She is the Daughter of the Villainess in a Ridiculous Novel - Chapter 6

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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 6
“W-what, Silvia, that’s just…”
Jeiana spotted Jacob standing among the crowd and hurriedly called out the Head Maid’s name.
She realized that her disappearance without a word had been discovered, and that this was how the trouble had started.
Impatience, guilt, and embarrassment came crashing over her all at once.
Gripped by the need to salvage the situation quickly, Jeiana shot to her feet.
“Hey, wait…!”
Standing up so suddenly is bound to make you dizzy…
“Ah…!”
Well, that’s that.
Idel had meant to stop her, but seeing Jeiana already swaying, she let her hand drop, looking sheepish.
While Idel stood there feeling awkward on her own, the servants who saw Jeiana staggering turned pale.
“Lady Jeiana!”
“Go and fetch Doctor Ai right away!”
“No, there’s no need for that…”
“Miss, are you all right? What on earth happened to you… You’re not hurt anywhere, are you?”
At the flurry of fussing from the Head Maid and the other servants, an apologetic look crossed Jeiana’s face.
It was because she had acted on her own whim, and now the matter had grown far too large.
Just as she parted her lips, intending to reassure everyone, a sharp voice pierced her ears.
It was Silvia’s voice, the one that had been checking over every inch of her body just moments ago.
“Did Lady Idel do this?”
“What?”
“I’m asking whether Lady Idel laid a hand on Lady Jeiana.”
Surprised by Silvia’s icy tone, which she had never heard before, Jeiana’s eyes widened for a moment. Idel laid a hand on her? Since when?
“Wait, Silvia, that’s not it. It’s not like that at all…!”
“If it isn’t, then what? I saw with my own two eyes that Lady Jeiana was covered in dirt and dust, sprawled on the floor. And more than a few people saw Lady Idel raising her hand toward you, Miss.”
“That’s only because Idel was trying to tidy up my hair and tripped!”
“…Please, Lady Idel, tell us yourself. Is that true?”
Jeiana glanced around slowly, confusion spreading through her eyes.
That was because the other servants were nodding along with Silvia’s words.
This was nothing like what she had expected.
‘I thought I’d be scolded for sneaking out… so why…?’
Why would the finger of blame suddenly be pointed at Idel?
The servants who had always treated her so warmly now felt strangely distant to her, just today.
“Lady Idel, if you won’t answer, I have no choice but to tell the Duke exactly what I saw. How you pushed Lady Jeiana aside and raised your hand against her.”
“Silvia! I’m telling you, it’s not like that!”
Realizing her words weren’t getting through, Jeiana stamped her feet and looked at Idel.
It was a look that said, Just tell them it isn’t true.
In the middle of that suffocating stare, Idel, who had been pressing her lips tightly shut, blinked slowly and met Jeiana’s gaze.
The moment she saw Jeiana’s blue eyes, nearly the same shade as her own, trembling with confusion, Idel spoke.
“Yes, I did it.”
“What? Idel! Why would you…”
Why would you tell such a lie?
Gazing calmly into Jeiana’s stunned eyes, Idel curled the corner of her lips.
There were six people here who could practically be called the core of the Ducal Household’s servants.
‘I was worried Jeiana would go running and blab that she’d helped me, but look at this, a total jackpot!’
An opportunity Melissa would be delighted with had walked right into my lap! This situation suits me just fine.
“So you admit to pushing Lady Jeiana around and tormenting her?”
“What, going to run and tell on me?”
At that child’s insufferably smug tone, the atmosphere around them chilled.
Idel savored the sharp glares of the servants and lifted her chin a little higher, sitting even more upright.
She even stuck out the tip of her tongue, as if to say, What are you going to do about it?
“You’re being scolded right now, and you’re not even scared? Hmph.”
“Haah… Lady Idel.”
“It was her from the start, she’s the one who…”
Just as Idel was about to offer an even more unsightly excuse, a head of light auburn hair popped up beside her and shielded her.
Jeiana fixed her intense gaze on Idel for a moment, then began defending her in a voice thick with pleading.
“That’s not it! I don’t know why Idel is saying this… but she wasn’t trying to push me. She was trying to brush the dust off my hair and fell over. I swear it!”
“….”
Having blamed Jeiana, Idel was trying to slink away like a thief caught red-handed, but she squeezed her eyes shut inwardly.
Honestly, it was help—kind and well-meant, but hardly welcome.
“So, Idel is shorter than me, right? That’s why, uh, I put my notebook down, and the notebook—!”
“….”
“Ugh, seriously, what?”
At this rate, Jeiana would talk her way out of the misunderstanding in no time, so Idel cut her off.
‘I only meant to siphon off the servants’ misunderstanding, but there’s no help for it.’
Stepping a full pace away from Jeiana, as if she couldn’t stand being near her, Idel flicked her hair back with one hand.
Then she scolded the girl in a frosty voice.
“I told you not to come near me. You’re filthy.”
“Huh? That’s true, but, b-but that’s a bit different…!”
“It’s not different at all, you idiot?”
“No way! I’m sure when you were pulling the twig out, your voice was really ni….”
“One moment, Lady Jeiana. So you’re saying Lady Idel also hurled abuse at you?”
Jeiana’s small defense was buried beneath the Head Maid’s icy words. To be precise, it was less that they had failed to believe her and more that they simply wouldn’t.
To the servants, Idel was the ugly duckling, and Jeiana was the gentlest of lambs.
Idel’s tone of voice, her behavior, even her everyday conduct.
Every servant wore tinted spectacles of a different shade, and none of them felt any need to see what they had witnessed with their own eyes in any other light.
‘Which is very convenient for me.’
While the situation unfolded quite plausibly in her favor, and Idel was relieved, Jeiana’s face crumpled by the moment.
It was because the scene before her, like talking to a wall, was utterly maddening.
With tears welling in her eyes, Jeiana huffed and puffed, and before long she began letting fat, pearl-like tears spill down her cheeks.
The wail of a child in utter misery rang loudly through the Garden.
“No, no-o…! It’s all a lie, Idel didn’t do that, she didn’t…. Waaah!”
“Lady Jeiana.”
“Sniff, hic! No, don’t touch me…!”
The servants, startled, rushed over in a panic to soothe her, but it was no use.
Jeiana, now sobbing at the top of her lungs, went so far as to shake off the hands reaching for her.
Her ragged breathing and the flushed rims of her eyes were painful to see. Idel nearly reached out without thinking, then caught herself just in time.
Truthfully, she had expected that Jeiana would shield her to some extent.
It wasn’t so much because of the novel, but because of the impression Jeiana had given when they first met.
Knowing that, Idel had looked away anyway, because she didn’t want to let the chance slip by…
Faced with Jeiana’s goodwill, which was far greater than she’d anticipated, Idel quietly bit the inside of her cheek.
‘Honestly, why is she crying so miserably, as if she’s the one who’s been falsely accused?’
…Now I feel sorry for her.
Just as Idel was starting to steal glances at Jeiana, worried that she might do herself harm if she kept crying like this.
Jeiana, who had been crying for a long while, suddenly seemed to remember something and, sniffling, opened her mouth.
“And ‘filthy,’ filthy means, hic, that’s, that’s the secret pa—the time I sneak around with Jacob….”
And of all things, she was about to say what she absolutely should not.
“Hey!”
“Mmf, mm-mmf!”
Idel dashed over and clamped a hand firmly over Jeiana’s mouth, her eyes wide as she met Jeiana’s gaze.
‘You nearly gave me a heart attack! What are you doing bringing up the Secret Path there!’
From the look of it, the people of the Ducal Household seemed ready to build a wall of diamonds if that was what it took to keep her safe.
If that single remark were to seal off the only remaining Secret Path of the Ducal Household…
‘Then not just me, but all of us would be ruined.’
I would never get to the Dark Mage, and I’d be controlled by Melissa until the very end, while the Duke would die.
Of course, if the angelic Duchess returned having made her choice, things might change, but in the meantime Jeiana would suffer a great deal of misfortune she didn’t need to suffer.
Whatever Idel’s hidden intentions, her outward behavior was enough to make the servants recoil in horror and then some.
The Head Maid, her expression hardening at Idel’s sudden outburst, raised her voice and gave orders.
“Lady Jeiana! You lot, get Lady Idel off of her… no, don’t just stand there, escort her!”
“Y-yes, ma’am!”
Idel kept her piercing gaze fixed on Jeiana right up until the moment the servants rushed in and pulled her away.
Just in case Jeiana hadn’t understood, she even made a secret gesture of zipping her lips shut. It was an unmistakable message: don’t say a word.
Just then.

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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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