She is the Daughter of the Villainess in a Ridiculous Novel - Chapter 4

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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 4
I clamped my mouth shut, thinking that if my will was strong enough I might be able to resist, but I couldn’t overcome the Curse’s compulsion.
“…A daughter? Why would the Duchess be my mother? Then where’s my mom? I know the Duke is family because Mom told me, but how am I supposed to be family with a Duchess who isn’t even my mother?”
“Ah… Idel, that is, this is, um…”
“You’re the only one who has to accept it, Idel. I won’t acknowledge any sort of relationship with Former Countess Lopez, nor will I keep her nearby. I won’t force you, but I would prefer that you never deny Lowena again.”
Reading discomfort and hurt on his wife’s face, the Duke cut Idel’s words short without hesitation.
Then, the moment his cold, contemptuous gaze swept toward Melissa, another command dropped into Idel’s head.
[Cry.]
“Waaaah…!”
[Cry even harder. Throw a tantrum, demanding your ‘my mom.’]
“No, nooo… Waaah! I want to stay with my mom, let me stay with her! Wahhh! I don’t need a new mom!”
“As upset as you are, it can’t be helped. That won’t happen.”
At the Duke’s firm answer, Idel’s crying grew louder still.
Her high, almost shrieking voice and wide, glaring eyes looked like nothing so much as a child kicking and screaming, and the Duke’s expression twisted a little further.
“It seems she hasn’t been taught properly enough.”
“Vincent!”
Startled by his uncharacteristically cold tone, Lowena hurriedly pulled Idel into her arms.
It was because Idel looked as though she’d make herself ill if left like this.
The Duchess, who had been scolding her husband with a pale, stricken face, squeezed her eyes shut at the sight of the child instinctively clinging to her.
‘Wasn’t that too rash…?’
The child had been shut away for several days and had only now been reunited with her mother.
The little girl who, the moment she entered the drawing room, went straight for her mother’s embrace.
‘She said she’s seven now, didn’t she.’
Jeiana, who is eight, still finds it hard to sleep alone in her own room.
The Duchess couldn’t help but picture her own daughter, Jeiana, a child of the same age, in Idel’s place.
What if Jeiana were forced to be separated from her? What if she were crying like this?
The mere thought made her heart feel like it was being torn apart.
“…Idel, shh, it’s all right. Hm? There, there.”
“Waaaaah…!”
“You don’t have to call me Mom. You won’t be separated from your mother, either, all right?”
“Lowena!”
Ignoring even the Duke’s hand that had landed on her shoulder in alarm, the Duchess continued to soothe Idel.
“Hic… hu… R-really?”
“I promise.”
As if reassured, Idel’s sobs began to subside.
Stroking the back of the child who was gasping for breath, Lowena bit down hard on her lower lip.
“Sylvia, go and bring some water and ointment. And as for you, Sister…”
Though the wound that had never fully healed was torn open again and her heart felt like it might break, Lowena finally made up her mind.
‘Yes, the child… she’s done nothing wrong.’
Looking at Melissa with calm, settled eyes, she spat out the words.
“I’ll allow you to stay in the Ducal Household.”
“Lowena, would you not reconsider, just once more?”
“…Vincent, Idel is only seven. She’s a year younger than Jeiana.”
“….”
Vincent Clementine understood at once what his wife meant, and the emotion carried in her trembling voice as well.
The man who had been dragged through hell for the past few days felt a terrible unease and bent his will. He could never argue with his wife’s words.
“…Lowena, I’ll do as you wish. But the term will last until the time Idel makes her debutante appearance. By then, the child should understand her own situation.”
Lowena nodded at her husband’s consent and accepted the water and ointment from the Head Maid.
“Idel, I know it’s hard, but shall we sit you up a little? Just a few sips of water. And put some ointment on your eyes.”
“Huu…”
The Duke watched Idel, utterly spent, and Lowena tending to her, and swallowed a deep sigh.
Meanwhile, Idel, who had finally caught her breath in the Duchess’s arms, secretly let her eyes burn with a sharp, steady light.
‘Disgusting.’
It irritated her that he would use her to get what he wanted without lifting a finger, and it was even more distasteful that he didn’t spare a single thought for the child’s feelings or her relationships with the people around her.
Noticing Melissa’s lips curl up ever so slightly, Idel squirmed in the embrace and spoke.
“…I want to go.”
“Idel?”
“…I’m going to my room.”
“…Yes, you must be tired after all that crying. Then go on and rest now, and we’ll see each other again later. Take the ointment with you. Your skin is delicate, so it may sting for a while even after some time has passed.”
Without so much as a proper farewell, Idel left the drawing room, leaving Lowena to fuss over her even as they parted.
Turning on her heel without a decent goodbye was hardly becoming of a noble young lady, but no one was about to scold a child whose eyes were swollen from crying so hard.
Walking down the corridor outside the drawing room, Idel quietly ground her teeth. Her mind was made up.
‘Somehow, I’m going to save the Duke.’
Originally, she’d only meant to help if she had the means to spare. It wasn’t as if she knew the original work inside and out, and she had her own hide to save.
She’d been meaning to put her escape from this place first, but…
‘When I do make my escape, I’ll make sure to collect this debt from Melissa.’
Let her watch the very thing she’d been craving slip right out of her grasp.
On top of that, now that she thought it over, if the Duke was saved, people would likely believe her when she said Melissa had made her do wicked things.
‘Then I can leave the Ducal Household with my head held high. And I could openly declare that those two aren’t my real parents, too.’
The risk would certainly grow, but so would what she stood to gain.
‘For now, I suppose I should start by lifting this curse.’
With that resolved, Idel let out a small sigh, her brow furrowed. She had cried so hard and so loudly that her whole body ached as if she’d been beaten. Just then—
“Young Lady Idel, shall I carry you?”
At the gentle voice beside her, Idel faltered for a moment.
“…No thanks.”
“But you seem to be having a hard time walking, miss.”
“I said no!”
She shrieked in a hoarse voice and stomped her feet with deliberate force.
Somewhere nearby, someone let out a small “Ugh.” Only then did Idel rub her eyes irritably, as if fussing, and wipe the sweat from her forehead.
‘Phew, that was close.’
The servants’ guard had clearly loosened. A few of them were even looking at her with pity. No matter how hateful a child’s behavior, I suppose a girl who cries until her eyes swell up always looks pitiful.
‘But I can’t let that happen.’
Once the brainwashing wears off, that might be different, but while the curse is still firmly in place, I have to remain Melissa’s good daughter.
A child who treats everyone in the Ducal Household except her birth mother as a villain, and who makes a habit of behaving badly.
“Um, Young Lady Idel, instead of doing that, wouldn’t it be better to just let me hold you…”
At the maid speaking to her once more, Idel narrowed her triangular eyes and whipped her head around.
“I said no, didn’t I! Have you been making fun of me this whole time?”
“Huh? Ah, no, no! I’d never make fun of you, my lady! It’s only that you look so pale…”
“And so? I said I’m fine, so what business is it of yours… Wait a moment.”
The words spilling from her sour expression abruptly faltered. The servant who had caught her attention just so happened to be someone she knew.
‘Isn’t that the maid whose palm got cut on that paper earlier?’
Her heart, which had been sharpened to a fine edge, wavered the moment she saw the hand that hadn’t even been properly treated. The maid stood there, tense and nervous, yet had mustered the courage to speak up again when she could have simply pretended not to notice.
‘Of all the…’
Idel chewed the inside of her cheek, deliberating, until something seemed to occur to her and she blinked.
‘Wait, if I play this right, I can get both things done.’
She had the ointment the Duchess had given her in her hand right now. And since they were in the main estate’s corridor, there were plenty of eyes around.
‘So all I have to do is make sure the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing, right?’
A few servants whispering and sneaking glances from a distance came into view. They were clearly the ‘gossip-mongers.’
Idel narrowed her eyes and scoffed loudly enough for them to hear.
“What’s this? Oh, it’s you again?”
“Ah, um, that’s…”
“You, I suppose you thought I’d let that little incident slide earlier, didn’t you…”
“No, no! I’d never think something like that! How could I possibly dare…!”
“Oh, is that so?”
Idel planted a hand on her hip and knitted her brows.
Glaring at the maid with the most spiteful expression she could muster, she suddenly wore a triumphant look, as if struck by an idea.
“I see! You’re planning to run to the grown-ups and tell them I’ve been bullying you, aren’t you? You’ll wave your wounds at them, wounds, wou… Anyway, you’ll use that! That’s why you won’t go to the doctor and keep hanging around me, isn’t it!”
“…Uh…”
“Wait, now that I think about it, all these other kids are on your side too, aren’t they? Ha! I knew it! You made me lose my temper on purpose!”
“No, that’s really not…”
Watching the maid’s face flush with bewilderment and indignation, Idel quickly cut in.
“Hmph! Not a chance.”
Among the basic accomplishments of a nasty, spiteful child was ‘refusing to listen to others and insisting on being right.’
Idel called to mind the infuriating child actors she’d seen in dramas.
Lifting her chin and pulling one corner of her mouth up in a sneer, she marched over to the maid and shoved the ointment into her hands.
“Y-Young Lady Idel?”
“From now on, you come to me every day so I can check whether your hand has healed. And if you tell anyone I hurt you, I won’t let you off easy!”
Balling up her tiny fist to show it, Idel turned sharply on her heel and started walking.
Watching her retreating back, still fuming with indignation, the servants who remained whispered among themselves.
“Ugh, her personality is really something… How can you even compare her to Lady Jeiana?”
“Right? Diane was only trying to help, with the best of intentions… Poor thing.”
The whispers drifting from behind her were a reward to Idel.
Having shown her spiteful side just as planned and landed a few jabs, she slipped into her room with a satisfied smile.
‘Ha, now I can finally breathe easy!’
Being good really is the way to live. Whether anyone notices or not!

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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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