She is the Daughter of the Villainess in a Ridiculous Novel - Chapter 9

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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 9
Hearing Idel’s words, Crazy Dog let out a short, incredulous laugh and glared down at her.
“Someone like you?”
“Yeah. Someone like me.”
“Ha. Sure.”
Was the answer not good enough? His grip, which had loosened as if to hear her out, tightened again.
As the pain in her elbow began to feel like it might crush the bone, Idel’s expression slowly twisted.
Because of this lunatic who couldn’t hold a conversation, her head was getting hot right along with him.
Now that she remembered her previous life, the childish temper she had pressed down so carefully just to survive this razor-thin situation was suddenly flaring back to life.
Idel narrowed her eyes slightly, in a way that suited her actual age.
‘I’ve had just about enough of this.’
Should I smash my head against his one more time? Mine would crack open too, but who cares. As long as I can make that bastard cry.
She was about to throw her head back, swept up in her emotions and forgetting even the trouble waiting for her back at the Ducal Household.
A large, cold hand clamped over Idel’s forehead, stopping her movement.
At the same moment, a languid man’s voice drifted down from above.
“It’s pathetic for an adult to barge into a squabble between kids this late, but that’s enough, both of you.”
When she looked up, a gaunt man stood there with gray hair and pale, almost translucent skin.
His deep green eyes were heavy with a fatigue he made no effort to hide.
‘Judging by the way he talks like a guardian, he’s probably the Dark Mage…’
What on earth happened to him? He looks like someone who never sleeps and is worked to the bone.
As she eyed the Dark Mage with suspicion, the one pinned beneath her began to squirm. What’s his problem now?
Idel scowled, clearly displeased by the squirming, and quickly looked away.
Seizing the opening, Crazy Dog, who had been roughly wiping the blood off with his sleeve, fiercely raised his brows as well.
A voice full of irritation burst from his mouth.
“What are you staring at? Move.”
“Hey, you’re awfully confident for someone who… Ow!”
Thrown to the ground by his careless movement, Idel let out a laugh of pure disbelief.
Through her disheveled red hair, sparks seemed to fly from her blue eyes.
‘This bastard…’
Just as Crazy Dog tilted his chin as if to ask what she was going to do about it, a hand was extended to her with a short sigh, in front of the glaring girl.
It was the man who had sensed a second round between Idel and his apprentice, and he had made the first move.
“Are you alright? Can you stand?”
“…Yes.”
“And that forehead… I’ll look at your injuries too, so could you please tone down that glare that looks like it could knock someone flat? Sigmund, you stop sharpening your claws as well.”
So that bastard’s name is Sigmund.
Quickly committing the Crazy Dog’s name to memory, Idel laughed inwardly. It was a rather handsome name. Unlike its owner.
Sigmund, who had roughly caught on to the meaning of her smile, tilted his head and curled his lips into a sneer.
His chin was raised, and the look he cast down at her carried a mocking message: get lost.
“Hey, are you two going to keep going?”
The man grumbled about them behaving like animals fighting over territory, then pressed his fingers hard against his eyelids.
A voice that already sounded worn out slipped out of him.
“Let’s just go to the shop. We can’t treat anything out here anyway… And we need to get this customer’s consultation done too.”
“A customer? That little runt?”
Clicking his tongue, Sigmund stood there with one hip cocked in a delinquent slouch, and the man snapped his fingers and flicked him hard on the forehead.
Not judging a person by their appearance was the common sense he threw in for good measure.
He kept scolding until Sigmund finally muttered that he understood, then turned around and fixed his gaze on Idel.
Unlike his exhausted expression, his eyes were surprisingly sharp.
“…Right, now that I see you face to face, I get it. I can roughly guess why you stirred up the Crow’s Den just to find me.”
At the casual remark the Dark Mage tossed out, Idel’s eyes went wide this time.
Because that meant he had sensed something about her with nothing more than a look.
“Anyway, both of you, follow me.”
With that breezy remark settling things, he slipped out of the alley just as he was.
Because the alley wasn’t very wide, the shoulders of the two who had tried to follow the Dark Mage bumped together.
“Hey, are you hogging the alley?”
With their mutual goodwill having hit rock bottom, Sigmund’s complaint came out of nowhere, but the fight didn’t flare up again.
That was because Idel, who had caught a glimmer of hope in the Dark Mage’s words, pressed her lips shut tight.
Pressing a small hand hard against her chest, Idel followed silently in the wake of the man’s back.
‘…What.’
Sigmund, who had read the stark shift in her expression and atmosphere from the way she’d been swinging her fists just moments ago, clicked his tongue briefly and turned his head away.
There was no point in picking a fight with someone in that state, and he knew it well.
Meanwhile, now that Sigmund had settled down, Idel followed the Doll Master in peace, narrowing her eyes at a strange sense of familiarity.
Having rummaged through the place all this time, she had already started to recognize some of the spots.
‘Wait a moment.’
Two alleys ahead, turn right, then take the left path beside the man with the red barrel.
‘This… isn’t it the road out of the Crow’s Den? The one toward the entrance with the Twin Crow Emblem?’
He wouldn’t just let me out of the alley and then vanish, would he?
Just as Idel was rolling her eyes, torn between suspicion and wariness, the Doll Master half-turned in front of a certain doll shop.
“Welcome. To my shop.”
The moment the Doll Master finished speaking, a low curse slipped from Idel’s lips.
“Is this some kind of puppy training?”
“What?”
“…Never mind. It’s nothing.”
It’s just that I suddenly remembered all the effort and time I’ve poured into thin air.
Idel clenched her fist and quietly swallowed the rest of her words. Her gaze slowly swept over the shop the Doll Master had led them to.
A signboard that was shabby beyond words, and windows coated in dust.
The shop the Doll Master had brought them to was the very one Idel had first visited after passing the Twin Crow Emblem.
Ha, so that man from before was a cover, was he?
“Hey, hurry up.”
“…I’m going in now.”
Only when she heard Sigmund’s voice did Idel snap out of her thoughts and climb the steps into the shop.
The man who had feigned ignorance when she first came leapt to his feet with a hearty laugh at her arrival.
“Whoa-ha-ha! Look who’s back, Miss!”
“…Yes, how delightful, truly.”
The man, who had carelessly stubbed out the cigarette in his mouth, slapped Idel’s shoulder with easy charm and offered an apology.
“Hey, sorry about earlier. I mean, I’m just a hired hand too, you know~”
“Yeah, sure, I bet you are. So you’re leaving now?”
“The boss is back, so I’ve gotta go. Well then, Miss, good luck with your business. And you, Sigmund, keep at it.”
Sigmund waved his hand as if irritated, and the moment he confirmed the man had left, he shut the door.
Then he flipped the sign hanging in the window to “Closed” and drew the curtains.
“Hmm…”
“There. Here’s the medicine. For now, sit down in that chair and put some on your forehead.”
“Right, I’ll do that.”
As Idel applied the ointment, she watched the two of them, who seemed rather busy, with a blank stare.
Tidying up clearly wasn’t his strong suit; the Doll Master lit a candle and shoved the sprawled dolls roughly into one corner.
The cauldron giving off a strange smoke was merely moved to a shelf nearby after a splash of water, with no sign of its contents being thrown out.
Just as she began to wonder if this was really fine, the Doll Master sat down before the desk, now more or less clean, and let out a long sigh.
In that short span, the man looked like he had aged by some half a year.
“Well… I’m exhausted, but there’s work to be done. Shall we pick up where we left off in the alley?”
“Before we get to the main topic, may I confirm one thing? You’re helping me a little too readily for someone called a notorious Doll Master. Do you even know who I am? Or are you surprisingly soft on children?”
“Look, it’s a bit late to be wary now… Let’s just let that slide. Hmm, how should I put this…”
Kneading his eyelids out of habit, he murmured quietly.
“That’s only natural, Customer. You plan to stir up this place until your problem is solved, right? Yeah, I thought so. People’s stares are already turning sour. Most of them are keeping their mouths shut, afraid that I’ll fall out with you or that Sigmund will throw a tantrum. But if this goes on, it’ll get dangerous.”
In other words, rather than waiting for the Crow’s Den folks to deal with him, he had chosen to hand over what she wanted and send her off quickly.
Idel, having more or less grasped the situation, finally nodded.
In truth, contrary to what the Doll Master said, Idel couldn’t come here so frequently, but there was no need to correct an interpretation that suited her.
Instead, Idel decided to double-check the hunch she had felt in the alley.
“You noticed, didn’t you?”
“Let’s start with introductions. Name’s Bilead. As you know, I’m a doll shop owner who knows a thing or two about curses. You can call me a Doll Master, if you like.”
“Ah, my name. Just call me ‘Del,’ more or less.”
As she shook the hand Bilead offered, Sigmund, who was wrapping a bandage nearby, muttered something under his breath.
Apparently he had caught on that the “more or less” meant it was an alias.
To answer your question, yes. I knew the moment I saw you. You’ve been cursed, right? I’ll have to check to be sure, but it’s a Mental Type curse.
“That’s right. It’s really disgusting, you know.”
“That’s what curses are made for.”
“Can you get rid of it?”

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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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