She is the Daughter of the Villainess in a Ridiculous Novel - Chapter 27

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

I Am the Villainess’s Daughter in a Melodramatic Novel
Chapter 27
The children vanished in the blink of an eye, and Diane jolted, pointing a finger toward the back of the shop.
“O-oh, I-I’ll just go for a moment, too…!”
“Oh, yes, please go on ahead.”
“Thank you!”
Ivan watched her hurry off, a faint smile tugging at his lips.
He’d sensed it at the café the other day as well, but both of the young ladies were so lively that it had to be quite a handful for her.
“Ha ha, children, eh…”
“It’s good to see them so healthy. Oh, and thank you again for your help. Even though it was Miss Idel’s doing, I’m embarrassed to have dropped in on you so unexpectedly.”
“Think nothing of it. This old man is glad for the company. It’ll do my apprentice good to take a look at a grimoire for once.”
Brushing off his thanks with a light wave, Bilead lowered himself into a chair like an old man and fell silent.
Calm as he looked on the surface, Bilead’s thoughts were anything but quiet. They had been ever since he’d returned to the shop, having received word from the proprietor he had left in charge, and heard the story.
‘Creation of Life… It’s unlikely they actually pulled off that insane feat, but the subject of their research and the way they handle their work are far too similar to those bastards.’
He’d felt the same thing when he’d seen the Curse on Idel.
One coincidence could be just that, but when the same instinct kept nagging at him, it was no longer a coincidence. Not in matters like this.
‘Even if it means taking a small risk, I have to confirm it. If they make their move in earnest, then…’
“Ugh, this thing’s damnably heavy. Master, I’ve brought the grimoires… sir.”
Sigmund studied his aged master’s face, which was unlike his usual self, and awkwardly tacked on the honorific.
Watching him, the old man chuckled in the manner of a kindly grandfather and slowly rose from his seat.
“Heh heh, yes. Let’s have a look.”
“May I look too? If you tell me what to search for, I can read them well! Though I might not… understand much, I suppose…!”
“Oh, Idel’s older sister, is it?”
“Yes! I’m Jeiana!”
“Very well. The more hands the better. If you come across words like gallstone, stone, hallucination, or brainwashing in the grimoires, please set them aside over here.”
“Huh? Not pregnancy or babies?”
Bilead nodded at the sharp gleam in Jeiana’s eyes.
“This old man has been settled in the Crow’s Den for quite some time now. And yet, not so much as a hair’s worth of talk about this matter has reached my ears.”
“Oh…”
While Jeiana looked rather puzzled, Ivan grasped what Bilead meant at once.
“Are you saying it’s more likely that Farrel lied?”
“I hear the physician’s opinion was that they should keep watching for now, is that right?”
“But the priest…”
Ivan, who had been about to answer on reflex, slowly closed his mouth.
It was partly due to the silence of the old mage sitting before him, but mostly because he himself already knew the answer.
‘Not everything that appears before your eyes is absolute.’
It was a line he always recalled whenever he went out to gather a story.
And not long after recalling those words, Ivan admitted that he had been mistaken all along.
“…Hey, isn’t this what you were looking for?”
It was because the young mage, whom he hadn’t expected much from, had turned up a fragment of the truth he had been desperately clinging to.
Before he realized it, he had hurried over, and on the page before his eyes were a word he had never seen and a drawing.
“Gu…?”
“Ah, it’s a kind of familiar magic, but… hmm, one that uses the method of feeding an insect’s eggs to…”
“You feed insect eggs? But wouldn’t the eggs just be digested if you ate them? It’s like how an apple never grows in your belly even if you swallow the seeds.”
“But a ‘Simic’ is a magical beast, so it doesn’t die that way, and…”
As Sigmund answered Ivan’s sharp question without thinking, he suddenly realized something was off.
“Wait. Isn’t it quicker to ask Master instead of me? We don’t even know if this is the answer yet.”
“Ah… yes, you’re right. I got carried away there… Well, then…”
Ivan’s neck flushed red as he took a small notebook from his pocket out of habit and began writing something down.
No matter how urgent things had been, he had completely forgotten, for a moment, that the person in front of him was a child.
While Ivan covered his mouth with the back of his hand to hide his embarrassment, Bilead, whose gaze had remained fixed on the grimoire, spoke up.
“No, you did well to find it, Sigmund.”
“Huh?”
“Familiar magic using a Simic is forbidden Black Magic too… but you’ve got a good head on your shoulders. If you’d been lucky, you could have fooled the physician, and even the one who made the request. Those bastards really are…”
Muttering something unintelligible to himself, he suddenly threw a question at Ivan.
“Do you know how priests and mages diagnose pregnancy, Reporter?”
“No, I don’t know much about that field.”
“Priests and mages determine pregnancy by sensing a foreign energy within the body. That’s because no two energies in this world are exactly alike.”
Whether it’s magic power or holy power, that is.
“If you could look more closely, you’d sense the energy of a living creature, that much is certain.”
“…So you’re saying we’re looking for traces of a ‘life-form’ inside the body that has a different energy from the mother’s?”
“Exactly. And this magical creature Sigmund mentioned, the ‘Simic’…”
“So it has a different energy, which means it can fool priests and mages. I get it, Grandpa. Then what’s this about it being able to fool doctors later on?”
Idel’s impatient prodding, as if she wanted to skip ahead, made Bilead open his mouth, then shut it again.
“That’s… up to the point right before hatching, the egg… Hmm, no. You’re too young to hear this.”
“Huh?”
“Ah, I see. Understood.”
Honestly, now he’s calling us too young and shutting us out?
Idel read the room well enough to grasp the general situation. She glanced around and let out a small scoff.
It seemed Jeiana was the only one here who couldn’t figure out what Bilead had just meant.
Watching Jeiana roll her big round eyes, Idel gave a casual shrug.
‘Is that a good thing or not?’
What good could it possibly do a child to learn about such horrible things this early?
“Well, fine. Setting that aside, according to what you said, that mister lied again, didn’t he?”
“That’s right.”
Arms folded, Idel blinked and turned toward Ivan.
“So what are you planning to do now?”
“Ah, I’ll organize what you’ve told me into notes and then consult with the Count. And with Lady Kalia as well.”
“And after that?”
“Since it’s a highly probable hypothesis, I’ll need to prepare to take it up with Lord Farrel. Ah, but I intend to move quickly. If it’s true that he used the black magic called Gu, then Lord Farrel himself could be in danger.”
“Rejected.”
At a word he never expected to hear from a child, Ivan faltered for a moment.
“…Eh? Pardon?”
“That’s a really boring, unimaginative take. Is that really the best you’ve got?”
She delivered words that would have shaken anyone who made a living writing, then flicked her hair back with one hand.
“You dared to throw down a challenge to me, so I can’t let this slide so easily.”
“What? What does what you’re saying have to do with this story?”
“You’d tell lies so recklessly, and you’re getting caught by mere children? Ha!”
No one had actually challenged her, yet Idel seemed to have already fought a glorious duel with Farrel in her own little world.
As the adults fell silent, deciding to let her have her way, Sigmund, stung by the word “mere,” fired back at her again.
“Hey, let’s be fair. ‘Mere’? The magic book is no small thing, and neither is my skill at analyzing it!”
“Yes, yes, I’ll give you that. Let’s say so.”
“It’s not that you’re giving me anything. It’s the truth, you little… this fool…”
“Fool?”
“…Fluffy little puppy… friend.”
Catching Jeiana’s gaze from the side, he quickly changed his words and clicked his tongue under his breath.
‘Hey, why is she making that face while watching me and the client fight?’
Weren’t they supposed to be on bad terms?
As Sigmund shook his head, saying he could never understand kids like that, Idel, who had been deep in thought for a while, spoke up again.
“I’ve got a good idea.”
“A good idea, you say?”
“Obviously, a way to make Mister Farrel eat dirt. And to use that method, I’ll have to use you.”
“…Me, are you saying?”
“Yes. Ivan Ernest, you.”
Placing a hand on her hip, Idel raised her brows and tugged one corner of her lips into a sly smirk.
It was the kind of wicked smile that the infamous “second daughter” in the rumors would wear.

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