She is the Daughter of the Villainess in a Ridiculous Novel - Chapter 14

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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 14
Her lips curled as she looked the head maid up and down, then she tilted her head slightly and spoke again. Her quiet voice sank lower, laced with warning.
“I don’t dislike people who speak their minds. But I can’t stand fools. A head maid should have enough sense to think about what the person she serves truly needs right now, don’t you agree?”
After all, a parrot could be anyone, not just you.
Just as Silvia was about to open her mouth at Melissa’s mocking sneer, a voice that could not be ignored spilled out from inside the room.
“Mo…ther……”
At the most inconvenient moment, the head maid turned toward the inside of the room.
The Ducal Household’s newest member stood there, lips stubbornly pressed shut, staring in their direction.
Gasping for breath as though she might collapse at any moment, yet relentlessly searching for Melissa.
“Idel!”
Melissa did not miss the instant the head maid faltered.
She shoved the woman aside with one hand, rushed forward, and gathered the child into her arms.
Silvia glanced from the two red-haired figures to her own mistress, checking where she stood.
The Duchess remained silent, gripping the hem of her skirt, simply watching the scene unfold.
Her face bore the same restrained expression it had worn the day these two first arrived at the Ducal Household.
‘…She must be terribly upset. I should have never let them set foot on this floor.’
It was her own oversight. Swallowing the sting of her own distress, she firmly shut the door.
Meanwhile, Melissa, holding Idel, blinked back tears as she slowly ran her hands over the child’s body.
The child had carried out a ‘reckless act’ that she had never ordered, so she had to make sure the restriction had not been compromised.
“Idel, when I heard you’d left the annex and collapsed, my heart nearly stopped. Why on earth would you do such a thing? Why.”
Despite the worried tone, a sharp blade lay hidden within Melissa’s words.
Pulling the child away from her chest, she cupped Idel’s cheeks and gently wiped the sweat from her forehead.
Melissa’s violet eyes searched Idel’s gaze relentlessly.
“…I’m sorry. I just…”
A trembling voice and eyes that could not focus.
Idel was still afraid of her. Afraid of her very existence, and of being abandoned by her.
Having confirmed the most important thing, she silently issued a command in her mind.
[Enough. Close your eyes and collapse just like that.]
“……”
The child could not even part her lips before she crumpled with a soft slump.
Confirming that the curse remained intact, Melissa caught Idel in her arms and cried out.
“Idel? Idel! Open your eyes a little, Idel!”
“Sister, calm down. They’ve already called only the Doctor, so he’ll be here soon…”
“Calm? Did you just say calm? If this were your daughter, would you have been this composed?”
Tears welling in her eyes, Melissa snapped sharply at her younger sister.
The sight of her sister looking so wounded stirred a strange feeling in her chest.
Setting aside her thoughts of Lowena until the day her plan came to fruition, she turned toward the Duke and spat out her cutting words.
“Your Grace, you’re being far too harsh! I heard you scolded the child in front of everyone. How much pressure must she have been under to collapse so suddenly like this?”
“……”
At Melissa’s words, Vincent’s expression grew complicated.
Because the image of the child who had rushed at him, screaming and sobbing, rose vividly before his eyes.
‘I-I hate everyone! Hic! I hate you, Duke, and the Duchess, and her too, hic! I hate her too! I hate the kids who only say no, and I hate it here, I hate this place!’
‘I’m going home… hic! This isn’t our home, waaah… I’m going to see my friend, hic, the one who wants to see me too!’
Those were the words the child had spoken as well.
At that, his head throbbed unbearably.
‘Was what I did really nothing more than rationalization wearing the mask of discipline?’
He did not think so. Idel had kept escalating her misdeeds, as though mocking his discipline as meaningless.
That was precisely why he had tried to show her where the line was, wasn’t it?
‘But…’
Watching the feverish child collapse, he felt the boundary between the two blur. Vincent spoke through his teeth, his mood sinking further with every word.
“…She did wrong, so discipline was necessary. Idel crossed the line.”
“Wrong? Crossed the line? Is this about her dumping soup at the dinner table and rolling around with Jeiana? Your Grace, Idel is a child. Was her mischief serious enough to leave her alone for days on end?”
“Don’t twist the facts. What Idel has done up to now is not something to be brushed aside so lightly. Among the Ducal Household’s servants, there are those who have been…”
“Servants.”
Cutting Vincent off curtly, Melissa let out a brief, hollow laugh.
It was partly an act she needed to perform, but as she watched the Duke speak up as though defending Lowena, a sneer slipped out on its own.
‘Still hanging on, are you? What, because Lowena so generously understands this mess?’
Swallowing her twisted feelings beneath a thin smile, Melissa let her gaze drift briefly toward the world beyond the door.
Then she deliberately raised her voice so that it would carry all the way outside.
“Yes, she’s a servant. Just a servant! What’s wrong with that?”
“Madam, watch your tongue. They are my people.”
“Then is Idel some other man’s child?”
Sensing the air in the room grow heavy, Melissa drew a slow breath.
“…I suppose Idel’s illness has me riled up. If we stay any longer, we’ll only hurt each other’s feelings. I’ll take my leave first.”
“….”
“But, Your Grace, whether you find me unbearable or not, you should remember whose blood Idel carries. She’s your child, just like Jeiana, isn’t she?”
With those words, she crossed the room, pulled her lips into a cold smile, and opened the door.
“No, that’s too much—”
“Hey. Shh. The door’s open!”
“….”
Just as I thought, it worked. Melissa had made two moves with this incident.
One was for her plan, and the other was to remind Idel once more of her own place.
Brainwashing that relies solely on the curse isn’t as effective as one might hope. That’s why I gave her a warning along with some room to act on her own…
‘Is it because she’s a child? I thought she’d understood the warning well enough, but she’s forgetting it so easily.’
Replaying Idel’s reckless behavior, Melissa rubbed her neck, a habit by now.
‘Well, I’ll just use the servants’ hostility to isolate her.’
She’s a perceptive child, so she’ll surely remember the warning I gave her. And then she’ll realize. Her world consists of only ‘Melissa Lopez.’
Before leaving the room, Melissa turned her head and let her gaze rest for a moment on Idel, who lay with her eyes closed.
Her lips were dry and cracked, and her forehead was beaded with cold sweat.
Even a stranger would pity the sight of her, yet Melissa didn’t so much as blink.
Instead, she simply approached a maid named Diane, whom Idel often called for among the servants, and tossed out a few words.
“I hear Idel is fond of you.”
“Me? Y-yes?”
“I’ll be keeping an eye on you as well. Do look after her well.”
Her low, clinging voice slithered over Diane like a snake.
It wasn’t said out of concern for a sick child. It was said because, if handled well, this maid might prove a useful piece to play.
‘Nothing is harder than having your affection rejected by the one you’ve given it to.’
Melissa left, anticipating the day Idel would realize her mistake and come to her of her own accord.
She only hoped the girl would learn her place quickly, before Melissa had to do something worse.
* * *
Even after Melissa had left, the servants who had stood upright in their places only let the tension leave their bodies once every trace of her presence had vanished.
Those who had been running about all this time searching for Idel finally let out sighs laced with complaint, dancing to the tune Melissa had set.
“…Honestly, what a bolt from the blue this is.”
“Tell me about it. She vanishes from the mansion out of nowhere, we search ourselves half to death, and now she collapses?”
“Because of that, we’ll have to stay on standby without any rest. And you heard it too, didn’t you? What the former Countess said.”
“That bit about us being ‘just servants’?”
The servants’ faces twisted with displeasure.
Servants they might be, but they weren’t nobodies scraped together from the street. They were people of the Ducal Household.
People who had cleared every strict qualification before entering service.
Their pride, which they had carried all along while working, had been wounded. Perhaps that was why.
From somewhere in the group, a rather dangerous speculation blurted out.
“Hey, surely it’s not all a lie, is it? What if His Grace pities Lady Idel and decides to withdraw the punishment he imposed?”

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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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