That’s How I Became a Villainess - Chapter 40

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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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Chapter 40

“I never stole anything! You gave me the dress yourself! And we already settled that I didn’t build the tomb!”
Strictly speaking, it was likely Penelope’s doing, but Bridget had generously covered for her.
Penelope’s face was streaked with tears as she shouted.
“It wasn’t me! Bridget, you believe me, don’t you? None of this is true!”
Bridget exhaled sharply and set down the book she’d been reading.
“That’s a gossip publication anyone can print. Those things print any rumor, true or not. Nobody cares either way. You know that better than anyone. Don’t get so worked up, Penelope.”
“What?”
Penelope’s anger flared. She pounded the table with her fist.
The way Bridget remained so composed and calm, even after yesterday, was infuriating.
“This isn’t about someone else—it’s about us! How can you be so indifferent?”
“What exactly would you have me do?”
“That is… well…”
Penelope’s throat tightened.
“You’re taking it easy because you’re not the one painted as the villain? Your face is in here too!”
“Either way, you and I barely see anyone outside these walls of the Mansion. What does it matter?”
“What do you mean what does it matter? Everyone in the world will speak ill of me behind my back!”
“So let them speak behind your back—you won’t hear it anyway, and you won’t know. Why fear something you can simply choose not to imagine?”
Penelope flinched at Bridget’s cold response, her body trembling.
Why was Bridget acting this way? She’d never been like this before. Where was this strange expression coming from? This wasn’t who Bridget was…
“You could just say one word for me—tell them this isn’t true!”
“You want me to walk into the Square and shout that it’s all a lie? To whom, exactly? And what would I say, and how?”
“You… you’ve recently received an invitation from the Spencer Family, haven’t you?”
Something Penelope did not have, yet Bridget did.
Having to acknowledge it and say it aloud wounded her pride deeply.
But she had no choice but to cling to it.
Her honor depended on it.
“Penelope, if you respond to every gossip publication that concerns you, you’ll only make yourself look more foolish. If you stay quiet, it will be forgotten soon enough.”
“And if I don’t?”
“If it truly bothers you, prove your innocence yourself.”
“That’s…!”
She had taken Bridget’s dress—that was true. She hadn’t committed theft, but she had tampered with the wedding gifts—that was also true.
It was true that Isaac had been on her side all along, true that she’d pushed herself forward as mistress of the Mansion, and though not brazenly, it was true that she’d quietly tormented Bridget.
And the tomb. She hadn’t made it to curse anyone, but it was still her doing.
Prove her innocence? How could she prove innocence when she was guilty?
“I… I alone, how could I…?”
Penelope felt as though she were being sucked into a swamp.
As if to mock her inner turmoil, Bridget spoke flatly.
“You’re not innocent, are you?”
Struck by guilt, Penelope flared up.
“I am innocent! About meeting Isaac and Russel in the first place—I didn’t know about it, so it wasn’t my fault, you know that! I refused Isaac, but then I ended up pregnant and had no choice… and I’m here because you asked me to stay with you…”
“Then tell the world the same thing.”
“Who would believe such a thing from anyone but you!”
Penelope nearly cried out that only someone as naive as Bridget would believe it, but she managed to clench her teeth and stop herself.
Bridget was watching her with cold, empty eyes.
It felt like standing in the dock of a courtroom. Bridget was the judge presiding over this trial.
The sensation of being completely stripped bare. It was unbearable.
Her mind, churned into chaos by agitation, shame, and anger, abandoned logic and leaped to wild conclusions.
“You… you! Is this why you let me stay here? To humiliate me like this?”
“I’m not sure why you’re suddenly turning your arrows on me.”
That indifferent expression was infuriating—she couldn’t bear it.
Penelope racked her brain desperately for something to seize upon and then cried out:
“The portrait! Yes, the portrait of you and me—only hired servants couldn’t have obtained something like that! You must have had it—the portrait of me in it was one I gave to you as a token of our friendship!”
“In a Mansion where someone buries my shoes and personal belongings in the ground while I’m away, is a portrait really worth fretting over?”
“…!”
Bridget’s possessions buried in the Temporary Tomb—she herself had taken them and buried them there.
There was no servant in this Mansion bold enough to steal something as important as a Portrait.
To press that fact, I had to confess what I myself had done first.
Penelope sank deeper and deeper into the swamp.
Past her calves, up to her thighs, her waist, now to her chest. She could barely breathe.
“I… I can’t…!”
It was as Penelope gasped out a cry of anguish.
The door burst open and Isaac strode into the room.
He shouted at Penelope without preamble.
“Penelope! What are you doing taking out your frustration on Bridget?”
“Isaac…!”
Penelope looked at Isaac with an aggrieved expression.
Isaac pressed her, glancing nervously at Bridget.
“Bridget is a victim too. Your face and name are in there just like ours! Why are you fighting each other when you’re all suffering the same? You should be supporting one another, not tearing each other apart!”
“Ha! The same suffering?”
Penelope trembled violently.
“I’m the only one cast as the villain! You’re the one who caused this in the first place by being unfaithful!”
The moment those words left her lips, Penelope realized her mistake and pressed her hand to her mouth.
“Unfaithful? You’re the one to say that to me?”
“No, Isaac. That’s not what I meant…”
“At that Masquerade Ball, you were the one who seduced me! I was drunk! You seduced a man in that state and dragged me to your bed, didn’t you?”
“I’m sorry, Isaac. That was a mistake just now. I must be out of my mind.”
Isaac, already furious over the Gossip Publication, couldn’t stop his accusations even in the face of her apology.
Why did she even create something like Bridget’s tomb in the first place.
The irritation he’d been holding back exploded.
“Who was it that played around carelessly and ended up pregnant with someone’s child in a single night? So what — should I have turned away from you? Is that it? You dare blame me for doing what was right? You don’t even have the grace to be grateful!”
At this point, Penelope could hold back no longer.
Her voice shaking with tears, she cried out.
“What are you saying? Did I create this child alone? Why do you speak as though you were granting me some favor by taking responsibility for my helplessness?”
“Then it’s not a kindness? Can you even imagine what would have become of you if I’d turned away that night? I rescued you from ruin! What else would you call that but a kindness?”
Bridget watched the Demonic Energy clinging to both their bodies burn like wildfire.
The room was so thick with Demonic Energy she could scarcely breathe.
She quietly left the room, abandoning the two to their quarrel.
‘Just days ago they were making such a fuss, as if they couldn’t live without each other.’
Love?
Could such a thing truly be called Love?
‘Presumptuous.’
It irritated her that they had always called such a shallow emotion Love.
It was a desecration and diminishment of Love’s true nature.
Love was something far greater and more wondrous.
It was when a human, bound by the nature to hold oneself most dear above all else, transcended that nature and came to cherish another as much as oneself.
That was Love, and it was nothing less than a miracle.
This was the Love that Bridget understood.

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Even after Bridget left the room, Penelope and Isaac’s fierce argument continued.
Shortly after, Penelope ran out crying.
She went directly out through the back door of the Mansion and rushed toward the Hill beyond the Garden.
‘This is dangerous.’
The Demonic Energy in Penelope’s form clung to her back, strangling her neck.
It was calling for death.

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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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