She is the Daughter of the Villainess in a Ridiculous Novel - Chapter 1

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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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I Am the Villainess’s Daughter in a Melodramatic Novel
Chapter 1
“Idel, she’s the Duke’s daughter.”
No, that’s not right.
“Sister? What did you just say…?”
“I’m sorry, Lowena. That night, at my wedding eve party, it was me who spent the night with the Duke.”
That’s a lie too.
As she listened to Melissa’s brazen lie, Idel blinked slowly.
She could clearly see the shocked expressions of Duke Clementine and the Duchess.
And beside them, the female lead of the novel, looking uneasy.
“That’s a lie! Lord Lopez was there that night too… He…”
“Yes, now do you remember? He left for the Count’s Residence first. The three of us kept drinking. I thought it was my last chance. My last chance to be honest about my ‘true’ love.”
“No way, Sister… It isn’t, is it?”
Even in the eyes of her trembling younger sister, Melissa firmly denied the very thing she had wanted.
“That’s right. I mixed in a stronger liquor. Strong enough to knock down not only you, but even the Duke. And once you and the Duke had completely passed out…”
“…I can’t believe it. There’s no resemblance between that girl and me to begin with, is there?”
“Ha, I didn’t expect you to believe it easily. If you’re so insistent, you might as well conduct a paternity test yourself.”
“Then that’s why you never once showed me the child all this time…”
“Yes, exactly.”
In the room drowning in confusion, Melissa placed a hand on Idel’s shoulder and spoke in a low, bewitching voice. Her red hair, so much like Idel’s, fluttered gracefully.
“If my husband hadn’t died, I would have kept this secret buried until the end for your sake. But he’s gone now, and the Count family’s power belongs to his younger brother. Little sister, I had no choice but to think about Idel’s future.”
“….”
“So, Your Grace. I know I’m a burden as your wife’s sister, but please take her in. After all, Idel is your daughter, isn’t she?”
You’d have to look after your own bloodline, after all.
Breathing unsteadily under her sister’s near-deceitful whispers, the Duchess finally swayed.
“Ah, ahh…”
“Lowena!”
“M-Mother!”
Beside the Duchess, who had collapsed with a deathly pale face, the Duke hurriedly summoned a physician.
The female lead stood beside them, tears streaming down her face as she clung to her mother, while the villainess looked at the three of them and pulled up the corners of her crimson-painted lips in a smile. No one noticed.
Watching a scene she’d only ever seen on TV unfold before her eyes, Idel clicked her tongue inwardly.
It was so painfully typical that she could almost hear a rough, string-driven background score playing in her ears.
-Ddan-dan, ddada-dan! Ddan-dan, ddan-dda!
Idel, who had been tapping her pinky finger against her ear to the famous melody playing in her head, suddenly froze. She could feel the servants’ sharp stares fixed on her.
Judging by the faint, half-hearted laugh coming from somewhere nearby, the way she’d tapped her ear with her finger must have looked off to them… Well, it couldn’t be helped.
‘Idel, make your greetings. This is Duke Vincent Clementine. He’s the master of this Ducal Household where we’re standing right now, and your ‘real’ father.’
‘Hello, my name is Idel. Um… Fa…ther.’
From the very moment she’d come here as the villainess’s daughter, or more precisely, from the moment Melissa had set this whole mess alight, it was already decided that she would become the object of everyone’s dislike.
‘Though, when you think about it, I’m just a little brat who greeted people because her ‘mom’ told her to.’
Idel pretended not to notice the displeased, unpleasant glances aimed at her, and once again clicked her tongue inwardly.
‘Of all things, why did I have to be reborn inside the melodrama novel my little sister loved? And why did I have to remember it right as I walked into the Ducal Household holding Mom’s hand?’
This was a spicy makjang novel where betrayal, deception, and implausible developments ran rampant.
Idel was a character cast in the role of ‘betrayal’ among them.
She was the one who, after being raised by people who had taken her in on the grounds that a child is blameless and must bear responsibility, repaid their kindness with hatred by killing the Duke.
After being married off to an old nobleman as if she were being sold, she was the ultimate betrayer who, blinded by jealousy, even laid hands on the female lead.
Of course, later in the novel it’s revealed that her wickedness was the result of the villainess Melissa’s brainwashing, but so what.
By then, Idel’s head had already been cleanly severed.
Killed by the Duchess, who had turned Black after returning from her revenge.
‘Duchess…? You, you were still alive… No, how did you end up here…?’
‘Why, Idel? Were you surprised that I was the ‘Lady Veil’ who always took your side? How does it feel to be betrayed by the one person you trusted?’
‘I, I…’
‘Oh, and the question ‘how’ is mine to ask. Even though I resented your aunt, I raised you as my own daughter. How could you…’
‘Spare me, spare me, please!’
‘Spare you? It’s far too late, my dear. You should have said that before you laid a finger on my daughter.’
Idel’s gaze drifted again to the unconscious Duchess and to Melissa, who stood guard beside her.
So the one collapsed over there is the ‘future Black Duchess’ who drove Idel from the original work to her death, and this woman here is the ‘villainess’ who wields her own daughter as a tool for wickedness, is that right?
‘And now I’m the ‘real’ Idel Clementine? From now on, I’ll be the one everyone despises, the one who walks a path strewn with chrysanthemums.’
Recalling the fate that lay ahead, Idel secretly kicked the table leg with her foot. It was because a surge of resentment was rising inside her.
‘What did I do so terribly wrong in my previous life…!’
I’d lived a good life, never once killing even an ant.
“Quickly, see to the Duchess! And the child… separate her from her birth mother and take her to a room of her own.”
“Yes. Miss, if you’ll follow me.”
Watching the Duke’s reluctant gaze and the servants’ courteous yet frosty demeanor, Idel bit down on her lower lip.
The more she chewed over her own situation, the more a hot, bubbling feeling welled up inside her.
‘No, objectively speaking, who’s the most confused person in this room? Aren’t the children?’
Honestly, a love-triangle drama!
In the sumptuous drawing room of the Clementine Ducal Household, said to hold the very essence of the mansion, Idel reached her conclusion quickly.
‘That’s it. I need to get out of this damned original work as soon as possible.’
If my little sister from my previous life had heard that resolution, she would have lectured me that in a child-rearing drama like this, you have to win over the original leads with charm, cleverness, and cuteness. But could I really pull that off?
Besides, this isn’t even a simple child-rearing story. It’s a makjang where plausibility has been thrown to the dogs.
‘No matter how I think about it, running away is the best option.’
With her head throbbing, Idel dug through the memory of her previous life that had just surfaced, hoping there might be something in it that could help.
* * *
In her previous life, Idel had never once found any enjoyment in makjang.
She found it absurd that secret births, adultery, conspiracies, and melodrama unfolded with such utter disregard for common sense, and she also thought it strange that people would scold the show and yet never miss an episode. Take, for example…
“Unbelievable!”
Yes, someone exactly like her own sister. On the television her sister was staring at, the drama’s climax was unfolding.
‘Tell me, why! Why am I not allowed to be with her? Is it because I’m thirty years younger than you?! Age… Ha, what does that even matter? How dare it get in the way of our love!’
‘No, Hwihyeol, sob! That’s not it at all! The reason we can’t be together is that you… you’re the long-lost son of my dead sister! I’m your aunt! Waaah!’
‘W-what? Me… the nephew of your sister?’
With a thud of a sound effect, the shocked man and the sobbing woman flashed across the screen in turn.
Her sister had sat with the two leads in a grave silence, and only after the dramatic score swelled and the production sponsor logo appeared did she finally let out a breath.
“That writer is seriously out of their mind! After a thirty-year age gap, what, now she’s an aunt? At this rate, next week some hidden child is going to show up out of nowhere. Ugh, I’m fuming. Did I strain my throat yelling at the screen? I’m thirsty.”
“Right? Why do you go out of your way to stress yourself out like that?”
She meant it.
Her philosophy was that if you were going to waste your emotions on this kind of story, it was far better to just close your eyes and get some rest.
But whenever she said as much, her sister, who called herself a ‘makjang maniac,’ would widen her eyes and argue back.
“Sis. Makjang is the ultimate stress relief. You watch with your brain switched off, and in the end the lead pours out this insane catharsis on you. That’s a dopamine party, right there!”
“…”
“So, about the book report I wrote for <Pitiful Life> this time, read it over for me, okay? I absolutely have to win this ‘Devoted Reader Book Report Contest.’ It’s my chance to meet the author face to face!”
Calling it a book report was generous; the one her sister wrote was nearly the thickness of a thesis.
So if reincarnation had to happen, and if it had to happen inside a makjang novel called <My Pitiful Life!>, wasn’t my sister the perfect candidate for it?
‘Not me, the one who read my sister’s book report.’
Just as she was recalling her sister, who had searched for all sorts of survival tips in case she ever got possessed or reincarnated, a stiff, cold voice cut through her thoughts and snapped her back to reality.
“Lady Idel, you may use this room for the time being.”
Whatever the case, it was me who had to endure this miserable reincarnation, and the makjang, which was bound to be spicy, was now my reality.

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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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