The Puppet Villainess’s Splendid Rebellion - Chapter 10

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 10

Knock knock knock.

“Duke, I’m coming in.”

I opened the door along with my knock.

In the study sat Carlos wearing glasses. He looked up at me entering with a dry gaze and asked.

“What is it?”

“I heard you skipped lunch.”

I answered while setting down the tray on his desk.

His gaze briefly touched the food before falling away.

“Did you decide to quit being a princess and get hired as a servant of this house?”

Carlos asked as if he’d seen something bizarre.

Yes, I could understand this reaction too.

This is why I didn’t want to deliver it personally.

“Just calming rampaging mana with refined stones isn’t everything. To live normally, you need to properly establish eating habits and sleeping habits too.”

Carlos snorted with an incredulous expression.

“So you want to play doctor instead of servant.”

“…I’m concerned about the health of the guardian I’ll be entrusting my body to for the next four years. If something happens to the Duke, it’ll be troublesome for me in many ways.”

“So you made this yourself?”

“…I borrowed Mia’s hands a little, no, quite a lot.”

My gaze slyly shifted to the side.

Indeed, the skill was too proficient for me to boast that I made it myself.

Instead of picking up the utensils, Carlos asked dryly.

“What reason do I have to trust the princess and eat this?”

A cold gaze turned toward me.

“Ah…um.”

It seemed my tension had momentarily relaxed due to Mia’s warm reaction.

Even though this was the kind of reaction I’d initially expected.

Even though it was the natural reality.

Somehow I felt a stuffy feeling as if my solar plexus was being squeezed.

If Carlos decided to suspect me, there really would be no end to it.

After fidgeting with my lips for a while, I spoke.

“…Do you think I’m crazy enough to attempt such an obvious poisoning?”

I tried to speak as naturally as possible, but it didn’t go as well as I thought. My voice trembled like an aspen leaf at the end.

Carlos just looked down at me without answering.

Finally, growing anxious, I squeezed my eyes shut and spoke as if shouting.

“It’s because of the eggplant and blue primrose.”

“…What?”

“Cooking eggplant and blue primrose together has the effect of detoxifying accumulated dark magic in the body. So this isn’t just food, it’s…”

The more I spoke, the more tangled my words became.

I could feel Carlos’s cold gaze clearly through my closed eyelids.

“This is the first I’ve heard of this.”

“…It would be. It was only researched in the Imperial Family. It’s a combination discovered by the Imperial Court’s chief researchers, so I saw it from the side and…”

Rambling incoherently.

It was definitely organized in my head, but once it came out of my mouth, it was a mess.

‘Calm down. If you act like this, he’ll find it even more suspicious.’

I tried to steady my breathing and added.

“A body exposed to dark magic can’t recover with refined stones alone. You need to expel the toxins accumulated inside, and the combination of eggplant and blue primrose serves that role. In the Imperial Family, we always included this combination in His Majesty’s meals.”

Finally, my words came out somewhat clearly.

But Carlos’s expression didn’t change.

“Do you have any proof?”

“…Proof?”

“You say it’s an Imperial secret. How am I supposed to believe something like that?”

“That’s…”

I was at a loss for words.

Proof. Of course I didn’t have any. It wasn’t documented anywhere, just things I had directly seen and experienced.

“I just thought it might be helpful to you.”

My voice trailed off.

He won’t eat it anyway.

It’ll just be thrown away, I thought.

I fidgeted with my fingers for no reason. After fiddling with the hem of my skirt, I reached out to take back the food I had placed on the desk.

“If you don’t want it, that’s fine. I don’t want to force it on the Duke.”

Anyway, I had already told Mia about the most important combination of eggplant and blue primrose, so she would make delicious food with it somehow.

That’s when it happened.

“…Fine, leave it.”

“Pardon?”

I opened my bewildered eyes at the sudden voice.

When I looked up, Carlos with his still dry expression was looking at me.

I couldn’t grasp the situation immediately and stared blankly.

Carlos seemed quite displeased with this, mercilessly furrowing his brow.

“You’re making such an uncharacteristically stupid expression.”

“I think I misheard something.”

“I told you to leave it.”

I hadn’t misheard.

‘What?’

When I couldn’t react immediately and made a dazed expression, he gestured toward the tray with his chin.

“I don’t know if you’re aware, but thanks to Loreia’s father, I have resistance to most poisons.”

The Emperor had been trying to kill the Duke using all sorts of schemes for a long time.

When I was about seven years old, there wasn’t a poison that hadn’t been sent to the Duke’s Mansion.

The reason he only ate meals made from crops grown behind the Duke’s Mansion was because of this.

“I didn’t put any poison in it.”

“So it seems.”

Then he lifted his eyelids and stared at me.

“What are you doing.”

“Pardon?”

“Are you going to keep watching? Planning to monitor whether I finish the plate or not?”

“No, I was just watching because it’s fascinating. I didn’t think you’d actually eat it.”

“Funny thing to say after shoving it at me to eat.”

Carlos smiled crookedly. It was a brief smile.

“Unless Loreia brought some unheard-of poisonous plant from beyond the continent without my knowledge, it won’t have any particular effect on me.”

He picked up his fork.

“I can distinguish most poisons by taste, so if this really was an assassination attempt, it would give me good reason to deal with Loreia at my discretion.”

With that, Carlos took a bite of the eggplant rollatini.

I stared blankly at that scene.

It was strange.

It felt like somewhere in my chest was being gently warmed.

What is this feeling?

Did what I ate not agree with me? That can’t be right.

Feeling this mysterious sensation, I carefully asked.

“…How does it taste?”

“Not bad.”

“…Really?”

At that moment, I couldn’t help but smile brightly.

“That’s a relief!”

Pause.

Carlos lifted his head and stared straight at me.

His expression seemed to become subtle, then I could see it hardening stiffly.

A beat too late, I felt a sense of dismay thinking ‘oh no,’ and bit my lips tightly.

‘Did I smile too much?’

It probably wasn’t a very pleasant face to look at either.

Feeling somewhat awkward for some reason, I quietly turned my head away.

“Then please enjoy your meal.”

I should quickly leave before hearing another harsh word.

I bowed my head slightly toward him and escaped the study as if fleeing.

Click.

As soon as the door closed, my heart was pounding.

‘He said it wasn’t bad.’

I didn’t know what was so delightful about it, but my steps felt strangely light.

I walked down the corridor, suppressing the feeling that made me want to hum.

I ended up walking on my tiptoes, pattering along.

‘What should I make next?’

There were still many recipes I could share.

Herb combinations good for detoxifying magic, and types of tea that improve sleep quality too.

If I asked Mia, I felt like I could make them quickly.

My mood was mysteriously excited all the way back to my room.

* * *

As soon as Lorea left, Carlos’s hand stopped.

Clack.

The fork was set down on the plate.

He picked up a napkin and quietly spat out the food he had put in his mouth.

His expression had cooled coldly.

He never intended to eat it from the beginning. He was just curious. What on earth was Loreia thinking doing something like this?

Carlos looked down at the plate and narrowed his brow.

That expression from earlier kept coming to mind.

The smile that bloomed across her face at just the words “not bad.” Those eyes that seemed to be purely delighted.

It was the expression of a mere thirteen-year-old.

Carlos, who had been momentarily lost in sentiment, shook his head.

‘She’s still Loreia, after all.’

A half-breed raised by the Emperor.

The villainess of the Imperial Family.

There was no reason to care about such a smile.

Carlos picked up the plate and tilted it directly over the trash can.

Clank.

He watched indifferently as the eggplant rollatini poured out with its sauce, then sat back down at his desk.

He picked up some documents, but the words wouldn’t register in his eyes.

That face from earlier kept flickering in his mind.

That beaming smile, like a child who had just received a gift.

“…How bothersome.”

Carlos muttered quietly and rubbed his forehead.

There was no reason to care.

There shouldn’t be.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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