She is the Daughter of the Villainess in a Ridiculous Novel - Chapter 5

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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 5
News that Idel had been granted the Clementine surname, and that the former Countess Lopez had been permitted to stay in the Ducal Household, spread through the grounds with remarkable speed.
And along with it, the unflattering rumors about Idel grew more elaborate with every telling.
‘Can you believe it? She called the Duke “Father” the moment she had the chance, you know. And she snapped at the Duchess, demanding to know how they could possibly be family!’
‘And apparently she’s already treating the lowly servants like dirt? It gives me chills!’
For Idel, who had been struggling to pile up just the right amount of villainy, this was rather thrilling news.
‘Everything is going according to plan.’
Lately, she could see the Ducal Household staff quietly avoiding her.
Most likely it was because she kept summoning the maid Diane, the one who had given her the ointment, at all hours, now that they had grown accustomed to each other.
‘Ah, I should thank the Duke, too.’
A few days earlier, Melissa had shot her a look during dinner, urging her to tip over her soup. The Duke had punished the act by ordering her to stay confined in the separate villa, and thanks to that, Idel’s days had been wonderfully comfortable.
‘Since I was told not to meet anyone except the servants.’
In other words, the Duke had not only responded exactly as Melissa wished, he had also handed Idel a sort of holiday.
‘I’ll make sure to repay this debt with my life, Your Grace.’
Idel spread out her notebook beneath a tree, her heart as full as a squirrel with its cheeks stuffed with acorns.
They say that if you’re desperate enough, even Heaven will take your side, and that day she moved to the villa, a few things her younger brother had written in his book report came back to her.
[The scene where the female lead, Jeiana, slips out through the dog hole in the villa garden and meets the male lead, Dante…]
[Author-nim, you are truly a pervert! I thought Melissa would be the end of it, but you’ve gone and kept a final villain just to torment the heroine? On top of that, this villain is the crown prince from the Crow’s Den with a tragic past, and a disciple of a Dark Mage? Isn’t that overloading the setting? I thought he’d be redeemed by clinging to the heroine, but after ‘that incident’ he goes off the rails and…]
A disciple of a Dark Mage. And the Crow’s Den.
Words she had once skimmed past now landed differently, since she had lived in this place long enough to know it.
‘The black magic ghost stories of the back alleys, known as the Crow’s Den, are famous.’
Idel considered it carefully.
‘The female lead, Jeiana, is still only eight. So the villain and his master must still be in the Crow’s Den, too. A Dark Mage should know a thing or two about curses.’
I can’t be certain of it, but those two were the only straws Idel could grasp at to lift the curse. Her situation left her no room to build a new method from scratch.
‘A new method, my foot. Finding a dog hole to get out of this house is already the hard part.’
Just as Idel, rubbing her chin with a finger, was staring hard at the spot where a dog hole might be…
“Oh, found you!”
“Eek!”
A small head popped out of the shrubbery. Idel let out a startled scream and quickly clapped both hands over her mouth as she faced the newcomer.
The one who had appeared so suddenly was none other than the original female lead of this melodramatic world.
“Hic!”
“Oh, goodness, I’m sorry! Is it because of me? Did I startle you?”
Jeiana, her own eyes widening in sympathy at Idel’s hiccup, hurried toward her.
Pale brown hair like a golden field and sky-blue eyes filled Idel’s vision. So did cheeks flushed a peachy pink.
Seeing Jeiana up close for the first time, Idel finally understood the younger brother who had praised the heroine in his book report.
‘…I don’t know why she looks like this, though.’
Idel looked the girl before her over carefully. Jeiana looked like someone who had just come rolling out of the forest.
Her hair, which the maids must have brushed neatly every morning, had turned into a bird’s nest, and the clothes she wore, with grimy sleeve cuffs, were nothing a Ducal daughter could possibly wear.
‘No, never mind the clothes. She was there when she first came to the Ducal Household. She saw everything, how Mom and Dad suffered because of me and Melissa…’
Why on earth did she come? Has she come to punish me herself?
But if that were the case, the female lead’s smile was far too bright.
“You, hic! Don’t you know who I am? Hic!”
Inwardly flustered, Idel shot the question back at Jeiana in a sharp tone. Her hand still covered her mouth, so her pronunciation came out a bit garbled, but it was intelligible enough.
“Hm? I do! You’re my little sister. They said I could meet you in a few days, but you didn’t come for ages, so I decided to find you myself. By the way, your hiccups are bad. What should we do? Doesn’t it hurt?”
“Hic!”
Those eyes, brimming with genuine concern and not a speck of hatred, made Idel press her lips shut.
Noticing the uncertain look on Idel’s face, Jeiana gave a little wrinkle of her nose and smiled shyly.
“You don’t have to be so guarded. It’s just… at first I was upset too, but before bed the stars gave me an answer. They said you might be my gift. Honestly, I’ve always wished I had a little sister.”
She whispered as if it were a secret, and the sight was so endearing that Idel rolled her eyes for a moment.
Sure enough, it had not been an idle worry. Jeiana was exactly the sort of person who could make her heart go soft beyond measure. Like that nameless man in her previous life to whom she had owed her life, she was the kind who tried to believe in the good in others.
‘…No. That’s exactly why I need to keep my distance.’
Even if she planned to reveal the truth after saving the Duke, until then the only face she could show was a wicked one.
Besides, what if she got close to this girl and ended up suffering at Melissa’s hands for it?
Idel frowned slightly and snapped back in a sulky tone.
“Who said you’re my sibling? Hic! It’s filthy, so don’t come near me. And don’t you dare touch me.”
“Oh, right, sorry! I’m a bit dirty, huh? Actually, I told a little fib that I’d be playing in the glass greenhouse, and I swapped clothes with Jacob.”
“What? Then he’s….”
“Mm…”
Jeiana didn’t answer, but the playful smile and the bridge of her nose wrinkling back up said everything.
Thinking of the boy who would be wearing the young lady’s dress, a laugh nearly slipped out of her. Idel barely held it back and set her face in a stiff expression.
“Pfft… ahem!”
“Oh, the hiccups stopped!”
Jeiana answered with a small smile, then rolled her eyes and quickly changed the subject.
“Anyway, I came in not by the proper way, so I’m a little messy. If you go straight from here, there are some statues. Push through the berry bushes behind the sixth statue and there’s a secret path!”
Wait. Don’t tell me this is…
“A secret path?”
“Yeah, it connects to the back mountain of the Ducal Household. It’s my secret hideout.”
Found it, the gap in the fence from the book report!
“Oh, that’s not what I meant to say! I mean, everything on me is just dirt and leaves. It doesn’t smell, I promise. Um, does it… smell? It doesn’t, right?”
Smell? Who cares if it smells a little. She’d just solved something that could have taken days!
Idel suppressed the joy welling up inside her and gave a small cough.
Then she glared at her with a sullen expression and grumbled.
“Like dirt isn’t filthy? Twigs and leaves stuck in your hair… What if there are bugs in there? I’m leaving.”
“Wait, wait! I’ll tidy up quickly. So don’t go, okay?”
She was so flustered that she seemed to forget she was supposed to stop her, and a small hand clutched her wrist tightly.
Only after Idel twisted her wrist free did Jeiana notice, and with her other hand she quickly brushed at her own hair.
But did leaves and twigs fall out just from shaking? All it did was make her hair even messier.
Idel watched Jeiana in silence, torn for a moment.
‘This is the perfect time to coldly and cruelly shake her off…’
But seeing the hand that gripped so hard, as if it would never let go, and the eyes that kept checking on her again and again, she couldn’t bring herself to do it.
‘…Pushing her away would be too much, right? I’ll pretend to be disgusted instead.’
If she said plenty of nasty things, she could at least buy some time to fix her hair.
Idel let out a deliberate sigh and scolded Jeiana curtly.
“Are you an idiot? Hey, stop moving and stay still.”
“Hm? O-okay!”
Idel rose onto her tiptoes to pick off the things still clinging to Jeiana’s hair.
The problem was that even so, she still couldn’t reach the leaves at the crown of her head.
It was because she was small for her age. Giving up on removing them, she raised one eyebrow and set the notebook she was holding down on the ground.
“Ugh… what a hassle.”
“Sorry…”
Idel brushed off Jeiana’s apology without a second thought, stepped onto the notebook, and reached out again.
Just as she leaned a little farther, feeling like she could almost touch them, her foot slipped on the smooth cover of the notebook. Dirt on the sole of her shoe had caused it.
“Ah!”
“Eek!”
In the instant of that “Ah,” Idel tumbled forward on top of Jeiana. It was only natural that Jeiana, unable to bear Idel’s weight, fell straight over.
A dull thud echoed across the garden along with their brief cries.
“Ugh…”
Idel was the first of the two to come to her senses.
At the faint groan from beneath her, Idel quickly lifted her upper body and grabbed Jeiana’s shoulder.
“Hey, hey, are you okay?”
Their bodies were still tangled together, but Idel didn’t think about that much.
Her mind was filled with worry that the kid might have hurt her head.
Even if the ground was dirt and grass, she had slammed the back of her head right onto it, hadn’t she?
“Ow… mm, I’m, I’m fine.”
“Really? What about your head? Aren’t you dizzy or anything?”
Idel, having forgotten she was supposed to play the cruel one, raised her hand to check the back of Jeiana’s head.
“Lady Jeiana!”
Footsteps of several people sounded from one side of the garden. Idel’s and Jeiana’s heads turned toward the sound at the same moment.
Led by Head Maid Silvia, a group of servants came running. Every one of them was sweating, their faces deathly pale.
“What on earth happened here?”

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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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