Dining Room doors, Daisy’s heart hammered against her ribs as the reckoning drew near.
She wanted to appear confident, but there were far too many things working against her.
Like the ridiculous things she’d spouted before collapsing.
Or the Roundel incident, the one the headmaster had supposedly written to her about.
Or the assignment handed out in the Bear’s Labyrinth.
Or her grades.
Damn it, there were so many.
How would the Count react to all of it?
‘Finding a suitable family to marry her off to, then pinning an appropriate frame-up on her and having her executed seems to take too long. Best to just have her killed now.’
At the thought of the Count saying such things with that glacial expression—cold enough to freeze a man solid—Daisy felt a swell of injustice.
“If you’re going to be like that……”
Her large green eyes began to glisten in an instant.
“Why did you give me the jewels in the first place……!”
You made me hope for nothing!
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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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