She is the Daughter of the Villainess in a Ridiculous Novel - Chapter 8

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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 8
Idel’s face, standing at the entrance, carried a grim resolve.
‘Unless you want to be caught and become a sacrificial lamb without anyone knowing, don’t go anywhere near the Twin Crow Emblem.’
It was a warning every child raised in the capital heard at least once, regardless of their station. Idel was no exception.
‘Miss, I’ll look the other way if you go outside, but never, ever go near that area. Understood?’
Back then she had simply thought, ‘Oh, is that how it is?’ But now that she thought about it, it was a place worth such repeated pleading. The special district on the Plaza Street, commonly known as the ‘Crow’s Den,’ was a place where dangerous dealings thrived.
‘Where do you think all those materials used in makjang novels came from? Right here.’
Deadly poisons born from lovers’ quarrels, information guilds that put CCTV to shame, assassins and smuggling rings, all of it.
There was very little the Crow’s Den didn’t deal in.
Idel, glaring steadily at the place she had only heard about, lifted one corner of her mouth in a faint smirk.
“Well, whether you get manipulated until your head rolls or become a sacrificial lamb, it all comes to the same thing, doesn’t it?”
Right?
Having delivered her bleak, cynical recitation of the bad ending, she stepped into the alley and started racking her brain once more.
To find someone with no clues whatsoever within the limited time, she would have to dig deep into the book report her younger sibling had left behind.
[I checked every QnA you posted to celebrate the completion! You said the crown prince is two years older than Jeiana? I thought his big surprise debut at the Founding Festival was their first meeting, but apparently they met when they were babies……! Why is he a villain and not a supporting male lead?]
[Until the secret is revealed later, the crown prince sold ‘dolls’ with his master in the Crow’s Den, right? Are those Cursed Dolls?]
So, put simply, she needed to find a man who sold dolls here, someone around Jeiana’s age.
Realistically speaking, searching the Crow’s Den based on this alone was a crazy idea.
After all, he was someone who had made a ‘big surprise appearance’ even in the book report. If she were in her right mind, she wouldn’t have done something this reckless, but……
‘I’m doing it because this is a makjang novel.’
After all, a makjang’s basic ingredients are missing logic and utterly random encounters. She prayed the same rule would apply to her.
‘For now, I’ll just tear through every general store in the Crow’s Den.’
If she was lucky, he might show up on his own first. People who are hiding something tend to be jumpy, after all.
Past the Twin Crow Emblem, walking toward a shabby doll shop, Idel bit down hard on her lower lip. She prayed the Makjang Rule would apply to her too.
‘It’s not as if I can sneak out like this every day.’
Idel took a deep breath and, as boldly as she could manage, pushed open the door of the first shop.
“Hello? Do you happen to know a doll shop owner around my age who goes around with a boy? There’s a rumor that those dolls are Cursed Dolls.”
It was the moment another commotion was added to the Crow’s Den, where a disturbance broke out several times a day.
* * *
“Hah, what a fearless little brat! Are you in such a hurry to die? If that’s what you want, I could make it happen right now without bothering with any Doll Master.”
“Oh, I see. So you don’t know, then?”
“Heh-heh-heh! Kkeuk-kkeuk-kkeuk!”
“Yes, well, mister. This is one Knut, right? I’ll take one and go.”
Idel left the shop, leaving behind a middle-aged man laughing like a lunatic.
Every time she stopped at a shop, she bought a little something, and before long her hands were full of useless odds and ends.
‘Good thing I brought the secret pouch of pocket money that Dad, I mean the Count, gave me for his amusements, just in case. Though there isn’t much left in it.’
Still, I should be grateful for what I have. I had managed to slip a few valuable trinkets and accessories out of the Ducal Household, but they were hard to use like cash.
‘Without that pocket money, I wouldn’t have been able to pull this off.’
Idel gazed at the things she couldn’t take back to the Ducal Household, then quietly turned her head away.
There, glaring at her, were the children of the Crow’s Den.
She was aware that more and more people were watching her, thanks to her tearing around and poking into everything.
‘Every time I walk out of a shop, I’m carrying more stuff, so they probably think I’m loaded.’
Surely some of those watching eyes harbor bad intentions. And she was a young girl who would be easy to subdue.
‘It’s better if I make the first move.’
With the crimes most likely to happen in mind, Idel walked straight up to the children without hesitation.
“What, do you have business with us?”
Their guard went up at her bold stride, but only for a moment; confusion flickered across the children’s faces.
That was because Idel thrust out everything she had been holding.
“Take these.”
“What?”
“It’s a bribe.”
She looked at the kids, who had frozen stiff without moving an inch, then set the items on the ground one by one.
“You’re annoyed that I’ve been tearing around everywhere all of a sudden, right? Sorry. Just let me find one person quickly and I’ll be gone. I’m in a bit of a hurry.”
“…You mean the Doll Master, right?”
“Yeah, that’s what everyone calls him. You know him?”
One boy, somewhat softened by the goods lying before him, hesitated for a moment, fiddling with a low-grade healing potion.
“I know, but don’t look for him. Just leave. Anyway, that guy…”
“Hey, forget it. Why are you telling everything to some suspicious kid we just met? Do you want to get dragged into this too?”
The boy who had blocked the one who had hesitantly spoken tucked the stuff under his arm carelessly and clicked his tongue.
The glare that swept over Idel was still hostile.
“Leave her be, and she’ll give up and walk away. Or she’ll vanish without a trace somewhere around here.”
“…”
“Let’s go, Ola the Mad Dog. And you, be grateful we didn’t beat you senseless ourselves.”
Idel let out a small huff of breath as the kids melted away like the wind.
‘Anyway, you’ll get tangled up with the Mad Dog.’
It was a small but clear clue.
‘As long as the Mad Dog is around, no one will give me any information about the Doll Master.’
Idel, who hadn’t missed a single useful detail in that brief exchange, was just turning the corner, already thinking about her next move, when it happened.
A rough hand seized the back of her neck and yanked her sideways.
‘So they came after all?’
Her mind snapped awake in an instant. Idel didn’t flinch.
She hadn’t come here so carelessly that she’d flounder over something she’d anticipated.
In the split second she used to grip a small weapon she could use to slip free, pressure bore down from the arm wrapped around her throat.
It had to be an attempt to squeeze the breath out of her and knock her unconscious.
‘If I stab backward like this, will the arm let go?’
As she raced through the possibilities, weighing whether there was more than one attacker, a low voice reached her ear, quiet yet still youthful.
“Who are you? Why are you looking for the Doll Master?”
The moment she heard those words, Idel knew. This was the ‘Mad Dog’ the street kids had talked about, the crown prince who would become the final villain of the original work.
In other words, if she could hold on to this brat who was interrogating her, she could find the Dark Mage.
‘Not that I had any intention of getting ambushed alone to begin with!’
Idel shoved the weapon she’d been reaching for back into her sleeve and quickly wrenched the Mad Dog’s finger backward.
A finger snapped, and a curse rang out right beside her ear, but she had no intention of stopping here.
-Crack!
Whether the cloth covering her head was ripped away or not, she lowered her head fiercely and bit down on the Mad Dog’s finger with all her strength.
“Gah!”
Her attack, almost like tearing at him with her teeth, loosened the pressure around her throat somewhat.
Idel did not miss the opening. Using her small frame and the cloth, she slipped out of his embrace in one motion and spun around.
Then, without a second’s hesitation, she grabbed the boy by his collar and slammed her head into his.
With a dull thud, a splitting pain shot through her forehead.
A dizziness so severe that she could have blacked out on the spot washed over her, but Idel refused to give in.
“You…! Ha—gah, you, you lunatic…!”
“Lunatic, hu-uh, you’re the mad dog!”
Idel pounced on the boy, who had lowered his head after taking a direct hit to the nose, and straddled him, pinning him down with her full weight.
Idel’s piercing blue eyes and the Mad Dog’s red eyes locked together in the air for a moment.
Gazing into eyes as red as the blood trickling from his nose, Idel slightly twisted the corner of her mouth.
“You’ve got bad manners. Attacking people from behind without a word.”
“Ha!”
Whether the nickname ‘Mad Dog’ had been earned for nothing, the boy didn’t lose his fire even though the tide had turned in an instant.
Unfazed by Idel’s sneering, he spat out a scornful laugh and glared up at her with sharp eyes.
“I asked you first, why you’re looking for him. Who sent you?”
Pain surged through him, and though he spoke in broken breaths, the Mad Dog gripped Idel’s elbow with savage strength.
As if he meant to pin her down the moment she showed even the slightest opening.
Staring at the boy, so persistent and fixated, Idel let out a short laugh, half exasperated.
“Are you an idiot?”
“Shut up and answer the question.”
For the first time, Idel understood what the novel meant by the word ‘snarl.’
Even though his voice hadn’t broken yet, it came out rough and scraping, as though it had been dragged across gravel.
Trying to ignore the pain that had spread through her entire head and was now stabbing at her eyes, Idel found herself grinding her teeth.
“Ugh… If an outsider comes all the way to the Crow’s Den looking for the Doll Master, isn’t the answer obvious?”
“…”
“I came to be a customer, you mongrel.”

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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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