That’s How I Became a Villainess - Chapter 57

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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 57

Today, Count Nicholas made an extraordinary discovery.
‘There’s actually someone who can restrain Julian Blake.’
And she’d even succeeded in stopping him.
The atmosphere flowing between Julian and Bridget was remarkable.
How to describe it.
‘This isn’t an ordinary connection.’
The aura between them wasn’t the sort that could be lightly explained as two young people’s eyes meeting.
At first glance, they were no newly acquainted pair—there was a sense of prior connection, of history between them.
‘This is far more intriguing than I expected.’
He felt a strange certainty that the balance of things was about to shift.
Count Nicholas was a sharp-eyed man.
Not anyone could serve as secretary to Julian, who was taciturn and volatile by nature.
‘Should I report this to Prime Minister Langston?’
Prime Minister Langston treated Julian’s taking of a mistress as a trivial matter.
A mere diversion before death.
But in Nicholas’s assessment, this was anything but a casual amusement.
At that moment, Isaac staggered past the count and out of the audience chamber.
Nicholas found it curious that Isaac had survived without spilling a single drop of blood, and he followed along with uncharacteristic warmth.
“I thought we’d have a real catastrophe earlier, but you’re fortunate to be escaping the Royal Palace with all your limbs intact.”
“Ah, ha, yes… that is to say, indeed it is.”
Isaac managed a wan smile.
Even for someone obsessed with connections as he was, having brushed with death left him utterly drained.
Under normal circumstances, he would have clung to Nicholas, desperate to squeeze out another word or two in conversation, but now he only wanted to get home.
Unaware of Isaac’s inner turmoil, Count Nicholas showed no sign of leaving his side.
“You likely don’t realize it, but among those who’ve incurred His Majesty’s wrath, you’re the first I’ve seen walk away unscathed. Had you witnessed the great hall flowing with blood like a flood, you’d understand just how extraordinary today’s mercy was. Two years ago, twenty nobles who petitioned the King lost their heads that very day.”
That was what amusement was.
Speaking warmly to someone you don’t particularly care for, chattering on as the mood strikes.
It was utterly inappropriate to describe a relationship like Julian and Bridget’s in those terms.
“A truly horrific spectacle. The Black Knights performed their blade dance—blood and flesh scattered, screams filled the air. And of those who witnessed it, none who survived dared ever raise a voice against His Majesty again.”
Count Nicholas was no exception.
Secretary or not, Nicholas, who had been present that day, found Julian to be a terrifying figure.
He had stood witness as Julian tore through Josephine and the late King’s entire circle of intimates.
From the very beginning part of Julian’s faction, they were enemies Nicholas would have wanted to crush.
Yet regardless of his own allegiances, Julian’s massacre had been horrifying.
The enemies were vanquished; a toast should have been raised.
Yet no one had raised a glass that day.
Julian was a monster.
Nicholas had even found himself wondering whether it had been wise to place such a creature on the throne.
“So don’t dwell on what happened today—put it from your mind. It’s better for you that way. But tell me, do you know how the lady and His Majesty came to meet?”
“That is…”
“Ah, perhaps you don’t? It would be difficult to know all the details of your wife’s romance, I suppose. Then when did you first learn of their relationship? What circumstances led to it?”
Isaac’s mind had gone blank.
His head was spinning.
Terror always constricted blood flow through sheer tension, leaving him with a pounding headache.
“I’m terribly sorry, but my head aches so that I can scarcely think…”
“Ah, I understand.”
He said this while furrowing his brow.
‘Playing hard to get,’ Nicholas thought.
He wanted to ask more about Bridget and Julian.
At least he needed to hear directly what sort of person Bridget was.
That way, when he cultivated connections with Bridget, he’d have a strategy for doing so most effectively.
Nicholas was aware that Isaac desperately wanted entry into high society.
Ever since hearing from Mildea that Julian had brought a woman and to prepare a mistress contract, he’d been investigating Isaac.
Investigating the parties involved in contracts related to the King was naturally his responsibility.
Of course, he had also investigated Bridget.
Yet information about her was surprisingly difficult to come by.
She lived so secluded within her household that few people claimed to know her well.
By contrast, learning about Isaac’s character presented no challenge whatsoever.
“Once you’re feeling better, would you join me for dinner? Meeting like this is fate, after all.”
“Really? You’re inviting me?”
“I am. I’ll send word soon.”
Isaac’s eyes widened.
This was the first time a nobleman had invited him to dine.
“Thank you! I’ll absolutely attend!”
Even in his weakened state, Isaac bowed with fervent enthusiasm.

* * *

News that Bridget had received an extraordinary Royal Gift spread beyond the palace walls to the entire kingdom in less than half a day.
Many found it deeply disagreeable.
A victim, they’d said—yet the husband who’d taken his wife’s friend as a mistress, and the wife who’d brazenly dallied with the king, were cut from the same cloth.
Those who had condemned Bridget from the start smirked and said they’d known it all along, while those who had championed her and pitied her were incensed.
Bridget earned epithets: a witch who’d enchanted the king, a rapacious fox.
Before the palace gates, protesters gathered, crying out against Bridget and demanding the king come to his senses and annul the Mistress Contract.
Bridget paid no mind.
Nothing defied her expectations.
The nicknames bestowed upon her were the traditional ones given to all royal mistresses throughout history, and protest was an inevitable consequence whenever a king took a concubine.
Perhaps the scandal from the gossip papers had drawn more people to the demonstrations, but there was nothing worth making a fuss over.
‘The nobles all curse her behind closed doors, I’m sure, but they’ll wear entirely different masks in public, fawning and bowing.’
They would scramble to curry favor with the mistress of the king’s affection.
That was power.
Julian had done more than merely display his power to Isaac.
He had shared his authority with Bridget.
In a certain sense, it was the common people, not the nobles, who fought for the nation with truer hearts.
At least they were directly lifting stones and hurling them at the palace where Bridget dwelled, protesting openly for all to see.
Bridget had a plan to quell this crisis, much as she had exploited the scandal sheets before.

* * *

Several days later.
Mildea attended a social gathering among the nobility.
Returning to the palace in the small hours of dawn, she appeared somewhat weary.
“At the gathering, people were all asking after Your Highness’s health.”
What had spread throughout the kingdom was not merely rumor concerning Bridget.
“What were they saying?”
“That Your Highness is in good health and spirits, and that they were greatly relieved to hear it.”
The seeds planted through Anna and Cedric had already flourished into abundance.
Mildea looked rather displeased.
“They were testing me. How presumptuous. They didn’t truly care for Your Highness’s wellbeing—they were simply curious about the truth of the rumors.”
“Did they press you about Your Highness?”
“Of course not. I’m not the sort to spread gossip about Your Highness.”
“You did well. Continue as you normally would. Their curiosity will only grow.”
Mildea had known in advance that Bridget intended to spread rumors about Julian.
Yesterday’s gathering had been her way of gauging how widely those rumors had already circulated.
“It seems the rumors spread rapidly starting from the Cavendish household. I wonder how they reached that far.”
“Cavendish’s Wife has a loose tongue and sharp ears—she couldn’t bear the curiosity. She must have made inquiries among people close to Isaac or Penelope.”
Mildea was impressed by Bridget’s decision to use Isaac and Penelope as vehicles for spreading rumors.
To think the rumors would propagate so thoroughly and swiftly.
No one could suspect that Bridget had deliberately seeded the gossip through her husband’s mistress and his beloved.
Mildea herself had never once entertained the thought of profiting from her despicable husband or his mistress, even once.
‘I only wanted to keep my distance from them, to shun them entirely.’
But Bridget was different.
With that composed face, she was executing such schemes as though they were nothing.
It was quite exhilarating.
Mildea asked with an amused smile.
“What’s the plan now?”

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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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